I did too much.  I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks.

This is all I can think of...

Back soon with more subculture tours.

I apologize, readers; I am running way behind. This happens every season. The events of the cooler months gallop past me. I keep up for a while, but then, one little stumble — one lost afternoon when cousin Greg shows up with his wife, best friend and best friend’s wife and… well, the work I had scheduled falls behind.

Of course, this time of year, with winter blizzards and frozen floods raking the “temperate” zone, all my mid-latitude friends and family will turn up on the gangplank. So now the end of the season is looming and I’m panicked — there is so much I haven’t seen or done!

Fortunately, both the downtown theatres have another play — I haven’t even mentioned them lately. We’ll be getting to that soon.

Meanwhile, one of the most active places in town:

TSKW – Part 1
The Actual studios at The Studios of Key West

I’m curled up on a shaded wooden bench in the breezy sculpture garden of The Studios of Key West. A grey cat has consented to my presence.

Inside the landmark Armory Building, a workshop has just concluded. Lauren McAloon, facilities coordinator, is quietly, efficiently moving chairs around. Folding up the workshop tables and moving the flowers to the side. She is preparing the room for the regular Wednesday evening figure drawing session. The figure drawing session will be next week’s subculture tour.

This week I wandered through the second floor artist studios — the actual studios that give the organization its name. Director Eric Holowacz has his office up there on the south side of the building, overlooking the sculpture garden. He is looking forward to the upcoming transformation Rick Worth has planned for the office. It includes a picket fence wainscoting, a tree and some grass so the office will have the ambience of the out-of-doors. The window by his desk overlooks the sculpture garden where I am sitting with my laptop.

Lauren McAloon in her studio

In the northwest corner, McAloon shares a tiny light-filled studio with 15-year-old Jean Azard, recipient of the Budding Artist Scholarship Fund award. Manifestations of McAloon’s unusual perception of her surroundings hint at sculptures to come.

Perhaps this balmy, low humidity 74-degree sunny day under a brilliant blue sky with soft white puffy clouds makes everything seem peaceful and glorious, but the studios, strewn with tools, project parts and starts, and reference materials have a fresh, expansive feeling in spite of their small size and visual clutter.

Marc Caren was pondering recently finished work when I encountered him. Caren has been in Key West two decades and has a recognizable body of oil paintings that feature perfect drawing, and sophisticated painting techniques. The lively surface textures make his work a rich viewing experience. The colors in recent paintings are more vivid and warmer in tone than his early work.

“I had a studio on the south side of the building,” said Caren, “but the sun was always changing, creating glares and shadows. Now I have a north light studio and it’s always like this,” he said gesturing toward the soft reflected glow saturating the room.

Downstairs, Elena Devers mans the entry while quietly wreaking PR order from a chaos of materials. Always calm and always efficient, Devers is the sunny face of TSKW.

Studio residents currently include, in addition to McAloon and Caren:

writer Mark Hedden, and artists Debra Yates, Letty Nowak Peter Vey, Marky Pierson, Andy Thurber, Guillermo Orozco and Sherry Sweet Tewell.

The Studios of Key West is at the corner of Southard Street and White Street in Key West and also at: www.tskw.org.

Leslie at SoDu Gallery where she is a partner.

Leslie Kanter guessed where the next subculture tour is.  “IS IT OF: one of kEY WEST’S favorite Gals — Metal Sculptor , Reen Stanhouse’s studio near the Blimp up the Keys ????” she wrote.
YES, Les, that’s it!  It’s a tricky question since the studio is in a very remote area where you not only need a car, but a sturdy car, to get there.  And I would be extra cautious at high tide.

Joel Blair leads discussion at Tuesday with Art.

The first Tuesday of January I went to the Tropic Cinema at 5:30 out of curiosity.  I had gotten word of a film and discussion about kinetic “happening” artist Jean Tinguely and wondered who would turn up at such an event.Click here to see one of his sculptures in motion.

I happened to be a fan of the eccentric Swiss iconoclast who staged a Dada self-destroying sculpture presentation, Homage to New York, at the Museum of Modern Art in 1960.  However, it is a small art niche.

So I was surprised to find the small back theatre at the Tropic filled.  Sculptors, art lovers, a peculiar group of people who were as intrigued as I was about a pinnacle artist, now mostly obscure — definitely not a household name.

