MINER VICTORY
North Country Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution Rated: R Website: http://northcountrymovie.warnerbros.com/ Release Date: 2005-10-21 Cast: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sissy Spacek, Woody Harrelson, Sean Bean Director: Niki Caro Screenwriter: Michael Seitzman Music Score: Gustavo Santaolalla WorkNameSort: North Country Our Rating: 3.00 Based on the evidence of the overpraised Whale Rider, director Niki Caro tends to…
MOUNTAINS OF VENEZUELAN FOOD
When we first drove up, we were greeted by harsh fluorescents dipping into the strip-mall parking lot. Surrounded by rental cars, timeshares and newly built hotels, this area of the Orlando dining scene is difficult to figure out. There are mostly chain restaurants, but somehow they fit together – Olive Garden and Taco Bell alongside…
ANOTHER STANDARDIZED SANDWICH OPERATION
When it comes to college dining, sandwiches rule. I’ve talked to seniors who could write their theses on Subway versus Quiznos. Now there’s a new sub shop on the scene catering to students: Silver Mine Subs in the University Shoppes across the street from UCF. They have a large selection of cold and hot subs,…
U GOT THE LOOK
MirrorMask Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films Rated: PG Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mirrormask/ Release Date: 2005-10-21 Cast: Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee, Robert Brydon, Rob Brydon, Jason Barry Director: Dave McKean Screenwriter: Neil Gaiman Music Score: Iain Bellamy WorkNameSort: MirrorMask Our Rating: 4.00 It’s not often you feel compelled to recommend a film almost entirely on the basis of its…
Short Cut to Nirvana
Short Cut to Nirvana Studio: Mela Films, LLC Rated: NOT RATED Website: http://melafilms.com/ Release Date: 2005-10-20 Director: Nick Day, Maurizio Benazzo WorkNameSort: Short Cut to Nirvana Our Rating: 2.50 This documentary about a massive yet surprisingly unknown spiritual gathering shows 70 million enlightenment-seekers arriving in Allahabad, India, where three holy rivers (one of which is…
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story Studio: DreamWorks SKG Rated: PG Website: http://www.dreamer.dreamworks.com/ Release Date: 2005-10-21 Cast: Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson, Elisabeth Shue, Freddy Rodriguez Director: John Gatins Screenwriter: John Gatins WorkNameSort: Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story Our Rating: 2.00 This dewy story of a girl and her horse has its snout…
BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER
Good Night, And Good Luck Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution Rated: PG Website: http://wip.warnerbros.com/goodnightgoodluck/ Release Date: 2005-10-21 Cast: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Rose Abdoo, Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson Director: George Clooney Screenwriter: George Clooney, Grant Heslov Music Score: Dianne Reeves WorkNameSort: Good Night, And Good Luck Our Rating: 3.00 George Clooney’s sophomore directorial outing,…
GARBAGE STATE
Elizabethtown Studio: Paramount Pictures Rated: PG-13 Website: http://www.elizabethtown.com/home.html Release Date: 2005-10-14 Cast: Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Biel, Judy Greer Director: Cameron Crowe Screenwriter: Cameron Crowe WorkNameSort: Elizabethtown Our Rating: 1.50 How’s this for a premise: When one of his parents passes away, a numb 20-something suddenly re-evaluates his life, thanks to an…
WHAT’S IN A WORD?
