WMFE What's Hot: Orlando Fringe Festival

What’s Hot in Central Florida  on WMFE 90.7 FM this weekend is one thing comprised of well over 100 things - it’s the Orlando Fringe Festival, the longest running Fringe Fest in the US. There are so many shows about which I’ve heard great things by trusted sources  that I couldn’t fit nearly all of them into the broadcast but some of the ones I’m vying for - click the links for descriptions - The 39 Steps,, Blue and Tod: in the Black, The Boy Who Stole the Sun, Celebrity Match Game: The Musical (and a Game Show), A Field Guide to the Gays, God is a Scottish Drag Queen, Key of  E, Little Miss Fringe Festival, Loon, Michael Winslow: Noizeyman Featuring Jose Sarduy, Misa Flamenca, Pechakucha Orlando, Pretending Thigns Are a Cock, Serving Bait to Rich People, Stayin Alive III, and Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger.

Got to see a little preview of Key of  E,, that made me look forward to seeing the rest of it. Also having seen God is a Scottish Drag Queen, and previous incarnations of  Celebrity Match Game: The Musical (and a Game Show) and  Little Miss Fringe Festival, I can tell you they’re all comedy gold and if you don’t see them you’ll be plagued by your friends talking about them for months afterward, laughing and laughing and saying “Remember this part?” “Remember that part?” and you’ll feel like a shunned Amish. Don’t get shunned: click for tickets instead. 

I can think of weirder....

I was fascinated to read Stylist magazine's list of the 10 Weirdest Beauty Treatments in the world, all of which included the use of some kind of animal or animal product, including snail secretion skin cream, bull semen hair conditioner (tried it years ago for a story, it was okay but one has to wonder about the poor person whose job it is to collect the ingredients) and leeches as a blood detoxifier.




And yes I'll agree that these are a little unusual but it's still kind of funny that "Have a surgeon slit your face open and pull your skin around until you look either five years younger or like a melted candle" was not considered weird enough to be on the list. That is weird.

I know - never say never. If my mom was any indicator of my future  I'll soon have more wrinkles than an Agatha Christie plot and might  longing for the knife one day. For now, though, bring on the snail squeezin's.



(Facial surgery pic swiped from The Guardian UK story on plastic surgery statistics)

90.7 FM's What's Hot in Central Florida

This week What’s Hot in Central Florida on WMFE 90.7 FM includes “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch,” a one-woman show by Alison Arngrim - aka Little House on the Prairie’s ultimate brat Nellie Olsen at the Parliament House, the Central Florida Chapter of Neuroscience’s “Music and the Brain,” this afternoon and the Cabaret Festival at Mad Cow Theatre. Listen to my broadcast for more details - and like it if you love it cuz I wanna do more of it. ;)

What's Hot in CF: Gothic Folk, Facts of Life and Buddha's Birthday!

I’ve been luxuriating in the Addams Family weather we’ve been having though hopefully it will clear up just enough fr you to want to go out because there’s lots to do. Listen for me at 4:32 PM today on WMFE for What’s Hot in Central Florida including Buddha’s Birthday Party at the Guant Ming Temple, Mrs. Garrett and the girls in The Facts of Life at the Breakthrough Theatre in Winter Park and Gothic Folk, an art exhibit, book signing and CD release by Elizabeth Levensohn at Stardust Video.

This last one is of special significance to me . I have watched Elizabeth’s art evolve over decades, have learened a lot about meaningful work from her and am tremendously impressed by how she integrates art and music in this show. These paintings are all based on murder ballads from the 1920’s on up (when I think murder ballad I think Delia’s Gone by Johnny Cash though that's not one on the list). They're amazing: dark and archetypal but gentle and personal, too. Some of this is explained in the book.

But some of it is pure soul. 

Anyway, there are going to be lots of musicians including Madeline L. Potts, The Little Sadies, Andy Matchett and more...oh, and I'll be there. I hope to see you there, too!

Frankenweenie line of the year

Life is entirely too busy when I don't get to see a Tim Burton movie until it's at the RedBox, but that's what happened with Frankenweenie. It was worth the wait  and I can't help wanting to share this line from the beleaguered science teacher who is trying to explain to upset parents why their kids are doing extreme and peculiar experiments in hopes of winning the science fair: "You don't understand science so you are afraid of it! Like a dog is afraid of thunder or balloons!'
Brilliant.
Here's a video clip from YouTube.
If I could see inside anyone's house it would be Tim Burton's.

What's Hot in CF

I'm a little late with....well WAY late with What's Hot in Central Florida this weekend, but happily lots of people saw and heard it on Facebook, Twitter and on the air....this weekend we had the Halifax Oyster Festival, Peter Max at the Marketplace at Dr. Phillips and Turtle Day at the Marine Science Center, a terrific local resource providing rehabilitation for thousands of sick and injured animals. Even though their Turtle Day event has passed check out their website and go for a visit.

He says "Thanks!"

Liz on Alternet: 10 Interesting Facts About Sperm

In the 1990’s my  friend Bob, an artist, got three suitcases from a thrift store and customized them for me: on one he painted dollar signs, on another dalmatian spots and on the last dozens giant sperm. It took a little nerve to carry that bag but no one ever accidentally grabbed my luggage at the airport.

        Whatever you think about them sperm lead a lot more interesting lives than you might imagine and the differences in activity among different species - human and squid for example - is pretty amazing stuff, hence 10 Fascinating Facts About Sperm, just published on Alternet, and a lot more ways for you to stop any cocktail party conversation dead in it's tracks.