Wednesday Night Food Truck Pod

TheDailyCity.com will host weekly food truck pods (6-7 trucks) on the Trinity Downtown soccer field (Ruth Lane at Amelia Street) every Wednesday night, 5-8pm, starting this Wednesday August 3, 2011. The pod will offer a relaxed, quiet, family-friendly atmosphere in which to enjoy delicious food from some of the area's top food trucks. As always, bring your own chairs. Street parking is free after 6pm.

I decided to go to the inaugural event. I called Terry who works downtown and she said it was raining really hard. I looked out my window at home and the sun was blazing. Getting into my truck I knew I was driving into the storm. Sure enough, half way into town it began to pour. It was the kind of rain that made me feel like I was driving in a waterfall. The wipers couldn't work fast enough. My passenger side wiper came loose and the rubber part was barely in the mechanism whipping chaotically through the air. It was so bad I considered turning around but I plowed straight ahead hoping the rain would clear long enough for me to sketch. By the time I parked north of Lake Eola, the rain had stopped.

I love the old wooden houses on Amelia Street. Some look like the historical homes of Savannah. One house was gutted, getting a full renovation. Most of the homes date back to the 1920's. This is the type of old neighborhood I would love to live in some day. I knew I was close to the food trucks when I could hear generators. The soccer field grass was wet, moistening my hiking boots. I leaned back against the goal post and got to work. Thunder rumbled on the horizon.

The field was populated by about 50 or so people who had braved the weather. Two workers from the Korean Taco Box Truck came over to watch me work for a while. They liked that their truck was in the foreground. When I was finished I decided to get a shrimp Po-Boy sandwich from the Fish Company food truck. The sandwich and a coke came to $12 which was more than I expected. I sat on the soccer field bleachers with many others. Poppy seeds from the sandwich kept raining into my lap.

I spoke to Mark Baratelli who organized the event. He said he only had 3 days to promote the event and he expects it will grow over time. He was carrying 11 by 17 inch posters promoting the Wednesday night event. I left feeling satiated. When I got back into my truck it began to rain again. A soft drizzle followed me home. Back home I watched weathermen as they tried to track Tropical Storm Emily.

Mobile Art Show

TheDailyCity.com hosts the Mobile Art Show every month parked outside the City Arts Factory (29 South Orange Avenue) during "Third Thursdays." On Third Thursdays, the downtown art galleries all open new shows allowing for a solid night of gallery hopping. In February Mark Baratelli of the Daily City decided to fill the truck with the posters of LURE Design. This was a simple show to hand since all the posters were about the same size and they could be hung with bull clips zip tied to the existing rubber bumpers inside the truck. January 21st is when this show of posters took place.
Mark drove the rental U_Haul to Frames Forever where Katie Windish had promised to help hang the show. Mark started taping huge sheets of brown paper on the side of the truck that was going to face the City Arts Factory, while Katie was hanging the posters inside the truck. As I sketched it started to rain. Katie told me I could borrow an umbrella from inside her show so I ran in and got it. So part of this sketch was done in the pouring rain while I hunkered under her umbrella. Then the wind started to pick up causing to rain horizontally and I dashed inside the truck. The windy deluge didn't last too long and I soon went back out to finish up the sketch.
That night I went downtown to see the Mobile Art Show in action for the first time. Brian Feldman was outside the City Arts Factory doing his latest performance which involved charging peoples cell phones. Because of the pending rain, I decided against sketching that night. This sketch would have to do for the day. Mark had decorated the inside of the U-Haul with white Christmas lights and it was really festive. I am trying to convince Mark to allow me to plaster the side of the truck with ink jet prints all 365 sketches from last year and then have the 2009 sketchbooks and some matted prints inside the truck. At the FRESH performances this month I have figured out how to offer any print from the sketchbooks by using a tablet PC and an ink jet printer. As Mark said when he say this set up, "That is bad ass!" So keep your eyes open downtown on the Third Thursday of March!

Taco Truck Taste Test

Mark Baratelli at the Daily City.com, organized a spontaneous taco truck taste test for avid readers of his blog. This Taco Truck is located in front of Trinidad Auto Repair Center at 815 South Sermoran Blvd. Mark had wonderfully colorful bumper stickers printed up and a small color program and menu. Since the Orlando Sentinel wanted a photo of me sketching they were going to send a photographer to the TTTT to shoot me while I worked. I figured this was a great chance for the alternate media in this town to get some traditional media coverage.
Then it rained starting first thing in the morning and lasting all day long. The Sentinel decided to cancel the photo shoot but I went to the taco truck site anyway hoping that there might be a break in the rain. When I arrived there was no one in site. The rain was a fine mist and it slowly stopped. I saw Mark drive up and park behind the Auto repair shop where the taco truck was parked. Then slowly people started to arrive. Logan Donahoo was the first to place an order so I placed him front and center in the sketch. In all perhaps 10 people showed up for the taste test and they were rewarded with some very fine food. I worked frantically on the sketch trying to keep the few rain drops from destroying the lines as I put them down. Once in a while a huge drop would fall from the power pole I was leaning against and it would slap down on the sketch giving me a fright. With the truck filling my field of vision I didn't get to sketch everyone waiting in line, but trust me there was a line that flowed off the sketch to the right.
Mark interviewed people after they finished eating to compile an in depth review of the samples offered. I was still placing watercolor washes on the sketch as people started to leave. The cook running the truck speaks no English so ordering was a challenge, I asked a few people for advice as to what was good and I settled on Arepas with Camarones or shrimp. They came in a soft corn shell cooked with salt and olive oil, packed on top was plenty of Swiss cheese. For a drink I had a Colombiana soda which had a vanilla kick and was quite good. As I was eating I spoke to a Spanish woman who had ordered the exact same menu items as me. She travels all the way from Apopka to come to this little mobile stand. She said she comes here several times a week. I decided to show the stand owner the sketch to see what he thought. He made a scribble gesture with his hand and pointed to me and I nodded yes. He smiled and handed the sketchbook back. Good food and art are universally understood.