Remember 2015? It was a strange year for local music thanks to one massive void. WZTA – the area's only alternative station – disappeared in February of that year and, for six long months, rock lovers had nowhere to tune. Then an angel arrived, in the form of 104.3 FM "The Shark." Seven years in, the Shark has become a Miami rock mainstay, with weekly shindigs like Emo Nite and Alternalido (Latin jams) on Sundays and loveable weekday deejays like Ashley O and Dallas making miserable South Florida traffic (almost) bearable. Now under the Audacy umbrella, its annual festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach (known as Audacy Beach Festival) has been taken to the max, with Twenty One Pilots, the Lumineers, Lil Nas X, and more gracing its main stage in the December 2021 edition. In oh so many ways, the Shark rocks — and it had better not even think of leaving us.

What do you say about the man that has seen, done, and talked about it all throughout his illustrious radio broadcasting career? You point out how his public love affair with the McDonald's McRib — without pickles, by the way — is a horrific food take, but he is loved anyway. Hochman is like the LeBron James of sports radio: He makes everyone around him better. His current domination of the afternoon drive simulcast on both WQAM and 790 The Ticket (WAXY) is akin to LeBron playing for the Lakers and Clippers simultaneously. Could he do it? Probably. Does Hochman do this daily? Yes. Advantage, Hochman. The trifecta of Hochman, Channing Crowder, and Alex Solana on the airwaves every day makes South Florida that much better of a sports town. And it makes us incredibly thankful.

Journalists get a lot of emails. Like...a lot. When publicists send their generic pitch letters with that standard copy-and-paste language where they just change the name up top (and sometimes forget to do even that), they're almost surely bound for the trash bin, unread. The mark of a good flack is one who does the research. And it shows. Abbie Lipton of Durée & Company will never, not ever, send you a generic pitch. She tailors her emails to the reporter and pitches stories the writer would likely take an interest in. The account director represents a range of clients, from art to food, including the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA) and the Eat Me Guilt Free brand. She also knows that building individual rapport with a reporter goes a long way. When a writer receives a pitch from Abbie, both parties are aware that it may well turn out to be a good story.

According to U.S. News & World Report's exhaustive study of 24,000 public high schools in the nation, the School for Advanced Studies isn't just the best school in Miami, it's the best in the state of Florida, and fourth-best in the entire country. Spread out over Miami Dade College's five campuses (Homestead, Kendall, North, West, and Wolfson), SAS allows high school juniors and seniors to use their last two years to a head start in college by simultaneously earning their associate's degree. A public institution, SAS is open to any Miami-Dade resident who meets the grade and testing requirements with an impartial lottery deciding who gets in in the event there's an excess of qualified candidates. Merit mixed with luck — it's an admission policy that makes for a student body that matches Miami's diversity.

An up-and-coming director must possess authenticity, tenacity, and above all, curiosity. Chris Molina possesses all these traits, making him an exciting, emerging filmmaker. Over the past few years, he's been a behind-the-scenes fixture with various film productions, festivals, and collectives, absorbing the film culture of South Florida. He's channeled that energy into his own films, like the confessional and insightful, Is That All There Is? (2020), and, most recently, The Truth of a Thousand Nights (2021), which won "Best Film" at this year's Miami Film Festival. Molina has also supported his fellow filmmakers through the creation of the Sun Pass Film Festival and its new offshoot, Anita's Film Festival. That kind of involvement is essential to Molina's own art. Already a two-time Sundance Ignite finalist and recent artist-in-residence at Oolite Arts, Molina is becoming a marquee name in South Florida's film scene.

Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman, founders of the production company Rakontur, have been friends and filmmaking partners since their high school days in the 1990s. In fact, they snagged this honor last year for 537 Votes, an incisive look back at Miami-Dade's pivotal role in the 2000 presidential election. But their 2021 documentary Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami, just might be the most #BecauseMiami tale of them all. The six-part docuseries opens with a catchy theme song by local boy Pitbull and chronicles the story of how local childhood pals Augusto "Willy" Falcon and Salvador "Sal" Magluta (AKA Willy and Sal) went from dealing dime bags to controlling America's most robust cocaine empire during the 1970s and '80s. Through archival videos and interviews with former prosecutors, drug smugglers, and journalists, the series illustrates how the duo trafficked millions of dollars' worth of cocaine from Colombia into the United States, all while somehow staying one step ahead of the law. The series, available for streaming on Netflix, is the third in Rakontur's Cocaine Cowboys series and draws heavily on former New Times staff writer Jim DeFede's dogged coverage of the rise and fall of Willy and Sal. Slow claps for local journalism!

Do you dream of a shirtless Hugh Jackman floating in a water tank with suction cups stuck to his head? Have you wondered what Miami will potentially look like if we ignore rising sea levels? Don't worry, we'll have rowboats. Although Lisa Joy's (Westworld) 2021 sci-fi thriller Reminiscence was mostly filmed in New Orleans (one of the main locations was that city's abandoned Six Flags — creepy!), the production crew shot aerial drone footage of the Magic City, then CGI'd permanent high tide and dreariness. The film scored a decisive 36 percent splat on Rotten Tomatoes and inspired New York Times critic Manohla Dargis to label it "highfalutin, lightly enjoyable mush." Thanks for the memories, Hugh!

The past few years have been a struggle for art houses around the world. Coral Gables Art Cinema, along with O Cinema and the Tower, have made it through those dark times. This year, Gables set itself apart by continuing its commitment to connecting the community through carefully curated cinema programming and adding a fresh point of view. That new perspective came in the form of filmmaker April Dobbins taking the role of programming director. In addition to standard art-house fare, like the latest Almodóvar and Oscar nominees, Dobbins' keen eye brought in adventurous films like The Pink Cloud, the daring Gagarine, and future cult classic Strawberry Mansion. Politically charged cinema from Chad (Lingui: The Sacred Bond) and Palestine (Huda's Salon) offered thought-provoking tales from nations underrepresented in mainstream curation. Perhaps most memorable and impactful, "Strong Black Leads," a ten-film salute to Black cinema, eclipsed the perfunctory Black History Month programming of the past, pointing to the depth and variety of Black representation in American cinema. This was the year the Coral Gables Art Cinema underlined the "art" in art cinema.

A fixture in South Miami since the late 1990s, the AMC Sunset Place 24 continues to offer blockbuster films, award contenders, and international and independent cinema. With a whopping 24 screens in operation, it is a bona fide megaplex that offers a variety of options for your viewing pleasure. The mall where it resides has seen better days, but you can still find great places to eat and drink before or after the movie. In contrast to some newer theaters in the area, Sunset keeps costs relatively reasonable and offers a discounted ticket on Tuesdays. Equipped with 3D, IMAX, and Dolby Cinema, AMC Sunset Place 24 beats sitting on the couch when you want to watch a big, brash Hollywood spectacle. It's what Nicole Kidman means when she says, "Dazzling images on a huge silver screen. Sound that I can feel."

Miami New Drama does the opposite of what many other theater companies do: It purposely avoids the well-known crowd favorites. While Broadway hits and other popular productions rake in ticket sales elsewhere, Miami New Drama eschews the status quo with seasons that consist of mostly new, world premiere plays and musicals. They proudly embrace their role as a smaller, hyperlocal theater company by aiming their work directly at Miamians, with stories that reflect the city's culture. The Cuban Vote, an iteration of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, premiered at the Miami New Drama's home base, the Colony Theatre in April 2022, exploring local politics. During the height of the pandemic, when many theater artists were jobless, the company produced"The 7 Deadly Sins," a series of seven commissioned short plays performed in empty Lincoln Road storefronts for limited audiences. That bold risk paid off when "Sins" won a 2021 Drama League award for Interactive or Socially Distanced Theater, placing MND on the national stage. Bravo!