Hayes Bowen, a firefighter with a green thumb, has done manual labor at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for eight years. The 48-year-old volunteer happily shoveled and pruned the stunning landscape, where plants and reptiles looked as if they’d been torn from the pages of National Geographic. The work was a…
Michael C. Hall, star of the Miami-set TV series Dexter, announced yesterday he has cancer, but has kept it a hidden from fans since last year. The 38-year-old said he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma — a blood cell disease –and that he’s now in complete remission. “I feel fortunate…
Gays are leaving South Beach for Fort Lauderdale
This morning, Miami Herald columnist Steve Rothaus criticized New Times’ cover story “Escape from South Beach.” The blogger, who focuses on gay issues, cites one statistic, writing: “It’s a bit over the top.”The article — if you haven’t seen it — takes a look at three things. 1) The fact…
The other day, Riptide went to the Shops at Midtown Target and asked an employee to point us toward the space heaters. He rolled his eyes and said, “Honey, we’ve been out of them for five days.” Then he suggested we try a blanket. (Thanks, man.)Apparently, nearly every store in…
Obsessive Runner Guy Robert “Raven” Kraft is the Forrest Gump of Miami Beach. Since 1975, he has jogged over 100,000 miles — eight of them per day — on the shores of South Beach. He ran through 75 pairs of sneakers, seven presidents, and the end of the disco era…
Just when you thought Florida would never legalize marijuana, the folks over at Moha Super market go and prove you wrong. Smokers Behold: Miami’s very first pack of rolled ganja cigarettes. New Pot! Oh, man. It almost seems too good to be true. Like it could even be a mistake!…
Lately, the South Beach strip looks more like an enormous Lil Wayne concert than the shimmering gay playground it once was. Warehouse-size clubs that brimmed with shirtless boys have closed and hip-hop venues sprouted in their place. What was once pastel and glitter is now chrome and ice.You can’t blame…
If you’re new to Miami and, like Riptide, are tempted to choose a dentist through the Yellow Pages, know this: South Florida is especially dodgy when it comes to fake doctors. The state health department’s Unlicensed Activity Unit is dedicated solely to busting phony medical professionals and is the only…
Just after midnight last November, Gordon and Barbara Taylor climbed into a privately-chartered, two-propeller airplane at Key West International Airport. Gordon, age 51, had a bad kidney and was on his way to surgery in Gainesville. So the small plane took off northbound in the darkness. As they approached the…
When Glenn Terry started a satirical parade called the King Mango Strut in 1982, life was more simple. He plopped down two cardboard boxes at the end of a street with signs that read, “Closed for Parade.” And people in Coconut Grove marched.Things have changed. For the first year ever — as…
Gender Bender doesn’t usually preview nightlife events, but the drag show at Voodoo Lounge is worth checking out. We’ve seen similar acts in Boston, San Francisco, and Miami but this one — based in Fort Lauderdale — had the best mix of comedy, dancing, and music. Plus it’s a diverse…
Coconut Grove residents ruffled over missing peacocks
The Scattered Via Flicker CCMr. Moe’s restaurant-bar is the kind of place where frat boys guzzle $5 Jäger bombs while watching Monday Night Football. The joint is shaped like a log cabin on the outside and is decorated with an American flag on the inside. Owner John El-Masry doesn’t mince…
The other day, 44-year-old Carlos Iglesia was jogging in Kennedy Park when he heard a strange noise. It sounded like a lady screaming in pain — or intense pleasure? — so he slowed down to investigate, and found several wild peaheans huddled behind an old fence. “They yell like a…
Ok, so you’re cruising north on the Florida Turnpike. The cops pull you over and you’re freaking out, man, because you’re holding some seriously illicit shit: A cooler full of 232 lobster tails — 167 of which are undersized. Undersized! Alberto Varea, age 54, of Hialeah isn’t the coolest arrestee…
Burger King sued for annoying text messages
From cat killers to back-alley plastic surgeons, the criminals in our fair city make the hustlers of Detroit and Atlanta look, well, not very creative. A couple of months ago, Riptide brought you the story of Roller Thief, the strung-out rollerblading car burglar turned real-life Reno 911 sketch. He broke…
Who says teenage stalkers and demanding bosses send the most irksome text messages? Not Elizabeth Espinal.The New Yorker recently sued Miami-Dade’s mammoth supplier of most things fast and greasy, Burger King, claiming the company acted like an ex-boyfriend who couldn’t take a hint: It repeatedly text-messaged her — with spam…
On the front page of the Miami Herald today is a photo of Sylvester Stallone, posed in front of an abstract red painting. The article goes on to cite “the star power” at Art Basel this year. It explains the rich and famous are spending more money than last year, and that…
Brazilian hair straightening can be deadly
“I refuse to let HIV erase my generation,” Herb Sosa said last night, and then shook his head. “This is not our story.” The president of Unity Coalition, a gay Latino civil rights initiative, spoke yesterday in honor of World AIDS Day. And if you were on Lincoln Road around…
