No Direction Home: The Distance Between the Daylight and the Dark

February 26, 2022

The Distance Between the Daylight and the Dark

This year has been pretty awesome as far as getting to see shows by my all-time favorite folk singers. Todd Snider and Chicago Farmer performed a pair of shows last month at East Martello as part of the Coast concert series and now another of my favorites was here to perform at The Studios of Key West as part of their Old Town/New Folk series.

Mary Gauthier was back for a pair of shows at the beautiful rooftop stage setting of Hugh[‘s View atop the Studios of Key West. She was joined once again by the talented Jaimee Harris for the shows and it culminated a month long residency that Mary had at the Studios.

We have seen Mary numerous times at Folks Fest, the folk music festival that Kathy and I often attend in Colorado, and more recently she performed here in Key West at the Perry Hotel stage, but this was the first time the Grammy nominated songwriter had performed as part of Jay Scott’s Old Town/ New Folk series, something that we had long been a proponent of.

Both shows were sold out and I attended both performances, which were awesome. The intimate, beautiful setting of the rooftop stage was perfect for the music that Mary and Jaimee performed and they played all of my favorites and more including the Christmas song that she wrote in and about Key West, “Christmas In Paradise.”

One of the other cool things about having them here for an extended stay is that we would run into them around town, they became quasi-locals while here. One of the places we ran into them was the art opening for our friend Lucy Paige, who displayed a new set of work at Salt Gallery. We also went to see our friend Emily Weekley doing a poetry reading, hosted by Books and Books and again held on Hugh’s View at the Studios.

In the midst of all the fun stuff happening, one of our best friends was in town visiting with her boyfriend from Colorado and it made for the opportunity for me to experience a throw-back evening at Andy's Cabana with some of my longest and best friends, Kerry, Shanda, Steve, Ray, Margit and Mike Spinola who I had not seen in more than twenty years all gathered for a night that at once looked back and celebrated today.

It is high season as far as cultural events in Key West, but I enjoy experiencing cultural experiences wherever I go, so when my travels brought me back to St. Petersburg this month for the opening round of the Indy Car season, I arrived a day early and took the opportunity to visit one of the best museums in Florida.

The Salvador Dali museum is literally in the inside of the temporary street course that the Indy cars run on and it is generally closed during the race weekend, meaning that I do not get the chance to check it out. This year by arriving early, I was able to catch the last day that they were open prior to turning the property over to racing activities.

The museum was hosting a great exhibit, “Picasso and the Allure of the South”, which explores the influence of southern Europe on the famed 20th-century master Pablo Picasso’s revolutionary work. Organized in collaboration with the Musée national Picasso-Paris, which holds the most significant collection of the artist’s works, the exhibit presents 79 paintings, drawings and collages – approximately half of which have never been seen in the U.S..

It was fairly spectacular and when combined with the incredible permanent collection of Dali’s work, made for a wonderful afternoon of exploring some of the coolest art created in the last century. They had another cool feature that explores the genre of Cubism through the Museum’s exclusive new artificial intelligence experience called YOUR PORTRAIT.

You can have their photo transformed into a one-of-a-kind Cubist work of art. While their unique portrait is being generated, a short video presents insight into Cubist imagery, compositions and color palettes. The machine-learning application mimics those characteristics and creates a unique portrait that was so fun, I had to do it twice.