Cover Story
Barry Estabrook on the high cost of cheap tomatoes
Author of Tomatoland dishes the dirt on Florida’s agricultural aberration
New song from Estate Sale Boat
Two Orlando music scene vets, Viernes’ Sean Moore and The Rules’ Carlos Desoto, have teamed up to create a beautiful new project called Estate Sale Boat. Their collaboration traverses many sonic landscapes and showcases their excellence in audio production, songwriting, and overall swag. You’ll check out their new track “Financial Children,” if you know what’s…
Alleged jury-tamperer Schmidter out of jail, plans to appeal sentence
Libertarian activist Mark Schmidter is out of jail and “scrounging” money for an appeal hearing after recently spending three days in jail. On July 26, Schmidter was found guilty of “indirect criminal contempt” by Judge Belvin Perry for violating two administrative orders passed by Perry this year. For violating the order which bars disseminating literature…
Larry Flynt offers Casey $$$ to take it all off
It’s hardly noon, and Casey Anthony has already been in the news twice today. First, she was ordered by an Orange County judge this morning to serve a year’s supervised probation in Orange County for charges related to check fraud. She’s supposed to check in with her probation officer within the next 72 hours. Later…
Selection Reminder: Selena Gomez & the Scene tonight in St. Augustine!
Sunday, July 31 – Selena Gomez & the Scene (Note: The following is not a joke.) When Miley Cyrus poked fun at her home planet, the Disney Channel, on Saturday Night Live in the sketch “Disney Channel School of Acting” – advice included “talk louder than anyone else in the scene” – she wasn’t lying. There’s…
Eyes Lips Eyes Tonight At Backbooth
Eyes Lips Eyes – Sunday, July 31 Pretty decent ultra-dancy semi-Strokesish LA band Eyes Lips Eyes is worth a listen. They blend elements of the Smiths with the Beatles and Interpol with the Strokes. Could definitely turn out to be a bad thing… but they do it with some chillery. There’s nothing too pushy about…
Prelude to default: Florida’s signatories of the “no new taxes” oath
The clock is ticking. In three days, the United States is expected to default on its debts—that is, unless Republicans and Democrats in Washington can agree on legislation to raise the country’s debt ceiling, currently set at $14.3 trillion. Some observers, like James Surowiecki of the New Yorker, find the ceiling an unnecessary regulation, its…
Sunday, uh… Friday Film News Roundup — July, uh, 29th, 2011
Sunday Film News Roundup? On Friday? “What is this fresh nonsense?”, you might be asking yourself. Well, some friends and I are going to be taking part in a 48 hour film festival this weekend, and I assume I will be in no fit mental shape to post this repository on Sunday morning as usual. So…
Selection Reminder: Vans Warped Tour today at the fairgrounds!
Friday, July 29 – Vans Warped Tour With the inevitable demise of Anti-Pop and the all-over-the-place lineup of this fall’s Orlando Calling, it appears as though Vans Warped Tour gets the award for most consistent national music fest in Orlando. This year’s summer-long self-proclaimed “punk rock summer camp” continues to appeal to the younger, eye-swept-bangs…
Winter Park’s blue-collar workers resoundingly vote no on unionization
The city of Winter Park today thwarted a unionization effort by some of its blue collar employees after an intense campaign in which the city spent over $10,000 on a “labor relations firm,” held four separate meetings warning workers of the perils of unionization, and wrote lengthy letters to workers detailing the futility of forming…
Selection Reminder: The Mud Flappers tonight at Taste!
Thursday, July 28 – The Mud Flappers At first, you think it can’t be real, the novelty of a Dust Bowl-era, banjo-led gypsy-folk outfit from Orlando is so overwhelming. “Sure,” you think, “the guys on the mandolin, upright bass and – what is that, a jaw harp? – could get work at Frontierland, but what’s the…
Selection Reminder: Tech N9ne tonight at Firestone Live!
