“Play it for me, Little Beaver!” Joss Stone breathlessly calls out in the middle of her new song “Super Duper Love.” It’s a command that hasn’t been heard on a record in nearly 30 years, but the stinging guitar notes sound just as fresh as the chugging, Southern-fried organ groove…

Hitting the campaign trail is an awful lot like marketing a pop star. Cult audiences, no matter how dedicated, are fine if all you’re after is cult hero status. But if you’re looking to rule the pop charts — or run for higher office — then crossing over to the…

And they’re off! It may be more than a year away, but the 2004 election campaign is in full swing: swanky fundraisers, fist-pumping stump speeches, and that hallmark of American politics, the smoky backroom meeting. We’re not talking about 2004’s presidential aspirants, but instead a contest with just as much…

If you’re trying to handicap the 2004 presidential election, forget about the marquee pundits and media analysts. Instead look to Saturday Night Live, whose writers have, if nothing else, at least managed to accurately capture the nation-at-large’s take on George W. Bush. There was the Scrabble-challenged Bush of the 2000…

Don’t get Charlie Herman wrong. He doesn’t miss the gunfire or the backdrop of constant explosions. It’s just that after being a producer for ABC-TV’s World News Tonight in Baghdad, returning to his role as the network’s man in Miami is a bit, well, strange. Not that his prior foreign…

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, or Manhattanites heading for the Hamptons, Miami Beach’s city hall also has a rhythm you can set your watch to. At some point during a lengthy Beach commission meeting, Commissioner Luis Garcia will begin bellowing epithets such as “Dictator!” and “Hugo Chavez!” at his…

Frank Owen is on his best behavior. “I’m not getting drunk tonight,” he announces firmly, wagging a cautionary finger at Kulchur outside of the Beach’s Books & Books. The 41-year-old British author has a promotional appearance there this evening, and then it’s back to his hotel. “I’m going on CNN…

Even the most elaborate battle plan should always be adapted to the “facts on the ground,” as we’ve been sagely reminded of late by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. One wishes that same proviso would be applied to the ongoing drama that still rages across the Florida Straits. At presstime, President…

Forget about celebrity-filled runway shows and imperious magazine editors. The Dulce de Leche menswear line is receiving a true field test inside the Bay Harbor Islands home of Luis Toro, one of Dulce de Leche’s founding owners. His partners and co-designers Carlos Mejia and Rafael Paris greet visitors as a…

“No names,” insisted Bud Russell. That was the first ground rule if Kulchur wanted to attend a private $1000-a-head South Beach fundraiser for former Vermont governor Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. Normally Russell would be thrilled with the publicity. The Atlanta-based financial consultant and Democratic Party activist has made it his…

There’s no need to mince words with the BBC’s Miami correspondent, Fergal Parkinson. Kulchur is delicately dancing around the differences between the BBC’s newscasters in England and the local reporters featured on South Florida’s television screens. But Parkinson bluntly jumps in: “You see fat people on the BBC.” Well, now…

The first sign that something dramatic was unfolding was the eerie quiet. About 200 young hipsters had poured into Austin, Texas’s Urban Outfitters store for an impromptu afternoon set from Iron & Wine, better known to his Miami neighbors as Sam Beam. The sidewalk outside was abuzz with the frenzy…

You could feel the frisson in the air inside the darkened theaters of this year’s Miami International Film Fest. For many in the attending audiences, the onscreen themes of a besieged middle class amid insurgent revolutions, endemic civic corruption, and economic crisis weren’t abstract concepts. Those were precisely what led…

Cutting Hollywood deals often involves massaging the tender egos of overgrown children. The independent film world is much the same, laughs Krysanne Katsoolis, except it involves actual toddlers. As senior vice president of acquisitions and co-productions for Wellspring — one of America’s most prominent indie distributors — Katsoolis is used…

It started as a quiet weekday evening in Havana like any other, but on this night last November, the city was jolted into action. Squads of Cuban police suddenly began cordoning off La Rampa, the main drag in front of the Charlie Chaplin movie theater. Then they turned to the…

For any crusading liberal of the Watergate era, the only thing worse than earning a spot on President Nixon’s notorious “enemies list,” was not appearing on the list at all. It was troubling enough to find that you were one of the elite so hated by Richard Nixon that his…

After nearly twenty minutes of tortuous verbal gymnastics, Jay-Z was growing audibly tired of his on-air interrogation. But his radio interviewer, Angie Martinez, showed no signs of flagging. Her afternoon program on New York City’s WQHT-FM (97.1) was locked in a summertime ratings war with the Clear Channel-owned WWPR-FM (105.1)…

Like any burgeoning hip-hop mogul, David Ross knows how to turn on the bluster. “You want to know my plans for Miami?” he chuckles to Kulchur. “We’re going to kick everybody’s ass! Is that clear enough for you?” Idle boast or not, the music industry is paying heed. As Clear…

The new program director of WMIB-FM (103.5) hasn’t slept in three weeks. In fact he hasn’t even left that radio station’s Miramar studio. Instead he’s manned the controls there around the clock, not even pausing to eat, all part of WMIB’s New Year’s Day format change and a promise to…

You’re middle-age, your hairline is receding, and when the lights go down, keeping it up for your legendary three-hour stretches is getting harder and harder. What do you do? If you’re Bruce Springsteen, you break out a large sponge. He’s traveled a long way from his intimate nightclub glory days,…

He’s not quite beefy enough to qualify as a Praetorian Guard, but Alex is doing his best to look tough as part of the Socialist Workers Party’s (SWP) security detail. Or at least as tough as you can look standing amid the humor section inside Coral Gables’ Books & Books…