There goes the neighborhood. Come to think of it, where is the neighborhood? Sentiments often heard in this relatively young city, where things historic — as in buildings — have only recently become a concern for the masses. Yes the holdouts have always been around, the architectural version of tree…
As far as we know, frighteningly prolific television writer/producer Stephen J. Cannell doesn’t traipse around his hometown of Los Angeles wearing Nike sneakers. If he did though, it wouldn’t be startling. His lengthy career seems to exemplify the athletic-wear company’s advertising slogan/philosophy, “Just Do It.” The co-creator, writer, and sometime…
An ample zoo, a cheerful carousel, a tranquil beach area that boasted pristine sand: components of the once-popular Crandon Park area on Key Biscayne. A site that for many years was a bastion for white Miamians. In the intervening years, the zoo moved to its current address, and the carousel…
Just when you thought you got the hang of the latest fad, the trendmeisters up in the sky (or wherever they are) go and change things. Once upon a time swing may have been the thing. But savvy dance fans, especially those who are connoisseurs of television commercials, know that…
Famous snakes in history: the slithery Svengali in the garden of Eden. The randy reptile in the Jungle Book. The colossal creature in Anaconda. Of course the proverbial snake in the grass. And bald, beady-eyed political consultant James Carville, whose wife Mary Matalin lovingly dubbed him “Serpent Head.” None of…
Further evidence that they don’t make movies like they used to, or maybe just the first sign of the apocalypse: Runaway Bride, the Julia Roberts/Richard Gere fluff fantasy, is number one at the box office. For fans of serious cinema, disheartening to say the least. But as Hollywood directors continue…
“Once I started listening to jazz, it wasn’t hard to realize it was very soulful, high-quality music that you could get totally engaged with. Good jazz doesn’t get dated.” Thus says Michael Chertok, who runs the Chertok Archives, one of the nation’s most extensive collections of jazz performances. And Chertok…
Call Tamalyn Dallal the Rodney Dangerfield of dance. Dallal, a shapely attractive woman, doesn’t resemble the portly comedian in any way, but she and Dangerfield have one thing in common: Both are rather vocal about not getting any respect. Dallal is a belly dancer. Although the ancient dance’s roots stem…
thursday july 15 Get ready to bare your midriff and shake your hips when local belly dance sensation Tamalyn Dallal slithers in to Books & Books (296 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables) tonight at 8:00. Dallal, who runs Miami Beach’s Mideastern Dance Exchange, won’t be teaching a master class. She’ll be…
Prominent American musicians wax lyrical over him. In his own country a colleague wrote a tune about him, transforming his name into a verb. Lately it seems that people all across the world have become “Caetano-ized.” But for Brazil’s Caetano Veloso, the universal embrace that he’s currently receiving has been…
thursday july 8 New Orleans’s swingingest ensemble, Los Hombres Calientes, brings its jazzy Afro-Cuban stylings to the summer concert series at Coral Gables Congregational Church (3010 De Soto Blvd., Coral Gables) tonight at 8:00. The band, whose name translates as “the hot men,” counts among its members percussionist Bill Summers,…
Tommy, Hansen, Duncan, Dot, Carrie, Graham, Lily, Alice. Sounds like the latest list of fashionable names for kids. But actually those monikers identify just a fraction of the more than 150 different types of Florida mangoes. Fragrant, juicy, exotic, even “sexy,” according to chef Robbin Haas, the tropical fruit (whose…
They served flan. As far as we know, no other theater in Miami, let alone many Cuban restaurants, offers flan. And it was good flan, too. That’s one of the many positive things people will say after the Absinthe House Cinematheque shuts off its immense 1939 Supersimplex projector for the…
thursday july 1 You may recall working with beads from your halcyon days in summer camp. Sure you created a few gorgeous bracelets, necklaces, and key chains, but that was kid stuff. Beads are a sophisticated medium for a sophisticated art form. To wit: Donald Pierce’s intricate necklaces; Ken Tisa’s…
Three years ago a quintet of optimists combined their ingenuity, contacts, and resources to create Songwriters in the Round, a relaxed evening featuring an open-mike session for local musicians followed by a few established songwriters showcasing their tunes. It’s organized by music impresaria Chrystal Hartigan, Warner/Chappell Latin division executive Ellen…
thursday june 24 Yearning for the days when drunk South Beach pioneers gyrated on restaurant tables to the speed-flamenco strains of “Bamboleo?” Take heart: The Gipsy Kings will reprise their endless repertoire of Eurotrash party anthems tonight at the Jackie Gleason Theater (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach). Since they exploded…
These days they can be used to buy drinks and dinner at any Club Med. Once they were used to purchase real estate, namely the island of Manhattan. With us for the past 40,000 years, they are beads, first formed from animal teeth, bone, and stone, and later made of…
thursday june 17 The Florida Dance Festival continues this week, incorporating films and discussions with a bevy of dance performances. This evening at 7:00 Dancemaker, Matthew Diamond’s Academy Award-nominated documentary about the Paul Taylor Dance Company, screens at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach; 305-534-7171). Also tonight at…
It’s a somewhat lively weeknight on the corner of Miami Beach’s Tenth Street and Washington Avenue and sound is all around. Hip-hop blares from car stereos. Miniskirted drunken women amble along the sidewalk muttering loudly. Motorcycles transporting fat guys thunder down the road. An action-packed evening for a place that…
Wearing a white, lacy, sleeveless blouse with a matching long, flowing skirt, Elena Garcia sways from side to side, snaps her head and shoulders forward and backward, and swirls rapidly around in circles to a loud Afro-Cuban chant coming from a boombox. Looking like a cork bobbing in a tub…
Fascination with Cuban culture is understandable for those of us just a short jaunt from the island. But long ago the lure of the enchanting nation and its infectious music took hold of Bill Summers as a ten-year-old living in Detroit. Back then Summers was studying classical piano at a…
thursday june 10 It’s tough keeping a band together, especially when your ensemble consists of grizzled veteran musicians who know the road all too well and get antsy playing in one place too long. The sextet performing during the Van Dyke Cafe’s (846 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) regular Thursday night…
