november 28
White Party Week: If you haven't already bought those $125 tix to Sunday's big White Party at Villa Vizcaya (3251 S. Miami Ave.), you're outta luck. But don't despair: A bevy of social events has been structured around the bash, turning it into a five-day party extravaganza. Tonight from 4:00 to 8:00, get loose at the South Beach Turkey Trot bar crawl (admission is ten dollars). Among the weekend's highlights are the Mr. South Beach pageant finals at the Lincoln Theatre (555 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. (tickets cost $25; call 531-7867); the Muscle Beach Party at the Twelfth Street Beach on Saturday from noon to 5:00; the Noche Blanca alternative White Party at Amnesia (136 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 531-5535) on Sunday at 6:00; and the Swan Song closing party at 9:00 on Monday at Twist (1057 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 538-9478). All proceeds benefit Health Crisis Network, which provides support to people with AIDS. Call 800-628-5268 for more information. (GC)
Winternational Parade and Festival: What's Thanksgiving without a parade? The City of North Miami hosts this 22nd annual event, stepping off today at 10:00 a.m. at NE 125th Street and 4th Avenue, featuring the unlikely pairing of legendary soulstress Betty Wright (guest of honor) and WSVN-TV (Channel 7) anchor Rick Sanchez (grand marshal). The international-theme parade boasts Chinese dragons, a Mexican mariachi band, a Scottish pipe band, marching bands, floats, the Body Nation Jamaican dancers, unicyclists, clowns, and many other entertainers. Admission is free. On Saturday and Sunday at Griffing Park (NE 123rd Street and West Dixie Highway), the Winternational Festival takes place, with live entertainment, games, carnival rides, and international foods. The fest runs from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. both days; admission is free. For more information, call 893-6511. (GC)
friday
november 29
Dick Dale: In 1967 Jimi Hendrix dissed the musical creation of surf-guitar genius Dick Dale in a grinding, wigged-out psych-rock floater called "Third Stone from the Sun," with a slurred "May you never hear surf music again." Now in 1996 Dale's ready for a payback: His latest release Calling Up Spirits features a blazing cover of "Third Stone," with Dale intoning "Jimi, I'm still here. Wish you were." It's a great moment in a career that recently has been full of them. Following the underground boom of revivalist surf rock -- ushered in a few years back by groups such as Man Or Astro-Man?, the Phantom Surfers, and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet -- Dale has been playing to a new legion of fans (charmingly referred to as Dickheads) and making some of his best music. He'll be performing tonight at Churchill's Hideaway (5501 NE Second Ave.), with local surf combo Category 5 opening. Tickets are $15; showtime is 9:00. And if you're going, go early; last time Dale played Churchill's, you couldn't slide a razor blade between the bodies. Call 757-1807 for more info. (JF)
Arranca: Cincinnati seems an unlikely place for a Latin rock band to spring up, but that's exactly from where this Cuban-American rock band hails. Led by vocalist/guitarist/tres player (and former Miamian) Victor Garcia-Rivera, Arranca takes three-chord power punk to new extremes, blending it with 1920s Cuban son and traditional guajira and penning both Spanish- and English-language lyrics. The band that describes itself as "the I Love Lucy of punk rock" performs tunes off its independent-label debut album Exile on Pain Street (Exilio Doloroso), tonight at South Beach Pub (717 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Admission is five dollars. Showtime is midnight. Call 532-7821. (GC)
Little by Little: Childhood friends grow up and deal with the pains of love and loss in this musical, which makes its southeastern U.S. premiere at the Encore Room Theater of the Coconut Grove Playhouse (3500 Main Hwy.) this month. Written by Brad Ross and lyricists Ellen Greenfield and Hal Hackady, with story and direction by Annette Jolles, the musical stars local actors Irene Adjan, Paul Louis, and Maribeth Graham in a chronicle of the complications that arise when a man and two women who've grown up together find themselves deeply entrenched in a love triangle. Tickets cost $27 on Friday and Saturday nights and $22 at all other times. Performances run Friday, Saturday, and selected Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8:30, with 2:15 matinees on Sunday and selected Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons through January 19. Call 442-4000 for scheduling. (GC)
Lumpy Sue Acoustic Musicfest: Celebrate "el Cinco de Lumpy" at this fifth annual mother of all mellow music festivals at Greynolds Park (17530 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami Beach). From 11:00 a.m. till sunset, Magda Hiller, Diane Ward, Alex Diaz, Frank "Rat Bastard" Falestra, Two Watt Bulb, Iko-Iko, Exit, Romo, Gig DeNisco, Shana, Laura Sue "Silver Nightingale" Wilansky and Colin Kenny, Bionix, Outta Da Blues, and Nada will take the stage; meanwhile, festgoers can partake in a raffle to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami. Admission is free. Call 933-1974. (GC)
The Black Crowes: If you gotta revive the Seventies, I say let the Black Crowes provide the soundtrack. On four uniformly fine albums -- the most recent of which is Three Snakes and One Charm -- the Atlanta fivesome has established itself as the greatest rock band to never have an original idea. Literally everything they do has been done before. The Southern-fried boogie, the screeching, reefer-baked vocals, the raunch-and-roll riffs -- if you've ever heard Humble Pie, the Stones, and the Faces, you've heard the Black Crowes. And so what? Good AOR is hard to find these days, especially in the wake of Bush, Blur, Sponge, and the millions of other sub-Nirvana fake-punks currently clogging the airwaves. The Crowes will be at the Sunrise Musical Theatre (5555 NW 95th Ave.) in Broward tonight, for an 8:00 show. Tickets cost $25. Call 954-741-7300 for more information. (JF)
saturday
november 30
A Night of Innovative Acoustic Music: ART-ACT (10 NE 39th St.) hosts a concert featuring two unusual performers. Philip Gelb, founder and director of the polycultural New World Music Ensemble, is an acclaimed shakuhachi (an ancient Japanese bamboo flute traditionally used by Buddhists as a meditation tool) player whose repertoire includes music by John Coltrane and John Cage. Yarko Antonevych is one of only three professional bandura (an instrument that sounds something like a harpsichord and is similar to a Paraguayan harp) players in North America, having studied for twenty years with virtuoso bandurists in Canada and the former Soviet Union. Admission is ten dollars; showtime is 8:00 p.m. Call 573-7272. (GC)
Winternational Parade and Festival: See Thursday.
