Sigh: More Orlando restaurant and bar closings
via It’s time for the sad stuff again, Orlando. Some more Orlando food and drink joints have closed over the past few weeks. Did you lose one of your favorites? Housed in a building that was formerly a convenience store, the Virgin Olive Market in Winter Park had their final day on Friday, May 2.…
UPDATE: LeAnn Rimes, Lil’ Kim and Mýa perform at Parliament House
Via Parliament House Gay Days are *almost* here again (June 2-8), and this year Parliament House pulled out all the stops to book some [admittedly just past their] prime talent including Da Brat, LeAnn Rimes, Lil’ Kim and Mýa. (Lil’ Kim had to cancel, scroll down to read why.) Da Brat kicks off the week…
Orlando just barely makes the top 25 cities for Millennials
60 epic Orlando sunsets It’s college graduation time and, after graduating college, former-students have to go out and find themselves a job. They’ve got student loans to pay, you know? For many millennials, this means looking beyond the cities they grew up in, as well as those in which they attended college. To assist the…
Happy birthday, first American spaceflight
On this date in 1961, Alan Shepard boarded NASA’s Mercury-Redstone 3 (renamed the Freedom 7 by Shepard to honor the members of Astronaut Group 1) at Cape Canaveral and rocketed 101.2 miles into suborbital flight, making Shepard the first U.S. citizen in space. The ride lasted 15 minutes before the capsule returned to Earth near…
YOUR DAILY WEEKLY READER: Tallahassee lapdogs, environmental woes, forced communion
IN WHICH HOUSE SPEAKER BEAUHUNK WILL WEATHERFORD PLAYS LAPDOG TO SERIAL “HELP”-ER GOV. RICK SCOTT: “When the 2014 legislative session began, Senate and House leaders focused on a five-point “work plan.” Cut taxes. Support the troops. Make government more efficient. Improve schools. Protect the vulnerable. But House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Senate President…
Day of Days this weekend as fans celebrate Star Wars and the Beastie Boys’ MCA
Though the two probably share a ton of crossover fans (this guy included), there isn’t a huge amount to physically connect Star Wars and Adam Yauch aside from this weekend that the two shared. Today, May the 4th, is Star Wars day, a reference to the saying from the film applied with a speech impediment.…
Captain America arrested for texting nudie pics to teen
via According to a report by WKMG, Captain America was arrested yesterday for sending nude pics of himself to a 16-year-old girl. Not the real Captain America, of course; he’s too goody-goody and filled with morals and responsibilities for that. And really, we all know the Avengers are smarter than that. The alleged-superhero-sexter was 29-year-old James…
Can Girl Meets World live up to its original?
In our age of sequels, prequels and reboots, it’s the most fair-unfair question that exists: will it live up to the original? It’s a question that might not matter to those younger than the original, but to anyone of the right age for the original, it’s really the only question worth asking. It’s a question…
14 places to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Orlando
via Ever wish you had an excuse to drink all day? Well, we’ve got 14 and your excuse is Cinco de Mayo. A curious thing about this holiday is that it;s not as popular in Mexico as it is here in the United States, despite its beginnings as an annual commemoration of the Mexican army’s…
‘On the Waterfront’ on the Enzian screen
via There are great films, and then there are masterpieces, those films that change your life. On the Waterfront is one of those. And it’s coming to the Enzian Theater in Maitland on May 10. Sandwiched between The Third Man and The Godfather, Part II on my list of the greatest movies of all time,…
Thank you Internet: cookie-making robots and new rollercoasters
It’s the Friday before the Kentucky Derby and pre-Cinco de Mayo. You’ve probably got some time left before you can sneak out of the office, am I right? Here are a few links that should help you kill that time: 1. An engineering student at MIT has taught a robot to bake cookies. Well, the…
Disney’s Seven Dwarfs Mine Train gets its day in the sun
via Last weekend, Disney World’s Magic Kingdom took down the construction walls hiding the forthcoming Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride, opening May 28. The ride is an effort to continue expanding the New Fantasyland area of the theme park. In true Disney fashion, the ride appears to be a breezy roller coaster through forested man-made…
Location Matters: Reign of the Orlando Superchildren, Part 1 of 4
Location Matters is a series that reflects upon pieces of Orlando immortalized in popular film. Today, the first installment of a sub-series devoted to the 1980s Superboy program that was produced in our fair metropolis. Much of the Superman mythos is considered common knowledge amongst even the most apathetic of Americans: strange visitor from another…
50 Shades of Pink pays homage to the naughty bits (images NSFW)
‘Paradise Lost,’ by Janae Corrado So, in this week’s issue we feature 50 Shades of Pink as a Selection – take a look here to read more about the show – but after I’d already filed my copy, painter and show organizer Morgan Wilson got back to me with some more thoughts about the show. 50…
31-story megamall coming to I-Drive?
