january 22
Miami Modernism: Have you developed a passion for collecting items from the Twentieth Century and want to expand your hunting grounds beyond garage sales and thrift stores? Miami Modernism is the ticket. For the next four days at the Ramada Resort Deauville (6701 Collins Ave., Miami Beach), more than 60 exhibitors will offer furniture, lamps, clocks, art, jewelry, sculpture, photography, posters, books, and more, all representing major design and fine art movements from 1900 to 1970. In conjunction with the show, graphic artist John Sayles delivers a free lecture Saturday at 2:00 p.m. titled "Passion and Inspiration." At 4:00 p.m. you can shell out $25, hop on a yacht, and inspect Miami Beach's architecture as you cruise the waterways. Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Helaine Fendelman, president of the Appraisers Association of America, will charge five dollars an item to evaluate your favorite twentieth-century collectibles. The curious and impatient can spend $60 and attend the gala preview tonight at 6:00, where you can get a first look at the merchandise and watch Miami Beach Mayor Neisen Kasdin officially open the festivities by shaking the first martini. Otherwise the show runs from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sunday. Admission is ten dollars. Call 861-0108. (NK)
Wolfson Center Cuban Dreams Series: Look out, Paul George; self-described "history hound" Cesar Becerra is hot on your trail. While George's walking tours of interesting South Florida places are an institution, Becerra is becoming known for just about everything else related to our region's history. He spent 1997 informing the public of the Everglades' 50th anniversary in his newsletter Echoes of South Florida; this year he's publishing Cuban Dreams, a newsletter dedicated to commemorating the centennial of the Spanish-American War. Next year he plans to embark on a cross-country trip in his Chevy Malibu station wagon, returning to Miami on the eve of the millennium. Recently the very busy Becerra just got busier. He and the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center (101 W. Flagler St.) have teamed up for a yearlong series of films and videos to coincide with the Cuban Dreams project. Every month the Wolfson Center will dig up video and film footage from its archives and present screenings on topics such as the Cuban missile crisis, the Bay of Pigs, and, of course, Fidel Castro. On the bill today: home movies of Cuba from 1940 to 1960. Admission is free. The screening takes place at 1:00 p.m. Call 375-1505. (NK)
friday
january 23
Nadine Gordimer: Books & Books presents an evening with celebrated South African novelist Nadine Gordimer tonight at 8:00 at Coral Gables Congregational Church (3010 DeSoto Blvd., Coral Gables). Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991 and the Booker Prize in 1994, Gordimer reads from her latest novel, The House Gun, a work about the upended lives of a privileged white Johannesburg couple after their son kills his best friend. Admission is free but tickets are required. Call 442-4408. (NK)
Robert Hughes: Jocular but not jaundiced, astringent but not acerbic, canny but not catty: a few words about a man of many words, Robert Hughes. In 1970 the iconoclastic leather-clad Australian rolled into New York City on his motorcycle and became Time magazine's art critic, a job he still holds. He also produced numerous books (including The Fatal Shore, a best-selling history of Australia, and The Culture of Complaint, a trenchant treatise on political correctness in America), written several documentaries for BBC and Australian television, and originated and hosted two highly acclaimed American public television series, The Shock of the New and American Visions; he wrote companion books for both. Hughes's prodigious accomplishments might seem daunting, but he is human: While writing his last book, he sank into a deep depression that was relieved only by frequent visits to a shrink and copious amounts of antidepressants. He's now healthier than ever and still loaded with opinions to spare, which he will most certainly share tonight at 7:00 when he comes to the Art Museum at FIU (University Park Campus, SW Eighth Street and 107th Avenue, AT-100) and delivers the third lecture in the Steven and Dorothea Green Critics' Lecture Series. Admission is free. Call 348-2890. (NK)
El Alma del Pueblo: This extensive exhibition of Spanish folk art at the Art Museum at FIU (University Park Campus, SW Eighth Street and 107th Avenue) features engraved bulls' horns, decorative ceramic tiles, handmade wine jugs, and votive paintings. While "El Alma del Pueblo" traces the history of popular art in Spain, it also shows how the conquistadors imposed their aesthetic taste on the Americas. Artworks and objects included in the show from Bolivia, Peru, and other Latin American countries attest to how Spanish folk art traditions were incorporated in the colonies, or syncretized, as in the case of paintings that combine gilded pictures of Catholic saints with indigenous spiritual imagery. The exhibition runs through March 21. Admission is free. Call 348-2890. (JC)
Miami Modernism: See Thursday.