Subsequent Tuesdays with Art films and discussions followed the kinetic art theme to Theo Jansen (See one of his \”beasts\” here.), Dutch YouTube creator of wind propelled “beasts” and then to Tim Prentice, a Connecticut architect who designs metallic panels choreographed on air movements in ingenious repetitions that create an organic machine.See an astonishing glimpse here.

That discussion was particularly lively and included short video clips of Helen Verbanz’ motorized Seagrass sculpture at The Studios of Key West and Ralfonso, the Swiss artist who winters in Palm Beach County, FL, and brings a jarring dose of narcissism to the mix.

The free series, Tuesdays With Art, part of the Key West Film Society, meets at the Tropic Cinema on the first Tuesday of the month through May 5, 2009. Films about the artists precede a discussion of the movies and the current artist.

The next film is April 7 and features The Way Things Go, a Rube Goldberg chain reaction by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss.Sneak preview here.

Rereading this makes me want to visit Switzerland.

Forbes Magazine mentions Key West fairly frequently.

In a January 9 article under the headline “Worst Small Towns to own a Home,”  Key West turns up in Paragraph Three.  There’s comfort to be had that our island city was not in Paragraph One with the two worst cities where housing costs for over 73% of residents  “eat up more than 35% of citizens’ incomes, according to the Census Bureau.”
But here is author David Sutton’s quote for Key West and it’s Paragraph Three companion, Melrose Park, Ill: “Their home ownership costs suck more than 35% of incomes — which are $51,722 and $38,166, respectively — for 71% and 69.2% of residents.”  We are only slightly behind the frontrunners.
He cites the second-home syndrome taking up 40% of the market and inflating prices, and the low-paying tourism industry in his grim statistics.
Back in October, however, when the economic sky was falling and no one knew where to hide, Rebecca Ruiz wrote in Forbes that Key West is among the least vulnerable towns in the nation, alongside Helena, MT and Seaford, DE.
Ruiz quotes a high median income, low unemployment and a well-educated workforce as the standards for invulnerability.
The most vulnerable towns were Lancaster, SC, Palatka, Fl and Shelby, NC.

Photo:  Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau

I feel so sorry for those of you who missed the Key West Burlesque Christmas Show. In the hectic holiday circuit of shopping, parties given and attended and economic woes, their dances with season’s icons offered audiences a full cardio workout of applause, shouting, whooping, laughing and stretching (craning through the packed house to be sure you didn’t miss a thing.)
By the time Santa appeared, who expected him to slide off that black patent leather belt and fling it into the crowd? And no one foresaw the striptease that followed. How will they ever top that?
I seem to remember, however, saying that same thing previously, and they continue to bowl me over. This show involved new personnel: David Sloan, Chris Schultz, Chad Newman, Jolly Benson, Jennifer Delacruz, Shannon Kennedy, Andre Harper, Phil Tabb, Kenya Patterson and — you can’t keep a good man down — Elvis.
New acts included some hot dancing by buff young males (Count Chokula!!), and more clowning. Sideline commentary/heckling, reminiscent of the geezers Statler and Waldorf from the stage left balcony box at the Muppet Theatre, was provided for some acts, wrapping the package in a new layer of ribbons and bows.
All our favorite regulars were there: the lascivious Frankie and Frenchie, the worshipful French maid mime. Ms. Lily Vixen slithers to the microphone for torch songs and the core choreography by Moana Amore, Cheeky Derriere, Vulva Vontrapp and Derrier Dubois reveals many flavors of feminine wiles.
Mastermind and star of the show Tatah Dujour never disappoints with a slow undoing of a corset or the twirling of tassels.
The best thing about their shows is the comfort level. The actors are at ease and confident, and the audience has come to trust that the entertainment is fun and light and won’t deteriorate into the dark side. Teetering on the brink (in feather-trimmed high heels) is where the thrill is.
The troupe is expanding their scope this season with guest stars lined up to strut their stuff. Marjorie Paul Shook, Allison Mayer, Kyla Piscopink and more are on the list.
January 9 starts their Red Rooster Revue (a “cabaret-style vaudevillian showcase”) for 16 Fridays at Kelly’s Upstairs, 301 Whitehead. Check their full season schedule at www.keywestburlesque.com. It includes some world-famous burlesque performers at the Filthy Gorgeous Show at Bourbon Street Pub, the Side Show Circus spring show at Southernmost Hotel Collection and the Neurotic Erotic 08 at the Hard Rock Cafe on Valentine’s Day, with more slots yet to be filled in.