Arts & Culture

There’s a unique challenge in designing superhero games: How do you make it fun to play a character who, by definition, is vastly more powerful than his opposition? Hulk encounters a purse-snatcher: Hulk smash! Hulk win! Hulk bored. With battles that one-sided, the thrill of being superheroic quickly wanes –…

Night after night, the hundreds of restaurants in the Magic City compete for your hard-earned dollars. On Ocean Drive they harass you as you walk by, while in other parts of the city, they use a slightly gentler touch and coerce you with tantalizing aromas and to-die-for decor. In Coral…

There is an abundance of hard-bodied men and women in Miami drinking wheatgrass, ordering salads as — gasp — entrées, and exercising as if training for a marathon. Then there’s another group of people who drink Diet Cokes, consider their daily trek to the mailbox a workout, and think that…

In a city where quirky nightspots and live music joints can hardly manage to keep their doors open for a year, there’s a lot to be learned from the leaders of the spoken word community in Miami. Through persistence and continual reinvention, the scene has continued to grow and flourish…

Thanks to the roundly criticized efforts of Gwen Stefani, the world now knows all about the sartorial trends of Japan’s Harajuku district. But many don’t realize that there are many other, equally fashionable districts and styles to be discovered in China, India, and the Pacific Islands. You don’t need a…

Let’s face it, you overdid it last night. You got so excited that you didn’t have to face rush hour traffic, your boss, or that prick at the water cooler today that you decided to drink with reckless abandon and watch the late-night repeat of The Sopranos. So now you’re…

Imagine a group of CIA geeks focusing their high-tech toys on Cuba’s architecture, and you capture a sense of the striking photographs on display in Havana Today in Images. Presented by Miami Dade College’s InterAmerican Campus, the eye-popping exhibit showcases the stark juxtaposition of Havana’s crumbling colonial gems next to…

Slow down, sensei. Journey to Shaolin might sound like a forgotten Bruce Lee flick or possible inspiration for an upcoming Wu-Tang Clan album, but attendees at today’s martial arts play should expect a healthy balance of art and culture amid the flying fists. The play is being put on by…

Every year since 2000, on the eve of Memorial Day, a silent yet audible warning cry ascends from the high-rise condos and garden apartments of South Beach. The hip-hoppers are coming! The hip-hoppers are coming! And like clockwork, locals roll out and clear the way for one of the largest…

While we disagree wholeheartedly with hypocritical doctrine, missionaries, and the entire existence of post-Braveheart Mel Gibson, we also firmly believe that American music would be a wasteland without gospel. Take away Son House, the Carter Family, and Mahalia Jackson, and we’d all be listening to Clay Aiken blow into a…

The beginning of summer is just around the corner and with it comes the celebration of all things floral. A visit to Orchids in the Park will give you a chance to take your pick from the numerous orchid plants donated by local and international growers. This fundraiser’s ten-year anniversary…

It’s always disappointing when you buy tickets to go see your favorite baseball team, only to have them lose. But regardless of who loses the Florida Marlins/New York Mets ball game tonight, fans can cheer up to the infectious tempo of salsa. Puerto Rican salsa pioneers El Gran Combo will…

Tragedies are meant to be mourned, but in some instances, they also inspire action. For Loscar Rodriguez, a.k.a. DJ Solo, the loss of several relatives to cancer motivated him to quit smoking and start up Local Motion, an electro party benefitting the American Cancer Society. Last year’s event raised $2500,…

For nine years the Roots and Culture Festival brought throngs of eager celebrants to Little Haiti for music, food, and fun. But the festival went into hibernation in 2004 for a poignant and personal reason. “One of the main founders, Albert Alexis, died, unfortunately. Very young. He was the key…

Generally considered the best Brazilian singer residing in the U.S., Rose Max should not be taken for granted as just another local musician. Same goes for her husband, bossa nova guitar maestro Ramatis (Moraes). And for that matter, neither should Jazz at MoCA, which typically draws happy crowds to the…

Visit Little Havana on the last Friday of the month and the pungent aroma of cafecito, cigar smoke, and roast pork perfumes the air in anticipation of Viernes Culturales and the collective rump-shaking it brings to the historic Latin nabe. The festive barrio blowout will unfold on Calle Ocho between…

We’ve enjoyed many a trip on the various forms of Miami-Dade public transportation. Well, enjoyed might be too strong a word. Endured, perhaps? While the city buses are usually packed with hardworking people who are just trying to get where they need to be, there’s also a healthy percentage of…

Transcend space and time as DJ Boris from St. Petersburg, Russia returns to Miami’s newest superclub, Nocturnal (50 NE Eleventh St., Miami) for another one of his world famous marathon sets. Two months ago at the Winter Music Conference, he rocked the club’s rooftop terrace into the fifth dimension with…

Who says Memorial Day weekend in Miami has to be all about swaggering thugs? South Beach will transform into a gangsta’s paradise this weekend, complete with aspiring ballers leaning on every available inch of wall space along Washington Avenue, and thong-clad hoochies strutting down Collins Avenue. But the macho guys…

There’s something about a live musical performance that can turn an average night into an awesome experience; the energy emanating from the stage seems to infect the entire room and the music is transformed into a living, breathing thing. After what seems to be a lifetime of hearing prerecorded tracks…