Martinicity: Category Live

Early Fringe Festival Favorites

2009-05-11T17:38:00+00:00

Ten Must See Fringe Shows

The Orlando Fringe is just days away. If you don’t have time to hang out at the beer tent to get instant show reviews, here’s a few gems I’ll be attending. I’ll start with the more mainstream picks, shows that should be fun for the whole family, then move on to some picks for mature audiences.

Family Style

The Fringe can get freaky. If your hanging with young ones, or old ones, you may want to ease into any potential culture shock with one of the shows with a “General Audience” Rating.

Comedy

A Day to Remember

These clowns are really season veterans from Orlando’s own Sak Comedy Lab who have been honing their craft for years on Monday nights at Taste. With a completely new show every performance, and only $7 a ticket, this show may be the best bang for your buck in the whole festival.

Drama

7 (x1) Samurai

How about the “Best Solo Performance” in the DC Fringe? This presentation of 7 Samurai “complete with peasants, bandits, samurai warriors, and a spectacular fight scene ” will not disappoint!

A New World

The talented students and staff of Winter Springs Performing Arts are putting on an all out production they’re calling a “Musical Theater Dramady”. Supporting local artists and showcasing new talent is the Fringe at its best. This show should be very entertaining.

Dance

Simplex/Complex

The talented local favorites at Voci Dance team up with NY’s DeXdance team up for an “edgy, intelligent adventure in contemporary dance theatre.” These dancers are pure pleasure to watch.

Flamenco con Fusion

This is a must see. A fresh look at a refined art form, perhaps the most accomplished artists in the Fringe do the entertaining in this show. Ricardo Garcia’s guitar playing could put this show in the Music category below, but you get the idea. Just see this show.

Music

Movin’ Melvin Brown

Did I mention award winning shows? Mevlin Brown has gotten rave reviews from Edinburgh Scotland to Ausin Texas, and a couple of Fringes in between. We’re lucky to have international stars like this here in O-Town.

Puppets

Family Puppet Blast!

Heather Henson brings together the best of Orlando’s amazing puppet scene for this all out Puppet Fest. Local favorite Wavey Davey performs Friday the 15th at 6PM. With a different show every night, you may want to attend the Puppet Slam more than once.

Cheeky

Once you’ve started fringing, why not take advantage of the 100% uncensored feature , and challenge your sensibilities? Here’s some shows that should be entertaining as well as a bit embarrassing if you watch them sitting next to your Mom or you local clergyman (or both).

Comedy

The Karate Guy

This Karate Kid spoof got big laughs at the Fringe Preview. Mr Miagi and Daniel-san are at it again, but not in the way you may remember.

The Well of Horniness

”... high-camp lesbian murder mystery … ”. I’m sold.

The Cody River’s Show

This show’s not really ‘cheeky’ just different. Click on the link above, than click reviews. Even professional reviewers don’t know how to describe this show. I sure don’t, but I’m seeing it again. It’s that strange, and that good.

Hope to see everyone at Loch Haven Park!

Focus 2009

2009-01-02T16:08:00+00:00

This morning I made a long list of things I’d like to do more, and things I’d like to do less. In the interest of brevity, I decided to combine similar items. Hoping to get my New Years resolutions down to a sentence or two, I did even better. All my goals boiled down to one word. Focus.

This year I will be more focused.

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For instance, I’d like to play more guitar, and exercise more. Obviously focusing on these goals for short periods of time will help.

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Ironically, focusing on the activities I want to do less will also help. My things I’d like to do less are really “Less is More” resolutions. Having my own business allows me to take Fridays off. It’s my way of sticking it to the man. But this year I’m going to take off fewer Fridays. Why? Because when I always have Fridays off I don’t enjoy them nearly as much. That’s just one example, but the “Less is More” maxim applies to any excessive habit. So this year my bad habits will be less frequent, but much more enjoyable. Thanks to my new habit, Focus.

What is KPoz Sports?

2008-12-05T13:37:00+00:00

The purpose of KPoz sports is to demonstrate a sports rating system that is completely objective. The KPoz model satisfies the required properties of statistical ranking models: transparency, verifiability, and accuracy. The result is that KPoz ratings and point spreads are often more accurate than the prevailing systems. So what does this get us?

Alternative Rankings

The two prevailing Rankings in the NCAA, The BCS standings, and the AP Top 25 are based partly on emotion and human influence. Everyone respects an unbeaten record, but sometimes that’s the result of an easier schedule.

KPoz NCAA Football Rankings have Texas at number one this week. The other two have them at number 3. So how do we know who’s right? Head to head matchups.

Alternative Spreads

The only way to know for sure when a team is better than another is a game. KPoz computes point spreads for upcoming games based on the rankings. When the KPoz spread is signigicantly different than the prevailing spread, KPoz really shines. Take the NFL Office Pool Picks each week and pick the top 5 games whose spreads are the most different than published spreads. You can get all this data in spreadsheet format as well from the Football Statistics page. Here you can compare to other spreads, sort, then make your picks. You’ll be surprised.

2008 Electoral College Tie

2008-09-23T02:46:00+00:00

If the election were held today, here’s the result.

(Analysis of each swing state is below.)

