Graphing the Great Gun Debate
A compilation of the best infographics on guns
The Sh-Booms host Music Video Premiere & ’60s Dance Party
Monday Feb. 25 – The Sh-Booms Music Video Premiere & ’60s Dance Party 10 p.m. Independent Bar 70 N. Orange Ave. 407-839-0457 free Get up onstage, play your music, sell your new record at the merch booth – so what’s the difference between your record release “event” and any other ol’ gig? That’s the question…
Sunday Film News Roundup — February 24th, 2013
So tonight is the big night. The official end to the 2012 movie season, which, most likely, will honor the middle ground of an otherwise fantastic movie year (except DDL and whoever wins the animated categories). We’ve all made our picks of who we think should win versus who we think will win, and despite…
Pooches compete in the doggie dash, musical chairs and more at Doglympics
Saturday, Feb. 23 – Doglympics 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Avalon Park 3702 Avalon Park East Blvd. 407-832-3763 doglympics.com free Skip going to the dog park this Saturday – replace your dog’s mindless excitement with a more constructive activity, like lure coursing or relay racing or obedience baseball. And while you’re at it, don’t just broaden your…
OW Oscarama — The Envelope Please…: Best Picture (with Special Guest Blogger!)
And so, here we are. Down to the last category, the biggest category of them all. All of the Oscar prognosticators and armchair opinionators will tell you that it’s a mortal lock for Argo to become the latest in a long line of safe, boring Best Picture winners. Because of a couple of votes and…
Winter Park Saloon opens this weekend in former McRaney’s Tavern
“Winter Park, y’all! ” Rolls off the tongue, no? Well, Winter Park Saloon hopes it will soon. That’s right, (sub)urban cowboys, the City of Culture and Heritage is about to get its own Gilley’s! The new country video bar opens this weekend in the former McRaney’s Tavern space next door to 4 Rivers. (Some twisty,…
Local restaurants dish it out at Downtown Food & Wine Fest
The All-American Rejects Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 23-24 – Downtown Food & Wine Fest Noon-9 p.m. Saturday, noon-7 p.m. Sunday Lake Eola Park, Robinson Street downtownfoodandwinefest.cbslocal.com $10-$15 More than 40 of Orlando’s finest restaurants serve up specialty dishes (over 100 menu items) at this year’s Downtown Food & Wine Fest. Lining the shores of Lake Eola Park,…
An incredible Beast of a benefit show
Orlando drivers, it’s no secret that you need to get your shit together and learn to share the road with cyclists. Case in point: Earlier this month, local musician Karyna Santana (Emma X) was critically injured when she collided with a Jeep on her bike ride home from work. To help with her medical costs,…
Room Full of Strangers throw tour kickoff party at Will’s Pub
photo by Rob Bartlett Friday, Feb. 22 – Room Full of Strangers with Telethon, Luscious Lisa, Wolf Face 9 p.m. Will’s Pub 1042 N. Mills Ave. willspub.org $5-$7 Orlando’s Room Full of Strangers are a band best experienced live, and dammit, they know it. For last year’s five-track album Ten Thousand, they chose to exclusively…
OW Oscarama — Wait… No One Played a Nazi?: Best Actress (and Actor)
So here’s the deal: we’re in the homestretch of this thing now and I decided to skip Best Actor. There is no suspense to the category. We all know Daniel Day Lewis will win. We all know Daniel Day Lewis should win. And he will. There is no point in talking about it because it’s…
We are the People of WalMart
Have you seen this infographic yet? It’s a piece that ran this month in Psychology Today. Called “Missed Connections: An atlas of where we’re (almost) finding love,” it outlines where people in different states were posting about their Missed Connections on Craigslist. In New York, naturally, most of the Missed Connections posts were about fleeting…
Orlando Monopoly
We made it. It’s not all about the Mouse ears that puts us on the map – we now have a “true” Orlando Edition of Monopoly. Not that crummy, fanny pack version made in the late 1990’s, this one is created for the local. This unauthorized game calls out joints like Stardust Coffee and 4Rivers.…
Atlanta Braves open spring-training season in Orlando
Friday, Feb. 22 – Atlanta Braves vs. Detroit Tigers 1 p.m. ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex Walt Disney World Resort Lake Buena Vista 407-939-4263 espnwwos.disney.go.com $10-$49 For anyone watching, it was a hard-hitting moment: Not only did fabled switch-hitter Chipper Jones (set to retire after 20 years in major league baseball) step up to…
Stolen Gear alert update – Erin and Jeff Nolan’s guitars recovered
