The nuclear suitcase, the repository of codes needed to launch Russia’s nuclear weapons, was one of the last things (other than his title, a few symbolic medals, and the presidential pen) that outgoing Russian Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin handed over to his successor Vladimir Putin before leaving the Kremlin on…
Surrounded by a canal, an airport, and railroad tracks, the City of Miami Springs is a calm oasis of small-town America nestled in Miami-Dade County. Conceived in 1922 by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and his partner James Bright (they’re also responsible for Opa-locka) as a reaction to building run amok…
Where the hell were the dancing hippos? That was the first question raised immediately after a screening of Disney’s new Fantasia/2000, a retooled, souped-up, IMAX version of the original animated 1940 flick, which succeeded in terrifying children around the world, pretty much assuring they would never in a million years…
How do you spend nearly 24 hours a day with another person for an entire year and not end up divorced, insane, or homicidal? Ask historian/Miami native Cesar Becerra and journalist/Connecticut Yankee Maud Dillingham. The married couple recently hit the road in their restored 1979 Chevrolet Malibu Classic station wagon…
Horses gallop, bugles blare, swords clang. An abusive Sean Connery-sounding voice taunts you, urging you to surrender. You aren’t deep in the heat of battle. You’re playing chess, the parlor game of choice for intelligent kids (okay, geeks), with one Ivan the Terrible. It’s not a dream. The Russian ruler…
Long before Ricky Martin was a glimmer in his mother’s eye, real and imaginary Latins were insinuating themselves into the American psyche. Take Babalu Aye. Thanks to Cuban entertainer Desi Arnaz (the actor/singer who played the beleaguered Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy), who frequently was seen banging a drum…
One of the giants of Afro-Cuban jazz, Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill is restless. Plunked in a cushiony mint-green chair that seems to virtually swallow him, he’s outwardly impatient, posing for a photograph in a bright nondescript hallway of a restored Miami Beach Art Deco hotel. The photographer, swaying from side to…
To quote fictitious talk show hostess Linda Richman: “Talk amongst yourselves.” Here’s a topic: Potential members of The South Beach Gay Men’s Chorus don’t have to be gay or male. Discuss. Yes, you heard right. Men and women of any sexual orientation are welcome to join the three-month-old nonprofit organization…
Ask Homestead Montessori school owner Betty Calabrese what most people usually think of as storytelling, and she’ll say, “a bunch of preschool children sitting around the knees of a grandmother reading to them.” It’s an inaccurate notion, and one Calabrese is quick to correct. “It’s totally changed,” she reports. “Today…
On the cover of his first and so far only CD, Soul Serenade, Jesse Jones, Jr., is pictured gazing intently into the distance, clutching his alto saxophone to his chest as if it were a newborn child, an irreplaceable part of himself. The photograph may make Jones look maniacally possessive,…
For someone who spends the majority of his time making art, painter Tomata du Plenty also finds many moments in which to appreciate the art of others. He reads — a lot. “Five, six, or seven books at a time,” he boasts. “Everything from Mark Twain to Jackie Collins. I…
A graduate of the eminent Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Paul Lisicky may teach creative writing for a living, but he admits to a childhood fascination with maps, streets, and towns. The sense of wonder was so encompassing that he confesses to still owning a box of maps, the detritus of a…
“People think of flamenco as Spanish, an Andalusian dance form, and it did develop in Spain. But actually it’s not very Spanish at all. It’s a mixture of the cultures that were living in Spain: the Moors, the Jews, the Gypsies, not really the Europeans. There is some European influence,…
Actress/singer Nell Carter is having a bad day. By her own somewhat exaggerated account, it’s the worst day of her life. Seems the previous afternoon, after discovering several golden flecks in her mostly raven hair, she paid a visit to a chichi Beverly Hills salon in an effort to rid…
Fall. The season to give thanks. To the Turkey Vultures. The ones that hover over Miami every year, that originate from God only knows where, and that make it their business to remind us yet again of what evil lurks in the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. Namely the embodiment of evil…
“It’s a semiserious spoof on the shallowness of celebrity and how evil the pursuit of celebrity is,” says big shot TV actor Nestor Carbonell, speaking on the phone from Los Angeles about the premise of the independent film Attention, Shoppers, which he stars in and also wrote. Carbonell is familiar…
Jews and China. Aside from some Jews’ propensity toward Chinese food as their ethnic cuisine of choice, it seems like there’s more of a connection than most would suspect. Between the years 1939 and 1945, 30,000 European Jews lived in China. Trying to escape the horrors of World War II,…
To many unknowing Americans, the word carnival conjures notions of a county fair replete with risky rides, smelly farm animals, and enough cotton candy and corn dogs to upset stomachs for weeks. In South America, the Caribbean, the West Indies, and even some spots in North America (New Orleans, New…
The evening Alex Gimeno attempted to nuzzle Chubby, his girlfriend Marissa’s dozing long-coat Chihuahua, and the usually amiable pooch savagely chomped the tip of his nose, a trip to the hospital and several stitches should have been in order. Gimeno, however, with the wonder of Neosporin ointment and a couple…
Just what Americans need, another holiday. As if Earth Day, Secretary’s Day, and Grandparents’ Day weren’t enough. Add to the list Design and Architecture Day, coming at us Friday, October 1. This one is different, though. You won’t have to send flowers, buy candy, spring for lunch, or plant a…
“No land on Earth possesses more wonder than Egypt.” Thus claims the character portrayed by actor Omar Sharif in the IMAX movie Mysteries of Egypt, coproduced with National Geographic, and opening Friday, September 24, at the combination IMAX/IMAX 3-D theater in South Miami’s Shops at Sunset Place. Whether outfitted in…
A bustling city street. An elaborate costume. A splashy scene from an old film starring swimmer/movie star Esther Williams. All little bits of inspiration for Brazilian-born choreographer Giovanni Luquini, whose full-scale theatrical/dance work Wrong Clue features a cast of eleven including his own dance troupe, members of the Akropolis Acting…
