As weeks turn into months, the reality of being stuck at home while working and juggling family responsibilities is becoming exhausting to many. At the same time, hotels nationwide are facing a slowdown thanks to fewer people traveling. Now a new trend is emerging, called “work from hotel,” and Orlando looks to be at the forefront.…
Central Florida arts leaders and advocates have banded together to create Greater Orlando Performing Arts Relief (GOPAR), a charitable organization to give a much-needed boost to our vibrant local performing arts scene. With live performances and events largely on hold and theme parks limiting or straight-up nixing shows, too many local arts and entertainment industry…
Orlando Legals Legal Public Notices Extra Space Storage will hold a public auction to sell personal property described below belonging to those individuals listed below at the location indicated: 342 Woodland Lake Drive, Orlando, FL 32828, 321-800-4793, on 9/10/20 at 2:00pm. Danny Ghiden: household items, furniture, boxes, shelving, grill, Orlando Rodriguez: furniture, sofa, boxes, artwork, dresser, ottoman, radio,…
After 14 years in business, popular vegetarian restaurant and Mills 50 gathering place Dandelion Community Cafe has closed its doors permanently. The official word from restaurant owner Chris Blanc is that the closing is down to “a variety of factors outside of our control, including the heavy impact of COVID-19.” Now make no mistake about…
Venerable Central Florida theater company Orlando Shakes announced Monday that the remainder of their productions for 2020 will be staged virtually rather than at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, due to health and safety concerns amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Shakes will now present Poe: Deep Into That Darkness Peering and The Trial Ebenezer Scrooge as…
After nearly a week of speculation,World Wrestling Entertainment confirmed on Monday that they will be moving televised operations from their Orlando Performance Center to the Amway Center for the foreseeable future. And the company plans on turning the downtown space into their own personal “ThunderDome.” Starting with Smackdown television tapings this Friday and the annual…
The Florida Film Festival’s programming last weekend may have been slightly marred by a power outage, but organizers are making up for it by adding an unplanned extra day to the festival, so cinephiles can catch up on the screenings they missed out on. FFF will now continue through Friday of this week, with three…
This past weekend saw long lines at Universal Orlando. Yet, the resort has indicated that they expect the big crowds, or at least the big-spending out-of-state multi-day crowds, to not remain with two hotels going dark later this month and with numerous discounted ticket deals still being offered. They’ve also paused the development of their…
It’s clear that things won’t be back to normal anytime soon, and that means Disney World, which has leaning on its upcoming 50th anniversary to attract record-breaking crowds, is now being forced to rework its plans for the foreseeable future. Early this month, permits for “Project Nugget” were filed. The permits themselves are for some…
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran is urging local school officials to be “very surgical, not sweeping” when responding to coronavirus cases, which he acknowledged are likely to occur as classes resume this month. “If you have a COVID-19 case or you have (COVID-19) symptoms, don’t panic,” Corcoran told school superintendents in a conference call Thursday. “Communicate…
A spokeswoman for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation said Monday it’s still uncertain when bars and breweries can again serve alcohol for onsite consumption. DBPR Secretary Halsey Beshears has been meeting privately with brewers and bar owners over the past few weeks to discuss concerns about widespread shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.…
Orlando performance artist and academic (and musician!) Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz is set to take part in a virtual roundtable discussion on Tuesday put on by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery centering on issues of race, femininity and cultural identity in her work and practice. Host and Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol will speak to Raimundi-Ortiz and Genevieve…
Florida’s vital tourism industry suffered an estimated 60.5 percent drop in visitors as the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard during the year’s second quarter, with international travel off more than 90 percent. And the outlook remains dim for the state following the nearly 20 million visitor drop from April through June. The tourism industry must combat…
Long-running creative and experimental music event the In-Between Series is returning to in-person live action downtown on Monday night with a powerhouse program and a new(ish) outdoors location. The In-Between Series is back at its home base of CityArts (sort of), with the performances now taking place in the alley between CityArts and neighbor Harp…
Gov. Ron DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis and child-welfare advocates warned Friday about the toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on some families. During a discussion on COVID-19 and mental health in Sarasota, Casey DeSantis expressed alarm at a drop in calls and referrals to Florida’s child-abuse hotline. She noted a 40 percent drop, which…
Top health care regulators in Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration on Friday discussed a limited reopening of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that would not require COVID-19 screening for visitors. Members of the Task Force on the Safe and Limited Re-Opening of Long-Term Care Facilities met for about 90 minutes before agreeing to meet…
Orlando “post-pop” group OhTwo will play their first show since the spring – and most likely last for this year – this Saturday evening on Instagram Live. The duo of vocalist Faust and producer/beatmaker Byson will play the entirety of their chameleonic hip-hop album A Time To Be So Small, which they released at the end of July.…
With millions of Floridians seeking to vote by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic, postal officials have warned Secretary of State Laurel Lee that the state is at risk of having ballots go uncounted in the November presidential election. Florida, a battleground in the election, is among states that received alerts from U.S. Postal Service General…
This year’s U.S. Census count will determine how much funding Florida receives in the next decade for many crucial government-funded services. But the Census Bureau is ending its efforts to count the U.S. population a full month earlier than expected – Sept. 30 instead of Oct. 31 – on orders from the Trump administration. That…
