Arts & Culture

With all the shock art and torture porn making the rounds in local galleries, an exhibition of Bauhaus-informed color experimentation will have a hard time pulling in crowds. But we’re already anticipating the twee, art-school backlash that will bring us back to the fundamentals of shapes and that colorful character…

Amos Lee might not be quite as famous as the tiny cookies that share his name, but he’s got it goin’ on in ways that those beloved vending machine snacks only wish they did. His Prince-influenced songwriting could hold the attention of just about any coffeehouse crowd, and his mouthwatering,…

How would you sum up South Florida life through art? A seashell sculpture depicting financial pyramid schemes? A foreclosed sandcastle? Whatever your approach, it’s a tricky task. Bear & Bird likes keeping our local creative types on their toes, so for its current exhibit, “The Sunshine Show,” the boutique/gallery space…

Paper tigers, kids with guns, and pro footballers playing in a flurry of color-chart chunks. That’s just a quick glimpse of the visual trip that awaits at the 2010 New World School of the Arts “Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition.” Running through May 7 at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation,…

Bobby Slayton is ass-nasty. He’s nicknamed the Pitbull of Comedy. He’s had his own Showtime and HBO specials. He might not use his Haitian cab driver routine at his shows in SoFla, but he’s bound to mortally offend someone down here anyway. layton is a Jewish guy in his 50s…

It’s understood that menopause and the songs it inspires won’t appeal to everyone. Menopause: The Musical, written by Jeanie Linders, will have a niche target audience. That’s right: There’s a truly unique musical out there covering the funny side of hot flashes, night sweats, chocolate binges, wrinkles, and mood swings…

Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes makes pop music out of guitars, synths, and anxiety. There’s no better example of his melodramatic tendencies than “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal,” a track off the band’s 2007 Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, which catalogs his marital troubles. It’s an intoxicating 12-minute descent…

Haiti’s devastating earthquake reminded 98 percent of us — the nonorthopedic surgeons, the nondisaster-area relief helicopter pilots, the nonconcrete-sawing collapsed-building search teams — just how impotent we are when it comes to helping people in desperate times. We write checks or cobble together fundraising concerts starring bands that didn’t know…

Great dance performances are like celebrity deaths; they happen in threes. At least they are this Friday, when you’ll have to choose among the skillful moves of three distinct dance companies. The Miami Dance Festival 2010 begins with Ori, choreography that reflects the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé, performed by Miami-based…

A gift of extravagant jewels has always been the best way for one man to tell another how he feels. So when Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria presented Hanley Ramirez with a commemorative “.342” (the All Star shortstop’s 2009 league-leading batting average) pendant encrusted with nearly 400 diamonds, the boss…

Have you heard about Chatroulette? The new website that pairs random strangers from all over the world for webcam-based conversations? The future is now! Cyberspace is evolving insanely fast. But what if you could click on a miraculous link and suddenly be on the beach at this very moment? Imagine…

Great dance performances are like celebrity deaths; they happen in threes. At least they are this Friday, when you’ll have to choose among the skillful moves of three distinct dance companies. Perhaps the traditional art of ballet is your thing. The Miami City Ballet is closing its 24th season with…

Great dance performances are like celebrity deaths; they happen in threes. At least they are this Friday, when you’ll have to choose among the skillful moves of three distinct dance companies. Topping off this dance performance sandwich is Ölelés, where two men from Barcelona’s Alta Realitat company execute what’s been…

Not too long ago, indie dance party Nightdrive relocated to O.H.W.O.W.’s new cool-kid spot Bar. Prior to that move, Moshe Franco, Patrick Walsh, and crew called the American Legion home. Before that, Nightdrive hung around the News Lounge. In short, it seems like these dudes have been wandering forever. This…

Guantánamo is a real black mark on the United States. Consider its long list of atrocities: inhumane conditions, psychological and physical torture, and imprisonment without trial. In the words of Liz Lemon: Shut it down. Much of the push to close it has had to do with the detainees in…

A totally naked, nearly hairless 50-something male basks in the early-evening light of Miami Beach, his penis just as tan as his nose. The South Florida sun blazes orange and apocalyptic in a half-black sky. A speedboat lies stranded at the side of the road. Leaping fires rage on the…

It was in NYC’s Katz’s Deli that Meg Ryan faked her orgasm in When Harry Met Sally. But hundreds of New York snowbirds were in their own state of bliss in Miami Beach’s Rascal House, which served Jewish comfort food ever since Wolfie Cohen opened it in 1954. It closed…

On the surface, Oscar-nominated A Prophet is a French prison drama. Malik is a young man of Arab descent who can’t read or write. He finds himself in jail and must navigate the power hierarchies of his cellmates. Malik undergoes a metamorphosis, surviving an Oz-like hazing and developing his own…

If you’ve ever wondered whether Johann Sebastian Bach (not to be confused with the Skid Row singer of nearly the same name) would have felt at home strolling the streets of La Habana or sipping a cafecito Cubano at Calle Ocho’s Versailles, wonder no longer. The answer is a resounding…

Maybe your car gets broken into while you’re dancing. Or you watch a drunken fistfight on NE 11th Street. Maybe you wish you didn’t have to glance nervously over your shoulder as you flag a taxi. Park West, which hosts a strip of all-night clubs, has a long way to…