Fisherman's Cafe

I met JW a former dispatcher on my night shift at the Lazy Way Lane eatery opened by a friend of his family. We worked nights together for more than a year until he got a daytime job working at city hall, much better for his wife and child. Because JW grew up in Key West working days means he gets to spend time at family functions and keeps his eyes open as well. Night shift can be hard on a family man.

Fisherman's Cafe is where you go for Conch food, which is to say foods enjoyed by people who have been born and grown up in Key West and these foods are remembered as staples of the hard times in the past. Key West suffered badly during the Great Depression, a time when most of the city was unemployed, and when the city declared bankruptcy the Federal Government considered shutting the Keys down and evacuating them to save time and money.

Tourism turned that around when a Federal Administrator Julius Stone came to Key West and fired up the tourist industry that feeds the beast today. Yet when Conchs ("konks") reminisce about times they on't really remember they speak fondly of those simple foods that kept the city going. Mind you grits and cheese and fish are good stuff and were eaten even during the hard times of the 1960s when the Navy withdrew most of their sailors from Key West and  downtown went through another depression, saved this time by the arrival of gay guesthouse owners...

None of which mattered to JW or me. He had battered conch and I had hogfish he with spicy fisherman's fried and I with crunchy yucca fries. I love yucca, known locally as yuca, the Spanish spelling of the white starchy vegetable that tastes bland yet easily absorbs any passing flavor. 

I lied the food, especially the touches they add like avocado slices and a sprinkle of green onion along with the use of paper containers instead of the horrid Styrofoam which can't be recycled.

It was a good lunch and JW  got me up to speed with his job adventures and I shared mine such as they are,; who's been promoted and more importantly who hasn't, and so forth.

Rusty was perfect, curled up out of the traffic waiting for his walk. He really enjoys being involved and I like having him with me everywhere I go. He is not trouble at all.

An unassuming spot. I want to come back for the breakfast MENU. And now it's winter so sitting out is a pleasure. Which is just as well as there is no inside seating.

Monuments

 I collected some pictures of buildings I like. Above, my place of work on an evening of full moon. Below, Duval Street in monochrome:

This is the county office block  known as the Gato Building on Simonton Street. It's named for the Gato Family that built it as a cigar factory before they moved to Tampa when Key West got too expensive for their business...an old story still relevant.

The venerable fire station on Grinnell Street. It's really the Firehouse Museum and well worth a visit.

The new Seven Fish Restaurant Building. Deemed compatible with old town architecture by the guardians of classic Key West architecture.

 And the Seven Mile Bridge, not exactly a building but human construction nevertheless...

Dali Museum

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay connecting Bradenton to St Petersburg.

Even on a Friday the crowds following tour guides filled up areas of the museum. Field Trip!

Dali superimposed his paintings on a statue (LINK), his commentary on Indian Treaties in the US

A collection of photographs of Dali's life in Cadaques and elsewhere from the 1950s

Dali painted his famous optical illusion portrait in a small New York studio in 1975. His wife's bottom transformed into Lincoln's Face. Go figure. Surreal.

"Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln-Homage to Rothko" 

The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus:

This work is an ambitious homage to Dalí's Spain. It combines Spanish history, religion, art and myth into a unified whole. It was commissioned for Huntington Hartford's Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle in New York. At this time, some Catalan historians were claiming that Columbus was actually from Catalonia, not Italy, making the discovery all the more relevant for Dalí, who was also from this region of Spain. Dalí's inspiration for this work was The Surrender of Breda, another painting by Velazquez. Dalí borrows the spears from that painting and places them on the right hand side of his work. Within these spears, Dalí has painted the image of a crucified Christ, which was based on a drawing by the Spanish mystic Saint John. The banner that Columbus is holding bears the likeness of Dalí's wife, Gala. She appears as a saint, suggesting that she is Dalí's muse, and that she is responsible for his own "discovery of America," where he captured the attention of the world through her encouragement. The flies and the bishop at the bottom left are a reference to a Catalan folk legend (from Girona) about Saint Narciso's crypt. Dali uses this myth to underline his patriotic devotion to his homeland's independence.

Too.Many.People.

The Hallucinogenic Toreador:

Dalí conceived this painting while in an art supply store in 1968. In the body of Venus, on a box of Venus pencils, he saw the face of the toreador. This double image painting repeats the image of the "Venus de Milo" several times in such a way that the shadows form the features. Start with the green skirt, and make it into a man's necktie. The white skirt becomes his shirt. Travel up the figure. Her abdomen becomes his chin, her waist is his mouth, and her left breast is the nose. The pink arch forms the top of the head with the arena at the top as his hat. The tear in the eye (at the nape of Venus' neck) is shed for the bull. The red skirt on the right Venus is his red cape. 

