Tran Ahn Hung’s Adaptation of Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood” Coming to Theaters Soon
As we roll into the final week of sheer torture before 1Q84, Haruki Murakami’s 944 page tome about shifting reality in 1984 Japan, there is good news on the Norwegian Wood front. After a year of seeing it come out in many festivals and countries around the world and waiting for news about a release here,…
Video and Photos from Legoland Florida’s Grand Opening
This past weekend, Central Florida witnessed an event that hadn’t happened in over a decade. Legoland Florida, built in Winter Haven on the ashes of Cypress Gardens, threw open its doors to the public on October 15th, making it the first major new theme park to open in the region since 1998’s Animal Kingdom and…
Sunday Film News Roundup — October 16th, 2011
The slow demise of the film camera gets top billing this week. As it turns out, ARRI and Panavision stopped producing new film cameras quite a while ago in order to focus on digital. I feel like I’ve had my head in the sand about this, thinking it would never happen despite all available evidence.…
Occupy Orlando enters graveyard shift, marching under cover of darkness
It’s 1 a.m. and the core group of activists rallying under the banner Occupy Orlando, having vacated the park two hours ago at the request of the Orlando Police Department, is still marching. Because it is legal to walk on a sidewalk, hold signs, and even chant at any given hour, activists have decided to…
Photos from Occupy Orlando march through downtown today
Occupy Orlando’s first march concluded shortly after 1 p.m. today, and at least a couple OW staffers were present to behold what was one of the largest demonstrations I’ve seen downtown in years. To my knowledge, participants are at this moment taking turns sharing the microphone at Senator Beth Johnson Park, where the march first…
Selection Reminder: Bacon! The Experience at Say It Loud
Saturday, Oct. 15 – Bacon! The Experience Meat candy. Fried crack. Sir Francis Awesome. Bacon has been called many things, and in the last five years, it’s become the trendy food additive, finding its way into everything from chocolate to mayonnaise to soda – but until now it hasn’t been called art. Peripatetic Orlando artist…
Selection Reminder: Legoland opens today!
Saturday, Oct. 15 – Legoland Opening Day Most of us have patiently anticipated the opening day of Central Florida’s newest theme-park, Legoland, for more than a year now. But for some – namely those who’ve always fantasized about piecing together, brick-by-colored-plastic-brick, an entire city made of Legos – this is a day for which they’ve…
Selection Reminder: Orlando International Dragon Boat Festival!
Saturday, Oct. 15 – Orlando International Dragon Boat Festival As the final showdown in the Southern Regional Dragon Boat Association Point Series, this weekend’s daylong International Dragon Boat Festival pits both local (including Orlando Rowing Club) and traveling rowing teams in a match-up on Buena Vista Lagoon. Dragon Boat racing, a Chinese water sport that…
Occupy Orlando to march tomorrow, in the meantime, recommended reading
Tomorrow morning, Occupy Orlando—a movement drawing inspiration from the New York activists challenging the privileges wielded by the one percent of the wealthiest Americans (some of whom rake in such enormous sums of money, much of it taxpayer dollars, without performing any productive labor)—will begin the City Beautiful’s first indefinite physical protest in recent memory…
Underrated: The Taste of Tea – Katsuhito Ishii (2004)
One could attempt to describe Katsuhito Ishii’s The Taste of Tea, but one would fail at doing so. Modest and understated, yet with much depth of spirit, it’s the kind of live action film that only an animator could direct, and, really, only a Japanese animator could direct. It is the story of a family, but…
Criterion: “We’re letting a giant cat out of the bag today”
You big sillies, that’s not a cat. [Source.]
Selection Reminder: Eight From Florida opens at the Mennello!
Friday, Oct. 14 – Eight From Florida Continuing where this summer’s FLA.ART left off, the Mennello Museum celebrates Eight From Florida tonight with an opening party to show off the work of – yep – eight Floridian artists: paintings, sculptures and multimedia pieces by Jose Bedia, John Chamberlain, Dan Gunderson, Leslie Neu-mann, Robert Rauschenberg, James…
Selection Reminder: Indie-rock trio Royal Bangs tonight at Back Booth!
Friday, Oct. 14 – Royal Bangs For now, at least – meaning right this very moment – there’s a nip in the air. Of course, that’s subject to change at literally any given moment, so much so that it feels like if we acknowledge it too much, it will go away (like the Detroit Lions winning…
Selection Reminder: John Oliver brings the funny to Hard Rock Live!
