Gulf Coast Journal with Jack Perkins; 311; Jack's Picks

This W.D. your production is exclusively brought to you through a generous grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation that is. Building strong community leadership partnership and down the be. Dear Journal as we look forward to beginning our fourth year of this program we stop and take a look back at the past three years we've had a lot of fun met some fascinating people discovering some beautiful places been inspired by some courageous lives. So we thought we'd taken put a few of these memories together in a program that. Well if it were a record album it would be called the best of selecting a best is subjective.

And in this case it's very personal. The selections are stories that have been my favorites. I put them together in four categories. Beginning with. Muse. On our very first broadcast. We came here to the banks of the Makah river to this quaint corner of Old Florida east of Venice called Snow haven. We came here for the same reason hundreds of people come here each Thursday in season. The reason. The banjo. Was. A couple dozen old time banjo players gather here each week to remind us what music used to be. How. Players are dying and there is nobody to reply prices.

So any young would be banjo players out there want some fun and fellowship. Work hard and long have lots of fun fellowship and one day you might get to be as good as Charlie can Darien. He's been working for 73 years and he's still going strong at age 18. Then there was another musical group or in this case family together. The Richfield plan is a sweet sounding barbershop quartet appropriately named my three sons is known as one or two guys. Bad analogy.

What do you want. In Venice we visited composer pianist arranger Dick Heyman master of jazz composer for several Woody Allen films. For Heimann. How does composition happen. There are two ways. One of them. Is to be seized with divine inspiration. And the other is to her to receive a divine phone call. Where with with a deadline. And a check. You don't get the check and toss done. But you say it here. But quite often here seated at the piano and you get my day your fingers go this way or that and you do somethings have

been developing. One of the things that I always like to say to kids is don't play the music the way it goes. Don't do it do it the way you think it should be do it the way you see it. Around the world. Itzhak Perlman is best known as violin virtuoso master conductor but here he is teacher. Welcome to the Pernell music program. PMP. And

exclusive music camp for gifted young musicians age 12 to 18. When these young people meet the chalk for the first time they are meeting the world's most renowned violinist. Are they intimidated in awe. Well I don't they probably are for about. Three seconds. Composer Gwyneth Walker came to the Gulf Coast. In the afternoons I would take a little walk around beach. And different poems started coming to me. Her dream to create for music lovers of peace to showcase two decades of choral excellence. By Sarah soda's beloved. Key chorale. When a composition played as the centerpiece of the chorales 20th

anniversary concert. We had this wonderful experience of bringing alive for the first time. These notes that are absolutely worthless on the page until someone brings them alive inside. And out as they say on Monday Python for something completely different. An old fashioned washboard. Leak.

Betty Kamora aka washboard woman. She didn't get the main because of her laundering methods. She earned it by transforming a closed scrubber into a musical instrument. To be a little discerning. Not everybody welcomes it. He is generally does. Every third Sunday of the month a group of friends gather to enjoy the instrument that time forgot. They are the Minnesota Theatre Organ Society bound together by the music and the desire to preserve it. And understand what is going stop here.

They say Ron Driscoll belongs in Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I can't I can't even imagine. They call him dual sax rah for his phenomenal ability to play not one but two saxophones at the same time. I've got my two other extremities. I enjoy doing that and I'm not doing it just to show off on it. I just go because I love it. I walk around my house all day. Plan plan to two horns with melodies running through my mind or playing the melody because it just feels so great. Late afternoon yesterday. John paycheck and a few friends formed the original drummer circle seven years ago at a private part of the beach. Nearby residents didn't appreciate the loud drumming so the group moved to which permanent home on Siesta keys public beach. And they have been welcome there ever since.

We don't really have a lot of ways in our modern society to connect. And this is one way that people can connect and be part of a bigger whole. I can't imagine a better place to move and dance and play. This began with the courts Crystal sand under our feet the sun setting with people from all walks of life. Hi how are you doing today. We met a doctor a surgeon a neuro technologist founder of the your research foundation who not only helps people here. It is after hours gives them something worth hearing. Yes several records jabs by Dr. Herbert Silverstein. We enjoyed catching up with some long time star Rick Derringer.

Eight years after he first picked up a guitar. Rick and the McCoys would record their first number one. Summer of 65. Rick was just 17. Hang on Sloopy. The Beatles song Yesterday out of the number one spot of the chart. What a day. More than 40 years later along the Gulf Coast. Rick Geringer is still singing his biggest hits. Forty years ago he was a teen idol. Today he's still going strong still popular. In an industry filled with one hit wonders even to use in a momma.

