If optimism and determination are the twin guardians of success, then Teddy Herrell Jr. and his African-American Performing Arts Community Theatre are doubly blessed. The plucky troupe, which aims to present professional theater accessible to inner-city audiences, especially young people, appears undeterred by challenges it has taken on. Witness AAPACT’s…
Air, Fire, Water: Jim Tommaney’s three short plays range widely in subject and effectiveness but stick to a central tone of foreboding. In Air, a speaker opposed to the war in Iraq is threatened by shadowy government operatives. In Fire, a psychiatric patient menaces his therapist. In the best of…
Lespri Endepandan: Discovering Haitian Sculpture,” now on display at FIU’s Frost Art Museum, is a great show. This is the first time that sculpture from Haiti has been the sole focus of a major museum exhibition. The art speaks of the power of human creation over adversity: of inventiveness, craft,…
Adhesive 44: Fulfilling art writer John Berger’s prediction that museums of the future would ultimately disappear and be replaced by personal arrangements of reproductions and printed ephemera, Brazilian artist Jac Leirner unpacks her decalcomania at the Miami Art Museum. Composed of hundreds of stickers adhered to two rows of window…
It was only a matter of time before Hollywood capitalized on the sympathy and admiration that have enveloped the nation’s firefighters since 9/11, and here we are. Jay Russell’s action-packed, flame-broiled Ladder 49 is an all-out valentine to the firehouse fraternity that might never have gotten to the screen were…
Shark Tale is an animated film, though after you see it you might wonder whether the term is intended as oxymoronic. Put simply, it has no life in it at all. Not even the youngsters roped into an afternoon preview screening seemed terribly interested. Perhaps they’ve grown tired of computer-made…
Dubya has finally managed to pencil it into his busy schedule, so the two main candidates for the position of leader of the free world will come face to face in Miami for their first duel. No, not the Zell Miller glove-slap, pistols-at-dawn kind. This will be a war of…
On most days Miami-based artist Pablo Cano, known for fanciful creations fashioned from a mind-boggling array of found objects, might be seen with his head in a garbage dumpster or scouring vintage stores for cool junk. Currently, though, the mild-mannered Cano is caught in the middle of a passionate love…
Survivors share their stories FRI 10/1 Even those saturated with media reports of violence were aghast when the Marla Hanson tragedy made the news in the 1980s. The story of the beautiful young model, whose face was ravaged by two razor-wielding thugs hired by a jealous landlord, shocked and angered…
Party like it’s 1839 SAT 10/2 It’s one of life’s delicious ironies that the Dade County seat was established to provide a legal loophole for a dishonest businessman. The year was 1836, the site of the new county seat was Indian Key, and the scoundrel was Jacob Housman. The maneuver…
Big bottle brings benevolence SAT 10/2 Medical experts have said a glass of red wine each day can have beneficial health effects. At a mammoth 130 liters, the bottle of Beringer Vineyards 2001 Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon currently making its way across the country on a 25th anniversary…
Conjuring a conscience with corporate crap FRI 10/1 Ordinary college kids. It seems all they think about is drinking, playing video games, and achieving superstardom the easy way by appearing on a TV reality show or in the latest series of Girls Gone Wild (and now Guys Gone Wild) videos…
THU 30 Cheesecake fantasy. Chocolate devotion. Birthday cake remix. Black forest dream. If you love ice cream, you’ll recognize these as a few of Cold Stone Creamery’s insanely good creations. If you love ice cream and football, you’re in for a double delight. The Reach for the Stars Foundation’s Ice…
The very best thing about A Dirty Shame, a giddy sex farce from John Waters, is the credits. What’s not to love about a list of characters that includes “Sylvia Stickles,” “Marge the Neuter,” “Fat Fuck Frank,” “Cow Patty,” and “Tire Lick Boy”? The soundtrack, too, bears comic fruit, with…
Ash is feeling a little bit under the weather, so I’ll be taking charge.” So says Shaun (Simon Pegg) to his valiant crew of appliance salespeople, but if you don’t get the real meaning, you’re probably not part of the target audience for Shaun of the Dead. Ash, for the…
On any given night, people across the planet can follow the crime-busting antics of trend-setting detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Incredibly, twenty years after the premiere of Miami Vice and its resulting headlock on pop culture, one can still witness sockless mooks in pastel sports jackets dodging the fashion…
Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club, which became the twitchy 1999 film starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, and bestsellers Lullaby, Survivor, and Invisible Monsters. He’s currently promoting Diary, a morbid tale about artistic inspiration. His upcoming book is a Poe-inspired collection of horror stories, including the gory, controversial Guts, which…
Comic book art explored TUE 9/28 All great art or literature — especially the avant-garde — mimics the sensibilities of its era and continues to speak for its time long after the styles have been co-opted, drained, and replaced by the new. Although still denigrated by some high-brow connoisseurs, comic…
Canines bust a move THU 9/23 Think your Tuffy has what it takes to run with the big dogs? Then check it out for yourself at the Miami Obedience Club’s four days of agility trials, where canines of every size and shape compete for the chance to be named top…
A trip through the drinking glass TUE 9/28 From the ABC to the XYZ of cups, the University of Miami’s New Gallery (1210 Stanford Dr., Coral Gables) opens an exhibition starring, drum roll, please … the “CUP” in all its glorious incarnations. This cupstravaganza features everything from brawny tumblers to…
Mundo Vibe makes noise SUN 9/26 To walk around with an exclamation point at the end of your name and be taken halfway seriously, you better be a sunny optimistic sort who makes people smile when you appear. Jan Sebon!, poet, musician, and media maven, is just that kind of…
Theater has long been praised for holding “the mirror up to nature” to reveal reality through the artifice of performance. Yet, remarkably, our post 9/11 reality — filled with threat, fear, war, blundering, and duplicity — took quite a while to filter into new plays. Now, a somber, deeply pessimistic…
