Cover Story
16 years after he was charged with the death of an Osceola County child, Giovanni Vega fights to prove his innocence
Three weeks ago, Giovanni Kali Vega turned 36 inside the Lake Correctional Institution in Clermont. His birthday isn’t really a cause for celebration, because it’s another reminder that his youth is fading and the world he left behind when he was charged with murder at just 20 years old is not the same. After 16…
Gemini Blvd to bring school spirit to ARTlando, Sept. 26
School spirit won’t be the only thing Gemini Blvd, UCF’s co-ed a cappella group, will be bringing to Orlando Weekly’s ARTlando Festival. In true A Capella style Gemini Blvd will performing only using their voices, and are set to go on at 2:30 until 3pm at Loch Haven Park. Their performance will be a great one…
Raskin’s Dance Studio to perform at ARTlando, Sept. 26
Original routines, energetic moves, and plenty of talent is what awaits the audience during Raskin Dance Studio’s performance at this year’s Artlando Music & Arts Festival. Raskin’s students are set to perform from 1:15 to 1:45pm at Loch Haven Park on Sept. 26th. Artlando is free to attend, but there is still a VIP experience available for $20 which includes…
UCF a cappella group Gemini Blvd. will bring harmony to ARTlando, Sept. 26
The men and women of the University of Central Florida’s co-ed a cappella group Gemini Blvd. will sing up a storm at Artlando, Orlando Weekly’s all-day outdoor art and cultural festival at Loch Haven Park on Sept. 26. The group specializes in all-vocal performances of pop music hits from stars like Ariane Grande and Nicki Minaj.…
Orlando Shakes to bring on the laughs with ‘Spamalot’ at Artlando, Sept. 26
If your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of Elderberries, you may want to check out Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s performance of Monty Python’s Spamalot at Orlando Weekly’s Artlando event on Sept. 26. The Tony-award winning musical is also being performed at Orlando Shakespeare Theater in its entirety from Sept. 9 until October 11th, but…
Blue Star’s VarieTease will bring eccentric dance to Artlando, Sept. 26
Orlando’s VarieTease will bring an eclectic mix of burlesque and artistry to this year’s Artlando Festival, Sept. 26. Led by actress, choreographer and entrepreneur, Blue Star, the dance group will be performing from 8 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. in Loch Haven Park during the all day event. For more on VarieTease, check out Seth Kubersky’s…
Zappa (Dweezil) Plays Zappa (Frank) at the Plaza Live
Touring on one of his favorites of his father’s records, Dweezil Zappa celebrates 40 years since the release of Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention’s One Size Fits All by recreating the album live. The setlist runs through the album, so it includes rarely performed songs, including “Evelyn, a Modified Dog,” which Zappa says…
Maker Faire Orlando offers too much to see in one day at the Orlando Science Center this weekend
The Maker movement has exploded in the public consciousness over the past few years. Circuit-bending, 3-D printing, steampunk: It’s all tied in to a growing subculture of people who get more joy out of building than consuming. This marks the second year that the Orlando Maker Faire has been big enough to be “official” and…
Purity Ring rattles the pop frontier at House of Blues
It took three whole years after Purity Ring’s celebrated debut, Shrines, for their follow-up this year, Another Eternity, but if you were stamping your feet with impatience, that motion soon morphed into uninhibited dance when the album dropped its distinct beats and the duo once again rattled the pop frontier. As has been well documented,…
Watch a relationship fall apart in verse in Bret Hoveskeland’s ‘Oxytocin Opera’ at Stardust Coffee
The Oxytocin Opera by Orlando author Bret Hoveskeland sounds similar to a lot of romance stories we’ve heard: Boy and girl fall in love. Boy struggles with emotional issues as girl struggles with alcoholism. To top it off, girl gets pregnant as their relationship falls apart. The differences lie in the author’s ability to weave…
Florida is basically a cyclist’s worst nightmare
Hankering for a quick ride around the block on your cute new beach cruiser or hip new fixie? Think again: Florida was recently named the most dangerous state in the nation for bicyclists. Perhaps it’s the ubiquity of compression shorts distracting drivers, or perhaps the heat is to blame; but, according to a report from…
25 free concerts in Orlando this week (9/9-9/15)
Wednesday, Sept. 9 Aura: Irene Prado, Bryzergold, Augie Goytisolo, David Quinn, Just Hyder 10:30 p.m. at Peek Downtown, 50 E. Central Blvd. Eugene Snowden’s Ten Pints of Truth 10 p.m. at Lil Indies, 1036 N. Mills Ave. The Imperial’s Acoustic Soundcheck with Cat Ridgeway 9 p.m. at the Imperial at Washburn Imports, 1800 N. Orange…
