I attended a John McCain party. Parties like this were held all over the U.S. At 9:40pm all of the parties dialed the same number and a massive conference called occurred. The call had John’s wife Cindy, a top McCain strategist Charlie Black and Rudolph Guliani all rallies the troops. Above is the phone used for the telephone rally.

I learned today that Jim Strickland pased away August 5th. Jim was a barber in Orlando for most of his life and, according to my mother, gave me my first haircut some 44 years ago. Through his many years he was without doubt an expert barber. People would always compliment the haircut I received from Jim each time. Jim will be greatly missed for his exemplary cutting skills and gentle demeanor by so very many in and around Orlando. It’s another chunk of Genuine Florida slipping away.

You can click here for the obituary.

In the ’90s I created a comic strip for the Orlando Sentinel, named ‘Perelman’ that focused on Downtown Orlando, where Jim was located.  I included Jim in one of the strips which is above.

Below is a photo from what turned out to be my last haircut from Jim this past April 16th from the Genuine Florida site. Click here to read what was written then.

Headed over to Tampa for the Tampa Comic Con for an Inkslinger gathering with Jim Fern and Sioux Hart. A few were part of the event. Fran Matera was showing his great work. To the left is a panel from one of the strips I picked up. Fran was also helping friend Geoff Brenneman raise money for a project Geoff is working on. Greg Vondruska, with his colleague Dan Boyd, also was showing his many comics. Click here to see his work.

Later I met with Inkslinger, John Stevens, for a meal outside Tampa at ABC Pizza where we talked about digital painting, goals in life and politics. The illustration above is a corner of the restaurant.

Sandra and I headed to Orange County. Her for a conference. Me for a haircut at Jim’s Barber Shop. Unfortunately for me, Jim’s ill and his shears are taking a break, too.

That gave me time I didn’t expect, so I hit the bookstores. Picked up lots of goodies. Below are the best covers. All books I’ll probably never read. I’ll just admire the covers. I really like the layout of ‘Native Stone’. The Frank Lloyd Wright-ish structure with teh red tree-ish image and the placement of the T-square, also with red. All that imagery and the artist puts a watch on the guy. Interesting choices. I wonder why. The artist who created the very bottom art put no watch on the pirate. It seems to me pirates would want to know what time it is…Just wondering…

Later I picked up Sandra and headed to Sweet Tomatoes in Altamonte Springs. There we joined our good friends G.K. Sharman and James L. Saunders. Also joining the healthful buffet was my father. Good talk and plenty of cooking hints from Mr. Saunders.

After taking in the five books about Dean Martin, I thought I’d follow with a Matt Helm book. Donald Hamilton’s ‘The Menacers’ was part of one of Dean Martin’s Helm films. I like the sketchy style used on the Matt Helm covers. Very different from the more full-blown illustrations that were around at the time by folks like Robert McGinnis.

After Helm, I thought maybe I would read five action adventure spy books. I picked up Don Pendleton’s ‘Arizona Ambush’. This book stars the vengeful ‘Executioner’, who was the model for Marvel Comics ‘The Punisher’. It was pretty light and took place in the same general area of sand and heat of the Helm book. ‘The Executioner’ is on a mission to wipe out the mob and each of the series slowly does just that. You can read more about it here. Interesting series. More interesting the direction the publisher took the series after Hamilton moved on. THAT would be an interesting book!

The action adventure stuff is a bit much for me, so I turned to an author I haven’t read before, Ross MacDonald. Ross’ real name was Kenneth Millar. He was going to go under the pseudonym John Ross MacDonald, but another MacDonald was already soaring. The success of author John D. MacDonald had Kenneth drop his first non-name not long after his career started. As you can see by the cover above, this is an early novel of Millars…uh, John…uh, Ross….

What a great cover! No computer here. Look at those expressions. The light trying to make its way through the white cloth. The hand to the throat. There is unfortunately no credit given to the artist, of course.

I was going to go for five fictions as I did the five non-fiction, but caved when I finally found Mark Steyn’s America Alone in the bookstore. More about that when I finish it.