The Ecumenical Council:

This canvas honors Pope John XXIII for trying to unite the churches through the Ecumenical Council. The coronation of Pope John XXIII is depicted in an omniscient vision. It appears four times with three views in the center, and one in the upper right hand corner which was formed by pressing an octopus onto the canvas. Along the bottom of the canvas, the self-portrait of Dalí recalls a pose assumed by Velazquez, thus another acknowledgment of the Spanish painter. Gala is depicted in the manner of Michelangelo's Moses, but she also represents St. Helena as Dalí has revealed in another work entitled St. Helena of Port Lligat. St. Helena was the mother of Emperor Constantine; her emblem in art is the cross. According to the legend, Constantine had a prophetic dream in which an angel with a cross appeared and told him "under this sign you will be victorious." Perhaps Gala's appearance in this painting as St. Helena is a tribute to her unwavering faith, inspiration, and guidance which led Dalí to victory.

The spaces are vast inside the museum.

And they rate this spaceship hurricane proof.

The museum is as capable of self promotion as the artist Dali himself was. You have to march through the store to escape. 

A most worthwhile place to visit. In the winter they promise a Frida Kahlo exhibit. We shall return.

An exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s paintings and drawings, together with her personal photograph collection, will open to the public at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL on December 17, 2016 and continue through April 17, 2017. Kahlo’s works have achieved monumental importance in art and popular culture. Her dreamlike work suggests that love and suffering create a new sense of beauty. Kahlo’s art and storied life stir immense public interest.

Frida Kahlo at The Dali will be Florida’s first solo exhibition showcasing the extraordinary career and life of the acclaimed 20th century artist. The exhibit will feature a collection of more than 60 Kahlo pieces including 15 paintings, seven drawings and numerous personal photographs from the celebrated female artist and influential icon. The exhibition will extend outdoors where a special collection of flowers and plants representative of those in Kahlo’s own garden at Casa Azul, her home in Mexico, will grace the grounds of the Museum’s Avant Garden.

- See more at: LINK

High, High Tide

It seems that every high tide some of the back wood trails go under water. Like this:

I took these pictures around the recent full moon and the water you are looking at is usually gravel and dirt. It really is. Yet these days it seems to end up under water with greater frequency.  Which is not to say occasional exceptional high waters didn't flood the mangroves. But now it seems to happen too often. 

Luckily Rusty enjoys splashing around so I don't let six inches of water stop us. However you have to wonder what sea level rise will do for these islands over the next decade or two.

 Crocs are an invaluable tool for these expeditions.

 And a camera to wile away the time.

It is wonderfully peaceful out here and even though the wind carries the sounds of cars from Highway One a few miles away, this is as isolated as you can get.  

Rusty likes the splashing around. I read my Kindle perched against the branches of a buttonwood tree.

 Miles and miles of nothing.

 The road remains above water - so far.

But around my home signs of the supermoon high tide were visible in the street the morning after, and I find the invasion of salt water rather scary:

Where Crocs should be less necessary.

I wonder what the future will bring. A frequent thought I am having these days.

Key West Evening

The parking lot at the county courthouse of an evening...Freeman was a big wig in the Keys in the mid 20th century, sheriff, elected representative etc...His name is everywhere including here.

 Walk the path through the vegetation at the side of the post office. Others have done this too as you can see.

The Audubon House is up Whitehead Street and was looking lovely as I walked toward my destination, the theater.

 The gruesome t-shirt shops that are what greet cruise ship visitors streaming into town....

 The attractions, the shopping, the approach to Mallory Square...

 But I am diverting to the theater at the waterfront. And as there is time to spare I took a stroll through the Pez Garden. 

Its actually the Memorial Sculpture Garden and it is full of heads on blocks that look like Pez Dispensers.  It's not an easy place to write about as a photo of a head and  along description of the person's genius is about as dry  as eating sand. I made an effort in 2011. LINK 

So I took a few more pictures including this one of a guy who put himself through law school as a lighthouse keeper, became a judge and has the Old Courthouse in Key West named after him. Look up at the building over the Mile Marker Zero spot and you'll see his name. If you aren't in Key west you can try it on Google Street View and you'll see what I mean.

I am not sure what these august personages think of this fine figure of a man peering at them from behind a 21st century uniform of flip flops cargo shorts wife beater and backwards baseball cap. 

 And then there are the chickens.Always the chickens.

And this woman who appears to be very likely a woman who preferred the company of women. An interesting biography of someone committed to doing well by helping others. "Eccentricity" notwithstanding.

I have no idea who to photograph and how to describe all these heads (LINK) without getting boring. This man liked his straw hat. There, let's move on.

The play was a monologue given by an actor representing Theo Van Gogh talking about his brother the artist after his death. It was very moving and  surprisingly informative too. The 90 minute play was written by Leonard Nimoy so he's done more than played the pointy eared alien. It was a worthwhile evening out. 

We came in at sunset, we left after dark. A new Key West was before us: 

And the souvenir shops were still there. 

Walking back to the car we passed a little joke, a shadowy figure behind the frosty glass of the old jail. Carl von Cosel, the man who loved a corpse (LINK) is who is depicted. Very creepy.

And so home to a dog and to bed.