The annual Zora! Festival kicks off Saturday with an event that celebrates Eatonville, the historic black community that has hosted the festival since its inception in 1990. Just three days then, the festival honoring Eatonville’s most famous resident, writer Zora Neale Hurston, now spans two weekends.

“We talk of Eatonville as a ‘historic community,’” said N.Y. Nathiri, the director of multidisciplinary programs for festival presenter Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community. “This year, we’re going to help people understand what that is.”

Hurston, a noted author of the Harlem Renaissance movement during the 1920s, grew up in Eatonville and incorporated her life experiences into such novels as “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The shrewd cultural observations in her writing made her a “literary anthropologist” of her time; she died in 1960.

Founded after the Civil War, when African-Americans began establishing separate towns for blacks to avoid segregated white communities, Eatonville is marking 125 years as an incorporated African-American municipality this year. The festival’s theme, “Rise of Community,” honors that milestone.

The top fine-arts events during the festival include a free theatrical presentation of “Zora in Eatonville,” which looks at the town through the author’s eyes. Staged by the J.D. Thomas Cultural Center, it will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 412 E. Kennedy Blvd.

“I Am Going to Eatonville,” the first in a series of four visual-art exhibitions by Deborah Willis, Lonnie Graham, Terry Boddie and Melvina Lathan, opens with a gallery talk at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Art, 227 E. Kennedy Blvd. (Tickets: $15, $25 VIP.)

Headline pop music acts this year will be Mario ($20, $45 VIP), performing next Friday, Jan. 27, and Keith Sweat ($25, $45 VIP) on Saturday, Jan. 28. Sweat’s biggest hits came during the 1980s and ’90s, while Mario still reaches the Billboard charts. The acts are a departure for the festival.

“Old-school music is what we’ve always featured, but we didn’t want to leave the younger generation behind,” Nathiri said. Earlier that Friday, a free open-air forum called “Keeping It Real: Hip-Hop Culture and Community” will take place from 1-4 p.m. Friday to encourage dialogue between the old and young.

The concerts are in conjunction with the large Outdoor Festival of the Arts weekend, Jan. 27-29, which features a host of food, arts, crafts and other merchandise vendors. A children’s play area is available. Other music at the festival includes a day of gospel performances on Sunday, Jan. 29.

Before the big weekend are several educational events.

Things kick off Saturday, Jan. 21, with a free program called “Eatonville Story: The Town That Freedom Built.” It’s a tour that begins at St. Lawrence African Methodist Church, 549 E. Kennedy Blvd. Patrons will stop at the oldest home in Eatonville and the Moseley House Museum before ending up at Rollins College. There, scholars will lead a discussion about the town’s founding. The event runs from 4-7:30 p.m.

Another educational component of the festival will be a look at the art of landscaping. Attendees can take a guided tour of the University of Central Florida Arboretum, as well as touring various private gardens in Eatonville with interpretive talks tying the landscapes to history. The free UCF tour is 1-3 p.m. Wednesday. Daylong tours, which include lunch, are Thursday and Friday ($120), a 3-hour tour is Saturday ($90).

“It’s a chance to really interact and engage with the people and civic pride of Eatonville,” Nathiri said.

On the fashion front, the popular “HATitude” brunch will return, using audience participation to celebrate Hurston’s love of stylish headgear. It takes place from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 304 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando. (Tickets: $50, $15 for those under 12, $35 for ages 12-21, $45 for seniors.)

For more information on events during the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of Arts and Humanities, call 407-647-3307 or go to zorafestival.com.

Copyright © 2012, Orlando Sentinel

Some of the more heavily anticipated films of 2012 include 'The Dark Knight Rises' starring Christian Bale as Batman, 'Mirror Mirror' with Julia Roberts, and 'Haywire' with Gina Carano.

By ROGER MOORE

So 2011 fizzled at the movies. Attendance and box office were down – by some measures, back to 1996 levels.

