Paradiso lost
Downtown Disney goes in search of street-food cred
Extra ordinary
Race-for-the-cure vehicle offers nothing more than a TV movie
Happytown
With every DUI infraction comes a heap of regret. Whether it’s the booze-filled gibberish of your just-two-beers-officer story or the realization that a sequined miniskirt wasn’t the best fashion choice for a holding cell full of hookers, it’s always a memory you’re better off forgetting. But what happens when you can’t forget, because your father…
Comments
Tried in the media I enjoyed the latest Happytown™ column `Jan. 7`. I really did. I appreciate that you’ve noticed my candidacy for the Florida House of Representatives, and appreciate your sense of humor about the circus that was the Rifqa Bary case here in Orlando. If I can comment on one thing, I’d appreciate…
Blister
Now that all of the teacups have followed their flying saucers from the cupboard to the shattering floor, the books broken their bindings to make birdlike haste from the shelves and into my head, the music and movies clattered together into a sightless, soundless blur above the middle of nowhere — now that everything that…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Philosopher David Pearce is committed to the abolition of suffering. We’ve got a long way to go before accomplishing that goal, but he believes it’s possible with the help of technology. More than two millennia ago, Buddha also articulated a vision for the cessation of suffering. His methods revolve around psychological…
Savage Love
I have a problem. A key part of my problem, I feel, is that I’m a recovering anorexic and I am still struggling a great deal to eat normal and healthy portions of food. A friend and I have recently become “friends with benefits.” He lives very far away, so we primarily indulge through IMs.…
Police Beat
Jan. 5 (2010-6423) 12:15 a.m.: A man walked out of a bar … and two other guys followed him out of Whiskey River Whiskey Store to the corner of Hames Avenue and Robinson Street, then beat him up. Punch line: They took his wallet and $115. (2010-6013) 7:03 a.m.: A woman said that a man…
Live Active Cultures
Tell people you write a newspaper column, and they feign interest or express sympathy for your impending unemployment from a soon-to-be-extinct medium. Tell them that you write about arts and culture, and they inch away, lest you start spouting Proust. But tell them that you cover the attractions, and they’re liable to run screaming for…
Great, great, great TV
Great, great, great TV Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders Premieres 10 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25 PBS The Inbetweeners Premieres 9 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25 BBC America Two shows debuting this week come from elsewhere — Russia, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and England — courtesy of two series that are absolutely worth your time. The first, Sound Tracks:…
Not for bedtime stories
Not for bedtime stories Bigger Than a Scrapbook: The Talking Quilts of Lauren Austin Through March 20 at Crealdé School of Art, 600 St. Andrews Blvd., Winter Park 407-671-1886 www.crealde.org Donations Mixing her two loves — art and education — Lauren Austin’s two-venue show displays her own large contemporary quilts at the Crealdé School of…
A mother lode
A mother lode Mama’s Comedy Show 10 p.m. Friday at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows, 8267 International Drive 407-363-1985 www.mamascomedyshow.com $10 Do you remember Mama? What a monument to humanity; what a towering paragon of femininity (no, really, you can tell she’s a woman by the shape of her eyebrow). She loved her family, she loved…
The Summerbird in the room
The Tenant Is Listening EP “Visitors” 7-inch (New Granada) With apologies to the other three members of the Tenant, the first order of business here is: How does it compare to Summerbirds in the Cellar? The Tenant’s guitarist-vocalist Brad Register made a name for himself fronting that Orlando band, and although he is making a…
The Tenantâ??s union
Parafora Presents 3-Year Anniversary Party with the Tenant, Monotonix, Surfer Blood, Basements of Florida, Yip-Yip, Waxfang 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26 Back Booth 407-999-2570 www.backbooth.com $8-$10 Though the Tenant represents a new point on the musical map, a long and trying road was traveled to get there. Prior to enlisting bassist Dave Kazyk, keyboardist Travis…
This Little Underground
Wow, Jay Reatard dead at only 29. I sure hope you were at his Back Booth show last month. The beats Being both delicious and loaded with value is an accomplishment that would satisfy anyone. But in a clear attempt at supreme awesomeness, Pabst Blue Ribbon sponsors the occasional free concert, the latest being Athens…
Friend or feast?
Thanks to journalists such as Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), buried somewhere deep in Americans’ meat-loving unconscious is the vague knowledge that the ground beef they grab from the supermarket has undergone a strenuous process of plumping, pounding, chopping and compressing — often not in that exact order — before arriving at its final package…
Picking the bones
Shortly before 10 a.m. Jan. 13, SUVs and pickups line up at Personal Mini Storage on East Semoran Boulevard in Apopka. Fifteen people are drawn by the smell of bargains. Wielding flashlights and padlocks, they gather to bid on the mysterious contents of storage units. The owners hadn’t paid rent in too long, and now…
