august 14
Video Rewind: Anchors Away!: The New Times offices are located not far from the WPLG-TV (Channel 10) studios, and occasionally our "Calendar" personnel spot some of that station's on-air personalities at local lunch joints. We gawk, we attempt to eavesdrop, we try to remember exactly which Diane or Diana the woman over there with the crab salad is. Why? Because news anchors attain a sort of regional celebrity, their flawless friendly faces becoming almost as familiar as those of Mel Gibson or Julia Roberts. We welcome them into our homes every night and, gosh darn it, we trust them. The Louis Wolfson II Media History Center explores this industry with a screening and seminar series every Thursday and Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. through September at the Main Library Auditorium (101 W. Flagler St.). "Anchors Away!" provides a visual survey of the ever-changing look of TV news coverage in Miami and of the on-air talent known to South Floridians since the Fifties. Admission is free. Call 375-4527. (GC)
Short Play Festival: Finally, a play festival for people with short attention spans! Presented by the Gold Coast Players through the rest of the month, this first annual festival comes to Power Studios (3701 NE Second Ave.) tonight for a three-night stand before moving on to Broward. After a competition in which 60 playwrights from around the country competed, eight winners were chosen. Among the plays being presented are Date for Dinner Blind by Marcy Kennedy, Phone's on the Bus by Joe McCabe, Daddy's Boy by Pamela Scott, and Ride of a Lifetime by David Alex. All plays are less than ten minutes long, and admission to the festival is free, free, free. It all starts at 9:00 p.m. and continues at the same time tomorrow and Saturday. Call 561-393-5384 for more information. (JO)
Matthew Sabatella: Where the Hell Am I? asks singer-songwriter Matthew Sabatella on his latest offering. The cofounder and bass player of the now-defunct early Nineties Fort Lauderdale band Broken Spectacles, Sabatella has spent less time in the spotlight than he has in the background, playing bass and doing vocals for local releases by Diane Ward, Sixo, and Brian Franklin; touring and recording as the bassist for the Amanda Green Band; and even lending a hand on Muse's major-label debut Arcana (playing bass, natch). But in that Sabatella fella lurks a cynical-yet-sensitive songwriter, a raspy-yet-sweet voice, a natural-born frontman dying to come out. And now he has, with a self-produced twelve-track disc. Sabatella celebrates the release of Where the Hell Am I? with a party tonight at Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.) at 10:00 p.m., featuring performances by the one-and-only Zac, followed by Sabatella (on guitar this time) with Diane Ward (on drums!), Sixo bassist Debbie Duke, and other surprise guests. Admission is five bucks. Call 374-1198. (GC)
South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Artists Fellowship Exhibition: More than 3500 slides and five hours of videotape by artists from all over Dade, Broward, Monroe, Martin, and Palm Beach counties were reviewed by four national art professionals in a two-day judging. Six emerged triumphant, receiving $15,000 fellowship awards. The Miami Art Museum (101 W. Flagler St.) hosts this year's South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Artists Fellowship exhibition, featuring works by Luis Gispert, Quisqueya Henriquez, Ruben Torres-Llorca, Claire Jeanine Satin, Rosanna Saccocio, and Kathleen Holmes. Tonight at 7:00 p.m., fellowship recipient Kathleen Holmes discusses her work. Admission is free. One week from tonight at the same time, Torres-Llorca discusses his art; in two weeks, it's Gispert's turn. The exhibition is on view through September 14. Admission is five dollars. Museum hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday (open until 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, with free admission) and noon to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 375-3000. (GC)
friday
august 15
Come Out Laughing: The Miami Light Project concludes its fifth annual gay and lesbian comedy series with Los Angeles-based comic Georgia Ragsdale and Chicago's John McGivern performing tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. at the Colony Theater (1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach). The Texas-born Ragsdale, who stars in the upcoming film Never Met Picasso, pokes fun of her roots with perfect imitations of Texas cheerleaders and high school football players. Actor, comedian, and writer McGivern makes his South Florida debut with segments from his one-man show, Midwest Side Story, an autobiographical account of growing up Catholic and gay in Milwaukee in the Fifties. Tickets cost $15. Call 531-3747. (GC)
Slow Dance on the Killer Ground: Presented by the Vinnette Carroll Theatre (503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale) and the Conservatory at Fionte Productions (a full-time training program for professional stage and film actors), this educational workshop features William Hanley's complex play about a German ex-patriot, a wisecracking young girl, and a black youth facing their fears and secrets together. This is the first in a series of workshops designed to provide training and experience to local actors in a format that doesn't rush them and that permits time to study material in-depth. Performances are tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Tickets cost $15. Call 954-462-2424. (JO)
The Artist Formerly Known As Prince: His Royal Badness. His Purple Majesty. The Minneapolis Genius. The Imp of the Perverse. The Artist (the only artist, apparently). The diminutive musical auteur is as mercurial as they come, and more prolific than just about any other musician who's topped the charts in the last twenty years. Self-indulgent to a fault, and quite capable of producing not-so-stellar stuff (Lovesexy, anyone?), the Unpronounceable One has also produced some of the most imaginative music of our time, while creating and re-creating himself and his sound. From his early, wildly influential Minneapolis sound (that highly danceable, keyboard-dominated funk-rock-pop hybrid he is mostly known for) to his most recent, sugary-soul efforts, he's nothing if not memorable. Add actor, producer, and self-appointed icon to his list of achievements -- why say more? His Tiny Highness takes the stage tonight at the Miami Arena (721 NW First Ave.) as part of his Jam of the Year world tour. Tickets are still available for $36, $51, and $76. Call 530-4400. (GC)
Short Play Festival: See Thursday.