What about 2012? There are more 3-D titles, more remakes and sequels and more movies aimed at the more important overseas audience.

But Bella is back (Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Nov. 21), as is Bond (Skyfall, Nov. 7). And Batman. Bourne returns (The Bourne Legacy, Aug. 3) without Jason Bourne or Matt Damon. And those Men in Black are back. So are The Expendables, Tyler Perry, Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained, Dec. 25), Ghost Rider, Barnabas Collins (Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, May 11), the Madagascar zoo animals (June 8) and the extinct stand-up comics of Ice Age (July 13).

And those American Pie kids return (American Reunion, April 6).

Finding Nemo, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Beauty and the Beast return – in 3-D.

Remakes? Judge Dredd (Dredd, Sept. 21), Total Recall (Aug. 3) and even Spider-Man (The Amazing Spider-Man, July 3).

We have dueling Snow Whites (Mirror Mirror, March 16; Snow White and the Huntsman, June 1), dueling Abe Lincolns (Spielberg’s Lincoln in December and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, June 22). And more serial killers, zombies and Jason Statham and Adam Sandler movies than you can shake a stick at.

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Image by Camera Slayer via Flickr

By DEWAYNE BEVIL

In the grand tradition of talking about the next holiday before arriving at the current one, let’s talk New Year’s Eve.

In a nutshell, Universal CityWalk has Smash Mouth, Bad Voodoo Daddy, gourmet buffet, nightclubs, champagne toast.

Legoland Florida will have fireworks at the kid-appropriate time of 7 p.m.

Walt Disney World spreads its fireworks around, doubling up at Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and adding “Lights! Camera! Happy New Year!” at Hollywood Studios.

SeaWorld Orlando will have three killer-whale shows (one “Miracles,” two “Shamu Rocks”), three ice-skating shows, and extended fireworks.

Stagecraft's the name of the game for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. (Mark Weiss / Atlanta Journal-Constituion)

By JIM ABBOTT

Maybe the only thing wilder than watching Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual holiday orgy of snow, fire, lasers and fiery lasers (OK, I made up that last part) is listening to show creator Paul O’Neill describe his vision of it all:

“You know how NASA has, like, these satellite dishes to search for radio signals from other solar systems out there?” asks O’Neill, who has incorporated that notion into a new introduction for this year’s show, which touches down at Miami’s American Airlines Arena on Friday.

Instead of contacting alien life forms, which might reasonably wonder about a civilization that embraces such excesses merely for amusement, O’Neill’s satellite will beam quotations from historic figures: Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Walt Disney.

The message? Hope.

Directions, nearby dining

“You’ll hear John F. Kennedy’s voice; Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” O’Neill says. “Edison. Walt Disney. Galileo. You’ll see people who helped man move past impossible odds, who took humanity to a better and higher level.

“People think we’re going through really rough times now, but humanity has gone through far worse times and triumphed. People are going to come to these shows and the first thing I want them to see is how our parents beat the Great Depression. They beat Stalin and Hitler. Jonas Salk beat polio. All these people moved humanity ahead. It may look bad now, but I honestly believe that we’re going to beat these hard times.”
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By JASON GARCIA and DEWAYNE BEVIL

JAWS, the iconic Universal Studios Florida ride in which tour boats full of guests are attacked by a robotic great white shark, will permanently close Jan 2. to make way for a new attraction, Universal Orlando announced Friday.

The ride, based on the 1975 movie directed by famed director and Universal theme-park consultant Steven Spielberg, was one of the original attractions in Universal Studios when the park opened in 1990.

The surrounding “Amity”-themed area around the attraction will also be closed “to make room for what will be an exciting new attraction experience,” Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said.

“JAWS has been an amazing attraction and an important part of our history. We know that JAWS holds a special place in the hearts of our guests,” Schroder said. “But we always have to look to the future and dedicate ourselves to providing new, innovative entertainment experiences for our guests.

