So, I’m cheating a little here since Jacksonville isn’t exactly Central Florida, but there’s another show in Tampa tonight that maybe you’ll want to check out.

Last night I had the pleasure of finally seeing one of my favorite musicians in concert, Ray LaMontagne. After hearing his CD “Trouble” back in 2004, I was hooked. Ray’s released a new CD every two years since that debut, most recently releasing “Gossip in the Grain” late last year.

Last night’s show at Jacksonville’s historic Florida Theatre was unlike the majority of shows I attend. The audience sat throughout the show, remaining (mostly) captivated by Ray’s performance. There is no banter between songs, except for a muddled ‘thank you’ and a quick band introduction … true to form, leaving himself out of the intros.

That may sound boring to some, but there’s no need to talk when you can sing like as effortlessly as this:

If you have an opportunity to catch a show, I promise you’ll love it. If you miss tonight’s show in Tampa, tickets are still on sale for Thursday night’s show in Miami.

Do you Tweet & live or work in Central Florida? If you answered yes, this is your lucky week. The second Orlando Tweetup will be Thursday, April 30, at the Enzian’s Eden Bar.

For more event details, visit the event Facebook page here.

Of course, you can also follow Otweet’s tweets for more information.

Orlando is the sixth most dangerous city in the United States.

Great. Well, that certainly made my day.

I was reading fellow Central Florida blog “The Daily City” earlier this morning, and came across a post about this news. So I had to dig a little deeper and find out what this was all about. Sure enough, Forbes.com published research on the most dangerous cities in the US, and Orlando is on the list. Here’s how they came up with their results:

To determine our list, we used violent crime statistics from the FBI’s latest uniform crime report, issued in 2008. The violent crime category is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. We evaluated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas–geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics–with more than 500,000 residents.”

I’ve lived in the Central Florida area for over 10 years, and have felt relatively safe for most of that time. Of course, there are definitely areas I wouldn’t venture into…alone or with a group of folks.

Here’s the Top 10 list of the country’s most dangerous cities:

1. Detroit
2. Memphis
3. Miami
4. Las Vegas
5. Stockton (California)
6. Orlando
7. Little Rock
8. Charleston (South Carolina)
9. Nashville
10. Baltimore

Now don’t you feel better? Interesting that the larger US cities–New York, Chicago, Los Angeles–aren’t even on the list.

To read the entire Forbes.com article click here.

Orlando’s theme parks continue to battle-it-out for the biggest and the fastest!

I’m a rollercoaster nut and I’m completely stoked about the opening of two new attractions at Central Florida theme parks. If you haven’t heard about either of these you’ve obviously been living under a rock!

SeaWorld Orlando

SeaWorld is “bringin’ it” with the opening of Manta. If you like thrills you’re definitely not going to want to miss this one:

The exact opening hasn’t been released yet, but the attraction should open to the public sometime in the early Summer…and you can bet I’ll be there shortly after.

Universal Studios

And Universal Studios is freshening-up their theme park with the Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster.

Nobody seems to have a set-date printed for the opening, but all signs point to an early Summer; everything I’ve read so far says Spring, but we’re quickly passing that by.

Both of these new area attractions look awesome, and while both theme parks will certainly be battling-it-out to win tourists’ Summer dollars, I’m just hoping the rides will bring some much-needed money to the Central Florida area.

If anyone works at either theme park and has some “inside” information please feel free to share it here, or by e-mailing us at pulseofcentralflorida[at]mail[dot]com.

Updated 10:29AM EST: There’s a wealth of information on the both attractions at the posts below:

- Info on the Universal ride: http://urlbrief.com/ed8da0

- Apparently Manta opens on May 22nd

Updated 5:33PM EST, 5/5: Apparently Manta is opening to the public early – like, today at 12:00PM. Here’s a video from the rider’s perspective:

Downtown Orlando is drenched with people watching!

I love people watching. And downtown Orlando provides plenty of material for this hobby.

If you’ve lived in the Central Florida area for any extended period of time, and have spent time in the downtown Orlando area, then you are aware of the growing population of homeless people. Last night some work colleagues and I headed over to a local downtown joint to unwind and relax after the work week, and we spotted this guy creating his own tatoos…with an ink pen. Ouch!

Something about this photo both haunts and inspires me. One thing’s for certain: whenver I see people like this it definitely makes me thankful for the things I have.

As a wanna-be golfer, I thought this was pretty cool.

During the month of May, PGA and LPGA Professionals all over the country will be giving free 10-minute Lessons.

To find a participating pro, just enter your ZIP code at Play Golf America’s Web site.

Some participating courses in the Central Florida include: MetroWest Country Club, Winter Pines Golf Club and the Winter Park Country Club.

Last year, we first mentioned SoDo and have since watched it prosper … well, not really, but sorta.

Apparently around the same time, the City of Orlando’s Main Street initiative was attempting to kickoff Mills Fifty, but we haven’t heard much about that either. Although, it seems to be picking up steam under Mills 50 … there’s even an event tomorrow, April 23, at the Funky Monkey.

So what about Antique Row, er, Ivanhoe Village?

Is the marketing working? Or, would you rather just call it Downtown Orlando? Afterall, we’re talking about an area of just a few square miles. I get that it’s all about preservation, but I’m having a tough time seeing the return on the City’s investment.

I’d love to hear what you think!

I’m so exhausted. I wonder if this is what food feels like when it rots?!”

(Location, downtown Orlando.)

Can it be the infamous “downtown Orlando theaters” are truly about to open? An OrlandoSentinel.com article recently stated so (finally!). You know, the ones located in the fancy-schmancy building where the Solaire condos are?

Now, I’ve been working in the downtown Orlando area for about five years now, and I’ve witnessed many businesses come and go. Specifically, news about this particular theater. My whole take on things: I’ll believe it when I see it. But if the “grand opening” is, in fact, true, then I’m completely stoked! These theaters will breathe new life into downtown Orlando…plus they’ll be conveniently located to the new condo I’m about to move in!

I’ll definitely be keeping watch on this story….

(Thanks to the East Florida Gazette Online for making us aware of this news.)

As I posted last week, ’80s pop-sensation Exposé came to downtown Orlando for a concert. My friend and I ended-up going and had loads of fun (we played a little too hard for a school night). I did, however, have a difficult time managing to take a decent photo or video – I apologize about that.

And here’s a video–and I use that term loosely (because the quality is so bad)–I took of one of their more famous songs:

Now…a few things that were a tad annoying:

• Exposé didn’t come out to perform ’til midnight.

• They only sang five songs.

• Tabu is lame.

• You can’t run a tab on a debit card (although on this point I think the bartender was just a little dumb), but you can pay with a credit card.

Overall it was a great time, but you’ll never catch me at Tabu unless there’s a similar show in the future…