VOTE NOW IN THE BEST OF ORLANDO® READERS POLL!

May 19-25, 1999

May 19-25, 1999 / Vol. 15 / No. 20

The late, late show

Let’s say that you awaken in the middle of the night. The clock beside your bed reads 2, maybe 3 a.m. There’s a fire in your belly, a spiritual yearning that a trip to the all-night drive-through at Krispy Kreme won’t cure. What you need, you realize, is to experience some art — and fast.…

Steve Schneider

Controlling the elements through feng shui

Thousands of years ago, in the latitude of dragons, a Chinese sage happened upon an extraordinary turtle whose shell displayed a perfect, magic square; from it evolved the oldest book in the world — the “I Ching” and, among other mystical insights, the art of placement: feng shui. Feng shui (pronounced “fung shaway”) means “the…

Dee Rivers

Only more from Less than Jake

“Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding” is both a song title and the underlying raison d’être that Gainesville pop-punks Less Than Jake keep moving forward. They’re remain perpetually fired up for touring and recording in some kind of desperate quest to slake the unquenchable thirst of their audience. Listening to their records or…

Charles Martin

Elder Wainwright draws from his ‘cheesy life’

Loudon Wainwright III was in no mood for an interview. Perhaps it was because he’d been dropped from his contract with Virgin Records or perhaps it was because he just signed a multi-album deal with Hannibal/Rykodisc. Sounding much the character he sings about in “Mr. Ambivalent” from his 16th album, “Little Ship” (Charisma/Virgin), a mature,…

Randy Matin

Sink into history, buy the perfume

Let Rumsfeld worry about the remnants of Saddam’s regime — homeland security requires that these enemies of the Sunshine State be captured or killed at all costs. Her boyfriend’s band finally played that career-making Tuesday-night gig at Kashmir, and now all of us luckless spuds on her e-mail list are going to spend the next…

Liz Langley

Loans injure with more than interest

Jennifer Wilkinson is no fan of the title-loan industry. Last year she borrowed $250 to pay for medical supplies, using the title to her 10-year-old station wagon as collateral. She was given 30 days to repay the loan with the usual high interest — about $305 total. When she failed to pay up on time,…

Steve Helling

Spectacular solar relief

The sun is the mother of all fires, and while minions flock to Florida to worship her powerful rays, sooner or later the solar queen becomes a nemesis to all — sweat, sunburn, dehydration, literal burn-out. Relief comes only when the sun goes down, and locals know that’s when it’s time to play in the…

Lindy T. Shepherd

Breading contempt

Why should Maya Angelou and Hallmark have all the fun? Celebrity greetings reach a new plateau of inspiration with these … Just not on the phone, in my mailbox or within a thousand miles of my physical person. But that’s O.K. I’m fine. Really.Enjoy the Snickers bar.You’ve earned it.   If they think I’m a…

Ericson, Edward Jr.

The fire in the belly

A good hot sauce marries fire and flavor, igniting a Roman candle of spiciness on your tongue and dotting your forehead with rivulets of perspiration. One theory has it that hot climates tend toward fiery cuisines because a good sweat cools you off (not to mention that, with the right lighting, adds a sheen of…

Theresa Everline

Settlement spillover

The Orlando Sentinel recently settled a lawsuit with its neighbors over the paper’s past contamination of downtown property. But with testimony in the suit pointing to a chemical solvent dumped at two other sites [Poison Pens?, Feb. 25], the state has now asked the Sentinel to sit down and review its responsibility in one of…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Burning down the souse

Homer Simpson was betrayed over one, and Ford Fairlane was perpetually in search of one that would meet his exacting standards. I speak of the flaming cocktail — that unique combination of liquid refreshment and pyrotechnic display that takes the concept of the novelty drink to new heights of thrills and danger. On a recent…

Steve Schneider

Naked injustice?

When Tammy Robinson called Polk County sheriffs to complain about threatening e-mail she had received, the police were courteous and helpful. So she was surprised when they returned to her home and seized her computers, her children’s computer, her dresses — even her vibrators. Robinson maintains an adult website under the name Beckalynn, on which…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Return of the native

Weather prognosticators say that, thanks to La Nina, another extra-dry summer is looming. That means a nasty impact on your water consumption, water bill and the environment. Fact is, say U.S. Environmental Protection Agency statistics, Floridians’ addiction to landscape irrigation accounts for up to 70 percent of all residential water consumption, and in-ground irrigation aggravates…

Dee Rivers

Loose change is gonna come

The government of France, concerned that the country’s approximately 2 million homeless, unemployed and other down-and-outs would be particularly befuddled in having to translate their francs into euros, announced in December that it would pass out free calculators on the street. And the tax collectors in the state of Saarland, Germany, trying to improve their…

Chuck Shepherd

The buck doesn’t stop here

Kissimmee Sports Arena’s Rodeo takes place every Friday at a corral of dirt just south of Highway 192. On a recent rodeo night, when he wasn’t coaxing animals or conferring with ranchers, horse trainers and miscellaneous cowboy-hat wearers, Jed Suhl, whose father owns the rodeo, explained the goings-on and delivered friendly warnings. “You come to…

Theresa Everline

The war’s other ‘winners’

Here come the patriots marching to the front to stand with NATO in its war against Yugoslavia! Let’s call their names: Boeing. GM. Honeywell. Motorola. Northrop-Grumman. Raytheon. TRW. United Technologies. Executives from these and other military contractors are not literally going to the front, of course, but they did step forward in Washington recently to…

