The Marion County Republican Executive Committee had our Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner Saturday night and I contributed by serving on the planning committee and drawing caricatures at the event. Political talk show host and potential presidential candidate, Herman Cain, was our guest speaker. Before going out to speak to the assembled crowd Mr. Cain was out where I was in the corridor. He came up and asked if I drew black people. After a hearty laugh he sat down and asked if I’d draw him. So I did. Above is Mr. Cain, myself and the drawing I did.

What a very open, extremely friendly and funny person! And I don’t mean in a ‘Like Me- I Wanna Get Elected’ way. I’ve met and worked with a ton of politicians in 25+ years of working campaigns and I know the difference between going through the motions and being genuinely friendly. Of course, most all politicians become like that over time to some extent. You have to when you meet so many people, realize you serve the people you meet and have a career to look after. It’s not really a bad thing politicians shake hands and do their best to make you feel comfortable with them. Otherwise, they would be like me and admit they can’t remember everyone and apologize all the time, which doesn’t win me any votes. If Mr. Cain gets into the presidential race, eventually he’ll have to modify his meet and greet also. Right now he exudes an openness that is very refreshing.

Equally impressive is his staff, particularly Mark Block who was a key to setting up huge wins for Tea Party/conservative candidates in November’s Wisconsin races and  the challenges we see in the state house in Wisconsin today.

Below are two more photos. I’ve been off the past few days in my drawings. I felt it Thursday while guest speaking at a cartooning class. My friend, who visited the same class, noticed it also. I see it very much in these drawings. I gotta shake whatever fog is in my head and sharpen my pen and draw better.

The one above was one of the better drawings I did.

I have no idea why I put so much hair on top of Jan’s head. Again, my head is not translating well right now. By the way, Jan, above, and her partner Kay did a terrific job running an auction we had at our event. Turns out both also went to Rollins College.

Today is jazz great, Dave Brubeck’s 90th birthday. Here’s a drawing I did of him a number of years ago.

I’m digging up all sorts of items from the past as I clear through boxes. Below is a page from a sketchbook from around 1986. I love hearing all sides of an issue. Back then I had more time to do that. A dear friend told me about a retreat with …radical Abbie Hoffman and I went to see first hand what this fellow was all about. During the retreat I made a ton of notes and sketches. Was I shocked to open the pad last night and there at the top is Hoffman’s autograph. I don’t recall getting it, butI did.

After the retreat, which was somewhere near Umatilla, we all gathered at East India Ice Cream Shoppe in Winter Park. I remember former classmate Missy Gaston working there that night. She was shocked when I told her later who she was serving.

What I have always remembered from the retreat was Hoffman speaking of the need for “one world” “an order” “a world dollar”. It was just a couple years later that George H.W. Bush started preaching a “New World Order”, essentially what Hoffman had described at the retreat. A major reason I have a problem with the Bush family.

Had ‘A Thousand Clowns’ (1965) on. The film on Turner Classic Movies stars Jason Robards (Above), Barry Gordon, Barbara Harris and Martin Balsam.

I was really hoping to actually watch ‘Ship Ahoy’ on Turner Classic Movies with Bert Lahr, Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell. Work got in the way, so listening and glances had to suffice. I sketched during one of those glances.

Working a way again with Turner Classic Movies on and along comes Red Skelton. I love his old radio shows. I join many others as a huge fan of the Mean Widdle Kid who would cause alsorts of mayhem. He would sometimes reconsider his daring deed and then charge forward anyway: “I dood it!”. That is the name of this 1943 Vincent Minelli film. In ‘I Dood It!’ there’s lots of great music and Eleanor Powell dancing, too!

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!

Being such a big fan of The Rat Pack, I’m very sorry to read of the death of Joey Bishop. Bishop was the last of the Pack living. I remember him oh so well guest-hosting The Tonight Show and his many appearance on television. After reading of his death I broke open a DVD set of his early ’60s TV show and played them as I worked.

The art is part of this weeks ‘It Takes A Village’ from the Glenn Beck site.

By the way, I’ve been couped up working on a very large project that I fianlly finished yesterday. It’s been quite a haul getting it done. But it is done. I can’t write much more about it. If and when I can, I will.

Today begins multi-weeks on the road for one reason or the other, so this blog should get more active beyond the books I’ve been reading.

I was sorry to hear of the death of another celebrity illuminary. She was great in many films. My favorite is her part in Frank Capra’s ‘Here Comes the Groom’. I love the scene of her and Crosby singing ‘In the Cool, Cool, Cool in the Evening’. One of the funnest scenes in film.

This weeks illustration is of the master of sports satire, Ring Lardner. This guy was great at the mound and could pitch a brilliant story for a home run.

 Apparently this actress has a thing for cheese, Woody Allen and some strange interest in being nude in movies. She sure seems to get a lot of attention for being, what I feel, a mediocre actress and for her looks, which are pretty average in my opinion.

Next week: Back to the humor column and Ring Lardner.