Arts & Culture

Frost art exhibit explores Big Macs and Mao

When you see the roster for the Broward-based Gold Coast Derby Grrls, know that Zombitch, Shreddie Mercury, Sookie Skankhouse, and Freak-A-Rella shed plenty of blood and tears for their kick-ass names. They risked dislocated jaws, shattered clavicles, and torn ACLs — all common injuries in this riot grrl sport of…

You might think every day is a bacchanalia in the southernmost city in the continental United States, but there actually is an official Key West Bacchanalia, an orgy of good food and strong drink that takes place Thursday, May 26, through Sunday, June 12, at venues all over town. Rum…

Ten-hut! For-ward, march! OK, recruits, the Gables’ ultraposh Biltmore Hotel doesn’t host that kind of boot camp — more like a Christian Louboutin camp for aspiring foodies. It’s the hotel’s culinary boot camp: three days of intensive instruction in how to feed yourself like a chef instead of a pusher…

Worshipping at the church of wretched gastronomic excess has just gotten easier with the debut of Sunday brunch at Vida American brasserie at way over the top Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at $59 for adults and half that for the kiddies, the menu is…

Summer heat and humidity: bad. Summer fruit: good. Rare tropical fruit samples at the Redland Summer Fruit Festival: even better. There are local wines and food too, plus the chance to nibble on fruititarian delicacies that our nontropical countrymen can only dream about. Just cruise down to Homestead’s Fruit &…

There isn’t a person in the First World unfamiliar with the story The Wizard of Oz. A young Kansas girl named Dorothy embarks on a magnificent journey (not unlike an insane crystal meth bender so common in that region today) and befriends a cowardly lion, a scarecrow, and a shoddily…

When Commodore Matthew Perry led the U.S. Navy into Japan in 1854, forcing the island nation to open its ports to the outside world, little did he realize his actions would lead to the swift rise of a brutal empire. Japan soon transformed into an industrialized power unafraid to use…

Long before pop stars set out to create a brand image, there were the burly, bearded guys of ZZ Top. From the late ’70s to today, even folks who couldn’t name one of the band’s songs could likely recognize its signature look. Bassist Dusty Hill’s and guitarist Billy Gibbons’s matching,…

When a baseball franchise with tight pockets is on the verge of losing a star player to a team with brighter lights and bigger checks, it has two options: Trade the player for a bundle of prospects, or load up to try to win a World Series. More often than…

Remember Miami Vice’s iconic opening with Cigarette boats tearing through Biscayne Bay? Or maybe you recall seeing some DEA agents posed atop sleek go-fast boats after impounding dozens of kilos of Bolivian marching powder (they were the vehicle of choice for the drug trade back in the day). No matter…

Despite what you’ve heard, Matt & Kim do not write songs about “swing sets and lollipops.” Brooklyn vocalist/keyboardist Matt Johnson had to clear that up after his indie-pop duo was criticized for being way too upbeat thanks to its effervescent sound and even bouncier live shows. Throw in the fact…

You saw Drew Barrymore’s roller-derby flick, Whip It, started calling yourself Pam D. Moanium, and pretending all of your cat scratches were scars from a harsh body-check at the rink. But as local derby coach Carnivorous Licks told us, skate names “are earned. A lot of people think they’ll get…

Is this really 2011? Because parts of Miami still appear segregated. This is especially noticeable in south Coconut Grove, where a black neighborhood sits adjacent to, but completely separated from, both an affluent white neighborhood and a similarly upscale business district. It’s lame, and it shows how far this city…

South Florida has become boxing’s new U.S. hot spot outside Las Vegas, thanks to Hard Rock Live. It was there this past March when Cedric Boswell defeated former heavyweight champ Oliver McCall by unanimous decision after ten rounds. This Saturday, Boswell will return for his next step toward a world…

For nearly a century in the United States, it was illegal to mail anything considered “obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious.” That included certain novels now considered classics (hello, Ulysses), educational material about birth control and female reproduction, and, yes, pornography and erotica. Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner was on the front lines…

Miami artist Bert Rodriguez does the unexpected. He held a clearance sale of his work at ArtLA, where his little pocket of commerce jolted gallery patrons. For the 2008 Whitney Biennial, he offered therapy sessions in a little white cube, prescribing art projects as treatment for people’s emotional baggage. So…

Be sure to add “Watch seven plays” to your summer to-do list, right after “Finish reading A Game of Thrones” and “Go parasailing.” Impossible, you say? Not when City Theatre’s 16th annual Summer Shorts hits the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater this Thursday and runs through June 26. This year,…