Celebration Home Improvement Expo this weekend

24. March 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Community, Events

The title says it all. From this page:

Spring Cleaning! It’s not just inside that needs a little elbow grease and polish. After a cold winter there’s plenty of work to do both inside and outside. Need some help?

Come to the Expo to arrange to dispose of those closet-cleaning castoffs!
Come to the Expo to find help with interior cleaning, like carpet shampooing!
Come to the Expo to meet folks who can clean up and spruce up your yard!
Come to the Expo to talk to designers who can reinvigorate your spaces!
Come to the Expo to learn about saving energy and money!
Come to the Expo to experience fragrances that can soothe your jangled nerves!
Come to the Expo to see the newest technology offered in Celebration!
Come to the Expo to enjoy a little lunch, have some fun, and maybe win some prizes!
Come to the Expo to chat with your friends and neighbors!

It’s at the Town Hall Building at 851 Celebration Ave., from 9a to 2p.

Another community-wide yard sale over

07. March 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Community, Events, Photos, Socializing

Celebration’s semi-annual, community-wide yard sale was last Saturday. The homeowner’s association does a terrific job at organizing it, and I think everyone — buyers and sellers alike — have a decent time. We left our house in the East Village at 7:45am; I returned at a little after noon, and my wife about an hour later. That should give you an idea of the distance we covered on foot.

Traffic is always a concern for this event, as you have a confluence of factors conspiring to make the day miserable:

  • The number of people

  • That the people are looking sideways, trying to peek at people’s stuff, instead of paying attention to the road
  • That many people simply can’t drive well, even on a normal day
  • Some Celebration streets that aren’t fun, even on a normal day (*cough* Nash *cough*)
  • Lots of pedestrians, some of who have children and pets

As with the Halloween issues every year, I don’t know that there’s any good solution. Certainly strategically-placed No Parking signs and off-duty sheriff’s deputies would help, but this is another situation where the Homeowner’s Association has to expend time and money on something where there is no possibility to recoup those resources.

Personally, I look forward to these community yard sales. They’re a terrific excuse to wander the neighborhoods, meet fellow residents, and pick up cheap books (me) and baby stuff (wife).

Seen at AMC Pleasure Island 24

17. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Community

Looks fun, doesn’t it? Unfortunately I spotted this sign at AMC Pleasure Island instead of (the now-former) AMC Celebration.

Grouchos Comedy Celebration first night

09. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Businesses In Celebration, Community, Events, Photos, Socializing

We attended the first night of Grouchos Comedy in Celebration on Feb 5. My wife’s parents do the Canadian snow bird thing, so we were fortunate enough to have trusted help in town to watch our 17 month old for a night. We started at around 7pm at Cafe D’Antonio, me with wine and a kick-ass Caprese di Bufala and the wife choosing to fill up on bread and Bruschetta alla Romana. Hunger sated, we strolled over to Thai Thani for the show.

Now… it was the first night for Grouchos at Thai Thani, so I didn’t know what to expect. I heard about it from Mike Nunez with Lexin a few weeks prior, but didn’t have any insight into how widely it was advertised, how well advanced tickets were sold, or how many people would actually show.

We didn’t do the Dinner & Show deal, which meant we wouldn’t have priority seating. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised to be seated at the back of the room — meaning they had done very well in selling the package and filling the place. There were ‘Reserved For…’ placards posted on most of the tables. Sure enough, by show time the room was packed, a great environment for comedy. “Trailer Park Diva” Michelle Harrington had a great set, and headliner Dean Napolitano absolutely killed.


Notice on the very left of the photo that Nat seems quite happy about things.

All expectations were exceeded — even on an opening night, where glitches are expected — and we shall definitely be repeat visitors. Thanks to Nat with Thai Thani, Larry with Grouchos, Mike with Lexin, and whoever else was involved in bringing this to Celebration. If you’re around Celebration on a Saturday evening, I encourage you to take advantage. The dinner & show package is a tremendous value:

Tickets- $12.00 or $25.00 Dinner Package (includes show, dinner, beverage, and choice of seats)
Menu Includes
Choice of one of the following:
Egg Roll (2-piece)
Crab Rangoons (3-piece)
Chicken Satay (2-piece)

Plus Choose One Entree
(Choice of: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Tofu or Veggies)
Fried Rice
Phad Thai
Sweet & Sour
Garlic Meat
Mixed Vegetables
Cashew Nut
Pepper Steak

All Entrees include choice of soda or Ice Tea.

You can tell them you read about it here, but it won’t get you anything special beyond funny looks. :)

Celebration AMC 2 theater limbo

02. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Businesses In Celebration, Community

No idea what the true status of the (former) Celebration AMC 2 theater is, but here’s what I know.

  1. The theater is still listed for lease on the Sevell Realty Partners web site.
  2. The Sevell agent responsible for the listing has told me directly that it is “temporarily off the market”.
  3. The space is not available for lease from the building’s owner, Lexin Capital.

From what I can observe, the power is still on and food & beverage equipment is still there. Point-of-sale is gone from the concession stand and the box office. I’ve tried to find out from AMC, through their agent, whether projection equipment was left behind, but that answer does not appear to be forthcoming, oddly.

I’ve tried to push something forward for that space as my own personal time allows, but my chief concerns are that 1) my time is limited, since I have a full time job, 2) while I have general business acumen, I have zero movie exhibition experience, 3) I’m not 100% sure what model would work there, and 4) if it’s such a great idea, why hasn’t anyone else stepped up?

