A Secret Public Space

The door to the auditorium is slightly ajar. Inside is a large blank projection screen pulled down across the face of one wall and an entire theater of chairs arranged in carefully regimented rows near the center of the room. The place is empty. No one else is here. But…

Catastrophe in the Caribbean

On May 8, 1902, the city of St. Pierre on the tiny island of Martinique was immolated when stratovolcano Mount Pelée erupted, spewing superheated gas, rock, and ash. Within minutes, town hall, the cathedral church, the shrine at Morne Rouge, the chamber of commerce, and the botanical gardens were utterly…

For the Love of Lasers

As a quote-unquote adult, you aren’t supposed to like laser shows. Your aesthetic sensibility should be much too evolved for some ironic stoner trip through outdated sci-fi atmospherics and a classic rock soundtrack. Yet this Friday, you will stuff your mouth with mushrooms, fill a water bladder with home-brewed hooch,…

Lazaro Rodriguez Talks Male Asses, Nighttime Shots, and I Swear

A notably mercurial figure, local artist Lazaro Rodriguez lives in a world of cigarettes and shadows, beer and hot tubs, Gucci Mane, puppy dogs, gay beefcakes, and breakdancing on the beach. Until now, he’s mined that sprawling territory and more for his blogs, “Plan2Cry” and “everybodywasfeelingfine.” This Friday, though, Rodriguez…

Roofless Records Starts Its Very Own Publishing Imprint

In a deadly short span of time, Matt Preira and Dana Bassett of Roofless Records have wrestled the Miami music scene into an affectionate headlock — staging shows at underground spots, releasing strange slabs of vinyl, and being named New Times’ Best Record Label of 2010. And now, Basset is…

Laughs for the Masses

We live in a world where the disparity between rich bastards and poor proles is exponentially expanding. The haves are CEOs and socialites who crap foie gras and visit the spa once a week to have liquid gold massaged into their bleached and Botoxed faces. The have-nots, meanwhile, are a…

Dysfunction, Doughboys, and Death

For little Kyle Cease, life began in the tiny Washington town of Bothell. It’s a nice, innocent place famous for its biopharmaceutical industry and 112-foot Christmas tree. So how exactly did this wholesome American boy fall into a career as a comic? What deep, irrevocable childhood trauma sent him down…

Auto Eroticism

You are a gearhead, a car junkie, a donk devotee. On your bedside table sits a fat stack of auto porn — Hot Rod, Lowrider, Super Street, etc. — along with a half-used bottle of motor oil. Out in the garage, several modern-day muscle cars lie stripped and naked on…

Boobs for Bombs

When the Vietnam War was raging, American hippies tried to defeat the military-industrial complex through free love, random nudity, and countercultural agitprop. Although those longhairs lost the battle, that doesn’t mean their master strategy was totally bunk. Maybe it’s time we retest the battle-readiness of boobs. Running until August 31…

Naked Linemen and Mall Brawls: A Peek at Deleted Scenes from Rakontur’s The U

If you weren’t totally rabid with adrenaline — T-stepping through the end zone, starting fistfights at the cineplex, throwing coke-powered countdown parties, hiring strippers like Tipdrill and Spyda for lunchtime lapdances, running naked across campus — in the run-up to ESPN’s December premiere of Rakontur’s documentary The U, then you…

The Battle of Boogaloo

Man, it really sucks when a stiff, old white dude shows up with his posse of greedy corporate goons and starts saying things like, “I’ll finish you, your friends, and your whole damn neighborhood!” Before you know it, there’s a convoy of bulldozers rolling up to the doorstep of your…