Author Dan Brown might never recapture the sensational magic of his 2003 book, The Da Vinci Code, but the public’s obsession with medieval mystery lives on. After all, who doesn’t like learning about secret codes buried in ancient ruins or, in the case of 16th-century Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da…

Anyone who’s been driving home late on a weeknight, scanning the radio dial for something that matches one’s mood, has found comfort in WDNA-FM (88.9). The forward-thinking jazz station, with a rightful emphasis on Latin jazz, often feels like the soul of the city — intelligent, vivacious, playful — obscured…

Move over Jacory Harris, here comes Sven Beckert!In a coup for nerds across Miami-Dade County, the University of Miami announced the formation of its brand-new Center for Humanities this week.If you don’t know what a Center for Humanities does for a university and the surrounding community, think of it in…

We could spend hours watching Cory Arcangel’s Mario Movie (2005), a surprisingly touching account of what happens to the famous Italian plumber as the Nintendo world begins to deteriorate. Arcangel’s more recent work, Apple GarageBand Auto-Tune Demonstration (2007), is just one of many pieces that will be featured in “Pivot…

To kick off the 2009-10 season, the Florida International University theater program has chosen a play that hits home. In fact, maybe “hits home” is too quaint a phrase; “aims a heat-seeking missile toward the Miami heart” is more like it. Melinda Lopez’s drama, Sonia Flew, concerns a Cuban-American mother…

Until the Miami Malt Liquor Expo and 8-Bit Nintendo Tournament gets up and running, our favorite local booze fest is still the Miami International Wine Fair, now in its eighth year at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Rest your pinkies, people, because from 4 to 7 p.m. you’ll have 1,500…

MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts, a form of fighting. Bad Blood II: Battle of the Americas this Saturday at the BankUnited Center is an MMA fight. Jonathan Brookins is fighting Luis “Baboon” Palomino. Other people fighting are named Edson Diniz Fidelis, Alexis Vila, Marcos De Matta, Alan Arzeno, Zack…

Ever wondered what it feels like to finish a three-round professional MMA fight? To push yourself, over and over, past the limits of your strength and conditioning? You can find out this Saturday and, in the process, make a valuable donation to war veterans and prostate cancer research. The fourth…

Before monotheism ruined the fun, humans worshipped a female god (hell, yeah!) and held huge outdoor fuck parties to honor the beginnings and endings of seasons. Instead, we now scrunch into hard-backed pews to be lectured, spend our entire Friday nights in the dark because we’re not allowed to flip…

After Obama fixes health care, pulls out of Iraq, defeats the Taliban, ends the recession, reforms financial regulation, eliminates steroids from baseball, rejuvenates public education, eradicates racism, saves the newspapers, kills all the pythons, humbles Kanye, persuades LeBron to join Dwyane in Miami, and fixes the broken regulator in my…

Great news today for local literature. Miami author Edwidge Danticat, 40, was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. Besides the obvious prestige, the award comes packaged with a hefty sum: $100,000 a year for five years with no stipulations.Some of the other 23 winners were…

Phew.According to Michael Spring, Director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the budget adopted by the Board of County Commissioners at 5:01 a.m. this morning restored a little over $8.6 million to the department’s arts grants for cultural programming, or about 78 percent of the $11 million originally…

Tarell Alvin McCraney, 29, a Liberty City-born-and-raised playwright and graduate of the New World School of the Arts, today won his second big award of the year: the second annual Steinberg Playwright Award.Established in 2008 to support emerging playwrights at various stages of their careers, the Steinberg carries serious prestige as well…

For several weeks, I’ve been reading passionate plea emails to save the $11 million in funding for Miami-Dade cultural programming, all of them written by the heads of well-established, reputable organizations such as the Miami Art Museum, the Wolfsonian, and Vizcaya. Because the funding they receive from the county is crucial…

Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Texas hold ’em poker. Key West. Tattoo contest. Bikini show. Pool party. Bloody mary brunch. Diabetes. Seven of these things are fun, and one of them sucks. But thanks to the good people at Phil Peterson’s Harley-Davidson of Miami (19400 NW Second Ave., Miami) and Phil Peterson’s Harley-Davidson…

Despite the news that Nike Inc. sold the United Soccer League to a group from Atlanta, Miami FC is still going strong, and so is its challenge to the fans. Here’s the deal: For every 500 tickets sold to Saturday’s regular-season finale featuring your Miami FC versus the Puerto Rico…

Jimmy! Come here right this second, young man! Do you want to explain these sumptuously erotic watercolors we found hidden under your mattress? Do you realize that self-abuse can make you go blind? And why are you hiding them when, as a family, we could all just head over to…

Despite the black cloud hanging over the publishing industry, text is more popular than ever. A larger percentage of the population communicates via the written word now than at any other point in history. In fact, research suggests… hold on a second, just have to answer this text message… OK,…

It’s 7 p.m. and you must be lonely. You’re driving toward Seminole Hard Rock Live with a ticket that reads, “Rob Thomas and OneRepublic,” and you’re hoping that somewhere in that audience is a person who feels the same way you do. You know, stranded and, like, really intense in…