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Sep 22-28, 1999

Sep 22-28, 1999 / Vol. 15 / No. 38

Dining

It’s a sure sign that summer has passed into oblivion, and fall has arrived: All across Orlando, sidewalk cafe tables are being snapped up again. The good news is that there are plenty of sun-dappled patio restaurants and courtyard cafes where you can savor the autumn atmosphere along with whatever is on the menu. This…

Colleen Moore

Takeout that’s far from generic

The Grocery Store might not win awards for name originality, but its takeout ethnic foods are another matter. The display case is filled with fresh-daily creations, including the most popular item: stuffed grape leaves, with a beef-and-rice filling wrapped in the tangy, marinated covering. Priced from 33 to 49 cents each (depending on whether you…

Colleen Moore

The subject was noses

We’d all like to walk into a room and instantly know who the clowns are. But it wasn’t that easy last week at the Orlando North Hilton in Altamonte Springs, where more than 350 members of the Southeast Clown Association met for their 18th annual convention. “You’ve got to ease into it,” warned education director…

Steve Schneider

Seeds of destruction

The explosion in genetic research and engineering has handed scientists and corporations the tools for redefining life — and now death, at least for seeds. The latest technology popping out of the box (brought to you by Monsanto, the promoter of bovine growth hormone for dairy cows) kills the seeds of plants. Dubbed the “Terminator”…

Will Fantle

Board silly

In the future, when taking stock of history’s biggest letdowns, Hurricane Floyd will head the list, leapfrogging over Scarlett, Biosphere II and Capone’s vault. The Big Tease was said to be stronger than any storm in 80 years. It was spread wide enough to make Larry Flynt blush. It covered so much area that every…

Liz Langley

Get it in gear

You didn’t have to be among those fleeing town in advance of Hurricane Floyd to note that I-4 westbound looked less like an evacuation route than a shopping-mall parking lot at Christmastime. Eastbound, of course, the road was free and clear. Faced with a similar crush, South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges ordered state police to…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Fringe elements

The Orlando International Fringe Festival, which has struggled to lure performance groups that reflect the area’s diverse nonwhite and ethnic communities, recently created for itself a new challenge: By adding a seventh downtown stage to its 10-day run next spring, the Fringe has upped the ratio of slots set aside for ethnic/minority and international acts,…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Climbing Jacob’s bladder

An August Knoxville News-Sentinel story profiled the self-described “prophet [that] God spoke of”: Richard Settle, 44, who began spreading the gospel three years ago by vandalizing buildings in several states. Sometimes, Settle warns people of the impending New World Order merely by painting religious symbols on the buildings; in other instances, he spreads the Lord’s…

Chuck Shepherd

Disney caught in the Middle (East)

Many people are asking how a corporation as large, sophisticated and adept at marketing as Disney could get caught up in the international political struggle in the Middle East. Indeed it is remarkable that the public-relations department at this PR-conscious company could have walked blindly into this mess. But it’s very easy to explain, as…

Dick Crepeau

Common scents

The scent was inconceivable, indescribable … and yet there it was as plain and splendid as day. Grenouille followed it, his fearful heart pounding, for he suspected that it was not he who followed the scent, but the scent that had captured him and drawn him irresistibly to it. … The source was the girl.…

Liz Langley

‘Witch’ hangs around for a spell

It’s just after dusk about eight minutes from my house — a good time and place to watch the tourists. Cars with license plates from such far-flung places as Minnesota, Georgia and Indiana drive from one end of town to the other looking for landmarks. Generation Xers sporting black T-shirts and cameras pad enthusiastically down…

Amy Simmons

Three hits of ‘Acid’ for Welsh addicts

Like the 17th annual Central Florida Film & Video Festival it inaugurates, U.K. export “The Acid House” veers from the avant garde to the accessible, plays out in chapters and displays a youthful enthusiasm as it relentlessly refashions its own identity. That’s what the CFFVF will do this year, eschewing its former 12-day format to…

Steve Schneider

Sorensen’s ceramics make the earth move

Repetition in art works two ways. Saying something over and over can make it trivial: “Oh, here we go again,” people think, “I know this already,” and so their attention wanders. Conversely, repetition can create a swell of meaning, especially if the recurring element gets picked up and put back down at a different angle.…

Theresa Everline

Small works don’t capture the big picture

There’s nothing like a group show of unknown artists to place a finger on the pulse of the local arts community. “Art Three By …,” the Maitland Art Center’s annual juried art competition, gathers 65 works by 50 artists, but that pulse is unfortunately weak. It’s not clear whether the conservative presentation reflects the artistic…

Christopher Howard

French accent at fancy cafe

When looking for more than “a good loaf,” you’ll definitely find it at Au Bon Pain (pronounced ah-bahn-pahn). The high-end bakery-cafe chain with an outpost on every other corner in Manhattan has established its first local site in tourist territory in the Club Hotel at DoubleTree. The polished, Art Deco-styled bakery is stocked with its…

Colleen Moore

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