Painted entirely black and dimly lighted, the South Florida Art Center’s art1035 gallery has been done up to look like a cross between a religious temple and a low-rent love shack. Entering the darkness from the bright Miami Beach sunshine, there’s a deliberately spooky feel to the space. As in…
thursday march 20 The Lipton Championships: Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi return to defend their championship titles against 30 challenging tennis stars at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park (7300 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne). Other players hitting the courts at the Lipton include Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, and…
thursday march 13 Dade County Fair and Exposition: They’ve got daredevils who’ll take your breath away. They’ve got plants and animals from forests and farms. They’ve got food, games, magic shows, art exhibitions, vendors, and loads of live music. But let’s face it: Those super-loud, ultra-illuminated, fabulous puke-inducing rides are…
Tie-dyed, graffiti-scrawled canvas huts and paint-spattered model kayaks have turned Fredric Snitzer’s new gallery off Bird Road into a funky tent city. Wooden rods suspended from the ceiling support the sunset-colored, vaguely Bedouin-style structures; visitors can enter one titled El Gran Canibal through an open flap and see a childish…
A scratchy recording of a vaguely familiar tune plays in the small University of Miami classroom where Paul Austerlitz lectures to a handful of students on the social history of Caribbean music. As a man sings in phlegmy French over lilting guitar and soft percussive beats, Austerlitz explains that the…
thursday march 6 Julia Alvarez: It’s no secret that when writers write what they know, they usually end up writing about people they know. And sometimes those people may not be thrilled by what’s been written about them. In her latest book AYo! (no, the title has nothing to do…
The Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C., contains more than 13 million letters, diaries, sketchbooks, photographs, press clippings, and other materials that document the lives and work of U.S. artists since the Eighteenth Century. Founded to preserve artists’ personal effects and make them available for research, the archive has…
Before Israel Sardinas abandoned his bandmates and fled his country in 1983, he sometimes dreamed of what his new life would be like if he were to leave Cuba. He would have his own orchestra, a contemporary charanga band that would play the songs he was always writing in his…
Luis Munoz Marin Amphitheater in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has an official capacity of 5000. But more than 6000 fans flooded the house January 30 for the farewell concert of the Cuban group Los Van Van’s first-ever U.S. tour. From the initial clap of the clave rhythm, the fifteen-member band…
The Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim is best-known for her Le Dejeuner en Fourrure, a teacup covered in fur that was included in a 1936 exhibition of surrealist works organized in Paris by Andre Breton. The suggestively erotic, delightfully improbable piece was the hit of the show. Purchased by the Museum…
thursday february 13 Anti-Film Festival: For those who’ve had their fill of premiere parties and Top 40 soundtracks, Alliance Film/ Video Co-op offers a little art from emerging and experimental filmmakers and video artists. The fourth annual low-budget-film celebration at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) and the…
thursday february 6 Miami Film Festival: The fourteenth annual Miami Film Festival continues its dominion over the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts (174 E. Flagler St.) tonight at 7:00 p.m. with American director Greg Mottola’s The Daytrippers and at 9:30 p.m. with Argentine director Mario Benedetti’s Wake Up, Love…
Just after sunrise on the last day of the year, gangs of squawking turkey vultures and clowning crows are already working for food in the Royal Palm Hammock parking lot and the adjacent picnic area. A couple of small alligators cruise slowly through the water in a marshy pond; nearby…
Susie T. Evans sweeps the fine dirt in front of her wooden bungalow every morning. She likes the ground smooth and packed firm. When she rests she sits on a bench fashioned from scrap wood and a rusty bucket. She collects the junk that accumulates along the paved road running…
Rain is falling lightly when piano player Paquito Hechavarria gets the bum’s rush from a Coral Gables restaurant. The musician is three nights into a gig accompanying a blues singer at Mike’s Hideaway, an upscale eatery that boasts a pristine white baby grand but few customers for dinner on a…
thursday january 23 Classical Jazz Festival: The New World Symphony continues its celebration of classical music influenced by American jazz with a concert tonight at 8:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre (555 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach). Artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas not only conducts but makes a rare appearance as…
Parking is invariably scarce on Ponce de Leon Boulevard and the neighboring streets on the first Friday of the month. Perfume and cigar smoke cloud the air, and Coral Gables’s finest are out in force. In terms of numbers, the Coral Gables Gallery Walk, now in its fifth year, is…
A Mexican entry won top prize at last month’s Latin American Film Festival in Havana, but Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat was reportedly one of the hottest tickets, drawing capacity crowds to a heavily promoted late-night screening. The biopic that details the flashing rise and fall of the late New York artist…
thursday december 26 Beauty and the Beast: The Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach) becomes an ice rink tonight at 8:00 as the Russian All-Stars Ice Theatre presents an ice-ballet version of the classic tale Beauty and the Beast. Choreographed by skating coach Tatiana…
In 1994 Miami-based Rodven Records issued a series of compact disc compilations that quickly began turning up in music-store discount bins and at used CD outlets, where some can still be found languishing. The discs have vaguely nostalgic titles (Yesterday … Today, Sounds from the Motherland), and homely, manila-colored covers…
Everyone’s aware that going to a mall during the holiday season will probably make you feel sick. Still, a lot of people who know better end up there anyway, with that pre-Christmas sale-induced consumer hysteria that leads to purchasing a mountain of stuff you would probably never even look at…
thursday december 5 Orquideas a la Luz de la Luna (Orchids in the Moonlight): The 3rd Street Black Box (in the San Villa Oriental Restaurant, 230 NE Third St.) collaborates with Peru’s Jucare Theater Group to perform Carlos Fuentes’s play about two sultry Mexican film stars and the impact of…
