Back to Biscayne

Old-timers remember Biscayne Boulevard as a bustling thoroughfare lined with palm trees and dotted with glamorous Miami Modern architectural landmarks. In the Fifties and early Sixties, visiting celebrities and family vacationers headed to landmark hotels for fun in the sun, and the Vagabond was among the boulevard’s brightest stars. Try…

After the Tryptophan

Thursday was all about stuffing your face with well, stuffing. And now you’re expected to indulge in that other infamous Thanksgiving tradition: shopping. The malls are going to be jam-packed all day — this year even more than others thanks to the tanking economy and the resulting off-the-chizzain Black Friday…

Brave Cover Band, We Salute You

Even though the Beatles disbanded in 1970, their fans remain a diehard and opinionated group. Time and tragedy have felled by half the greatest rock band of all time, but there’s something about a Beatles cover that can drive a devotee batty. Reviews of the navel-gazing musical Across the Universe…

All White Now

Just as Art Basel makes Miami an annual mecca for the who’s who of the creative and talented, there is White Party Week — the biggest, hottest gay fundraising bash of the year. Since 1985, hordes of gays and lesbians have flocked to the Magic City to meet, mingle, party,…

Be Thankful for What You’ve Got

Money is short; times are hard. And here come the holidays, ready to bum rush your bank account with an onslaught of new purchases. And before the shopping, there’s the feasting. It all costs a pretty penny, whether you slave over a hot stove all day for the family feast,…

Nice Throw!

In the years since Don Carter’s Kendall Lanes closed, you’ve been in a gutter of grief. Your bowling shoes have a layer of dust on them and your ball has lost its gleam. Since then, the closest you’ve been to knocking down pins is the virtual alley of your Nintendo…

Hangover Helper

New Year’s Day must be the most stress-inducing day in the whole calendar. It’s designated as a time to make lists and changes and new beginnings. And here you are all kinds of aching from the debauchery of the night before. So what if you left your cell phone in…

Home-Wreckers and Harlots

In all the hubbub and joy surrounding Barack and Michelle Obama as they became the new president and first lady, we noticed a void. Actually, two: John and Elizabeth Edwards. At one point, that couple was expected to be onstage that magical night, with John accepting the job of vice…

Express Yourself

In her 50 years on the planet, Madonna has established herself as performer and transformer extraordinaire. Nobody does over-the-top, envelope-pushing pop music better. But when it comes to her other creative pursuits, let’s just say Madge has heard the phrase “don’t quit your day job” more times than she might…

You Better Watch Out

You turned your back when the leftover holiday stuff turned up near the Halloween supplies on store shelves in October, and you couldn’t believe your ears when the muzak version of “White Christmas” drifted through the speakers when you were shopping at Publix last weekend. You can’t ignore it forever…

Like, Totally

It’s official. The Eighties revival is just about over. It has almost come to that awkward tipping point where old and laughably uncool has met edgy and ironic, and is rapidly heading toward laughably uncool again. Blame it on Lindsay Lohan and her line of leggings, or the ubiquitous use…

Here’s Your Excuse

Gourmands hardly need an excuse to visit the venerable Norman Brothers Produce. The distinctive green barnlike building in Kendall has been a food mecca for more than 20 years — known for organic, fresh produce from our local farming community. A visit to Norman Brothers is a gourmand’s fantasy, complete…

All the World’s a Stage

How does one describe a Cirque du Soleil show to a person who has never seen one? Close your eyes. Imagine a spectacle unfolding before you — acrobats twisting and contorting their bodies into surreal poses, trapeze artists swooping and drifting on delicate wires, and clowns pratfalling and mugging to…

Saving Your Pennies

Smart Miami fashionistas haven’t splurged of late. In fact they’ve marked their calendars a week before Thanksgiving — and no, it has nothing to do with holiday shopping for the family. Shecky’s Girls Night Out is all about you, honey. Savvy shoppers know there are girlie shopping events and then…

Lordamercy!

A rose-colored fantasy of the perfect vacation in the islands includes sun, sand, surf, and sweet music. The beautiful thing is, you don’t have to book a flight or borrow a boat to enjoy that kind of experience today. The International Caribbean Music Festival is touching down at scenic and…

Big Names, Rising Stars

Miami Book Fair International is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the first 10 months of the year, you already know the literary luminaries are coming out in numbers. Many of the fair’s celebrities have been visiting our shores for the past quarter-century,…

Cool Kids and Class Clowns

If the walls of Mac’s Club Deuce could talk, what debauched tales they would tell. Twisted yarns of sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, and celebrities who come for the nonchalant anonymity and stay to get plastered with locals, hookers, trannies, and one poor iguana that got pitched tail-first across the…

Get in the Loop

We’ve noticed an increasing number of fabulous ladies’-night-out events taking place around town, and Miami’s men are getting jealous. Why should women be the only ones feted with complimentary cocktails and sample-filled gift bags at these after-work events? Here’s why: Most are totally about shopping. We’ve whizzed through them all…

We Want Our Baby-Backs

That Colonel Sanders was full of big talk, bragging about his chicken being finger-lickin’ good. KFC is greasy goodness, sure — but we don’t lick our fingers for just any delicacy. Nay, we prefer to save our salivation for nobler, juicier foodstuffs. Such as ribs. Mmmm, ribs. So tender, so…

Slanted and Enchanted

There are several ways you can tell when the holidays are coming up in South Florida. The first cold spell is always a signal — the moment the thermometer hits 60 degrees, it’s officially time to pull your leather jacket out of the closet. Also, you might want to buy…

Miami Book Fair International

What’s most compelling about this year’s landmark 25th incarnation of Miami’s literary hoedown? Maybe the reading by renowned theoretical physicist Brian Greene from his book Icarus at the Edge of Time, which describes the winged punk’s dicey approach to a black hole. “It’s going to be a sleeper,” suggests Mitchell…