BEST OF ORLANDO® NOMINATION BALLOT IS OPEN THROUGH MAY 6!

Feb 3-9, 1999

Feb 3-9, 1999 / Vol. 15 / No. 5

Caste-ing call

The tug-of-war between tradition and progress isn’t always an easy one to watch, as those of us who attended last weekend’s fifth annual South Asian Film Festival can surely attest. At times, it felt as if this year’s program had shot itself in the foot by devoting its running time to challenging, cross-cultural works that…

Steve Schneider

Seeing the light on light rail

Gerry Nolan is not the anti-Guetzloe. But he’s as close as the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce can get, and he’s the only counterweight to Doug Guetzloe’s anti-light-rail forces. Nolan worked as the Chamber’s vice president until Dec. 4, when he became the head of Central Florida Citizens for Light Rail. The organization is small…

Ericson, Edward Jr.

No pictures, please

Gov. Jeb Bush halted the state’s sale of 14 million driver’s license photos to a New Hampshire company that said it would use them to prevent fraud. The sale of such pictures, which caused an uproar here and in Colorado and South Carolina, prompted lawsuits and a court injunction to stop it. Bush’s action now…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Senate prez gets insured

Florida State Senate President Toni Jennings (R-Orlando) got a new part-time job last week. On Jan. 26, Poe & Brown, a Daytona Beach insurance agency, named Jennings to its board of directors. Poe & Brown provides property, casualty, life and health plans to businesses and individuals. It specializes in developing custom policies for niche clients…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Grass and roots response

Steve Nordlinger, the environmentalist caught in the crosshairs of Orange County’s code-enforcement office for allowing native grasses to grow unfettered on his Big Econ River property, received a visit from that office following Orlando Weekly’s report of his predicament [The law of the land, Jan. 28]. After an anonymous complaint, Nordlinger, whose grass protects the…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Crash course in fashion

A December Wall Street Journal report described the problems of auto manufacturers forced to crash-test their cars using mannequins not only of government-dictated sizes and weight but wearing clothing prescribed in minute detail by regulation. Included are requirements that the dummies wear shoes of a precise weight and a black-leather style, that “adults” wear matched…

Chuck Shepherd

Congress rescues its perks!

Congress is off to a razzle-dazzle start, with a new speaker of the House and several bushy-tailed new members. But from the get-go, they’ve been up to the same old tricks. On Jan. 6, the members were sworn-in and freshman Speaker Dennis Hastert promptly gaveled through the very first piece of business. It’s good to…

Jim Hightower

The needle and the damage done

Junk, smack, dope — even the nicknames sound bleak. It’s the drug that turns people into junkies. It turned William Burroughs into a raspy rail. It made Billie Holiday tottering and too doped out to care if she was beaten up or ripped off. It’s the drug that people die from. Heroin can kill you,…

Theresa Everline

A lesson in abstract depression

Jim Boquist, bassist for the standard-setting country-rock group Son Volt, is talking about painting. “There’s the literal, the obvious realism, and there’s impressionism,” he says. “For some, impressionism is more challenging.” He’s using painting as a way to discuss bandleader Jay Farrar’s oblique lyrics. Son Volt’s music echoes the sounds of Appalachian back porches and…

Theresa Everline

The anti-Wynton

One jazz critic, praising the popular series of midnight shows Steven Bernstein’s Sex Mob played at New York’s Knitting Factory in 1996 and 1997, dubbed the band’s namesake “the anti-Wynton” — a reference to the musical Marsalis family’s most famous son. “I want to do a battle of the bands with Wynton,” Bernstein told Down…

Philip Booth

The smoke clears

Michael Cudahy, singer and gutarist for Combustible Edison, is best known to his bandmates and fans as, simply, The Millionaire. So why, as a recorded message so dispassionately relates to me, has his phone been temporarily disconnected? A “cash-flow bottleneck” was the culprit, the erudite and always stylishly dressed Cudahy says, after a scheduled interview…

Philip Booth

Ensure ’nuff

Over the holidays, it came to my attention that a champagne shortage is projected for next New Year’s Eve. I’ve since started to stockpile the occasional bottle. This is as far as my big turn-of-the-century plan has gone. I don’t even know what I’m doing right at this moment. I can’t be expected to know…

Liz Langley

New way to Bombay

If visions of subtitles and impenetrable tribal histories have kept you from attending the South Asian Film Festival, this year’s program at Enzian Theater is ready to meet you halfway. The 1999 showcase boasts production values and story lines that are more accessible than previous offerings. The emphasis is on universal tales with ethnic elements…

Steve Schneider

Powering up on Mid-East fare

A longstanding touchstone for health food off Park Avenue, the Power House Cafe has morphed into a hub for Middle Eastern cuisine. It’s now a primary source in the area for delicacies like falafels and stuffed grape leaves. Earthy salads stuffed with sprouts and sunflower seeds, and veggie sandwiches loaded with avocado and bulgar wheat…

Colleen Moore

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