30 Best Albums of the Year: #11-#15
My criteria: risk-taking, repeat-listenability, cohesiveness, clear goals and fun. Be sure to check out our Dec. 17 issue where you can find the Top 15 albums of 2009 according to OW’s Justin Strout, Jason Ferguson and Bao Le-Huu, along with the three worst albums. The following is my personal list. 11. Islands – Vapours A…
Theaters and galleries: Shows to see now
Openings and recent reviews of current productions and exhibitions OPENINGS New Works by Andrew Spear See Images from O-Town: Andrew Spear. (Opening reception 8 p.m. Saturday, continues through Jan. 9 at Bold Hype, 1844 E. Winter Park Road; free; 407-619-1965; www.boldhype.net) Paradoxes Portrayed: Drawings and Assemblages by Ummarid Eitharong (Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Friday, continues…
The art of Woo
Ancient China war epic lifts a film master out of purgatory
Call him the seeker
Clooney wows in an otherwise indecisive film
It matters not
Clint Eastwoodâ??s rugby outing sits out depth
Rock of jabroni
Surfer Blood with Bananafish, An Introduction to Sunshine, Great Deceivers 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13 Back Booth 407-999-2570 $6-$8 $6-$8 Though the blogosphere announces potential with big fireworks, advance buzz is a transitory thing that incites backlash at least as intense if a band can’t substantiate the furor. Currently, freshman Florida indie rock band Surfer…
Every Christmas Story Ever Told
Jiggle all the way Every Christmas Story Ever Told Through Dec. 27 at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 812 E. Rollins St.; 407-447-1700 www.orlandoshakes.org $14-$38 There was only one Christian family in the Jewish neighborhood in which I grew up, so my memories of this holiday begin and end with candy canes at the Ansons’, two doors…
Airborne, Grounded and a Polar Bear
Innocents in danger Airborne, Grounded and a Polar Bear Through Dec. 31 at Juicy Temples/Shoot 1807 E. Winter Park Road 407-332-7348 www.juicytemples.com/shoot The menacing black eyes of the polar bear look up into the sky in Andrew White’s painting on display in the impromptu gallery at the back of Juicy Temples/Shoot graphic design shop (across…
Going nowhere
Launched on Sept. 11 with as much fanfare as its backers could muster, the campaign to enshrine “personhood” in the state’s constitution is looking more and more like a long shot these days, so much so that even anti-abortion forces are abandoning the fight. Personhood Florida is part of a wider campaign, which claims to…
Books for cooks
It’s been a tough year. As the financial fallout of 2009 continues, very few gift-givers are feeling confident enough to splash out on big-ticket items, nor is there a race to get those top-dollar restaurant reservations. All of which makes it a perfect moment to give cookbooks for the holidays: They’re relatively inexpensive and they’ll…
Happytown
Not all of the academic dithering going on over at the University of Central Florida is for the industrial war machine. In fact, sometimes the published results of too-many-students-wondering-aloud-in-a-room can be literally fantastic, buoyed by references to hairbrushes, costumes, castles, talking frogs and playful dinosaurs, the sort of commodified escapism that quietly butters both sides…
Council Watch
It was a week for living dangerously. With Mayor Buddy Dyer on a SunRail business trip to Tallahassee — though he did phone home — the lunatics took over the asylum. Tony Ortiz took the occasion to debut a beard (on his face!), Daisy Lynum made vague references to football (the Florida Classic) and sausage…
Blister
Through the refracted blue-neon reflection of nightlife’s anthropological looking glass, time has a way of bending in on itself, rendering context useless. It’s supposed to do that. The collective po-faced stupor-sway of corporate inebriation never comes as a real surprise — it is, after all, the commoditized spectrograph geometry by which bar budgets are routinely…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Indignation is one of the most rewarding of emotions,” writes Theodore Dalrymple, “as well as one that automatically gives meaning to life. … There is nothing like irritation to get the juices circulating and the mind working.” Of all the ideas that have made me indignant in recent weeks, this one…
Savage Love
I am a 23-year-old man who has been in a relationship with a great woman for four years now. She is an amazing person, and we oftentimes talk about marriage. The issue is this: I have a foot fetish and she is fully aware of it. She doesn’t like the idea of me kissing her…
Police Beat
Nov. 26 (2009-561184) 5:30 p.m.: Orlando police are on the lookout for a suspiciously well-trimmed lawn. A guy on Park Lake Street found his whole trailer full of lawn care equipment, and more from his utility closet, was missing. (2009-561372) 11:43 p.m.: Step one: Stab your wife in the shoulder. Step two: Wave the knife…
Live Active Cultures
It’s always awkward when an old friend appears after a face-lift. How do you comment on all the work they’ve had done, when you can’t see much improvement? That’s the uncomfortable position Walt Disney World places us in with the rehabilitated Space Mountain, which reopened Nov. 23 for the first time since April. Along with…
Greg Epstein, atheist superstar
Once an intellectual taboo, atheism has become one of the great growth industries of the third millennium. Combative atheist titles like Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and Sam Harris’ The End of Faith become New York Times best-sellers; faith-bashing films like Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous and Ricky Gervais’ comedy…
The eyes have it
Fables of the Equinox Through Dec. 19 at the Peacock Room 1321 N. Mills Ave. 407-228-0048 www.thepeacockroom.com Free In Patrick Fatica’s current show, Fables of the Equinox, his paintings of big-eyed goddesses enthrall the viewer. There is a look to these women that takes from our global subculture, but still they have a life of…
This Little Underground
A huge pour on the floor for American guitar master Jack Rose, who died of a heart attack on Dec. 5 at the far-too-young age of 38. The Philadelphia resident was one of the most important innovators of acoustic folk music and maintained a connection to our city, primarily because local art scenester Pat Greene…
Ascending the throne
Baroness with Torche, Iron Age, Dark Castle 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10 The Social, 407-246-1419 $12-$14 Isolation is often a spur to inspiration, whether it’s hours spent alone in a bedroom or years growing up in a small town near the West Virginia—Virginia border. Though exciting alt-metal troupe Baroness came to life in Savannah, Ga.,…
