Sep 6-12, 2000

Sep 6-12, 2000 / Vol. 16 / No. 36

Curtain goes up on east side story

The stretch of Semoran Boulevard that connects east Orlando to Winter Park is nobody’s idea of a cultural corridor. Sure, it’s a great place to shop for a new car or gorge yourself on heavily breaded meals. But live theater? Well, watching those sudden summer winds tear the shingles from the roof off High Tide…

Steve Schneider

Culinary study of roads to Rome

There’s always something new to learn, and this week the tony Portobello Yacht Club at Downtown Disney (407-934-8888) teaches what it knows best: Italian cuisine. Introducing the Festivale d’ Italia, Portobello will offer special events through September to further spread the taste of the country from a rootsy, cultural point of view. Up first is…

Lindy T. Shepherd

Single minded

I was 5 years old in Brooklyn playing Barbies with my friends when the subject of “when I get married …” came up. I had nothing to contribute to the “dream weddings” conversation and announced, “I’m never getting married.” I was impatient with their tedious fantasizing, preferring to play Lost in Space. Getting stranded on…

Liz Langley

Haxans put their Bigfoot forward

If you were near a television set in the 1970s, you’re bound to remember “In Search Of.” Every week, the syndicated program traversed the globe to probe enduring mysteries, applying semiscientific inquiry and ominous narration (from host Leonard Nimoy) to unexplained phenomena like the Loch Ness monster and those pesky crop circles. The Haxan Films…

Steve Schneider

Pope to pop

At a mere 22 years of age, Latin-pop singer Luis Fonsi has sold hundreds of thousands of records, played for the pope and recorded a soon-to-be-released duet with superstar Christina Aguilera. It’s a lot of good fortune, but it all actually seems to be part of a well-executed plan. And Orlando had a big role…

Jim Markel

Fashion victim

After a brief chase, T’Chacka Mshinda Thorpe, 25, was arrested in Lynchburg, Va., in May and charged with possession of cocaine. Police caught up to Thorpe after he tripped on his low-riding baggy pants, fell and fractured his femur. And in Philadelphia in March, Edney Raphael, 39, was captured while running from the scene of…

Chuck Shepherd

Reality-based business plan

With the grand opening of Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) less than six months away, veteran Mouse watchers were startled in July when the Walt Disney Co. said it would build a third theme park in Anaheim. A more prudent company would have held off making such plans public until they were sure their second project…

Jim Hill

For the people?

People think I put mascara on,” John Morgan says, standing in a small conference room on the ninth floor of the downtown First Union Bank building, as a woman powders his nose. The room has today been turned into a television-commercial set. His thick eyelashes, Morgan assures, are 100 percent au naturel. It’s a little…

Jeffrey C. Billman

Constructed criticism

To many people, the city’s $21 million project in southwest Orlando would appear to be a prime example of how far city government has come in awarding construction contracts to minority firms. The 490-acre site is in a minority district. Orlando’s elder minority statesman, Ernest Page, presides over the District 6 area, where an elementary…

William Dean Hinton

Setting sights on sentencing

Tina Riggle and her friends were having the kind of trouble that haunts every community activist: They couldn’t seem to keep street-level criminals off their streets. So Riggle investigated her Sarasota County legal system, where she found a number of problems. Mainly everyone — judges, prosecutors, legislators — was pushing the blame on everyone else.…

Orlando Weekly Staff

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