an old friend reappears

Some forty years later I'm contacted, and in a way, fondly reunited. Not by Joy herself, but through Washington University's Curatorial Department of Modern Literature and Manuscripts. The department was seeking permission to use early photos of mine for their upcoming lecture and reading series with the acclaimed writer, novelist, Joy Williams.

The photos - the only photo, that I do remember taking was later used for Joy's book-jacket from her then published third novel. What a sweet, charmed remembrance, when the university forwarded their photo archives of five additional 'lost' shots for my review and their request for usage.  Joy, along with husband Rust and I, had spent some time together in the late '70s, early 1980's. 

Joy Williams, author, novelist and short-story writer, after a 20 year hiatus, currently has a new book of fiction out titled, Harrow (Penguin Random House). Her novels and short stories have been nominated and well awarded; Nominated - National Book Award for Fiction, Finalist - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Finalist - National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, and Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

 

Joy Williams at home on Siesta Key (1981)

 

Joy's personal, obvious choice for her third novel's book jacket.  Loving a good, long barefoot walk.

profile and review; link from the NYT's

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/magazine/the-misanthropic-genius-of-joy-williams.html

 

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens; trees dead n' gone?

Nearly, a good quarter of the botanical gardens' property was all but leveled within a few days.  Selby Gardens "Tree Mitigation Plan" called for the removal of 52 existing trees, as well as 46 established palms - and for what?  

Selby's, city approved future 'master plan' is to allow for expansion; by providing a questionable multi-story parking garage, while incorporating a ground level, 110 seat, for-profit restaurant.

In today's edition of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, reporter Anne Snabes wrote; "Selby Gardens did not have to apply for a tree removal permit from the city because institutional botanical gardens are exempt from the policy."

In response, "It's just ironic that a botanical gardens was exempt from a tree ordinance", (Barbara May; president of the inclusive neighboring properties, of the Hudson Bayou Neighborhood Association).

 

 

 

Finishing the expansive clean-up. Large, old growth oak limbs, quietly being cut-up and hauled away.

 

 

the day after 'National Dog Day'

August 27th, my birthday - the dog days of summer, the hottest day of the year.  Knuckles and I sharing treats.  Born in 1950, seventy-one years ago tomorrow. Not bad for a couple of old buddies.

 

 

J. J. Heard Opera House - Arcadia, Florida

In 1906, John J. Heard opened his grand Opera House in downtown Arcadia - showcasing live performances of opera, theater productions, plays, musical acts, political rallies and the occasional church function. Years later, when movies became ever popular, a projection booth was built and silent movies and "talkies" were thus added.

But the 'Opera House' apparently has another side to it's long history; 

In 2017, WFTX-TV, Fox 4 News of Ft. Myers reported,

Ghost hunting at the Arcadia Opera House

Morbid history fuels paranormal sightings

The stories may be old, but the chills are new. If you believe.

To reach the second floor of the Arcadia Opera House, you have to climb 27 old, creaky floors. It's an ominous sign of what's to come. Many consider the building to be one of the most haunted in all of Southwest Florida. The buildings owner, James Crosby, isn't sure what to think.

"At some points, I always get the impression there's somebody else here," Crosby says. "Whether that's just the size and scope of the place or the lighting, but I'm always catching something out of the corner of my eye that makes me stop and turn my head." By day, the Opera House is an antique. By night, it's a playground for ghost hunters.

Eric Kincaid is one of several ghost hunters who have recorded electronic voice phenomena, or spirit voices there.

Kincaid and others point to the Opera House's dark history to explain the ghosts. A 1905 fire destroyed an orphanage on the same property. The next year, the Opera House was the first building to go back up in Arcadia. But legend has it, a little girl fell out of a window and died, a few years later. Ghost hunters claim, she still haunts the building.

"There's a good story of a woman who was sitting at the stop light on the corner of Oak and Polk, who looked up and saw a little girl staring at her," Crosby says. And she sat through three red lights until somebody finally honked and when she looked back, the little girl had disappeared from the window."

 

 From the upper balcony, looking down on today's historic stage

 

 

Stage front

 

Backstage, a surviving old RCA film projector

 

 

And being backstage, accidentally finding a young three year-old named Morgan.

 

 

 

Cuba Libre

Protesters chanting "Patria y Vida" - "Homeland and Life"

The Cuban people have suffered enough. Today a new generation, a younger one, have taken to the streets of Havana and across all of the isle of Cuba. The youth are finally demanding a truthful, and long-awaited "Libertad" - a freedom. 