Tonight. On PBS. Be nice. To Nice nice nice. His melodies are capturing the lyrics simple and for Bobby Vinton that is a recipe that has lasted so much to his own surprise. Sounds like. Some love. I can't believe they're as good as they are. I mean today they really sound good to me. When I recorded the songs and I had no idea that they would last for 40 years and that they would still sound good to me. You know what strikes me as he is watching you in performance. Your eyes are gleaming as though it was the first time you ever sang roses or happiness. I'm still happy for us even though you've seen it. Two hundred and fifty thousand times in your life. But when I see an audience and I see that look in their eyes that I'm giving them a song that they remember and they grew up to as part of their life and it makes me feel good and I just

I never get tired. My home. Says. It's. Just magic so people love to perform in her hands. And I know. A lot of good music a lot of great musicians along the Gulf Coast I loved all those stories. But if I had to make my choice my absolute favorite and that's the premise of the show. Yes I do. My favorite will a story I loved because the lady I loved. And you will too. She is billed as the queen of the keys and with good reason. When Lech Jenkins Weisner get her hands on the piano she takes listeners on a musical rollercoaster ride. Under her spell of piano displays multiple personalities changing from classical. Jazz.

Gospel. Her own melodic concoction called classical him. All I do it with many I do it a rhapsody in blue and great just like baseball. I don't with clear to low. It is well within my soul to feel like it OK. No there isn't much little that has been seen or done during her 65 year career. She's entertained U.S. troops back in World War Two played vaudeville with legendary performers like Sophie Chuck jammed with some of America's jazz greats. When songs were introduced two years ago. Everybody knew the song they could sing. Words and melodies right. No one did it all by myself.

Hard to believe this queen came from humble beginnings growing up in an apartment in Harlem with eight brothers and sisters and no piano left memory test. Oh when did you first play the piano. I would think it was wrong. I was about five. What have I heard. I. Could for some reason I could play it. I could find it only two. And they were upstairs had a piano and let her play as often as she might. She used to love to hear me entertaining her because I could play all the little songs that I heard on radio. So she said to my mother you know one day she says if you. Can give. Music lessons because he's very talented I would let her have my piano. And she gave it to me. And that was a first piano I had to start studying. Piano opened up a whole new world for that she learned classical music then

come Sunday at church. She played Gospels and hymns. Then I started playing for the choir and I studied Oregon and I became church organist. And the seed was planted for what would later become her trademark sound. To be the 1940s ushered in World War II. And gave me that her big career break. She traveled the globe with the USO tours and began to reshape her musical style. That was when I decided that I would play popular music. And jazz as we call it. So it went much on my tours around the world entertaining is military. That's what I did. Played the balance and the songs that they all get used to hear orchestras play. During in 1943. She made her first stop in Sarasota.

The town she visited then was much different than the one she calls home now. Well it was. One of those strange times that I was here playing the air force base. The USO tours had shielded her from segregation. So it came as a shock to be told by a bus driver she had to get off because she refused to shit in the back. And when I was getting all visas you know we have a 9 o'clock curfew that you folks in this town and if you don't if you're not off the street by 9:00 that tree is yours. Her memory of that is still as vivid as if it had happened yesterday but it never made her bitter sweet life goes. That's not going to stop me from doing what I'm doing because I'm going to get it done. Her career blossomed after the war she played jazz festivals around the world performed in several off-Broadway hits and shared the spotlight with many well-known entertainers.

MILLETTE returned to Sarasota in the 1980s. Not your average 80 year old by any means. I. Use the whole thing. I don't get paid for that. Dog gone while going to Haiti. She still does concerts and charity events and in her spare time volunteers at retirement centers taking eager participants down memory lane. Here was. Just the meaning. The lyrics are beautiful. What do you want to hear that you've never done. What did I

miss. It couldn't read two words. Regardless of audience or venue size limits performances are so often sophisticated. Fine. May I say live we aim of the key. Your journal. Let us consider now some of the beauties

of the Gulf Coast. Beauty. Is. Along the line like a river downstream. Or upstream around my neck state park. The birds the gators the critters of all kinds. Each year thousands of visitors view my active River State Park much as raccoons do or gators do. But until recently it was impossible to see it as possibly due. Until this sturdy structure of wood and steel cables rose up through the trees like Jack beanstalk nestled among the oak palm hammock the canopy walk away. It's of like a kid's treehouse gone wild. It's designed to provide visitors and researchers with an undisturbed view of plants and animals. When we put this up it was an instant success. That was in spring of 2000. And

since then during season it sometimes accommodates 500 to 1000 people per day. Now the word has spread all over the world but this walkway the only one in the state of Florida is available to the public. There's a lesson to be learned and it is the preserving places like this is vital to us all. And heck for those of us who've never had treehouses let's face it it's just. Plain. Fun. Early one morning just off the highway in South Venice we found the rookery. It's just magical to see these herons who appears to be talking just across. Quite an experience to see. Actually. You don't really appreciate it until you realize how many people from all over

the country in the world come here and stare and take pictures and then you see them publicized in many of the photo magazines and then you go Wow. That's in my backyard. And then I appreciated it. With me. In this enchanted forest beneath that gracefully swaying treetops is something truly spectacular. Something most people never have a chance to see. The lemur. Lemurs are very important because they're the living representatives of the ancient ancient ancestors of all primates. Evolutionists believe these furry wide eyed critters are man's distant cousin.

