Is there any biblical figure more reviled than Judas Iscariot? The name of the disciple who hath betrayed Jesus with a kiss is universally synonymous with all that is evil, self-serving, and traitorous. The Christian world sees Judas as little more than a two-dimensional character, best known for carrying Jesus’…
Could there be a better time to attend a monster truck show? With rising gas prices, a mounting recession, and environmental paranoia, it might be our only escape from reality. It’s not the most sophisticated sporting event, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anything more kick-ass. There is something extremely…
Michael Madd loves “the haters.” The more they hate, the harder he works. He says they’re jealous, that it’s in their nature to envy, that every successful person experiences a backlash from his or her community in response to how well the individual is doing. As a promoter of Miami…
In office spaces across the city, workers make the 9-to-5 grind more bearable by promising themselves an after-work happy hour filled with fried cheese sticks and dollar beers. And even if your boss allows you to stash Michelob Light and Cheetos in your cubicle, there’s a reprieve for you lucky…
There used to be stiff competition on Miami’s karaoke scene before 1998. In those dark ages, would-be singers who yearned to belt out “I Will Survive” someplace other than their shower had to seek out hole-in-the-wall bars or darkened corners of Asian restaurants for their fix. Thankfully, those days are…
You’re standing onstage, handcuffed to a post, wearing a blue g-string and black leather straps over your head and chest. ScaryMary stands over you, six feet tall in her platform shoes, with a thin, manly physique. “You obviously love pain,” she tells you as she twists the clamps on your…
We are a culture of imbibers, and whether we’re celebrating a life, a death, or a pink slip, you can bet there’s a bottle of hooch in the vicinity. During happy hour, you can usually also find hot wings and disgruntled workers, but two hot spots are turning that stereotype…
Jim Gaffigan has milked his pale complexion for a lot of laughs, most notably with Pale Force — a recurring skit on Late Night with Conan O’Brien featuring animated superhero versions of O’Brien and Gaffigan fighting crimes committed by overly tanned villains. Miami Beach might as well be headquarters for…
“Curves” by Lochai Browsing his most recent show, you get the feeling few people enjoy their job as much as photographer Lochai. His Beach Bound exhibit at the World Erotic Art Museum (1205 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach) is a study in Lochai’s various fetishes. While front and center is the…
On the surface, Pineapple Express offers precisely what it advertises: a roll-’em-up, smoke-’em-up, blow-’em-up bromantic comedy from the freaks and geeks who have made Judd Apatow’s brand of stunted-man yuks a global franchise. Once more, Seth Rogen’s red-rimmed, half-shut eyes peek out from beneath his tousled Jewfro, which sits atop…
Resist if you dare, and for as long as you must, but even the hoariest haters eventually succumbed to the girly, cottony charms of 2005’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, if in the privacy of their Netflix queues. I foresee a similar fate for its blandly engaging sequel: moms, daughters,…
You hear the same words used over and over to describe Soul Calibur IV, words like forced. Jarring. Anachronistic. But to me, the word that describes shoehorning Darth Vader and Yoda into a game about sentient swords, Renaissance-era combat, and plucky female martial artists is simply desperate. That’s not even…
Hello, Kitty: I’m 26 years old and I came out of the closet last year, ready to be myself by any means necessary. For the past 10 years or so, I’ve hidden my sexuality by having relationships with females, but never having sex with them — I couldn’t take the…
Samuel Schultz’s gut-heaving black-and-white 40-second video piece is arguably one of the sickest bits of film in recent memory. Rat Bite depicts an extreme closeup of a man’s mouth in which the dolt’s tongue glistens like a mackerel as thin strands of saliva cling from the roof of his palate…
Nathan Sawaya: The Art of the Brick and Child’s Play Through August 10. Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, 1650 Harrison St., Hollywood; 954-921-3274, www.artandculturecenter.org These two roughly concurrent shows are a reminder that a municipal arts institution need not play it safe. Lawyer-turned-artist Sawaya transcends gimmicky via works created…
Despite the heavy air and lush green landscape, the drive west on Stirling Road can remind one of the approach to the much drier, much browner Las Vegas. The glow over the Seminole Hard Rock, pierces the surrounding darkness, beckoning the gamesters and thrill seekers, much like Sin City. But…
Bryan Adams sang fondly about the summer of ’69, but folks who lived through the era know that not everything was groovy patchouli. Back in those days, Elliot Tiber was unhappily deep in the closet and struggling with his own emotional issues. He’d moved back home with his parents in…
Even while she was growing up before our eyes as Gwendolyn “Winnie” Cooper, doe-eyed love interest of Fred Savage’s character in the poignant coming-of-age sitcom The Wonder Years, behind the scenes, young Danica McKellar was no slacker. Instead of building a reputation as an up-and-coming party girl, she kept her…
It takes far less than five minutes to convey complex emotion, which might be why we determine compatibility with others based on first encounters. That initial reaction is a sort of vetting process that comes in particularly handy in bar environments. Say a strange guy starts chatting you up; you’ll…
At one point in his life, Ralphie May weighed more than 800 pounds. And still he was making jokes about it. “I beat anorexia!” he’d declare in his stand-up act. May makes fun of himself constantly. Thanks to gastric bypass and the rigors of Celebrity Fit Club, he’s now clocking…
The typical image of a belly dancer is a woman with a sly smile and come-hither hips draped in flowy fabric, but there are dudes out there who get down in the traditional Middle Eastern dance. Yeah, a vision of those Macarena men just popped into our heads too. But…
If you consider the late-Sixties psych/sapsters the Turtles as “that band that sang ‘Happy Together,’” you need to revisit them. Their arsenal of hit singles runs the gamut of poppy ditties, such as “She’d Rather Be with Me” and “You Baby (Ain’t Nobody but You),” to the swingin’ serenade “Elenore.”…
