Anyway, there were hundreds of people who came out to watch the parade of Dali-esque beings who made the journey from old home to new.  I’m not going to write about the details of the new museum – much better for you to get your information straight from the source, at the Dali Museum website.  Rather, I’ve chosen to show you another parade image or two, as well as a shot of the front of the new Dali.  It looks absolutely spectacular – I’m very excited to make my first visit!

The Florida Orchestra’s Annual Free Pops in the Park concert takes place tomorrow, October 16th, at 7:00 PM in Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg.  Once again this year, it looks as though the concert timing coincides perfectly with our new cool front that arrived just last night, so it should be a glorious evening to throw down a blanket, eat a picnic dinner (or maybe just dessert), and enjoy the wonderful music that the Florida Orchestra always delivers.  The park setting is just a very fun way to listen to the Orchestra, and the musicians always seem to thrive on this outdoor setting – I guess it’s a nice change of pace for them.  If you want to get a good spot for your blanket, go early – this is a very popular happening!  And, as always, the concert finishes off with the 1812 Overture, played at the same time as a nice little fireworks display is set off over the Vinoy Basin – it’s a perfect pairing!  If you’d like to go, and you’re not familiar with Vinoy Park, it’s at the far east end of 5th Avenue North, where 5th Avenue dead-ends at Tampa Bay.  Parking will be available at lots around the downtown area, or along Beach Drive or along NorthShore Park…

This concert has been presented for free, outdoors, each year for the past seventeen years thanks, in large part to local Realtor Helen Torres who seventeen years ago pledged $20,000 per year to the Florida Orchestra for the next twenty years in exchange for this annual outdoor concert/gift to St. Petersburg.  Three more years in her pledge – I hope that, at the end of the twenty years, someone else steps up and takes over for Helen.  In the meanwhile, we’ll continue to attend each year and to enjoy the music.  In the words of Joni Mitchell, they’ll be ”playin’ real good, for free”.  Just another one of the many reasons that St. Petersburg is a fantastic place to live and play!

One week from tomorrow, on Saturday, September 25th, St. Petersburg residents will get the chance to experience Arts Alive Free Museum Day!  St. Petersburg’s major museums will throw open their doors and welcome everyone in, free of charge! This will be the sixth annual event, done in coordination with the Smithsonian Institute and Smithsonian Magazine. The event is taking place in many major cities around the country, so if you’re not near St. Petersburg, be sure to check your local media for details in your area.  But for St. Petersburg, I can tell you that you will be welcomed, at no cost, at the following great museums:

• The Dali Museum
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum
• Florida Holocaust Museum
• Great Explorations Children’s Museum
• Morean Arts Center and Hot Shop
• Museum of Fine Arts
• Pier Aquarium
• St. Petersburg Museum of History

For more details, such as addresses, museum hours, description of current exhibitions, etc,  you can check out this link  on the City of St. Petersburg’s website.

And if you’d like a larger version of any of the photos shown here, just click on the individual image.

Anyway, just a quick and easy post today to remind everyone that this weekend, A Taste of Pinellas will once again take place downtown, at Vinoy Park.   And remember, this event is not only great fun and a chance to indulge in some of the most delicious food by some of the best chefs in the area, but it’s also for a great cause!  A Taste of Pinellas is an annual benefit that provides huge support for All Children’s Hospital, and the ‘good causes’ don’t get much better than that.

In addition to great food, there’s entertainment on all three days of the event, including Huey Lewis and the News on Friday night and Martina McBride on Saturday night.  Try to find some time this weekend to indulge your taste buds, hear some great music, and support All Children’s.  For complete details, check out this link. 

The St. Anthony’s Triathlon is considered to be one of the fastest such events in the United States, and it is, for many, the first one of the season.  As we watched for awhile from Bayshore Drive this morning, the energy was palpable and the enthusiasm was contagious.  I found myself thinking, “if I were a few years younger…”.  (Funny thing is, that’s the same thing I said when I met my wife!  So maybe there is hope for a triathlon in my future!)

Anyway, I couldn’t resist photographing the two cuties in the first photo, there to offer encouragement to their dad.  And the second photo was just a random shot of a group of riders who were just beginning the second leg of the event.  According to news reports, the winner of today’s race was 26 year old Cameron Dye, a relative unknown.  But not for long!  (For full size views of either photo, please click on the photograph…) 

As I keep on saying, St. Petersburg is full of fun things to do and fun things to see!  This is a great example.  Hosted here by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, the regatta will be sailing from Tampa Bay to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, an island about eight miles from Cancun.  The race has happened every April for the past 41 years.

If you’d like to take a shot at it, there is a $100 first prize and $50 second prize for the people that guess the closest to the actual amount of time it takes to complete the race.  For more information, visit this link.

To see the pictures below as full size images, please click on each photo.

Nobility Crew Ready for the Race to Mexico

The Regatta Begins...