Universal said employees who work on the attraction or in the surrounding environment will be moved into other areas of the resort. Two other attractions in the area, Disaster! and Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue, will not be affected.
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By Jason Garcia
SeaWorld Orlando is expected to announce today what park officials call the biggest expansion in the resort’s history, with three new attractions to be built over the next two years.

The plans include two additions scheduled to debut next spring: TurtleTrek, a manatee and sea-turtle habitat that will include a first-of-its-kind, three-dimensional and 360-degree movie experience; and Freshwater Oasis, a new area in SeaWorld’s limited-admission park Discovery Cove. Oasis guests will be able to swim, wade and hike through a rainforest-themed environment that will include encounters with Asian otters and small monkeys known as marmosets.

Those two projects will be followed a year later by the biggest addition of all: Antarctica — Empire of the Penguin, an area within the main park themed to the snowy continent that will include a new attraction that SeaWorld says will feature never-before-used ride technology.

Although company officials did not disclose a price tag, SeaWorld Orlando President Terry Prather said the additions, taken together, represent the largest expansion in the marine park’s 38-year history, both in terms of cost and footprint.

With the expansion — which has been urged by SeaWorld’s corporate owner, the private-equity firm Blackstone Group — SeaWorld hopes to win back some of the ground it has lost during the past two years to Walt Disney World and, particularly, to Universal Orlando, which in June 2010 opened its wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

SeaWorld Orlando attendance fell an estimated 12 percent in 2010, even as the number of visitors overall to Orlando soared above 50 million for the first time.

Company officials say SeaWorld Orlando attendance has improved this year and that Discovery Cove, which this summer opened a new attraction dubbed the Grand Reef, is in the midst of a record year. The company’s three Orlando parks, which also include the water park Aquatica, account for roughly 40 percent of SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment’s total operating income, according to industry analysts.

Prather said the timing of the expansion is ideal.

“When you look at last year, doing 51 million visitors to Orlando, and then look around the country, look around the world at some of these [other] destinations, … it’s crystal clear around the world that Orlando is the No. 1 family destination,” Prather said. “Our owners see that as a big plus.”

Importantly, SeaWorld said, all three additions will be suitable for visitors of all ages.

Guests at TurtleTrek, for instance, will first walk through a pair of massive aquariums, one filled with hundreds of freshwater fish and manatees, the other with more than 1,500 saltwater fish and more than a dozen sea turtles. They will then enter a domed theater, where a 3-D film about the life journey of a sea turtle will be projected all around them — even above them. The entire experience will last about 18 minutes.

“Content will be all around you,” said Brian Morrow, SeaWorld Orlando’s chief designer.

The attraction, which will use space most recently occupied by SeaWorld’s Manatee Rescue pavilion, will include an explicit conservation theme urging guests to become “everyday heroes” in wildlife protection. A post-show gift shop will include physical and environmental effects triggered whenever guests purchase items from which a portion of proceeds will be donated to a company-founded conservation fund.

Freshwater Oasis at Discovery Cove will be designed with a rainforest canopy above freshwater springs. SeaWorld said guests will be free to explore at their own pace, wading and hiking through flooded trails that will take them through habitats with otters and marmosets — animals that SeaWorld said were chosen because they are small, kid-friendly and active. The oasis will replace a now-closed saltwater reef that had been leaking into the area’s underground aquifer.

In contrast to Grand Reef — a deeper, saltwater pool that includes an underwater experience — SeaWorld said Freshwater Oasis will be shallower and accessible to all guests. “Ensuring that everybody gets to participate is key to our brand,” Morrow said.

SeaWorld discussed fewer details in advance about Antarctica — Empire of the Penguin, which company officials said will be the park’s biggest-yet single-attraction expansion.

Replacing the park’s 24-year-old Penguin Encounter habitat, the new attraction’s central experience will be a “family adventure attraction,” suitable for people of all ages, in which guests will experience life in Antarctica through the eyes of a penguin. Morrow said the attraction will be “a new species of ride,” with an innovative system that allows different adventures to occur during each ride. The experience will also include close interactions with penguins.