Supposedly the monkey species are. Higher primates. They're more like us. And these little guys that are called lower primates are simians are actual. Better. They catch on faster. They're very clever they're very curious they're very agile and they're well the reason that they're still in existence is they're one of the most adaptable animals in the world. Think. Of the most. Of the species we have here. They groom each other extensively they huddle together they sleep together they eat together to try to stick close together and they interrupt important interviews together. I suspect. That I'm sorry that was a warning call. One of the things how the ref saw something. Called one so the others would know it to be alarmed as well. Beautiful places and animals. But for me the greatest beauties on the Gulf Coast are the people consider the little town of Laurel.

For much of the 20th century this mostly African-American town was without street lights paved roads or proper drainage. But then along came a beautiful lady who wanted things better for her town and went to work. I was a concerned parent. I thought I was a good parent. I was involved. And when you're involved with your family and your children and you live in a community what follows next is that you're concerned about your community. She took over the local civic association got a new community center build it has her name on it. Now a new playground for the kids. Helped arrange for a new housing. Set up a study center. She changed her community. Beautiful. Beautiful people who arrive at nursing homes with wagons full of wonderful ups who could resist. Today stop playing read. Homer.

Read. The effects. These be Shaun free free puppies and the kids have on the residents Glen Ridge is almost instantaneous and is definitely in pictures. A lovely lovely day. I wish you could see. The success from this type of therapy are well documented but for the children it's the memories of bringing joy that will remain here. So.

So will the president. So will we. Speaking of dogs Hello beautiful people and rescue for now bracing jaws and make greyhounds into loving you and. You realize you spent 22 hours a day in a crate before you know it. And now he's got the whole house to run around and sides. That's. The difference you're making in his life. That feels pretty good. The connection between the greyhounds and their rescuers. Is a special one. Where McCain. Has. The. Chance to stick around man he. Made his grandson.

Look. How kind those eyes are. My wife's always saying those eyes just melt. He's a good boy. The animals in need bring out the best in some people like those beautiful folks who rise before daybreak to patrol the beaches to protect threatened sea turtles. And you have. These small yet significant signs of life and courage the Guardian Angels in mind the Nashe those human allies who die early each morning to serve as Perkel patrol. Volunteers are extremely important. We have about 48 kilometers of beach that we monitor and each section of beach has to be watched at sunrise or shortly thereafter during the nesting season. There are no pay checks or medals for the turtle patrollers. Their reward is part scientific. Part marvel of watching Mother Nature in her prime. There's

nothing more treasured than that moment when you can actually hold nature's wonder. In your. Hand. My. Mother died in the sun. Normally I want them to escape on their role in this case there are so many weeds. Branches in this nest that's why we're fighting so winning trout. Hatching these tiny turtles. First hurdle. There are many more to come. Under the cover of darkness a site that makes it all worth while. The operating number is moving away from shadows down sloping towards the brighter. There very wide ranging and so we

have to leave our business a lot. You just might be found in the Mediterranean Sea. Some day they will return. The turtle has a small magnetic pheromone like a little magnetic chip in its brain somehow or other it stores that information when it returns to now it's coming back to the same latitude as the beach that it has. Go. Out east of McComas we visited a field where some beautiful people in an unusual way are watching dreams come true. So. Good talking. To the untrained eye it might look like an ordinary stable but it is much more in this pasture is a powerful medicinal treatment and one that can be found in a pill or a bottle but that can be found on four legs if you're happy and you know it clap your hands.

This is the Smith Center for therapeutic riding. If you're happy and you know it shout Hurrah. Here children and adults with special needs can improve their physical limitations and quality of life. In a clinic without walls. Yes. It's called hypnotherapy Hippo's Greek for horse. In its most basic sense hypnotherapy is using the movement of the horse to elicit a physical change in a rider with special needs. I can see radiotherapy in 30 minutes but it would usually take me three hours to do in the clinic and it makes my life a lot easier. I don't have to clock so hard to get the child to engage in the activity. I don't have to make it really exciting to want to get them to climb up the stairs or kick a ball or throw something at a target. I just say let's go ride your horse and that's really all it takes. Prescription ride might seem a treatment too simple for complex medical

problems but ask those who have witnessed they'll tell you anything. Is possible in this field. Well once again I have to make a choice. Jack's pick for my favorite story among those we've done on the beauty of places and people. And for me it is an easy choice. It is the beauty of the inspiration. Of one man. This is how Richard Brooks writes his weekly column for the Sarasota Herald Tribune. I'm slowly methodically with the help of his a c. T. Even those familiar with his articles might be surprised to learn the man with the sharp wit and opinionated words goes to such great lengths to

reach his readers. Rich has a l s or Lou Gehrig's disease is the sinister disease that attacks the motor neurons which control the muscles rendering them useless. Which do you remember what your thoughts were when you were first diagnosed. I was afraid. You would. He was afraid that he would miss his boys growing up. More than you. The words sank in. I felt as a mastodon might have felt struggling in a tarpit raging against an enemy that can't be fought. He began fighting the enemy ten years ago at age 43 with his wife Kathy at his side. I guess you grieve.

