Slacker registers, you can too!
Here’s a little report from our self-described office slacker on waiting until the last possible day to register. Turns out, it’s way less painful than going to the dentist! If he can do it, you can too. Take it, Shan: Iâ??ve faced the possible alienation of everyone I know and suffered the threat of being…
Sage Francis releases a song to save a friend
We’ve all seen the tough footage of Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman and others getting brutally arrested at the Republican National Convention last month. And if you haven’t, let’s do! It turns out, this kind of intimidation was occurring everywhere around St. Paul, and in the case of Providence, Rhode Island’s Jared Paul, a slam poet,…
FRESH AIR
Dazzling Italian at tastefully appointed new eatery
BEAT THAT
Former Beatle Pete Best on grit and growth
MORE NEWS FROM PBS
The headlines are full of reports that news organizations are cutting back, closing overseas bureaus and devoting less time to international news. What does that mean to consumers? Less information to help make informed decisions relative to our small, interrelated world. PBS decided to buck that trend with a new nightly show, Worldfocus, which debuts…
TURF WAR
Two months ago, Cristina Duque moved from Miami to Orlando. That meant, among other things, finding a new school for her 11-year-old son Isaiah. He could have gone to Howard Middle School, which tests slightly below the district FCAT average. But Duque decided to go another route that better suited Isaiah. “I picked a charter…
ROADBLOCKS TO THE BALLOT BOX
It’s almost an article of faith in some progressive circles that the last two presidential elections were stolen. In 2000, of course, there were the hanging chads in Florida; in 2004, there were suspicions of voting-machine chicanery in Ohio. Already this year, allegations of Republican “vote caging” — sending mailers to foreclosed houses in Democratic…
TAX FACT AND FICTION
It wouldn’t be an election year without candidates promising tax cuts, right? But who gets them, how much they are, what’s the likelihood they can ever be made and what they say about each candidate’s priorities are the bigger questions. “Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president’s domestic policy agenda,” says…
BLISTER
The sky is falling, numbers are crunching, cancer is growing, mouths are lying, campaigns are tanking, banks are crumbling, stockbrokers are snorting, homes are foreclosing and I am dying. Oh, and some hot guy in standard waitstaff wear (black shirt, black pants) just ran across Orange Avenue in front of my car, like maybe he…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19) In her book Courtney Love: The Queen of Noise, Melissa Rossi reports that in the mid-1990s “Courtney surrounded herself with a coterie of soothsayers, even approaching hipster stargazer Rob Brezsny, who declined to provide his services.” Rossi doesn’t explain why, but I will. Courtney pressed me to tell her whether her…
SAVAGE LOVE
I accidentally discovered that my son-in-law is into BDSM sex as a “dominant.” A few weeks ago, he was holding one of my dog’s leashes and tried to stop my dog (a 13-year-old, docile golden retriever) from running up to another dog by violently yanking on the leash. My 65-pound dog was violently spun around…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” MLK said it first, but the management and patrons of Redlight Redlight will soon belt it in unison like a gospel choir. In the now-foreseeable future, the beer-smart, indie-centric hangout will finally be liberated from the draconian Winter Park bar laws…
FIRST SHOT
Once again this week, we’re going to dispense with our normal pre-amble/ramble and get right to the handicapping. We could give you the standard excuse that there’s just too much concrete activity going on to waste the space on scattershot observations — but the truth is that we’ve simply resolved to suspend our essaying until…
LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES
While I was away on vacation in August, a press release from Universal Orlando arrived via e-mail, proudly predicting this year’s “in-your-face” Halloween Horror Nights billboards would push the “outdoor advertising … art form to new levels” and “stay with you long after you drive past them.” No surprise, then, to read upon returning a…
POLICE BEAT
Sept. 20 (2008-406669) 4:20 a.m.: Before we get down to business, I have some housekeeping to take care of. I’ve learned two things this past week: One, this column has a dedicated following of potheads. Two, I could never be a drug dealer, on account of the fact that I can’t do simple math. Yes,…
HAPPYTOWN
Remember how the city tried to keep the homeless out of sight by passing a law that required you to get a permit to have a cookout in a public park? Remember how the city tried to prosecute someone who fed 26 homeless people in Lake Eola Park – one more than the law allowed…
COMMENTS
Behind the scenes Seth Kubersky: Thank you for your wonderful and well-written article regarding the Red Chair Project `Live Active Cultures, Sept. 11`. We need more articles and arts information for our local cultural community in this “entertainment” mecca. I want to thank you especially for your recognition and kudos of our Local 631 and the…
LADIES NIGHT
None of what you see was here a week ago,” says an exhausted but smiling Robert Johnson. He’s taking a break from hammering together a wooden stage at the Cameo Theater, where, for the next few weeks, he’ll endure lighting headaches, construction migraines and funding ulcers in the hopes it all comes together as a…
BEST KEPT SECRETS
A few years ago, then 17-year-old Emma Jean Branch stared at her piano and the crumpled sheet music at its feet, and wiped away what she hoped would be the last of her tears. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she could hear the Buffalo Bills quartet harmonizing about farewells in The Music Man.…
Palin: Dumb or a victim of text anxiety?
I have no basis whatsoever for this assessment other than my own observations â?? I’m putting it out there now â?? but hear me out: As VP candidate Sarah Palin bafflingly continues her cringe-worthy series of interviews with the suddenly fierce Katie Couric, the latest round was less outright painful, but provided more than enough…
death by hot sauce â?? for reals.
OK, all you macho pepperheads, maybe this will cool you off: From the U.K.’s Daily Mail comes this tragic tale of a man who suffered a fatal heart attack after eating some hot sauce he had just concocted. Lethal. (link via our BFF Ian) Aspiring chef dies hours after making ultra-hot sauce As Ian points…
Speaking of Palin…
If you’re wondering what her debate might look like, here’s a primer of sorts from the Anchorage newspaper, written by an independent who debated her in the 2006 gubernatorial race (and obviously lost). Here’s the money quote: “Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you…
