Did you know that over 30 percent of your automobile trips are less than one mile in length? We drive five times more than the average Japanese and three times more than the average European (a total of 11 million barrels of oil a day just to support our transportation…
Thursday August 21 We’ve said it 99 times before, and now we’ll say it for the 100th time. We’ve never seen a fat fireman! The time we got stuck in an elevator with our friend’s dog (who, if you must know, was very calm about the whole matter), the men…
One of the intriguing aspects of the South Florida stage scene is the “branding” of the many resident companies here. Instead of cherry-picking specific plays from various theaters, audiences tend to stick with certain troupes, regardless of what programming they offer. And theaters that thrive here do so in part…
When we head off to the galleries we may think we find a wide range of artists and styles, but we’re actually missing the work of a significant population of the city, that of the African American. I’m talking about established black artists born in the United States, as opposed…
Chiwetel Ejiofor is phoning in from Montreal. Sounds like a Tom Waits lyric, but it’s true: The fresh, gifted actor with the tricky handle is too busy at present (just finished doing The Canterbury Tales for BBC-TV, currently working on the feature Slow Burn with LL Cool J and Jolene…
When was the last time you said to yourself: “Y’know, what I seek for my viewing pleasure is a boring, obscenely diluted remake of Fight Club set in the fascinating world of dentistry”? Indeed it is a grave displeasure to announce that stellar director Alan Rudolph (The Moderns) has delivered…
Could there be anything more Zen than standing on the lawn, garden hose in hand, sprinkling water on the thirsty, sunburned grass and attempting to bring it back to life? Uh, yes, you could be standing on the lawn, garden hose in hand, sprinkling water on your new bamboo saplings…
Thursday August 14 With more than twelve books of humorous drawings under his belt, it is obvious cartoonist Steve Gould has a lot to get off his chest. His latest collection, Less is Less, pokes a sardonic finger in the ribs of middle age; low-carb, low-fat, and low-flavor dieting; exercise,…
Men wearing striking tribal attire standing randomly in a road. A beautiful woman bartender poised gracefully at her work station. Buff jocks engaged in a collective sweaty workout. Two smiling men seated on a motorcycle in motion. These four arresting black-and-white images from four different nations, all made by photographer…
Saturday August 16 What would a psycho-spiritual movement be without a large-scale ritual? The Hava Nagila celebrates joy, the pilgrimage to Mecca reveres privation and devotion to Allah, and the Hokey Pokey venerates the sacred act of booty-shaking. Not to be outdone, post-hippie, nouveau new agers are once again stirring…
Friday August 15 It’s been a heady summer for the Florida Marlins. People are attending their games; the local papers are running loving, wistful features comparing them with the 1997 World Champions; and first-year pitcher Dontrelle Willis is being talked up as a potential Rookie of the Year. Last weekend…
Now 24/7 There’s only one sport that reigns supreme in Miami: football. That hosanna of hut-ones and hut-twos you’re hearing is the beginning, finally, of a new season of play. While the big-time version grabs all the attention (Dolphins quarterbacks Jay Fiedler and Brian Griese dueling for the helm, the…
Saturday August 16 Those jumpy 8mm films buried in the family attic might just be valuable cultural artifacts. Remember the footage of your trip to a strawberry patch when you were a kid? That fruit patch most likely is a Sunset Drive strip mall. From watching your grandmother’s steamy days…
Thursday August 14 The hills of Britain and the jungles of Africa may have little in common, but don’t tell that to Baka Beyond, the rollicking musical group that attempts some serious cultural bridge-building with its Afro-Celtic sound. The Brit contingent of the band spent several months with the Baka…
Having breakfast with theatrical producer Jay H. Harris is like taking a quick trip to Broadway. We are noshing at Lester’s, a retro diner in Fort Lauderdale, but Harris’s rapid-fire delivery and wide range of show-biz subjects makes the place feel more like the Edison Hotel coffee shop on West…
That indulgence in art has generally been a pastime for the rich is true. But the popular notion that collecting art is prohibitively expensive is false. At one point Van Gogh — arguably the best-sold artist in history — bartered his paintings for food. And so did Modigliani, Soutine, Pascin,…
Military clerk Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is something of a modern-day Sergeant Bilko. Anything you need, he can get. Any scam that’s possible, he’ll run. Never mind the bumbling Colonel Berman (Ed Harris) who ostensibly runs the unit — Elwood has him wrapped around his finger. There’s just one major…
Those who remember Javier Bardem as the heartthrob poet from Before Night Falls, or the distinguished detective in The Dancer Upstairs, may be shocked to find that in his latest film to reach these shores, Mondays in the Sun, the Latin hunk is balding, bearded, and fat. Admittedly, he may…
You just can’t help looking up — and looking painfully like a tourist — in any big city you visit. Sure, you might be a seasoned world traveler with a passport that sports stamps from Kansas City to Kuala Lumpur, but in front of tall buildings like the Sears Tower,…
One could refer to the directors and writers of the French New Wave as the original anti-Doris Day contingent. Dedicated to telling tales of misfits, adulterers, bandits, and single, promiscuous women during the era when the queen of squeaky-clean was making goofy love, American style, in kooky Technicolor classics such…
Now 24/7 Sizzle, swelter, big hair gone awry, one phrase sums up Miami in August: “Coño, it’s HOT!” No surprise, same old story each year. The blazing summer scorches your hand and leaves your face beet red every time you enter your car each afternoon this season. While there’s no…
Saturday August 9 Each day millions of creatures, from the ordinary to the mysterious, wade in our shores. Various species of crustaceans, seahorses, pipe fish, and sea urchins live in the grasses that line the outer rim of South Florida’s natural mangrove habitats, themselves shelters for a seemingly endless supply…