Thursday, July 28 – Tech N9ne The Missouri-based rapper has been called everything from satanic to gay to misogynistic – that comes with the territory when you wear Freddy Krueger sweaters and horror makeup and make tracks about the kidnapping of a woman – but Tech N9ne may finally be allowed to simply be a great rapper now…
Livin’ la vida yuca
Dominican cookery makes a foray into Seminole County
Human beans
Score a cheap thrift-store staple and you’re roasting your own coffee at home
Happytown
Wherein we work ourselves up for the redistricting tour of awesomeness only to be summarily dressed down (naked! In prison!) by Polk Sheriff Grady Judd. Oh, the agony.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Laborious book club adaptation fails on every level
Shudder island
Former Orlandoan Peter Baldwin’s exotic soul mutates into tour-guide affability on debut record
Council Watch
Billy Manes paying attention to local government so you don’t have to
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Steve Carell anchors an adult rom-com with plenty of heart
Live Active Cultures
Seth gallery-hops and puddle-jumps on Third Thursday at CityArts Factory
Green no more
Orlando’s Great Deceivers grow up and out
Rotation: What local artists are listening to
This Week: Ates Isildak of West Palm Beach’s the Band in Heaven
Union of the fake
Winter Park’s blue-collar workers vote on unionization despite the city’s union-busting campaign
This Little Underground
Bao Le-Huu takes on Flashlights, Slow Jamz, Boyfrndz and more
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) I love how the poet Rachel Loden describes her impressions of Daniel Borzutzky’s The Book of Interfering Bodies. She says that reading it is like “chancing upon a secret lake full of trembling lilies that projectile vomit both poems and petroleum.” I call this imaginary scene to your attention because I’m…
Savage Love
When I was 14, my parents informed me that I had a half brother
Dropped Calling
Fulfilling a promise more than seven months in the making, Festival Republic promoter Melvin Benn, who has been responsible for festivals at Reading and Leeds in England and Glastonbury in Scotland, stood next to a grinning Mayor Buddy Dyer at the Gibson Showroom on Thursday to announce the lineup for the first annual Orlando Calling…
DVDs Nuts!
Lesser-seen OW approved titles
Wave Goodbye to Tooth & The Enamels
After 8 years of fuckin’ shit up in our shitty city, Tooth & The Enamels has finally called it quits. Why? No one knows. The mystery behind their departure is about as vague as why they formed the band in the first place. Their vomit-laden shows complete with squirting dildos and puking contests have always…
Playwrights’ Round Table Summer Shorts 2011 at Orlando Shakes
For a building dedicated to a dramatist who’s been dead almost 400 years, the Lowndes Shakespeare Center (Orlando Shakes to it’s friends) plays host to a surprising number of brand new plays. Of course there’s Playfest!, the Harriet Lake-sponsored script-development festival that returning in early November. And it was recently announced that Satchmo at the…
Libertarian activist sentenced to 151 days for jury pamphleting and ignoring free speech “exempt zones”
Mark Schmidter, the 64 year-old libertarian activist who has appeared in our blogs several times since last October, was sentenced today to 151 days in jail on charges of indirect criminal contempt for purposefully violating two administrative orders passed by Ninth Judicial Circuit Court Chief Judge Belvin Perry this year. The first order, signed on…
Photo Gallery: “Red Chair Affair” Chairs at CityArts Factory
Once again, it’s time for the annual Red Chair Affair, the arts gala fundraiser held each August by the Red Chair Project, and the accompanying collection of creatively-decorated IKEA chairs donated for auction. This year’s shindig is on August 27th at the Bob Carr, and tickets are still available from $22 for General Admission up…
Selection Reminder: Loud Valley, Jane Jane Pollock tonight at Stardust Video & Coffee!
Tuesday, July 26 – Loud Valley, Jane Jane Pollock Both of these bands have ties to Florida and Georgia, so they’ve teamed up to do an eight-date tour of the neighborly states. What this means for you is two headline-quality bands on one intimate bill. Orlando symphonic folk act Loud Valley is celebrating the vinyl…
