For seven decades, Montgomery Bernard “Monty” Alexander has been at the forefront of jazz. After immigrating to Miami with his family from Jamaica in 1961, it would be a chance meeting at a now-defunct Miami jazz club that would set the wheels in motion for Alexander’s five decades-plus as one…
Some folks might make a case that because of high rents, Coral Gables’ art galleries have moved out of the once artistically thriving community. That’s not entirely true. It would be ignorant to dismiss the City Beautiful so quickly, especially the places that remain in the trolley’s loop and have…
oconut Grove is no longer the place it used to be. Look no further than the changing face of the bay (so long Scotty’s) and the gentrification of the West Grove filled with those disgusting cookie-cutter townhouses that have demolished the aesthetic of the neighborhood. Gone are the hippies, weirdos…
Jason Fitzroy Jeffers is no stranger to South Florida. Both musician and journalist, he’s made an impact on this and many local publications. With a recent focus shift turning to filmmaking, Jeffers’ first official production, Papa Machete has been picking up momentum and earning accolades from film circles. “You and…
Coconut Grove is no longer the place it used to be. Look no further than the changing face of the bay (so long, Scotty’s) and the gentrification of the West Grove, filled with those disgusting cookie-cutter townhouses that have demolished the aesthetic of the neighborhood. Gone are the hippies, weirdos,…
There’s always been something romantic about the coffeehouse. From American expats and arty cognoscenti in those dark salons of yore, to the respite they have afforded many a young student looking for a first taste of bar culture, the coffeehouse has long been a symbol of untethered, caffeine-fueled discourse. Look…
Ciclovía, a Spanish term for cycle path, is “the temporary closing of state roads to vehicles and replacing them with pedestrians and bicyclists who are using it for exercise or coming together as a community to celebrate music, art and sports” according to the recent press release by the Florida…
Miami’s always had good punk rock, even when the rest of the U.S. didn’t know it. Our city’s punk scene has been world class since the mid ’70s and the Magic City’s actually developed a sound of its own, steeped in tropical sludge and sun-bleached scuzz. That’s why 305 Fest…
“Back in 2006, I had no band, no car, and a lot of free time,” says Miami musician Jose Flores. “So I was doing hundreds of home recordings. I always thought freestyle and Miami bass were these fun and lost genres. I noticed that the simpler, funny bass-heavy jams were…
Folding the Black Flag is “an exploration of Nihilist Poetics formed through collaborative installation and an extended series of ‘Performance Not-Happenings’ from New York City to Miami. The exposition is an attempt to ‘fold’ both in the sense of pack-up/give-up abandon, and of rehistoricization and temporal revisionism – to actively…
It’s hard to remember that Pinecrest Gardens has been operating out of that quiet corner in the Village of Pinecrest once inhabited by Parrot Jungle for over a decade now. It’s a much needed part of South Florida, a garden and a designated zone for the “cultural enrichment,” history, and…
Novy Græy is an enthusiastic young man, talented and spiritual. While emerging with Quarter Horses as an intricate, self-described “Gospel Noir” outfit, he’s also been the main driving force behind the technical and experimental project {in-boxes}. We had a chance for a lengthy discussion about spirituality, music and the creation…
What could inspire a more terrifying nightmare of Hollywood excess than the garish façade of a Planet Hollywood restaurant? Perhaps the sum of its muscle-bound financial backing parts: Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now reduced to a miserable eight locations, the Planet Hollywood brand is synonymous with the…
I cleaned some sprouts off some red potatoes, and they sat in the sink, wet and glistening like pomegranate seeds. It was a fleeting thought, them looking that way. A thought I found amusing and privately poetic. I had recently heard that Jeff Tucci had passed. I didn’t know the…
South Florida is in no short supply of street art, urban muralists, and graffiti artists. Some stand out more than others and some carry heavy followings. Graffiti has been instrumental in the revamping of Wynwood and lifting South Florida’s international art profile. That it continues to hold an illegal stigma…
It’ll be a long time till Miami becomes synonymous with motorcycle culture. But as it stands, the Dirty South’s largest city is rapidly on its way to forging an identity within the two-wheeled lifestyle. And this Sunday, Will Call will host the third Black Sunday Vintage Motorcycle Swap and it…
Ron Terada is a Vancouver-based artist operating in the fields of painting, video, photography, sound, and graphic design. Art on the Move is an ongoing public commissions initiative and for this project, Dominic Molon, the Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School…
Alfred J. López’s new book, José Martí: A Revolutionary Life from University of Texas Press, is the first biography written about the polarizing Cuban revolutionary in over half a century and the first ever in English. For as academic a subject as Martí could be in the hands of a…
Cranksgiving returns for its sixth year of helping charitable operations replenish food banks across the USA. The local leg of the cycling event has, for five years now, sponsored a food drive alley cat race and ride — a fun version of a scavenger hunt for nonperishable goods benefiting the…
Some folks might have a lesser opinion of Dale Chihuly’s work and the vast expanses it has covered since he stepped away from the blowing pipes and transformed from Chihuly the artist to Chihuly the entrepreneur. That’s fine; even if Chihuly’s glass works were to cover every inch of your…
Flamenco is the historic folk music of the Andalusia region in southern Spain. It is known for its use of the guitar, cajón, castanets, and clapping. Its singing, el cante, is evocative, heartfelt, and profoundly infused with pasión. Originally introduced to a wider audience in the late 1700s, flamenco did…
Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, was not well-received on its premiere in Milan’s legendary La Scala in 1904 — the reasons being far too numerous and open to debate to strangle our flow here — but Puccini, a man director Marc Astafan…
