Never mind board rooms. Sometimes a backyard barbecue is the best place to think up a business idea. Lubricated by good food and drinks, Alex Fernandez and Maurizio Festa began chatting one day about the rise of virtual reality, an industry projected to rake in its first annual billion dollars…
One day after the tragedy in Orlando, a petition appeared on Change.org addressed to the mayors of Miami and Miami Beach and five of the cities’ commissioners. It asks for safety and security, and for metal detectors to be required at the entrance of Miami nightclubs. “Requiring local nightlife venues…
The one thing aspiring DJs must possess is a good set of ears. Passion, drive, and an expensive setup are important enough, but, as legendary DJ John Digweed told Miami New Times, “if you can’t hear the detail and beauty in certain tracks, you will miss out on those tracks…
Nostalgia can get expensive. Unlike many of her peers, underground house and techno DJ Laura Jones didn’t adopt CDJs and USBs for mere convenience or because everyone else was doing it – she simply couldn’t afford to maintain a vinyl collection. “When the digital boom happened, I only really had…
Wake up in Berlin, Germany, on any given Sunday, check your weather app and the forecast reads: Dreary. You knew this, though. You taste it in your morning breath and smell it in the ashy air. Still, you get up and shower, put on your party pants, and stop by…
The French didn’t invent disco, but they did help revitalize it. Daft Punk landed in the early 1990s with what can be called outer-space disco — an alien concoction of disparate sounds with filters and phasers galore. The Parisian duo is often credited as the chief necromancer behind disco’s resurrection…
Pitbull just announced his 2016 the Bad Man Tour dates, which will see him pull stops from Mountain View, California to Bethel, New York and as far south as Sunrise, Florida with partner Prince Royce. But Pit seems to have left out one very important stop on this upcoming tour…
From the street, Wynwood’s next Art Walk will be much like every other. An array of art enthusiasts will once again descend upon the area like well-dressed mosquitoes. Galleries will open their doors and lure pedestrians inside with the soft roar of air conditioning. And artists and dealers will push…
When Esperanza Spalding heard a knock at her door, she had the choice to welcome her uninvited guest or keep it locked out. “It wasn’t that much of a choice,” Spalding says. “Just a yes or no.” Spalding chose yes. The visitor was her alter ego, Emily, and the inspiration…
Trick Daddy Dollas has announced a new, though not that shocking, venture – reality stardom. In a recent interview with Bossip, Trick revealed he met with Mona Scott-Young, the creator of Love & Hip Hop, to discuss joining the cast of the popular VH1 reality show as it moves south…
Ryan Leslie is not your standard musician. He earned a 1600 on his SAT. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in government. He was one of just four orators selected to speak at his senior graduation ceremony. Since then Leslie has produced tracks for artists like Britney Spears,…
The members of Pearl Jam have never shied away from activism. They’re the Bernie Sanders of rock ‘n’ roll. They’ve railed against President George W. Bush, rallied behind pro-choice policies, and raised awareness for Crohn’s disease. And after 25 years, the bandmates are addressing a crisis they contribute to: hearing…
It took over two years for Brooklyn-based EMEFE to record its self-titled debut album. Band leader Miles Arzten calls it a labor of love, stressing the word “labor” more than “love.” It’s isn’t easy to orchestrate an eight-piece ensemble, after all — especially if you’re sitting behind a drum kit…
Our society is in a crisis of cultural appropriation. JK Rowling’s History of Magic in North America injected still very active Navajo traditions into her fictional world of wizardry as carelessly as The Life of Brian rewrote the Bible. Katy Perry’s inane and convenient adoption of Native American, Egyptian, and…
Pearl Jam is finally on its way to Miami next week after what feels like forever. But this time the godfathers of grunge may not escape with simply getting drunk at Club Deuce and jamming out in Little Haiti. Vedder and company will have to dribble through Dwayne Wade first…
President Obama traveled to Cuba last Wednesday in an historic effort to restore diplomatic relations with our communist neighbor. But Obama wasn’t the only high-profile figure to visit the island that week. On Friday, the Rolling Stones rocked some 450,000 (or 500,000 or 700,000, depending on who you ask) people…
In a few short years, EDM vocalist Vassy has found unexpected international acclaim in unlikely places. She’s had songs appear on shows like Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy. The song she did with David Guetta and Showtek, “Bad,” reached number one on charts from Finland to South Korea and back…
For the last month of 2013, Pete Tong kept a secret that might’ve made his mother cry. In November, he’d answered a call from his manager regarding what Tong calls a “bizarre” proposal. After nearly 40 years in the music industry, the legendary British DJ and radio host was invited…
If you ask most people to list three things the world needs less of, they’ll likely say war, disease, and spiders. In fact, arachnophobia is one of the most common fears in America. It’s practically stamped into our psyche. At some point in mankind’s evolutionary past, getting caught in an…
A couple weeks ago we received a press release advertising a handy pill organizer for Miami’s Winter Music Conference. “WMC is soon approaching,” it read, “the lineups and parties have been announced and the excitement is building amongst music enthusiasts… being prepared is key.” The release was describing the MedCenter…
Not long after Dennis DeGori opened Miami’s now iconic 24-hour megaclub, he stood inside on a balcony in a freshly pressed suit, hair slicked back like Joe Pesci, surveying his kingdom with an heir of sovereignty. “I looked like someone in a position of authority,” he recounts. It was either…
It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to find an investor early on in the venture. For Claude VonStroke, founder of house and techno label Dirtybird Records, that investor shared a house and a bed with him. “[My wife] paid all the rent and bills for that [first] year,” he says. “So all…
