Although the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau may not know it, Miami is a Mecca of sorts for skateboarders. Each year aficionados from around the world arrive to catch subtropical air and ride the rails and smooth concrete around Biscayne Bay, according to native son and professional skate rat…
“Who sent you here?” aerobics instructor/dominatrix Michelle demands to know after the hour-long workout called Whipped. The hard-bodied mistress recently began teaching the class and judging by her puzzled expression, I could tell I’m the first sweaty subject ever to show up in full S&M regalia: a studded leather thong,…
Those aggressive Latin Americans. First they take over the town, and now they’re hogging public transportation. Okay, that’s just our Latin side, making us prone to exaggeration. Actually only a trio of Metrobuses are commandeered for three hours at a time on Saturdays in October (Hispanic Heritage Month to you…
For the members of the Bonsai Society of Miami, size matters. Rather than dwell on the large, this assortment of tree lovers think diminutive is the desired scale — at least where miniature potted trees are concerned. Nevertheless the eight-year-old group (formed when the Bonsai Club of Miami and the…
The legend of director Werner Herzog goes something like this: Raised in a remote mountain village in the Black Forest of Germany, the young director-to-be lived with no television or telephone and had few lines of communication to the world outside. At age fourteen he began traveling long distances by…
Remember this: Even though the New York Times is finally running same-sex commitment notices in its “Sunday Styles” section among hetero wedding announcements, it doesn’t mean gay weddings are legally kosher — at least not outside the state of Vermont. Nevertheless despite the unlawful status, tying the queer knot is…
Twenty years after the rise of gangsta rap, its rebellious legacy is hollow, at least in the U.S. Once the voice of youthful defiance, American hip-hop now espouses a slickly marketed bling-bling message. The original agitators, if not dead, are now soft and fat, spouting songs about hot booty, pricey…
Strange math has been permuting the American psyche since the September 11th attacks. Perhaps in an attempt to rationalize deep-seated uncertainty, Americans have been conjuring formulas involving the tragedy’s numerology. You know, September is the ninth month and nine plus one plus one equals eleven. American Airlines Flight 11, the…
Naked alien goddesses, with big tits and bouffant hair, frolicking in the sun on Super-8 film. Buxom harlots smothering men to death with their breasts and slashing one another. Sordid kisses in wood-paneled rooms and toupéed men spanking creamy virgins on shaggy rugs. Ashtrays, closeups of ashtrays, weird velvet paintings…
In the salt-and-pepper years of his middle age, Bill Sullivan is fit, ruddy, and strong. Retired and living now in South Beach, the former Washington, D.C. bureaucrat has the muscled-up bod men half his age dream of. His squared shoulders tug at his shirts; his biceps burst his arm holes;…
Never mind getting behind the wheel of a dangerous Pinto, Pacer, or Gremlin, Lupe Sosa learned to drive in his grandfather’s work truck and has never had a coupe or sedan. At 37 years old the Texan has climbed to the top rankings in the monster-truck circuit, which features the…
As the half-moon beams on a recent Thursday night, I stand at the ocean’s edge among a group of nearly 50 Miami urbanites and suburbanites, hoping for a thrilling encounter with nature. Young mommies and daddies, grandparents, and droves of their curious offspring are on Crandon Park Beach to witness…
Long before chart-toppers We Are The World and Feed the World, French woodworker and lyricist Eugene Pottier accomplished what Michael Jackson and Sir Bob Geldoff only feigned at doing: igniting a social movement and uniting the world with a simple song. With the words to the 1871 Internationale, the Frenchman…
The founding fathers of democracy, the greatest warriors and fearless revolutionaries who shaped modern societies and died for their causes, have been reduced, over centuries, to meaningless symbols that decorate parks and national plazas. Their bronze statues are seen in grand majesty throughout the world, but as the Colombian film…
This is not your average film festival, of which we know there are far too many. This is a multimedia mix that’s all about archival images; if that sounds out in left screen, it’s maybe because it is. Documentaries from Ron Mann (one reviewed below) are some of the most…
It’s tough being a dad in this world of uncertainties and expectations. Alimony keeps the ex-wife at bay, and tuition payments keep your ungrateful offspring from dissing you outright 24/7. But there is one little loved one in your life who will always consider you the supreme daddy numero uno,…
When local escape artist/magician Dylan Ace approached Miami hotels and nightclubs for a place to perform his act, small-minded management types had serious insurance concerns. You see, his show will include a stunt where the 20-year-old baby-faced Kendall native hangs 100 feet in the air upside down, by a burning…
When the concept of food is brought up in film, the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man” cannot be ignored. In it seemingly benign space aliens befriend humans and convince them to visit their planet. The scheme is busted when a decoding buff discovers that the book left behind…
Revolution is often sparked by the simplest of weapons — a voice, a guitar, a message. Such is the tradition of trova, an acoustic musical movement that blossomed in revolutionary Cuba and spread through South America in the 1970s. Also known as nueva trova and nueva cancion, its heroes, Cubans…
People stare and smirk as you pass in your culottes, bat-wing top, and shoulder pads. You wear stirrup pants over your shoes. Your getups are not ghetto fabulous but a modish monstrosity. On Saturday E! Entertainment television’s foremost fashionista, Leon Hall, will be in Miami to counsel the style-challenged. Hall,…
The sleaze, the sin, the dirty deals, the scandals. Life in Miami is a proverbial gold mine for investigative reporters and comedians alike. Just a brief perusal of the local paper’s metro section offers healthy fodder for a funnyman. As a result the city and its rumblings have nurtured many…
Cuban poet José Martí compared Miami’s most beloved cycad, the palm tree, to forlorn girlfriends who await the return of long-lost lovers. In the Miami context, they’d wait for exiles to return to a free Cuba. Whatever. Flanked by a row of the island nation’s native royal palms, Martí’s words…
