Inkwatu

St. Petersburg 2010 Antiquarian Book Fair

Hilton Kean Jones — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:30:04 +0000

There’s one more day of the 29th Annual Antiquarian Book Fair at the St. Petersburg Coliseum (floridabooksellers.com/bookfair.html). It’s only $6 for the day–$5 if you pick up one of the many coupons around town. If you enjoy books, especially books from your childhood or books you remember seeing in your grandparent’s home libraries, this is an event for you.

Aside from the books, themselves, two things that stood out for me were the sounds of many different regional accents and the generally hushed quality of the entire Coliseum.

The accents were definitely there since there were bookdealers from Alabama, California, Connecticut, DC, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and–of course–Florida!

I slowly walked the entire Coliseum several times, just enjoying the libraryesque atmosphere and listening to voices. It was so musical. All those accents. I was especially fond of the New Englander inflections. Don’t hear those much down here.

From the Tampa Bay area alone, there were a large number of booksellers–I really didn’t realize we had this many, locally:

Art Around the Clock,
Best Books & Rich Treasures,
A Book Legacy,
Books To The Ceiling,
Camelot Books,
Arthur H. Minters Bookseller,
Miracle Estate Sales,
Vivian Moore Bookseller,
Old Tampa Book Company,
Griffin Bookbinding, and Griffon’s Medieval Manuscripts, Inc., both of which were part of the Inkwatu post, Wilson’s Bookworld, and of course
Lighthouse Books, covered in Inkwatu’s Lighthouse Books. I’m not sure of Mr. Michael Slicker’s responsibilities with the St. Pete Antiquarian Book Fair, but I suspect he’s very active in the organization.

Check out the entire list of participating booksellers at the webpage given above (floridabooksellers.com/bookfair.html) to find small, independent bookstores near you. Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble are fine and have their purpose, but these people need our support for it is they who find, restore, and preserve the gems that we can buy from them. As you look through the list of dealers, you’ll notice the abbreviation, ABAA. That stands for Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (www.abaa.org).

I don’t seriously expect you to read the following list, but glance through it at all the different types of store specialties represented at this show:

12th to 16th Century Illuminated Manuscripts, 19th & 20th Century English & American Literature, African American, African Diaspora History, Agriculture, American Historical, American Literature, American Revolution, Americana, Americana (South), Lesbian/Gay, Anthropology, Antiquarian Theology, Antique and collectible maps and atlases, Antiques, Appraisals, Architecture and photography, Art and Print Reference, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Art of the South, Art, Autographed books, Autographed Children’s Books, Autographs, Automotive, Aviation, Baseball, Bierce, Big Little Books, Bindings, Biography, Boy & Girl Scouts, Caldecott & Newbery Award Winners, Calligraphy, Canadiana, Cartographic Reference, Catalogues, Chess, Children’s Literature, Children’s Books, Children’s Series, Children’s Illustrated, Church History, Civil War, Civil War & Presidential Autographs & Documents, Classic Fiction, Collectible Paperbacks, Colonial Americas, Cook Books, Counter Culture, Designer Binding, Detective Fiction, Disney and Modern Firsts, Documents & Prints, Early Printed Books, Economics, Engineering, English & American Literature, Ephemera, Exploration & Voyages, Family Bibles Restored, Fantasy and Mysteries, Fine & Leather Bindings, Fine Art Books, Fine Hand Bookbinding, Fine Prints, Firearms, First Editions, Fishing, Florida fiction, Florida History, Florida Non-Fiction, Floridiana, Genealogy, Golf, Graphics, H. L. Mencken, Hemingway, History, Horror, Horse & Dog Sporting, Horticulture, Hunting, Illustrated & Color Plate Books, Judacia, Law, Leather Sets, Literary First Editions, Literature (Modern), Literature in Translation, Literature of the South, Little House Books, Manuscripts, Maps, Maritime History, Mathematics, Medicine, Methodism, Michael Hague, Military History, Miniature Books, Modern Illustrated, Modern Original, Mystery, Native American, Natural History, Natural Science, Nautical, New England History, Out of Print Scholarly, Outlaw, Periodicals on Art, Philosophy, Photographica, Photography, Photo-plays, Poetry, Polar, Pop Ups, Postcards, Press Books, Psychology & Medical, Railroads, Rare & Unusual, Religion, Science Fiction, Science, Sets, Signed & Inscribed Books, Slipcases, Small Press, Southern, Southern Americana, Southern Authors, Southern Fiction, Southern History, Southern Literature, Southern Regional, Sports, Steinbeck, Suspense, Tasha Tudor, Technical, Tennesseana, Tennis, Reformation, Theology, Tolkien, Transportation, Travel and Exploration, Typography, U.S. Coastal History, Visionary, Voyages, Western Americana, Whaling, Women Writers, Yachting, and Zane Grey.