You're upset you're angry. You wonder why it's happened and then you pick yourself up and you try to go on. At first the symptoms were subtle teasing his golf game taunting his morning run. He was running one day early morning and he found and when he came home he couldn't. He couldn't pick his foot up. Eventually buttons became a challenge. Gravity a pitfall. And the three or so years since being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. I've learned how to fall. I'm ready to give up my erect status. I can still walk haltingly carefully slowly just as a one year old might. Each small setback brings about greater limitations. Rich calls them Nacho's. I think the hardest thing is having the ability to communicate. Or. He can still speak a little.

But we're at a point now where we're going to have to do something else. Regarding communication as he he can't make himself understood and for somebody who communicates as a living that's a very very hard hit. He also has a very sharp wit. And we know people don't understand your jokes. It gets to be very frustrating. When I installed voice recognition software on my computers. I thought it would be like dictating to an efficient secretary or typist. In reality however it's more like playing charades with drunks who have no understanding of the English language. The software has no sense of context grammar or style and so a simple phrase such as e-mails and letters becomes even channels sent letters or in the case of last week females and letters.

Despite his physical limitations Richie has never missed a deadline thanks in part to his health aide. Jared. What do you call your now. How does it work. He yells and I type polls you and your friend. Jared does everything for him. I mean in a lot of ways he becomes his hands he becomes his body. He helps him do the things he can't do for himself. So that he can live a full life although he shares his challenges with readers. This is not a man who wants pity. So it frees us all to participate in this with him without taking on too much of a burden. And I think that's a gift that he gives the whole community. For every lighthearted column there is an insightful one. Like his decision to go on a ventilator.

For me this choice has nearly always been obvious. This is not to say that I haven't had moments of despair but the alternative was never a serious consideration. It's difficult to pinpoint my reasons for choosing life but the most important reason is remaining with my family. You want to keep writing what you can. It is the job of the journalist to write about other people's experiences to tell their stories. But in the case of rich Brooks his life is very good when they look at Rich. You see somebody who is a fighter and who. Has tried to deal with all of this with with grace and with courage. May we all be privileged to accompany rich on his courageous journey for many columns to come. A.

Coming from a state whose highest hill was built by Disney engineers. Perhaps one looked within as the Golden Globe. Here is the crown. No way to time. The early risers earned reward. And then that mystical bone the Bible describes as a vow from the Lord. The primal beat of passion. Of Now. Galloping horses and the plains they roam and the stragglers slowly catching up slowly at his own pace heading home. Bernier's barn for me. Just past one. Where. They say was West when the cabin was let the winter in. But also the view they were right.

We in Florida are blessed with low output but. My. Own throbbing use of Bayside more glaring green. So apropos will bring in my verdant lush. Face of the water. Molten glass. Was silent river green. When you come. Right here. There's somewhere a way but. Here. So here's a toast. To those. Prabal. Those who play and return still in love this go. Poking. Journal.

It has turned out pretty much the way he imagined it. The first promoter in this Gulf Coast John Ringling envisioned it as a magnet drawing artists from all over. And so it has become. Over these three years we've had the privilege of meeting many great artists. Who came to the Gulf Coast fulfilling wranglings mission. But also their own. John Syrie Leicester came from Manchester England to the Gulf Coast. It finds it different. Nathan in Florida you know certainly the location means that you have so many different greens. And sounds I. I don't like paints and green. He likes wildlife. It is a world Master. What I try and do in my paintings is to tell a story and have. More information than the viewer initially believes that that should be seen. So the look into the painting and discover things or there's an air of

mystery there. Were you wondering what the animal or the bird is doing and why it's doing that from New York State came Tom Krause master of fairies elves and wizards. Loved ones are fair game for Tom's foolery. His wife Patty often appears as a mermaid. And daughter Amber was born to be a fairy. Even at all a friend can become a wizard in Tom's imagination here. Natural and natural wizard. Natural guy and Rob. Actually. Tom does not use brush and paint but computer to create his fantasy worlds. I'd like to say to people they get you know don't get hung up in how I do it. You get hung up on what it creates and it's a wonderful magical mix that makes great

