It was the best of times; the streets seething with idealists, organizers, stinky dreadlocked youth, real-live Communists, and Montanans. It was the worst of times; rows of little men and women swaddled in riot gear playing “superhero.” It was a dangerous circus of the absurd, a fabulous spectacle that eclipsed…
SAT 11/29 Miami-Dade County police Ofcr. Clarence Coffee has probably seen it all in his 31 years of active duty. Today muscle fans will see nearly all of him as he sports a Speedo in his first bodybuilding competition. The 51-year-old father of 5, in a tribute to his recently…
FRI 11/28 It’s easy to overlook the cheerleaders. They can be seen on the game-day sidelines in their matching uniforms. Black and gold for the Liberty City Warriors. Red, white, and black for the Northwest Boys & Girls Clubs Falcons. Not many people realize that these girls battle it out…
SAT 11/29 Hail the Big Art Openings for the Big Art Event. Miami’s galleries and museums are hanging up their top guns for the arrival of Art Basel — and for the Museum of Contemporary Art that means a solo show from William Cordova: “No More Lonely Nights.” He’s known…
SAT 11/29 If amiable, silver-haired folkie Jack Williams ever ends up at your house as a guest, you may want to keep him away from the guitars. Don’t worry: He’s not going to play rock star and smash your collection of Precious Moments figurines to bits with your Fender Strat…
“The past is prologue,” goes the old saying, but for much of the theater, ancient and modern, the past isn’t even past. Many plays have been constructed about past crimes that have risen to disturb the peace of the present. It’s an ongoing trend that’s particularly interesting in contemporary America,…
The beginning of Bill Yule and Barry Ball’s The Boys of Mariel is evocative. Pedro (played by Ricky J. Martinez), a dancer who’s been kicked out of the National Ballet of Cuba, stands center stage in tight jeans and a muscle shirt. He gyrates his hips and pelvis fluidly, smiling…
November, holidays aside, is an ideal month for art viewing. Saturday, November 15, was a breezy night and people seemed eager to check out just about every corner of Miami’s latest art-neighborhood, Wynwood. I perceived a mood of excitement (perhaps because Art Basel is soon to arrive). This review may…
“Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you” goes the old song lyric. In the topsy-turvy world of playwright Charles Busch, that’s not a charming sentiment — it’s a direct threat. The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, now running at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, is a modern fable…
The spooky beauty of Elephant, Gus Van Sant’s strange take on the Columbine massacre, arises not from the shock of sudden violence but from the filmmaker’s steady gaze at the numbing routines of life inside a suburban high school. With what first looks like cool detachment, Van Sant (My Own…
If you’re hankering for a movie about an awkward yet lovable “outsider” type who wanders into a pastel mockup of Middle America and cajoles the straights to get saucy, you’re in luck. It’s called Edward Scissorhands and it’s been available on video for years. Renting it will absolve you of…
In the annals of fraud and fakery, a discredited ex-magazine reporter named Stephen Glass will likely wind up a mere footnote. The people who forge Van Goghs and the con artists who bilk naive grandmothers out of their life savings (not to mention certain fast-dancing corporate executives) even more richly…
The pressures and hassles of life in the big bad city can really do a number on your soul. The lines of pushy preholiday shoppers. The wife. The ex-girlfriend. The snotty teenage stepkids. Bastards. Some other guy’s offspring. You hurtle your SUV through traffic with a vengeance. You imagine inflicting…
Argentine rock star Gustavo Cerati was supposed to perform solo in Miami for the first time last October, as part of an ambitious mix of DJs and Latin alternative acts at the American Airlines Arena, but the megafest was cancelled at the last minute without explanation. “Miami has always been…
NOW 24/7 “It’s an underground thing,” says Joe Aronesty, explaining the nuances of the wig business, which serves the needs, mostly, of women who’ve lost their hair. So Joe, who is all tact, quietly runs his “head” shop from the hidden recesses of his Lincoln Road clothing store. The shingle…
SAT 11/22 Six years ago Floridian Linda Murphy bought a bike so she could enjoy cycling with her family. She pedaled with her peeps, and then some. Last year she also won the Masters World Championship in cross-country mountain biking. Yeah: best on the planet. This week Murphy offers Girls…
SAT 11/22 Whether children know her as Princess Aurora, Briar Rose, or just plain ol’ Sleeping Beauty, this ancient fairy tale has never failed to enchant them, especially in a live theater setting. The story is very old. Scholars believe it to have origins in the Volsunga Sagas and Arthurian…
SUN 11/23 No, that’s not the live version of the Paris Hilton sex video you’re watching. Just a run-of-the-mill performance by French underground artist/musician Jean-Louis Costes. Currently trekking through 22 cities of this vibrant, tolerant country, he’ll bring his Holy Virgin Cult Tour to Churchill’s (5501 NE 2nd Ave.). It’s…
FRI 11/21 Talk about pedigree. With a grandfather like Francisco Formell, arranger extraordinaire for Ernesto Lecuona’s Cuban Boys, and father Juan Formell, the founder/leader of Los Van Van, the musical gods were bound to smile on the talented Juan-Carlos Formell. But it wasn’t until the native Cubano found himself in…
Thursday 11/20 Imagine this entry from the diaries of Lewis & Clark, trekking their way through our country in 1805: “Dear Diary: We’re itching less; there’s fewer mosquitoes the further west we go. As we make our way down the Columbia River, we’re surprised to find chicks! Tons of them…
Where do ideas for musicals come from? Time was, most of them were adaptations of plays or books (My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, South Pacific). Nowadays, though, inspiration for shows comes from all sorts of sources. Take, for example, Bat Boy: The Musical, which began as a “real life”…
There’s a kind of contemporary painting that examines what it means to be making a contemporary painting. Highly recursive, it mines art history and the visual record for intense, sometimes injurious remixing. Its grandpappy is Gerhard Richter, whose 40 years’ worth of paintings were on display at the Museum of…