SeaWorld said the Antarctica-themed expansion will be a more-immersive experience than just a single ride.

“It will be a new world within the park,” Prather said. “It’s a new realm that we’re building.”

Bill Scott (right) general manager, Exotic Driving Experience and Richard Petty Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway, and Chief Marketing Officer Mike Bartelli on track. (Steven Cole Smith/Orlando Sentinel / November 7, 2011)

The Richard Petty Driving Experience, which already offers stock car drives at the Disney World Speedway, will begin offering rides in exotic cars such as Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

The new option is coming, in part, because the stock car business, including NASCAR, has contracted in the tough economy, said Mike Bartelli, chief marketing officer of the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

“So we looked at extensions of what we do in the stock car arena to help build our business, and what we’re good at is putting people in cars, safely,” Bartelli said. “We’ve got the track, we’re here year-round, and we know there are people who would love to drive these cars on a race track, given the opportunity.”

The Exotic Driving Experience is expecting to start out with two Ferraris, two Lamborghinis, a Porsche 911 and an Audi R8. Other brands and models could be added in the future.

Prices will start with “Thrill Rides,” with a Petty instructor driving, for $99. The actual driving experience will start at $199 for six laps, with an instructor in the passenger seat.

Prices will vary depending on the car, and the ride will be preceded by classroom instruction. All the cars will have automatic transmissions. For information, visit http://www.exoticdriving.com

The Experience expects to acquire the cars from Orlando-area dealers. Petty would like to offer the Exotic Driving Experience at Daytona International Speedway soon and likely Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The Petty Experience at Disney World has given stock car rides and drives to more than 250,000 customers, Bartelli said.

“And we think the Exotic Driving Experience has the potential to be every bit as successful as the stock cars,” he said.

By Stephen Hudak

MONTVERDE — Comedian Chris Tucker, who starred as a wise-cracking L.A. police detective with martial-arts star Jackie Chan in the blockbuster “Rush Hour” film series, could soon lose his multimillion-dollar mansion in Central Florida.

Tucker, 39, bought the 10,000-square-foot waterfront home on Lake Apopka in the pricey Bella Collina community in 2007 for $6 million but owes more than $4.4 million to SunTrust Bank, according to foreclosure papers filed in Circuit Court in Lake County.

Cynthia Lurry, who acted as power-of-attorney for Tucker in the home sale, declined comment when reached today.
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George and Cindy Anthony revealed to Dr. Phil McGraw that seizures may be to blame for Casey Anthony’s bizarre behavior surrounding her toddler’s death, according to a news report on the upcoming television episode.

McGraw’s publicist would not comment on his interview with Anthony’s parents, but Cindy Anthony reportedly said the seizures may be part of a mental-health condition that makes it difficult for her daughter to tell fact from fiction, possibly explaining the young woman’s lies, according to MyFoxOrlando.com.

This summer, a jury comprised of Pinellas County residents found Casey Anthony, 25, not-guilty of charges that she killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie in 2008.

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More previews: September | November | December

By ROGER MOORE

Oct. 7

THE IDES OF MARCH (Columbia): George Clooney co-wrote, directed and co-stars in this dramedy about a young idealist (Ryan Gosling) who learns hard life lessons on the political campaign trail. Marisa Tomei, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star.

MACHINE GUN PREACHER (Relativity): Gerard Butler has the title role in this story of biker-turned-minister Sam Childers, who took up arms to protect orphans in war-torn, famine-plagued Sudan.

REAL STEEL (DreamWorks): Hugh Jackman stars in this film version of a famous Richard Matheson story (and “Twilight Zone” episode) about a down-on-his-luck boxer who has to return to the ring in an age when only machines are allowed to brawl for sport.

THE WAY (Arc Entertainment) Martin Sheen stars in this faith-based drama about a father who sets out to complete his late son’s religious pilgrimage down the Camino de Santiago. Emilio Estevez plays the son and wrote and directed this.

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