In the two 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…

Is it any surprise that our favorite verse of the classic Geto Boys hip-hop song “My Mind Playin’ Tricks on Me” belongs to Bushwick Bill? Although the diminutive rapper’s verse turns out to be just a disturbing illusion, we still get excited when we hear someone say, “This year, Halloween…

Iron Chef is a rare breed of TV program. The stylized Japanese cooking competition made its debut in 1993 and has since revolutionized food preparation. C’mon, you know when you’re slicing and dicing in the privacy of your kitchen, you’re envisioning a panel of rapt judges and a soundtrack of…

“Nice haircut! Where’d you get it?” Your usual answer to that question is the name of a swishy salon. Wouldn’t it be great to have an interesting story behind your cool new haircut? To be able to say, “I got my hair cut in a park, during one of the…

National fatigue for November 4 set in a while ago, but the campaigns still kept plugging along. Doesn’t it seem like so long ago that Barack Obama and John McCain were seen as long shots for their party candidacies? Wasn’t this supposed to be Hillary Clinton versus Mitt Romney? A…

Halloween ideally is about kids, candy, and the great pumpkin, but somewhere along the way, adults took the relatively innocent celebration of all things spooky and warped it into a sleazy opportunity to wear next to nothing. What are you supposed to be, a hobag? We implore you — put…

This might sound crazy in these wild economic times, but there are folks who have quit their jobs to play cards. Poker is no longer just a game with your buddies over a case of beer on a lazy weekend; now it’s prime time, baby! You can flip on ESPN…

You already know Latin music has a particular effect on you — you can’t resist gyrating your hips to the scintillating play of Santana, you’ve been known to bust out with the twist and the mashed potato when Richie Valens comes on the oldies station, and the undeniable exuberance of…

They call it hump day because you’re finally over half of the workweek, but you’re already prepared to throw in the towel and call it the weekend. Before you sink into a mire of depression at the two long days of labor still staring you in the face, we say…

Two weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Kimberly Roberts bought a video camera from a neighborhood street hustler. She planned to use it to record birthday parties, reunions, and family celebrations. Instead she captured a truly traumatic first-person account of one of the five deadliest hurricanes to hit the…

Back in the day, grassy knolls on the University of Miami campus were put to decadent and illegal use (or so we’re told). Nowadays UM tries to keep the students occupied with PG events. Case in point: Friday night’s Screen on the Green. The free movies are open to the…

There’s an unusual trend we’ve been noticing as the economic outlook becomes increasingly dire: Entertainment options are getting ostentatiously upgraded. There’s a fancy cinema that serves ahi tuna instead of day-old hot dogs at Dolphin Mall; Romero frickin’ Britto designed a kiddy water park near Miami International Airport; and there’s…

“There are two rules to remember if you wanna have a good time. Rule number one: Never run out of Colt 45. Rule number two: Never forget rule number one.” Damn you, Billy Dee Williams, for implanting those rules in our heads at such an early age. How could anyone…

Thanks to Susan G. Komen and the “For the Cure” marketing wizards, breast cancer has become an issue almost everyone is aware of. Now the pale pink ribbon is a ubiquitous symbol of hope and perseverance, and supporters of the cause can purchase anything from a roll of paper towels…

Skilled MCs can blow your mind with a single line. They can impart knowledge while you bob your head to their beat. They can break down a phrase, a word, and sometimes even a syllable with enough swagger to make you smile in admiration. The members of the CunninLynguists are…

Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost isle in the Caribbean, is known as the home of calypso music. But once the pre-Lenten ritual known as Carnival has ended, the season’s serenaders are left with a bushel of party-starting anthems and a repentant audience. For the rest of the year, the top-tier…

Some people like their news “fair and balanced.” Others prefer to watch broadcasts on “the place for politics.” But between cable news channels such as Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, many stories fall through the cracks. That’s why we thank Jah for the Internet — the magical series of tubes that…

She is called “the queen of crime” and known internationally for her brilliant journalistic skills and fearless reporting (you don’t win a Pulitzer for crime reporting by being a desk jockey). After leaving her newspaper gig at the Miami Herald, Edna Buchanan became one of the world’s premier crime novelists,…

You usually see them on Lincoln Road, poking their adorable heads out of Louis Vuitton handbags, or sitting at sidewalk tables, lapping water from Scotch glasses while their owners nosh on sushi. Dogs — especially teeny, hairy lap dogs — run Miami Beach. The mainland, not so much. But Saturday…

In Brazil, New Orleans, and Trinidad and Tobago — the best-known meccas for Carnival celebrations — it’s a two-day fiesta meant to exorcise the demons of pleasure, lust, drunkenness, and revelry before the piety of the Lenten season washes away a season of sin. In the Magic City, there are…

For the most part, Miamians don’t need an excuse to party. After work, the bars are filled with businessmen, and on the weekends, the clubs are overflowing with hard-drinkin’ dudes — many of whom look like they’re sporting the same damn striped shirt they wore during the week. But some…

In these freewheeling days of the Internet and high-definition television, a term such as banned books sounds downright antiquated. The phrase brings to mind scary World War II-era visions of black-and-white flames destroying a pyre of burning volumes. Scary stuff indeed — but in this crazy election cycle, it seems…