Regarding models, it’s one thing to have a few good ideas, but another to flail around trying different things while you’re burning a lot of money each month for rent. There’s no lack of enthusiasm in town for a theater that would play art house, R-rated movies, and cult classics… but would there be enough people voting with their wallets to keep the thing afloat, or would it ultimately be an expensive and humbling lesson about the movie business?

If you do happen to read this, are covertly moving something forward, and would like some assistance, feel free to touch base with me.

MF’er

19. January 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Community

I posted this on our internal web forum earlier today with the subject line “MF’er” (abbreviated, not spelled out, mind you):

I just had a gray mini-Jeep thing pass me — on the right, mind you — on Celebration Ave before Eastlawn. Tap of the brakes (no stopping) at the Eastlawn four way and then proceeded at 50-55 down towards and into Artisan.

Florida tag [redacted]… you suck, dude.

A few minutes ago I received a call from Town Hall saying that a number of people had called them complaining about my post. Not that I complained about a dangerous driver, not that I posted someone’s tag number, but that I used an acronym of a profanity. I was asked to retitle the post; I complied, as I didn’t get the impression it was subject to negotiation.

What’s telling here is that I doubt those same people would’ve bothered to complain to Town Hall about the individual driving in an erratic manner, ignoring traffic control devices, and exceeding the speed limit by 20+ MPH.

A quick search of the forums shows an instance of WTF and many uses of the word ‘ass’. WTF. I may be on shaky ground with my use of the word ‘suck’.

Arrest in Celebration murder

06. December 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: Community, Events

There was an arrest today in the Matteo Giovanditto homicide case.

“A homeless man was arrested Monday afternoon in the first murder in the town of Celebration. David Murillo, 28, was taken into custody and charged first-degree murder.”

Based on the article it sounds like there’s a fair amount of physical evidence pointing to the arrested individual, but I’ll reserve judgment and let a jury decide. The arrest also confirms what the police had previously alluded to in that it was not a random killing.

Other links:

In the last week

05. December 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Community, Events

There’s been a lot of media coverage on Celebration in the last week, including the NBC Nightly News and Today Show, CNN.com, The New York Times, and hundreds of other outlets that picked it up via a wire service.

So far, of the stories I’ve read, this one from the New Urban Network is probably closest to reality and treats the story in a less sensationalist manner than the other sources: News flash: Celebration is not perfect

Mr. Steuteville, if you’re out there, thank you for sharing your perspective on the events here. If you find yourself down this way, let me know and the first round is on me.

Matteo Giovanditto

02. December 2010 · 12 comments · Categories: Community, Events

By now you’ve probably heard of the homicide here in Celebration over Thanksgiving weekend. The murdered man’s name is Matteo Giovanditto.

I didn’t know the man personally, but he was a active participant in the Town’s residents-only message board called the Celebration Front Porch. The Front Porch is divided up into various categories, including Public Safety, Entertainment and Dining, Items For Sale, Real Estate, and so on. It provides a forum for residents to discuss anything and everything related to living in Celebration, such as Halloween crowding, police activity, skywriting, town events, and recommendations for service people.

In the time he’d been in Celebration, Matteo posted 521 messages. His last message, in a thread where someone was asking the community if there was a copy of “The Prince” by Nicolo Machiavelli to borrow, was:

Again, I didn’t know the man beyond the occasional message board conversations, but that message makes me sad. Whatever he did in life or whoever he pissed off, he was still a person with likes and dislikes and thoughts and feelings. He came across as intelligent and articulate, someone who cared about other people and the town.

The Associated Press put a story about the murder on the wire today, so now the story is national and appearing on sites such as CNN.com, Drudge Report, and the Yahoo! front page. They all have the same basic slant: that this is the first homicide in the community planned by Disney and that we usually don’t have murders here and by the way Disney used to own the land and… whatever. Seems like an opportunity to drag Disney — who haven’t been actively involved in the HOA or downtown for a number of years — through the mud for no reason beyond the fact the Disney name generates clicks. Fine.

Statistically, Celebration is still very safe by every measure, and it’s the safest place I’ve lived. We chose to move here and raise our son here due in part to that fact. I’m hoping law enforcement can find and bring the coward who performed this despicable act to justice as soon as possible so we can start putting this behind us.

Celebration homicide investigation

30. November 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Community

I try to keep things upbeat and positive on this site, but I can’t ignore that the Osceola County Sheriff’s office is investigating a suspicious death in one of the condos on Water St. From the article:

The Sheriff’s Office hasn’t said whether they consider the case a homicide. But sheriff’s spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said the deceased person did not commit suicide. Evidence inside the unit led investigators to label the death suspicious. She would not elaborate.

They aren’t releasing many details at this time. More to follow.

Update 30-Nov 10:00am: The Osceola County Sheriff’s Department is asking for community assistance in locating a 2008 black Chevy Corvette with Florida tag G130FU. If you locate this vehicle, do not touch it. Contact the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office immediately at (407)348-2222.
Update 30-Nov 11:45am: The Sheriff’s Department is now classifying this as a homicide based on evidence in the apartment. Changing title. Very unsettling.
Update 30-Nov 5:15pm: The Sheriff’s Department has located the vehicle in Kissimmee.
Update 30-Nov 10:00pm: The victim has been identified but the individual has not been named yet by law enforcement officials, so I’m holding off posting it for now. I never thought we’d be discussing a Celebration murder, but here we are.
Update 1-Dec 12:00pm: Osceola County Sheriff’s detectives have released the name of the Celebration homicide victim as Matteo P. Giovanditto, 58.

I’ve shared some of my own thoughts about the deceased in this entry.

Links:

« Older articles
Newer articles »