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this play!  It would surely reveal my age if I were to tell you that I first saw the play during its original Broadway run, in 1969, while traveling around the country with my good friend.  We didn’t have great seats, but, really, there was not a bad seat in the house!  The music was amazing and the energy was overwhelming – I had just never experienced live theater like this before.  And, oh, yeah, at the end of the play, when many of the cast members opted to strip off their clothes and walk into the audience as they sang, “Let the Sunshine In”, I’m sure that my jaw dropped.  I was NOT a New York City kid!  I came from sleepy St. Pete!

Anyway, the play was totally fun and the music has stuck with me for forty years.  I saw Hair again a few years ago in Tampa in a MAD theater production.  Extremely well done, just as much energy and enthusiasm on the part of the actors and the audience.  

And now, courtesy of St. Petersburg’s own local professional theater company extraordinaire, Hair will be presented outdoors, at Demens Landing, for this year’s American Stage in the Park.   The play will run from April 21st, tonight, through May 16th. For more information, ticket prices, or to purchase tickets, visit the American Stage website.

And when you go, be prepared to sing!  Each time I’ve seen the play, it amazes me when I realize how many hit songs came from this play.  Of course, there’s Hair, for which the play is named (and if you need to be reminded, you can hear the Original Broadway Soundtrack recording at this link.)  But, in addition to Hair, there were so many other hits: Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In, Easy to be Hard, and Good Morning Starshine to name a few. I hope that you make it a point to go and see this play.  You’ll be helping to support a great theater company and you’ll have a great time enjoying St. Petersburg’s beautiful outdoors while you’re at it!  The photo below is a shot of the Hair stage in Demen’s landing taken earlier this week.  (Click on the picture for a larger view)

Well, it seems that choosing that poster for my blog photo was a great move on my part, an action portending things to come!  On Sunday, Duncan was awarded the $10,000 Best of Show Award for this year’s festival!  The first shot below shows my photo of his work that was featured in the show poster, along with some other beautiful examples of his craft.  Further down, another photo of some of his pieces.  And I would love for you to know that, as nice as they look in these photographs, seeing them in person is a much more rewarding experience! (Another thing that I enjoyed learning, when I visited Duncan’s studio, is that all of his pieces have real stories behind them – some very fun/interesting ones!  If you fall in love with one of his pieces, you need to try to cajole him to get him to tell you about the inspiration for that particular piece.)

Which leads me to an announcement that I’m very pleased to make:  When we saw Duncan at the show on Saturday, he told us that he is preparing to move into a new studio, complete with his own gallery, right here in St. Petersburg.  He has worked out of Tampa for many years, and his studio was in an industrial park setting,  not so easily accessible.  So this is great news for those who love Duncan’s work and those who might like to check it out.  The new studio will be located at 2342 Emerson Avenue South, and he will be holding an Open House every Sunday in May, from 11AM to 3PM, as well as the first two Sundays in June.  And, to make your experience even more fun, he’s providing Bloody Marys and Mimosas!  So, if you’d like to see some of his work up close and personal and maybe discuss buying one of these treasures for your home, make it a point to stop by and visit Duncan in his new surroundings.  (Please click on the photos below to view a larger image.)

For a complete list of the Award Winners at this years’s Mainsail show, visit this Tampabay.com page.

Held on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, this year’s Mainsail will be the 35th instance of this show!  That’s pretty remarkable, but you can be certain that it’s no accident.  I’ve been attending the show since the very first one, and I can tell you that the planning that goes into this event is phenomenal, as are the artists who exhibit in this venue. It’s a juried art show, so there is intense competition just to be allowed to exhibit in the show.  That means that the public gets a chance to see the best of the best, all in one place, and in a gorgeous outdoor St. Petersburg setting!

This year’s show will take place this Saturday and Sunday, April 17th and 18th, at Vinoy Park, located just east of the Vinoy Hotel on the Tampa Bay waterfront.  There will be over 200 artists, covering a wide range of media, including Ceramics, Fibers, Glass, Jewelry, Metal, Mixed Media, Oil/Acrylic, Photography, Sculpture, Watercolor and Wood.

The show is free to attend, and you can go just to enjoy, or you can go with the idea of finding your next treasure.  Mainsail is truly a wonderland of creative energy, and it shows in the works that are exhibited.  If you have kids, you can bring them by the children’s art tent, where they’ll have a chance to do interactive activities and get in touch with their inner artist.

One final note – a new Mainsail Arts Festival poster is created each year for the show.  This year, the poster is the work of Duncan McClellan, an amazing glass artist who I have the good fortune to know.  (And, even more good fortune, I have one of his beautiful creations at home, and I get to enjoy it every day!)  Duncan’s work is well-known and very highly regarded throughout the country.  He will be exhibiting his glass works at the show this weekend.  And he is a great example of the caliber of art and craft work that you can expect to see at the show from over 200 artists.

If you need more information, please check out the Mainsail Website.  Then, get out and enjoy our beautiful weekend!