via Today, the Orlando Business Journal reported on proposed plans to put a 31-story megamall on International Drive. The proposal calls for demolishing the International Shoppes strip mall at the corner of I-Drive and Kirkman. It’d be a great location for the fly-and-never-drive-around-the-city tourists, as it’s already home to a stop on the I-Drive Trolley…
Hotwives of Orlando and their fake boobs set to premiere July 15
via Earlier this year, we told you about an original show Hulu was bringing to its airwaves or magic box or whatever you call original Internet programming called Hotwives of Orlando. Well, the online television provider has finally given the reality-parody show a release date. The “Hotwives” of Orlando are coming on July 15. You can watch…
EXCLUSIVE: New docs just filed in court advancing gay marriage in Florida
Apologies for the use of my own picture above, but this issue is so critically important that I want to think of this as a tribute to the hard work that I and everyone else with a brain has been doing for the past few years. Here we go. A motion for summary judgment was…
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE NOW! DEMOCRATIC SENATOR AMENDS EMERGENCY GUN BILL TO INCLUDE FICTITIOUS ENDTIMES
HEY FLORIDA, YOU’RE A LAUGHING STOCK AGAIN TODAY! No, not because Jameis Winston stole some crab legs – that was totally yesterday. Oh, wait. So was this (actually late Tuesday!). Anyway, following along with (or, rather, satirically fighting against) Our Gun State’s bed-sharing with the NRA, this session via a bill that would allow people…
FROM THE PAGES OF ORLANDO WEEKLY ON WMFE: Billy Manes on Teresa Jacobs and Linda Chapin and the gays
Because we talk too fast, and because we believe in public radio but don’t have enough time on it, here is a transcript of this morning’s WMFE bit about Linda Chapin backing Teresa Jacobs regardless of logic and reason. You can read the full story here. And you can go to WMFE to listen here.…
Daytona snow cone robbery goes awry
Johnny Quatto, the Strawberry Snow Cone Bandit. Picture via Volusia County Jail. There were a few harrowing moments at Daytona Beach’s Icy Paradise Monday when 30-year-old John Quatto produced a gun after receiving his strawberry snow cone and, claiming he was the owner’s brother, climbed through the dessert shack’s ordering window. Once inside, Quatto (who…
This Little Underground: Chuck Ragan & the Camaraderie, Jonny Two Bags, Bartender Brian proposes
This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly’s music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city’s music scene. Read the latest column here. (Chuck Ragan with Jonny Two Bags) Figurative and literal folk hero Chuck Ragan returned, this time with his own full band – the Camaraderie – as the focus (April 29, the…
Meet Tie, the crazy-eyed, anxious SunRail Safety Squirrel
Johnny Quatto, the Strawberry Snow Cone Bandit. Picture via Volusia County Jail. There were a few harrowing moments at Daytona Beach’s Icy Paradise Monday when 30-year-old John Quatto produced a gun after receiving his strawberry snow cone and, claiming he was the owner’s brother, climbed through the dessert shack’s ordering window. Once inside, Quatto (who…
This Little Underground: Spies on Bikes, Giraffage, Marble @ Backbooth
This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly’s music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city’s music scene. Read the latest column here. (Image: Giraffage and why a cell phone does not a photographer make) It’s fitting that any live voyage out onto the more abstract reaches of the electronic music frontier includes some…
Amazon warehouse employee: Amazon steals our time
via Construction on Amazon’s huge warehouse in Ruskin, Fla., is chugging along almost as fast as a SunRail train. To put the size of the space in perspective, the warehouse will be about 10 times as large as a typical Home Depot. With eight separate break rooms throughout the facility, the warehouse is designed to…