Eat free(ish) at new Orange Ave. Noodles & Company location on Monday
If there’s any one food that almost anyone in the world can eat and be completely happy, it’s noodles. Here at Orlando Weekly, it’s kind of an obsession. And what’s only thing better than noodles? Free noodles. The new location of Noodles & Company is opening on the corner of Michigan and Orange avenues near…
See the violence inherent in the system at Orlando Shakes’ production of ‘Spamalot’
If you’re the kind of person who likes to put on your best bad British accent and throw one-liners into conversations, or you’re the kind of person who makes eyes roll at parties by reciting lengthy passages from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (or even if you just like that one gimmick where the dudes run all…
CenFlo Film Festival celebrates 10 years
The 2015 Central Florida Film Festival came to a close on Sunday with an awards ceremony and a tribute to filmmakers who have been part of the event over the last 10 years. This year’s fest screened 57 films (eight documentary features, 11 narrative features and 38 shorts) over three days at the West Orange…
Satori Entertainment will bring improv antics to the stage at this year’s Artlando
The improvisational antics of Satori Entertainment will be on full display during Artlando, Orlando Weekly’s all-day outdoor art and cultural festival at Loch Haven Park on Sept. 26. Members of Satori Entertainment specialize in emergent performances, weaving audience suggestions into hilarious hijinks onstage. The troupe is scheduled to perform from 4:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The…
Walt Disney World discriminated against security guard, jury rules
A jury found last week that Walt Disney World discriminated against a security guard by denying her employment opportunities but did not award her damages, WESH reports. Camelia Joseph, whose national origin is Haitian, complained in a civil lawsuit that when she applied for a job, the position went to a white man with less…
Orlando’s first budget hearing is Wednesday
The sweet (and boring) smell of budget season is in the air as the Orlando City Council meets Sept. 9 at 5:01 p.m. for fiscal year 2015-16 first budget hearing. Tomorrow’s meeting is one of two scheduled hearings where the public can ask questions about the city’s proposed $1.12 billion budget, like which city departments…
Tickets are on sale now for the Global Peace Film Festival
Tickets are on sale and the schedule is now online for the Global Peace Film Festival. The fest, which held its first screenings in 2003, highlights documentaries and short films that that highlight environmental, economic, humanitarian and social-justice issues in a constructive framework. The goal, according to fest organizers, is to help people process and…
The Orlando sessions?! Mary J. Blige is coming in November
R&B queen Mary J. Blige is coming to CFE Arena 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, with special guest Tamar Braxton. Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11 (Ticketmaster or CFE Arena’s Box Office will hook you up), so set an alarm if you were stoked on The London Sessions and the whole affair that…
Young vocalists Power Chords raise their voices at Artlando, Sept. 26
Don’t let their ages fool you: The young voices of the Power Chords, the Orlando Repertory Theatre’s vocal-performance troupe, know how to carry a tune. These young performers, ranging in age from 13- to 18-years-old, have sung and danced their way through venues across Florida. Now, they’re taking the stage at Artlando, Orlando Weekly’s all-day outdoor…
Port Canaveral’s Exploration Tower losing thousands more than expected
Port Canaveral’s iconic welcoming center and history museum Exploration Tower was billed as a way to keep cruise ship goers in the area for a few more hours and hopefully spending a few more dollars here. The 7 story, $23 million tower opened in November 2013 with an impressive lineup of amenities including a meeting…
KRS-One brings the heat of a legend to Backbooth
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND There’s a certain kind of heat that surrounds the arrival of music royalty. But besides history, it looks like the cosmos was lining up behind the recent appearance of conscious-rap king KRS-One (Sep. 4, Backbooth). The venue was maxed, the crowd was abuzz and the A/C was failing, all in the apex…
Someone vandalized UCF’s Pegasus statue and the whole thing was caught on video
The Pegasus statue in front of the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida was recently bent out of shape, and some cameras caught it all on tape, Knight News reports. The college is offering a $100 reward for tips identifying the two men in the video. The video below shows the men…
Downtown protest against poverty planned for Labor Day