In 1958, a corrupt dictator, Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by a new ideology, and within seven years, a newly established revolutionary government had adopted a Marxist- Leninist approach - the Communist Party of Cuba -  thus beginning 56 years of oppression.

I traveled to Cuba on a journalist's visa and stayed over several times. The Cuban people are a proud, and a good people. And for the most part, like all things American.  Most envy the US.

 

Looking across the street from where I lived during my first short stay, staying with a young family.       

Old Havana, (La Habana Vieja) 1994.

 

 

 

Thankfully, they adopted me.  My Cuban family.  ‘Romilia’ and the girls celebrating a family birthday. And no, the TV didn't work.  We just played Parcheesi most nights on the floor.

 

'Malula' (12) beating me on the board, using buttons for pieces.

  

Romilia's upstairs apartment.

 

 

My sleeping quarter's upstairs from Romilia's. Viewpoint from my apartment's bed on the floor.

 

In 1998, I returned intentionally, to stay longer and to help with Gonzalo, Romilia and the girls - and photographically, to document the neighborhood.  

Below, the corner across the street in old Havana, in the neighborhood of Jesus Maria, where I set-up daily, my large field camera outside for a week, shooting B&W street portraits with interviews.  Corner of Calle Cardenas & Apodaca.

 

 

Elementary students wearing their national 'pioneer' school uniform.

 Upper-school students in uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

 Pride in their heritage, pride in their flag.

 

 

This younger generation above, now some 20 years on, have patiently grown, waited.  They deserve better. They deserve so much more.

Charlottesville, Virginia

 A brief history (of a good town).

 

Monticello, home to Thomas Jefferson

American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, musician, philosopher, slave owner and 'Founding Father' who served as the third president of the United States.  (Virginia, 1743-1826)

 

 

In August of 2017, a modern Charlottesville became the center of a bloody past, by national, well organized far-right groups marching under the name, "Unite the Right".

 

Confederate General, Robert E. Lee.  (Virginia, 1807-1870)

Some say the initial impetus for the Unite the Right march was the threat of removal of a divided people's Confederate Lee's statue (a last stand of sorts) from historic Lee Park, located in downtown Charlottesville. Two days of violent confrontation resulted - from a mob of far-right protesters clashing with mostly peaceful counter-demonstrators. Today, the Robert E. Lee statue remains.

 

 

 

Confederate Lt. General, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.   (Virginia, 1824-1863)

During the two-day August stand-off, both the Lee statue and one of a large, imposing "Stonewall" Jackson were each vandalized by counter-demonstrators. The graffiti left on the carved granite base of "Stonewall" Jackson's monument read, "1619" - a reference to the date the first enslaved Africans were brought to Virginia. This statue, also still stands.

 

 

 

On the rally's second day, on August 12th, with white supremacists loudly protesting under the 'Unite the Right' siege - a Charlottesville local, Heather D. Heyer was group targeted, plowed over by an on-rushing car and killed. A self-admitted "neo-Nazi" named James A. Fields, Jr, of Ohio, was later convicted of multiple federal hate crimes and sentenced to 'life'. That same jury recommended 'life in prison' with an additional 419 years. 

The victim, Heather Heyer was reportedly a well-liked and impassioned 32 year old 'C-ville' resident, who worked as a bartender, waitress, and part-time para-legal. (Virginia, 1985-2017)

In the photo below, a small painted portrait is referenced as Queen Charlotte (wife of King George III). Supposedly the "black Queen" of Great Britain and later Queen of the United Kingdom. (1744 -1818)

 

 

 

Virginia Senator, Tim Kaine - Visiting the memorial site shortly after Heather Heyer's death.  (Photo, public domain).

 

 

Approaching the fourth anniversary, the site today (not forgotten).

 

Update 

Little did I know, that 2 days after my leaving Charlottesville, the statues would come down. Few knew.

NPR link;

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/10/1014926659/charlottesville-removes-robert-e-lee-statue-that-sparked-a-deadly-rally

Eureka Peak, California

High in the Sierra Nevada's, from it's early California gold rush days, Eureka Peak was noted as the "Gold Mountain" for the rich treasure there, that long, hard, tunnel mining help produce.  Today, it's past has a way of leaving it's history behind.