Leslie Carrara-Rudolph pinch hits in puppet festival

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Los Tititeros de Binefar will be unable to open the Orlando International Puppet Festival this Friday, July 10th. Sucks. However, Emmy-nominated Leslie Carrara-Rudolph is here to kick off the festival with a performance/workshop caled "Wake up Your Weird!"

"Leslie Carrara-Rudolph will do a performance workshop with composer/ pianist John deHaas that will give you all the tools you need to "wake up your weird "and spread joy with your own unique talents! With the help of a few puppet friends, music, art, and all out silliness, you are sure to leave this show with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and a new imaginary friend in your head!"

Leslie Carrara-Rudolph is best known to TV viewers as Johnny and the Sprites' "Ginger", and Sesame Street's "Abby Cadabby." Recently nominated for "Outstanding Performance in a Children's Series" as Abby Cadabby, Leslie is also a member of The Jim Henson Company's "Puppet Up" puppet improv troupe that recently toured Australia.

Wake Up Your Weird
July 10th @2pm & 7pm ($6)
Goldman Theatre @ Orlando Shakespeare Theatre
812 E Rollins St. Orlando, FL
Recommended for ALL AGES
Goldman Theatre @ Orlando Shakespeare Theatre

OETV Episode One: Reservoir Dogs

A new show about Orlando called OETV is debuting its first episode, a brief glimpse into GOAT's production of Reservoir Dogs (which I am seeing Sunday). Looking forward to the show (they do the ear scene) and future OETV episodes.

Life of Brian | Cult Classics Original poster

Remeber when we you told you about the original screenprints being made by Lure for every single movie in the Cult Classics series at Enzian? Well, hot off the interweb-press, we present to you the newest one! The film its based on is "Life of Brian." You can buy it for ten bucks at Enzian at the Life of Brian screening, which only costs five. Tuesday July 14, 9:30pm.

"Monty Python delivers a scathing, anarchic satire of both religion and Hollywood's depiction of all things biblical with their second--and tightest--full-length film." Read more about the film here.

O'Horten | Cinematic Yoga Class

I got to see the press screening (!!!) of a film opening July 24th at Enzian called "O'Horten," and though I have the attention span of a person who says they have a short attention span, I was engaged.

The movie moves at a dead cat's pace, with enough visuals to fill a spec of dirt. And they don't speak English AND!!! the subtitles are in white. Hard to read.

However, the film (and this thang is no mere "movie," it is a film) has this thing about it that keeps you involved, despite its old-people-driver pace. I don't know what it is. I think its that the main characters "adventure" seems 100% plausible.

I compare this film to a yoga class. It forces your ADD thinking to slow down, your synapses to fire slower, and to just relax.

So I say, take your klonopin, sip your beer and slip into the near-coma state that Michael Jackson only WISHED he could have achieved through the help of his many doctors, and go see this movie. Namaste.

Taco Wednesdays | Ethos

Yesterday I got introduced to "Taco Wednesday" at Ethos Vegan Kitchen. Three tacos for $7 with no sides (rice and beans maybe?) isn't the most value-riffic deal, but the vegetarian food lovers I was with LOVED the damn things and wouldn't quit scootin their loud wooden chairs across the loud stone floor about them. VeganDogs on Twitter has this to say about them:

"This is the shit!! fkn tacos!"

I didn't get to try them because (a) I didn't know I was going to Taco Wednesday ahead of time and (b) I'd already eaten one of my favorite deals in this city: the $4.50 SoDo Super-Target salad. So I ate two chocolate chip cookies made in their vegan kitchen and a cup of coffee with all the non-dairy creamer and not-Splenda topins you can guzzle.

One thing I love about their coffee is the way they serve it: in a cup AND saucer, with a napkin placed under the cup. White-chunky-old-fashioned-charming.

So if you love the moo moos but don't want to eat them, but do want to eat taco, go to Ethos Wednesdays.

I spoke to the owner and she does not have a taco truck (yet) to take these thangs on the road, but she does have a popular vegan dog cart somewhere downtown. You probably know where it is.

War of the Worlds cast 52-second check-in

War of the Worlds is coming, yall!

The Barf Hand Series #1

The Barf Hand series has arrived! Tonight I swanged by Stardust to meet with Telethon Veginald Cheeseburger to pick up this ten-piece series based on his original painting of the loveable furry animal thing with the magical puking hand. Each one is a screenprint/paint mix on glossy photo paper. One is giant and framed, the rest are ready for framing. These will be for sale (among other pieces from other artists) at the first Mobile Art Show. If you just can't wait till the Mobile Art Show and have to buy one now, email me.

The big framed one


All ten

Forbidden Fruit raises more than funds

Last night, Forbidden Fruit Productions, a new-ish indie theatre group, threw a fund-raiser at Pom Poms to raise money for their upcoming production of "My First Time," a show about you know what.

To coincide with the theme of the show, the fund-raiser was naughty: fake orgasm contests, hot guy/girl slave bidding and lollipops shaped like anything but lollipops. When I tippled out to my car, booze pouring from my pores, to get my checkbook from my murse in the trunk to pay $40 for the man-whore I had just purchased, I realized this crazy mess was crazy and messy.

Though this may sound on paper like a tired "girls night out" with frump-ass secretaries dropping tips into stripper-man underoos or a drunken bachelorette party hanging its boobies out the roof of the limo like a middle schooler, it was anything but.

Because...

...though there were dong-shaped suckers, shirtless hunky dudes offering massages and five dollar glasses of wine being tossed at my face, at the heart of this wacked-out eventwas LOVE! Everyone there was there to support Forbidden Fruit and to show them some lerve, especially the proprieter-ess, Pom. She was front and center helping out and 100% into the spirit and the party.

That fun/love/happy thing was a tangible feeling everyone got up onto and rode like a freshly-shaved horse.

Four two-day passes to Nerdapalooza

The Daily City is giving away four two-day passes to the 3rd annual Nerdapalooza July 11-12. Each pass costs $30 normally. To enter the drawing, send out this tweet on twitter:

@thedailycity is producing #OrlandoImprovFestival and #MusicalImprovFestival http://tinyurl.com/ORLimprov

Everyone who sends that tweet out will be entered into the drawing. No more tweets will be accepted after Friday, July 10, at 5pm. The drawing takes place at that time and the four winners will be announced here on the blog and through twitter. Each winner will receive one 2-day pass to Nerdapalooza in Orlando. The winners will also be notified by email. Details on how to pick up the passes will be emailed to the winners.

The Daily City announces the Orlando Improv Festival, the Musical Improv Festival and the return of "A Night With the Girls"

Press Release
Mark Baratelli, The Daily City
July 8, 2009

Mark Baratelli of TheDailyCity.com is proud to announce that The Daily City, Orlando's Arts & Culture Guide since 2007, will be producing an Orlando Improv Festival in the next 12 months IN the city of Orlando IN some of our most wonderful venues FEATURING some top talent from across the country and from right here in Central Florida. It will feed the improv-hungry, introduce the art form to newbies and begin to put Orlando on the national improv map.

A highlight of this festival and something that makes it absolutely unique is that it will house a second festival within it's schedule: the very first Musical Improv Festival in the United States.

Why is The Daily City doing producing an improv festival? Orlando needs more fun things to do. What did Gandhi say? Be the change you wish to see in the world? What he said.

The first fund-raiser for the festival will be "A Night With the Girls #3," which will bring the original cast of Orlando divas back together for a wonderful night of vocal performance and fun.

Forward all inquiries to mark@thedailycity.com