While some people may be traveling to the beach or out buying a cheaper mattress on Monday, a group of organizers will be protesting local poverty in downtown this Labor Day. Although Orlando is the glittery center of tourism in the country and arguably, the world, it also has the lowest median pay among the…
Earth alters states with Holy Sons and Secret Tracers at only Florida show (Will’s Pub)
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND I talk a lot about focus here. It’s one of the criteria I respect most in not just art but in all human endeavor. By that metric alone, Earth should probably be in the hall of fame because probably no other band has mapped the depth and nuance of the riff as…
The Orlando Cobra has found its way into The Onion
The hunt for the elusive 8ft-long Orlando king cobra, which escaped from its owner in the vicinity of the 4800 block of North Apopka Vineland Road, is still on. And though the snake has yet to be found, and probably will never be found, at least this completely bizarre story found its way into The…
Some local idiots designed a ‘terrorist-proof’ bigot rifle
Spike’s Tactical, an assault rifle company in Apopka, Florida, has recently designed a “terrorist-proof” bigot rifle, which features Christian symbols and Bible verses etched on it – you know, to keep the “Muslim terrorists” from touching it. The company hopes its Christian-themed AR-15, called The Crusader, will deter devout Muslims because of the Christian etchings,…
Politico finds that Gov. Rick Scott’s office scrubbed Planned Parenthood press releases of pertinent information
This will be absolutely shocking to absolutely nobody, but Politico has learned via a public records request that Gov. Rick Scott’s office scrubbed pertinent information from a press release about the state Agency for Healthcare Administration’s investigation into the healthcare organization. AHCA initially wrote in its press release detailing what it found during its investigations…
Over 2,000 new hotel rooms coming to the I-Drive area
Within the past two weeks, over 2,000 new hotel rooms have been announced for the I-Drive area of Orlando. The region has been experiencing higher than average room rates and occupancy rates which helps to drive interest in more hotels. July 2015, the latest numbers available, in Orange County had a 17.9% increase in the…
Florida bros try to understand Atlas V rocket launch: “What the hell is it?!”
“What is it? Brah, I don’t know what that is. It’s probably A SPACESHIP man!” said a Florida bro Wednesday night. “What the HELL IS IT?! WHAT THE HELL?!” he continued. “This could be it, brah,” whispers another Florida bro. Well, these Florida bros were sort of close. It wasn’t a spaceship, but it…
Universal sent out a survey asking guests to design a new theme park
All of the local theme park companies are known for their surveys that they send out to annual pass holders on somewhat of a regular basis. Universal sends out numerous surveys every year, but a few recent ones are a bit out of the typical survey mold and they’re drawing some attention (it should be…
320 Florida bears will certainly be shot next month
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioners voted Wednesday to allow the killing of 320 bears during next month’s bear hunt. The hunt is scheduled for Oct. 24-30, and so far, almost 2,000 people have bought licenses to kill a bear, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Florida’s bear population is estimated to be around 3,150. The…
The Good Life now a more democratic rock machine, Big Harp’s most extreme makeover yet (The Social)
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND Cursive’s spot in the American indie-rock canon is a pretty easy case. The Good Life (Sep. 1, The Social) – the lesser of Tim Kasher’s bands – isn’t so much, and it’s not because it’s intrinsically gentler. Even if the sad-sack stuff isn’t your kind of bleeding, the personal emotion is clearly…
Orlando’s missing king cobra now has two Twitter handles … and counting
When we first learned that there was an 8-foot-long king cobra on the loose in Orlando, we suggested that somebody create a Twitter handle for the snake, a la the Bronx Zoo cobra who became an Internet sensation in 2011. Well, our cobra now has two Twitter handles: @cobraontherun and @kingcobraORL Here’s a sampling of…
Raglan Road brings tons of authentic Irish bands to Downtown Disney for the Great Irish Hooley
Labor Day weekend marks the halfway point to another St. Patrick’s Day, and if you can’t wait for March to go all out with your Plastic Paddy celebrations, make your way down to Raglan Road at Downtown Disney for an Irish celebration that’s surprisingly authentic. The Great Irish Hooley brings in a slew of real…
Take a shot of paint to the face at the Central Florida Fairgrounds when Life in Color rolls through town
