Everything you need to know about living in Miami you can learn in a single visit to the Calle Ocho Festival this Sunday. There are insufferable pedestrian and auto traffic, tempers flaring at the slightest provocation, and a slightly dangerous, overtly sexual, and thoroughly intoxicating fog permeating the air. (We…
Ever taken a dive, thrown in the towel, or generally served as a straight man to some funny guy? Then you know the pain of the Washington Generals — the team that always loses to the Harlem Globetrotters. Players, with heads down and serious looks on their faces, run around…
When it comes to snacking, the Japanese have transformed that lost stoner art into a science. Think about it: What other culture has such a creative, spontaneous, deranged, wacky, and random view of the snacking world? Those Wonka-like wizards across the Pacific have birthed treats such as Pocky, Japan’s most…
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg insulted the Irish last month when he joked that their greatest contribution to world culture was a brand of whiskey. It got worse when he acknowledged that the Irish were sensitive about their drinking but that they could be calmed with a “nice, stiff drink…
Miami for years has been handcuffed to shifting musical identities — from Miami Sound Machine in the ’80s, to our uncles Luke and Al in the ’90s, to foreign invaders such as Will Smith and LMFAO, not to mention a stockpile of generic salsa tunes used by directors who seem…
Every ear has an energy point referred to as a “spirit gate” or shenmen in Chinese medicine. Acupuncturists use tiny needles to prick this spot above the ear canal, claiming such auricular torture alleviates anxiety and dispels depression. Think of this week’s XXI Subtropics Experimental Biennial of Music & Sound…
The Miami International Film Festival, which runs through Sunday, features a bevy of fantastic films to soothe the independent film-loving beast inside us all. Thursday’s films include Young Goethe in Love, a Shakespeare in Love-style historical romp about Germany’s great poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his tragic tale of…
During the past two decades, Mark Dion has created a skull-staving catalogue of projects exploring how nature is represented in science and culture. The artist’s South Florida Wildlife Rescue Unit is a large-scale installation that focuses on the Everglades and human attempts to control the South Florida ecosystem. Dion’s mustard-colored…
With three months left to graduate, Mikey, Manny and Angel Jr. are three private school buddies living the fast life of sex, drugs and hip hop in Miami. The story is narrated by Mikey, who is a top baseball prospect torn between living a clean life to better his chances…
Peter Stormare turns in a subdued but outstanding performance as the taciturn born-again Walter, an Ontario Mennonite farming town’s police chief investigating the brutal murder of a young woman. Walter puts the investigation in jeopardy when his violent past clashes with his struggle to remain faithful to his religious calling,…
Pioneering director James Lipscomb’s documentary about the 1961 state football championship game between rivals Miami High and Miami Edison unapologetically delves into the stark brutal reality of high school football where young men were forced to carry the burden of winning and losing on their young, impressionable shoulders. Deemed too…
Ahmad Abdalla’s Microphone tells the tale of Khaled (Abol Naga), an Egyptian expat who returns home after years abroad and discovers the underground art and music scene that has gallantly emerged in Alexandria. The film explores Khaled’s frustrated attempts to produce a concert featuring the talented rappers, rock bands, graffiti…
Filmmaker Fernando Trueba brings old Havana to life with this stylishly animated film featuring an exceptional jazz-and-blues soundtrack. The story follows Chico, a talented jazz pianist who falls madly in love with Rita, a beautiful and sultry vocalist. The two begin an on-again-off-again whirlwind love affair that spans from Cuba…
In his latest documentary, Project Nim, Academy Award-winning director James Marsh traces the extraordinary journey of a chimpanzee raised as a human. The project was the brainchild of Columbia University professor Herbert Terrance, who named the chimp Nim Chimpsky (a playful take on linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky) in…
This engrossing documentary by Liz Garbus examines Bobby Fischer’s tumultuous career as the world’s greatest chess grand master and the tortured genius that might have turned him into a paranoid reclusive. The film’s finest moments come during an analysis and chronicling of Fischer’s renowned, and at times precarious, televised Cold…
“Go, go, go shawty / It’s your birthday/ We gon’ party like it’s yo birthday.” Doesn’t sound like the verse of a method actor with a sympathetic heart, but it is. Thrown into fame in 2003 with ear-worm hits like “In Da Club,” Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson currently stars in…
Think Nero d’Avola is the emperor who fiddled while Rome burned? Find out that it’s really Sicily’s premier wine grape and makes a red hearty enough to stand a spoon up in—taste it too—at the Italian Wine Tasting set for Saturday, March 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Aventura’s…
Say, “Cheese!” Actually, say Cheese Connection, the first annual celebration of the best thing you can do with milk, to be held from Friday, March 18 to Sunday, March 20, at the Miami Airport Convention Center. More than 300 makers of artisanal cheese will be on hand, tasting their wares…
“A Week of Savage Craic” (pronounced “crack”) does not mean seven days’ worth of exposure to your plumber’s deeply cleft buttocks or a week-long drug binge in the Amazon rainforest. It does mean several days of eating, drinking and partying leading up the St. Patrick’s Day (Thursday, March 17), all…
In a popular Seinfeld episode, Jerry’s dentist pal, Tim Whatley, decides to convert to Judaism purely for the jokes. Yisrael Campbell is a real-life Tim Whatley. And although his conversion was sincere, it isn’t short on jokes. Circumcise Me, a play opening at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, is…
In the little wee corner, Were a tiny wee man, Wid a little wee smoke, Past the camera he ran. Has it been awhile since you’re spied your last Leprechaun? Better get thee to Ireland fast or else drink more beer. As this Thursday is St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll have…
Perhaps you don’t drink – ever since “the Incident”—and you actually believe the Irish should be celebrated for more than inventing gin blossom noses (we kid!). You’re in luck because this Thursday, Lord of the Dance opens in 3D at Regal Cinemas South Beach. Did you hear that stomping and…
