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

Jun 2-8, 1999

Jun 2-8, 1999 / Vol. 15 / No. 22

Boxing day

The appeal of kickboxing as a spectator sport isn’t hard to understand. Once relegated to the outer fringes of the cable-TV wasteland, the martial art has seen its popularity skyrocket due to its exemplification of the Asian ideal of mind/body harmony — and our all-American interest in seeing fiercely toned guys and gals beat the…

Steve Schneider

Cue the opposition

For a while there it seemed like Gay Days, which lures thousands to Central Florida for the first weekend of every June, had left the attendant controversies behind. Absent this year were the gay-pride rainbow flags, and with them the rancorous debate that led to a ban on all banners not advertising city of Orlando-sponsored…

Jeff Truesdell

Stripped-down theater

Which Central Florida venue got the most national attention this past week? Not the behemoth theme park Islands of Adventure, which officially opened its gates, but little Club Juana, a “gentlemen’s club” at the corner of State Road 436 and Highway 17-92 in Casselberry. On Friday, May 28, Club Juana was the location of the…

Theresa Everline

Kingpin capitulation

Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Longwood) announced yet another bill last week “to put the drug lords who prey on our kids out of business.” Called “The Drug Kingpin Bankruptcy Act of 1999,” the bill would extend the power of a 1995 presidential order allowing the U.S. to seize the assets of Colombia’s Cali cartel. Any American…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Exit center stage

There it was last week, in a statement direct from Gov. Jeb Bush: Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood’s proposed performing-arts center is a “turkey,” undeserving of the $7.6 million slipped into the state budget to jump-start the project. Partisan ties failed the mayor; though both Bush and Hood are Republicans, the guv made the cut as…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Eisner’s other side

A division of Random House that paid a reported $700,000 advance for an investigative book about Disney CEO Michael Eisner has canceled its contract and demanded half of the money back. Author Kim Masters, a contributing editor of Time and Vanity Fair, originally inked her deal with Broadway Books before Random House bought the imprint.…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Pulling a feast one

Patricia Dolinska, 27, was arrested for shoplifting from a grocery store in Ottawa, Ontario, in April. According to police, underneath Dolinska’s long skirt were hidden three whole chickens, a pork roast, a beef roast and a duck. What a dump According to a May Boston Globe report, the town of Sydney, Nova Scotia, is the…

Chuck Shepherd

Wall Street’s Democrat

Wow, we’ve really got a treasure-trove of presidential choices for 2000, don’t we? From Gore and Bradley on the Democratic side to Bush, Dole, McCain, Forbes and even Danbo Quayle on the Republican side. So, which one out of this flock is going to challenge the globaloney of trade scams that are stealing middle-class jobs…

Jim Hightower

Cannes do

January now seems so very long ago. That’s when five filmmakers from Orlando who work out of a rented Colonialtown duplex and call their collective Haxan Films debuted their first feature, The Blair Witch Project, at Sundance. The buzz that followed was huge. The festival had to add extra screenings to meet demand. A distributor,…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Road-tested funk rockers pull a double jam

The title of New Orleans’ longest-running rock band has to go to The Radiators, still together after more than two decades. The same five members have been in place since their performances — in exchange for free beer and food — way back in January 1978 at a Crescent City pizza joint. Despite road grind…

Philip Booth

Three strikes and some doubt

Halfway through the documentary “The Legacy: Murder & Media, Politics & Prisons” (broadcast 11 p.m. Saturday, June 5 on WMFE-Channel 24) Marc Klaas (father of the murdered Polly Klaas, says simply, “It seemed like a movement that I should be involved in.” He’s talking about the 1993 campaign in California for a “three strikes and…

Theresa Everline

The naked truth of uniforms

Pssssst. Kid. C’mere. I want to talk to you. And without that wall of attitude you put up for other adults. You can’t help it, I know. It pops out like a zit. I remember. But believe me, I’m better at it than you. I was a teen-ager in the ’80s, so don’t try to…

Liz Langley

Landscapes of an alternative nature

Something that every curator knows, says the experienced Alison Nordström, is that when you do a landscape show in a museum, everybody’s happy. “You’re putting up these tiny rectangles, and the space is like it’s filled with fabulous windows — all of these glorious visions of the land. Each place you look takes you somewhere,”…

Lindy T. Shepherd

People appreciating people

Balancing her daily load as an employment discrimination investigator for the city of Orlando, Patricia Newton is putting the finishing touches on the second annual Cultural Heritage Festival, building on what she oversaw last year, as well. It’s all about recognizing the many cultures in Central Florida and bringing together families, businesses and individuals to…

Lindy T. Shepherd

Punk activism that plays the field

Tim Barry gently argues that his band Avail has no collective political viewpoint. Growing up in the Virginia suburbs just outside Washington, D.C., Barry, guitarist Joe Banks, drummer Erik Larson and bass player Gwomper were fascinated by hardcore bands like Dag Nasty and Marginal Man, as well as those representing the radical, vegetarian, straight-edge movement.…

Randy Matin

Hook shot

There aren’t a lot of inland restaurants where you can savor fine Florida game such as gator tail and frog legs, done to a fine crunch in true Southern-fried-seafood style. But if you don’t want to travel to remote fish camps on the St. Johns River or Lake Monroe, they’ll hook you up at The…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Finger-lickin’ good website

Grilling has never been so easy. Skip the flies and the charcoal bricks that won’t light up and head instead for the web. Go to the home page for Conway’s BBQ and click on “Barbecue in a Box.” With 24 hours advance notice, the minichain delivers full-blown feasts throughout the Orlando area. Dinners can serve…

Colleen Moore

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