Messed actor
Jeff Bridges delivers a performance for the ages
Angels of depth
A moving look at the lives of the notifiers
Thank you for smokinâ??
Lovers of Texas-style barbecue owe Rivers a debt of gratitude
This Little Underground
Some of the benefit shows that the local music community has organized to help Haiti have had disappointing turnouts. I know these are the leanest of times, but put it all in perspective and go support them, people. It is literally the least you can do. Having a temporarily empty wallet seriously ain’t shit compared…
Happytown
The 37th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion in this country did not pass without notice in Orlando. First up, on the pro-choice side of the ring, was the Jan. 21 event at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando on East Robinson Street. Aside from the program starting a bit late…
DVDs Nuts!
Che Auteur Steven Soderbergh’s difficult, two-part guerrilla-style epic about a guerrilla-style revolutionary gets that much more ponderous, fascinating and, let’s face it, mind-numbing thanks to Criterion with the addition of a high-definition transfer “supervised by Soderbergh.” Question: If the film was shot in hi-def digital, as Soderbergh so loudly boasted, what else needed to be…
Blister
It’s gray outside. Blustery billows of dank fat-man breath blow down from the sky and up pleated man-skirts, chilling freckles on pinkish nethers into pubic spikes of discomfort. The whizzing gnats of bagpipes on top of bagpipes under bagpipes bleat out their miniature non sequitur laments of otherness in other places, but everything is remarkably…
Live Active Cultures
I think I’m about the least likely person to be labeled a Luddite. In my house, I have four gaming consoles, three laptop computers, two video projectors and an iPhone … in an Apple tree. I’ve been online since the days of 1200-baud modems and text-interface BBS systems; today I’ve got Yahoo, Gmail and my…
Council Watch
From the first solemn ring of the church bells outside, it was clear that there would be very little to smile about at this week’s governmental misery support group meeting. A Unitarian invocation worried about the homeless and Haiti, praying that whatever God it is that speaks to commissioners would do his best to make…
Police Beat
Jan. 12 (2010-19106) 10:02 p.m.: At Miracle of Love church on West Colonial Drive, someone used the miracle of physics to break a glass door with a fire extinguisher. Yea, verily, a Dell desktop computer was taken up. Jan. 13 (2010-20373) 2 a.m.: And you know they bought it to fend off thieves: Somebody stole…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Shakespeare got modest respect while he was alive, but his reputation as a brilliant bard didn’t gel right away. It wasn’t until almost 50 years after he died that anyone thought his life and work were notable enough to write about. By then, all his colleagues and compatriots were gone, and…
Savage Love
I’m a single (mostly) gay guy who is curious about women. A hot bisexual mate is interested in a friends-with-benefits arrangement. I’m not looking for an LTR just now, so regular, no-strings sex sounds great. However, his girlfriend doesn’t know he’s bisexual, and I’d feel uncomfortable having sex with him behind her back. I’ve said…
Web Only: Far and wide
The Internationals Through Feb. 12 at Gallery at Avalon Island, 39 S. Magnolia Ave. 407-803-6670 www.galleryatavalonisland.com Free If ever an art exhibit made you feel that you too could pick up a brush — or pencil, or scissors, or chainsaw — and express yourself as an artist, it’s the bright, brash Internationals. It’s not just…
Extra, terrestrial radio
It is 4:04 and you’re listening to National Public Radio. I can see that fact, considering most radios have clocks attached to them. I’m a newcomer to the City Beautiful after moving from Manhattan about a year ago, and there are some things that I, a 20-something media creative, cannot live without. One of them is…
Monster love
Monster love The Phantom of the Opera Through Feb. 14 at Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, 401 W. Livingston St. 407-849-2020 www.orlandovenues.net $30-$75 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega-musical The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running show in Broadway history, with more than 9,100 performances since 1986 and still counting. Between multiple international productions — including…
Bright young things
Bright young things Fresh From Chelsea: 21 Young NYC Artists Through Feb. 26 UCF Art Gallery, University of Central Florida 407-823-3161 www.art.ucf.edu Free Fresh can connote something sparkling and unjaded, or it can signal green, callow and half-baked. Fortunately, most of the works Fresh From Chelsea, culled from the collection of Winter Park residents Lisa…
A tale of two neighborhoods
‘No Trespassing: This area is a designated construction site. Anyone who trespasses on this property commits a felony!” warns a sign wired to a 3-foot-high fence off Briny Deep Court near the Orlando International Airport. “Warning: Asbestos,” reads another, in bold print. The fence gate, nonetheless, is half-open. Beyond the prohibitive entrance, 37 two-story residences…
Period piece
The Cook Trio Moonlight (self-released) The Cook Trio CD release show 9:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29 Redlight Redlight 407-539-1711 www.myspace.com/theredlightredlight $5 $5 $5 Airfare to Paris currently runs about $900. Time travel back to the 1930s? Still working on it. So, at the very least, the transporting new album Moonlight by this Central Florida jazz…
Roadrunner (twice)
Jonathan Richman 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2 The Social, 407-246-1419 www.thesocial.org $12 $12 $12 My introduction to Jonathan Richman arrived in the most personal of forms: a mix CD, sequenced to perfection by a friend, Orlando’s Marc With a C. Its fixture in my car stereo became permanent, and it represents the most fitting way…
Drifting blues
Guy Davis 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30 The Plaza Theatre 407-228-1220 www.theplazatheatre.com $15-$17 Most of the careers of the early bluesmen — those operating from the turn of the 20th century through the 1930s — were marked by obscurity. They were confused for one another by the public, misrepresented by marquees and buried in unmarked…