Amazing, isn’t it. My own loves are in there: children’s series (stuff like the Wizard of Oz, The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, Doctor Dolittle, and World War II Flying Ace novels) and ephemera. Ephemera, literally, means “things that transient,” in this context, posters, illustrations, postcards, tickets, sheet music…things that are very much a product of their time. The Inkwatu post, Vintage Sheet Music Covers, has images of some in my collection and Music From Another Era has some from my sister’s collection (that link opens to her own website). The Inkwatu post, Vintage Florida Postcards presents part of the postcard collection of a good friend, Fran Sims.

If you have the chance and this kind of thing interests you, take in the last day of the Book Fair on the 14th. If you have to miss it this year, there’ll be another next year about this time of the year. And…be sure and support your local, independent bookseller throughout the year!

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Tampa’s Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang and the Jade Buddha

Hilton Kean Jones — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:17:09 +0000

Every week/weekend in Tampa Bay has a lot of activities, but this weekend has more than most that fit my tastes. One you don’t want to miss is the enormous Jade Buddha for Universal Peace at the Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Town and Country (that area of Tampa on the west end of Hillsborough Avenue).

All of the pictures in this post, and the video at the end, are of my visit there yesterday. I went with a friend and we both enjoyed ourselves. It’s like stepping out of the stream of obligations and stresses, just for a little. I recommend going early in the week because the Buddha will only be there through March 14th.

I’d been told about the event by another friend who had read Jessica Balanza’s article in the Tampa Tribune. The address of this article has changed twice, so I want to quote some important information in case it disappears completely; she says:

Valued at $5 million, the precious stone has been making its way around the world to allow people to take in the size and rarity of the statue. The tour began in 2009 and is expected to last several years before the statue makes its way back to its permanent home at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia.

The Buddha, which arrived Tuesday after a stop in Orlando, will be unveiled at an 11 a.m. Saturday ceremony. Other days during the stop the public can arrive as early as 5 a.m. to check out the statue. The Buddha will then head to Sugar Land, Texas, before making its way back to the Sunshine State for an April 9-18 stop in Miami.

There is detailed information about the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace, its tour, and its permanent home in Australia at jadebuddha.org.au/en/.

The people at Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang, the Town and Country Buddhist monastery that is hosting the Tampa exhibition of the Jade Buddha, are very kind, very welcoming. If you’ve never been to something like this, please don’t hesitate to go. You’ll feel comfortable–everyone there speaks English as well as Vietnamese. The Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang website, www.phapvienminhdangquang.com is only in Vietnamese, but if you use a browser such as Google’s Chrome or a translation page such as Yahoo’s Babelfish (babelfish.yahoo.com/), you can get enough English words and sentences to guess at what’s intended. (Accurate computer translation of any language has a long, long, long way to go!!!)

There is plenty of parking at Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang which is at 5607 Town N. Country Blvd., Tampa, FL 33615; 813-317-4160; map. The people of Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang are serving food, both free and for a small donation, in case you get hungry. It was the best soup I’ve ever had–no exaggeration!

