Key West Poker Run 2010

Last weekend was the annual Key West Poker run, and as usual it was an absolute blast. Christina’s mom and her boyfriend John came down from Crystal River on his harley. We spend Friday and Saturday roaming the streets quaffing frosty beverages. I’m not a big motorcycle fan, but I can appreciate swank machinery when I see it, and there was quite a bit of it on display. I love this city.

BikeWeek2010 (28 photos)
17 September 2010

Note: To see the pictures in the original Picasa album, click here

The 2010 Schooner Wharf Tattoo Contest

How could this NOT be fun!

This was a fun little ditty. Bikers, babes and beer.. what more could you want from an afternoon in Key West? The annual Schooner Wharf & Paradise Tattoo Show & Contest and the Rock and Roll Fashion Show is an event that happens every year during bike week, but this was my first time in attendance.

Right from the get-go I knew I was in trouble. No sooner than I’d walked in and gotten a beer at the bar I heard Frank on stage with a microphone paging me to please come to the stage. This is a situation that nothing good can ever come from.

I went up on stage and he asked if I wouldn’t mind taking some photos of the contest and burlesque show. It seems that one of their photogs hadn’t shown up or something, and he’d offered my services to Evalina because I had my d90 with me. I guess if you have a big lens you’re always in demand.. wink wink, nudge nudge.

Well I’d been drinking for a few hours at that point, and my photography skills are highly suspect to begin with so of course I felt it was my moral imperative to accept the offer. There were after all going to be women in bikinis.

I’m sure my photos were pretty unusable for what Evalina wanted them for, but I tried at least to not fall over on stage while shooting, and I think that’s saying a lot. I hope she was able to salvage a few for her needs though. I took a grand total of 300+ photos of this event, and most of them were crap, but the few that came out worth looking at are down below.. enjoy!

Photos of bikes and stuff on Duval coming up….

Mike

SchoonerTattoo2010 (28 photos)
18 September 2010

Note: To see the pictures in the original Picasa album, click here

Lobster Fest 2010

Well who doesn’t love lobster?

Yummy Yummy Goodness	Beer Tents!! Yay!

It’s hard to believe that the time has come around when I’m blogging about my second annual events. Time flies when you’re having fun! Actually, this was our third Lobster Fest, as we’d been down for one inadvertently before we moved, but I don’t really count that one since we didn’t really plan to be here for it, it just happened by crazy random happenstance.

Im posting these long after the event, and I apologize to all of those that have been losing sleep waiting for this vivid recount of the days events. I seem to have my fingers in too many pies these days, and unfortunately don’t have the energy to post as often as I used to. It’s not that I don’t think about it.. in fact it’s become quite a sore spot for me. ConchTales looms over my head like  curious thundercloud. I can’t tell if it’s just going to blow away or light my ass up with some lightning. A good kick in the ass might help me prioritize.

Oh well, at best my mom is the only one who reads this blog regularly to make sure I’m not living on the streets or selling meth in Bahama Village, so I guess I don’t expect an angry mob of loyal readers to come beating my door down any time soon. Nonetheless, I’m making a commitment to do better. Bike Fest and the Key West Poker Run officially start today, and I plan on going out and getting some great bike shots this year. Maybe some boobies as well for those pervs out there.

Alright, Alright, Back to the Lobster

It just so happened that my son Connor was in town again this year during lobster fest. We packed him up and headed down to Duval to meet up with Moose and narf on some lobster on a stick! Connor was delightfully un-gloomy, as has been his M.O. for the past few years as he slips into his teens, and he actually seemed to enjoy himself a bit as long as we kept him fueled up with a coke every now and again. Kids these days, they run on sugar. Don’t get me started. I guess I’m just as bad, I run on alcohol.

The Flute Dude… creepy.	Connor and Christina He’s actually trying to smile!	A rowdy bunch on ‘The Porch’

There was a pretty good crowd, up a bit from last year if I remember correctly. Duval was closed off and the ubiquitous tents selling painted coconuts, carved wooden airplanes, junk sculpture, and driftwood art were present in abundance. There was even the pan flute dude! I’d heard about this guy before, but had never actually seen him. He stands in his booth and plays flute along with a recording of him playing flute, that you of course can buy so you can take it home and touch yourself to the soothing melodies of flute music. There’s a sick joke in there somewhere. Wow, what a strange sight that was, I’m not sure what freaked me more, a grown man playing a flute, or the music itself. Definitely not Iron Maiden. Zamphir would have been proud.

We made our usual stops on our trek down the street, Sloppies, Shorty’s, Guy Harvies, Etc., grabbing frosty goodness as we went. Moose had a plan to eat no less than 3 full lobster dinners. I saw him devour 2, he may have actually eaten the third when I wasn’t looking.

Christina got some lobster on a stick, but Connor and I were holding out for dinner at Half Shell Raw Bar. It happened to be Christina’s birthday, and we had big plans! Cash flow was a bit tight that month while Connor visited. He’s a teenager so he eats like a grizzly bear readying for hibernation, and I wanted to be able to blow some cash on a decent dinner.  I was gonna get some lobster that wasn’t cooked on a grill on the street, and Connor wanted Crab Legs. We resisted the lure of the street lobster!

