Down for the count
Movie: Out Cold
Action figures dogged by Brad buzz
Movie: Spy Game
Roamin’ holiday
Movie: Bread and Tulips
Armored hot dog
Movie: Black Knight
Down for the count
Movie: Out Cold
Action figures dogged by Brad buzz
Movie: Spy Game
Roamin’ holiday
Movie: Bread and Tulips
Regional gain
Since we’re having to broaden our knowledge about exotic countries these days, it’s probably a good time to note that Thailand (the former Siam, a culture shaped by Chinese, Indian, Cambodian and Malaysian influences — yet apart from them) is a huge place. Narrowing “Thai food” down to pad thai and green curry is like…
Armored hot dog
Movie: Black Knight
Seasoning that cinematic flavor
Ah, movie food — giant tubs of popcorn, Jujubes, Raisinettes, more popcorn. It’s all boring after a while. Unless you head for spiffy Cinemark Festival Bay 20, where lucky Harry Potter-going patrons can load up on chicken tenders, spinach-artichoke dip and ice cream sundaes. Opening at 6 p.m., the “Studio Eats” bar is on the…
Playing the field
The trio of keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood started making a “downtown” buzz back in 1991 by combining hip-hop, funk and rock with free jazz. In the 11 albums released since then, Medeski Martin & Wood (www.mmw.net) have both delighted and perplexed fans, and given more than one critic something…
Out with the old (mostly)
Wahoo! The war is over! OK, so it isn’t really totally over. Between what’s still going on in Afghanistan and what the terrorists may yet do here, we probably haven’t seen the end of the problems that began two months ago. Prevailing wisdom is that these terrorists are like the spiders in “Arachnophobia;” You think…
The spin on sports
“We’ve got nothing but positive vibes going on,” Randy Johnson, state representative and president of the Central Florida Sports Commission, told the few hundred tourism and sports-industry folks who gathered Nov. 16 in Church Street Station’s Presidential Ballroom for the 5th annual “State of Sports” address. Of course, they felt the same way last year…
No more Mr. Nice Guy
The rumor began circulating through City Council Chambers like whispers around a school yard. The mayor was going to “slam” the Orlando Sentinel. Hood, the whispers said, was angry at the stepped up coverage of City Hall, particularly the three-part series accusing city officials of handing the former Navy base to a mega-rich developer two…
Not amused
Admittedly, this isn’t my beat. The International Association of Amuse-ment Parks and Attract-ions convention, spread across and outside the expanse of the Orange County Convention Center, is clearly a wash of bombast and lighting. That’s fine — very me. But it’s also a not-for-the-public, insiders affair of hypermechanics and trade. Not my kind of trade…
What lies beneath
As his wife waved cheerily from a small spit of sand, Geoffrey, a visitor from Manchester, England, waded into Lake Dora and dipped their 9-month-old son into the warm autumn water. “Whee!” the father proclaimed as he bobbed the grinning baby boy. “I’m not sure you want to be doing that,” an observer called from…
Paradise on the brink
Ten years ago, with the thermom-eter reading a bone-chilling 9 degrees, we packed the van and left New England, our home of many years. We were headed for paradise — Florida, that is, with its tropical landscapes, sultry temperatures and endless shades of green. Life in Florida has been good to us. But paradise is…
Foe licks the cat
The Central Intelligence Agency had a project in the 1960s called “Acoustic Kitty,” in which batteries and wires were surgically installed into a cat, with an antenna in the tail, for the purpose of having the feline spy on enemy operatives during wartime, former CIA officer Victor Marchetti told London’s Daily Telegraph. The idea was…
The groves of wrath
At noon on Nov. 13, about four dozen protesters gathered to picket the Lakeland offices of the Florida Citrus Commission. No, they weren’t leftover ’70s radicals still miffed at Anita Bryant. They were representatives of Florida’s film- and TV-production industry, expressing their indignance that the commission awarded its latest commercial campaign to a Los Angeles…