In January, we posted a stolen gear alert here after we learned that some scumbag broke into the home of local musicians Erin and Jeff Nolan and stole three of their prized guitars (See: “People who steal from artists have no souls.”). This week (against all odds), the Nolans and their guitars were reunited. Seems…
Closing reception tonight for Brian R. Jobe and Jason S. Brown’s Alignment 2x show
Thursday, Feb. 21 – Alignment 2x Closing Reception 6-8 p.m. UCF Center for Emerging Media 500 W. Livingston St. 407-823-2121 free UCF’s Center for Emerging Media is a little spot of intellectual challenge marooned downtown on the “other” side of I-4, facing the parking-lot ocean behind the dead husk of the old Amway Arena. If…
Atlanta’s Ponderosa offer up dream pop at Will’s Pub
Thursday, Feb. 21 – Ponderosa with Chris Staples, Mrenc, Kyle Cox 9 p.m. Will’s Pub 1042 N. Mills Ave. willspub.org $7-$8 For a band that began their career entrenched in Southern roots rock, it’s not exactly a peas-and-carrots moment when their second album comes out looking like bedazzled dream pop. So, we applauded Atlanta’s Ponderosa…
OW Oscarama — Hey, Have You Guys Seen Ben or Kathryn?: Best Director
When the nominations were finally announced and broken down it became clear that the two biggest snubs of the year were contained in one category. Both Argo and Zero Dark Thirty were shut out of the category, which counts as huge snubs for their directors, Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow. The issue, I think, with…
Howard Johnson hotel only has love for Mumford and $on$
Any bride can attest to the nerve-wracking stress-fest of wedding planning: finding your little location, filling out your little registry, choosing your little cake, booking your little hotel block. But for one Michigan bride who intended to host a destination wedding in St. Augustine, there was one little wrench in her wedding fantasy: Mumford and…
Breaking: Gov. Rick Scott to endorse Medicaid expansion this evening. Related: Scott has already ruined Florida
Today’s been a big fat wad of Florida depression, which you probably already know. You’re probably also aware that today whiny gubernatorial gumball Rick Scott got his way on the second of his Medicaid waiver requests from the feds, prompting him to release the following blast of ridiculously wronged optimism in the face of a…
GORELANDO: Album Review: Wednesday 13’s ‘The Dixie Dead’
Back to his classic mosh-stomp sound, horror-metal’s brat-prince Wednesday 13 returns with The Dixie Dead. This blood-soaked icon has swayed from mastermind to “back-burner caricature” over the years (kind-of a Marilyn Manson light), but the diehards stay true and he keeps dishing out the cheeseball fanfare. As with many horror-metal acts, Wednesday 13 is an…
Was Atticus Finch Just Another Victim?
Thursday, Feb. 21 – Was Atticus Finch Just Another Victim? A Critical Analysis of the Jury’s Verdict in To Kill a Mockingbird 6-8:30 p.m. Orange County Regional History Center 65 E. Central Blvd. 407-836-7010 thehistorycenter.org $10-$20 Though the more whimsical literary moralists among us may be more inclined to reenact 6-year-old Scout’s crazy-house fascinations with…
OW Oscarama — I Could Totally Have Written One of These: Best Adapted Screenplay
When the WGA East & West were having their joint-separate awards over the weekend, there was initially some confusion about who won. The WGA East had started announcing awards way ahead of the WGA West and when word filtered through from New York that Chris Terrio had won for Argo, Tony Kushner happened to be…
Author Rebekah McCloud leads Guided Walking Tour of Black Churches
photo by Peter Schreyer Thursday, Feb. 21 – Guided Walking Tour of Black Churches 10:30 a.m. Hannibal Square Heritage Center 642 W. New England Ave., Winter Park 407-623-3279 free; registration required Churches have long served as more than places of worship in the African-American community; “black churches are the heart of the black community,” says…
OW Oscarama — I Need More Lens Flares!: Best Cinematography
Cinematography is one of the more confusing categories that are granted awards. It’s not always clear who shot what or why an image looks good. Images look good for a variety of reasons, and most of those reasons have to do with production design, costuming and blocking. It’s hard to separate that out sometimes because…
Veteran buskers Moon Hooch stop by the Beacham
Spirited trio employs sax and drums to incite dance
The latest on Orange County's texting scandal
Will LOLTEXTGATE be Mayor Teresa Jacobs’ lasting legacy
In your queue
Three Oscars-nominated docs now streaming on Netflix
Raga
Raga’s approach to fine dining and local sourcing is off-key
