Arts & Culture

Everyone’s got a different sense of what makes a killer party. For kids, maybe it’s whacking a piñata and overdosing on cake. For adults, it could be sticking a beer bong down your gullet and declaring yourself Mayor of Schlitz City. But since 1999, the Mario Party series has served…

For most avid football fans — who attempt in the off-season to beat their varsity blues by watching the action-packed sport of professional golf — spring and early summer totally suck. But there is a way to satisfy one’s passion for the pigskin during these months devoid of tailgate parties…

Did you know you don’t have to go to Publix to buy fruit? Oh yes! Our neighbors to the south in Monroe County know this, and they aren’t shy about boasting their knowledge of the “forbidden” or otherwise perfectly delectable fruit you can grow right at home. Come get your…

Over the years many Miamians have ended up on the business end of a policeman’s baton or Taser. And whether you’re innocent or guilty, right or wrong, simply the thought of that moment can sting a little. Actually it just might give you the urge to punch a hole through…

For those who might be unfamiliar with the concept of a sound clash, allow us to explain: A sound system is a syndicate of DJs who have banded together to create a sonic force greater than themselves. Sound systems build reputations by wrecking the dancehall with deep crates and hard…

Joan Jett is a fierce, fast female. Dressed in jet black leather and playing a white Gibson guitar, she is the prototypical street-fightin’ woman. With a Mick Jagger swagger and a “Bad Reputation,” her mezzo-soprano voice has resonated like her eight-bar blues chords since her Seventies punk scene debut. Her…

If you blink — or get distracted by a beach babe — you might miss it. But once you know it’s there, escaping the suffocating heat of a summer in South Beach will be only one of your favorite things about the World Erotic Art Museum. Your current second good…

Some things are obvious. Sixteen is sweet, love is blind, and Wine Is Fun … Period! Tonight at Bizcaya Restaurant, chef de cuisine Jason Schneider and sommelier Jeffrey Galloway will host their monthly wine/dinner series, a dinner party that will change everything you thought you knew about eating out. Your…

You’re at a table by yourself in a semidark, semismoky club. An artist takes the stage. A poet. He begins his set, performing piece after piece, each one more powerful than the last. You’re mesmerized, along with the rest of the room. But as you look around the club, you…

The Biltmore undergoes a curious transformation during the hot summer stretch – converting from patrician hotel better known for presidential visits (and the infamous Al Capone suite) to chill-out spot for locals thirsting for affordable drinks and live lounge-lizard action. There’s something cool to do there almost every night of…

Ol’ Willie Shakespeare wrote many a play, but the usual roster of performances can be whittled down to a top five list: Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Macbeth. Toss in King Lear and perhaps The Tempest for bonus plays. For some reason (obscurity? lack of…

Cast your memory back to college, and if you try hard enough, you just might remember: Ah, that first frat house foam party. How sweet it was to shotgun Natty Ice and grind on hotties on a dance floor covered in cool foam. Never mind that your cute outfit was…

Thanks to a phase in our youth when we decided to follow in the footsteps of musical legends and experiment — yet never with music — many memories play back in our minds like fuzzy, old black-and-white westerns. But one incident that will forever be in Technicolor is the time…

Say what you will about wrestling, duels, or the Giant Q-Tip Game from American Gladiators, but when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, nothing beats a good swordfight. Unfortunately, except for the occasional knife fight under the overpass, you hardly ever get to see one live. That all changes this week,…

If you were to open the mailbox and discover a snazzy, finger-snapping, cross-cultural postcard, Mantra World Music Ensemble would likely come to mind. Led by percussionist, vocalist, and perennial good-vibe fairy Marlon Moore, Mantra combines a hip-swaying blend of original and classic music into a high-energy celebration of jazz, Latin,…

Some of us have a special affinity for all things French. Who doesn’t love a perfectly positioned jaunty beret or the way the language makes obscenities ring like romantic poetry? And much like we have done with the French fry and French toast and, hell, the French martini, we have…

God bless the Jamaicans for taking so many played-out classics and remixing them in a rub-a-dub style. We long ago lost track of the reggae versions of American chart hits, through which we have learned that even the most wearisome Eighties slow-dance song becomes better with a heavy-ass, serpentine bass…

The sins of Fidel Castro have been cast throughout the Caribbean, ricocheting, of course, most notably off the humble burg called Miami. Yes, of course there are benefits: While haters such as the very sick Michelle Malkin urge America to oust anyone who didn’t arrive on the Mayflower (bye-bye, Michelle),…