sense. Tom Krause used to teach at the Ringling school of art and design. Today young artists there are learning the fastest growing art form computer animation. In fact Ringling grads have worked on nine out of the ten top grossing animated feature film. They spend countless hours working with their hands as. They develop an artist's understanding of color and light. Then it's on to training in traditional animation. Finally to the fanciest Insan of all the computer where they will turn out a senior project. An animated short film all their all allow Beltway parties. Don't bring them to the party. For me it's the fact that I can make something and bring it to life. You know you can make your own character make something totally your own and bring it to life and it moves and it talks and it's got a

personality. You're out in horse country east of Sarasota we found both the creator of one of the most famous pirates lighter pebbles a certain brand of rum. And the artist who had been profitably drawing him for all these years. Don Don uses centuries old techniques and palettes to capture the true essence of the Golden Age of piracy. If I were an artist in 16:50 or 17:00 what would I paint like. What colors would I use. In his sketchbook anyone's image can be pillaged and pirating his friends. His wife Janni. Even himself. In his most famous painting called Forty Thieves five of the pirates aboard the ship are

Don. I am an inexpensive available model. All I need is someone to take my picture and I'll put myself in there. Traveling down to Englewood we found in a small garage another kind of artist Kalmus Fernandez and his wife Maria are glassblowers the Alban's firing at 2200 degrees. Hard hot work to create delicate beauty. I used to do Alattar dive in Venezuela and so my life was in place with the aquatic cave you know see forms and like that. Like the baton exchange in a relay Kalmus and Maria work as a team to keep the glassblowing process moving. She's been very patient and my inspiration my health. Everything. So to be honest without her I want to be. Honest. We having this conversation.

Another hot spot for arch in an industrial park in Sarasota. The bronze art foundry. Testing the works of renowned sculptor. Richard Knox is in charge. These are nonverbal statements of our history. We're all sort of standing on the shoulders of people who came before and the sculpture represents in a certain way a timeless representation of our society and the things we value in it. I don't want to be a starving artist I can be a filmmaker big time filmmaker but a drunk driver crashed into him put him in a coma. He lost muscle control. Now gets around on a bicycle and his art is well different concepts and I don't have total control over it. Don't try to control a little bit. I would hate to use the word Jew but it's a little bit like

the gray and lows happy accidents song. Oh I've seen paintings before he has an accent and I've seen paintings now and I actually prefer the loose looseness that he come up with now and the more the imagination I think is a much better artist than ever. We tracked down another kind of artist working with wood after years in corporate boardrooms Parker converse settled in Sarasota to begin carefully crafting one of a kind rocking chair. What makes one of your chairs so special. First of course it's the aesthetic. It's the it's how it appeals to your eyes. When you walk into a room and you look across the room it's the first thing you see. But seeing from afar is not enough. You have to sit in it feel its soul to understand why it goes against the grain of any ordinary rocker. You name each of your chairs.

How does that happen. Some of them are quite sweet and easy to work with. Others are difficult and challenging. Once upon a time far from the corporate boardroom lived a man who found happiness in. A dusty. Board. Room. And then there's Jack now and he is so much fun to visit because hey he is fun and be. Look at the characters he's got. You're on the outskirts of Sarasota. Jack's exaggeration of the mundane comes to life. Art should be fun. It should be important it should tell a story. And it should be for the people. He celebrates the ordinary the real ordinary good old American characters who in his mind come to life in Cholly for example or to all folks that are retired. I worked 40 years on a job and now traveling around the country in a camper. And so

sitting there and doing their thing and. They're real. Capturing the real. But making it your own is the art of the planner. Artists who filled the streets of Venice one day. As another time. Those streets were lined with plastic pigs painted by various artists. As along the Sarasota waterfront the gathered works of worldwide sculptures on display. Jack peck my favorite story among all those we've done on arts and the artists. Well this one is completely biased. As a photographer I choose a photographer or as far as Florida is concerned the photographer.

Because. It is in New England but even here on the Gulf Coast autumn brims with color. But none of these colors tamps. Photographer Clyde butcher when faced with Mother Nature's vibrant palette he turns color blind eye. Color and very distracting. As an art form I like I can I say I feel that color is a duplication of nature and black why is an interpretation just footsteps from civilization. Clyde discovers treasures most of us at times trapped humans miss. Ok perfectly composed scenes that are untamed unspoiled untouched. One of the problems with photographers is they have a preconceived idea of what they want to

photograph. If you just go out and let the world come to you you'll find it wherever it is. His cameras are oversized look antiquated and so does his art. Each scene seems to have been taken before amusement parks and malls and condos took over Florida. One of the crucial things about my work. Is that people realize things are still there. I've had people think that it's all gone. Also we couldn't see this anymore. It's harder to find. It used to be but there's an awful lot of native pristine places in Florida. Really it's only half. The purpose of his vast landscape art is twofold to excite us about our natural surroundings and toucher conservation all NERV

some of the areas of Florida have improved an environment this summer. He proved every time you put in a Samms or home depot I asked him more acres gone. His panoramic scenes back in the viewers. I really feel it. My work. Describes a feeling of nature. Not a. Picture. When you. Buy large images you feel like you walk into them. That's what I want. I'm. 62 year old. Butcher has been called the actual atoms of the Everglades.

