Once you pay your $99 (plus a $7.50 online tix fee), you will be snail-mailed a voucher for each organization on the list. Each voucher is good for one ticket to one show or exhibit this season. You generally call them or go to their box office to pick up the tickets – each org has a slightly different system for redeeming the tickets.

The organizations participating are:

1. Mad Cow Theatre Company
2. Orlando Museum of Art
3. Orlando Shakespeare Theater, In Partnership w/ UCF
4. Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra
   Orlando Ballet
5. FAIRWINDS Broadway Across America – Orlando
6. Festival of Orchestras
7. Orlando Repertory Theatre
8. Bach Festival Society

For a full list of events and details, as well as online or phone purchases, visit the Red Chair Project website.

There’s almost a Vegetarian Indian District in the OBT/Florida Mall area, topped off with an Indian grocery in the same area. I have yet to try them all, but I’ve heard it’s certainly worth checking out. Two bonus reviews for you too, one by I-Drive and Kirkman and the other in East Orlando near UCF.

Indian Food

What's this?

1. Woodlands Indian Cuisine

I often go for a sampler, about $16, which features small bowls of different sauces, soups and even a dessert, along with a bit of rice, some flat bread and a few appetizers – including a veggie and potato Somosa, yum! The other popular choice for us are called Dosas, which are giant pancakes/crepes with some filling, normally potato, rolled inside. They always bring a pitcher of water to the table, and be ready for some spicy food. You can request different levels of heat for some dishes.

I first heard about Woodlands from some vegetarian/vegan friends of mine. I have been seeking out veggie places lately, because it lets me know I have a city that is tolerant of different lifestyles, and it proves I don’t have to move somewhere else to get access to other cultures. This restaurant is not decorated very lavishly, unless you count the lemon and chili peppers hanging by the front door. Right off of north OBT, easy to get to, and always good service, and a staff who is used to helping us Americans figure out what we should order.

2. Udipi Café

Head here for the lunch buffet. Completely worth your time. They even have a dish on the buffet that resembles “Sloppy Joe”, but it’s made with some meat substitute, and still served on a plain hamburger bun. Every buffet comes with a giant Dosa pancake/crepe filled with potato and vegetable – delicious. The food is all vegetarian. (hint: Udipi is a region of India that is known for vegetarian food) Would definitely come here again, despite the fact that it’s almost up in Longwood, which is not close to my home. Hopefully I’ll have a good excuse to go again soon!

3. Khasiyat Indian Restaurant

The interior (and exterior) is not all that interesting, but they do have a a few things going for them. The service was pretty delightful. We saw a large family who must have been visiting the theme parks, and made the trip all the way out to this neighborhood for a taste of home. I’m also going to assume they might have been vegetarian, which can be a challenge at the local theme parks, unless you like salad. After having been to a few other vegetarian places in town, Khasiyat held few surprises, but they did sport a television with music videos and other Bollywood gems.

http://sites.google.com/site/lifeinadayfaqs/

How do I submit my video(s)?
Between 24 July and 31 July, just click the “Submit” tab on Life In A Day channel and upload the footage directly from your computer. The “Submit” tab will become visible on 24 July.

Does my video have to be documentary? Can it be fiction?
All we’re asking is for you to document your world over the course of a single day; we expect most videos to comprise documentary footage, but if you think that your world is best captured through fictional storytelling or even animation, it is entirely up to you.

Do I need permission to record other people in my video?
Yes, you do need permission to include other people in your video. If your video makes it through the first stage of our selection process, we will email you release forms which you must send back to us signed by anyone who appears in your video.

Can I use music?
Please avoid the use of music within your submission.

What do I need to know about recording sound?
It’s important to think about the audio on your video, as sound recording often affects the overall quality of a video. Good sound recording will probably increase the chance of your footage being chosen to be in the final film. If possible, it would be great to enhance your recording by using external microphones, in addition to those built in to most cameras.

When is the Sundance Film Festival?
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival will take place from 20 January to 30 January 2011. The premiere date of Life In A Day will be announced closer to the start of the festival.

It’s not just humans getting into the mix, either. Puppets and Monsters are sure to appear during the hour organized by Brian’s wife, a member of a local performance group called Thunderhag & the Thunderland Orchestra.