South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Artists Fellowship Exhibition: See Thursday.
saturday
august 16
Music in Film Series: WDNA-FM (88.9) concludes its series of documentaries devoted to jazz, blues, Afro-Cuban, Latin American, and world music tonight at the Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables. First up is Pedro Rivera and Susan Zeig's 1989 look at Puerto Rican folk music, Plena Is Work: Plena Is Song at 8:00 p.m., followed at 8:45 p.m. by Catherine Calderón's 1988 film AA Bailar!: The Journey of a Latin Dance Company, which documents Eddie Torres's labors in establishing a Latin dance company on the scale of what Alvin Ailey did with African dance. Wrapping up the evening at 9:30 p.m. is actor Andy Garcia's 1993 film Cachao: Like His Rhythm There Is No Other (Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos), a loving tribute to Israel "Cachao" Lopez, the legendary Cuban bassist and father of mambo. Associate producer George Hernandez will be on hand for the screening. Admission is ten dollars for both films (all proceeds benefit WDNA). Call 662-8889. (GC)
Carlos Averhoff: MoJazz Cafe (928 71st St., Miami Beach) presents an evening with celebrated saxophonist and recent Cuban defector Carlos Averhoff, performing three sets, from 9:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Cofounder of seminal Cuban bands Irakere and NG La Banda, Averhoff is credited (by the likes of fellow musicians such as Paquito D'Rivera) with keeping classical and jazz saxophone alive in Cuba during the mean years of Castro's revolution, when "imperialist" forms of music were forbidden as politically incorrect. Joining Averhoff on stage are drummer Roberto Rodriguez and his two sons, pianist Robert and trumpeter Michael, plus bassist Don Coffman, percussionist Oscar Salas, and vocalist-saxman Mo Morgen. Admission is three, six, or ten dollars (depending on seat location), and there is a two-drink minimum. Call 865-2636. (GC)
Short Play Festival: See Thursday.
Come Out Laughing: See Friday.
Slow Dance on the Killer Ground: See Friday.
sunday
august 17
Festival del Merengue: The rhythm is so fast your hips become a blur and you think your feet are on fire from all the friction. That is, if you do it right. Dancing the merengue is a passionate thing, and you'll get lots of practice today as the Bayfront Park Amphitheater (301 Biscayne Blvd.) hosts the 21st annual Festival del Merengue. Fernando Villalona, La Banda Gorda, Oro Sólido, Freddy "El Pollito" Gerardo, Grupo Karis, and La Gran Union round out the bill at this all-day festival, which begins at 1:00 p.m. Tickets cost $12; kids under age ten get in free. Call 594-3093. (GC)
Slow Dance on the Killer Ground: See Friday.
monday
august 18
Overcast: Hardcore band Overcast doesn't believe in throwing together a few tunes on the spur of the moment. On the contrary, the band's members admit they sometimes put too much time and effort into one song, spending up to six months perfecting a particular tune. But their logic is understandable -- they don't want to compromise their vision; they want to play what feels right. And it has led the band to look at other groups, too: Besides adulating the Cro-Mags, Slayer, Neurosis, Bad Brains, and Deicide, among others, Overcast has dipped into the musical pools of punk, metallic hardcore, thrash, grind, and death metal for inspiration. Check out this amalgamation of sounds tonight at 9:00 p.m. at Blue Note Records (16401 NE Fifteenth Ave., Aventura). Admission is a donation of one canned food item. Call 940-3394. (GC)
tuesday
august 19
The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca: Murder, poetry, mystery, passion, and Andy Garcia. How much more Miami can you get? All these elements are fused when Puerto Rican director Marcos Zurinaga's feature film The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca premieres nationally tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the CocoWalk 16 Theatre (3015 Grand Ave., Coconut Grove). The film explores the enigmatic death of Spanish poet and writer Federico Garcia Lorca, whose outspoken liberal ideas and support of the Spanish Republic threatened Franco's fascist rebels; he was killed in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Andy Garcia (him again), who stars as Garcia Lorca, will be at the debut, as will Zurinaga and producers Moctesuma Esparza and Robert Katz. A reception follows at 10:00 p.m. at the Blue Door in the Delano Hotel (1685 Collins Ave., Miami Beach). Tickets cost $20 for the movie only and $100 for the film and reception. All funds raised will benefit the Film Society of Miami. Call 377-3456, ext. 103. (MI)
South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Artists Fellowship Exhibition: See Thursday.
wednesday
august 20
A Feathered Spectacle: Panthers, and alligators, and snakes, oh my! While the Everglades is full of these amazing, intimidating creatures (well, not as full as it used to be), it boasts an even more amazing array of birds. As part of the 100 events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Everglades National Park, environmental group Echoes of South Florida and the Mary Brickell Statue Project present a lecture by Tropical Audubon Society bird expert Robert Kelley tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Simpson Park Clubhouse (55 SW Seventeenth Rd.). Admission is ten dollars (with a portion benefiting the statue project). Call 444-1932. (GC)
Drama 101: Real dramaphiles are feeling the withdrawal symptoms of summer. We aren't talking about those of you who catch a couple of plays every season. No, we mean the folks who get tickets to every production of every major (and some minor) playhouse and theater group in town. These people must be jonesing. Satisfy a little of that craving tonight at Drama 101 (6789 Biscayne Blvd.), as this all-drama bookstore hosts a reading of Peter Nichols's A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The store plans to host future readings, so keep an eye on "Calendar Listings" or call 759-5151. (GC)
South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Artists Fellowship Exhibition: See Thursday.
