May 16-22, 2001

May 16-22, 2001 / Vol. 17 / No. 20

Feminist film intrigues with excellence

Movie: The House of Mirth

Orlando Weekly Staff

Feminist film intrigues with excellence

Movie: The House of Mirth

Orlando Weekly Staff

In February, an exhibition opened in Berlin, featuring about 200 unatrophied body parts and skinless corpses, dismembered in various designs and gaudily displayed with super-preservatives to highlight what developer Gunther von Hagens says is every last sinew, cell and vein, and to show “the beautiful interior of the body.” Among the most startling pieces from…

Chuck Shepherd

Can she spare some change?

I really didn’t think I could be that shocked by anything. When you see American elections disastrously botched, when transsexuals are relatively common on TV and when armed third graders are, like, so last season, it’s hard to be surprised by much. But my eyes got the size of a Power Puff Girl’s when I…

Liz Langley

Barbecue in Old Florida backyard

Two suggestions if you’re heading to the west coast for a long weekend: Avoid I-4 like the plague, and check out a good place to eat. Hop on to U.S. Highway 50 and stay on it. Just beyond Car-Dealer-Land lies a slice of Old Florida, with hills in Clermont, primeval forests around Brooksville and the…

Joseph Hayes

Barbecue in Old Florida backyard

Joseph Hayes

The shell game

Between 1994’s Tortoise, 1996’s “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” and 1998’s TNT, Tortoise remade instrumental improv-rock in their image: a jittery, fleshy American sound that borrowed from samba, dub, art metal, post-bop, tango, no wave and Afro-avant jazz cut ‘n’ pasted at whim. But, as witnessed by “Standards” (on Thrill Jockey, of course) –…

A.D. Amorosi

Summer guide 2001

With all apologies to Spalding Gray, Orlando in the summertime is a case study in the terrors of pleasure. Go ahead and kid yourself that you should be having a good time; then come hurtling back to the harsh reality that precious few activities are very much fun — or even fun’s underachieving cousin, “endurable”…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Using their Imagination

There’s a natural, ordered and logical rhythm to the universe. The sun rises … and the sun sets. The tide goes in … and the tide goes out. The Walt Disney Co. has a hit motion picture … and then the theme-park division tries to figure out a way to cash in on that movie’s…

Jim Hill

It all turns out OK in the movies

For a while now, I’ve been slightly worried about the Florida Film Festival (FFF). Not the institution itself, mind you: Newly ranked in “The Ultimate Film Festival Survivor’s Guide” as one of the world’s top 10 cinematic conclaves, Orlando’s annual salute to indie spirit has clearly come into its own. My concerns were for the…

Steve Schneider

To market, to market

So you wanna be a rock & roll star? Here’s a tip: Screw somebody. Pop pariah Mariah would never have left the rabbit-fur racks of Lerner, N.Y., had she not lifted the belly of Sony magnate Tommy Mottola. And didn’t Jewel do Flea while she was living in a van? Itchy! Talent be damned, there…

Billy Manes