Chingo Bling in all his glory On Tuesday night, I found myself sequestered inside a cacophonous display of mediocre reggaeton and rap performances at Mansion on South Beach. The nightclub was hosting the third leg of the Cuervoton nationwide talent search showcase of “up-and-coming Latino talent in hip-hop, reggaeton and…
Kickin’ it As with most things organized by teenagers and twenty-somethings, Tuesday night’s Battle of the Kicks at Buck 15 started with a flurry of last minute phone calls to figure out the grand prize and tie up loose ends. Miami’s sneaker fiends lined up outside wearing their flashiest kicks…
Think pink? Try orange. In a subtle attempt to remind audiences of the county’s most infamous and contemptible act of homophobia, organizers of this year’s Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival have appropriated the state’s official fruit — in the sweet and sunny form of an orange slice — for…
How best describe to experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger? Let’s leave that to the man himself. In this rose-tinted career recapper by Elio Gelmini, Anger declares himself a maverick, a pioneer, an idealist, a romantic. Just don’t call him a cynic. Or a conformist. Fair enough. The Fireworks dealer also recalls…
If Shakespeare had attempted to write Romeo & Juliet as a gay love story set in today’s Middle East, he couldn’t have written a more tragic romance than this plea for peace from Yossi and Jagger and Walk on Water director Eytan Fox and his writing (and life) partner Gal…
It’s easy to lose yourself in the jungle island that serves as a home for grumpy and finicky botanist Chen (Ling Dong Fu) and Cheng An (Xiao Ran Li), the daughter who tends to his every need. It’s a lush and exotic refuge from an intolerant and unforgiving society. No…
No doubt Oscar Wilde would have approved of director Duncan Roy relocating the setting of his Victorian-era Faustian exploration of youth, vanity, lust, and power to modern-day New York City. His superficial social-climbing stud — who now employs a multiscreen art installation, rather than a portrait, to prevent his beauty…
A quote from Golda Meir has returned to me often over the last four years: “We can forgive you for killing our sons, but we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.” Golda apparently said that to Anwar Saddat midway through her term as Prime Minister of Israel,…
By Any Other Name … Romeo & Juliet: Ballsy as all hell to inaugurate a new theater company with a reworking of Romeo & Juliet, isn’t it? That’s what Antonio Amadeo’s Naked Stage is up to, and bless them for it. The general idea is thus: What makes Romeo &…
Andrew Guenther’s radioactive solo show at the David Castillo Gallery could well have been called “Invasion of the DayGlo Saucer Men.” His trippy suite of paintings, saturated in bleeding psychedelic hues suggesting a jumbo box of fluorescent Crayola crayons nuked in a microwave, taps into the central nervous system of…
“Merce Cunningham: Dancing on the Cutting Edge Part I”: MoCA’s institutional toast to the legendary choreographer’s career marks the first U.S. museum show since 1997 to focus on Cunningham’s collaborations with visual artists, and features costumes and decor actually used in his company’s productions. The exhibit includes works by Sandra…
Planet Earth (BBC/Warner Bros.) Roll over, Marlin Perkins, and tell Jacques Cousteau the news: There’s never been another nature series like this. You will spend forever glued to this five-disc collection, finding among such holy-shit discoveries a herd of never-before-photographed camels who live in the frozen wastelands, great whites dining…
Al Franken: God Spoke (Docurama) Code Name: The Cleaner (New Line) Columbo: Mystery Murder Collection 1989 (Universal) Déjà Vu (Buena Vista) The Documentaries of Louis Malle (Criterion) The Drew Carey Show: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.) Flipper: Season One (MGM) .45 (Velocity) Ironside: Season 1 (Shout! Factory) Jean Renoir:…
Can a hog’s breath possibly produce a pleasant sound? It can in Key West, from today through May 6, when the famous saloon plays host to the twelfth annual Hog’s Breath Key West Songwriter’s Festival. A songwriting festival? Isn’t that sort of like a celebration of the faceless, a nod…
As the revelers on South Beach are just ordering breakfast at Jerry’s Deli and harried commuters are braving I-95, you can be in your personal zen paradise doing Sunrise Yoga at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove. The 7:00 a.m. skies over Miami look as if they were yanked out of a…
There’s something so wonderfully decadent about hookah-smoking. It’s a concept that originated in Eastern cultures, where taking time out from a busy work day to smoke flavored tobacco from an ornate water pipe is a daily ritual not to be missed. In 1775 famed English memoirist William Hickey wrote: “I…
What is it about Shelley Novak that we love so much? We’re big fans of the hilarious drag queen with the ratty blond wig, the frumpy frocks … and of course that ever-present facial stubble, fighting its way through the countless layers of makeup shellacked onto his (her?) face. We…
It’s all in the mix these days. With the purchase of just one mp3 player, Blackberry, or cell phone, you get a multitude of options. Don’t you just love that every gadget comes with a navigation system, internet access, and a built-in camera? Buying a ticket to “The History of…
Everyone knows the best reason to have kids is so you don’t look like some kind of weirdo or pervert when you attend events like the twelfth annual National Children’s Theater Festival. Sure, the kids will love meeting the Junior Orange Bowl court and seeing a magic show, but can…
Relay for Life is running, jogging, and walking into Coral Gables today, passing the baton on to you to raise funds to support the fight against cancer. But this isn’t the race you remember from the P.E. classes of your youth. Here your team will camp out at the relay…
You’ve been practicing your Jim Jones “Balllinnnn!” fadeaway for months, and your two-step is damn near perfect, so the time has come to show the world what you’ve got. And what better place to do that than at the 2007 Springfest? Over 30 hip-hop, R&B, and reggae performers will hit…
Miami women are notoriously chic. Check out the scene on Lincoln Road on the weekend, and you’ll find hot mamas of all ages, shapes, and skin tones strutting like it’s fashion week. Lucky ladies, mark your calendars this weekend. There are two must-attend events for any fashionista worth her oversize…