Also this week (Friday, the 12th through Sunday the 14th) is the 29th Annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair at the St. Pete Coliseum. See floridabooksellers.com/bookfair.html for all the details.

Friday, March 26th, through Sunday, March 28, there’s another “annual”: the 15th annual Philfest (www.pcfitampa.org/philfest/philfest.html and www.pcfitampa.org/philfest/philfest2010/philfest2010.html) by the Philippine Cultural Foundation (www.pcfitampa.org/. Philfest will be at the Bayanihan Arts & Events Center (www.bayanihanartscenter.org) at 14301 Nine Eagles Drive, Tampa, FL 33626; 813-925-1232; map. I’ll be there, reporting for Asia Trend Magazine (www.asiatrendmagazine.com) and Inkwatu.

Please take a second to watch the video below which is just a slow pan around the grounds of Tampa’s Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang Buddhist monastery and the Jade Buddha exhibition. Also, please check out this blog post, Illuminating the World in Peace, by friends, Say and Bee Lee, on their visit to the Jade Buddha exhibit. Their post has even more photos of more statues, some that I missed completely.

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Organic produce and fresh fish shopping in St. Pete.

Hilton Kean Jones — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:24:59 +0000

Comments are often where the most interesting content is in a blog. I especially enjoy comments which are questions such as a recent one that asked how to find good produce locally. It prompted me to create an answer, which I posted as an answering comment, that summed up my favorite places for local produce. Because many people don’t read comments, for whatever reason, I’ve decided to repost my summary, here, as a separate little post. Hope you find it useful. Here it is…

If you’re interested in fresh produce you definitely want to make it to the Saturday morning market. Here’s their website, www.saturdaymorningmarket.com/, a map, and some pretty pictures I took at the market: German bread, pastries, and very fresh fish and Saturday Morning Market.

Midweek, my favorite places to buy fresh produce are City Produce, any day, and Gulfport Fresh Market on Tuesdays.

For very, very fresh seafood, I recommend Island Seafood Market and Bistro.

There are other markets and specialty shops–too many to easily mention–but, the above are my usual produce and fish shopping haunts. For more possibilities, visit the Index page of Inkwatu at inkwatu.com/index/ and look under the Food category.

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Romanesco

Hilton Kean Jones — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:17:49 +0000

Taken 3/6/10, St. Petersburg, FL Saturday Morning Market — don’t forget to click on image and then click again to get to full-screen image.

What an amazing vegetable, the romanesco. I’d never seen one before. Next time I’m at the market, I’m going to buy one to bring home to prepare and eat. This time, I was content just to take a picture of it and marvel at its true fractal geometry. It’s like a science fiction plant to me…not something from this planet.

The St. Pete Saturday Morning Market has increased the number and quality of its organic vegetable booths. If you haven’t been to the market in a while, this is perfect weather for a visit!

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Mount Dora, Florida

Hilton Kean Jones — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:13:43 +0000

OVERLOOKING LAKE DORA FROM LAKESIDE INN
Mount Dora is a small town in central Florida on the edge of Lake Dora. As you can see in the map below, Lake Dora is just one of dozens of lakes, large and small, scattered throughout this area adjoining the Ocala National Forest.

View Larger Map
This past weekend was my first visit to Mount Dora and it definitely won’t be my last. To the question, “What is there to do here?” the answer, quite simply, is “LOTS!” There is so much to do, I’m not going to even try and list the attractions. Just check out the links below. I’ve listed them in the order I found the most useful.

Mount Dora is a small historical Florida village on the shore of Lake Dora that has successfully made itself into an arts and convention center with plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation.

LAKESIDE INN PIER
The central theme in Mount Dora is Antiques: specialty antiques, such as the clock store pictured below, or little malls of high-end shops, or lower end, multi-storied antique shops filled chock-a-block with collectibles, as well as contemporary crafts that fit with the antique mystique.

JUST A FEW OF MANY MOUNT DORA SHOPS

This makes sense, of course, since Mount Dora is, itself, an antique, a little slice of preserved history as exemplified by its railroad station and historic homes.

