october 31
Halloween Extravoodooganza: Lincoln Road (between Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets in Miami Beach) celebrates Halloween by transforming into a haunted cemetery filled with tombstones and sarcophagi, an outdoor "Ghoul Town" art exhibition, and tons of creepy characters. From 3:30 to 5:30, costumed kids can stop at Lincoln Road shops and businesses for treats, then make scary drawings with artist Romero Britto in his gallery (818 Lincoln Rd.). After 6:00 a Halloween Haunt for adults takes off, featuring a book signing by best-selling author Anne Rice (supporting her latest book Servant of the Bones) at Books & Books (933 Lincoln Rd.), plus an Anne Rice character costume contest, cigar rollers, temporary tattoo artists, an American Red Cross bloodmobile (just in case you were planning on losing some), tarot card readers, Haitian Vodou drummers, and a New Orleans funeral procession band. Admission is free. Call 531-3442. (GC)
Rock and Roll Halloween Roundup: Rock way past the witching hour as several local bands celebrate the freakiest night of the year. Rose's Bar & Music Lounge (754 Washington Ave., Miami Beach) hosts Screamfest '96, featuring the rootsy, funky, and soulful sounds of Pepe Alva & Alma Raymi, Khadir, and Raw B Jae (his last appearance before relocating to the Big Apple!). Admission is five dollars (with proceeds going to the Epilepsy Foundation of South Florida); showtime is 10:00. Call 532-0228. Across the street at South Beach Pub (717 Washington Ave.), renowned wacky kids Al's Not Well take the stage with grunge-folk diva Amanda Green and rockers Dirt Cheap. Admission is five bucks; showtime is also 10:00. Call 532-7821. If all-out punk rock is more your speed, Florida legends the Gotohells rock Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.) with an assist from the riotous Fay Wray. Admission is five bucks; showtime is 11:00. Call 374-1198. (GC)
friday
november 1
Riverwalk Blues Festival: Fall's here, the heat is a little less overpowering -- what better way to soak up the season than with a big ol' outdoor blues bash? The tenth annual Riverwalk wingding this year -- held in beautiful downtown Fort Lauderdale -- features a hell of a lineup: Texas guitar-slinger Long John Hunter; roadhouse white boys Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters; harp whiz Carey Bell; Delta-blues revisionist Corey Harris (a must-see, by the way); journeyman guitarist Luther Allison; and too many more to list here. The festival begins today and runs through Sunday. Tickets cost eight dollars for today and Sunday; ten dollars for Saturday. Children age twelve and under are admitted free, and three-day passes are also available. Shows begin today at 5:30 p.m., and at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Call 954-761-5934 for more information. (JF)
Italian Heritage Festival: Enjoy the culture and flavor of Italy as Laurenzo's Italian and International Food & Wine Center hosts its second annual Italian Heritage Festival this weekend at Challenger Park (NE 165th Street and 16th Avenue). Ride on a gondola, sample authentic foods, and view arts and crafts created by Italian artisans. Admission is free. Festival hours are 4:00 to 11:00 p.m. today, noon to 11:00 tomorrow, and noon to 7:00 on Sunday. Call 945-6381. (GC)
Pat Graney Company: Seattle-based choreographer Pat Graney and her all-woman dance troupe perform the recent work Sleep (making peace with the angels) as part of a residency at Miami-Dade Community College's Wolfson Campus. The work combines dream imagery, burial rituals, and surreal elements drawn from the paintings of William Bourgeaureau, set to an original score by composer Martin Swan, to create a complex interpretation of the relationships between mothers and daughters. Graney and company perform tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 at the Colony Theater (1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach). Admission is ten dollars. Call 237-3010. (GC)
QueeRoots/QueerSpace: ART-ACT (10 NE 39th St.) celebrates gay and lesbian culture in South Florida with a three-weekend festival featuring a vast array of artists and art forms. The fest opens tonight with multimedia performance artist Mark Holt presenting his original piece Queerbait; Holt offers repeat performances on Sunday, and on November 10 and 15. Tomorrow the video program The Lesbian Body (featuring three films about gender stereotypes, body piercing, and other topics) screens; additional video programs include The Gay Male Body on November 9 and The Queer Body Laid Bare (with a panel discussion including publisher-writer Eduardo Aparicio, activist-writer Dorothy Atcheson, theologian Mari Castellanos, and videomaker and educator Eric Freedman) on November 16. Rounding out the fest is literary/spoken-word artist Lissete Mendez, appearing on November 8 and 17, plus a queer-themed Spoken Word SLAM hosted by Artfusion on November 9 at 10:00. All programs begin at 8:00 p.m. Admission is ten dollars for performances, five for video programs and for the SLAM. See our "Calendar Listings" through November 17 for more events. Call 531-7267 for more information. (GC)
Miami City Ballet: South Florida's top classical dance company continues its season with a supercharged program featuring an explosive Florida premiere. The Big Band SUPERMEGATROID, resident choreographer Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros's latest creation, garnered rave reviews with its energetic, jazz-inspired moves, big-band-era score, and striking set (by Nutcracker set designer Jose Varona) when it debuted at the Wolf Trap festival in Virginia in July. Also on this program is the South Florida premiere of the full-length Who Cares?, a light-hearted romp choreographed by George Balanchine and set to the music of George Gershwin. Rounding out the program is Balanchine's Pas de Dix. Performances take place at the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach) tonight and tomorrow at 8:00, with a 2:00 matinee on Sunday. Additional performances continue at Bailey Concert Hall (3501 SW Davie Rd., Davie) on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Tickets range in price from $17 to $54. Call 532-7713. (GC)