Little by Little: See Friday.
sunday
december 1
Santa's Parade of the Elves: Hear the tromping of tiny feet as this fourteenth annual holiday event commences at 2:00 at South Dixie Highway and Sunset Drive in South Miami. Toddlers and children through grade six are invited to dress like elves and meet Santa at 1:30 at South Miami City Hall (6130 Sunset Dr.), where the lead elf will get everyone into formation and direct this promenade of marching bands, cheerleaders, floats, baton twirlers, antique cars, clowns, and the South Miami Police honor guard. Admission is free. Call 663-6338. (GC)
Winternational Parade and Festival: See Thursday.
Little by Little: See Friday.
monday
december 2
Bruce Springsteen: Right about now Bruce must be wondering just what the hell's happened to his career. Following the success of 1984's Born in the U.S.A., which made him a megastar, he released four superb albums that took his music into new and interesting areas, from the complexities of love and marriage to the plight of so-called illegal aliens. Nevertheless, the audience that rallied round "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days" has avoided these albums like an MC Hammer comeback. His latest tour, though, is a don't-miss: In support of last year's The Ghost of Tom Joad, Springsteen is doing solo acoustic shows that feature reinterpreted versions of old standbys as well as newer stuff. He's settling into Broward's Sunrise Musical Theatre (5555 NW 95th Ave) for two shows, tonight and tomorrow. Showtime for both nights is 8:00; tickets cost $37. Call 954-741-7300. (JF)
tuesday
december 3
A Piece of My Heart: The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the University of Miami (1380 Miller Dr., Coral Gables) continues its Second Stage series with Shirley Lauro's heart-wrenching look at the women who served in the Vietnam War. A Piece of My Heart follows the harrowing experiences of six young women -- five nurses and a country-and-western singer sent to entertain troops -- through each woman's tour of duty, and ends with each leaving a personal token at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Performances run tonight through Saturday at 8:00 with a 2:00 matinee on Saturday. Tickets cost six dollars. Call 284-3355. (GC)
Little by Little: See Friday.
Bruce Springsteen: See Monday.
wednesday
december 4
Heart and Home: Hobnob with the rich and famous while biding on luxurious home furnishings and artworks at this inaugural gala event at DACRA's Moore Building atrium (NE Second Avenue and 40th Street) to benefit the United Foundation for AIDS's Community Program at South Shore Hospital. The auction, which promises to feature surprise celebrity auctioneers as well as more than 200 high-fashion home items, begins at 7:30, with a preview reception starting at 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $15. Call 531-1711. (GC)
Dr. Mae Jemison: Nova Southeastern University continues its Breakfast Forum series with a lecture by astronaut and educator Mae Jemison, the first black woman to go into space, today at 7:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Design Center (1825 Griffin Rd., Fort Lauderdale). Jemison made history when she flew on the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992; she is also a professor of environmental studies and head of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries at Dartmouth College, and researches and develops advanced technologies for everyday life through her company, the Jemison Group. Tickets cost $50. Call 954-475-7699 to reserve a seat. (GC)
The Underbellys: Live from Nash Vegas via the Viper Room in Los Angeles come the Underbellys, a local foursome that blends big, big, BIG rock-and-roll with retro rockabilly bop. The band has been writing songs with the Smithereens' Pat DiNizio, and expects to enter the studio early next year. Tonight at 10:00 the Underbellys shake up the stage at Rose's Bar & Music Lounge (754 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Admission is free. Call 532-0228. (GC)
Junior Orange Bowl Caroling Competition: Carolers from 29 public, private, and parochial schools in Dade compete for $20,000 in cash and prizes in this tenth annual Junior Orange Bowl event at the 550 Building (550 Biltmore Way, Coral Gables). Students from the Sacred Heart School, Miami Palmetto Senior High, Arvida Middle School, Florida Christian School, Ransom Everglades Senior High School, Miami Lakes Senior High, Lourdes Academy, Hialeah Senior High, and many other schools offer traditional and modern holiday classics to ring in the season. The competition runs tonight through Saturday from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., and Sunday from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m. Call 662-1210. (GC)
Little by Little: See Friday.
A Piece of My Heart: See Tuesday.