The title he wears respectfully but he quickly points out distinct differences between their works. But we do need the light don't need the light as life is mostly photographed things where spaces. It was use long lenses I use short lenses. But the quality of the printing the light that's what people see it's the quality. They're not the compositions in college. Clyde studied architecture ironic. One might think for a man now so passionate about stifling urban development but not so says he. If you look at my work there are very architectural spatial. I try to create spaces so you can feel like you're there. Space is sacred in and out of his photographs. People deliberately absent.

There's a lot of times I'd love to have people to get scale but when you put a person in you're taken the viewer out of the picture. That person is in that space that's his space. If there's no people in it then you can be I can be his space or space. People are scared. Sharon Clydes living space too. He and his wife Nicky live in the heart of the Everglades in a place called loose screw sanctuary. This story goes you have to have a loose screw to live there. Most of our neighbours walk. Four feet. I would. Have never guessed in a million years I live in a swamp. In the Belly of the glades plied uncovers beauty not found on a mountain or in a canyon. The Everglades is a living creeping crawling organism. It's full of life but it's strange though you can't always see it but you can feel it.

Lies are all tricks. When asked if he considers himself an artist or an environmentalist first he answers yes I rather be called an educator almost than a photographer or an artist. If you want to call my work art that's fine. But I really do it to get people inspired about the environment because it's so precious and so easy to destroy. So that to me. Judging by the book signing line at a recent gallery exhibit his inspiration appears to be contagious. Majority of people move to a city to get away from nature to protect themselves from the bears and skate holes and all that stuff. But in their heart they really miss this because this is where you can nourish your life. This is where you came from. He often visits the Gulf Coast to sail and re nourish his own soul.

Even here Clyde expose's familiar landmarks in a new light. Everybody is just too fast today. Everything's going too fast. And hopefully my work slows people down. The beaches are beautiful. Bayaka state park is really great. There's there's all kinds of little intimate spots here on the Gulf Coast that people can visit and enjoy photographing just canoeing beach. But sometimes you have to go a little slow. Into a tragedy in his life to slow down his once hectic pace. In 1986 his teenage son Chad was killed in a car crash. Clyde turned to the Everglades for comfort and discovered that it too could be lost just as easily. We have a tragedy in your life you to go positive or negative. Which is kind of like photography. Positive and Negative go positive. You make something

worthwhile in his life. And I thought that was really important to. Make something good out of something it was bad. It brought the family closer. Today his daughter Jackie owns the gallery in Venice which is devoted to her father's work. Housed in the back is Clyde's pride and joy. A sixteen hundred square foot dark room. This is like playing the score of the music. This is where it's what you do in the field translator piece a tune to misspeaks paper several enlargers helped produce the prints ranging in size from 8 by 10 inches to five by eight feet wide. Secret weapon is his darkroom assistants who combine chemistry with artistry to help achieve his vision. The negative that. Clyde will capture out in the field is only part of the whole journey.

So here in the dark room we need to bring to fruition the rest of the story. By printing out a particular photograph in his. Taste to style what he's trying to accomplish is very simple. You might say it's printed and. The most important tool that we have in here is our imagination. When I came to Florida. I didn't see any before. There was just nothing to photograph. Now there's so much of the time to do it. Colorful character colorful life but by butcher's powerful message is as simple as black and white. Your journal a lot of the stories we do are just

for. Fun or on. A. Piece of. Cake isn't that. I tell the people on our tour before we leave here and you're here on a tourist attraction we're going on a guided tour partway through that tour you will be coming to. Town. Are you ever seen anything like that. Are Like a rolling parking meter. Oh. There's no place to put a coin. I think it looks like a musical note. From the side. We've got to wonder whether. The wako was billed as a military aircraft back in the 40s at the airport in Venice. We found one use these days just for fun. Any pilot will tell you there's something liberating about flying a small plane just to use the plane and. All that space. And if that small plane happens to be a fighter plane an open

cockpit. Let's not just liberating. Hillary. At the same Venice airport. We looked into another way of flying. With a pilot who doesn't figure that being 80 should stop him from doing what he likes. He is Stanley Sagawa and he flies most every day. And when Standley takes his plane for a spin he literally takes him for us. So. Did I mention that Stanley is an aerobatic stunt pilot. Here at 4000 feet. Age is just a number. The state of mind. This would be the hardest question of the day. Why do you do this.

