First Shot: The worst cut is the deepest
Yeah, yeah, itâ??s another Watchmen post from me â?? but donâ??t worry; this one has a slightly loftier purpose than sounding the alarm that a project that looked highly promising a mere two weeks ago is starting to show tell-tale symptoms of the suck. Whatâ??s raised my eyebrow, Spock/Quinto-like, is that so many fanboys are…
Bored of war
Biopic of revolutionary is dull for good reason
Lost boys
The force is not strong with this one
Sazon’s greetings
Traditional and Nuevo latino collide in Winter Park
Post-funny
A film from Maxim magazine can’t seal the deal
This Little Underground
Dammit, man. R.I.P. Estelle Bennett (of the Ronettes). See? I do like pop music. The beat Maybe Canada’s Cowboy Junkies are the kind of thing your parents listened to. Mine did, and they even went to the concert with me (Feb. 11, Plaza Theatre). The dubious tag of mature band is admittedly inescapable for the…
Live Active Cultures
One year ago, in one of my first columns (Feb. 21, 2008), I reviewed 2008’s Nude Nite art event and came to the conclusion that “this emperor’s got no clothes.” Judging by the critical commentary from others around the Interweb, I’m not the only one who found the heavily attended fest of fleshy artwork to be…
Happytown
This week in gay, the natives got restless! At 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, the politely militant gays and lesbians of OneOrlando.org ripped a page from the national Join the Impact playbook, which itself cribbed notes from national group Freedom to Marry — holy gay network, Mary! — in celebrating Freedom to Marry Week. About…
Old Sparky
In 1923, the Florida Legislature designated electrocution as the state’s official means of execution. Public hangings, which until that point were conducted by counties, were banned. (Lawmakers thought electrocution more humane, as incorrectly performed hangings often led to decapitation.) Prisoners were forced to build the state’s first electric chair — “Old Sparky” — from oak.…
A difficult life
From childhood, Wayne Tompkins never had it easy. He told a psychiatrist in 1999 that as a child his foster father had beaten him mercilessly. Tompkins said he drank heavily — a half-gallon of whiskey and a half-case of beer every day — which caused him blackouts and memory loss. The psychiatrist described him as…
A view to a kill
Orlando Weekly editor Bob Whitby and I arrived in Starke, a town of fast-food joints whose economy is built almost entirely on the three state prisons in the immediate vicinity, a little after 3 p.m. The Florida Department of Corrections has set up a staging area for media covering the execution in a field across…
Fierce balls
Blame it on John Cleese. That sentence could be applied to any number of things — from thousands of nerdy college boys actually thinking the dead parrot sketch is funny to Fierce Creatures — but in this case, we can blame John Cleese for the following words: Sir Bob Geldof and Sir Paul Hewson. Were…
Twice back atcha
Three years ago this March, Cam’ron almost stopped by the photo shoot for the cover story I was writing on his Diplomats crew. It was the first spring day after a hard NYC winter and all the kids were shooting hoops, riding quads and posing for pictures at a Harlem-area park known as Battlegrounds. The…
Cinderella story hold the pumkin
The true origin of the rags-to-riches fairy tale remains unclear, but for sure the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini debuted his La Cenerentola (chin-a-rin-tola) opera when he was 25, in 1817. It would be more than a century later, in 1950, that Disney released its film loaded with “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” magic. This weekend, Orlando Opera presents the…
Hope on the hardwood
First there was the blog named FreeDarko. Titled in honor of the 7 feet of Serbian sadness that is NBA draft bust (and erstwhile Orlando Magic center) Darko Milicic, the collective of FreeDarko writers gleefully dismantled the rigid parameters of sports journalism with absurdist observations and superior statistical analysis. Once you witness FreeDarko’s astute observations…
Death in the afternoon
A difficult life: From childhood, Wayne Tompkins never had it easy A view to a kill: Witnessing the details of state-sponsored death Old Sparky: A brief history of Florida’s electric chair There’s something captivating about the expression of a man who knows he’s about to die but can’t do anything about it; it’s a mixture…
Who saved the electric car?
Larry Wexler is an idea guy. Just ask him. “I could probably sit in an office all day and they would say, ‘Larry, come up with ideas,’ and I could make money for any company.” In a college English class back in 1972, he had an idea for a composition about the looming oil crisis…
Blister
“I figured it out!” comes the cigarette-weary radio voice of Savannah through my cellular tin can. “You know what we are? We’re like, you know, if life were a pet shop, then we’re …” “Pet Shop Boys,” I key up like a bathroom stall. “I knew you were going to say that, that’s why I…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) For a limited time, you’re in a position to consciously choose your next problems. This is a tremendous opportunity that I hope you won’t allow to go to waste. By being proactive, you can ensure the arrival of fun and interesting dilemmas, thereby avoiding the frustrating and draining kind. In other…
Savage Love
I dropped by four large universities last week to do “Savage Love Live,” the college-speaking-gig version of my sex-advice column. People submit questions — the ones they don’t want to be seen asking — on 3-by-5-inch cards at the events. Sadly, I couldn’t get to everyone’s. Here are answers to some of the questions I…
