Musical Notes

Girl and Ship of Duma Key #1

© Mark Moore

 Music mentioned in in Stephen King's Duma Key:
Fancy
by Reba McEntire 



Renegade
by Styx

Hair of the Dog
by Nazareth


Listen to the Radio Station mentioned in Duma Key: The Bone.

Oakland: Colorado County

Don't Swim in Florida Lakes!

I drove my Honda Odyssey to visit my parents in Sarasota.  I decided to take a short cut.  I knew I needed to go north. But north had been cut off due to a bad accident between a motorcycle and a cement mixer.   The only way to go was south.  I found my way to the tip of Lake Okeechobee.   At the lake there was one lone fisherman who had not caught anything the whole day.   He asked me if there was any place around here to get some dynamite.   I shrugged the universal code that means “Not sure man!”   The sky started to turn a strange purpleblackblue and that’s when it happened.  The lake sucked up and from the lake emerged a giant red crablike thing.   It approached my Honda.  It grabbed the van with one of his red claws.  Then it opened a wide chasm (probably his mouth). It gulped the van down in one bite.  It burped a noxious smelling protoplasm.  Then it went back into the midst of the lake.   I was cut off from my home, and how was I going to get back now? 
I was to busy to notice, the silver UFO passing in the starry night.

Oakland USA

Southern Parades are best viewed while drinking Mint Juleps 

Standing in front of the Brown and Beige Episcopal Church, painted with left over paint from the old Rail Road Station.  I watched my fifth Jefferson  County Watermelon parade: 

Cop cars, 

Fire Trucks; 

Ashville Fire Trucks

Jefferson County* Waissa Truck # 7; Engine # 1; 

Gainesville Volunteer Fire Department; 

Convertable BMW's with grand Marshall for the 60th Watermelon parade; 

Marine Marching Band from Georgia playing "From the Halls of Montezuma"; 

Baby photo contest winners on flat bed trucks,
Teenage Watermelon pagent winners,
Miss. Watermelon;
regally wave at their servants.

Smokey the bear in a John Deere Tractor says "Only You!"; 

Scottish Bagpipes Marching in Plaid Kilts 

Cylar Howard Family Reunion members having fun with a  

Remote Control Car that zips around;

Candidates for future elections hand out pencils, and wave eagerly.

Free Masons and Vietnam Veterans 

Marzuq Bandits in mini clown cars doing circle eights; 

Mini Nascars driven by Mason gearing up; 

Swamp Thing- a hunting platform driving down main street; 

A mini big foot built from a Suzuki Samurai Body; 

Jefferson County Football Warriors play at 6 pm.                                                     

Confederate Soldiers march for a war that has not ended (yet)
I wave my Confederate  Battle Flag at the
boys, in the alligator hunting platform.

Memories of
when I was a hyper kid
jumping up and down for parades.
I am carried to the festival by
smells of fried Mullet, 

 wafting into
 muggy air.
Followed
by the
Sheriff
and Street
Sweepers.

50 States of Reading: Florida-David Kirby

Florida has many authors to choose from.
However David Kirby is a great
poet that more should read, so we are picking
his books to represent this crazy state.  The color for the
state is Crayola Color Pink Flamingo.

David Kirby Links to finding out more about the author.  I am planning to read:

1. The Temple Gate Called Beautiful, 
2. The House on Boulevard Street, 
3. Little Richard the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll... 

I'm Country and That's All Right

Where I am from: Lakeland Florida, Forest Grove Oregon, Longmont Colorado.  All these places have a place in my heart.  I guess I am country but that's okay.  Lets toast to our country boys wherever you reside.

Christmas in Florida

Yard Snow has been ordered and laid onto your green yard. Snow has not fallen from the sky in thirteen years, although Floridians have been hoping for a White Christmas since 1996.
The weather has not changed much since September, it still is 85 degrees. But there are Convertible Sun Beams, decorated with fir wreaths in their front grills.
There are a collection of classic cars resting in front of the Baptist Church.
Lights. Lights. Lots of pretty, sparkly incandescent light.
"Parades! What would Christmas Season be without them?", says Bartow, Lakeland, Winter Haven members of the Chamber of Commerce.* Florida's decorative spirit is in high swing.

* (My wife is responsible for her school's float, appearing the Bartow Parade tonight.)

Curmudgeon Bookstore Cedar Key Florida

It's 12:01 pm. It's a dreary day full of gray clouds and damp palms, a day to be reading a favorite book, a day that is not often felt around these parts.

Housed on the corner of Main Street in Cedar Key Florida, next to the pizza shop, and across from the Heron Fish-House, lies the Curmudgeon Bookstore. The owner, Dick Martens is a pure curmudgeon. A curmudgeon defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.
Dick Martens is a conservative and has a point of view; loaded, and ready to be fired.
There will be pleasantries shared as long as you don't speak off the cuff and try to weasel in some liberal remarks. Then by duty called, he must debate with you, and you may leave offended. But don't get your feathers up, for he is well read, and even if you are liberally viewed, he will sharpen your wits. He loves sharing his favorite books with customers on little yellow sticky-notes. When Customers buy a book from Mr Martens, they know that the book is worth their time in reading.
Also check out his blog Curmudgeonalia.

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the positive commentary, but my preferred definition of a curmudgeon is that offered by Jon Winoker:
CURMUDGEON: (noun)
one who abhors disingenuity and hypocrisy, and has the temerity to say so, often recasting unpleasant facts in a droll manner.
Dick Martens
Curmudgeon in residence
Curmudgeonalia(book store,Cedar Key)

---

I'LL be there! Will You?

Roller Derby is back in the Tampa Area check them out on October 10th. You probably will dig it good; Really good.

Tuesday: News from the Southern Hemisphere

Southern California’s Distinction Gallery is celebrating their 5-year anniversary this month with a solo show of Andy Haynes' new work: The Journal Entries of Changing Tides.

Good Cuban Food Worth the Drive in Masaryktown

Florida attracts dreamers; People who come to live out there dream in the Sunshine State.

One thing that many people ask is, "Now, where you from originally!" This is not said as an insult. It is said because there are so many people from so many different places, that we like to know where y'all are from.

Czechoslovakians were one group that came and settled central Florida.

They came to central Florida in 1927, and planted saplings, at first they grew well. But in the winter of 1926-1927 there was a freeze. The saplings died out. The Czechoslovakians replanted. But again in 1927-1928 there was a second freeze. Many dreamers left for new places.

But the people who staid decided to raise Chickens, for chickens do not usually freeze. By 1970 there were two thousand chickens for every person. Masaryktown became the Egg Capitol of Florida. One place that remains of this Florida Egg Capitol is the Masaryktown Hotel.
Violet Cimbora reflected that the Hotel was the place to be in the Brooksville area:

We danced at the hotel.
We did the beseda that like our square dance.
On festival days we wore costumes.

Masarkytown (Cafe) Hotel still remains but now it serves Good Authentic Cuban Food.

To find the Masarkytown Hotel

Take US 41 to CR 574 A (turn at the OLD Gas Station now a Circle K) or
take SR 50 to US 41