What's Hot in CF: Earth, Wind and Fire, flamenco and Deathtrap

This weekend on What's Hot in Central Florida on WMFE 90.7 we have Earth, Wind and Fire, one of my all time favorites, soundtrack of my tweens, at Hard Rock Live TONIGHT, Deathtrap, an exquisite thriller at UCF Theater and Alborea Dances Flamenco, a fantastic duo of dancers on Sunday at Casa Feliz historic home and museum in Winter Park. Have a great weekend!

How did turtles get fossilized while mating? What is Mickey Mouse doing on Mercury? And what is that octopus doing to that dolphin?

Being a columnist is a great job but an odd one in that you're working every week with what the world gives you....it can offer up rich, juicy controversies or nothing very much and in the latter case you're stuck making magic out of thin air, like one of those 50's house-wife dilemmas where they get a call from their husband saying he's invited the board of directors for dinner, it's 4:30 and all you have in the cabinet is capers and peanut butter.

This week there were so many weird, funny, appropriate, inappropriate and intriguing stories it was tough to choose which is especially great for me because it was kind of a sweeps week this week for my Alternet column Ten Mind Blowing Discoveries which includes....

A kind-of Facebook for tits (birds that is)....

Turtles having sex so good they were fossilized doin' it 47 million years ago....

An octopus that developed a perverse (but brief) attachment to a dolphin......

A potential vaccine against cocaine addiction....

That overweight and overpopulation amount to the same thing....

A Mickey Mouse head appearing on Mercury.....

Saturn's moon Titan as a potential "crucible for life".....

An artist's conception of what the anatomy of Lego people would look like....

Breast milk blocks the oral transmission of HIV in humanized mouse....

A brain receptor for aggression (that can be flipped off)...

And the power of suggestion (you love this column! you will share it with all your friends on all your social networks because they will love it!)

What's Hot in CF: Opulence, Bradys and Swamp Sistas

We got to see The Amazing Kreskin last week but, despite having tried his schtick of getting only a few hours sleep a night I still haven't gotten enough done to write an entire blog post about the show.  I promise that I will soon, because Kreskin lived up to his name and was Amazing.

This week there was so much cool stuff for What's Hot in Central Florida on WMFE I found it hard to fit everything in but I'm going to start off with  the Swamp Sista Lala, a party to promote small business and local entrepreneurs with lots of great performers including Beth McKee and Terri Binion....then the Breakthrough Theater in WP is putting on The Real Life Brady Bunch (and since I plan to move back to 1975, I'm very interested in that) and last but definitely not least Opulence, a group art show presented by And The Three Bears, this Sunday at Pom Pom's Teahouse and The Milk Bar and including DJ Alphabetic spinnin,, House of Ninja will be dancing and a long list of local artists including Cake Marques who is a genius and who did the painting to your right.
     Should all be great stuff and so, in between the thunderstorm tantrums (which I kinda love) I hope to see you out there!

'Ten Amazing Things' getting amazing results!

                             
 I'm sure it was the sex.

It always is....well, maybe it was the wine, but they kind of go together.

Whatever it is my "Ten Mind-Blowing Discoveries" column on Alternet is getting amazing results. It could be...

the horrifying sex life of the male orb spider,
the wine aged under the ocean that tastes fabulous,
the return of the Black Plague,
the reason gay men exist (aside from to be my best friends),

the seizures a young man experienced during a viewing of Prometheus, the possible origin of depression in lack of gut bacteria early on, the NEEMO 16 research on asteroid exploration, the fact that scary music resembles animals screaming, a method of IDing gun casings in order to ID criminals which is such a great idea the NRA can't stand it or the bone-eating snot flower. You heard me.

Whatever it was, I'm thrilled.

"Ten Mind-Blowing Discoveries" busted into the top ten most-read stories again this week on Alternet. So read, enjoy and share - I'm off to write the next edition, high on the hope for the top 5! Wish me luck! Cheers!

Kreskin! Wes Anderson! Beards! What's Hot in CF...

