Sillies of the field
Truth be told, I don’t get sports. Watching grown men run willy-nilly in one direction, and then just as swiftly in the other, is an activity whose appeal frankly eludes me. But there’s one annual athletics event I wouldn’t dream of missing: the Celebrity Mascot Games. Once a year, the games pit pro and university…
Pageant idles on the runway
Movie: Drop Dead Gorgeous
Gonzo gizmos do the trick
Movie: Inspector Gadget
Housing crisis
Movie: The Haunting
Pageant idles on the runway
Movie: Drop Dead Gorgeous
Gonzo gizmos do the trick
Movie: Inspector Gadget
Housing crisis
Movie: The Haunting
Psychic fiends
The phone rang, and as usual I grabbed it as fast as I could. “Thank you for calling the psychic network,” I said, mixing my normal “come on kids do the dishes NOW!” voice with a breathy attempt to sound otherworldly. “I’m Deborah.” (Deborah sounds more mysterious than Debbie.) “Can I have your name and…
The headline that got away
One of the more lowbrow features in the Orlando Sentinel is its Monday review of supermarket tabloids. Under the heading “Stories We Missed,” the paper reproduces in miniature the front page of one of the tabs, along with half a dozen or so of the more ludicrous headlines from several of the papers. Aside from…
Government shutdown
Jim Hannon is having fun with democracy. The thin, wild-haired part-time security guard and Internet guerrilla wears a mischievous grin beneath his baseball cap as he logs on to the Orange County government’s Internet site using an Orange County library computer terminal. “Now, let’s say I want to e-mail County Chairman Mel Martinez,” Hannon says,…
Lots not to like
In announcing the start of construction this month on South Village, the newest phase of Disney’s Celebration, the developers crowed. “Celebration residents’ strong sense of passion about the town and its spirit of community have made it a success,” Perry Reader, vice president and general manager of the Celebration Co., said in a news release.…
Mynah difficulties
According to a May police report in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, the blood all over the furniture of a burglarized house was the thief’s: The homeowner’s parrot had attacked the perp and drove him out. Said a police spokesman, “The bird was fairly annoyed.” And in an April burglary trial in Stroudsburg, Pa., prosecutors subpoenaed a…
Complete care (for some)
The guiding ethic of our medical system goes back nearly 2,500 years to the Hippocratic Oath, which established a standard of behavior and integrity for doctors, including the admonition that, first, they should “do no harm.” But while doctors still swear to this oath, the executives and bean-counters of HMOs do not — and they…
The last resort
“Blame Canada,” the anti-Canuck anthem in the South Park movie, probably hasn’t done much to pull Canadians across the border of late. Nor has the typical American sentiment that “Canada doesn’t count anyway, it’s not even a real country.” Having written for a Canadian newspaper for years now, I know that Canadians already suffer from…
Review – Fish Tree Water Blues
Artist: Various artists
Review – Significant Other
Artist: Limp Bizkit
Review – Ellingtonia: A Tribute to Duke Ellington
Artist: Various artists
Review – 33.3
Artist: 33.3
Review – Fish Tree Water Blues
Artist: Various artists
Review – Significant Other
Artist: Limp Bizkit
Review – Ellingtonia: A Tribute to Duke Ellington
Artist: Various artists
Review – 33.3
Artist: 33.3
Review – Fish Tree Water Blues
Artist: Various artists
Review – Significant Other
Artist: Limp Bizkit
Review – Ellingtonia: A Tribute to Duke Ellington
Artist: Various artists
Review – 33.3
Artist: 33.3
Original Western ware
There’s a lot going on underneath the cowboy hats of eclectic local singer-songwriter Joseph Martens and his Hindu Cowboys. Martens’ hat, in particular, seems to fit just right, now that he’s traveled down the road from his solo work, and somehow closer to his Nashville roots. The Cowboys’ music brings to mind dust-bowl abandonment and…
Quartet flaunts unusual sax appeal
When most people talk about saxophones they rarely speak of them in a classical-music context. Jazz is usually on their minds, with names of players like Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Lester Young or even (shudder) Kenny G rolling off their tongues. Or perhaps they mention that funky-butt thing that Maceo Parker used to…
Jazz duo colors outside the lines
To be expected of the Civic Minded Five’s off-center productions, the weekend performance by jazz composers and improvisers Tim Berne (alto and baritone saxophonist) and Michael Formanek (acoustic bassist) is colorful stuff. Formanek’s pairing with his longtime friend and bandmate opens the door for improvisation and experimentation — something he doesn’t get a chance to…
Lots of misbehavin’ in Waller revival
The title of the Fats Waller revue “Ain’t Misbehavin'” is a flat-out lie. From the smoking of a foot-long joint in the intoxicatingly seductive “The Reefer’s Song” to the not-so-subtle sexual innuendo of the Waller classics “Squeeze Me” and “Find Out What They Like,” there’s plenty of mischief, energy and fun to be had, thanks…
Chaos on cue
We’d love to offer a rundown of everything you’ll see in Discount Comedy Outlet’s “Catastrophe on Disaster Island,” but we’d do better capturing lightning in a bottle. To this highly attuned, inventive troupe, funny business is a never-ending process — a living entity that mutates like livestock grazing too close to Chernobyl. As glimpsed in…
Knot your usual breadsticks
Garlic “knots” are cropping up in town, about 10 years after vendors began hawking them on every other corner in New York City. Get them while they’re hot at new Trotti’s Pizza. They’re basically breadsticks with a twist: Strips of pizza dough are tied into knots, brushed with garlic butter and baked until they turn…
