When a theater is packed with children instead of adults, it becomes a site not of high culture but of mass fidgeting. On a recent Wednesday morning, the Shores Performing Arts Theater was filled with an audience whose heads barely topped the backs of their seats. The crowd was neatly…
Down the Road: To blame society’s problems on celebrity culture is shallow beyond contempt, but it will always appeal to those more interested in bitching than thinking. The same can be said for Lee Blessing’s Down the Road. It’s the story of Iris and Dan Henniman (Margie Elias Eisenberg and…
During Art Basel Miami Beach last year, Lilian Fernandez was crestfallen that none of her abstract paintings was on display at any of the fairs’ events or exhibits. To cope with her depression, she ritualistically ripped one of her canvases, The Flowers That My Mother Painted, into 38 envelope-size sections,…
Asian Art from the Bass Museum Collection and Treasures from the Bass Museum of Art: With a bushel of blue-ribbon shows, the Bass has embarked on perhaps its busiest programming season. Deciding on which shows to see among the museum’s expansive menu might be as slippery as handling a hog…
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Columbia) This cut of Will Ferrell’s NASCAR comedy runs 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and that doesn’t take into account the deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, phony commercials, public-service announcements, and gag reel. A movie that already seemed to be constructed…
Nintendo has achieved the impossible: My 50-year-old, nongaming father wants a Wii for Christmas. Either I’ve been whisked to Bizarro World, or The House That Mario Built is on to something big. With the release of its oddly monikered next-gen system, Nintendo may just have revolutionized the way America will…
AFI: I Heard a Voice (Interscope) Air Buddies (Disney) Ali Rap (ESPN) The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series (Paramount) Barnyard (Paramount) The Chronicles of Narnia: Four-Disc Extended Edition (Disney) A Dead Calling (Lions Gate) The Doors (Lions Gate) James Bond: Ultimate Edition Volumes 3 and 4 (MGM) John Wayne…
Okay, so maybe you’ve stopped dreaming of a white Christmas, but some things about the holidays never change. And on that list — right after department store sales and eggnog — is the immortal ballet, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. The timeless story of a little girl who finds much more…
It is easy for those not familiar with Miami’s massive territory to assume that anything not hugging a beach is a boring suburb. But even venues in the burbs know how to party. Amid the high-rises and upscale stores of Aventura sits a stylish number with just the right mix…
The hip-hop scene on South Beach has a bum rap. When crowds of rap-loving revelers flock to our sandy shores on holiday weekends, the po-po comes out with riot gear at the ready. Hooligans wearing throwbacks (that should have been thrown back) and half-dressed hoochies in dusty threads aren’t encouraged…
In America it’s an insult that refers to a foolish, naive, or loathsome person (see the classic 1979 Steve Martin comedy for further elucidation). In Jamaica it’s a style of cooking that produces incredibly spicy, uniquely delicious meat. When it comes to jerks, we definitely prefer the kind that comes…
Time to stop making excuses about how difficult it is for a championship team to motivate itself early in a season. The Miami Heat need to get winning, and get winning now, or they won’t even make the playoffs this year. Yikes. Time to bring back Stan Van Gundy? Maybe…
You might think that bottle of bubbly is champagne, but unless it was actually produced in the French province for which the elixir is named, it’s just sparkling wine. High-quality products are often given geographical misnomers to jack up the suggested retail price. One such example is Italian olive oil…
Joke all you want about holiday shoppers going cyber merely to avoid another round of carols blasting from the store PA systems, but you really can’t get into the holiday spirit unless you keep yourself on a proper dosage of traditional tunes. Although klezmer is a secular form of music…
Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire is one of those films you have to see. Seriously. Ask anyone who has seen it, and they will tell you it is brilliant, beautiful, and life-changing. The 1987 film is set in the war-damaged city of Berlin, where trench-coat-wearing angels try to comfort mortals…
You will not be punished eternally if you decline donating to every fundraiser, walkathon, and charity event in the world. But one organization has pledged to raise $50,000 for a cause that hits close to home. The JunTos Foundation was created in honor of two local baseball players, Juanchi de…
They sound like something out of a snow-covered, quaint New England Christmas: horse-drawn carriage rides. Except this holiday season, carriages will roll past palm trees, swank stores, and Mediterranean architecture in downtown Coral Gables. As part of the Holidays in Downtown promotion, free fifteen-minute carriage rides will be offered to…
Get into the spirit of the season – the winter solstice, Earth-loving season – at this weekend’s Moonfaire. Hosted by the Witch’s Garden, this spiritual gathering will surely shake you from your December depression and inspire you to revel in your natural surroundings. You won’t find Santa or the Hanukkah…
It is never too early to get your wee ones interested in football. Go ahead, strap little Sawyer or Maddox into a helmet and some pads, and send him on his way to gridiron glory. (How else is he going to afford to be able to support your retirement dreams?)…
What if you took all of your delinquent teenage nephew’s favorite pastimes – playing Gran Turismo on his Xbox, reading Maxim, ogling pictures of hot models, watching World Poker Tour, and downloading hip-hop – and blended them together, miraculously brought them to life, and sent them on tour across America?…
When Chicago industrialist James Deering had his palatial retreat built on Biscayne Bay, the Magic City was still a sleepy hamlet with less than 10,000 residents. The cosmopolitan bachelor, who crashed at his swank tropical crib only during the winter months between 1916 and 1925, had traveled to Italy with…
What are the holidays without a little singing? In this day and age, we can’t go a-caroling door-to-door (imagine that in Miami), but we can go to the beach and belt out a tried-and-true holiday tune. At least today we can – when the Lincoln Road Concert Series begins with…
