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Current Events From The World of "La Floridiana"
September in Florida symbolizes a fresh new start.
It is the Sunshine State's version of early springtime in the North, but in reverse. Just as the first warm breezes start to melt the snow and signal a resumption to increased outdoor living in the Great White North, occasional cool breezes and lower humidity begin to signal an end to oppressive summer high temperatures and humidity in Central Florida. Television and radios begin to fill with the chatter of the fall weekend ritual we call football as a new season of college and professional sports is heralded, bringing with it new anticipations of hopeful victories, tail gate parties and a temporary respite from the realities of the workaday world and a troubled world.
From time to time I want to share you, the reader of this column, items of immediate note or interest derived from e-mails, newspapers or web news, particularly as we emerge into the fall and begin our journey toward Halloween and beyond!
First let's start with three timely e-mails of interest by "Weird Florida" author Charlie C. Carlson:
From Charlie Carlson, Author of "Weird Florida"
1. Weird Art:
Once in awhile I find some really great art that I love. I'm very fond of Salvador Dali and the link below is to Skot Olsen's work. Skot is a Dane-Swede living in South Florida and has obviously been strongly influenced by Dali's creations.
Skot is also associated with the Weird U.S. series and has served as one of the artists for the graphics in the Weird books. So, wanna see some weird Florida art, check it out. Once you see his work you will want to see each painting.....he has developed quite a style for weird stuff.
http://www.skotolsen.com/cgi-bin/portfolio/portfolio.cgi
E-Mail From Charlie Carlson, September 8, 2005
2. A New Ghost Book In the Works:
Do you know any ghost tales???
Florida's Master of the Weird needs some........
I have accepted a contract to write Florida ghost stories for a new hardback book, tentatively titled, "America's Most Haunted" to be published by a national publishing company and distributed through a national book chain. Certain aspects of this project are confidential at this time as they are still in the process of recruiting authors and researchers from each state.
The book will feature the most frightening, most genuine, most documented, most chilling, most witnessed, and most scary haunted stories in the country. Preferably, top-of-the-line stories which have never been published, although we will have to use some previously published accounts too.
This will be no run-of-the-mill book, it will be equivelant to Weird Florida quality, full color with graphics and photographs. At the present, I am in discussion with the editors about the type of stories they are looking for. In the meantime, I will be accepting stories and encounters for consideration should anyone have anything to contibute.
Anyone desiring to mail their comments or experiences to me may do so thru ccarlson@atlantic.net
or thru my public relations at indigosun@earthlink.net
or by mail to Charlie Carlson Media Productions, P.O.Box 2684, New Smyrna Beach, Fl. 32170.
E-Mail From Charlie Carlson, September 9, 2005
3. A Haunting We Will Go!
(New Smyrna Beach medium) Susan (Thompson) and I will participate in an investigation of Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando on Saturday night. Greenwood is the largest cemetery in Orlando, 100 acres, with hundreds of very old graves. Many burials were moved to this cemetery from other burial grounds around Orlando.
Don Price, the sexton, has asked for Susan to check out "something" which he will not say anything about. It is strange that the city sexton has requested the services of a medium. Also, we have asked that Owen and a select number of members from spookhunters.com be allowed to attend and use their equipment. The spookhunter group will be restricted to another part of the cemetery, as Susan must work away from electrical devices like they use. We will enter the cemtery at 9pm and the gates will be shut behind us. The sexton will accompany Susan, native-American writer, Owl Goingback, myself, and Michael Gavin of Orlando Ghost Tours in a certain section.
We should be in their until 2 am in the morning. It should be interesting to see if Susan picks up anything. I'm curious as to why the sexton wants a medium.......
New Television Season May Inspire My Watching The Boob Tube Again
After the cancellation of the ABC series "Karen Cisco" in 2003, I swore off prime-time television forever.
Maybe...
The line-up of new fall shows offers some very interesting and intriguing entries filled with aliens, ghosts and the paranormal for almost every night of the week!
Most notably is ABC's "Invasion", created by Shaun Cassidy who gave us the great short-lived television thriller of numerous seasons back "American Gothic", and CBS's "Threshold" starring Carla Gugino, the actress late of the moronically cancelled Elmore Leonard-inspired ABC "Karen Cisco" detective series set in Miami.
Here's some information on these new series:
Monday:
"Surface"
Debuts NBC September 19, 8:00 P.M.:
The first weeknight of the work a day world starts off with this new show about mysterious new life forms showing up in the Pacific Ocean near the California coast wreaking havoc on the fishing industry and baffling biologists. Tampa actor Jay R. Furgeson portrays the one of the affected fisherman. http://www.nbc.com/Surface/
Tuesday:
"Supernatural"
Debuted WB September 13, 9:00 P.M.
This is Spook Hunters come to t.v. as the Winchester Brothers, tooling around the country in their '67 Chevy hunt down ghosts, demons, witches and ghouls oh my! http://www.thewb.com/Shows/Show/0,7353,||2385,00.html
Wednesday:
"Invasion"
Debuts ABC September 21, 10:00 P.M.:
Created by Shaun Cassidy, after a hurricane passes through South Florida, high strangeness begins to happen in a small town near the Glades. A cleverly devised ABC promotional piece called "Dave's Diatribe" gives a first hand blog account of a town's descent into the unknown at http://abc.go.com/primetime/invasion/blog/index.html
Thursday:
"Night Stalker"
Debuts ABC September 29, 9:00 P.M.