Well I think guess just to stay young and something that I enjoy doing. I couldn't fly I don't think I'd want to stay alive. Really. These next Flyers don't run quite the same risk. In the shadow of the county landfill. We found a special little airfield when you come off the south this is where a group of some 200 radio controlled plane enthusiastic spread their wings since they are the RC flyers of Venice. There are no obstructed power lines or buildings to hit. No noise ordinances no neighbors. Just. Runways. Soft landings and wide open sky. Kind of get in the zone. I'd say you know there's a Zen to it. When you're out there and you're you know flying the airplane around you you almost put yourself in it. You know everything else gets shut out. And when you're putting in a good

flight it's it's a very serene experience. We don't mind. The. Get it sorted is gone. Speaking of serene experiences just off Highway 41. Boris SocGen takes people on plastic Italian gondola rides and a long gun. Sometimes people when they find them. From Russia from Ukraine they ask me oh can you sing I. Sure but it's like the French fries in the Italian restaurant instead of spaghetti right. Other waters other paddlers the Sarasota scholars. Look up up up up right here. Chin up spend some time with this team and you quickly learn that rowing is more than a

redundant motion of mechanics. It's a near perfect synthesis of physics. For three. Years. Now. Sculling is graceful performance art. Symphony of fiberglass and 1:56 coordination and compromise. My. Boy. My. Boy. And these type of lessons that you learn in life that you can work harder and you are going to fail. And if you do fail it's the journey that's important for you. Here if you fail and you're dead. Make believe. Dave. Hall is one of the fastest growing experience for the world. There are several types of play recreational tournament professional even World Championship. Businesses and church groups often gather to play and build

teamwork. It started with people on a farm or out marking trees and cattle with an oil based paint. You put a couple of guys out in the woods you know with some sort of projectile someone's going to end up getting shot. So why would anyone want to put themselves in harm's way. Intentionally. The rush of sliding into a bunker you've got thousands of bowl colored bowls coming at you at once. And the miracle of not getting shot is like unbelievable stuff. It's just an adrenaline rush once that ref says go go go go go. You hit it. You. Golf. We checked in on America's pastime and some well let us say veteran players. Among a legion of softball league just one group stands out. It is the most successful teams in the state but to join this squad you need not only softball skills and a quick wit.

Most importantly you need a birth date preceding the great stock market crash. Site Joe's right job good idea what idea. They are known as the senior friendship centers. Seventy five plus keep. A bunch of older guys who can really play softball. This group of mostly Midwestern transplants won its first national title last year in St. Petersburg. Not bad for a group started just two and a half years ago. Good. I'm just going to guess it runs here. Yes it's great to have. Another veteran Tito Gaona 25 years on the trappings for the Ringling Brothers Circus. Over one million flying somersaults. All that and you can look pretty young. OK. To what do you attribute that. It's just flying keeps you young does you know. They said don't stop your rust keeps him young and some of his students. The day we were there Tito was teaching three people

each of them over 65 the show business the way Kito sees it. Climbing the ladder to the flying preppies is an adventure for kids of all ages. Just follow my instructions. The adventure includes setting goals building confidence getting jolts of adrenaline. Best of all having fun all arch you fall back to the bar for PTG the trap he she feels has turned back the clock forward. When. Did it occur to you that this isn't really supported by Medicare. It never occurred to me. No. Sarasota and Venice for years were home to the circus and that tradition continues with the latest generation learning the circus arts. Here under the big chop just off Tamiami Trail is home. To the sailors circus

dubbed the greatest little show on earth. A circus is a youth circus. It's an after school program. Students from third grade through 12th grade come here every day after school. Teach them. Circus Acts. After 55 years this youthful circus is all grown up. In 2004 it became part of Sarasota County police athletic late director Patti Campbell says the program prepare students. For far more daring and. Than. Tight rope and crapy. Once they leave this program. I feel better as adults because they know what hard work is all about. They know what failure is all about. They learn teamwork that they learn self-discipline and there's just so many things that they learn through this program. That is what really taught. Us.

Which brings us to my favorite story in this category. Jack's pick and we have a drumroll from the search for the story about fun things to do on the Gulf Coast involves a circus dreams of one man. At last after 15 years come true. Long before TiVo iPods laptops the American circus entertained America moving from town to town bringing amusement culture and education to the masses. Over the years the circus landscape has changed its allure as the only game in town diminished. But one man has committed nearly three quarters of his life to keeping memories of that slice of Americana alive. I realize the circus traveled all about a hundred cars and about twelve or fifteen hundred employees. Occasionally it was how 16:00. And.

They. Then about a hundred and sixty wagons and loaded every day. The show moved every day. This unassuming man who can often be found lying down on the job is Howard Tibbles successful businessman master model builder and afficionado of the American circus. I think circus's was an educational institution even though they may not have known that such. The American public was starving for information. They were enticed by the size of animals the type of animals. In the circuses and asked them to cause most of the cities didn't have zoos. The surrogates brought their own zoo with them. Howard has spent more than 50 years recreating a miniature version of the authentic Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus precisely as it appeared in the 1920s and 30s.