On St. Valentine’s Day, an amalgamation of religious groups calling itself the Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage announced its campaign to amend Florida’s constitution to forever ban gay marriage. Spearheaded by the Longwood-based Liberty Counsel, the group, which has since renamed itself Florida4Marriage.org, is well on its way to gathering the necessary 611,000 signatures –…
THANKS, WE’RE FINE ON OUR OWN
It’s that season again; you can smell it in the air. Like lazy dogs, they’ve emerged from a long slumber, vaguely disoriented but incredibly hungry. Long past the gluttony of the last decade’s mergers, the major labels have awakened and released their A&R departments from their leashes, and now the talent-starved mongrels are threatening to…
NO DEAL
Two years ago K.B. Forbes, founder of an advocacy group for the uninsured called Consejo de Latinos Unidos, traveled from his California home to Orlando, where he set about shaming the area’s two biggest health care facilities: Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center. His charge? That the hospitals charged uninsured patients much more money…
MIDORI, NOT SOUR
Any words of wisdom on girlfriends, boyfriends and spouses who claim to be GGG but take away much of what they give by making it clear that they are not “into it” as they fulfill their lovers’ fantasies? For years my wife has indulged me; however, she nearly always prefaces fetish sex play with a…
FLYING RHYMES
There’s a good cross-section of hip-hop at the Anti-Pop Fest, and the Rhymesayers show (Atmosphere, P.O.S., Blueprint) on Saturday at The Social Pavilion is shaping up to be a high-profile event, despite the fact that 90 percent of self-professed hip-hop fans probably don’t know who Atmosphere is; this is, after all, an underground music fest.…
BRING THE KIDS
How good could an alternative-rock festival be without a full-blown, out-in-the-daylight punk show? Not very good. While Wednesday night’s punk show (Street Dogs, River City Rebels, Supervillains) caters to the gutter-drunk punk rockers around town, this Sunday afternoon show will be sunnier, both in environment and in attitude. Headlining will be locals Anberlin, who have…
WANGO TANGO
Very few bands can claim Jackie DeShannon and John Peel as fans. Fewer still can get away with their credibility intact after supplying music for both Diet Coke and Budweiser commercials. But the Detroit Cobras are nothing if not anomalous. In a musical universe that prizes originality over personality, the Cobras flip the script, stamping…
FROM THE GROUND UP
If you run out of toilet tissue, rapper P.O.S. suggests you “find the Sunday paper; wipe your ass with the President.” The refrain in “Music for Shoplifting,” from his March 2005 debut, Ipecac Neat, makes Kanye West’s Katrina-incited outburst seem quaint. But if you think that’s political, P.O.S.’ bad brain has increased its concentration for…
ANTI-POP
Welcome to the beginning of something big. As the inaugural Anti-Pop Music Festival gets underway, you might notice that it’s different than other large-scale musical events that take place in Orlando. Unlike the Florida Music Festival, which focuses on local and regional bands trying to “make it,” the lineup for Anti-Pop is evenly split between…
MAN ON FIRE
Atmosphere’s MC, Slug, was raised on hip-hop, growing up in one of North Minneapolis’ tougher neighborhoods. He has a mixed heritage, but in his heart he’s true-blue hip-hop. He didn’t even hear his first indie rock music until his mid-20s. His raps are peculiar in a genre built on posturing and MC battles for their…
A COUPLA THUGS
A-wiggity-wiggity-whack. That’s precisely the sound that my head makes as my hand slaps against it and, fortunately, also the sound of my soul dying at this, my latest night-life descent. “You should come out tonight,” snips my friend Joel (or Jo-elle, depending on your personal degree of homosexuality) as he trims my friend Taylor’s wig.…
HANGING IT UP
Computer programming can’t be nearly as exciting as running your own label, building dreary beats for Illogic or cutting a record with crate-digger extraordinaire RJD2. Ohio MC, producer and Weightless Records label head Blueprint knew this and bailed on his cubicle job a while back to get himself something more aligned with his steadfast DIY…
Nine Inch Nails, Danzig/Neil Diamond, Carl Cox, Aimee Mann and more
Thursday • 20 KEVIN HARAN: TRANSPARENCIES There’s a heck of a stash of talent within the UCF art department, and Kevin Haran has been holding down his end since he joined the staff in the mid-’90s. He’s been a teacher, a curator of the UCF Gallery and an artist in his own right. That’s why…
OUT OF THE CLOSET
For years, Portastatic was the quirky one-man side project of Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan, a place where he could explore his bedroom lo-fi vision with gauzy, keyboard-driven paeans. McCaughan released a trio of indie pop albums in the ’90s, then used Portastatic to explore other interests, including jazz (The Perfect Little Door EP w/Ken Vandermark), Brazilian…
Notable Noise
Take that, you jam-rock pussies. You may think you know what it’s like to noodle off in search of the lost chord, but there are four guys from Japan who take that exploration off in a direction so freaking psychedelic it will rip your face off. Acid Mothers Temple completely destroyed The Social Oct. 14,…
