NOW 24/7 Yeah, it was an extreme political situation: Miami Beach Commissioner Matti Bower facing off with City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, wielding a stick and slashing the air with it. The incident happened earlier this month. Beach folk bore witness to this exhibit of politico exuberance, only recently eclipsed by…
THU 1/29 The Florida Center for the Literary Arts opens its writers’ residency and lecture series with a not-necessarily-politically-correct discourse. Prolific, award-winning author Francine Prose will lecture on “Scent of a Woman’s Ink: Why Women are Still Being Read Differently from Men.” When her original essay on the subject appeared…
SUN 2/1 Christians, Jews, and Muslims are finally getting together, not around the world but at the Coconut Grove Playhouse (3500 Main Hwy.). This afternoon at 4:30 following a 2:00 p.m. performance of Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner’s drama The Chosen, a panel discussion will ensue exploring how religions can…
Bon Voyage Watching Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s big World War II drama Bon Voyage is like taking a vivid trip back to the middle of the Twentieth Century. This retro journey is not just because of the detailed Art Deco production design or the Nazis versus Free French storyline. The entire ethos…
Thursday 1/29 The media is responsible for all of society’s ills. The media is slanted. The media lies and perpetuates false attitudes that most Americans don’t share. The media is the original Axis of Evil. The media is made up of pot-smoking, cross-dressing, leftist, pinko Commies. Blah, blah, blah, blah,…
Watching the Hollywood Playhouse’s new, energetic production of Beau Jest: The Musical is like attending two shows in one. As entertainment, this musical version of the popular comedy offers some sprightly tunes while retaining the original show’s humor and offering a fine performing ensemble. The play draws dramatic strength from…
There is a recent generation of American men who came of age too late for free love and wanton property-grabbing, and too early for postgrunge emotional wankery and info-age immediacy. Stuck on their iceberg, isolated by oceans from anything real like the original punk or Goth movements or Australia’s cinematic…
Behold a tale of true love (between a boy and a bicycle), of tireless courage (from a bitty grandmother with a club foot), and of a very shocking new definition of sexy (three wizened matriarchs who ravenously slurp down frogs). This is The Triplets of Belleville, an animated extravaganza of…
So the senseless wit of improvisational comedy isn’t always as funny as rehearsed routines? At least nobody’s wasting time writing it. And in times when nobody has time, skipping a consuming phase of the creative process embodies modern ingenuity, not laziness. But appreciating the spontaneity of improv is less about…
In 1945 Joseph Pilates published his revolutionary fitness manifesto, Return to Life Through Contrology. The thin volume has pictures of a tanned and toned 60-year-old master demonstrating his stretching and resistance regimen in tight Burt Lancaster briefs. Though the pictures evoke a timeworn prescription for health, the ideas expressed in…
SAT 1/24 In Frank Capra’s 1937 classic, Lost Horizon, our handsome protagonist Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) is haunted by a strange feeling of déjà vu while lost in the Himalayan utopia, Shangri-La. “I sense I’ve been here before,” he tells the beautiful doe-eyed Sondra (Jane Wyatt). “Everything is somehow familiar.”…
SAT 1/24 Would you buy a ticket to watch a man coax 1700 horses into submission while the steeds haul 12,000 pounds of steel and fling their load 25 feet into the air? Multiply the spectacle by about a dozen and you’ve got an event that’s something close to this…
SUN 1/25 Fine art museums are not child-friendly. Curious little hands and clumsy little feet have no place near million-dollar canvases. Not to mention the tendency of 20th-century art to be shocking, if not completely vulgar or prurient — which is a shame because many modern artists derived inspiration from…
THU 1/22 You’re intellectual, caring, and humorous. You must be a monkey. In the lunar calendar of Chinese astrology, that is. Yes, it’s Chinese New Year and you guessed it: The year of the monkey is upon us. We don’t recommend eating a bushel of bananas to celebrate. Instead head…
FRI 1/23 Twenty years after breaking up eclectic rock trio The Police, Sting is hotter than ever. Credit his new album Sacred Love, where his delicate exchange with Mary J. Blige almost allows people to forget other unfortunate duets, e.g. backing up P. Diddy. Also credit Broken Music, his autobiography…
Thursday 1/22 Ahh, the media, never tiring of their incessant navel-gazing. What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? Who the hell cares anyway? Well, some people do and they’ll be the ones attending this evening’s symposium, titled Managing Perceptions: Media, Propaganda, and the War on Terrorism, at…
When aspiring independent filmmaker Justin Routt calls you up asking for help on his movie — free help, that is — don’t think that just because the industry outsider has no money, connections, or prior experience in moviemaking, he’ll be easily deterred. On the contrary. Routt has somehow got it…
Does anyone know more about South Florida history than Paul George? Now we’ll finally find out for sure. Recognized for the numerous tours he’s conducted over the past twenty years in or around places like the Miami City Cemetery, the Miami River, Hollywood, Coral Gables, Stiltsville, and Morningside, the local…
At 2:00 my telephone rings. “Hello Juan, this is Sandra Bernhard,” a clear, enunciated voice says in rapid staccato. “I’m supposed to call you in a couple of hours, but I overbooked myself with interviews. Can we talk now?” My eyes roll. “That’s just so typical of you,” I tease…
NOW 24/7 In a world where celebrity sells, having your likeness reproduced in the form of a bobblehead doll may very well be the highest measure of an athlete’s worth. Whether it’s through raw athleticism or magnetic theatricality, a bobblehead doll means you are a somebody in your respective arena…
SAT 1/17 Big-mouth baseball players: You’re on notice. It’s time to put up or shut up. The Global Scouting Bureau (GSB) is rolling into town, rattling your very own keys to the planet, during a 2-day Professional Baseball Tryout. Since 1998 GSB has signed 1200 players to scores of leagues…
NOW 24/7 Being a good sailor is simple when you have major bucks to spend on a fancy boat, club membership fees, and what seems like endless maritime maintenance. Never mind actually devoting some money toward learning how to handle a vessel. Now you’re broke and suddenly feeling just a…