HISTORIC MOUNT DORA TRAIN STATION

Newer buildings are designed to fit in with the old village look. Even the night spots preserve the theme of weathered quaintness.

ONE OF MANY LOUNGE/RESTAURANTS
Nature cooperates in this effort when birds such as those pictured below make their home in a chimney in downtown Mount Dora. Subliminally, one is reminded of storks roosting on chimneys in old European cities.

NESTING BIRDS DOWNTOWN MOUNT DORA
There’s a fond spot in my heart for any busker because I know, as a musician, that someday I may be playing for tips on a street corner or subway landing myself. New Orleans has jazz saxophonists as street musicians; Mount Dora has harpists. On the sidewalk in Mount Dora was a busker playing electric harp. His name is Rupert Parker and he has a lovely act and style. After hoofing it around the hills, to which I’m unaccustomed, it was such a pleasure to sit and listen to his music.

STREETSIDE HARPIST
This link to Sometimes When We Touch on Youtube gives you a feel for his performances. I plan on buying one of his several CDs from his website at www.rupertparker.com/; I hope you consider doing so, too.

TAKING IT EASY
My mom would have loved Mount Dora, after all, she herself lived for a while in Solvang, California, another quaint, historic town that fashioned itself into a successful tourist destination.

I was a bit disquieted by how thoroughly Mount Dora markets its quaintness. I wondered if perhaps I’d stumbled onto the set of the late 60s British television series The Prisoner, starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan. But…no giant inflatable balls chased me down the street. It was just my overactive imagination sparked by my discomfort with a theme, too consistently packaged for my taste. Mount Dora’s charm makes it an effective tourist destination but, even in my retirement, I prefer living in a funkier, urban environment such as St. Petersburg…

WORLD’S SECOND LARGEST LAWN BOWLING COURT
…or the raw, authenticity of old Florida as embodied in this, now abandoned, roadside orange juice stand on Highway 441 on the outskirts of Mount Dora.

VINTAGE FLORIDIANA
I think, ultimately, even for all the planned activities and shops and man-made attractions in Mount Dora the real draw, the thing that sustains over the long haul is the lake itself. As you play the video below, you can’t help but instantly relax with the bird sounds and, even, the distant sound of the motor boat. This is really what Florida is about.

For browsers that display HTML5 videos:

your browser does not support the video tag
For browsers that display Flash videos:

LAKE DORA PANORAMA

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Mount Dora moss

Hilton Kean Jones — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:00:29 +0000

Mount Dora, FL
Taken 2/20/2010

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Nesting birds

Hilton Kean Jones — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:20:23 +0000

Mount Dora, FL
Taken on February 20, 2010

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Vintage Floridiana

Hilton Kean Jones — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:37:27 +0000

abandoned roadside fruitstand
Mount Dora, FL
Taken on 2/19/2010

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Perk up your sandwich with kimchi

Hilton Kean Jones — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:00:02 +0000

Anything tastes better rolled in a tortilla or layered into a sandwich. That basic truth is helping me to eat more vegetables. I sometimes even find salads tedious to eat, but when I roll them into a tortilla, I love them ever bit as much as an unhealthy burrito.

This post isn’t even a recipe, it’s just a tip based on the above “anything tastes better…” truth: try putting kimchi in your sandwich or tortilla wrap. One of my favorites is a microwaved Morningstar Farms® Chik Patties® Original piled high with Publix cold kimchi (pictured here) right out of the fridge.

Kimchi is pickled, fermented cabbage usually served as a side dish in Korean restaurants. But, you can buy it at Publix in the same section where you usually find things like sprouts, plastic jars of peeled garlic cloves, and various other non-mainstream refrigerated items. It will be in the type of refrigerated area that’s open, not the kind with the closed doors. It comes in mild and spicy. I’d suggest starting with the mild, but you’ll discover that the spicy really isn’t that spicy.