If you’re not able to make it downtown, or you’re house-bound, Brian will be Tweeting and Live-streaming pretty much every major (or minor) event during the week.

There are lots of watercolor drawings and slideshows with maps available on the City of Orlando’s website. They have a page with a few downloadable documents created that outline the gentrification of Parramore, creating lots of “party curb” streets (so drunk people don’t trip?), and making greater use of parks and public spaces. They also want to make sure the venues and other city buildings are “good neighbors”, whatever that means.

If you want to hear this BS in person, they’re having an event on Monday at City Hall. It seems to be open invite, so if you care about the future of downtown, make some time in your schedule for this.

Creative Village event March 22nd

If I’m allowed to videotape, the meeting will show up on our Watch Live page.

As we have people visit, we’ve started to compile a list of activities (some are mega-touristy) and restaurants that we can recommend to everyone. Here they are, in no particular order:

• The Wine Room
• Disney’s Animal Kindgom
• Cafe Tu Tu Tango
• White Wolf Cafe
• Funky Monkey Wine Co
• El Coqui Mexicano
• Gatorland Zoo (Go Orlando Card)
• Sky Venture Orlando
• Florida Ecosafaris Zip Line (Go Orlando Card)
• A Day Away Kayaks – Bioluminescent Night Kayak Trip
• Blue Man Group Orlando
• SAK Improv Comedy Lab
• Sea World Orlando
• Wild Willy’s Airboat Rides
• Bok Tower and Gardens
• Manatee watching at Blue Springs (cold weather months)
• The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Pancake House, DeLeon Springs
• Disney Hollywood Studios (formery MGM)
• The Ravenous Pig
• Hamburger Mary’s Hambingo (Gay Bingo, Tuesday Night)
• Farris and Foster’s Chocolate Date Night
• Leu Gardens
• Kennedy Space Center (Go Orlando Card)

Note: links to Go Orlando Card are part of an affiliate program.

@ The Office Art Gallery, Friday Oct 10th

A word from Frankie Messina:

www.apartmente.com got all the info you need.

hope to see you all my friends.. come kick off this incredible evening and be able to say you were there the first night…..

bring a friend and they get in half price.

then they can help you donate to the cause..
that cause being local ART and MUSIC and LOVING the two..

thank you for all the support, and I can’t wait to meet you all………..and give you all a big o’le country hug..,Frankie

Does anyone know of an animation school in the Orlando area? A friend’s 16-year-old son is interested in pursuing animation as a career and is looking into classes he can take now as well as college programs for the future. If you have any insight, please pass it along.

Just doing a google search returned a bunch of crap, so I wanted to help this person out with information you could snack on:

UCF’s Visual Language program is top-notch. In Orlando, I wouldn’t recommend anything above the UCF School of Film and Digital Media. They also have a graduate program at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA).

The Valencia Graphics program has some animation stuff as well. I blogged some students’ motion graphics projects at Orlando Video. I think high school students can take VCC classes before they graduate.

They offer some stuff like that at the Orlando Tech Center – it’s run by the Orange County Public Schools – right near the Amway Arena. They have a Computer Animation lab, a 3D printer, a motion capture stage, an Audio Recording studio and a TV studio. There are also several tech or vocational schools in Orlando (besides the OCPS), but I don’t have any information about one over the other.

Has anyone mentioned the DAVE School to you yet? They are/used to be located on the backlot of Universal Studios, but that has nothing to do with what they teach there, it’s just the space that they use. They are focused only on animation, and I think they take students of all ages.

And then there’s FullSail, of course (the school, not the beer). Little-known fact: most FullSail teachers were students from last year’s graduating class – the law of diminishing returns will have to catch up with them sometime. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get a good education there, but from what I understand, there are lots of folks at the school looking to get somewhere without really trying. If one works hard, a good education can be obtained despite the reputation an institution garners for itself.

If you in the blogosphere can think of any other programs of note, please leave them in the comments.

You get a ticket to all of the following:

Orlando Ballet
Orlando Museum of Art
Orlando Opera
Orlando Philharmonic
Orlando Shakespeare Theatre
Festival of Orchestras
SunTrust Broadway Across Orlando

Really.

Visit RealOrlando.org to download an order form PDF and mail in your order (lame).

Don’t forget to Subscribe to the Daily City Blog (RSS), courtesy our good friend (and sometimes collaborator) Mark Baratelli.