Time-share mogul David Siegel buys Cocoa Beach Pier
via The Cocoa Beach Pier may never be the same. The historic Cocoa Beach landmark, which had been owned by the Slotter family since it was built in 1962, is now under new ownership. It was confirmed this morning that Jim Gissy and David Siegel – yes that David Siegel – of time-share empire Westgate Resorts,…
YOUR DAILY WEEKLY READER: Rick Scott’s latest superlative, Fox’s closet and botched mercy killings
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A WINNER FOR “THE DUMBEST POLITICIAN IN THE HISTORY OF ALL POLITICIANS”: “Say you’re an embattled conservative governor in Florida. Say you want to go out and glad-hand with voters who hate Obamacare as much as you do. What’s the stupidest place to do that? How about a senior center…
MxPx books two nights at Backbooth – only Florida dates
Facebook event The band that’s been trying to convince people to move to Bremerton (their hometown) since 1992, MxPx, will be playing two days in June at Backbooth with Drive-Thru Records’ 1995 label stars Allister. You can catch both bands on June 17 or 18 (RSVP) (RSVP) starting at 7 p.m. For anyone who ever…
A Comic Shop robbed days before Free Comic Book Day
via Early Tuesday morning, A Comic Shop on Semoran became the victim of a smash and grab robbery. Luckily, the store’s security camera caught the entire robbery, which lasted less than a minute, including an unsuccessful attempt at stealing the cash register. When cops arrived at the scene, they were able to lift fingerprints from…
19 questions with an Orlando resident: Kelleigh Lewis
Welcome to 19 Questions, a feature where we ask longtime Orlando residents 19 questions that are mostly related to living in the City Beautiful. Kelleigh Lewis is an executive brand integration manager (try saying that five times fast, or twice even at moderate pace) for The Daily Buzz, the nationally syndicated morning show filmed right…
This week’s fan art sees Studio Ghibli reduced to 8 bits
Whether you want to call it pixel art or 8 bit art, Richard J. Evans of Birmingham, has done something really cool, reducing these stills from the films of Studio Ghibli down to their pixelated essence: Totoro standing at the bus stop in the rain, Kiki making a delivery, Fio and Porco being awkward. Though…
Tiny hamster eats tiny burrito
So, you may have already seen this but just in case you haven’t, we felt duty-bound to share. Let no American fail to see this cheeky hamster stuff several microscopic burritos into its face! Thanks, Hello Denizen, and please, please make more episodes. It’s the best food–related video we’ve seen this week, for sure. Typical chef…
Bite 2014
Our dear, departed friend Tony Adams (he’s not dead, just relocated – these days the chef heads up the kitchen of the Boarding House, a restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard; those islanders might not know what just hit them), when he was in Orlando, had a catchy slogan for his Big Wheel Provisions empire: “Local is…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Dear Astrologer: We Aries people have an intense fire burning inside us. It’s an honor and a privilege. We’re lucky to be animated with such a generous share of the big energy that gives life to all of nature. But sometimes the fire gets too wild and strong for us. We…
Krystal Edwards
Skyebird Juice Bar and Experimental Kitchen
Tara Gould
P Is for Pie Bake Shop
CFAM exhibition allows Rollins professors’ big ideas to bloom
Faculty exhibition explores contemporary themes
Local ingredient: Coarse-Ground Grits
These are nothing like the instant stuff you nuke for breakfast when you’re late – that’s just mush. Coarse-ground grits are the real Southern deal, and they take time (and lots of stirring). The texture of the meal is what’s worth it, not to mention the truly corny flavor that comes from the grinding technique,…
