Weekend Preview January 9th - 12th, 2014: Things to Do in Orlando

Thursday, Jan 9

Orlando Scooter Society (yup, that's a thing) is holding a Scooter Night. The ride will be from Spacebar to The Harp- this aint no bicycling ride, so bring your scooter! Meet up at Spacebar at 7:00pm for a ride starting at 8:00pm.

Get your walking shoes on (not really...people rock stilettos...) for the Thornton 2nd Thursday Wine + Art Walk.$10 gets you a wrist band, a wine glass, and a map of all the locations where you will be greeted with a complimentary pour of wine, beer, or cocktail.

Sharpen your pencils, get out your sketchbooks, and get ready for Drink & Draw-This month's theme is An Apocalyptic New Year! Doors will open at 8:00pm, with model (or models!) posing at 8:15pm. $10 cover includes a glass of wine or pint of beer, a raffle ticket, basic art supplies, and the chance to display & possibly sell your work in the Geek Easy gallery!

Speaking of all things geeky- get ready for another Nerd Nite Orlando at Stardust Video & Coffee! " Why is it impossible to stick to those New Year’s resolutions? How does the art of folding paper apply to satellites? What is M.I.S.T and what does it have to do with ET? Learn the answers to these questions and more at our next Nerd Nite Orlando." 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Time for the Park Ave Sidewalk Sale, or what we like to call: "The great Baby-dog migration". Get ready to see all kinds of ridiculous pups in purses, arms, and yes... baby strollers. Oh yeah, and you can buy shit too...

Friday, Jan 10

Orlando's 2nd Annual One Less Car, One More Park event is here! Thornton Park is taking back parking spots for the day and transforming them into parklets in celebration of alternative modes of transportation. So leave your car at home and take these alternate transportation methods (walking, bicycling, carpool, public transit, etc.) to commute to work this Friday!

Culture Pop! The Dapper Date: Celebrating the Art of Fashion, featuring local fashion impresario Other People's Property, music by Chasing Jonah, bar by Cigar City Brewing, and food by Antonio's Cafe. YES PLZ. $5 entrance.

Have you ever been invited to a private party for the country club staff and felt awkward that you couldn't keep up with their crazy dance steps? (No one puts Baby in a corner!!) If so, head east to Orlando's Salsa Heat Dance Studio for their Friday Night Social party. They'll have dancers of every level, tons of AC (big ups to my fellow sweaty people!), and teachers ready to teach you some steps. Trust me: You will not be the most uncomfortable person there. $5 entrance OR free entrance if you join their 9:00pm -10:00pm Bachata Class before the party.

Saturday, Jan 11

You've seen them on the cover of The Orlando Weekly this week - Solillaquists of Sound have successfully reached their Kickstarter goal and are playing a concert this weekend to celebrate. This Orlando-based hip-hop quartet has accomplished the rare feat of being voted Orlando Weekly’s “Best Hip-Hop Act” for nine years straight. 9:00pm, The Social, $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

The Food Network's Eat St. is coming to East End to film an upcoming episode featuring local food spots and trucks, including Sushi & Soeul on a Roll. Come on out to the market, try this TV-worthy local food truck, grab some snacks and drinks and lets show host James Cunningham  one reason why Orlando Doesn't Suck!

How about hitting up the Vespr beer & wine launch party at 6:00pm where a free meat & cheese plate comes with every purchase? At $4/drink- that aint bad! They’ll also have lots of board games; books; music; and, obviously, booze.

Backyard Citrus Drive 8:00am-1:00pm at Throughout Orlando. St. Andrew's Society is organizing their annual citrus gleaning again! Register your citrus trees to donate the extra fruit, or sign up to glean before January 11th.

Why try to write about Crealde's Third Annual Night of Fire Open House, when Brendan O'Connor of The Orlando Weekly has done it better than we could ever?

Glowing, hot, molten metal being poured by super cute boys covered in soot. You’ve had that dream right? Girl, this is for reals! This will be the third year of nighttime, art-making fantasticness at Crealdé featuring every pyro’s favorite medium, fire. Cosponsored by Winter Park’s favorite local shop, Miller’s Hardware, this event will feature live bronze sculpture pouring and raku ceramic firing where they take red hot ceramics and throw them in buckets of combustibles, then pull them out to see what happened. There are printmaking and portrait painting workshops if you like your art hands-on and live music by G.T. Springer to keep the party going. There will also be an opening reception on the same night for Director’s Choice IV, an exhibition featuring work by artists who teach at Crealdé’s location in Winter Garden. So if not for the amazing art, you may want to show up just to take some amazing night shots for your Later-grams. – Brendan O'Connor of The Orlando Weekly

Sunday, Jan 12

Pompom's Teahouse is celebrating a new exhibition by local artist, Xoxo love, Franklin. Head over from 8:00pm - 10:00pm to celebrate the Chrysalis opening.


Orlando native Matt Roberts will perform a concert of contemporary classical percussion music in The Space (above Anthony's Pizza in Mills50) at the Accidental Music Festival Presents: Matt Roberts - New Music for Percussion. The show will feature Frederic Rzewski’s Fall of the Empire, a work for percussion and spoken word, Pulitzer-Prize-Winner David Lang’s The Anvil Chorus, and original music by Roberts himself. In Rzewksi’s work, the instrumentation includes seedpods, a radio, lawnmower blades, and spoken texts by Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. $4

Stop by and enjoy the sounds of fiddles, mandolins, banjos, and guitars playing improvisational Appalachian tunes at Orlando Brewing's Old Time Music Jam from 4:00pm - 7:00pm.


What are you doing this weekend, Orlandoans?