Friday, Oct. 14 – John Oliver Reporters with English accents typically drive us into a jealous rage, but English faux-reporters – such as comedian John Oliver, perhaps best known for his role as a correspondent on The Daily Show – are some of our favorite people. Oliver himself is an intriguing chap: He met his…
P.S. I Love You Tonight At BackBooth
Thursday, Oct. 13 – P.S. I Love You If you were already overwhelmed with all the awesomeness that’s happening in town tonight (Duran Duran, The New Pornographers), get ready for another bullet point on your to-do list. Quickly rising Ontario band P.S. I Love You is performing tonight at the BackBooth. If you’ve heard ’em,…
Selection Reminder: Wanda Jackson at the Plaza Live!
Thursday, Oct. 13 – Wanda Jackson Think of the coolest rock & roll icon. No matter what visage just popped up in your mind, Wanda Jackson is cooler. Not only is she an original rock & roller who made her name on bills with Elvis Presley (who was one of her biggest champions), and not…
Selection Reminder: Telekinesis tonight at the Beacham!
Thursday, Oct. 13 – Telekinesis By now, the virtue of legendary Vancouver supergroup New Pornographers is widely known. But, much to our chagrin, not so for opener Telekinesis. Why this life-affirming vehicle for musician Michael Benjamin Lerner hasn’t sunbursted into the public consciousness yet is completely mysterious. Regardless, Lerner & Co. have quietly been making…
Selection Reminder: Duran Duran tonight!
Thursday, Oct. 13 – Duran Duran Just when we thought it was OK to discard our careworn copies of Star Hits magazine along with the rest of the shiny plastic ’80s ephemera bearing the double-D insignia and clogging our closet (can’t get rid of that tattoo, though!), the four remaining originals that comprise pop’s most…
The house that rice built
Paella headlines, but it’s seafood that features prominently at this East Orlando diner
The view from Venus
Jacque Fresco designed a society without politics, poverty and war. Will it ever leave the drawing board?
Adoption story
North Carolina country rockers American Aquarium on their love affair with Orlando
Grace notes
Genre-spanning survivors the Rapture hold up well to expansion
Savage Love
I’m a college freshman.
The Whistleblower
Rachel Weisz dominates in true story of war, trafficking and corruption
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) If it’s at all possible, don’t hang around boring people this week. Seek out the company of adventurers who keep you guessing and unruly talkers who incite your imagination and mystery-lovers who are always on the lookout for new learning experiences. For that matter, treat yourself to especially interesting food, perceptions…
The prize goes to …
Two intrepid readers solved our Orlandoland scavenger hunt
Culture 2 Go
Memoirist Nick Flynn (“Another Bullshit Night in Suck City”) reads Oct. 18, Oct. 25 and Oct. 28
The land of abstinence and unicorns
Lizz Winstead stands up for Planned Parenthood
Happytown
We got preoccupied with the Occupation of the City Beautiful, then we snapped out of it and measured imaginary drapes with the latest mayoral contender. Orlando is on fire! Run for your lives!
DVDs Nuts!
Lesser-seen OW approved titles
Beauty, wide awake
No longer sleeping, Orlando Ballet comes to life with new talent
Live Active Cultures
Seth explores folk art in gritty downtown Sanford
This Little Underground
Autumn means the stampede of big touringacts, so here goes… THE BEAT With magpie indie rock built on little twists and wisps instead of sizzle and bang, Minneapolis’ Tapes ’n Tapes (Oct. 6, the Social) are more about intricacy than grandeur. And they’re one of those true-to-life bands that achieve lots of live fidelity in…
Equine destiny
Australian indie-rock duo An Horse means business
Creation and evolution
71-year-old free-jazz legend Roscoe Mitchell leads by example
Want to see von Trier’s Melancholia Early? Here’s How.
Except for maybe Tree of Life, I don’t think there has been a more talked about film this year in general, but certainly on this blog. Since it famously bowed to both acclaim and controversy at Cannes earlier in the year, it’s been hard to wait for it to make it to US theaters. But…
Cashing in on the occupation of wall street
Interwebs entrepreneurs are trying to make bank on a new trend: Occupy Wall Street merchandise, web domains and apparel. Today on eBay, a Kingston, N.Y. user going by the name diversjim is trying to auction off the web domain weoccupywallstreet.com. “Be part of one of the greatest social movements this century – endless ideas,” the…
Legislators’ plan for massive prison privatization is rebuffed in court
Forgive us for being late on this piece of news – apparently, this occurred just as this reporter was going on vacation – but Florida legislators’ plans for prison privatization on a massive scale have come to a screeching halt. As we reported in July, the Police Benevolent Association—an influential law enforcement union of which…
Celeb chef Todd English: Pasta ‘as good as sex’
I sat down with charismatic celebrity chef, restaurant mogul and all-round polarizing culinary icon Todd English while he was in town to attend the Food & Wine Classic at Disney’s Swan & Dolphin Hotel (also the site of Todd English’s bluezoo restaurant). Yeah, he’s burned a lot of bridges in his hometown of Boston, and…
