CATS WITHOUT CLAWS
The Greatest Label: Matador Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Greatest, The There are times when I truly believe punk rock was the worst thing to ever happen to rock & roll. Most of the time it’s while listening to cookie-cutter emo bands grind out the same old tired chords while singing in their self-infatuated whine. But it…
OVER TOO SOON
Grind Finale Label: Relapse Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Grind Finale Roughly one year ago, Nasum’s singer/guitarist Mieszko Talarczyk died when a tsunami struck Thailand, where he was vacationing to celebrate his 30th birthday. His bandmates immediately decided the world’s fastest trio would cease to exist as an active entity. However, Anders Jakobson, who handled bass, drums,…
From a Compound Eye
From a Compound Eye Label: Merge Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: From a Compound Eye If you’re a fan, you know what to expect. If not, this isn’t the place to start. But to restate the oft-restated: For 21 years Bob Pollard led Guided by Voices, breaking up the group in 2004 with a big announcement and…
Black Cadillac
Black Cadillac Label: Capitol Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Black Cadillac “The day breaks, your mind aches, there will be times when all the things she said will fill your head, you won’t forget her”; The Beatles’ “For No One” could have been the alternate title track to this sad requiem of sorts from undercover superstar Rosanne…
Slow New York
Slow New York Label: Manhattan/EMI Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Slow New York Like Peter Himmelman before him, rustic folkie Richard Julian imagines Manhattan as a series of sepia-toned vignettes, like a heavy-lidded version of Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Real New Yorkers know the city – in the grips of gentrification from Harlem to the Bowery – is…
Electric President
Electric President Label: Morr Music Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Electric President Bedroom electronic pop has its constraints, and when the Florida duo known as Electric President are able to bury said limitations, they are at their best. Their debut album finds the two wading toward their mid-20s steeped in somewhat glum dispositions that are outlined by…
STRETCHING THE POINT
Match Point Studio: Dreamworks Pictures Rated: R Website: http://www.matchpoint.dreamworks.com/main.html Release Date: 2006-01-20 Cast: Brian Cox, Matthew Goode, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers Director: Woody Allen Screenwriter: Woody Allen WorkNameSort: Match Point Our Rating: 3.00 The hype is technically true: Match Point is Woody Allen’s best movie in years. But only because he’s already had…
UNLOADING BAY
Keane Studio: Magnolia Pictures Rated: R Website: http://www.magpictures.com/profile.aspx?id=c61c0b20-7b7f-4697-84d5-aa1746a9188e Release Date: 2006-01-19 Cast: Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan, Liza Colon-Zayas, John Tormey Director: Lodge Kerrigan Screenwriter: Lodge Kerrigan WorkNameSort: Keane Our Rating: 4.00 In Keane, filmmaker Lodge Kerrigan confirms something every commuter dreads: Transportation stations may be gateways to home and security, but they can…
STICK IT!
Politics never stops. One campaign ends, another begins. One moment you’re on top of the world, the next you sink like a rock. Which leaves room for optimism: No matter how bad things get, the potential for change lies just around the corner. By any measure, 2006 is absolutely pivotal for the Democratic Party, both…
I Love Television
Apparently, I have a bad reputation with Christians. Almost daily I receive e-mails from these people reminding me that I’m “going to roast in the eternal fires of damnation,” “scream for mercy as Satan tortures my anus with his red-hot poker” and that I would have been better off “being aborted – just so your…
ADDING UP THE BLUES
Don’t ask musicians to do math. Like any good liberal arts major, they will find a way to screw it up. Susan Tedeschi was making $300 to $500 a shift singing as a waitress on a ship. Sure, it was Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and the rest of the top 40, but in the early…
Letters
Healthy stuff Thank you very much for your interest and coverage in the Dec. 8 issue concerning the activities and services of the Orange County Health Department `”Wash Your Hands,” Dec. 8`. It was a terrific opportunity to educate and engage the public in essential public health services that affect our entire community. We look…
BEEN CAUGHT CHANNELING
`Editor’s note: Last week, we published a letter from Gene Lessard, a self-described gay Republican who accused our Steve Schneider of attempting to “channel” former Orlando Weekly contributor Liz Langley. He also wondered if Schneider or his bullpen buddy Billy Manes had been responsible for “burning (Ms. Langley) in effigy” when she departed these pages…
Departures, Two Trains Running, The Art of the Motorcycle, and more
Thursday • 19 TWO TRAINS RUNNING We always get a little antsy when there’s serious downtime between People’s Theatre productions, worrying that the multicultural performance company may have tired of fighting the good fight and called it a day. Founder and executive director Canara Price says that her troupe is still struggling to expand its…
Savage Love
I have a sexual interest in the sounds of men using the toilet. There are several restaurants very close to my home, and I hide a wireless telephone headset in an inconspicuous place in the bathroom. I can then record, from my home, the sounds of men farting and defecating. My husband is aware of…
Notable Noise
Recently, I conducted an interview with a guy in a rock band on a very hip indie label. We talked about the changes his band has gone through, the joy he gets from being creative, the punk-rock attitude that informs everything he does. We also reminisced about the good times we had on one of…
Rob Brezsny’s Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In my book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia, there’s a 1,500-word piece extolling a few of the many ways in which I feel that living on this planet is a glorious privilege. You’re in a phase of your astrological cycle when it makes perfect sense for you to write something…
Blister
“Surely we could find a red pubic hair here,” my friend John regurgitates my now thrice-plucked column premise. “Or a blonde one with roots and maybe a small splattering of hair glue,” I engage, without feeling. Or any color, really. John and I have just survived the gay/Christian allegory that is Joseph and the Amazing…
ALIVE AND WELL
Say what you will about French playwright Molière (born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in 1622), but you can’t dispute his sense of theatrical timing. During a 1673 performance of his final play, The Imaginary Invalid, Molière – who was playing the role of the miserly hypochondriac, Argan – suffered a hemorrhage in the final act, soldiered on…
MOVIN’ ON UP
“Previously on Ladies of Eola Heights,” runs the video preamble to Michael Wanzie’s latest stage comedy, simultaneously inaugurating a handy 10-minute recap of past hilarities and announcing that we’re about to witness the second episode of the greatest sitcom Norman Lear never created. Having used the smash success Ladies of Eola Heights to establish an…
Happytown
Our bud Christopher Wilson, the Lakeland Internet entrepreneur busted on obscenity charges last year, is out of jail and will soon be out of business. Wilson accepted a plea deal Jan. 13 that drops all felony charges against him and 295 of the 300 misdemeanor obscenity counts. He’ll get probation for the five remaining counts,…
BETWEEN BREAKFAST AND BED
In the world of food, brunch is like a limited-access daytime seductress – coming out only on weekends but in tempting and lavish excess. Brunch is more verb than noun, and brunch is as much about the time it takes up as it is about the food itself. Sunday is brunch’s best day – it’s…
STALEMATE
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a three-part series that explores the city’s homelessness dilemma. (Part Two: [“Battle Ready” Jan. 26], Part Three: [“Dear Buddy” Feb. 2], ) After 15 months of contentious meetings, the Mayor’s Working Committee on Homelessness delivered its report to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in June 2004. “I look…
