Aloha, My Friend,
“Well, I’ll be a suck egg mule”, it’s February already, quite an appropriate time to poach a phrase from the voice of Tallahassee, Red Barber, his birthday is February 27th. I am sure that many of us used to listen to Red and Colonel Bob each Friday on NPR’s Morning Edition as they chatted about sports, the Tallahassee weather, Red’s garden and whatever the devil else flew past their window of thoughts. It ran a good stretch of time, from 1981 until 1992 when Red went to the Great Stadium in the sky. Maybe even some of you even listened when he was a sportscaster for the Cincinnati Reds, or when he was the voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers and introduced Jackie Robinson to the plate for the first time or maybe his “sittin’ in the catbird seat” calling the games for the Yankees up to his forced retirement in 1966. During the heart of this time I was living in Seattle. After carrying my books across the FSU campus in a tattered canvas Boy Scout backpack for so many years, I seem to only appreciate the Tallahassee flora after I began to listen to Red spin on about what was coloring his backyard while I was driving in the perpetual fall-like rain of Seattle. For that matter, after all that work and dedication to educational excellence, about all I can say that I learned in college is that you shouldn’t walk around with an opened bottle of beer in a single paperbag, that the egg probably came before the chicken, that you really don’t want to play Scrabble with Steve Deady and that I am pretty sure there is a word that rhymes with orange but it is in Arabic.
February is also the birth month for Chelsea Clinton, February 27th. “Oh, Doctor”, she’ll be 30 years old this year. Awhile back I ran across the trivia that she is named after the Chelsea Hotel in Greenwich Village and this stuck with me because the hotel is referenced in a Leonard Cohen song that he wrote of Janis Joplin after her death.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
The Chelsea has a very bohemian and romantic history. Over the years Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clarke, Jim Morrison, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen and Joplin lived there as did Mark Twain. Thomas Wolfe wrote there and Dylan Thomas drank himself to death there. Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungen had a room that nobody really wants to talk about after Nancy’s death in it. And even today you can get a room at the Chelsea for under $150 a night.
And it is Valentine’s Day this month, of course, my lovelies. Oh yeah, another thing that I learned in college, mined in the rich pages of the Flambeau actually, from sometime when the 1980’s were still young, there is a lot of conjecture written about the origins of the St. Valentine’s Day, stuff about monks and such but less is written about the origin of the design of the heart, there are whispers though, in less delicate quarters, that suggest perhaps Georgia O’Keefe knows that flowers too unfold many symbols of true love.
So, what else is going on in February, you ask? Well, you nosey Parker, let me tell you about BALI HI.
BALI-HI Midtown has new expanded hours and we are now open Monday-Friday 11-6 PM and Sat. 11-5 PM. Don’t forget we are downstairs which can be accessed through Textures and Lucy and Leo’s Cupcakery or come around back and enter through the courtyard where there is ample parking. Sundays you can also find Elaine generally working down at Railroad Square. You can always call us for special appointment times too.
This month we are celebrating the glass art of Alison Schaeffler-Murphy. Alison is a skilled and award winning artist who creates everything from jewelry to dishes. This exhibit is called “Keys Inspirations” and you will recognize how life in the islands inspired this beautiful art. Her work has to be seen up close to appreciate its light bending beauty! So come and meet Alison on 1st Friday, February 5th, in Midtown where we will be open until 9pm for your gallery and perusal pleasure.
We are also welcoming a new artist Cindy Sbrissa. Wait until you see her glass mosaic hearts you will fall in love! We will feature Cindy’s amazing mosaic art in April with a “Garden Party” in the courtyard. You will also find some special Valentine jewelry gifts created by our many local artists. Jodi Fletcher in addition to her special heart jewelry has designed some adorable frames that just shout I Love You! We even have some cute glass art tags that will speak sweet sentiments for you created by glass artist Kelly Wood.
