thursday june 4 Suffering from a chronically short attention span? Then you’ll love City Theatre’s Summer Shorts. Two different programs consisting of comedies, musicals, and dramas, each less than twenty minutes long, will alternate over the next four weeks at the Ring Theatre on the University of Miami campus (1380…

For a guy who possesses such a refined touch when it comes to designing objects and interiors, Philippe Starck can be downright clumsy with words. Three years ago, just as the snazzy Starck-ified Delano Hotel was set to open, the Frenchman candidly decried Miami’s terrible style and lack of sophistication…

After working for eight years as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Chris Mancini retreated into private practice. That was in 1987. He still thrives on crime, though — for fun. Along with historian Paul George, Mancini has conducted the Miami Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem Tour since 1995. What…

thursday may 28 Heard at spas and wellness centers around the world, the jazzy new-age music of guitarist Nicholas is said by some to have healing qualities. Find out for yourself how soothing the sounds can be as he performs two shows at South Beach’s new wine and champagne bar…

thursday may 21 So what’s with all these lawyers turned authors? Brad Meltzer, who grew up in North Miami Beach, joins brethren Scott Turow and John Grisham as attorneys who now spend most of their time pecking out fiction rather than worrying about billable hours. Meltzer has already enjoyed a…

“The world sucks sometimes. The world is great. Then it sucks again. But you’ve got to be able to laugh.” So declares Charlotte Glover, writer, actress, and ad hoc publicist for Punch 59, which bills itself as South Florida’s only skit comedy troupe. “Mentally imbalanced for your amusement,” proclaims the…

One thing South Florida probably doesn’t need: more hot air. You got your embattled politicians proclaiming innocence. You got your drag queens loudly signifying up and down Washington Avenue. You got Cuban Americans of every political stripe huffing and puffing in each other’s faces. Well, prepare for a bit more…

thursday may 14 Since 1985 the folks at Louis Wolfson II Media History Center have been collecting, preserving, cataloguing, and making the public aware of film and video materials about Florida’s history and culture. The center has grown into one of the largest and most active institutions of its kind…

As a singer and keyboard player with the folk-pop band Legacy, Ellen Bukstel Segal learned long ago how to work a room. Unfortunately most of the rooms in which her band performed were not exactly conducive to listening to music — even playing it, for that matter. They were cramped,…

thursday may 7 Pre-Millennium Tension, the most recent release from Tricky, is classic trip-hop: cut-and-paste soundscapes made up of elements borrowed from dance music, rock, electronica, and hip-hop — all of it suffused with haunting angst. In truth, Tricky virtually birthed trip-hop in the late Eighties with Massive Attack and…

thursday april 30 In the 1930s art dealer Ambroise Vollard and Pablo Picasso struck a bargain. Picasso would create 100 engravings for Vollard; in exchange the dealer would return to Picasso a clutch of the artist’s paintings. Vollard got a good deal, as evidenced by Picasso: The Vollard Suite, now…

“Miami is kind of considered a cultural wasteland. But there really is a lot of culture here — it’s just so spread out. There is no unity within the different cultures. That is what we want to create.” So declares Mehndi (henna tattoos) body artist Fiona Troope, speaking for herself…

thursday april 23 Who needs Michael Flatley? Certainly not the cast of Riverdance, the Irish jig fest that has continued to stomp successfully despite the 1995 defection of its star/choreographer. Flatley, an American born to Irish parents, went on to create Lord of the Dance, his own sensational Celtic extravaganza,…

“She was able to really find a vocabulary that clearly communicated her ideas.” FIU dance professor Andrea Mantell-Seidel is talking about American dance enfant terrible Isadora Duncan. “She believed in the Greek ideal of developing the body, spirit, mind, and emotions — one not sacrificed to the other. The spirit…

“We do music for the people. It’s dancey and fun. I hope the audience loves what they hear and really gets to see what we’re all about.” So wishes Khadir drummer Joe Eshkenazi, whose Latin funk band finally performs at Tobacco Road this Saturday as part of the Miami Rock…

When six-year-old Mike Hiscano received a handful of Miami-theme postcards from his father’s friend Seth Bramson, he was bitten by the collecting bug. Thirty years later, pack-rat extraordinaire Hiscano owns 2000 Miami-related postcards and a prodigious amount of other memorabilia pertaining to the city. “I’ve always had a strong sense…

thursday april 16 Yellowman has overcome bouts with cancer and the prejudice related to his albinism to become one of reggae’s best-selling artists. The Jamaican started off as a DJ in the mid-Seventies, then leaped to huge popularity in the Eighties as a cornerstone of dancehall music. Long ago he…

Thursday April 9 You want to write a novel but are daunted by the prospect. All those characters to develop. How do writers do it? Ask Donald Antrim, whose delightfully wacky novel The Hundred Brothers is populated by 100 characters — all of them brothers. The siblings range in age…

They’ll be no talk of booze and broads when vocalist Walt Andrus joins the Don Wilner Quartet to perform A Tribute to the Music of Frank Sinatra this weekend. You see, Andrus doesn’t need Scotch and gender slurs to emulate Ol’ Blue Eyes. He is not an impersonator, a subspecies…

“It doesn’t get much cheaper than this,” declares furniture designer and artist Matthew Zbornik. “There’s so much openness to create here. If you have an imagination and you have the energy, it’s like, do it.” Zbornik “does it” — making curvy yet functional furniture from wood and metal — at…

Thursday April 2 For the past fifteen years the Dade Heritage Trust (the county’s largest historic preservation organization) has sponsored Dade Heritage Days, a celebration spotlighting South Florida’s architecture, environment, and history. This year’s theme is “A River of History,” and for the next six weeks more than 100 events…