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With so much (deserved) attention focused on the Afrobeat and highlife music that came out of Lagos in the ’60s and ’70s, it’s easy to assume that Nigeria was the only country on the continent that was churning out those slinky, sweaty grooves.

Orlando Weekly | Jason Ferguson | 07-05-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Various, Bokoor Beats

The Nels Cline Singersnew

There are still no vocalists in the Nels Cline Singers, and the third disc from the guitarist’s latest group project again proves the much-belabored point that you don’t need a microphone to get your point across

Orlando Weekly | Jason Ferguson | 07-05-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Draw Breath, The Nels Cline Singers

Howard Hello/Greenessnew

Put together as a fund-raiser for Children’s Musical Education in St. Augustine, the sonic collision of the gauzy, warm-toned digital swoon of Howard Hello and the full-frontal math-rock attack of Greenness doesn’t seem to make sense.

Orlando Weekly | Jason Ferguson | 07-05-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Howard Hello/Greeness, Split LP

Catch Him if you Can: A short dive into the bottom of Steven Spielbergnew

The Turner Classic Movies documentary Spielberg on Spielberg has two strikes against it from the very start, and they’re both right there in the title. To begin with, there’s limited value in having any artist handicap his or her own work; too often, he or she ends up displaying a blithe unawareness of failings everybody else has long since spotted. And intellectual rigor isn’t a quality one would automatically associate with Steven Spielberg, who has no serious challengers to his status as cinema history’s most monetarily successful middlebrow.

Orlando Weekly | Steve Schneider | 07-05-2007 | TV

Tags: TV

Barry and Me: Inside a $1,000-a-pop fundraisernew

“Hi, Jeff. Thank you for coming.” There, vigorously shaking my hand, is the next leader of the free world. Or the next guy we’ll get all excited about, and then be let down. “You’re welcome, Senator.” Maybe if Barack Hussein Obama knew I was the only person here who didn’t pay $1,000 (or more) for this company, he would have skipped me altogether. But as far as he knows, I’m just like the rest of the 100 or so people gathered in the Maitland living room of supporter Bob Mandell for this June 30 fundraiser.

Orlando Weekly | Jeffrey C. Billman | 07-05-2007 | Politics

Love Me Two (or More) Times; Monogamy not cutting it? Maybe you're a polyamoristnew

Shara Smith looks pretty normal. She’s petite with a pale complexion and long dark hair that falls well below the waist of her thin frame. Smith is 30, outgoing, childless and has a career as a lighting and video technician that allows her to make her own hours. Even her hobbies are pretty standard: photography, cross-stitching, ballroom and swing dancing, making costumes out of liquid latex. (OK, that last one is a little out there.) The only hint a casual observer might have that she’s not wholly middle-of-the-road is the message on the black camisole she wears during a recent interview: “My boyfriend says I need to be more affectionate,” it reads, “so now I have 2 boyfriends.”

Orlando Weekly | Deanna Sheffield | 07-05-2007 | Culture

The Pretendersnew

In 1967 five teenagers from Mansfield, Ohio, were signed to a record deal, renamed The Ohio Express and promoted as the face of Bubblegum Pop on the strength of their hit "Yummy Yummy Yummy." Today several of the original band members still tour in Europe playing their hits, but they finally confirm the rumors that they never actually sang on the hit singles.

Cincinnati CityBeat | Larry Gross | 07-05-2007 | Profiles & Interviews

Tags: Ohio, pop, Yummy Yummy Yummy, Bubblegum, Express, The Ohio Express, Yummy, the