Alcohol is sometimes called liquid courage. After a few shots or beers, stage fright just melts away, along with sobriety. This is where the fun of karaoke comes in. Patrons who are usually meek and quiet emerge from their shells to let everyone know how much they really love Michael…
Brown-paper packages tied up with string — no, better yet, yellow-skin bananas tied up with T-shirts, and raisins hidden in brightly wrapped boxes — these are a few of a chimpanzee’s favorite things. Especially the chimps at Miami Metrozoo, where it is a holiday tradition for zookeepers to pass out…
You really should be done with your holiday shopping by now, but you keep stuffing your own stocking instead. This is the season for giving, remember? Since you obviously can’t do this on your own, we are here to suggest a few last-minute gift ideas. Give a gift that keeps…
Just like your neighbor’s light-saber-wielding toddler, the Pinot Noir grape can be difficult. It is tough to grow and has a reputation for fermenting violently. But with the right guidance, that little fruit can become one rich and rewarding wine. The silky liquid is full-bodied without being too heavy, so…
Year after year, you get your holiday giggles from your cousin Chip, who always returns from his “breath of fresh air” smelling like a different kind of pine tree, and from Auntie Josephine, who is never without her glass of special eggnog. But this year, get your Christmas chuckles from…
Since you like to do your holiday shopping the old-fashioned way — you know, by trudging through the malls while schlepping heavy bags – it’s time to take a break and unwind before your last round of holiday parties. You have to get your nails done anyway, so you might…
One of Miami’s legitimate cultural treasures, the Miami Beach Cinematheque, defines itself with the word escapism. Two current projects take that idea to its ultimate, um, conclusion. Robert Altman, a key figure in America’s auteur movement of the late Sixties and early Seventies – who, unlike, say, Dennis Hopper, didn’t…
Cheer up, lads! Sometimes it isn’t easy to preach to the choir. FIU’s rock and roll professor, Dr. Armando Tranquilino, lectured about the Beatles to an audience of eager babyboomers — and a few twenty- and thirty-somethings — at last night’s Culture in the City talk in Coconut Grove. For…
About Will Smith’s estimable talents, there is no doubt. Six Degrees of Separation, Ali, … um … the “Parents Just Don’t Understand” video — the man’s got skills to pay the bills, yours and mine and his. That he seldom uses them, or their attendant clout, is dispiriting. This is…
Near the end of La Gata, a documentary about Argentine tango goddess María Angelica Milán, director Julienne Gage and her cameraman, Gustavo Acosta, almost off-handedly capture the perfect image of their subject. Milán, who is 79 years old, is seated next to another woman maybe five or ten years her…
This lavishly punishing picture is the third panel in Gibson’s Ordeal triptych. The Martyrdom of the Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ have nothing on The Misadventures of the Jaguar Paw, junior citizen of a generally jovial, practical-joke-loving, sixteenth-century Central American social unit. Over the course of Apocalypto’s 140…
When a theater is packed with children instead of adults, it becomes a site not of high culture but of mass fidgeting. On a recent Wednesday morning, the Shores Performing Arts Theater was filled with an audience whose heads barely topped the backs of their seats. The crowd was neatly…
Down the Road: To blame society’s problems on celebrity culture is shallow beyond contempt, but it will always appeal to those more interested in bitching than thinking. The same can be said for Lee Blessing’s Down the Road. It’s the story of Iris and Dan Henniman (Margie Elias Eisenberg and…
During Art Basel Miami Beach last year, Lilian Fernandez was crestfallen that none of her abstract paintings was on display at any of the fairs’ events or exhibits. To cope with her depression, she ritualistically ripped one of her canvases, The Flowers That My Mother Painted, into 38 envelope-size sections,…
Asian Art from the Bass Museum Collection and Treasures from the Bass Museum of Art: With a bushel of blue-ribbon shows, the Bass has embarked on perhaps its busiest programming season. Deciding on which shows to see among the museum’s expansive menu might be as slippery as handling a hog…
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Columbia) This cut of Will Ferrell’s NASCAR comedy runs 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and that doesn’t take into account the deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, phony commercials, public-service announcements, and gag reel. A movie that already seemed to be constructed…
Nintendo has achieved the impossible: My 50-year-old, nongaming father wants a Wii for Christmas. Either I’ve been whisked to Bizarro World, or The House That Mario Built is on to something big. With the release of its oddly monikered next-gen system, Nintendo may just have revolutionized the way America will…
AFI: I Heard a Voice (Interscope) Air Buddies (Disney) Ali Rap (ESPN) The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series (Paramount) Barnyard (Paramount) The Chronicles of Narnia: Four-Disc Extended Edition (Disney) A Dead Calling (Lions Gate) The Doors (Lions Gate) James Bond: Ultimate Edition Volumes 3 and 4 (MGM) John Wayne…
Okay, so maybe you’ve stopped dreaming of a white Christmas, but some things about the holidays never change. And on that list — right after department store sales and eggnog — is the immortal ballet, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. The timeless story of a little girl who finds much more…
It is easy for those not familiar with Miami’s massive territory to assume that anything not hugging a beach is a boring suburb. But even venues in the burbs know how to party. Amid the high-rises and upscale stores of Aventura sits a stylish number with just the right mix…
The hip-hop scene on South Beach has a bum rap. When crowds of rap-loving revelers flock to our sandy shores on holiday weekends, the po-po comes out with riot gear at the ready. Hooligans wearing throwbacks (that should have been thrown back) and half-dressed hoochies in dusty threads aren’t encouraged…
In America it’s an insult that refers to a foolish, naive, or loathsome person (see the classic 1979 Steve Martin comedy for further elucidation). In Jamaica it’s a style of cooking that produces incredibly spicy, uniquely delicious meat. When it comes to jerks, we definitely prefer the kind that comes…