saturday
january 24
John Hammond & Beast and Baker Rock the Road: It's not often that a blues legend blows through town, especially on the same night and in the same venue that some of the best local bands are playing. Tonight at Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.) from 8:00 to 11:15 (on the dot?), you can see why John Hammond has been a preeminent blues messenger for more than 30 years. Son of the famed talent scout, Hammond made his mark with his blues ensembles that have included Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John, and Robbie Robertson. His favorite niche was carved out with the tools you will see him wield tonight: a guitar, a harmonica, and classic tunes. After Hammond sets down his instruments, the local talent takes over as Beast and Baker Rock the Road with Raw B. Jae, Manchild, Khadir, the Goods, Amanda Green, the Butter Club, Endo, and Omar Stang. Admission is eight to twelve dollars. Call 374-1198. (LB)
Key Biscayne Art Festival: It began as a small fundraiser for Key Biscayne Elementary School in 1964, was taken over by the Rotary Club in 1982, and has now grown into a huge two-day affair, stretching across two long blocks of Crandon Boulevard near the entrance to Bill Baggs State Park. This year Key Biscayne celebrates its 34th art festival with more than 100 artists and crafts people who will show and sell their wares, an array of international food, and a variety of music. The festival runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. today and tomorrow. Admission is free. Call 389-2240. (NK)
Miami Modernism: See Thursday.
El Alma del Pueblo: See Friday.
sunday
january 25
The Othello Project: What happens when you combine a Canadian director, an Elizabethan drama, and Mississippi in the civil rights era? The Othello Project, at Florida Shakespeare Theatre (Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables). Unconventional director Rod Carley takes Shakespeare's tense drama Othello -- replete with racial issues, infidelity, paranoia, and murder -- and thickens the plot (assuming one can thicken Shakespeare) by setting it in tumultuous 1964 Mississippi. Carley, artistic director of the Walking Shadow Theatre in Toronto, is known for his modern interpretations of Shakespeare's work; he makes his American directing debut with this production. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $26. Call 445-1119. (NK)
Miami Modernism: See Thursday.
Key Biscayne Art Festival: See Saturday.
monday
january 26
P.D. James: Her publisher calls P.D. James the rightful heir to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Having millions of readers and many best sellers among her fourteen novels earned her the title of most successful mystery writer in the world. Queen Elizabeth named her Baroness James of Holland Park. Not bad for a one-time British magistrate and 30-year veteran of the civil service who did stints in the police and criminal law departments of the Home Office. Titles and awards aside, James is the creator of the sensitive, cerebral New Scotland Yard detective Commander Adam Dalgleish (played to perfection by Roy Marsden in nine television dramatizations). At Books & Books (296 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables) tonight at 8:00, James reads from her new novel, A Certain Justice, another tangled tale featuring Commander Dalgleish but set, for the first time, in London's legal community. Admission is free. Call 442-4408. (NK)
El Alma del Pueblo: See Friday.
tuesday
january 27
Fashion at the Beach, Magic Image, and Kenny Scharf Bronzes: Photographs, illustrations, and sculpture await you in three exhibitions that run concurrently at the Bass Museum (2121 Park Ave., Miami Beach). "Fashion at the Beach" includes more than 100 works by famous photographers, such as Horst P. Horst, Arthur Elgort, David LaChapelle, and Bruce Weber, who have incorporated sun, surf, and sand into their shots. "Magic Image" is drawn from the Zahm Collection, more than 100 drawings that were produced for some of the world's leading couture houses by important fashion illustrators such as Cecil Beaton, Erte, and Rene Gruau. Seven small-scale abstract bronze sculptures dominate the Scharf exhibition. "Fashion" and "Scharf" run through March 8; "Magic Image" runs through March 22. Admission is five dollars. Call 673-7530 for museum hours. (NK)
El Alma del Pueblo: See Friday.
wednesday
january 28
Full Gallop: Any dedicated follower of fashion should know the name Diana Vreeland. With her lacquered jet-black hair and ghostly complexion accented by ruby red lips, cheeks, and ears, "Dee-ahh-na," as she called herself, also had personality by the yard. More than a character, she was a force of nature, making comical or sometimes compelling pronouncements like "Blue jeans are the greatest invention since the gondola" and "Give 'em what they never knew they wanted." As editor of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue from the 1940s to the early 1970s, Vreeland excelled at creating demand and desire in her readers. She was one of the first to send photographers and models on extravagant photo shoots to exotic locations. And she was on the edge of the supermodel wave (reason enough for opprobrium) with her discovery of human hanger Twiggy. In this one-woman show (originated off-Broadway by actress Mary Louise Wilson), Elizabeth Ashley stars as Vreeland, holding court in her Park Avenue living room. The time is 1971, just after she was abruptly fired from Vogue. Later courted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, a prideful Vreeland reacts in her inimitable way: "Why is everybody trying to put me in a museum? I don't care if they've got the Shroud of Turin!" The show runs through February 8 at the Parker Playhouse (707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale). Performances take place 8:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with 2:00 p.m. matinees Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Tickets range from $37.50 to $41. Call 954-763-2444. (NK)
El Alma del Pueblo: See Friday.
Fashion at the Beach, Magic Image, and Kenny Scharf Bronzes: See Tuesday.