Created by author Jeff Rice, this new entry is based on one of my favorite television shows (the other being "Miami Vice"). The televised Kolchak history began as a made for TV movie in 1972 and later as a short-lived ABC Friday night thriller called "Kolchak:The Night Stalker" in 1974. In that series actor Darren McGavin immortalized the exploits of paranormal news reporter Carl Kolchak (I even named my 2002 Pontiac Trans-Am the "Night Stalker' in reverence to the original series). This is the newest incarnation of the Kolchak history. http://abc.go.com/primetime/nightstalker/
Friday:
"Threshold"
Debuts CBS September 16, 9:00 P.M.:
"In the middle of the ocean, a naval cargo freighter makes a chilling discovery: an extraterrestrial craft has landed on earth. Enter Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino), recruited to await the planet’s first contact, along with a carefully assembled team made up of a brilliant aeronautical engineer with strong religious beliefs, a language and communications expert and a highly trained covert operative. Together they implement the long-gestating Operation: Threshold, charged with finding out the purpose of the landing and the fate of the ship’s crew, and preparing for the worst-case scenario of an alien invasion". – CBS
Link to: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/threshold/
"Ghost Whisperer"
Debuts CBS September 23, 8:00 P.M.:
"Jennifer Love Hewitt returns to series television in a riveting look at the link between the living and the dead, between life and death. Inspired by the cases of famed psychic James Van Praagh, it focuses on a young newlywed endowed with the unique ability to communicate with spirits, who has spent her entire life coping with this extraordinary gift, but who also yearns to lead an ordinary life--if only the dead would stop talking. And what they are saying leads her to some unusual psychic investigations." – CBS
Link to: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/ghost_whisperer/
The Paranormal in Florida
Orlando Ghost Tours http://www.hauntedorlando.com/
The Original Key West Ghost Tours http://www.hauntedtours.com/
Ghost Tours of St. Augustine http://www.ghosttoursofstaugustine.com
Ghost Tours of Historic Haunted St. Petersburg http://www.ghosttour.net/
The Florida Jaguarundi http://www.pangeainstitute.us/expeditions/jaguarundi/
The Florida Skunk Ape http://www.floridaskunkape.com/
Florida Paranormal Research Association http://www.floridaparanormal.com/
SpookHunters http://www.spookhunters.com/
New Smyrna Beach Historical Ghost Tours http://www.nsbghosttour.com/
Daytona Beach Ghost walk http://www.hauntsofdaytona.com/
Florida Ghosts Haunted Index http://www.floridaghost.com/hauntedindex.htm
Good Eatin' in Florida
Cafe de France, Winter Park http://www.lecafedefrance.com/
Maison et Jardin, Altamonte Springs http://www.maisonjardin.com/
Florida's Fast Cars
Florida Camaro and Firebird Association http://forums.flcfa.net/index.php?sid=184f3bac8ac5b4b279c4f413775e4179
Florida Aviation
Plane Boats "Cosmic Muffin" http://www.planeboats.com/
David Henderson's tribute to Shawnee Airlines http://www.geocities.com/pinkdc3/shawnee/shawnee.html
Florida's Photographic History
State Archives of Florida http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/
Tampa T.V. and Radio
Tedd Webb http://www.teddwebb.com/
Mike Clark's Big 13 Website http://www.big13.net/index.html
The Graveyard Shift Radio Show http://www.emisuniverse.com/
Florida Road Trips
Don Ce Sar Beach Resort, St. Pete Beach http://www.doncesar.com/
Marrero's Guest Manaion, Key West http://www.marreros.com/
Florida's Lost Toursit Attractions http://www.lostparks.com/index.html
Scenic Boat Tours, Winter Park http://www.scenicboattours.com/home.htm
Park Plaza Hotel, Winter Park http://www.parkplazahotel.com/index.html
Dinosaur World, Plant City http://www.dinoworld.net/
Florida's Fantastic Gardens
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Coral Gables http://www.ftg.org/
Harry P. Leu Gardens, Orlando http://www.leugardens.org/
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota http://www.selby.org/
Florida Botanical Gardens, Largo http://www.flbg.org/
Sunken Gardens, St. Petersburg http://www.stpete.org/fun/parks/sunken.htm
The Best In Florida Reading
Charlie Carlson's "Weird Florida" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0760759456/qid=1125458482/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-9238911-3327057?v=glance&s=books
Owl Goingback http://www.owlgoingback.com/
Tim Dorsey http://www.timdorsey.com/home.html
Carl Hiassen http://www.carlhiaasen.com/
Randy Wayne White http://rwwhite.com/
William Moriaty http://www.lafloridiana.com/index.htm
"La Floridiana" is ©2005 by William Moriaty. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2005 by Nolan B. Canova.
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