BEST OF ORLANDO® NOMINATION BALLOT IS OPEN THROUGH MAY 6!

Oct 20-26, 1999

Oct 20-26, 1999 / Vol. 15 / No. 42

Haunted houses of the holy

After four years of living in a conservative community, I still can’t get used to the idea that Halloween and Christianity may not mix. The church in which I grew up thought nothing of letting us kids run around the grounds in full pitchforked regalia on the Sunday before Oct. 31. As suburban-liberal Presbyterians, we…

Steve Schneider

Whose corridor is it, anyway?

The first annual Alden Arts Happening is, in fact, happening this Saturday, Oct. 23 — despite a hurricane of controversy along this stretch that parallels Mayor Glenda Hood’s proposed arts corridor. It began in March, when Hood and her Business Assistance Team dropped in on tenants along Alden Road, one block east of the North…

Dee Rivers

The fun of ratting out the Mouse

We in Orlando share something special. It’s a secret — the secret of what really goes on backstage at Walt Disney World. We don’t derive this knowledge from the Sentinel or Bill Shafer’s showbiz-type reports on WESH-Channel 2, but from plain, old gossip. Most people work for, have worked for or know someone who works…

Ray Kampf

Retrain wreck

The 20 displaced farmworkers who attended last week’s meeting of the Orange County Commission hoped to take advantage of a democratic process they feel has left them behind. The workers, many of them unemployed since last year’s buyout of the farms around Lake Apopka, were there to request further funding for the educational effort designed…

Steve Helling

Minimum advantage

Recently it has become clear that the only way Congress will consider a bill to raise the minimum wage — favored by 83 percent of the public, according to the latest ABC News poll — is by tying it to tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks for big campaign contributors. This is deja…

Orlando Weekly Staff

A price tag on art

It seems that the window of free city-sponsored art has closed. The Mennello Museum of American Folk Art has decided to charge a $2 admission after being gloriously free since its November 1998 opening. “The City Council has always asked us to raise some of our own operating costs,” explains museum director Frank Holt. Until…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Fruit of the loon

In a Stettler, Alberta, courtroom in June, police testified that David Zurfluh, 18, responded to his being stopped on DUI charges by ripping a large swath from his undershorts and stuffing it in his mouth, a maneuver he performed while seated in the back of a squad car. Zurfluh later said he hoped to absorb…

Chuck Shepherd

So help me, God

Alcoholics are so lucky. Just for admitting that they’re powerless booze Hoovers, they get free group therapy, sponsors and coffee. If you’re a garden variety horse’s ass and haven’t been smart enough to put “-aholic” after any of your hobbies, what do you get? Nothing. No 12-step track for you. You’re on your own, the…

Liz Langley

Bemused star rises in new hemisphere

“To tell you the truth, what I do for a living is an irritating by-product,” supposes Robbie Williams, international pop superstar, Sinatra-of-the-moment and boy-band survivor. (His was the straw that broke Take That.) “I’m so enjoying being in America, just seeing what’s going on,” he says from his flat in London. “Every time I step…

Billy Manes

Increase the Beat

By now, Orlando should be getting used to including “On the Road” author Jack Kerouac as part of its cultural family. This weekend, we have a chance to get better acquainted with this former citizen — who was, like many of us, a transient Florida dweller. Kerouac, the pilot light for the inflammatory Beats –…

Theresa Everline

Don of a new day

For years, Don Pepe’s Cuban Cafe has had a loyal band of followers who flock to the shop-worn setting in a Kmart plaza for home-style Cuban food that’s cheap, delicious and filling. The restaurant’s new setting is more of a match for the new menu. Both have been dramatically restyled. The dining area is now…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Epcot’s fall tour of Wine World

Some of the most important chefs in the country will share the blueprints for their culinary creations during the fourth annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, Oct. 23-Nov. 21 at Walt Disney World Resort. Among the guest chefs (the names might not be famous but in their industry they are renowned) hosting daily cooking…

Colleen Moore

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