Star grazing
Local notables share their favorite places to grab a bite
We are what we eat
With his Edible Schoolyard Project, chef Kevin Fonzo gives Orlando kids tools for living
Smoke grows around the e-cig industry
Business owners concerned about potential regulations
Private lessons
Give Me Your Money
Local ingredient: Microgreens
It seems like every vegetable comes in a “baby” variety these days – from artichokes to zucchini – and baby lettuces, known as microgreens, are no exception. Like many other awesome things, they started showing up on menus in the ’80s (a trend attributed to the late, great Chicago chef Charlie Trotter), because a hint…
Bring it on home
Local chefs share their secrets in cookbooks and memoirs
Dropkick Murphys make rowdy return after concept album
New record ‘Signed and Sealed in Blood’ is more fun than the title suggests
Karen Hart
Linda’s La Cantina Steakhouse
Bar Exam: Hanson’s Shoe Repair
We take a closer look at the downtown speakeasy
New chefs at Maxine’s on Shine and Hamilton’s Kitchen
Plus tons of new restaurants opening around Orlando
Joe & Alda Rees
The Strand
Local ingredient: Frog legs
Yes, they taste like chicken, but it’s more like a free-range, swamp-dwelling chicken. The meat is white, tender, mild and lean, but much more succulent than a yardbird. It’s not abnormal for Floridians to nosh on these shapely suckers fried golden and doused in hot sauce, but some Francophile spots around town, including Paris Bistro…
Chavo has promise, but competing priorities weigh it down
Lake Mary Tex-Mex has retreated from its initial ambition
Local ingredient: Nagami kumquats
There are just two words to describe these little darlings: flavor bombs. These tiny orange gems thrive in our climate, like most citrus, so if you’re looking to plant an edible landscape, consider the Nagami varietal – the tasty fruits are more than just nice lawn ornaments. (Dade City even hosts a kumquat festival every…
Trouble behind the scenes of Mayor Jacobs’ re-election bid
Gays and progressives rankled by Democrat Linda Chapin’s party-swapping in favor of the mayor
This Little Underground: FMF gets more local
Country Covers debuts at Will’s Pub, the Glorious Rebellion
Vanessa Falcone
Trevi Pasta
Shantell Williams
Shantell’s Cafe
Savage Love
I’ve heard your calls for bisexuals to come out to their friends and family, and I think it’s a great idea. Here’s my conundrum: I’m not sure I technically classify as “bisexual.” I’m a 40-year-old guy who strongly prefers sex with women to men (percentage-wise I’m 70/30). I’ve had sex with dudes in the past…
Azhar Baig
Sizzling Grill
Ruben Perez
Zaza New Cuban Diner
Pink Mountaintops quilts his 5-year return from classic rock fabric
Album review: Pink Mountaintops’ ‘Get Back’
Pixies maintain their mad signature crash on ‘Indie Cindy’
Album review: Pixies’ ‘Indie Cindy’
Foodpreneurs
The vendors of Audubon Park’s East End Market
Police Beat: criminals in Orlando get stabby
A couple of criminals got pretty stabby in Orlando last week, according to the Orlando Police Department, but, thankfully, their efforts were abject failures. On Thursday, April 24, Chris Griffin was waiting for a bus on West Colonial Drive when he observed a guy drinking booze not far away. The man was Haitian-born Gesper Alexis,…
Opening in Orlando: ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’
Movies opening in Orlando theaters this week
Local ingredient: Romanesco
If you can’t take a bite before snapping a shot of your food, get that camera ready, because this striking veg will have all your Instagram followers double-tapping their screens. Related to both broccoli and cauliflower, this edible flower grows naturally in a Fibonacci fractal (a spiral pattern, if you’re not a math nerd) and…
‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’
