In the Albertson’s shopping plaza on the corner of 436 and University, they still have giant Christmas wreaths up above the stores. It makes me laugh every time I drive by. It reminded me of a neighbor I had last year who kept their Halloween and Christmas decorations up well into the spring. A stuffed Frankenstein set against strung-up white lights.

Anyone else spotted holiday decorations around town?

In blanket response to my earlier post regarding Drew Garabo getting the axe, I had no idea so many people harbored so much animosity toward the guy. I’ve noticed this not only on this blog, but also in the rest of world that I inhabit. Perhaps he should have taken that gig in Chicago (New York?) when the opportunity arose last year. Maybe if these sentiments had been expressed by the public sooner he could have left a long time ago, making it better for everyone.

From the overall tone of the responses though, I can only make one conclusion; people in this town are way too fucking sensitive and need to ease up.

I respect everyone’s opinions on the matter, and certainly don’t feel that anyone is right or wrong. However I still liked Drew up until the end, and I am still sad to see him go.

Quick question though. Who do you all think might step up to take his place or whom do you think ClearChannel will hire to put in that time slot?

Orlando, remember when it use to be 85 degrees at this time in the morning (9 am) not to long ago. Well it’s 37 degrees but with the wind it feels like 29 degrees. Atleast were not 1500 miles north, we could be shoveling our way to work this morning. Stay warm people and remember your pets need warmth too.

If you haven’t taken advantage of seeing some of the wonderful plays at this year’s Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, then you don’t know what you’re missing. We saw “Trapezium” today, along with a play being workshopped (“Quincunx”), and it was a marvelous afternoon. If you can, you should get down there before it’s all over.

Connie May Fowler, author of The Problem with Murmur Lee, will be at B&N on Colonial Tuesday, Febuary 1^st for a book signing and talk. Fowler is also the author several well received books and winner of the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award. Her book Before Women Had Wings was adapted into an Emmy-award winning film starring Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Barkin.

Might be worth a moment of your time. I’ve never read any of her stuff but may be inclined to after I listen to her talk. My guess is that the crowd will be very akin to an Oprah/Dr. Phil crowd, in other words..scary.

In case you haven’t heard, Metroblogging has teamed up with Meetup.com to help set up monthly events in cities all over, including one right here in Orlando. Meetup has been helping folks setup group meetings for likeminded individuals on every topic from ABBA lovers to zebra farmers for years.

We don’t have anything planned for our first meeting just yet, but it has been the Meetup tradition to schedule them for the 2nd Saturday of the month. If you are in the Orlando area and want to come, please do. Go check it out and sign up, and we’ll start throwing around ideas soon and figure out when and where is the best place to have the next event.

Also, Meetup just started rolling out some RSS feeds. Just subscribe to http://www.meetup.com/feeds/city/?country=us&zip=32801 but replace “32801” with whatever zip code you want to see. There are a TON of Orlando groups!

Where did it go? It has been 404 for what seems like a week or so now. Just wondering.

Real Radio drops Drew Garabo

Real Radio WTKS (104.1-FM) abruptly dropped veteran talk radio host Drew Garabo Monday, saying it planned to take its nighttime programming in a “different direction.”

Garabo, who joined the station in 1993 and started his own show two years later, said he was told that his show was canceled shortly before he was scheduled to go on the air. The showed aired between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekdays.

“The reasons really weren’t spelled out for me,” Garabo said. “It came a week after I signed my contract with the station.”

Clear Channel, the media company that owns WTKS and six other Central Florida radio stations, said it eventually expects to replace Garabo with another talk show.

(LINK)
(WESH.com)
(Florida Today)

Is anyone else rather pissed about this? Sure his show has waned in quality over the last few months, but it was still one of the best talk radio shows in the area. By the tone of the stories it sounds like Drew wanted to leave, which if true then I hope he moves on to greener pastures. If he was fired by ClearChannel for not wanting to succumb to their whims then I commend him for not giving in and condemn ClearChannel for being the fucked up entity that they are.

Drew, you will be missed.

WPRK, the Rollins College radio station, is currently undertaking an insane venture: one DJ is attempting to break the Guiness World Record for the longest radio broadcast ever. That DJ is the esteemed, ambitious, and thoroughly mad David Plotkin. For 110 hours, Dave is broadcasting live, nonstop. There will be special musical guests and local celebrities. The broadcast started yesterday and runs through Friday.

This is really cool stuff, and I’m not just saying this because I know Dave. :) You can get more info at 110Hours.org. I’m volunteering at the station tomorrow, and I think it’s going to be fun.

So I stopped by the Alton Brown booksigning at B&N today. I was amazed at how many people showed up, almost too many in fact. 500 “tickets” were printed up in 10 different colors allowing people to line up in groups of 50 to have things signed and pictures taken. All 500 tickets were handed out and more people continued to arrive. I don’t think our B&N anticipated this much enthusiam for the Food Network Chef.

Mr. Brown however was very accomodating and very pleasant to all of those that arrived. Before the actual booksigning took place he talked about the book and fielded a few questions from the crowd as best he could. The line was absolutely ridiculous, and we sold all 360+ copies of his book rather quickly. I was extremely impressed with Mr. Brown’s patience and professionalism with the crowd. At one point, when offered a chair to sit down while signing, Alton replied, “I’m not going to sit, if all these people are going to stand then you better believe that I’m going to stand too.”

That rocks.