Live Active Cultures
Disneyland sends change Disney World’s way; Ron Legler announces shows in FTA’s final Bob Carr season
‘Bless Me, Ultima’
Film based on a controversial book may be the ultimate kids’ story about growing up Mexican-American
Owner of Eat More Produce denied green card
Situation throws future of farm-market store in Winter Park into question
Demos: An Independent Artists Guide to Success
Doc screening at the Enzian aims to help demystify the music industry for hip-hop artists
‘Contemporary Glass Sculpture: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Studio Glass’
Orlando Museum of Art’s colossal art-glass exhibition is a visual treat
Drinking, Nightlife and Parties
Where to drink and party in Orlando this week
Album Review: Matt Pond’s ‘The Lives Inside the Lines in Your Hand’
Matt Pond rebrands himself with radiantly optimistic new release
This Little Underground
Our live music columnist covers Meshuggah, American Party Machine and Phat-N-Jazzy
Oscars online voting reduces awards to a shambles
Bungled electronic voting could throw the Oscar to the wrong movie
Bills of Goods
SB 872 – Animal shelters or animal control agencies
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) In the course of her world travels, writer Jane Brunette has seen many wonderful things – as well as a lot of trash. The most beautiful litter, she says, is in Bali. She loves the "woven palm leaf offerings, colorful cloth left from a ceremony and flowers that dry into exquisite…
Savage Love
I’m a 31-year-old genderqueer from a large family. My only sister got engaged 48 hours ago, and she’s moving fast on planning the wedding. I texted her the only date I wasn’t available in the next two years, which is Columbus Day weekend 2013. I have my 10-year college reunion, which I’ve been organizing. My…
Maakies
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Charter Schools: still sucking after all these years
Orange County School Board Chair Bill Sublette says 23 of 34 charter schools in county are “responsibly run”
Tip Jar
Local food news: Tony Adams’ new pop-up restaurant, Dishcrawl, thank a Florida farmworker, Taste of Oviedo and more
The Ocoee Parking Lot Bluegrass Jam
For the past 22 years, some of the best bluegrass music in Central Florida has come from this strip-mall parking lot
Growing Fonder
You Blew It discusses how touring emphasizes all the reasons why Florida doesn’t suck
GORELANDO: Local Playboy Model Takes To The Shadows
Local Playboy model Amber Sym is no stranger to horror, and now she’s bringing her cheese, glitz (and uncanny ability to make men around the country master the art of one-handed typing) to your living room with her new webseries, “Florida in the Shadows” from Saternapinatost films, airing on YouTube. It’s a sexy, campy romp through…
GORELANDO: Let’s Get This Started, Orlando Horror Community!
Hey Boys and Ghouls! Welcome to GORELANDO! This fright-tastic new blog will highlight any upcoming horror-themed events/reviews/rumors in one of the largest, most passionate Horror Communities in the world! But we can’t make this happen without YOU. That being said, if you have ANY horror-themed leads or want to discuss your horror event, send an…
Police Beat: It’s been a violent 48 hours in Orlando
First, there was this incident that happened on Feb. 18 at 2:25 a.m. in downtown Orlando: According to the Orlando Police Department, a fight involving 20-40 people broke out in the vicinity of BOSS nightclub. As the crowd was being “escorted” out of the club, according to an arrest affadavit, a verbal argument broke out…
OW Oscarama — Ach! You Stinkbrain!: Best Animated Feature
Since its inception, the Best Animated Film category used to be an almost automatic Pixar win. They times are not exactly a-changin’, but the landscape for animated films certainly is. Dreamworks is still behind the pack as far critical acclaim goes (though kids love their films), but the emergence of LAIKA and the Pixar Brain…
On sale this week: The Postal Service at Hard Rock Live
On sale: Friday, Feb. 22 The Postal Service 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 5 Hard Rock Live 6050 Universal Blvd. 407-351-5483 hardrock.com $38-$58 Down the road: Keb Mo, Feb. 28 at The Plaza Live Blueprint, Feb. 28 at Backbooth Bon Jovi, March 1 at Tampa Bay Times Forum Dropkick Murphys, March 2 at…
OW Oscarama — Fly Like Paper, Get High Like Planes: Best Animated Short
For anyone who read my top 5 animated shorts piece in December (and if you didn’t WHY NOT?) the winner I pick here won’t be a surprise. The surprise were how good the rest of the entries were, and even some of the short listed entries that didn’t end up getting nominated. Adam and Dog…
