Jul 25-31, 2001

Jul 25-31, 2001 / Vol. 17 / No. 30

Mighty roar

Sometimes having unlimited resources is a good thing. Where else but at Disney can you stay in a hotel overlooking 33 acres of savannah filled with 200 African animals? The Animal Kingdom Lodge is an impressive feat of design, and within it is an equally impressive new culinary treat: Jiko-The Cooking Place. Walking through the…

Orlando Weekly Staff

The cure for tired blood

I never thought I’d say it, but I’m getting a little bit bored with the whole vampire thing. I don’t know what did it, really –Ã?it might have been “Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000,” or having my computer freeze while attempting to download a complete list of Anne Rice novels — but I’ve become so…

Steve Schneider

The man behind the blue-haired girl

When Orlando’s Yoshiki Tokushu was only a lad, a friend offered to give a demonstration in Eastern discipline. The friend made Tokushu stand very still as he swung a pair of numchucks — two pieces of wood connected by a short chain — closer and closer to Tokushu’s face. “He told me that fear would…

William Dean Hinton

Secret from a little Red nook

I don’t want to tell you about Red’s Caribbean Market (7124 Aloma Ave., Winter Park, 407-673-8515), because you’ll go there and then it won’t be my secret anymore. But if you want to find Red’s — and you didn’t hear it from me — look carefully. The green and yellow sign above the tiny store…

Joseph Hayes

Warped speed ahead for grapplers

The Vans Warped Tour pitches its circus tent in town this weekend to the tune of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, featuring all things strange, bizarre and unexpected. Loaded with off-the-wall activities and players — paint-ball competitions, graffiti art, daredevil motorcross, death-defying skateboarding, insane BMX gravity-haters, Satan girls, Bubba boys, leather-clad and fishnet-loving overweight dominatrixes…

John Stoehr

Kling(ing) on to Biblical lore

“Language is a virus from outer space” — Laurie Anderson I vaguely remember someone this week suggesting that we simply send Godzilla into Jurassic Park and end the infestation of dinosaurs and sequels once and for all. What a warm feeling it is when two imaginary worlds collide. It’s the friendly surrealism of a good…

Liz Langley

The wages of poverty

Hercules Kohler rushes through his phone interview with a reporter. It’s 11:15 a.m., and his 15-hour workday begins in just a few moments. He’s bound for Sea World, where as a ride operator he’ll pull in a little more than $6 an hour, he says. Then it’s off to the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center, where…

Jeffrey C. Billman

Dissing Baltimore

For last week’s budget speech, Mayor Glenda Hood took an unusual approach: Her short “Tale of Two Cities” introduction compared Orlando city government to Baltimore’s. Hood said that a study found that Baltimore’s government is bloated with employees, that “good managers are the exception rather than the rule” and that Baltimore’s mayor doesn’t treat the…

Orlando Weekly Staff

OVAL and out

The amusing revelation last week that an associate had nominated Mayor Glenda Hood to head up the federal National Endowment for the Arts — and Hood’s swift withdrawal from consideration — focuses attention again on the city’s track record here. Yet, in another indication of the growing pains plaguing the fledgling Downtown Arts District, one…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Must-see TV

Last week, Commissioners Don Ammerman and Ernest Page were waiting to see if there would be money in this year’s budget for technicians and equipment so the Orlando City Council finally could begin broadcasting its meetings. Asked if funding should be in the budget, Page responded, “As far as I’m concerned, it better be.” Ammerman…

William Dean Hinton

Pass the bucks

Astute Mouse watchers know that the first teaser ads for Disney’s celebration of “100 Years of Magic” have begun turning up all over the tube. These commercials — built around the catch phrase “Share a Dream Come True” — feature nostalgic images of the company’s founder, Walt Disney, and offer glimpses of the parades and…

Jim Hill

Attack of the fetid feta bomb

Military researchers will soon try to combine the nastiest smells ever engineered in an attempt to develop the ultimate nonlethal weapon, a magnificent stink bomb. According to a July report in New Scientist, the winning stenches (rotting foods, carcasses and excrement) will be blended after each has been technologically “improved” to even fouler levels. The…

Chuck Shepherd

Warning signs

The truth hurts. Recently, in an unprecedented flush of celebrity awkwardness, four of the five Backstreet Boys interrupted your typically brain-numbing dosage of “TRL” to hold a bleary-eyed press conference regarding the brain-numbing tendencies of our beloved A.J. McLean. The Backstreet bad boy, we were told, had checked himself into rehab following a moment of…

Billy Manes

Warning signs

The truth hurts. Recently, in an unprecedented flush of celebrity awkwardness, four of the five Backstreet Boys interrupted your typically brain-numbing dosage of “TRL” to hold a bleary-eyed press conference regarding the brain-numbing tendencies of our beloved A.J. McLean. The Backstreet bad boy, we were told, had checked himself into rehab following a moment of…

Billy Manes

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