MOODY TERROR
The first thing that should clue you into The National’s musical superiority is the simple fact that they’re more successful in Europe than they are in their U.S. home. It’s what led the Brooklyn quintet to sign with Beggars Banquet after two albums and an EP on their own, and it’s what’s forced American audiences…
Letters
Viva El Billman! I just wanted to thank you for the candid article you wrote regarding megachurches here in Orlando `”Viva Las Jesus!” Oct. 13`. I must admit, when I picked up the magazine, I was expecting a five-page spread blasting churches. Thanks for not going there. We all know there’s plenty to pick at…
SONGWRITER REVOLT
In this era of laptop recording and musical primitivism, singer-songwriter John Vanderslice is living out a grand pop obsession. Writing ornate songs lavished with musical detail and studio experimentation, Vanderslice is a throwback to a time when songwriting and recording meant using analog sounds, not samples. "We definitely use the studio as an instrument," says…
GIVE ‘EM THE FINGER
Brett Backwell, Australian rules football player for Gleneig, a suburb of Adelaide, whose broken finger has hampered his playing for three years, decided in September to forgo bone fusion in favor of just having half the finger amputated. “(I)f that’s going to help me to succeed at this level (of pro football), then it’s something…
VERY ORIGINAL RECIPE
During a week of interesting new music, this is the show that’s sure to be the most … interesting. That’s what happens when you put a guy like Buckethead (left) – probably the only chicken-bucket-and-face-mask-wearing guitar shredder to play with both John Zorn and Axl Rose – onstage with … anyone. But when you add…
Rob Brezny’s Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us” is the title of a song by the band My Chemical Romance. If you’d like to place yourself in alignment with cosmic rhythms, you should say the exact opposite of that to someone you care about – something like this:…
EXPLOSIVE EXHIBITIONISTS
Before every road trip, the members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum dumpster-dive for corporation-discarded carpeting to line their tour van. This mildly unsanitary task pales in comparison to the rest of the grueling preparation ritual, which involves removing the previous padding from the floor and, says drummer Matthias Bossi, “brushing out acres of dust and debris.”…
MORE LETTERS FROM HARRIET MIERS
Dear Macy’s: I recently purchased one of your high-quality microfiber sofas (model #4475-E) and I have to say that it is the best sofa EVER! I have owned a lot of furniture in my time – and most of it was GREAT – but I have never had the honor of parking my tired old…
AQUATIC IDOL
How are columnist Dave Barry and Aquaman similar? Both are annoying assholes. Dave Barry has essentially been writing the same humor column every week for the last bazillion years, while Aquaman is a completely useless piece of flotsam (or is that jetsam?) whose only super ability is bossing around tuna. Why the comparison? Like Dave…
Happytown
If you can gauge a politician’s popularity by the intensity of her opposition, then Orlando city commissioner Vicki Vargo is in trouble. The elections are still six months off, and Vargo’s having no trouble pulling in money; but neither are her four opponents, some of whom have banked contributions from some seriously heavy hitters. Now,…
FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
This show could be more intimate than some of the other Anti-Pop gigs due to its location at the oh-so-cozy Peacock Room, as well as the fact that these are all local bands. But by no means does “intimate” mean “avoidable”; this is an incredibly strong lineup that, note-for-note, compares more than favorably with higher-profile…
HUSTLE AND FLOW
Damn the national consensus that Florida is a freak state – we’re just special. And one of the things that make us so special is the flow of natural waters through our unique geography of underground caverns. There’s nothing like it in the world, and the sooner that conservation measures are taken to protect this…
SUDS SWIPED
OCT. 11, 3 P.M.: Ever have a craving for an after-school snack? That’s apparently the justification for the following crime, though heisting a Yoo-Hoo at the nearest 7-Eleven wouldn’t cut it – oh no. Sometime before 5:30 p.m., a famished filcher or filchers explored a school’s football stadium, gaining entry into a concession stand by…
SHOOT HIGH, AIM LOW
George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 comedy, Arms and the Man, takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its hero, Capt. Bluntschli – played with a generous supply of Shavian wit and style by Timothy Williams in the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival’s current production – is a Swiss mercenary in the Serbian army. As the play begins, he…
GODDANG TWANG
One thing is for certain upon meeting Holidaysburg’s singer and guitarist Rob Weddle: He’ll be ridiculously nice to you and will offer you, a stranger, a beer. When you ask drummer Larry Fulford for a joke, he will oblige with, “Where did the general keep his armies? In his sleevies.” When you tell him that…
