Hop a Trolley

Colombian artist Pedro Ruiz combines lush crimson poppy fields with military might in his provocative show opening at 7 p.m. Friday at The Americas Collection (2440 Ponce de Leon Blvd.) in Coral Gables. “Love Is in the Air” captures the Colombian landscape in its buzzing glory while conveying the devastating…

Buy, Buy Birkin

Have you ever considered paying more than $7,000 for a handbag? One that’s handmade, lined with goat skin, adorned with untarnishable hardware, and more difficult to purchase than an ice-cream cone in Hell? We see you shaking your heads vigorously and wondering who in hell would make such a frivolous…

Forgetting the Gutter

Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” In keeping with those words, the Miami Science Museum is giving you a chance to forget you are wading amid dead rats and discarded bags of Fritos. On the first Friday…

A Bash for the Boulevard

¡Ay Chihuahua! Biscayne Boulevard is kicking it up for a tequila sunrise binge and a Frida Kahlo look-alike contest during the Cinco de MiMo Festival, which stretches from NE 66th to 77th streets on the historic strip. Beginning Friday at 6 and running through Sunday, the trendy MiMo hood will…

They’re Heeere

After years of living in fear, you’ve finally come to terms with the fact that the boogeyman doesn’t exist and that the only things that go bump in the night are horny folks. But don’t let your newfound maturity ruin all the fun. You can still believe that after dark,…

Hot Fish

Something is not right with the Florida Marlins. The sucking is not working, which is the only thing they’ve been good at for the past five seasons. At least it was. Last April, the Fish started with a 6-10 record and capped off the season 20 games below .500. They…

The Sweetest Victory

All hail the mighty cupcake. There’s no baked dessert that’s more evocative of childhood innocence. Cupcakes take you back to the days of bruised knees and bake sales. Barbie Roqueta, owner of Sweetcakes Edibles, totally gets it. Her adorable little uptown bakery features 10 different kinds each day; when we…

Stellar Student Films. No, Seriously.

There are film students who envision conceptual masterpieces shot in black-and-white complete with avant-garde orchestral music and a sense of existentialism in place of a compelling plot. Then there are film students who laugh at those would-be Godards. Alex Montilla falls into the latter camp. His short film The Artist…

BREAKING NEWS: Miami’s Studio A Closing

Here come the four words many live-music junkies in Miami never wanted to hear: Studio A is closing. Rumors of its demise had plagued the venue practically since its opening in spring 2006, but staff has confirmed that after two years of live shows and alternative club nights, it’s shutting…

Help Africa, Do Yoga

The story began in Africa. Paige Elenson, a native New Yorker, spied African acrobats doing crazy handstands. She joined in. Elenson, who practices an acrobatic brand of yoga, later started Africa Yoga Project to promote well being in Kenya. Peace-loving, Miami Beach yogis have joined the cause. Today, they’re hosting…

Celia Is Still The Queen

Joe Cardona knew he was in for quite a journey when he sealed a film canister in the summer of 1998 with a proposal inside and sent it to Celia Cruz in New Jersey. He just didn’t know the journey would span a decade. “It seemed like career suicide considering…

Jay McCarroll Wins Again

Jay McCarroll knows he needed Project Runway more than Project Runway needed him; after all, humility is just one facet of his considerable charm. The other part is his outsize personality, equal parts wit and whimsy, and although Project Runway has done just fine since McCarroll won the Heidi Klum-hosted…

Flower Derangement

Steering clear of her usual gooey weeping willows, Cristina Lei Rodriguez has tapped into the central nervous system of Sixties minimalist and junk art in her new show at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin. The radical shift strips gears at a pace that seems turbo-charged. For years, Rodriguez has been known for…

Art Capsules

Mosaic Arts International 2008Daring designs and the magic of clay and fire combine for a head-turning ornamental vision in this juried event, which features 64 stunning pieces selected from 372 entries by artists from six countries. “Our members continue to push the envelope with textures, colors, and forms,” says Karen…

Let’s Go to Prison

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg wrote Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle with the novel idea: What if you made a John Hughes movie, but instead of writing garishly caricatured bit players with names such as Long Duk Dong, you cast an Asian actor as the smart, handsome, upwardly…

Nobody’s Baby

Could have sworn I’ve seen this episode of Baby Mama before — like sometime in January 2007, when it was originally titled “The Baby Show” and aired on the other prime-time series starring Tina Fey, 30 Rock. (Waitaminute — you say Baby Mama is a movie and not a TV…

Absurdistan

Earnest, sad, and righteous, they are not. More inspired by M*A*S*H or Dr. Strangelove than The Deer Hunter or Coming Home, a new pack of political films that defies the clichés of the post-9/11 Iraq War cinema has arrived. Notwithstanding a few holdovers of moral outrage (Kimberly Peirce’s Stop-Loss, Nick…

Baroquen Spirit

First of all: God bless Atlus. As a publisher devoted to bringing obscure Japanese gaming gems to the West — basically, the much-needed heir apparent of Working Designs — Atlus is the only hope for gamers who crave oddball, strange, or downright niche titles from the Land of the Rising…

Don’t Passover the Island

We live in a huge melting pot of a city, and our cultural, political, and religious souls thank us for it every day. But maybe our BlackBerries don’t, because your rainbow coalition of friends means hundreds of virtual red ribbons tied around your fingers in an effort to remember each…

All Hart

He’s a little dude — Wikipedia puts him at five feet four and a half inches tall — but Kevin Hart delivers big laughs. No, we’re not talking about his unfortunate starring role in Soul Plane. That monumental flop didn’t crash Hart’s career upswing. He’s since risen to even greater…

Vroom, Vroom Goes Our Hearts

So what if our car was built well before acid-washed jeans went out of style. The point is that it gets us from point A to point B, right? Who are we kidding? We want a ride with an engine that roars and a look that turns heads as we…

Star Quality

Do you know who Jeffree Star is? Hmm, he’s a difficult guy to explain, so let’s just say this: Jeffree Star is to MySpace what Paris Hilton is to gossip magazines. Both are famous beyond reason without having actually done anything significant, and yet they’re still oddly compelling. And they…