Interesting fellow sitting near where I was at a Logan’s Roadhouse Grill.

With a big Presidential battle up ahead, I’m getting back into the political ring to work like heck to get folks elected, specifically John McCain (Though I know it’s hard to tell by my editorial cartoons 🙂 ). I certainly have some heavy reservations about John McCain, but an aimless empty-shell of a rocket like Obama sure can get your own sites set.

I was in the Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC) for 11 years. Now it’s time to join the Marion County version. I went to my first meeting last night. Three and a half-hours later, it was over.  It reminded me of the old days at OCREC where we had many, many meetings averaging five hours. At the time, we in OCREC had some troubles.

Nevertheless, the time is now for action and I’m getting back thoroughly involved to get McCain into office! CHARGE!

Our first stop during our Volusia County tour was Ponce Preserve. It’s a park that has a combo of opportunities to experience the original natural Florida tidal area of this part of the east coast. See the site for details. It’s a GREAT park and well worth the trip whether you take the boardwalk, the natural trail or head out to the beach.

Our next stop was Sugar Mill Gardens. It is the site of a sugar mill, a theme park, a Civil War site and a Seminole Indian War site. It covers it all. There is no doubt ‘Bongoland’ is the most interesting. I’ll let this site explain it as I run out of time to type all of this. By the way, I counted 7 dinosaurs. Above is one of them.

We continued our Volusia County tour with a stop at the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences.WHATTAPLACE!!!!Everyting from greek statues (See right) to antique cars to Florida history to pirates to actual train cars to….It’s an amazing place!We made a stop at Zeno’s, a favorite of ours,

We next stopped at a favorite of our in Volusia County, Zeno’s. They have two locations. We stopped at the one on A1A. Got ice cream and salt water taffy. Above is cover of the box of the saltwater taffy we picked up. I love the historical photos.

After Zeno’s we wandered up A1A to Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area. The park, that includes beach access, is named for the Florida troubador, Gamble Rogers, who sang and told stories of Florida’s history, environment and a series of characters that dwelled in our state in the fictional area of Ocklawaha County.I got to meet and work with Gamble back in the ’80s when I was working with Florida music and storytellers festivals and groups. He was a sight to behold. A very calm and steady performer. I’m reading a number of books about Dean Martin. Gamble was the easygoing come-what-may Dean Martin on stage.It was a tragedy he died in the surf at the very spot where this park is. He was trying to save another person caught in the rough waters. We happened to be there when there was a red flag warning of the rough surf and dangerous waters at the beach as it was when Gamble died. The difference now is an actual red flag atop a pole flapping in the wind, see the sketch to the right. At the time of Gamble’s death there were no flags there. Too bad the story of Gamble’s death isn’t at the park. I felt like chasing after the people in the surf and warning them of the dangers and of the reason why the park area is named after Gamble.

We finished our trip in Marion County and had dinner at Lena’s Restaurant, where you can have a “whale of a meal”.To the left is the papertowel holder on every table.

While I was working I had two Glenn Ford films running on Turner Classic Movies. First it was ‘3:10 to Yuma’ and then it was ‘Jubal’. I quickly did a sketch of Ford above.

I remember first drawing Ford as part of a huge crowd trying to pay their income taxes when I was about 14. It was for an my art class at Robert E. Lee Junior High School in Orlando. I specifically recall noticing how very big Ford’s ears were. Seeing photos as he got older those ears got bigger and bigger. I saw a photo of him not long before he died almost two years ago and there were those ears again. I sometimes wonder if I’ve been watching Ford all of these years or his ears!

My friend LeAnn Weiss got married today at Discovery Church in Edgewood. I’ve known LeAnn for a couple decades working with the Republican party back in the mid and late ’80s and into the ’90s from the Young Republicans to the Orange County Republican Executive Committee to many political campaigns. Over the years she switched gears and became an author and has produced a jillion books. Above are just a small part of the decorations. Those hung from the ceiling and were quite a few feet tall.

After the wedding I went into caricature mode as you can see above.