<p><strong>><a href='http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/pick-your-president/'>2008 Election Contest: Pick Your President</a></strong> – Predict the winner of the 2008 presidential election and enter to win a $500 prize.</p>

Swing States:

Colorado

Barely Obama’s, and historically Republican, but holding the Democratic convention here turned out to be brilliant. McCain didn’t even get it back during the GOP convention, so I think Obama wins Colorado.

Ohio

McCain’s most brilliant move is the Sarah Palin pick. The Hockey Mom with the folksy accent wins over the suburban Ohio family and keeps Ohio a red state.

Pennsylvania

Democrat in the last four elections, and should stay that way since McCain couldn’t manage to take the lead here even during the post convention bounce.

Florida

No need for Katherine Harris’s votes this time. McCain has a good lead and should keep the Republican trend.

Nevada

Another Republican state, and McCain is hanging on tough here, although a bit closer than Florida, it will likely stay red.

New Hampshire

For every other swing state, I’m predicting a win for the candidate with a slight lead in the polls, and backing it up with historical precedence in that state. That strategy leaves New Hampshire open. Since McCain fared better here in the primaries than Obama did, and he has a slight lead today in this University of New Hampshire poll , I gave it to him. Plus that leaves us with the fascinating result of an Electoral College tie.

Virginia

Although Virgina was tied for a while, McCain seems to be pulling away. And Republican margins of victory in prior elections have been quite large.

Wisconsin

If you border more than one Great Lake, you’re an Obama state. Even taking advantage of delegate strippers won’t change that.

Johnny B Good Fun-Raiser

2008-04-23T21:10:00+00:00

Raffle Tickets

Please click above to support the rehabilitation of John “Chip” Cusack.

Last week I played four golf courses in Orlando with four of the Cusack brothers. But there was one Cusack brother missing. From the Raffle flyer:

> Last September, John was taking a bike ride in his Northport neighborhood with his son when he fell off his bike and suffered a severe head trauma. He was airlifted to Stonybrook Hospital, had emergency brain surgery and began the long, painful process back.

You can follow John’s progress here:

And if you’d like to help out with a donation or a journal ad : johnnybgfunraiser.googlepages.com

Thanks for your support,

Mike Blake

Thoughts about my friends Brian Maguire and John Cusack

2007-12-13T17:54:00+00:00

In a freak accident back in September my friend John Cusack fell off a bicycle in Northport, NY and suffered a serious head injury. It’s been a very painful year for the Cusack family and friends. Obviously it saddened me deeply to learn that Brian Maguire suffered a similar injury.

Brian crashed on his motorcycle last Sunday night. Updates are available on Jim Abbott’s blog at The Orlando Sentinel, and There’s a Brian Maguire Relief Fund.

In John’s case, the waking up process was very gradual. After about a week in an induced coma similar to Brian’s, John began to show signs of life. The first sign of a functioning brain was the ability to blink when asked to blink. Slowly, day after day, there were subtle improvements. Response to stimuli, Open eyes tracking movement . At some point John was moved from a ventilator to a trachea. Then there was recognition of friends and family. Eventually there was movement of limbs and talking, (although talking is nearly impossible with the trachea.) . Now after a cranioplasty to restore his skull, John is scheduled to be moved to a Rehabilitation Center today where he will relearn basic muscle movements, and hopefully walk again.

The Cuscacks have set up a site here if you’d like to learn more. John Cusack .

With a brain injury, there is always hope. I pray that good news continues to break for both John and Brian, and however long it takes, I hope I can spend time with them again in this world.

The Corrigan Reunion

2007-09-21T14:57:00+00:00

My family and I had a great weekend at the end of August in Cleveland Ohio. My Mom’s side of the family , The Corrigans, had a reunion at the North Chagrin Nature Center in Lake County, OH. This was the first time all seven of us have been together in about five years.

The Blakes are, from left to right, Conny, Brian, Michael, Richard, John, Paul, and Maureen.

Quoc Van for Congress

2007-07-10T14:47:00+00:00

Quoc Van came to my house a few weeks ago. He’s an extremely bright guy, and is running for congress in the 8th Congressional District here in Florida. I’m not kidding you, I got the sense that I had just met the next Barack Obama.

!Quoc Van !Barack Obama

Quoc needs signatures from 1% of registered voter’s here in the 8th district in order to appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary. I admire Quoc’s grass roots effort so I was happy to sign.

How can I help out?

The immediate goal is getting Quoc on the ballot. You can help out in three easy steps (if you live in Florida’s 8th congressional district):

1. Print out this petition.

2. Fill it out. b. Check major candidate and put in “Democratic party” on line 3
c. Put in “U.S. House of Representative in the 8th congressional district of Florida on line four
d. Fill in your information in the boxes.

a. Put in "Quoc Van" on line 2 where it says name.

3. Mail the form to:

Quoc Van

1110 Butler Way

Sanford, Fl 32773

For more information on Quoc Van visit vanforcongress.com.

Rebirth Brass Band

2006-03-28T16:12:00+00:00

We don’t get near as many visits from top notch musicians here in Orlando as they do in the big city, so I’m excited about this weekend.

is playing here in O-Town at The Social this Saturday , April 1st at 9:00 PM.

I saw these guys the first time during my drive accross country.

!Rebirth Brass Band

It will be a fun night, and a great excuse to wear my black and white wingtips . Stop by the house before the show for some barb-q.