DJ Carnage tried to pull off a drive-in rave in Orlando back in June, but was undone by Central Florida’s daily summer rains. Now it looks as though a cadre of local dance music and Orlando Breaks lifers are going to pull off the elusive drive-in rave later this month. The Tail Break Rave is…
The man who spoke for most of America yesterday, this man, has a name you might not have heard as the video made the rounds: S.V. (Shirish) Dáte. Wow. A reporter (I'm not sure who he is) asks Trump, "after three and a half years, do you regret all the lying you've done to the…
Angel Sanchez lost his right to vote before he was old enough to even cast a ballot. But after his release from prison in 2011, he did everything he could to turn his life around. Sanchez made monthly payments toward $1,698 in court-ordered fees and costs assessed when he was convicted of felony charges as…
Orlando Utilities Commission has $1.5 million in monetary aid available to customers in immediate danger of having their water or electrical service disconnected, through the Project CARE assistance program. And they want to hear from you. Project CARE was established back in April – along with other COVID-19 relief programs from OUC, like utility payment assistance…
The AMC theater chain continues their gradual path towards reopening with a plan to open the doors to 100 of their locations on Thursday, Aug. 20 to test out their new cleaning and social distancing protocols. And for hardy cinephiles who don’t mind being a part of this phased reopening experiment, the chain is offering…
Indie rockers Future Islands on Wednesday announced that their new album As Long As You Are will be released in October on 4AD. And as much as they’d surely like to take the album on the road, touring is off the table. So they’re gonna make lemonade out of lemons with a one-night-only worldwide livestream the…
Heads up! Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears will be in Downtown Orlando on Sunday, Aug. 16, and is looking to talk to Orange County and area bar and brewery owners about safe ways to reopen their establishments in the future. If you are a local bar or brewery owner and have…
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi implored Republican Party volunteers in Tallahassee to stress the positives of mail-in-ballots as a campaign bus tour for President Donald Trump swung through Northwest Florida on Wednesday. Trump campaign senior adviser Corey Lewandowski also signaled the party will try to paint California Sen. Kamala Harris, who was announced Tuesday…
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday warned “policymakers” about problems with COVID-19 data collected and published by the state and said he directed the Department of Health to “remedy” the issue. During an early evening televised address, DeSantis did not offer details about what he directed the health department to do. But he made the comments…
This letter was sent in response to Orlando Weekly’s survey of Orange-Osceola state attorney candidates, published in our Aug. 12 issue. My name is James Smith and I am an attorney in Orlando, FL. I just finished reading your article about the candidates for State Attorney. I was motivated to write this email to you because…
Dave Galloway, an army veteran and sixth grade science teacher in Jackson County, is used to assessing risk in his life. When COVID-19 swept over Florida this spring, the 64-year-old refrained from going to church and restaurants. He ordered groceries online. And he made sure to wear a face mask and carry hand sanitizer every…
Florida might seek a loan through the U.S. Department of Labor to cover the state’s portion of a plan by President Donald Trump to extend federal unemployment benefits and have states put up 25 percent of the cash. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday the loan idea is under review. “We’re looking to see what that…
Florida, which has endured a surge of coronavirus infections this summer, will participate in a COVID-19 vaccine pilot program with the federal government. State Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said Tuesday, during a conference call with hospital officials, that Florida has been invited to be part of a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine…
I’m a 38-year-old bi woman who has been sleeping with a married male co-worker for the last eight months. We’re a walking cliché: I’m a nurse, he’s a doctor, and one night he ended up spilling a lot of personal information about his marriage to me (sexless, non-romantic, she might be a lesbian) before asking…
Two weeks ago, our cover story reported on the struggles that Central Florida brewers are facing to stay afloat with their doors largely closed and no end in sight of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (“Central Florida breweries struggle to stay solvent,” July 29). Brewery taprooms, while not exactly bars, got lumped in with bars and…
As a travel writer who hasn’t left the state of Florida in over six months, I’d probably accept an all-expenses-paid trip to the seventh circle of Hell right about now, if only to get out of the house. So I was feeling just a bit jealous last week when I spoke to prolific performer-playwright Michael…
Don’t skip this race on your ballot
At the beginning of this year – if you can remember back that far – our planet’s rapidly accelerating climate crisis was on the front page of every newspaper, and the opening of artist-activist Mira Lehr’s environmentally themed solo exhibition High Water Mark brought national attention to Orlando’s Mennello Museum of American Art with glowing…
Premieres Wednesday: (Un)Well – It’s hard to believe that anything you read on Natural News could be bad for you, yet that possibility is the fulcrum for this six-episode docu-series, which questions the efficacy of a bunch of high-profile “wellness” fads. Get ready for critical examinations of everything from essential oils to fasting to tantric…
It’s fitting that director Jeremy Seghers is staging one of the first live theater productions in the city since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered Orlando’s theater spaces back in March; Seghers has made his name putting on left-field productions in unconventional spaces. In 2016, he staged Equus in a barn at the Acre, and then brought…
Lilah (A392508) is a 4-year-old girl who was surrendered to our shelter by her previous family because they could no longer care for her. According to them she is a little shy when you first meet her, but very sweet once she warms up. She does have a flea allergy, which will require her adopters…
