Live Arena Vote Diary, PART 2!

Back for part two of the madness, which I'm realizing is becoming an increasingly grueling arena vote meeting. For some reason I really thought this would be a "Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma'am" type of vote...but these folks seem to need to draw this out despite the fact that they likely already have their minds made up.

Sounds fine to me. I like making fun of these sorts of things!

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-Next to speak in front of the commissioners is a guy who is there to talk about the effect for the Orlando downtown area. If you need a visual, this guy looks like a bald version of former Knicks star and current sportscaster Walt Clyde Frazier (I love how nearly every photo of Walt that I could find had him in a pimp hat or surrounded by supermodels. Some people just live blessed lives.) This guy speaks better than Tim Daly Guy, but his powerpoint graphics are just pathetic. For those of you unable to see them, many of them are colored puke green and have computer clipart of people with glasses looking intently at computers. Wow! Excitement central, Walt!

-Man, everyone is REALLY hammering home the "Green, Eco-Friendly" aspect of the facilities. Somewhere Al Gore just celebrated by lighting up a joint, turning on some Grateful Dead, and eating an entire cheese pizza by himself.

-Next to speak is a tired looking woman who says she is the chief financial director of the project. She admits that the finances of the project have been controversal, and does her best to communicate with her body language "If this project has cost overruns, which it probably will, I'll see you on the unemployment line!" She then gives shout outs to others that helped her on the project, effectively dispersing the blame if the whole plan turns to shit. Nicely done!

-My brain just turned off during the financial discussion section. Long story short, they are doing their best to limit the load on taxes.

-Teresa Jacobs is warming up after the presentations. She now seems quite eager about the whole thing. Huzzah! Go Marcy! With her newfound smile, I'm telling you that the image I am looking at right now looks EXACTLY like this:

-Bill Segal says he too is excited about the project, but keeps talking about his own life and experiences. We appear to have found the prima donna of the bunch!

-Mildred Fernandez is speaking (and sounding like a bizarre mix between a hispanic accent and the Minne-sooo-ta accent from "Fargo") and commending Mayor Buddy Hackett. You can just see the anger on Fred Brummer's face next to her as it becomes increasingly obvious the arena deal has legs. Is Brummer the Emporer to Harris Rosen's Darth Vader? Not sure, but I probably need to play some sports so I can live with myself after all of these nerdy analogies...

-The last bunch of slow, brain-numbing powerpoint slides are concluding (I hope). A woman with long black hair who is on the arena committee is getting attacked by Fred Brummer and her eyes are bugging out like crazy. She looks like this guy:

For those of you not familiar with that guy above, that is Glazastik (bug-eyed one) and you can read more about him here: http://englishrussia.com/?p=1060 Too funny!

-Mercifully, after a while the bug-eyed woman (who seemed the most incompetent of the presenters so far) steps down and a "Mr. Watson" steps up to speak for a bit. We are told he will be the last person to speak before a half hour break and the public gets to ask their questions. It is now obvious that I will probably not get to commentate on the vote as it happens because I have to catch a movie at 7:30. Wow, who would have thought this thing would have gone so long?!

-Whoa...Mr Watson has some AWFUL powerpoint skills. Plain mustard yellow background with blue font. When I woke up this morning, the last thing I thought I would be doing is critiquing powerpoint skills. Life has truly hit a new low on the excitement scale. As I type this, Mr. Watson tucks his shirt into his pants and continues. He is a very unkempt looking man with swept grey hair, sorta like Barney Gumble from the Simpsons in his older years. I am a New Yorker, so I have no idea if this guy is some corporate grunt or a billionaire integral to the case...all I can do is talk about his fashion sense. In the end, that is the most important thing.

Break time! With it nearing 6pm and me having to leave at 6:30 for the movie (which, by the way, is that Christian Bale movie), I just hope I can catch some of the public questions. The wild card now, in my opinion, is Segal since he appears to like the spotlight and could screw over a lot of people (and make a big name for himself in the local media) by changing his vote. Chances are I won't see the actual deciding vote at this point, but seeing that Marcy now appears to be on our side I will go out on a limb and say this one is in the bag. Thank heaven for Charles Schultz.