Florida Film Festival

Here's the poster for the 2013 Film Festival.

Film.  Food.  Fun.

Catch the latest films.

Mingle with celebrities.

Chat with filmmakers.

Florida Film Festival:

The best cinema.

The hottest parties.

The fabulous food.

Non-stop fun. 




CLICK HERE

to look inside

The Florida Film Festival starts next Friday, April 5, 2013.  Here’s a news print poem I did about it last year.  I took it from an ad.  Here is the poster for the 2013 Florida Film Festival.

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© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

River-of-Grass Beast

This picture is from http://smithsonianscience.org

A monster Burmese Python,

captured in the Everglades,

breaking the state size record,

stretching seventeen feet seven inches,

bursting with 87 eggs.

This thing--monstrous--

A foot wide.

The snake-- under surveillance--

fitted with a radio transmitter,

like a captured spy,

a double agent, a Judas snake.

It’s usefulness at an end.

it was euthanized.

CLICK HERE
to look inside

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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On Tuesday August 14, 2012, there was a story in the Orlando Sentinel about the Burmese Pythons in the Everglades.  I did a news print poem about it, but I didn’t post it because I used another poem that day.

Florida has instituted “The Great Python Challenge” to try to reduce the numbers of these snakes in Florida.  It’s a one-month hunting season for pythons with a prize of $1,500 for whoever kills the most and a $1,000 prize for whoever gets the largest.

Burmese pythons in the Everglades are big news right now.  Senator Bill Nelson was out hunting pythons last week, and Stephen Colbert did a segment about the python hunt on his show this week. 

Old Florida Dining

Jolly Gator Fish Camp.

It’s not fancy.

A small indoor restaurant—

a dozen tables;

an outdoor screened patio.

Watch the birds.

Watch guests departing on airboats.

Savor the silence.



CLICK HERE
to look inside

Biker-friendly dart boards on the patio.

Family-friendly swing-sets in the grassy yard.

Bands on Friday and Saturday nights.

Sunday afternoon blues jam.

That’s dining with a Florida view.

Tourists get theme parks, and condo-hotels, and golf courses.  The locals get places like “The Jolly Roger Fish Camp.  The locals get the better deal.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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Brown Tide at Indian River Lagoon

Algae clobbering
vital sea grass,
in the Indian River Lagoon.

A super-tiny plant, a big name,

Aureoumbra lagunensis—
“brown tide.”

Billions in every quart

of lagoon water,
turning the water brown,

preventing sunlight from penetrating ,

shading-to-death
the meadows of sea grass—

the  foundation

of lagoon marine life—
providing food and shelter.



CLICK HERE
to look inside

The die-off of plants,

devastating to everything—
manatees, wading birds, fish. 

Distressed fish,

swimming erratically,
gasping for air, near death.

The loss of sea grass,

causing lasting harm
to the lagoon.

The  Indian Rive Lagoon stretches along 40% of Florida’s east coast.  Learn more about it at

http://indianriverlagoon.org

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

 

This beautiful artist's rendition of brown tide was done by Joanie Gagnon San Chirico.

Sunset in the Keys

Click Here to Order this poster of Sunset in the Keys

CLICK HERE
to look inside

Sunsets are legendary

in the sub-tropical Keys.

But where to view the splendor

of the final minutes

of the day’s

golden rays?

Key West—

with its street-fair

and rum-soaked

atmosphere?

Big Torch Key?

Isamorada?

Marathon?

Bahia Honda State Park

offers a dramatic view—

the best summer

                                                              has to offer.

 

Florida has so much natural beauty.  And the newspaper says hurricanes will hardly ever happen this year.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

A Toast To Florida Rum

I found this picture at http://identitydesigned.com

August is National Rum Month.
Antigua, Barbados, Cuba,
Jamaica, Martinique, Venezuela,
Puerto Rico
… and Central Florida.

Bill McCoy,

a Prohibition-era rum-runner,
who hailed from Florida,
sailed a schooner
from the Bahamas

Enjoy a Taste of Florida: Rum and Key Lime

to Savannah, Georgia.

Pay real-time homage

at the annual Real McCoy
Bill McCoy Rum Festival
in Daytona Beach.

Today,

several Florida distillers
make artisan rums:
“Wicked Dolphin” in Cape Coral,
“Siesta Key” in Sarasota.



Ah, the demon rum.  When I was beach-bumming in the Caribbean (in my early 20’s), I used to love Mount Gay rum from Barbados.  Rum and Coke—30 cents a glass.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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Alligator Mega-Star

This picture is from www.ryanphotographic.com

Florida’s biggest celebrity,
the American alligator,
famous in Florida,
a man-eating mega-star.

See that “Florida-smile”—

that wide open mouth
filled with pointy teeth—
a gator’s come-hither grin.

You may not see them,

but they can see you.
They are out there;
they are always out there.

When alligators appear

CLICK HERE for info on books
 about alligators

grinning an underwater grin
and looking hungry,
in a blink, it’s over.

 Alligators really do look sinister--their menacing eyes, their demented grin.  The only time I’ve seen one up close is at Gatorland, and that is as close as I want to get.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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Orlando Connects

Coming together.
Networking, connecting,
getting to know each other.

Orlando is a very young city,

at a pivotal point in history—
Florida Hospital’s Health Village,

The upcoming Creative Village,

SunRail, and other great projects.
People here want to be connected.

The community has the capability

to be one of the most significant
metropolitan areas in the Southeast.

Things that make sense

for Orlando
are finally happening.

Orlando has the tools,

the brain power,
and people willing

to take that leap.

It’s an exciting time,
to be in Orlando.

Orlando is a very exciting place to live.  I moved to Orlando in 1995 and I have watched the city grow. The Greater Orlando area has a population of around one million. From the beginning I have said Orlando is small enough to have that small-town feeling, but big enough to be cosmopolitan.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano 

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The Senator

"The Senator" burning

The whodunit

at Big Tree Park is solved.

It wasn’t lightning

or spontaneous combustion

that killed “The Senator.”

A drug user set fire

to the beloved cypress tree.

She needed

some light to see

while she got high.

But, there’s another culprit

in this tragedy.

Seminole County

let Big Tree Park become a haven

CLICK HERE

for drugs and prostitution.

“The Senator” was the most

ancient and majestic cypress tree

in the United States. And we let

our most ancient tree

become the victim of petty crime.

“The Senator” died at the hands of a druggie.

But it also died of negligence.

 

“The Senator” was the name given to a 3,500 year old tree, 125 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 17.5 feet.  It was destroyed by a fire on January 16, 2012.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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