It's an awe inspiring exhibit that can only be truly appreciated in person. How many individual pieces are modeled here. All right Jack. I have no idea. Catch. On. I would guess forty or fifty thousand pesos something like that. I don't pieces that include three thousand circus visitors. Fifty five train cars. 900 sets of silverware and dishes and food. And seven thousand folding chairs for spectators to sit on under the big top. My goal when I started to duplicate Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey and their attendance here. As tall as I can be and as part of that. Is a team tedious goes with season. Like. Life. All of this carefully crafted to precise scale all of it checked and rechecked for accuracy against nearly one million historical circus photographs. All of it created by one man.

From people balloon balloons to 7000 folding chairs and actually fold a mission on a disrespectful question Howard. But. Are you saying. Probably not. And I'm always looking for stuff you know trying to find out more. It this if I want the names are passing your Karlov blanket. They use. The fantasy of running away and joining the circus never tempted young Howard. But the logistics of its perpetual motion consumed him. I come from a family of engineers but I was always around mechanics always around logistics. In fact you can move this much more quickly as most people. All that was done the horsepower all muscle. It's a flavor of America's long ago. Also gone are the days this tiny circus pulls up stakes. The exhibit now has a permanent home inside the Tibbles learning center. The 30000 square foot state of the art facility is the latest addition to the john and Mable Ringling complex in Sarasota.

So that was kind of the headquarters for that here. So it's kind of poetic justice I guess. This model is going back to being the town where most of the originals are right. The elaborate replica covers more than thirty eight hundred square feet. The real life version would have covered almost 20 acres. Another discrepancy between the model and the real McCoy is the main Ringling refused to give young Howard the rights to use the name. So I. Make that sound better by using Howard Brothers which is much shorter they're running rather more shows. Therefore the same about two years and printing. Make a positive out of it I get it right. And does his wife Janice make a positive out of a hobby that could be construed as a negative when Howard enough first married he had the circus sat in another museum and we went up there to claim it. I called my mother one day on my farm and I told her I said Mother I can't.

I married a man who left my house. That. Day. How much money. Has been put into it. I have no idea. You don't want to know. Your wife doesn't want to know. You don't want your wife to know. Inside one of the ticket wagons I am told that there is a man sitting there with a typewriter in front of him and an adding machine beside him and a money drawer and you pull up the money drawer and there are little dollar bills in there and there are tickets. Nobody will ever see them. I know that's all I care about. But no one will see it. I don't care. That's part of the mysticism. They didn't see it but they've been told about it. They're going to say we didn't see it but they say it's their drawers that we're missed. OK. So what's wrong with that circuses part mysticism. Which is more compelling the mysticism of America's traveling circus or the mysticism of one man's unrelenting pursuit

never finished. It's just marvelous that someone. In our day. And our time. Has the patience and love. To preserve a heritage that we are carrying on. Jackie Leclaire and Dolly Jacobs both grew up on the spectrum. Both had famous clown fathers the great Jacqueline Clair and Lou Jacobs both carried on the family legacy. Jackie as a clown. You know everybody wants their daddy dies. And thank goodness he wasn't a high diver. Dolly as an aerialist. My father always said he was born with a funny bone. And so I say well I must have had a feather somewhere because I always wanted to fly. Both were farmers listened as their parents told vivid stories of the great Kennedy era. Jackie even has a few of his own. He was born and raised on the circus lot. He was actually living City traveling. And when you realize the day before there was nothing here but grass and dirt and stone

and all of a sudden this whole thing sort of grew and enveloped. And guess what. Tomorrow it was all gone. Isn't that marvelous when things like that are right back. Walking down memory lane with two seasons circus performers is as exciting as sneaking into the show without a ticket. Right here is your father Jack Leclaire. Oh yeah. And then right next to my father Lou. Oh well you know that's a good thing because I understand they were really good friends. They were very good friends. It took more than a thousand working men to unload the circus crane hold the equipment to the circus grounds and set up the circus tents and safely housed hundreds of animals. Take care of the animals and tackle them because they had a much more difficult time finding another trained animal than they would have performed.

So if he ever got up and said it's either me or the horse that they will in front of me or the people would come to the lot very early because they wanted to see everything short so the side show was open all day long it was what we call in our business a crime show and it went on and on and on because that's where they made the money. But ladies and gentlemen the greatest show on earth is coming into the Ringling. Isn't that marvelous. Look at that. Bring a lot of memories back. I get chills when I look at it I see all my family of the past. Very sad in a way you just wish you could kind of bring them back to life again and this whole thing would be real. And I would fade right into it and become one of their little fingers and everything would be great again. Fifty years ago the circus gave its last performance under the big top. 50 years later it's magical era borderlines thanks to the unrelenting

passion of one man a passion that will never be complete but trying to tell a story. Really this is a story about. The greatest recreational. Entertainment thing it ever just. Ladies and gentlemen children of all ages. Step right up to the Howard Brothers Circus. You really have to see it to. Do.

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