FIU Festival of the Performing Arts: Florida International University celebrates the opening of the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center (SW 8th Street and 107th Avenue) with a weeklong musical festival. Tonight's inaugural concert, beginning at 7:00, features Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and renowned flutist Nestor Torres, plus the Miami String Quartet, the FIU Symphony Orchestra, wind ensemble, choruses, the Walt Disney World Future Corps, and a huge fireworks display. Admission is free. Tomorrow at 8:00, violinist Robert Davidovich, cellist Mark Drobinsky, and pianist Susan Starr join conductor Carlos Piantini and the FIU Symphony Orchestra to perform works by Beethoven, Ravel, Copeland, and George Gershwin. Admission is free (black-tie attire suggested). Additional concerts feature the Continuum music troupe, salutes to George Gershwin and Fredrick Kaufman, and a concert by Sandoval and his all-star band; see "Calendar Listings" for more information. For tickets and a complete schedule, call 348-6570. (GC)
saturday
november 2
Pickpocket/The Exterminating Angel: The Cinema Vortex film series screens two classic existential dramas of the late Fifties-early Sixties. Robert Bresson's 1959 minimalist study Pickpocket, screening today at noon at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach), explores the detrimental effects of tormented self-awareness when an average man drifts into a life of crime. Tomorrow at the same time the Vortex offers Luis Bunuel's 1962 surreal black comedy The Exterminating Angel, an allegorical examination of the social and psychological disintegration of a group of middle-class neurotics. Admission to each screening is four dollars. Call 531-8504. (GC)
Coconut Grove Bar Crawl: Spend a leisurely afternoon partying to help the homeless at the first annual Coconut Grove Bar Crawl. First, make a stop at the Hungry Sailor (3426 Main Hwy.) or the Taurus (3540 Main Hwy.) and pick up a sixteen-ounce mug, a bracelet, and a raffle ticket. Then crawl from bar to bar and enjoy drinks and prizes at Hooters, Fat Tuesday's, the Tavern, Murphy's Law, the Crazy Flamingo, and Cafe Med. Admission is five dollars plus two cans of food, or eight dollars. The Crawl runs from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (with an after-Crawl party at the Taurus). Call 448-0633. (GC)
Florida Dance Festival: Community Concerts, Miami Dance Futures, and New World School of the Arts team up for an evening of diverse performances by four top Florida dance companies. Segovia Ballet Espanol, Houlihan and Dancers, Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble, and Freddick Bratcher and Company provide a wide spectrum of dance styles, including flamenco, modern, and neoclassical, as they take the stage at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts (174 E. Flagler St.) tonight at 8:00 and tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Tickets range from $15 to $25. Call 374-8762. (GC)
Riverwalk Blues Festival: See Friday.
Italian Heritage Festival: See Friday.
Pat Graney Company: See Friday.
QueeRoots/QueerSpace: See Friday.
Miami City Ballet: See Friday.
FIU Festival of the Performing Arts: See Friday.
sunday
november 3
Jewish Book Fair: The sixteenth annual Jewish Book Fair at the Dave & Mary Alper Jewish Community Center (11155 SW 112th Ave.) continues with an all-day family book fest. "All the Write Stuff" begins at 11:00 a.m. with a reading by Lev Raphael, author of Journeys & Arrivals on Being Gay and Jewish. At 1:00 Laura Shapiro Kramer discusses her book, Uncommon Voyage: Parenting a Special Needs Child in the World of Alternative Medicine. At 1:30 Marlene Adler Marks reads from Nice Jewish Girls Growing Up in America; at the same time, award-winning author and illustrator Michael J. Rosen leads a young authors' workshop. Finally, at 2:30 author Sydney Lewis discusses A Totally Alien Life-Form: Teenagers. Admission is five dollars for each event. The Book Fair continues on Wednesday at 7:30, when Henry Green discusses the life of Rabbi Leon Kronish. Admission is five dollars. The Jewish Book Fair concludes on November 21, with clinical psychologist and author Dr. Anthony Wolf discussing his guide to parenting. See future editions of "Calendar Listings" for more information, or call 271-9000, ext. 268, for a complete schedule. (GC)
monday
november 4
Architecture Lecture Series: The University of Miami School of Architecture concludes its series of architectural lectures with Smithsonian Institute counselor to the Secretary of Latino Affairs Miguel Britos tonight at 6:00 at UM's Wilder Auditorium (Knight Physics Building, Miller Drive, Coral Gables). Britos will discuss sacred spaces in the Yucatan. Admission is free. Call 284-5002. (GC)
tuesday
november 5
Indiscretions: Jean Cocteau's boulevard farce about lust and love within an unusual extended family opens the 1996-97 season of the Coconut Grove Playhouse (3500 Main Hwy.). Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles) chronicles the complications that result when two sisters, Leonie and Yvonne, fall in love with the same man. He marries one sister (while the other continues to hold a torch for him), then vies for the attentions of a younger woman, who happens to be seeing his son. Performances run Tuesday through Saturday at 8:15 p.m., with select matinee performances Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2:00 through November 19. Tickets range from $10 to $35. Call 442-4000 for scheduling and reservations. (GC)
wednesday
november 6
Cracker: Take a bite out of this: Twangy guitars, craggy, plaintive vocals, gospel flavors, and raucous rock rhythms are blended into a chunky musical concoction on Cracker's latest album The Golden Age. The follow-up to the band's straightforward debut Kerosene Hat (which sold more than a million copies), Cracker's sophomore effort offers more tang, more substance, and more variety -- check out the quiet country heartbreaker "Big Dipper" and the singeing guitars and evocative vocal wails (by vocalist David Lowry and friend Joan Osborne) on the single "Something to Believe In." Cracker rocks the Edge (200 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale) with funky-techno-grungesters Self. Tickets cost $12 dollars; doors open at 7:00. Call 954-525-9333.
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