Karma.Bloody.Karma
Karma.Bloody.Karma Label: Metal Blade Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Karma.Bloody.Karma Dirty hippies need to stand way back, as Travis Ryan’s viciously vegetarian grindcore band may appeal to your dietary sensibilities but will likely leave you trembling in fear for your life. (And perhaps puking up your tofu, too.) For the past few years,…
Impeach My Bush
Impeach My Bush Label: XL Recordings Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Impeach My Bush Shock-rock-rapper Peaches continues to push the confrontational envelope on her third album with titillatingly titled tracks such as ‘Two Guys (for Every Girl),â?� ‘Slippery Dickâ?� and ‘Tent in Your Pants.â?� (She runs shy of her second album, Fatherfucker, but…
Cruel Words
Cruel Words Label: Bongo Beat Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Cruel Words The cracked and emotionally (mentally?) fragile music made by Johnny Dowd has made him a favorite among those who like their music raw and slightly unhinged. In a world where authenticity is supposedly prized, it’s interesting that a singer/songwriter like Dowd…
NINJA, PLEASE
Kung Faux, Vol. 5 Studio: Dubtitled / Tommy Boy WorkNameSort: Kung Faux, Vol. 5 Martial-arts films of the ’70s have been a major part of hip-hop culture ever since Wu-Tang Clan all but singlehandedly revived interest in Saturday morning chopsocky. Quentin Tarantino may have helped give the films a patina of legitimacy, but rappers made…
CROSS PURPOSE
Wordplay Length: Single Studio: IFC Films Rated: NOT RATED Website: http://www.wordplaymovie.com/ Release Date: 2006-06-16 Cast: Will Shortz, Merl Reagle, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, Indigo Girls Director: Patrick Creadon Screenwriter: Patrick Creadon Music Score: Peter Golub, Tracy McKnight WorkNameSort: Wordplay Our Rating: 4.00 Admit it: You work crossword puzzles four, five, maybe even seven days a…
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Studio: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Rated: PG-13 Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy Director: Gore Verbinski WorkNameSort: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Our Rating: 3.00 For a good while, Disney’s Pirates follow-up seems like it’s going to be one of those…
Favela Rising
Favela Rising Studio: ThinkFilm, HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films Rated: NOT RATED Cast: Anderson Sa, Jose Junior, Marcio Nunes, Michele Moraes, Lizietia Carmem Siquiera Director: Jeff Zimbalist, Matt Mochary WorkNameSort: Favela Rising Our Rating: 5.00 ‘We are destroyed people infected with idealism,â?� explains one of the members of the nonviolent cultural movement AfroReggae in the masterful documentary…
Water
Water Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures Rated: PG-13 Cast: Seema Biswas, John Abraham (II), John Abraham, Lisa Ray, Rishma Malik Director: Deepa Mehta WorkNameSort: Water Our Rating: 4.00 The concluding installment of crusading filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s ‘elementsâ?� trilogy (and the highlight of the recent South Asian Film Festival), Water explores the plight of Indian widows. In…
OUR LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Psychocandy, Darklands, Automatic, Honey’s Dead, Stoned & Dethroned Label: Rhino Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Reissue WorkNameSort: Psychocandy, Darklands, Automatic, Honey’s Dead, Stoned & Dethroned In a perfect world, one wouldn’t have to explain the Jesus and Mary Chain. But in a perfect world, their albums wouldn’t have been out of print for nearly a…
TOO MUCH TOO SOON WORKS
Shine Through Label: Stones Throw Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Shine Through The supernerd phenomenon that emerged in the early ’90s is equal parts blessing and curse, but the blessings are so damn good. These culture gods, whatever their chosen medium, don’t so much infuse their work with their influences as flex their…
South of the Pumphouse
South of the Pumphouse Publishing House: Akashic Books Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: South of the Pumphouse It’s a lovely California day in 1995, and two mild-mannered brothers are embarking on their first El Sobrante fishing trip together in years: Ed, who escaped to progressive Berkeley, higher education and middle-class fatherhood; and Earl, who settled snugly into…
The Black Book
The Black Book Publishing House: Vintage WorkNameSort: Black Book, The This fresh translation of Pamuk’s richly crafted masterpiece is being released simultaneously with the Turkish author’s latest novel, Istanbul. And, though it’s conventional wisdom that Istanbul will be the book that pushes this highly regarded writer onto the pedestal of international acclaim he deserves, the…
Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?
Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? Publishing House: Archipelago Books WorkNameSort: Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? Dislocation is not just a theme for Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish ‘ it has made him a disembodied presence within his own work. In this haunting new collection, he speaks like a ghost. ‘I look out…
Brightblack Morning Light
Brightblack Morning Light Label: Matador Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Brightblack Morning Light Prior to signing to Matador, the music Nathan Shineywater and Rachael Hughes made together was notable for what it lacked ‘ it didn’t swagger, and it wasn’t well nourished. Released on Galaxia in 2004, Ala.cali.tucky paired forlorn, sallow hippie/spiritual harmonizing…
BLISTER
;OK, so it finally happened. ;;Well not “it” exactly, as “it” happened many years ago and involved bloodstained mattresses in both incarnations of my sexual orientation. No, the “it” to which I presently refer is that I’ve realized the error of my ways, dear Lord; having felt the wrath of yet another illness involving antibiotics…
I LOVE TELEVISION
;Augghh! What is that cruel glowing orb in the sky? Alas! It is THE SUN, washing my pale, wan skin with its aggravating, boiling rays! (No, I have no idea why I’m talking like an 18th-century dandy — there are so many things to worry about, let’s just blame the GODDAMN HEAT!) As we know,…
HAPPYTOWN
And now back to our continuing saga on the future of Club Juana When last we left the story, Club Juana — Central Florida’s most famous titty bar — was looking for a new home after the Florida Department of Transportation shut it down for road construction `Happytown™, June 8`. To accommodate the relocation of…
POLICE BEAT
June 24, 12:47 p.m.: Beware! There’s a light-fingered inker on the streets of Orlando! Officer Torres was dispatched in reference to a commercial burglary at Hardcore Tattoos, on the 2400 block of East Robinson Street. During the night, intruders hopped the 6-foot-high privacy fence and smashed the glass door in the back of the building…
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
one way or another In May, a 30-year-old man from Waterfoot, England, attempted suicide by tying one end of a rope around his neck and the other end to a telephone pole, then driving off in his car. However, the rope quickly broke, dooming the suicide. But the impact jarred the driver, causing him to…
LETTERS
;Guns kill people ;;Perhaps we ought to stop scratching our collective heads in puzzlement over the increase in these savage acts [“Murder in the City Beautiful,” June 29]. Place some contributory negligence on our lawmakers, who insist upon making handgun ownership easy and plentiful! Maybe we ought to pass a law making it illegal for…
SELECTIONS
; ;Thursday•6 ;;Aida’s Big Phat Florida Film Festival This first iteration of the film festival named for local philanthropist Aida Molina celebrates the unusual, experimental and original films created by independent Florida filmmakers. In addition to film screenings, Tim Dunn and other organizers have set up a July 7 opening night party at One Eyed…
NOTABLE NOISE
Something I love is to receive a publicity package from a reputable PR agency, open it and see that it contains new music from a band that lives a few blocks away from me. The new Yip-Yip album (In the Reptile House) arrived in exactly that fashion — with a note that I should check…
LIMITED MOTION
;The English writer William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) penned an abundance of plays, novels, essays and short stories over the course of a long and prolific career. Considered an expert storyteller, he was also, at one time, the highest-paid author in the world. Income from his work left him financially independent, and he was able to…
THE TROUBLE WITH TORTURE
Tom Simbo is familiar with the word “torture.” Simbo, a 50-year-old pastor from Sierra Leone, follows the headlines and knows what happens in places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. But lately, the TV set at the Simbos’ has been gathering dust. As Americans continue to discuss what constitutes torture and when it’s justified, Simbo…
MR. DOWNTOWN
When history gets around to judging John H. “Buddy” Dyer’s administration — probably the next time he runs for statewide office — the resurgence of downtown Orlando will be the big story. Forget about his short-lived indictment or the mini-scandals and faux pas that decorated his early years. Downtown will either be the banister Buddy…
FUR FROM HEAVEN
An appearance by John Waters was the highlight of last spring’s 15th annual Florida Film Festival, so there’s a precise symmetry in the booking of perennial Waters player Mink Stole as a special guest for an unrelated startup event known as Aida’s Big Phat Florida Film Festival (see Selections, page 40). But Stole (born Nancy…
KATY LIED (© STEELY DAN, 1975)
First she tries to cure citrus canker with holy water, and now this. According to the Orlando Sentinel, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris has said that several House Democrats are supporting her campaign for the Senate, having privately told her how much they prefer her over their party’s own Bill Nelson. Nelson spokesman Chad Clanton countered…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
;ARIES Three years before Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code came out, my book The Televisionary Oracle was published. In it, I riffed on Mary Magdalene’s role as Jesus’ consort, collaborator and co-creator of Christianity — similar to Brown’s themes. Sales of my tome are approaching 10,000, while Brown’s have topped 61 million. Why the…
SAVAGE LOVE
I met this girl four months ago, and she’s “the girl of my dreams.” If you met her, you would know that angels exist on earth. The problem is that she’s married and has four kids. Her cheating husband is abusive to her (verbally, physically, etc.). He’s raped her twice (once using a “date-rape” drug),…