Jim Hightower

Reach for the sky

Wayne Hosking sees something spiritual in kites. “They’re really very uplifting,” he says, not intending the obvious. He notes that in Japan, kite festivals lasting several days swiftly become raucous outlets for collective frustration. But reverence returns, and at the festivals’ end, the kites are destroyed, “so their spirit can be reborn in next year’s…

Jeff Truesdell

What floats your boat

“Women and entrepreneurship, because I’m an entrepreneur. I just licensed the patent for my product.”(Shows pamphlet for Top Secretª, a bra with hidden pockets for storage.) Lausanne Lee, entrepreneur and writer, Orlando “I’ve been in America 26 years. Believe me, my brother, these are the toughest times.” Robert Curry, homeless, Orlando “Hurry, stay calm. Need…

Steve Helling

Attracting the wings of desire

Butterflies, those silent, soaring works of art, have long touched the poet’s heart, even as generations of children chased them with nets, and collectors stilled their wings with glass-jar euthanasia and pinned-down displays. Happily there is a sea change in attitude among lepidoptera aficionados: As butterflying becomes a hot hobby, binoculars and cameras are replacing…

Dee Rivers

Breading contempt

On the first day Stephen Little went to work at the Merita Bread bakery on Division Street, there was a noose hanging above his machine. He told the supervisor about it, but the supervisor did nothing. “Finally he climbed up on a ladder and cut it down himself,” says Richard Lee Barrett, Little’s lawyer. Little…

Ericson, Edward Jr.

How to beat the elements

A classics-heavy list of literature that’s just too dangerous for your kids to read. Censorship: The change in the access status of material, made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.— as defined by the American Library Association In the past year more than 100…

Liz Langley

Sink into history, buy the perfume

In Orlando you can go on rides that simulate earthquakes, faulty elevators and runaway trains. Public appetite for safe, controlled near-death experiences seems to be limitless. It was only a matter of time before the Titanic joined the “you are there” ranks of disaster-related fun. Titanic: Ship of Dreams at the Mercado doesn’t have a…

Liz Langley

Have a melon ball

There are millions of peculiar uses for watermelon, and Heidi McIntyre has heard every one. As marketing director for the Orlando-based National Watermelon Promotion Board, she has spoken to thousands of watermelon farmers and connoisseurs. One of the most bizarre uses for watermelon revolves around a jar of Vaseline, a swimming pool and a blindfold.…

Steve Helling

What floats your boat

At first glance, airboats look like something Wile E. Coyote might drive. Picture an oversized Acme fan strapped to the back of a rowboat. The major difference between reality and Road Runner cartoons: An airboat is less likely to go over a cliff. Airboat tours are a popular draw for tourists tired of theme parks,…

Steve Helling

Drowning in cleavage

Cue Enya music. Imagine that you’re floating, buoyant, held aloft by the placid, pacifying calm of cool, soothing water. OK, now imagine it’s just your breasts hovering around like that. That’s the principle behind the Water Bra, which shoots for the same enhancing effect as the Wonderbra. Water trapped inside the garment is strategically placed…

Liz Langley

Sound and vision create ‘Emergency’

Since the 1960s, art critics have declared the death and rebirth of painting countless times, but the art form has consistently proven itself relevant to contemporary life. Iran native, graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and now Orlando artist Laleh Khorramian is far removed from intense art-world debates, but her highly…

Christopher Howard

Come out and clay

One of the cooler ways to enjoy playing with clay is to allow someone else to do the muddy part for you. At All Fired Up (364 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park; 644-9363) you get to do what many consider the most fun part of pottery: the painting. When we arrive at All Fired Up…

Ericson, Edward Jr.

Sidecar loaded and ready to go

For some, the need for yet another rock band pushing the radio-friendly “Orlando sound” is questionable. But for those who connect with that sound — moody guitars in full swing, pressing anger and subtle textures against a slow-burning grind; vocals that wrap almost-there poetry around guitar melody — Sidecar’s music and members fall genuinely close…

Billy Manes

Company still livin’ the rock & roll fantasy

They were bad before that meant good. Way back in 1973, former members of three British bands hooked up for a new venture dubbed Bad Company, its title borrowed from a Jeff Bridges Western. Singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke from Free joined forces with ex-Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz…

Philip Booth

That girl in the mirror

Have you ever been in a department store and caught a familiar face across the sea of ready-to-wear? “Who is that gorgeous creature?” you thought, and suddenly you realized it was you, looking into a mirror. This is what I call a Killing Me Softly moment — when you see yourself unexpectedly. You thought no…

Liz Langley

Wasted away

When you want to soak up the flavor of Key West — the last link in the archipelago that reaches from south Miami to the open seas — but don’t want to travel, a visit to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville might satisfy at least the drink-and-be-merry craving. Some tricky navigation is necessary, though, to find the…

Orlando Weekly Staff

No bones about Bow Wow Bakery

CNN was in town a couple of weeks ago to cover a ground-breaking event: The opening of Pookie’s Bow Wow Bakery (501 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park; 622-PETS), one of a few of its kind, certainly the first in Orlando. This is no salon for the idle rich to indulge pampered pets with delicacies and…

Colleen Moore

Recent

See all

Gift this article