BEST OF ORLANDO® NOMINATION BALLOT IS OPEN THROUGH MAY 6!

Jun 11-17, 2003

Jun 11-17, 2003 / Vol. 19 / No. 24

For the love of it

If you’re thinking about opening a restaurant, heed the advice of Wilfren Giraldo: “This is a business for people who love it. Cooks, waiters — you can’t get a waiter from Wendy’s or a Burger King, these are not waiters.” Wilfren himself can be found cruising between tables at Wilfredo’s, resplendent in tuxedo and bow…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Turnin’ it out

In some ways, being labeled a “jazz act” can limit an artist’s scope and even their audience, yet Soulive has dodged this bullet. The New York City trio has managed to lure everyone from jazz enthusiasts, hip-hop fans and Phish heads to their live shows. Part of their success stems from the band’s knack at…

Omar Perez

Retro recipies for a smokin’ summer

Summer’s here, babies, and all the kooky cats and crazy chics are laying a patch for the beach or firing up the grill, and if you’re hep to swinging jive, two volumes of cool are ready to help your bash. “Retro Happy Hour and Retro Beach Bash,” both by Linda Everett (Collectors Press; $16.95 each)…

Joseph Hayes

Rock for smart kids

If dementia had a soundtrack, it would be Landing on Land. Chaotic starts and stops, ever-changing time signatures and chord progressions, sparse, yet intense vocals, abstract lyrics, one song bleeding into another during sets. And though dizzying, the recipe yields impressive results. Through sheer musical aptitude, Landing on Land has created a world where punk…

Jeffrey C. Billman

Pot valiant

While two co-appellants chose to have lawyers represent them before the Supreme Court of Canada in their challenge of their marijuana convictions, David Malmo-Levine spoke for himself, addressing the justices for 40 minutes on May 6, arguing that his right of “substance orientation” was similar to someone’s right of sexual orientation. After his session (which…

Chuck Shepherd

Straight to the source

Proof the game you just played is no laughing matter. 1. Passed with little debate or scrutiny six weeks after Sept. 11, the USA PATRIOT Act does a lot more than attempt to protect us from the likes of Al Qaeda. An analysis by the Center for Constitutional Rights stated: “The expansive law … creates…

Created by Curt Guyette

Be Kind, please rewind

Sometimes, it takes a while for the implications of a news story to reverberate fully. Take a piece that reporter Colin Soloway posted last week as an Internet exclusive at www.newsweek.com. In it, he described the contents of some of the thousands of videotapes — both homemade and commercially released — that were left behind…

Steve Schneider

Gay hole

I’m not very good at being gay. I merely give good head. Thus, it should be considered perfect irony around this time of year that I should painfully coexist in homosexuality’s most hotly traversed metaphor malaise, Gay Days (if you will … and you should), and typically find myself stewed in inadequacy. I’ve got cotton…

Billy Manes

Our little gestapo

Last November, after buying a big ol’ sack of porn movies (thanks taxpayers!) at Jerry’s General Store on East Colonial Drive, agents from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation pulled on their Halloween masks, strapped on their guns, laced up their bullet-proof vests, stormed the hapless mom-and-pop operation and took the bad guys down. They arrested…

Bob Whitby

Much ado about nothing

Orlando city commissioners have again demonstrated that they will debate virtually anything that pops into their heads. The most recent example occurred at the June 2 council meeting in which commissioners spent 10 minutes hashing out a process to fill two mayor pro tem slots. According to Orlando city code, two mayor pro tems must…

William Dean Hinton

Slur prompts investigation

Orlando police are conducting an internal investigation into claims by a police officer that he received a racist message over his personal pager several weeks ago, and that the message could have come from other Orlando officers. The allegation surfaced June 2 in a meeting among some of Orlando’s highest officials, including Mayor Buddy Dyer,…

William Dean Hinton

Homeless shelter finds itself homeless

If there is such a thing as a typical executive director for a nonprofit agency, Janis Walker isn’t it. With frazzled, messy braids, a mouth of missing and chipped teeth, and her confession that before moving into a small motel room off State Road 17/92 in Altamonte Springs that she hadn’t been in a real…

Jeffrey C. Billman

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