Once on this Island
It’s a sad fact of theme-park life that the best fantasy characters always get the worst rides. What does Batman have? Some lame stunt shows at various Six Flags locations. How about Dracula, Frankenstein and the rest of their monstrous ilk? That sophomoric, Branson-ready “Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue” at Universal Studios Florida. Robin Hood? Bupkus, unless…
Exquisite, sickly, beautiful feast
Movie: Ravenous
Truth and consequences
Movie: EDtv
‘Date’ from hell
Movie: 20 Dates
Exquisite, sickly, beautiful feast
Movie: Ravenous
Truth and consequences
Movie: EDtv
‘Date’ from hell
Movie: 20 Dates
Guilty as charged
In August, the mother of high-school student Justin Burnett filed a lawsuit in Chicago against the school board and shop teacher Philip Rush, who had admitted shocking disruptive students by hooking them up to a spark plug and a current-producing crank, sometimes, according to the lawsuit, for as long as 30 seconds. According to the…
Sailing away tax-free
Poets and songwriters tell us that one little word can mean a lot — passionate words like “love.” But in Congress, passionate words are nothing compared to such dispassionate terms as “state.” This is the single word that lobbyists for multibillion-dollar cruise lines like Carnival Corp., Disney and Royal Caribbean Cruises inserted into America’s basic…
Project Censored judges
Donna Allen, president of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press Ben Bagdikian, professor emeritus and former dean, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California-Berkeley and former editor at the Washington Post Richard Barnet, author of 15 books and numerous articles for the New York Times Magazine, The Nation and Progressive Susan Faludi, Pulitzer…
Top 10 censored stories of 1998
In the 1998 media world of all-Monica, all-the-time, many important news stories were destined to be invisible or get short shrift. The corporate media, especially the broadcast media, gave us primarily infotainment and celebrity news, pushing more complex stories to the back pages or off the air. At the same time, public-affairs television programming and…
The agony of the ecstacy
The battle lines were drawn very publicly last Friday, March 19, at 1:30 a.m. Orlando police swarmed The Club at Firestone on Orange Avenue. Capt. Ronald Rauth turned up the lights and switched off the music, and as TV news cameras rolled, he told the crowd to stand still while police arrested the drug dealers…
Swept away
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. — French writer Anatole France (1844-1924) In Orlando, actually, you can sleep under a bridge if you’re rich. Just not if you’re poor. Or, rather, only the…
Sore spot becomes a scandal
It is well understood now that the buyout of land surrounding Lake Apopka was predicated on land-speculation politics, and the related environmental cleanup projections were based on insufficient science. But Katherine Bouma of the Orlando Sentinel on Sunday advanced the story into the realm of scandal. Her 2,100-word piece documents the backroom squabbling that attended…
Smoke and mirrors
It’s been said that “Sex is everything … and nothing,” which, if nothing else, is a paradox big enough to handle the infinite bemusements waiting under the covers or in our heads. Here, we’ve exercised the ethos for a subjective but suggestive sampling of locally inspired interpretations that add up to, well, everything and nothing.…
Review – Secret Name
Artist: Low
Review – Peel Session
Artist: Autechre
Review – Back on Top
Artist: Van Morrison
Review – Beaucoup Fish
Artist: Underworld
Review – Secret Name
Artist: Low
Review – Peel Session
Artist: Autechre
Review – Back on Top
Artist: Van Morrison
Review – Back on Top
Artist: Van Morrison
Review – Beaucoup Fish
Artist: Underworld
Review – Beaucoup Fish
Artist: Underworld
Review – Secret Name
Artist: Low
Review – Secret Name
Artist: Low
Review – Peel Session
Artist: Autechre
Review – Peel Session
Artist: Autechre
Review – Back on Top
Artist: Van Morrison
Review – Beaucoup Fish
Artist: Underworld
Saarsâ?? art makes deep marks
Alison and Betye Saar have each enjoyed attention from Central Florida’s art community as of late. Both have garnered national acclaim for their contributions to African-American art, and they were featured in the Cornell Fine Arts Museum’s exhibition “Beyond the Veil: Art of African-American Artists at Century’s End,” which coincided with this year’s Black History…
This Big Sky isnâ??t blue
On the occasion of their third full-length release, “Light Hum Serenade,” Big Sky are understandably wary of their place in the lower echelons of critical opinion. “Big Sky gets no respect anywhere,” explains saxophonist Dave Kurzman, only half-jokingly. And why’s that? “Because we’re happy.” With a loyal and growing fan base, impressive word-of-mouth album sales…
Why canâ??t this be Love?
When it was first announced that Marilyn Manson and Courtney Love would be sharing an Orlando stage, mischievous laughter seemed the only appropriate response. What sadistic promoter, one wondered, had dropped this powder-keg package of assured blasphemy into the lap of a notoriously unamused community? From Manson’s Satanic iconography and “just say yes” drug advocacy…
Not your average virtuoso
Your average classical musician, so the stereotype goes, spends off hours indulging in the finer things of life such as grazing at French restaurants, gazing at great art and soaking up literary classics. Christopher Parkening, one of the world’s leading virtuosos of classical guitar, puts on his gloves and grabs a fishing rod when the…
A womanâ??s touch
I have never overheard anyone having sex. My friends have, but I myself have never been subjected to the moans, sighs and squeaking springs that suggest some couple in the next room has just moved seven inches closer to God. This lack of evidence doesn’t prevent me from being nervous about being overheard myself. You’d…
Petty’s offers heady selection
Designated shopping-cart drivers, anyone? Don’t laugh. On Saturdays at Petty’s Specialty Foods and Meats in Longwood shoppers can pour themselves a beer at a free keg. But place the blame for the jammed aisles on the 60-foot-long deli counter filled with international meats, cheeses and entrees-to-go. There’s a huge selection of hard-to-find items, from fiery…
Pettyâ??s offers heady selection
Designated shopping-cart drivers, anyone? Don’t laugh. On Saturdays at Petty’s Specialty Foods and Meats in Longwood shoppers can pour themselves a beer at a free keg. But place the blame for the jammed aisles on the 60-foot-long deli counter filled with international meats, cheeses and entrees-to-go. There’s a huge selection of hard-to-find items, from fiery…
