Coming On Strong
Coming On Strong Label: DFA/Astralwerks Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Coming On Strong If there’s such a thing as laissez-faire funk, this reissue of Hot Chip’s 2004 album proves that these London electro-weirdos excel at it. We find vocalist Alexis Taylor barely able to keep his eyes open while sing-songing “I like to rock” over a wobble-drunk…
Mesk Elil (Honeysuckle)
Mesk Elil (Honeysuckle) Label: Wrasse Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Mesk Elil (Honeysuckle) Algerian singer/songwriter Souad Massi – with her soft-focus beauty and acoustic guitar-based songs – may, at first impression, seem like a sort of Middle Eastern Sarah McLachlan. However, it’s doubtful that McLachlan has ever sung with the same resonant emotion as Massi, nor is…
Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music
Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music Label: QDK Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music If you’ve heard of Turkey’s psychedelic rock scene, you might think that Erkin Koray was its alpha and omega. Nope; as this collection bears out, Koray – though a mighty and towering presence – was only…
SLENDER VITTLES
Nine Lives Studio: Magnolia Films Rated: R Website: http://www.9livesmovie.com/ Release Date: 2005-12-02 Cast: Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Andrew Borba, Elpidia Carrillo, Glenn Close Director: Rodrigo Garcia Screenwriter: Rodrigo Garcia Music Score: Edward Shearmur WorkNameSort: Nine Lives Our Rating: 2.00 You couldn’t cram another gimmick into Nine Lives if you doubled its running time and made…
SLUSH FUND
The Ice Harvest Studio: Focus Features Rated: R Website: http://www.theiceharvest.com/ Release Date: 2005-12-02 Cast: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid Director: Harold Ramis Screenwriter: Richard Russo, Robert Benton Music Score: David Kitay WorkNameSort: Ice Harvest, The Our Rating: 3.00 It’s perfectly possible to enjoy The Ice Harvest, just as soon…
Darwin’s Nightmare
Darwin’s Nightmare Studio: Celluloid Dreams, International Film Circuit Rated: NOT RATED Website: http://www.coop99.at/darwins-nightmare/ Release Date: 2005-12-01 Director: Hubert Sauper Screenwriter: Hubert Sauper WorkNameSort: Darwin’s Nightmare Our Rating: 4.00 Tanzania’s Lake Victoria is teeming with Nile perch, enormous fish that make their way to the dining tables of millions of eaters per day. But that happy…
GIVING THE GIFT OF TASTE
It’s the season for giving, and edible gifts are always welcome. Where to go for the goods? One new place is Hot Olives Market, a classy depot attached to the eponymous restaurant in Winter Park. In August the owners of Hot Olives brought in colleagues from their catering past to run the attached market (which…
RUNNING ON TIME
Far Away Trains Passing By Label: Domino Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Far Away Trains Passing By The roots of the compelling fireside resonance that layered Ulrich Schnauss’ second album of ambient electronica, 2003’s A Strangely Isolated Place, can be traced back four years, to when his debut, Far Away Trains Passing By, first saw daylight. As…
POST DRAMATIC STRESS SYNDROME
My boyfriend, Jason, is having problems with a boy named Roger who is obsessed with him. But because Roger is friends with Jason and Jason’s friends, Jason won’t just tell him off. Roger had the audacity to call Jason today and ask about our sex life. Roger is not only making Jason’s life hell, but…
SPEAKING UP
In the right hands, pop music is like a controlled substance, capable of infusing you with excitement and enthusiasm, momentarily shutting off that part of the brain preoccupied with workplace politics and the cost of living. There’s no one recipe. Acts are always discovering new combinations and building on the contributions of their predecessors, much…
FASHION’S MY PASSION
Did you know I was thisclose to bypassing the high-paying world of television column-writing and becoming a world-renowned fashion designer? WELL, IT’S TRUE. Let me tell you, I have all the attributes necessary to knock Paris, Milan and New York right on their big fat asses, including: flamboyance. The key to flamboyance is screaming whenever…
BANG FOR YOUR ‘BUG
