Final cut
Like a snake swallowing its tail, the concluding weekend of the Florida Film Festival began as had its first: with a tribute to Haxan Films’ The Blair Witch Project. A Friday-morning seminar at the Enzian Theater saw the film’s five-man production team fielding questions about where they had been and where they were going. The…
War stories
A table full of bleary-eyed directors outside the Enzian Theater was the surest sign that Thursday’s Florida Film Festival events would adhere to a conservative pace. The previous night’s filmmaker party had lasted into the wee hours, reportedly shifting from the Kit Kat Club to Winter Park’s Langford Resort Hotel and eventually culminating at collegiate…
Disney adventure swings into ’90s
Movie: Tarzan
Smart maneuvers
Movie: The General’s Daughter
Disney adventure swings into ’90s
Movie: Tarzan
Smart maneuvers
Movie: The General’s Daughter
Playing hooky
A good number of Orlando folk must have called in sick for work Wednesday afternoon. I know because I saw them at the Enzian Theater, milling about at the suspiciously early hour of 1 p.m. as they awaited the Florida Film Festival’s reprise showing of “Shorts #4: Monsters and Angels.” The attendance was on a…
Low tide for summer wages
Some days I read the paper, and some days I just whap myself upside the head with it. This is one of my whapping days. It’s a story in USA Today about how there’s such a shortage of summer workers this year that amusement parks, fast-food chains, bars and other summer tourist businesses are desperate…
The flip side of the job boom
Like thousands of Central Florida teens, 16-year-old Dean Ashby had no trouble finding a summer job. Last month he went to work for Oldenberg Brewery Restaurant in the Oviedo Marketplace. He was hired as a line chef, he says. When he reported to work, however, Ashby was made a dishwasher — at a 17 percent…
Death in the desert
When cops found the dead, cherub-faced Florida airman last July 4, they thought he was one of those demonic end-of-the-worlders. Beyond him, huge crimson, gold and orange boulders burst skyward, like frozen explosions, surrounded by empty white desert. Dark mountain ranges loomed along the horizon. The dramatic landscape, just outside of Las Vegas, attracts racist…
Built-up anger
He is a man on a mission. He is a buster of perceived corruption. He is his own lawyer. Tom Kelly is mad as hell, and he isn’t going to take it anymore. So in January he sued the city of Orlando because … Um, because … “I went to an attorney and that was…
Ben here, done that
Hold your horses! “Ben Hur: The Musical,” said to cost $5 million, is settling in Central Florida, and in the famous chariot scene, these horses — audioanimatronic, of course — will run by remote. Producers of the new production have announced a four-year deal to stage their show at the Orange County Convention Center’s performing-arts…
Beary boots camp
In its brief heyday several years ago, Max-A-Million Records was a success story too good to be true. Arising out of the ambitions of an enterprising young man named Wilfredo Rivera Jr., who had no musical training whatsoever, Max-A-Million grew from a small recording studio located in a storage unit at Gore Street and Orange…
A real pain in the glass
In May, Sr. Jose Maria Lopez, 33, had a foot amputated at Whittier (Calif.) Hospital Medical Center. He still has two feet; what was taken was a 6-inch footlike growth inside his left ankle that has always hampered his walking and limited his shoe choices. And a few days earlier, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras,…
Review – Jordan Knight
Artist: Jordan Knight
Review – Jordan Knight
Artist: Jordan Knight
Review – The Return of Rockabilly
Artist: Various artists
Review – Surrender
Artist: The Chemical Brothers
Review – Zero Zero Zero
Artist: Sam Phillips
Review – Jordan Knight
Artist: Jordan Knight
Review – The Return of Rockabilly
Artist: Various artists
Review – Surrender
Artist: The Chemical Brothers
Review – Zero Zero Zero
Artist: Sam Phillips
Review – Jordan Knight
Artist: Jordan Knight
Review – The Return of Rockabilly
Artist: Various artists
Review – Surrender
Artist: The Chemical Brothers
Review – Surrender
Artist: The Chemical Brothers
Review – Zero Zero Zero
Artist: Sam Phillips
Review – Zero Zero Zero
Artist: Sam Phillips
Devil-may-care comedy of sex
The laughs and the break-neck pace never let up in Theatre Downtown’s hilarious production of “Don Juan in Chicago.” Penned by David Ives, who may be the most clever American playwright now working, this raucous retelling of the romantic’s adventures is full of his wit and word play. Don Juan (Anthony James Holsten), a 30-year-old…
Livin’ La Diva’s local Latin groove
With high-profile Latin popsters Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez getting everyone’s attention, other Spanish-language artists are emerging in new genres. Enter Latin hip-hop: a combination of rap beats, Latin music and Spanish lyrics. Orlando’s Diva Records, through its Latin division La Diva, is on top of this growing trend with a roster full of up-and-coming…
Gainesville band on the boil
Hot Water Music, the largely DIY post-hardcore quartet from Gainesville, is about to release its most mature work to date. “No Division” (due Aug. 10; MP3s now available) is a punishing celebration — call it “melodic-core” — for the youth brigade the band attracts. From the same town as better-known contemporaries Less Than Jake and…
The last picture shows
Even if you plan your attendance at the Florida Film Festival with military precision, there’s always that one special movie that seems destined to escape your grasp. You’ve been hearing about it for weeks, your friends all have tickets to see it, but try as you might, you just can’t fit it into your schedule.…
Reggae engine drives pop power of UB40
UB40, the multiracial British band that took its name from an unemployment form, has pumped out infectious Caribbean rhythms, sweet vocal harmonies and tightly textured instrumentals for 20 years. Stylish reinterpretations of Neil Diamond’s “Red, Red Wine” and Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe” have led the former Birmingham, England, schoolmates up the charts.…
Gods and monsters
I wasn’t surprised that “WADD” director Cass Paley and I arrived at the Enzian Theater at almost exactly the same moment Tuesday night. Less than halfway into Florida Film Festival, I realized, I was already thinking of him as some sort of fixture. George Bailey had his Clarence the Angel as a spiritual companion; I…
Meaningful exchange
By rights I should have been there to see Susan Lucci win that goddamn Emmy. I love the soap awards more than the actual soaps. Everyone cries while winning an award for crying; they make Roberto Benigni look like Christopher Walken. Of course the year I don’t watch is a moment in television history equal…
Meaty history
You know a restaurant must be doing at least one thing right when it lays claim to being the oldest family-owned steakhouse in Orlando. That one thing would be steaks, and you’ll definitely find beef on the menu — if not a lot of other attractions — at Linda’s La Cantina Steakhouse, which dates back…
Different island of adventure
There’s something about a steel drum band and a beer from Trinidad that urges you to kick back. The little Caribbean eatery Paradise Island Cafe has just introduced the mix-and-mingle concept from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Fridays, and more than a few downtown professional types have been showing up. Five dollars buys all the Caribbean hors…
Different island of adventure
There’s something about a steel drum band and a beer from Trinidad that urges you to kick back. The little Caribbean eatery Paradise Island Cafe has just introduced the mix-and-mingle concept from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Fridays, and more than a few downtown professional types have been showing up. Five dollars buys all the Caribbean hors…
Sound judgments
Peg O’Keef was all smiles as she took the stage of the Enzian Theater to introduce the Monday-night installment of the Florida Film Festival. Not only was the event’s executive director announcing her favorite portion of the program — the documentaries — but she was basking in the fulfillment of what she said was already…