This will work with any meat or meat substitute. In fact, it’ll work in any situation where you might use pickles or sauerkraut…after all, what is sauerkraut, but pickled, fermented cabbage?!

I heartily recommend this tip. It transforms a plain sandwich, gives you extra fiber and extra vitamins, and you’ll discover a new food you’ll love.

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Vietnamese New Years at St. Petersburg’s Phat Phap Buddhist Temple

Hilton Kean Jones — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:29:05 +0000

Two of the most popular posts at Inkwatu over the few years of its existence are Wat Mongkolratanaram — Palm River Thai Temple and Songkran at Tampa’s Wat Mongkolratanaram and memories of Thailand. Wat Mongkolratanaram is a Thai Buddhist temple, but there are many other Buddhist traditions represented in the Tampa Bay area, many distinguished by the national origin of the group represented. The Inkwatu Vesak post examines some of them.

The Buddhist temple nearest my home, however, is St. Petersburg’s Vietnamese Phat Phap Temple (chuaphatphap.org). Yesterday, was the lunar new year (called Tet in Vietnam) which, for Asian and other cultures that follow the lunar calendar, is a major cultural and religious event. I went to Phat Phap to join in the celebration.

The grounds of Phat Phap have been undergoing a tremendous improvement with a meditation garden with statues in an expanded parking area. Much remains to do with this space, including adding sod, but the five new, beautiful, very large statues of the Buddha already form a circle and were honored and admired by the people attending the celebration.

I love all the new Phat Phap statues, but my favorite is the Reclining Buddha (top of post) because it was at the golden Reclining Buddha in Bangkok (pictured left) that I had a profound transcendental experience that led me, eventually, to take lay vows (the Three Refuges) as a Buddhist. The Phat Phap Reclining Buddha is joined by two seated Buddhas (the following two pictures) and a walking Buddha (pictured at end).

The most famous Vietnamese Buddhist monk in America is Thich Nhat Hanh who became famous for his attempts to promote peace during the Vietnam war. He has lived in exile until just recently when he was finally allowed by the Vietnamese government to return for two visits. He founded the Plum Village Meditation Center in France.

However, Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist, which is a different tradition than Phat Phap Temple.

Phat Phap Temple is in the Theravada tradition. Without going into too much detail, the Theravada tradition considers only the earliest Buddhist writing as being in its canon (book of scriptures), whereas other branches of Buddhism–Mahayana (which includes Zen) and Vajrayana (which includes Tibetan Buddhism)–also accept scriptures written later than the Theravada canon.

Despite these technical divisions (akin to denominations in Christianity) all Buddhists believe the same basics. The best, least sectarian, easiest to understand, short source of information on Buddhism, I believe, is by Barbara O’Brien (buddhism.about.com) who also has a good, free newsletter.

Notice in the picture below, the position of the Buddha’s hands. That’s a tradition of hand gestures, called mudras, that are found in both Hindu and Buddhist icons. Here (www.thaiwebsites.com/buddha.asp) are some photos and explanations of Thai Buddhas illustrating some of the Buddhist mudras with links to further explanations.

Not all Buddhas–and there have been countless Buddhas (“Buddha” is simply a Sanskrit word meaning “awakened one”)–are men. There are also women Buddhas. The most important and beloved is Quan Yin (called Quan’Am in Vietnam). Quan Yin also exists in a male form, Avalokiteśvara. I like the fact that the gender of Buddhas is mutable and can take different forms.

I didn’t take any pictures of the interior of Phat Phap temple simply because it didn’t feel right to me to do so since I was only a visitor. I realize that the Vietnamese community, themselves, were happily snapping family pictures inside while the monks chanted in front of the great golden Buddha. But I didn’t want to intrude, so instead, I sat, silently reciting as mantra the final line of the Heart Sutra which you’ve probably heard before: “Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.” A great explanation of this line is given by Thich Nhat Hanh in this (www.purifymind.com/Heart17.htm) extract from The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra.

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!!!

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