Paying an exorbitant amount of money for someone to spray non-toxic paint in your mouth and onto your clothes while you dance to EDM may not sound like a smart idea, but you should at least try it once. Life in Color, advertised as the “World’s Largest Paint Party,” comes to Orlando this weekend at…
Hate it or love it, 50 Cent is signing vodka bottles for a price on Friday
If you miss his show at Gilt on Thursday, you can still catch 50 Cent in town on Friday when he signs bottles of the new liquor he’s invested in, Effen Vodka. (The name of which makes it really fun to order, by the way.) Don’t be fooled: 50 Cent still has way more than…
National food blog ranks Epcot’s restaurants
Just in time for the off-season, national foodie site Eater has semi-definitively (there was some disagreement, understandably) ranked the 11 Epcot country pavilions in terms of the quality and deliciousness of their food offerings. We scoped out the new offerings for Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival earlier this year, but this list transcends the six-week…
Knowledge rules supreme at Backbooth as KRS-One brings some old-school wisdom
People looked to blastmaster KRS-One (short for “poet,” duh) in the ’80s not just as a fiery (and seminal) hardcore hip-hop frontman of Boogie Down Productions, but also as “the Teacher” into the ’90s when his socially conscious solo career shoved fans into adopting new perspectives. Last year, an overview of his influence was released,…
Time for pumpkin everything, Part 1: DD rolls out Pumpkin Cheesecake donut
For the past year or so, DD has started pairing up with their sister QSR, Baskin Robbins (why hasn’t this happened before?!), beginning with the release of the Butter Pecan, Mint Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough iced coffee flavors. After that sweet Proustian triumverate (especially for those of us late-’80s kids), Nabisco jumped…
Don’t panic, but there’s a king cobra on the loose in Orlando
There’s a king cobra on the loose right now in Orlando. It’s 8-foot-long, apparently it’s green and yellow, and it escaped from its owner (who had a license to keep the giant venomous snake) somewhere in the vicinity of the 4800 block of North Apopka Vineland Road, near Steeplechase Boulevard and Hackney Prairie Road. We…
The Gatorbone Band folks up the Timucua Arts White House
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND Although not unheard of, folk music isn’t the primary offering at one-of-a-kind neighborhood performance hall the Timucua Arts White House. More often, it’s jazz, chamber music or – if the Civic Minded 5 are involved – avant-garde sounds. But Floridian outfit the Gatorbone Band (Aug. 30) showed how at home it can…
Florida tourism is now in the hands of Pitbull
From this point forward, whenever you hear a profound Pitbull verse like, “Your man just left / I’m the plumber tonight / Let me check your pipes / Oh, you’re the healthy type,” you’ll think of the Sunshine State– at least that’s what Visit Florida is hoping. On Tuesday, the Miami-based rapper and Doral College…
The 10th Annual Central Florida Film Festival takes over West Orange Cinemas in Ocoee for Labor Day weekend
If your idea of a pleasant Labor Day weekend involves staying the hell out of the sun (and rain, and clouds of mosquitos), the idea of spending three days in the air-conditioned dark of a movie theater may appeal to you. The Central Florida Film Festival takes place at the West Orange Cinemas in Ocoee…
Free Will Astrology (8/2/15)
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Excess is the common substitute for energy,” said poet Marianne Moore. That’s a problem you should watch out for in the coming weeks. You’re a bit less lively and dynamic than usual, and you may be tempted to compensate by engaging in extreme behavior or resorting to a contrived show of…
Gimme Shelter (8/2/15)
Meet Brody! He’s a friendly 2-year-old, 58-pound-dog who loves to spend time outside. Brody knows how to sit on command and really enjoys eating treats. He is housebroken and walks well on a leash, too. Brody was adopted from Orange County Animal Services a year ago, and he was recently surrendered to the shelter because…
Speaking up about Orlando Speaks
The Aug. 25 Orlando Speaks workshop, organized by Orlando Police Chief John Mina and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer with help from the Valencia College Peace and Justice Institute, received mixed reactions from participants and the public. Held at the premium indoor club in the Citrus Bowl, the event was prefaced by a protest by National…
This Modern World (8/2/15)
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A hand-built Stefano Ferrara pizza oven is Bavaro’s shining star
Pizza! Seems that every restaurant I walk into nowadays serves it. Sure, they come in varying forms – pizza, flatbreads, manakeesh, tostadas, uttapam – but, whatever the name, restaurants seem to toss and flaunt this surefire moneymaker in our faces, don’t they? And who are we to resist? Hungry gastronomes we are; self-denying ascetics we’re…
