Comedy writer and former Upright Citizens Brigade member, Julie Klausner has news from the frontlines – of shitty relationships. Like most of us, she spent her twenties ricocheting from douchebag to douchebag, and she reveals every crappy moment in her dating memoir I Don’t Care About Your Band: What I…
How do you beat writer’s block? Do you thrash your head against the wall? Down a fifth of Jack and start muttering atonal Bob Dylan songs? Do you give up and start selling insurance? Next time a blank page inspires a panic attack, try doodling. That’s the advice of famed…
With his novel The Magicians, author Lev Grossman offers an astringent antidote to Pollyanna Harry Potter mania. As he told the Village Voice, he wanted a Potter-like character who was “having sex instead of snogging, or drinking real beer instead of butterbeer, if… his friends didn’t have a Voldemort in…
The 27th annual Miami Book Fair International begins this Sunday and runs through November 21. Though most of the big names make appearances late next week, there are a few highlights on the festival’s front end too. Wednesday, things get interesting when John Waters promotes his recent memoir, Role Models,…
Over the past twenty five years Susan Cheever has written brazenly honest biographies and memoirs, ranging in subjects from her own struggles with alcoholism, sex addiction, and motherhood to her father, famed author John Cheever. Her most recent book, Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography delves into the life of…
In 2001, Chenjerai Hove was driven out of his homeland, Zimbabwe, after years of persecution by Robert Mugabe’s government. Hove drew Mugabe’s ire with plays like Sister Sing Again Someday about the plight of Zimbabwean women, leading his to home being burglarized, his works stolen and his movements placed under…
You’d think that the sort of mind capable of conceiving a lovable serial killer would be warped being human recognition. Seriously, as much as we may be in awe of, say, Hannibal Lecter’s IQ, we wouldn’t exactly invite him over for dinner. Dexter, on the other hand, we’d invite him…
In a world drowning in footage of Britney Spears’ meltdowns, blogrolls of Tiger Woods’ mistresses and fawning Brangelina features, how does a writer contrive to say anything new about celebrity in America? Simple! If you’re proud Miami New Times alum Ben Greenman — now an acclaimed author and editor at…
FGO’s Turandot: Ridiculous and beautiful
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1: The kids are not all right
Giant pink snails on South Beach? What’s next, famine and a plagues of locusts? The bubble-gum pink creepers spotted throughout Miami Beach are not a sign of end times. And no, they’re not the work of pink-loving Cristo either. The 45 snails, made from plastic gathered from landfills, are part…
Vanity Fair is no stranger to art. In fact, the most controversial pieces of journalism the magazine has published haven’t been the articles, but the accompanying photographs. From a naked and pregnant Demi Moore to a Hindu god portrayed by Mike Myers to a seminude Miley Cyrus, it’s the only…
We all grew up with Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and those guilt-inducing ghosts of Christmases past, present, and yet to come. Whether we read the novella, watched the movies (props to Bill Murray), or caught a theatrical production of the age-old story, the deliciously negative Ebenezer Scrooge was a…
Miami clearly has a reputation as a hotbed of artistic talent, but our cuisine cred is pretty high too. The Food Network even chose South Beach as the location for its wine and food festival, a must-attend event for local foodies. Year after year, the South Beach Wine & Food…
What’s blond, plastic, and absolutely fabulous? No, it’s not Barbie. It’s the wildly bold and fiercest female on the comedy scene, Joan Rivers. And she’s coming to sunny South Florida. With a career spanning four decades, Rivers has been everything from a comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,…
After witnessing too many Muffys and Duffys exiting beat-up Volvos, wearing Lacoste, and reeking of old money and afternoon G&Ts, Lisa Birnbach wrote The Official Preppy Handbook, a satire on a particular WASP subculture. The problem is that this book-long dig was also a handy field guide for those aspiring…
Years ago, when you saw someone exposing their bum on Biscayne Boulevard between NE 65th and 75th streets, you were probably in the presence of a certified streetwalker. But these days, the recently designated MiMo (Miami Modern) historic district has classed up its image, and the only butt crack you’ll…
We asked longtime pilot and Brothers to the Rescue founder José Basulto whether skill helped him avoid being shot down by Cuban MiGs. “Skill?” he asked. “What kind of skill can you put between yourself and a missile in an aircraft that only sees straight ahead?” We think he’s just…
If you have a pulse, it’s hard not to appreciate comedian Kyle Grooms. Before stints on Chappelle’s Show, Last Comic Standing, and P. Diddy’s Bad Boys of Comedy, he honed his clever, observational sense of humor in the Magic City. He was the art director at Univision (how’s that for…
Dragon tattoos, playing with fire, and now messing with hornets. That Lisbeth Salander is one bad mamma jamma. The heroine of deceased Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s trilogy of suspense/action novels, and now films, is not exactly what Americans picture as the typical Swedish blond bombshell (see Swedish Bikini Team of…
Thanksgiving is one of the most glorious days of the year. There are so many terrific things to be thankful for: family, friends, and sickening amounts of food. In fact, studies show that people eat up to 4,500 calories in less that 24 hours on Turkey Day. So what’s the…
Stuffed with turkey and tired of chasing sales on Black Friday? Why not spend the evening reveling in a good, old-fashioned reckoning, Miami Heat-style. That’s what the holidays are all about! Because pretty much everyone in the nation outside Miami has come to loathe the Heat as they abhor ruthless…
