The fine folks at the ‘Ernie Kovacs Blog’ were kind enough to mention my Ernie Kovacs drawing of a few months ago, so I thought I would point you all in their direction! Kovacs is like  medicine. The more you take the more you need.

Click here to learn more of the great Mr. Kovacs at their terrific tribute to him.

Click here for the Ernie Kovacs blog.

Met with friends at Dubsdread Golf Course’s restaurant, The Taproom. To the left is a sketch of items at the table.

While there I drew and painted a caricature for the mother of a friend of mine, Sylvia Saunders. Sylvia belongs to a group that will be celebrating the person I drew, Floreine. Below is the caricature.

I donated some time at the James A. Haley V.A. Hospital in Tampa and drew caricatures of some of our greatest American heroes. Here is one of those that I drew.

This weeks subject is from the pop culture world, actress Jessica Alba. Reading about her, apparently she’s trying to achieve what I learned her colleague Jessica Simpson is trying to accomplish. Both are trying to shed the view that they are “sex kittens”.  Good luck to her. The media has other ideas and maybe the general population does, too. As I tried to find a photo of her I had to wade through a lot of candid swimsuit shots of her. It was actually difficult to find an actual headshot.

Next week another favorite of mine..or mind, as the case may be…HahAhAHa…ol’ Steverino, himself – Steve Allen!

 

Here is certainly one of the most humorous writers to grace the pages of many a book, a column and the like. Beyond his filmed adventures, his prose  – and the vast quantity of it – lives today on the humor shelves in many a bookstore. He has widely influenced many, including the comparable Dave Barry.

Surrounding Mr. Benchley are various books, periodicals, papers and a portrait of colleague and co-conspirator to the creation of The Algonquin Roundtable – Dorothy Parker. Of course, Mr. Benchley has handy his elixir.

Next week back into the mire of current celebrities: Jessica Alba. I wonder if she has ever been praised a hearty “Bon Mot!”.

I drew caricatures of residents of the Veterans Administration nursing home in Orlando. The individual caricature is of a 96 year old fellow who played baseball many years ago.

This photo is of fellow volunteers of the Red Hat Society who conduct a BINGO! party every third Wednesday of the month for the residents. I drew caricatures of these lovely ladies.

I was originally going to draw Tiger Woods this week until I learned of the death of Betty hutton. She’s a big favorite of mine. Not surprisingly she was a hyperactive ball of energy who spoke her mind. She died Sunday in California at the age of 86.

I love Hutton’s energy especially the songs that became her signature. Songs like-‘Murder, He Says’, ‘Can’t Stop Talkin’ About It’ and ‘My Fickle Eye’.

Another person I admired died last week. Dorris Bobber was one of the funniest people I knew. She was also someone who contributed a great deal to Central Florida from being Mayor of the City of Edgewood, stopping an inane developer sweetheart deal called the Central Connector to keeping the symphony alive in Central Florida. I am sorry I didn’t take further advatage of spending time with her and laughing about local and national politics.

Dorris is an example of what ladies today need to strive to be. A will of iron and a terrific sense of humor. Seems most of the young ladies I see today have neither. They are far too many wrapped up in a materialtistic barometer of self-worth and no bearings of being knowledgable or contributing to their community. For some reason the excuses include being too “busy”. “Busy”, after being asked, is going to a mall. Many, many women did a lot more with their time with a lot less fifty years ago and before. The “busy” women – and men – today should be as really busy as folks once were and be better people for it.

It saddens me to see more and more people leave from a time when this country was more decent, courteous and trustworthy. There are always downsides to any period of time. We seem to face more downsides these days than up.

I first became aware of Jerry Lewis when local station Channel 9 would play Lewis and Martin’s films when I was about 8 in the early ’70s. I got to see more when CBS would play more Martin and Lewis films at 11:30pm. It made me tired at school, but what an education I got! I learned about humor, slapstick, singing and great morals and values that I worked on then and still do today to emulate.

Annie Sundquist retired from the City or Orlando this week after twnety years.  She had held a few different posts with the City, but her biggest contribution was keeping the William Beardall Senior Center running. So many Orlando senior residents make use of the facility and Annie is the reason they have had so much to do and keep active. I’m not sure what the City can do to keep the Beardall Center running at the speed Annie kept it at. Finding someone so dedicated, motivated and energetic will have the City with an extremely difficult task to fill Annie shoes.

One friend who has benefitted from Annie’s work is Lucile Fair. She’ll joyfully tell you of the writing, paiting and other classes at the Center put together by Annie. Her 99th birthday party was arranged by Annie as was posted here a few days ago.

Here is a caricature I watercolored of Annie. I passed the photo on to her Wednesday. She is a skilled cellist and is moving on to work with The Heuga Center – Where skiing is a main focus. Thus the subject matter of the caricature.

Our best wishes to Annie as she takes her magic on to The Heuga Center!

Amongst the time of an event I was working at, I produced these two pieces to help advertise the product, Princess perfume. I was without a pencil and approached these as I draw caricatures. I thought I only had thick line pens with me. Nearing the end of the bottom drawing I discovered a fine line pen and completed that and then went on to the Santa drawing. 

Wednesday afternoon I was so glad to return to the Orlando Veterans Administration nusing area and draw some of our greatest American heroes. Here is a photograph of one of the drawings of a very jolly resident enjoying his music!