Floridian high schoolers more likely to smoke reefer than tobacco
High Times is reporting that it is more likely that a high school student living in Florida will smoke marijuana rather than tobacco. “About 16 percent of Florida high school students said they used marijuana in the past month versus 15.5 percent who said they smoked cigarettes, according to a 2006 government survey. The difference…
I hate Chuck Palahniuk.
â??I hate Chuck Palahniuk.â?� â??Well, I hate him more.â?� â??Well, I hate him so much, I hate people who like him.â?� This conversation between me and Billy Manes was spurred by his espying Snuff on my desk. And before I go any further, I should mention that I liked Fight Club; this isnâ??t an across-the-board…
Friday fun: Fox & ‘Tards
This is funny. The hairdos at Fox & Friends bring in Michelle Malkin to “bust” Barack Obama for “plagiarism.” The results are, well, kinda pathetic.
Rapper gets epic last laugh against Rev. Pfleger
Oh, hypocrisy. It’ll bite ya every time. In July of last year, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago launched a high-and-mighty campaign against rappers, posting billboards around town proclaiming 50 Cent, Twista, Snoop Dogg and others as “trash.” His flock eventually pressured McDonald’s Corp. into dropping Twista from their…
HARDER THAN HARD
A Sudanese refugee finds solace in hip-hop
BEACH BLANKET BRILLIANCE
Mates of State record a perfect, timely album
NACHO LIBRE
Chimis and churrasco in Visitor-ville
PRIDE IN PARRAMORE
At first glance, a gay-owned business in the heart of Parramore may seem as incongruous as an Idaho senator in a Minneapolis airport bathroom, but not so in Buddy Dyer’s vision of the new Parramore. Here a pinch of city money, a dash of diversity and a whole lotta poured concrete is a recipe for…
SCRIBE RESPONDS
Orlando Weekly: It surprised me how much self-loathing you went through, even for a gay man. It seems like yours was stronger due to your religious background. Terrance Dean: Exactly. OW: How do you justify that with the hatred that was given back to you? TD: Growing up in a black community, the church plays…
DEAD PRESIDENTS
In Assassins, the Stephen Sondheim–John Weidman musical on the subject of executive execution, the character of John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln and scorched his way into the history books, opines about the difference between a common misdemeanor and a supreme act of political defiance: “Shopkeepers and lovers get murdered – presidents…
DIVA FITS
‘That would look like mud on stage. I don’t like it at all,” dismisses pageant consultant Kevin Callahan with a wave of his hand. Christina Lee is standing in front of the dressing room mirror at Regalia, a Thornton Park store that specializes in pageant gowns. The dress she’s contemplating is a strapless turquoise-and-brown number…
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK
When likable radio voice and perpetually busy GayDays.com entrepreneur Chris Alexander-Manley signed off for the last time from his weekly radio show, Gay Orlando Talk (aka The Homo Happy Hour) on Feb. 29, he capped off a 15-year run that handily mirrored the ups and downs of the Orlando GLBT community: the coping years of…
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
In January, when Florida4Marriage announced that they had received enough signatures to secure a place for Amendment 2 – the so-called “marriage amendment” – on the November ballot, the future looked bleak for the initiative’s opponents. But the seemingly redundant bill that supporters say will only outlaw same-sex unions – a ban that already exists…
SAVAGE LOVE
I’m a 23-year-old guy and I have been dating my 21-year-old girlfriend for about two years. We did the long-distance thing for a year, and after she graduated she moved from the East Coast to the Midwest to be with me while I finish my degree. Everything was great until she moved in with me.…
STARFUCKER’S INK
For months now, hip-hop fans have been deluged with minutiae regarding Terrance Dean’s shocking tell-all memoir, Hiding in Hip Hop: On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry – From Music to Hollywood, in which the former MTV executive outs himself and others in the black entertainment community as the homosexuals they really are. (Most…
PRIDE IN PARRAMORE
At first glance, a gay-owned business in the heart of Parramore may seem as incongruous as an Idaho senator in a Minneapolis airport bathroom, but not so in Buddy Dyer’s vision of the new Parramore. Here a pinch of city money, a dash of diversity and a whole lotta poured concrete is a recipe for…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Since authoring the book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, Penelope Trunk has written a blog that offers further advice. Recently she wrote about a subject I’d love for you to think about: mentors. You’re in a phase when you have a heightened knack for identifying and attracting and learning…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Goddammit … RIP Bo Diddley. Enough said. The Beat When it comes to long weekends, all lights are green downtown to go ape. It’s compulsory. It’s American. So that’s why I capped off the patriotic bender known as Memorial Day weekend with a good old-fashioned hardcore bash at Sick of It Sundays, the weekly late-night…
FIRST SHOT
We don’t say things like this every day, but we really think Oliver Stone needs to start taking some liberties. You’ve probably heard about W, Stone’s upcoming dramatization of the life and times of our notorious outgoing president. And you may have heard that Dubya’s hagiographers, having taken a look at some initial script pages,…
LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES
Disney has launched its latest salvo in the theme-park wars, but this time their ammunition doesn’t come in the usual form of a massive roller coaster or an army of mouse-eared attorneys. Instead, the shells they’re shooting resemble pies, darts and plastic rings. I recently had the opportunity to ride Toy Story Midway Mania, the…
POLICE BEAT
May 23 (2008-224573) 7:17 a.m.: Indulge me in a thought experiment. This, as you may have noticed, is the Queer Issue, and the edict went out from on high that all sections of the paper are supposed to queer it up a little. We’ve got queer news, queer music, queer dining … and Police Beat.…
HAPPYTOWN
This year’s Gay Days fest brings a welcome new addition, and it’s coming from the strangest of sources! Focus on the Family – known best for its spittle-flecked morality rants – is putting on its Love Won Out conference June 7, the very same day many a gay will be using a red T-shirt to…
COUNCIL WATCH
Thank heavens it’s a very special episode week here at the Watch; if it were not, the only speck of entertainment value to be gleaned from this week’s governmental gab-up would be the momentary fire alarm that seemed to suggest that Sam Ings shut up somewhere near the middle of his monotonous diary reading. There…
MAIL SACK
We is dum Your article about dumb Orlando `“Our dumb state,” May 29` was exceptional! Thank you! I couldn’t agree more with your insightful points. What bothers me these days is the inanity of our elected political leaders on both the local and state levels. This especially includes Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the rest…
BLISTER
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve gathered you here today to witness an execution, or a persecution, or an exorcism bathed in candle wax – whatever it is that one spiky-haired gadfly far beyond his sell-by date utilizes as a cork to plug his Super Sweet 16 vanity when that 16 is even less than half the…
“Arts Connection” comes to an end
Got a note from Becky Morgan, producer of the Arts Connection radio program on WMFE, announcing her dismissal from the station after six years â?? and before that, Ben Brotemarkle was the voice of the show he founded in 1992. It was unexpected, even though last August WMFE started a television version of Arts Connection,…
Your new favorite rapper
Way back in October ’07, BEATdown’s Left Coast roommate Brandon Perkins wrote a cover story about a D.C. rapper named Wale (pronounced Wah-lay) and how he’s the second coming and the biggest star nobody’s heard of and etc. Perkins wrote: The working musician may be a tired cliché two years into its acceptance, but Wale…
No Time For Losers
AP: Clinton to say Obama has enough delegates to win