At some point the heat really started getting to Connor, so we trekked home and spooned him onto the futon so he could resume his video games, and we headed back out to the fray. We ran into Mamma Frank and the four of us went to try out a new bar called The Porch. Wow! Cool place! I’m going to have to write a little blurb here just for the porch. I think it may be vying for a spot in the top 3 in Mike’s Favorite Bar List. They have a huge selection of fancy-pants beers and an entire wall of wine! PLUS, you get to sit out on the verandah and watch the madness on Duval from the quiet cool of a great southern porch. Totally bitchin’.

Something you won’t see much, a photo of me.	Mamma Frank, Christina, Moose inside at The Porch	View from the Whistle

We ended our Lobster Fest sojourn up at the Whistle Bar (I know.. predictable) and we sat there for an hour or so just people watching. Another great Key West event! I love this city. Home for a short nap, and then out to dinner! Man.. quite a day!

Cheers!
Mike

The Running of the Bulls 2010

Here’s a few photos from this year’s Running of the Bulls during Hemingway Days.

We wandered down Duval around noon on Saturday and made our way to Sloppy Joe’s to meet up with our friends Moose and Danyle. We procured a couple frosty beers and awaited the start of the festivities. If you’re unfamiliar, this is the main event of Hemingway Days, where the current year’s look-alike contestants hop on wheeled saw horses (or saw-bulls if you will) and they “race” around the block being pushed by their teams. Now most of these dudes are pretty up there in years.. grey hair and all, so there really isn’t much actual racing going on.. it’s more like a parade. But who cares, it’s fun, and not a long event, so there’s more time to wander the booths set up on Duval and perhaps feast on a turkey leg if the mood strikes.

After wandering the streets for a bit we were very hot and sweaty, and decided we needed to go to Ft Zach beach and cool off in the ocean. We hopped on our bikes, rode to the park, and hit the surf. And as these things are wont to go, not eating anything all day and drinking more than my fair share of frosty beer on the streets combined, to the amusement of my friends, with the heat to push me right into the passed out and snoring in the hammock phase of the day.  Unfortunately, however I never made it to the hammock, and just lay on the sand where I landed and took myself a little nap. Live and learn! Yeah, maybe someday..

All in all a very fun day!

Oh yeah. I Should have eaten too….	Last year’s Pappa on a stick.

Lots of art and food booths!	In the bullpen, waiting for the run.

Woah!

Where does the time go? Amazing how when you’re just livin’ life it seems to slip by unnoticed. I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted anything here. I have photos and stuff from some really fun Duval St. events.. Lobester Fest 2010 and the Running of the Bulls that I need to throw up on here… guess I’d better get on that huh.

I don’t know what happened, it’s like I hit my one year mark in Key West and blacked out. Now it’s almost September and I don’t know where the last two months went! My son Connor was down visiting from NY for a month in there, so that probably had a lot to do with it. We went camping up in Bahia Honda state park one weekend, that was un-freaking-believably beautiful. I’ll post some shots of that too here in a bit. Most of the rest of our time together we spent on the beach or watching movies or eating. He loves visiting me because he says I’m a better cook than his mother, and he gets to eat better when he’s down here. Hey, I’ll take what I can get!

Christina and Connor both had birthdays in the beginning of August, so we had two separate birthday dinners. Christina’s happened to coincide with Lobester Fest, so of course we had lobster! Well, Connor had crab legs, but Christina and I ate the bug. We went to the Half-Shell Raw Bar over on the marina.. the food was pretty darned good, the atmosphere was steamy, and the beer was cold. Can’t complain one bit! For Connor’s birthday we went to Turtle Kraals, and had MORE lobster and crab legs. Im up in the air about Turtle Kraals’ food still. I’ve been 4 times now, and sometimes it’s really good, sometimes not so much. Maybe it’s just some things on the menu are better than others. It’s definitely no Conch Republic Sea Food though.

Other than that I’ve just been working for the man like the dog I am. This being the off-season, sales are way down, and the mood in the gallery is pretty.. I don’t know.. grim? I’m sure we’ll pull out of it, but man.. as if work isn’t stressful enough, we gotta add money woes on top. I sit at my computer and dream of the day when I can support myself off of my sculpture. Of course, this dream requires me actually SELLING some of it, but hey.. one thing at a time.

Speaking of the sculpture thing, that’s going really well. I was contacted a few months back by a gentleman in the steampunk-art world who puts on a yearly gallery show up in Connecticut. He had run across my coppersteam blog and was interested in placing some of my work in his show next year. COOL! Recently he contacted me again and wants to include photos of my sculpture in a coffee table book he’s putting together consisting of steampunk art. Even cooler! Needless to say, I’m excited about all that. I never expected to just have people come knocking on my door.

Anyways, just thought I’d better let whoever might actually read this thing know that I’m not dead or in jail. I’ll post some photos soon of the recent tropical misadventures!

Cheers!
Mike