Goodbye Habeas Corpus//Morning Rant
Lets all thank President Bush for redefining habeas corpus last week. It takes a brave man to unwrite the Constitution. Its funny that all the liberals are boohooing over the Bush’s Military Commission Act of 2006. If you’re arrested, do you truly want to know WHY you’re being detained? Do you REALLY need due process.…
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Studio: Sony Pictures Releasing Rated: PG-13 Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Asia Argento, Rip Torn, Molly Shannon Director: Sofia Coppola WorkNameSort: Marie Antoinette Our Rating: 4.50 With Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola avoids a potentially lachrymose biopic about an executed French monarch by creating an anachronistic post-punk opera about feminist rebellion. A triumph of…
Flags of Our Fathers
Flags of Our Fathers Studio: Dreamworks Rated: R Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford, Jamie Bell, Ben Walker Director: Clint Eastwood WorkNameSort: Flags of Our Fathers Our Rating: 4.50 Marketed as a sweetly patriotic homage to the bravery of the Iwo Jima soldiers, Flags of Our Fathers is a character-rich dissection of propaganda, loyalty…
The Prestige
The Prestige Studio: Touchstone/Warner Bros Rated: PG-13 Cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson Director: Christopher Nolan WorkNameSort: Prestige, The Our Rating: 2.50 Despite David Bowie providing one of the best movie entrances ever (hint: He plays Nikola Tesla) and the continual twists one expects out of director Christopher Nolan (much…
The Spirit of the Beehive
The Spirit of the Beehive Studio: The Criterion Collection Rated: NOT RATED WorkNameSort: Spirit of the Beehive, The Victor Erice’s 1973 film is often dubbed the high point of Spanish cinema, but it’s also one of the most elegant and emotionally engaging movies made in the last 50 years anywhere. Utilizing changing viewpoints and bits…
Red Angel
Red Angel Studio: Fantoma Rated: NOT RATED WorkNameSort: Red Angel Red Angel is just the sixth of Japanese auteur Yasuzo Masumura’s 60-plus films to receive a DVD release in North America. Since he stuck mostly to B-pictures, he hasn’t received the worldwide renown of prestigious contemporaries Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi, even though he apprenticed under…
Roadside Prophets
Roadside Prophets Studio: New Line/Image Entertainment Rated: R WorkNameSort: Roadside Prophets A road movie starring John Doe (of legendary L.A. punk band X) and Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys) with walk-ons by the likes of Timothy Leary, David Carradine and Arlo Guthrie should be a loose, funny and irreverent film. Roadside Prophets…
Body Double: Widescreen Special Edition
Body Double: Widescreen Special Edition Studio: Sony Rated: R WorkNameSort: Body Double: Widescreen Special Edition As an actress, Melanie Griffith is very on and off, and that faux-Monroe voice of hers becomes less and less enchanting as the years roll on. So if you’ve found yourself wondering why anyone ever got excited about her in…
Rune
Rune Studio: www.runethemovie.com Rated: NOT RATED WorkNameSort: Rune The low-budget thriller Rune is not notable for the prowess of its cast of unknown actors. Nor will its plot ‘ simultaneously byzantine and mundane ‘ leave you breathless. And though its premise gamely tries to gin up some high philosophical notions about language and history, it…
Less Paul, More Rock
Less Paul, More Rock Label: Slow January Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Less Paul, More Rock Put together by an Orlando ex-pat whose local ties run deep, this comp is peppered with the cream of our homegrown crop and others previously linked to this scene. Though the small but smart indie label operates…
Unlocked: The Live Performances
Unlocked: The Live Performances Label: Docurama DVD WorkNameSort: Unlocked: The Live Performances As the Todd Rundgren’fronted New Cars have stalled out along the nostalgic cash-in freeway, this 70-minute collection of prime-era live footage produced by Ric Ocasek goes a long way to reminding fans of the original band’s icy glory. Ocasek’s facility in the studio,…
No Heroes
No Heroes Label: Epitaph Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: No Heroes Six years ago, Rancid rebooted its career with a second self-titled record, this one much faster and heavier than its previous eponymous effort. Initially, this struck fans familiar with the group’s artistic evolution as a pandering, reactionary gesture, but hindsight reveals Rancid…
Hagalo Usted Mismo
Hagalo Usted Mismo Label: Nacional Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Hagalo Usted Mismo This Chilean alt-rock collective was one of the biggest in Latin America during their original run in the ’90s. Though the fire had fizzled out by the time they folded up their tent in 2000, a 2002 tribute EP by…
With Oden on Our Side
With Oden on Our Side Label: Metal Blade Length: LP Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: With Oden on Our Side One of the strongest and most effective melodic death metal bands on the planet, the thing that most commonly identifies Amon Amarth is also the thing that makes them seem completely ridiculous. Namely,…
YEAR ONE
;How many movies do you; need for a film series to become a film festival? Thirty? Twenty? Ten?; ;Would you believe six? Yes, there are exactly a half-dozen feature films in the first edition of the Orlando Film Festival, a three-day event that kicks off Oct. 19. No, that doesn’t sound like very many compared…
BLISTER
“I just want to feel warm inside,” pisses Savannah, who is peeing right in front of me and contemplating a heroin relapse (which makes you not pee, mind you). “I want to be slung up on the couch, numb and beautiful.” “Me, I’d rather be grabbing the back of my head and gritting my teeth,”…