Nothing says “Orlando” like seeing A Christmas Carol in your shorts and complaining about the excessive air conditioning. This chestnut reappears regularly as the days grow short, representing a sort of church service for the agnostic. It’s always ironic to see local socialist Bobbie Bell – who again stars in Theatre Downtown’s production – running…
MESSIN’ WITH TEXAS
To audiences of a certain comedic disposition, the glass house known as Greater Tuna is a stone-thrower’s paradise. A few hours with the inhabitants of tiny Tuna, Texas – where the talk-radio station runs on a whopping 275 watts and pre-owned guns make thoughtful gifts – is an experience bound to wring condescending belly laughs…
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS
Playing music ranging from spastic alien electronica to puppet-fronted, accordion-based pop isn’t a way to court mainstream success. But for a coalition of Orlando-area bands known as Funbalaya, success isn’t defined by that metric anyway; it’s more about the joy of collaboration. By that standard this vast and fluid group of friends is thriving, and…
NO CONFRONTING YOUR ACCUSER
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has total faith in the Intoxilyzer 5000, the machine police agencies across the state use to conduct breath tests in DUI cases. It’s been in use since 1992, and the FDLE swears it is accurate. But in Seminole County, things aren’t so clear-cut. In 2005, four county judges have…
Happytown
Oh Central Florida Criminal Defense Attorneys’ Association Judicial Poll, how we love thee! This annual poll offers lawyers (not just defense attorneys) the chance to anonymously praise or kvetch about the judges who preside over them. It offers perhaps the clearest insight into which judges are highly regarded in the legal community and which are…
PURLOINED PURSES
NOV. 19, 11:23 P.M.: It’s true: Orlando has had its fair share of pizza pilfering, but this particular instance could very well top them all. Instead of preying on a pizza guy out on the street making deliveries, two young hooligans decided to make the victim come to them. Promptly upon receiving an order, a…
KICKIN’ IT PLAYSKOOL
With overtime hours looming and shopping time growing short, what are you going to do about the needy nieces and nephews on your Christmas list? Well, we’ve always found that a DNA test works wonders in denying a blood kinship. But if you’ve already stupidly admitted to a binding relation, you could do worse than…
Rob Brezny’s Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) As I meditated on your immediate future, I got a vision of you making your way through an obstacle course – scurrying across booby-trapped terrains, shimmying through tunnels, climbing over barriers, leaping across ditches. Curiously, there was not the least bit of stress etched on your face. On the contrary, your…
AND WE BOUNCE
As is standard on days bordering overuse of L-tryptophan and travel, I’m sipping hard at the plastic tumbler of melancholy coffee-tabled before me tonight. Not sure what it is really, just perhaps the dandruff-like explosion of artificial dry heat and rising barometric pressure colliding, or maybe the fact that alcohol is indeed a depressant. Either…
American Analog Set, Adam Nehr, Paul Horan, James Blunt and more
Thursday • 1 CHRISTMAS IN THE PARK The holiday season isn’t truly underway until Winter Park’s Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art hosts its traditional yuletide celebration in neighboring Central Park, complete with music by the 150-member Bach Festival Choir and the lighting of exquisite Tiffany leaded-glass windows from the museum’s own collection. Speaking…
Notable Noise
Taking up where we left off with last week’s recent and notable reissues, allow me to shed a little light on some new CDs that have been released recently that are notable. Again, I said “notable,” which doesn’t necessarily mean “good.” TWELVE TOO MUCH Like I said, this isn’t going to be a listing of…
Letters
Life-changing stuff Thank you for writing this article `”Saving souls and taking names,” Nov. 24`. I went to a bar today with my boyfriend and picked up the Orlando Weekly out of boredom to have something to read. Life-changing article. Thank you for making me aware of what is going on in our own city…