This turned out to be one of my favorites, if not my all-time favorite What's Hot in Central Florida segments, not that I would have foreseen it because I'm not The Amazing Kreskin! the 77 year-old world famous mentalist, magician and all-around entertainer who is going to be at the Mount Dora Community Building tomorrow night. I loved watching Kreskin on all the talk shows when I was a kid in the 70's and am amazing to see that the 77 year-old is still going as strong as ever.

But wait! There's more! Also tomorrow night at Stardust Video and Coffee there's "Cuss, Yeah!" a tribute to Wes Anderson where there will be art work, a costume contest, special cocktails and awesome props made by my very own BFF Doug Rhodehamel. If you know where "Cuss Yeah" comes from, consider yourself a true fan.

Finally there's going to be a Battle of the Beards best beard contest at Wall Street Plaza on Sunday afternoon. I made a back hair joke in this bit in the broadcast about the beards-and-burly men thing but I want to assure you all it was no joke. Back hair is hot. In both sense of the term.

Pot without the high? Martian reality show? Old people smell better than young ones? 10 Mind-Blowing Discoveries

My Ten Discoveries That Will Blow Your Mind column was fun to write about this week, mostly because while I'm usually beyond impressed with scientific findings I get to write about there were a couple of real klinkers in the mix this week and I'm always in better spirits when I get to complain.

The first is the idea of having the first Martian colonists be astronaut reality contestants which, in my opinion, will be the lowest an astronaut has sunk since the diaper allegations against Lisa Nowak.

The other is pot without the high. I'm not a pot smoker, but I am all for a good buzz and it seems to me that if you're sick enough to require medication a little buffer from the world would be good for you. I kind of understand why people would want to keep a clear head ....okay, I don't. I really don't. I don't take Dayquil, I don't drink O'Doul's and I don't understand pot without the high any more than I understand music without the notes.

Anyway, the pot story might seem to go with the pizza photo but that's actually from Space.com's photo gallery of Transit of Venus images, some of which are majestic, some of which are beautiful...and this one that is just charming.

Anyway, if you like the column treat it like a pizza....share and enjoy!

What's Hot in CF

 
This weekend What's Hot in Central Florida includes UCF's production of "No Sex Please, We're British," New Smyrna Beach's 125th anniversary celebration and the Tribute to Alien art show at The Falcon downtown.
And yes, I know it's been rainy since Tuesday and the forecast says it will go on for awhile but that's no reason not to get up and go out this weekend (it hasn't bothered me but as you know I prefer my atmosphere to be a bit Gorey)...in fact in some cases the gloom is more reason to go out. It's cooler and therefore nicer outside, keeps you from moping around the house and now you'll finally get some use out of those rain boots you bought at Target because they were irresistibly cute but have barely been out of the box.
So....see you out there!
(artwork from Mother Falcon)

Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week

It seemed like the Miami face-eater was all there was to talk about last week, especially when he was joined by a couple of other cannibal psychos in from Canada and Baltimore. I'll rush to admit having a twisted fascination with anything this macabre but it wasn't al that was going on....there were robots dancing to Thriller, Star Trek-style needle-free injections, ancient civilizations lost to climate change and somwhat-less-ancient possible vampire exorcism burials. That's a lot of small talk to bring to the cocktail party....Ten Amazing Things The World Learned This Week.

What's Hot in Central Florida on WMFE

This weekend on WMFE's What's Hot in Central Florida, check out Gay Days for, oh, I dunno, about a million parties, events, art shows, car shows, Disney happenings related to this event that's celebrating it's big 21st birthday this year! Also, coming to the Orlando Shakespeare Theater this weekend is a Harry Potter Improv Comedy Show to benefit the Make a Wish Foundation of Central and North Florida with two actors from the Potter films in attendance for the performance and a meet & greet. 

Also my book  Crazy Little Thing: Why Love & Sex Drive Us Mad just won an Independent Publisher's Book Award, the bronze in the sex & relationships category - I'm all giddy & geeked out about it AND

we're going to be celebrating 

THIS COMING MONDAY - JUNE 4

at the Peacock Room!

1321 N. Mills Ave. Orlando 32803

We'll be there from 7-10pm - hope you'll come and have some food and cake and celebrate with me!

I won't be selling books at the event - just having fun and enjoying your company - but if you have a copy of what is now an award-winning book I'll sign it. ;)

Cheers!!!