DIARY OF A CONVENTION WHORE
;On a breezy Wednesday afternoon in late September, the southern end of International Drive rests in the shadows of the Orange County Convention Center’s elliptical sky-high protrusion. Approaching the North/South concourse (opened in 2003), a pickup truck’s horn blows angrily, though it’s traveling the wrong way on an all-but-abandoned one-way road. Lovebugs cling to the…
SAVAGE LOVE
;I’m a 19-year-old girl, attractive, outgoing, and ambitious. My boyfriend is 21 and shares the same qualities. We’ve been dating since January. At times he gets really moody and won’t tell me why, but I’ve noticed a pattern:; ; 1. Me hanging out with my guy friends (guy friends that I’ve known since we were…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES “Do you know what insomniac dyslexic philosophers do?” asked one of the 20th century’s great thinkers, Terence McKenna. “They stay up all night wondering if dog really exists.” That just happens to be your assignment — whether or not you’re an insomniac dyslexic philosopher. In other words, it’s time to intensify your exploration of…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
;My, what postmodern times we live in. Survey the landscape and you’ll see a scrap yard of mash-ups (The Grey Album), rehashes (Interpol) and resurrections (New York Dolls). Progress, it seems, is no longer measured linearly. The artistic course we find ourselves in has become circular, resulting in an eddying of our culture. Fashion used…
I LOVE TELEVISION
What ain’t normal? A lot of things ain’t normal. Congressman Mark Foley’s love for really embarrassing text messages to teens ain’t normal. Hot Pockets — those microwavable meat-filled pastries I eat every day for lunch? Definitely not normal. Clay Aiken … super not normal … and yet, I love him. Ghosts chasing comedian Gilbert Gottfried…
ARTS & CULTURE TO GO
;Frankenstein, ;the Modern Prometheus ;Jean-Louis Barrault, the great French actor, director and impresario, once said that one actor alone on a stage is enough to create theater — if necessary, total theater. Rarely has this dictum been more gratifyingly confirmed than in the Orlando Shakespeare Festival’s current production of Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, a theatrical…
HAPPYTOWN
;Ever wonder why everyone hates Orange County Public Schools? Here’s Exhibit A: superintendent Ron Blocker’s Oct. 11 State of the Schools address at Jones High School. Blocker, rose-colored glasses radiating, gave a 30-minute pep talk on how absolutely super public education is to the 200 or so attendees, including a few dozen students. ;; Here’s…
COUNCIL WATCH
It’s been four long weeks since our last summit with the mayor and his merry commissioners. But things are going down: press conferences for new venues, gay pride parades, hotel lobby grand openings, etc. Still, on Oct. 16, Mayor Buddy Dyer deluged city council meeting attendees with a “particularly long mayor’s update,” one that said…
POLICE BEAT
;Oct. 6, 2:09 P.M.: Who should be more upset in this next case: the victim, or the perp(s)? Officer Staudte was dispatched to the 300 block of Mashie Lane regarding an occupied residential burglary. While our 30-year-old victim was sleeping, suspect(s) unknown popped out the screen to his kitchen window, forced the window up —…
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
King for a day Most of the year, civil aviation engineer Joseph Ngoupou and his wife (a budget officer at the World Bank) live the life of a suburban Washington, D.C., couple taking up golf on weekends. But two or three times a year, Ngoupou travels to Cameroon, where he is, by heredity, a village…
LETTERS
;Just another pol ;I was reading with interest the article on Scott Randolph, thinking that this was a fun and interesting race [“Can this guy knock off Sheri McInvale?” Oct. 12] until I came upon his words at the end of the article referring to his fellow Republican politicians if he did win. He said,…
SELECTIONS
;Thursday•19 ;;”Part and Parcel of God” lecture Get in touch with your inner transcendentalist with guidance from Rollins professor Barbara Harrell Carson. She’ll be lecturing at the heady program titled Part and Parcel: Transcendentalism and Cosmic Unity, which will explore the works of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the two authors generally credited…
TALES TO TELL
Poncho Sanchez doesn’t think of himself as much of a storyteller. But get him talking and he’ll relive the moments that eventually led to one night in 1974. On that evening, vibraphonist Cal Tjader, a Latin jazz icon, plucked Sanchez from the audience and threw him onstage behind the conga drums at L.A.’s premier jazz…
FEAR FACTORIES
What is the color of fear? Is it pitch-black? Arterial red? Clenched-knuckle white? In Orlando, the color of fear is green. Cold blind terror now equals cold hard cash. Scaring the bejesus out of tourists is big business, and while a mutated 800-pound gorilla (Universal Studios) rules the season, a newcomer is clawing for your…
GRUDGE MATCH
Bruce Antone is getting used to looking over his shoulder and seeing a familiar face. The 45-year-old African-American has run for office three times in the past four years, and each time, he’s faced a now-32-year-old attorney named Tiffany Moore. When Antone runs, Moore runs. They dueled in successive bids for state representative in 2002…
What’s a few hundred thousand dead Iraqis?
Let’s see. George Bush puts casualties from the Iraq war at about 30,000. A new study by Johns Hopkins, MIT and others puts the figure as high as 655,000. Most Iraqis blame us for the bloody mayhem gripping their country, and the headless bodies keep turning up on the streets. Who do you believe? The…