Documentary about the making of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never-completed ‘Dune’ is a wondrous image of what might have been
Josh Oakley
The Smiling Bison
Slow Money: An interview with Carol Peppe Hewitt and Lyle Estill
Slow money authors and advocates talk about why people should think local instead of global when it comes to money
‘Dom Hemingway’
Jude Law plays an unlikely funnyman in this comedy about a career criminal
FastPass+ speeds up Disney magic; Universal’s interactive wands
Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom just debuted the most popular meet-and-greet in the park’s history, when guests waited four or more hours to spend a few seconds with the stars of Frozen. And as this article is hitting newsstands, Mickey will unveil the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train family roller coaster, cornerstone of the long-in-development New…
Bob Givoglu
Mediterranean Blue
Wye Oak’s ‘Shriek’ lacks the band’s trademark soulful tension
Album review: Wye Oak’s ‘Shriek’
Drinking, Nightlife and Parties
Where to drink and party in Orlando this week
Henry Moso
Kabooki Sushi
Kathleen Blake
The Rusty Spoon
Ermias Hailab
Nile Ethiopian Restaurant
Henry Salgado
Txokos Basque Kitchen
Greg Richie
Cityfish
Big Storm Brewing featured at Rogue Pub’s first Homegrown Thursday
via On Thursday, May 1 Rogue Pub is kicking off a new feature they call “Homegrown Thursday.” The event, which they are hoping to hold monthly, aims to be a celebration of local talent, featuring everything from comedians to musicians. In addition to the run-of-the-mill open mic regulars, Rogue Pub has put out the call…
Orlando mom Sisaundra Lewis rocks The Voice
via Orlando mom Sisaundra Lewis has a musical career that spans a decade. She’s worked with Peabo Bryson, Patti Labelle, Michael Bolton and Céline Dion, just to name a few. You can hear her in jingles for tons of well-known products like Doublemint Gum, Dr. Pepper and Arby’s (what up, Pharrell’s hat?). She’s done production work with Andrew…
Shows I Go To: I still believe in Taking Back Sunday and the Used
The Florida room at my parent’s was always so damn humid in the fall. I used to sit in there for hours staring at our old Microsoft computer, downloading songs over a dial up internet connection. I would queue up a bunch before bed and check back in the morning prior to leaving for school.…
Buddy Dyer rides the rails for SunRail’s Grand Opening Celebration
via Tomorrow morning, Mayor Buddy Dyer will board hop on a train at the Debary Sunrail station at 8:15 a.m. and then ride it for all twelve stops as part of the official “Whistle Stop Grand Opening Tour.” The Mayor’s tour will end at the Sand Lake Road Station with a Grand Opening Celebration. The…
Map highlights free parking in downtown Orlando
Click to access interactive map “There’s never any parking,” people like to fume when considering whether or not to visit downtown Orlando, or for the sadder cases, “I don’t wanna get towed.” But in reality, there are a variety of free parking options that open up after 6 p.m. downtown to prevent driving in agonizing…
Florida fish fracas finds way to Supreme Court
Supreme Court justices said yesterday they will hear the case of John Yates, the Manatee County commercial fisherman seeking to overturn his conviction for illegally disposing three undersized grouper. Yates, who was sentenced to 30 days in jail after Florida Fish & Wildlife officials determined he returned to the ocean several fish he was asked…
YOUR DAILY WEEKLY READER: Jim Greer’s bluff (redux), Uber vs. cabbies, gunshine!
THE PART WHERE FORMER RPOF CHAIR DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE ARC OF PUBLIC NOTORIETY: “Now, he’s ready to talk. After the judge put down his gavel, the cameras left the room and the power brokers, presumably, convinced him that discretion was in his best interest. Now, Jim Greer is ready to tell all. The former leader…
