Sarasota After Sundown: Who and Why


So, my name is Serena and I’ve made a blog!

 I mean, obviously I’ve made a blog. The question I’m probably going to get a lot is, “Why did you make a blog, Serena?”

 Well, hypothetical question asker, the answer to that is just one word:

 Callie.

Truly Callie, this is all your fault. I’ve never even considered joining the world of online blogging until you were all “Ever since you moved to Sarasota you never leave the library unless to take pictures, you never talk to anyone but that weird cat lady (don’t listen to her Kait, you’re only a little weird), you never post any pictures you take. You’re basically a hermit, at least make a blog or some s***!”.

 Well, miss potty mouth, I have reasons for all of the above.
A. I’m a recent PhD grad student working on making my dissertation in semiotics into a full fledge freaking book, of course I’m in the library all the time.
2. Kait is also always in the library and is one of the only people who gets it, so of course I talk to her.
And lastly… Well, it’s kind of nerve-wracking to post my stuff, y’know?
But you know what? No one calls me a hermit, not even my big sister. You want a blog? You got it!

 “So what’s gonna be on this blog, Serena?" You may ask.

 Honestly? For the first question, I’m not 100% sure? Some photography, I guess. Maybe some interesting history/symbols stuff I find, definitely some complaining about extending my dissertation by like 500%, probably some nonsensical diary posts like this one, definitely some late night adventures.

 “Which reminds me,” you may say. “Why is the blog called Sarasota after Sundown anyway?”

 Cause I’m a Northern girl living in freaking Florida, okay. It’s hot when the sun is up. I discovered my own secret, livable world of Sarasota after dark. I call it Sundown.

 Anyway, here it is. I’ll be trying to keep it up to date as much as possible. Thanks for reading!

 Love,

Serena

Is Sarasota the Tourist Trap?: aka, Yes But In A Good Way



If you’ve ever been to Sarasota you’ve probably been to the Ringling Museum. If you haven’t been to the Ringling Museum, GO. It’s expensive but totes worth it.  If you haven’t been to Sarasota, what are you waiting for?

So I work at the Ringling, right? I’m one of the assistants in the archives. Basically my job is to receive, clean, and index new artifacts that come through, mainly the paper ones.

Anyway, I was at the Ringling museum last night for Ringling Underground (which is basically a hipster get together the first Thursday of every month but the Summer ones), where they have like live bands and limited access to the grounds, when I heard some college kids (probably art students, let’s be real) saying the Ringling/Sarasota was a tourist trap.

And to that I say YOU ARE WRONG! But also right.


I mean, sure, a lot of old people come to Sarasota for vacation, and sure its got a lot of places meant for… well, for tourists. BUT IT’S SO MUCH MORE!

Just look at the history here, not even the circus stuff! I mean, I found some works in the archives (best place in the word, btw) that talk about the original Spanish settlers and the origins of the town. It was all about the conquistadors and how they treated the natives (spoiler alert: not good), and in one a settler mentioned some stuff about this piece of text the conquistadors (mainly the Ponce de Leon) were looking for that apparently had directions to the Fountain of Youth. IN SARASOTA. Why were the Spanish so obsessed with the Fountain of Youth anyway?

Oh also, fun fact time! Did you know Sarasota was originally called Zarasota, which means “Radiance of Sota”, named by (you guessed it) a Spanish conquistador named Hernado de Soto. Not cocky at all.

Honestly, Florida and Sarasota is kinda weird, which is part of the reason I moved here. Something about the place was calling me.

All of these old works, old buildings, old paintings, old statues, old books kept in temperature controlled rooms, these are what the conquistadors were looking for! It’s us, its our history, its their immortality! One day someone’s going to look at some creepy baby statues and are going to be seeing us, or at least what’s left of us. Our art, our journals, our lives.

And if that’s not cool to you then idk what to tell you.


If you want, follow for more rants!

Love,

 Serena

Some Cool Stuff From Work

So, I work at the archives, right? Dream job, btw.

Anyway, I was going through and scanning some works and these journal pages came up that are super interesting. At least to me.




Here are the scans I did! Basically it sounds like its from some sort of art collector who got a new piece. We don’t know yet the who/when/where but my boss is guessing its from the 20s-30s and its written by someone who worked at the Ringling. Though that’s only a guess. Why it’s so beat up when its only a 100 years old?

But to me the cool part is where the pages cut off. It starts to talk about a set of numbers hidden in the painting! And how they were starting to decipher it! Unfortunately, the pages have a lot of damage after that but GOSH. This is something out of National Treasure (fave movie!). Like, I want to find that painting now, and the rest of this journal. Just imagine!!!

Anywayyyyyyy, I found it cool.

 Love,

 Serena

PUBLISHED AUTHOR HERE I COME (hopefully)

Okay so I’ve got the basics of my dissertation expansion mapped out I think, or at least an idea of where I’m going with the research.

For those who don’t know, the moral focus is on how art and iconography connections with the development of cities, with specific references to Sarasota. I’m planning on expanding it out to be specifically about Sarasota.

I mean for example, the image of the Florentine David is somehow the iconic icon of a Floridian town named by conquistadors and brought to power by an art-loving circus family? Just the basics is fascinating. I love the idea of tracking Sarasota’s influence on the art and the arts influence on Sarasota, particularly with a focus on it’s beginnings.

So here I go! On to research and then to publishing (hopefully)! I’m a weird mix of scared/excited. How would you even say that? Ex-ared? Sca-ited? There’s gotta be a word for that.

Anyway, follow and join me on this journey. TO THE LIBRARY!

 Love,

 Serena

Writing Update: Or, the story of how publishing sneak attacked me



Okay, maybe I spoke too soon?

I’m more scared for this publishing now than excited. It’s just… big. Bigger than I expected?