Lulu Eightball (8/2/15)
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New 4 Rivers locations, a new juice bar in Thornton Park, free pizza at Blaze and more in this week’s foodie news
Barbecue from 4 Rivers Smokehouse will be served in the premium Carl Black and Gold Cabana section of UCF’s Bright House Stadium; their City Hall smokerie is slated to open later this year; and 4 Rivers gathers still more national accolades with its inclusion at No. 5 in St. Louis native Johnny Fugitt’s new book,…
Storm or not, the Hurricane cocktail is a drink for all seasons
The lack of an actual hurricane doesn’t undermine the choice of a Hurricane cocktail to remix this month – because, according to historians, the drink was never actually named for the weather event at all. In the 1920s, Pat O’Brien (whose bar still goes strong on Bourbon Street today) ran a New Orleans speakeasy called…
Earl Sweatshirt’s dark rhymes dig deep to reach the interior corners of the self
Much of today’s rap world is obsessed with full-blast visibility: 24/7 Twitter immersion, nonstop Instagram documentation and an all-press-is-good-press PR strategy. But 21-year-old Los Angeles MC Earl Sweatshirt, who came up with the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All crew and is now a beacon for introspective, self-conscious hip-hop, has relied on a much…
Picks This Week: 50 Cent, Gringo Star and more
Earth Ears have been ringing for weeks in anticipation of Earth’s descent into Orlando. Their distinct heavy pull leveraged expansive drone and psych experimentations in the ’90s to echo the dissonance and doom of the cosmic ether. We were all ethereally floating through life without an ear bent to acknowledge it when Earth disbanded, but…
Nicolas Horvath plays the complete piano works of Philip Glass Sunday in a 10-hour nonstop recital
Philip Glass relates a telling anecdote in his 2015 memoir, Words Without Music: When the minimalist master was just 15, his father allowed him to take over buying classical albums for the family music store, and upon learning that the Juilliard String Quartet had recorded the complete Schoenberg string quartets, he ordered four copies. (That’s…
D23 brings big news for Walt Disney World, while Universal’s new projects are coming fast and furious
I’ve been so busy enjoying Orlando’s vibrant performing arts scene that it’s been two months since I covered the attractions, so let’s catch up on recent updates from Orlando’s theme parks. First, big news for Walt Disney World came from Disneyland, where long-anticipated projects were finally confirmed during August’s D23 fan convention. A major Star…
Tangerine, a lively comedy about two transgender prostitutes and their runaway dreams, is darkly funny
4 out of 5 stars Very few films feel alive the way Sean Baker’s Tangerine does. From its very first frame to its final, the movie does a scruffy moonwalk over viewers’ eyeballs with its vibrancy, propulsive visuals and amazing cast. I almost skipped it at this year’s Fantasia Festival because it’s shot on an…
Opening in Orlando: The Transporter Refueled and Chloe & Theo
Chloe & Theo An Inuit man travels to New York City to let world leaders know about the impact climate change is having on his homeland. There he meets Chloe (Dakota Johnson), who decides to help him save the world. (PG-13) The Transporter Refueled Your calendar insists that summer has three more weeks to go,…
Mistress America talks furiously but conveys little
2 out of 5 stars Noah Baumbach doesn’t strike me as a screwball. He’s more of a cross between the French New Wave and Wes Anderson (with whom he’s worked). Yet in his new film, Mistress America, he mixes his usual dramedy with unhealthy heaps of Howard Hawks to concoct a tasteless cream puff. Unfortunately,…
This Little Underground: Whores leads a diverse charge
So let me get this straight. The latest show booked by Non-Prophet Organization (Aug. 28, Will’s Pub) was an obviously eclectic bill and you guys weren’t confused, still turned out in significant numbers and were in full embrace of it? What the? Who are you? Nice to meet you. I’ve been looking a long time…
Selections (8/2/15-8/9/15)
Friday-Monday, 4-7 The Great Irish Hooley Labor Day weekend marks the halfway point to another St. Patrick’s Day, and if you can’t wait for March to go all out with your Plastic Paddy celebrations, make your way down to Raglan Road at Downtown Disney for an Irish celebration that’s surprisingly authentic. The Great Irish Hooley…
Savage Love (8/2/15)
I’m confused about my sexuality. For many years, I thought I preferred hetero-romantic asexual relationships. Exposure to select reading material – thanks to my gender-studies classes – has me convinced I’m an asexual t-type (i.e., “top,” but I prefer not to use such connotative terms) female who is attracted to slight and feminine men. I do not…