I mean, all of history is, I guess. But it’s just… there are so. many. statues. IN SARASOTA. AND I’M NOT EVEN AN ART HISTORIAN SO WHY DID I CHOSE AN ART TOPIC?

I just need a starting place, y’know? Something to bounce off besides STATUES AND OTHER ART STUFF.

Found something though, this scrap of a journal just hidden between some pages of a old book about home remedies, of all things. It’s super busted up, but the few words I can pick out are pretty interesting. Might be a lead? Or not?

Ugh. Okay. Back to the manuscripts. I forgot my allergy meds too. The dust is KILLING ME.


Sorry

sorry for the lack of posts, ive been feeling off lately. hard to explain.

.

im losing my mind

Finding Serena Baliff





My name is Callista Baliff. Some of you may know by now that my sister Serena has gone missing. Last anyone heard from her was a week ago, April 19th. The last thing she left was a voicemail to me and a post on this blog.

After the voicemail I called the police (attached below), I knew something wasn’t right. Because she’s an adult they didn’t take her disappearance serious at first. They told me she probably went on a trip or decided she didn’t want to answer the phone. I contacted her college about it, and she missed a few days of classes. I asked her friend Kait Sidhe to go visit her place. No one answered the door, and apparently when Kait tried the door it just opened. No sign of forced entry according to the police, nothing stolen (that they could tell), and everything someone would take on a vacation still there. Credit card, clothes, phone. She left her phone. The police say she might have run away. Yeah, right.

I know her better than anyone. She wouldn’t run away.

When I told the police this they said that I should consider the possibility she left everything and disappeared because she “did something drastic”.

She wouldn’t kill herself either.

I don’t give a fuck what anyone says, she wouldn’t run away and she wouldn’t jump of a bridge or whatever Floridians do when they want to die. That’s bullshit, and anyone who knows her will agree. I mean, the voicemail doesn’t sound particularly suicidal, does it?

If the Sarasota police won’t do shit to find her then I will. She left me the voicemail for a reason. So now I’m in fucking Sarasota, in Kait’s house with her weird cat, posting on Serena’s fucking blog. Here we fucking go.

This is the voicemail she left.



 [Voicemail transcript:]
Figures you’d call non-stop then not answer when I call back. Callie, listen. I don’t have long but I’ve found it. At least, I think I have? I don’t want to jinx it, but I feel so close. I mean, Shelby (sp?) was a bust but— Whatever, I’m gonna change the freaking world here, I just need- …sorry. It doesn’t matter, I’m just calling to tell you I’m figuring it out. I’m not crazy, I know I’m not. Just… keep an eye out, I guess. I think someone is, well, I’m probably imagining it, I haven’t slept but it feels like— [voice mail end]

Any locals know what she talking about? What is Shelby?

Share this post and Serena’s picture and voicemail, tell anyone you know in the area or out what happened, spread the word. Whoever took her is going to fucking pay.

If you have any information, tell me now.

Callie Baliff


(941) 763-5080
CallistaBaliff@gmail.com

I FOUND A LEAD

The Selby Library was a waste of time but I found something at the garden. I was confused at first because it didn’t seem like anything there would be helpful. I was wondering around for almost an hour asking the staff about my sister but no one remembered anything. Then some weird lady walked up to me and asked me if I knew Serena because apparently we look alike.

We really don’t.

But fuck if it led her to find me I don’t care.

She gave me this book on Victorian flower language and said Serena left it and she hadn’t had a chance to return it to her.

I wanted to ask her what her name was or if she knew anything else but she just walked off when I was flipping through the book and I couldn’t find her.
This lady was pretty uninspiring, it wasn’t a face you would easily remember but she had this dead look in her eyes when she was talking to me. It was downright unnerving.

If any of you see some brunette woman working at Selby Gardens please try and get her name. She looked like she was in her forties or something. Wore too much makeup.

Anyway Serena’s book had a note in it. I’ll attach it down below. I don’t know what any of it means but I found something of hers. Something to finally go off on. I thought about giving it to the police but with the way they blew me off last time I think I should follow this myself.

I didn’t know that Serena was so interested in flowers, but it makes sense with all of the semiotics nonsense she was studying. This might have been what she meant in that voicemail, it was the last place she was seen. Some of the shit in this book is circled and checked and I’ll post scans to see if any of you can figure out what the hell it means.

The note in the book is even more fucking confusing because nothing my sister ever looked into ever made any damn sense. These look like lab notes. What is it doing in her flower book? Why would she care about any of this in the first place?

It mentions Myakka, which I found out is the name of some state park that isn’t too far from here. It is outside Sarasota city limits so the police would be too lazy to get off of their asses and drive there anyways. I guess my next move is to head out to the park and see if anyone has seen her.

I have scans of the book and this weird lab note below. Let me know if you have any luck figuring it out.


Myakka Investigating


Thank you @Emrys for the tip about the Amber Alert in Myakka. There were enough clues to warrant going there so I went to check it out. Finding something in that massive park was insane. I think I visited the park like six times and asked every person who works at Myakka a million questions. No one knows anything. No one has seen Serena and the security camera feed is deleted after two weeks so I doubt we will find anything. I’m still having them comb through it though.

When I was walking around I managed to find a carving that said “B.B + G.H”.

It has the same initials as the missing persons report, which is either a serious find or just a fucking coincidence. Given how many teenagers come out here and mark up the trees, I’m scared that it’s the latter.

I’m going to keep looking through the endless amount of trees and hope to god I find something of Serena’s. She always forgot her stuff everywhere we went, I mean we’ve had to call airlines because she just didn’t think to grab the bag from between her legs. I used to think it was annoying as hell but now I’m thanking every god in every freaking religion that my sister is a forgetful mess. It might be the only reason I find her.

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