Talent Without Attitude

Each December the art community descends upon our fair city to wine and dine and dash. But Miami’s true collection of burgeoning talent doesn’t hobnob with Daddy Artbucks and flee — at least not yet. Instead they cram for trig quizzes and clutch learner’s permits; they attend Southwood and South…

Fresh off the Boat

For some time now, Key West has been in decline. Overcrowded by people and overrun by T shirt shops, the Conch Republic even seceded from the United States. The state’s ban on indoor cigarette smoking and deleterious changes in the nature of drug smuggling have depressed the party atmosphere. Commercial…

Dancing Around the Issues

Miami choreographer Brigid Baker has been producing elegant interrogations into the dream life of America past and present for years. Though her earlier pieces are suffused with nostalgia and whimsy, her latest arrangements are stamped more decisively with the lingering effects of global catastrophe. Baker’s new works, Vanishing and Lullabies…

Paws for a Cause

The dogs will begin barking early today to get you out of bed for the Fido & Friends Walk to benefit the Wellness Community, a nonprofit organization that provides free support and education to people affected by cancer. This year’s walk will feature plenty of food, fun, and prizes, in…

Lady Ice and Mr. Hex

First opening in 1988 at the Seagull Hotel, the Kitchen Club soon attracted a faithful following that craved the best New Wave and goth music. But in the years that followed, fickle tastes favoring hip hop and house forced the Kitchen to jump around to different venues. Now fans of…

The Tokin’ Few

Stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld is a fast talking, no nonsense businessman. He handles millions of dollars in transactions during the week, and his playtime is spent at sea, sharing the joys of sailing with disabled people as part of the Shake A Leg foundation. Rosenfeld isn’t exactly the kind of person…

The Heat Times Three

San Antonio is prototypical of the increasing internationality of the NBA: Supercenter Tim Duncan was born in the Bahamas, Tony Parker came over from France, Manu Ginobili represents Argentina … giving real credence to the title World Champions. The old school North American Miami Heat must shut down these three…

Gen Art Sparks It Up

With its Latin spice and sultry clime, Miami has earned a reputation as being a hot city. The people at Gen Art couldn’t agree more. The culture nourishing group is about to launch its Ignite event in the Magic City for the first time. “We see it as a groundbreaking…

Swinging in the Sun

Chantal Blanchard is happy to be here. As publicist for Cirque du Soleil’s visiting extravaganza Varekai, she travels with the circus, which typically means staying in miserably cold cities for weeks at a time. “I’m sitting on wonderful South Beach,” she laughs. “Miami is one of those cities where you…

Love Amid Devastation

Written by Russians Mikhail Gindin and Viktor Sinokevitch, The Beast is a stark love story that takes place in a postapocalyptic world. First produced in Russian in 1986, the play’s performance was delayed owing to censorship issues. Now the Playground Theatre presents the American premiere of this dark tale about…

Build ’Em High

For his first solo museum show here in a decade, Ruben Torres Llorca has chewed up the script of a head scratching whodunit and spit out a wickedly formulated plot snaring the spectator. His “Modelo para Armar/Easy to Build,” opening tonight at 8:00 at the Frost Art Museum at FIU,…

Give and Receive

Would you argue that mall walking should be considered a legitimate sport? Do you believe dreams can come in a little brown bag? If you answered yes, you might be a shopaholic, and your experience today at Bloomingdale’s biggest annual charity event, The Shopping Benefit, will feel like a wonderful…

All Paws on Deck

Whether they are tucked into designer bags or strutting proudly down the aisles at Nordstrom, dogs are always the highlight of shopping at the Village of Merrick Park. Tonight the fabulous fur covered darlings, along with feline friends, will star in a photography exhibit showing off their most glamorous shots…

A Bounteous Bunch

The Wild Bunch (Warner Bros.) At a mere $42 through most websites, this four-film boxed set ranks among the best ever compiled; not only does it contain the restored version of one of the greatest movies of all time (The Wild Bunch), but also three other brilliant westerns (The Ballad…

Enter the Dragon

There’s an oft-repeated urban legend about Dragon Quest’s popularity in Japan: So many gamers ditched school and work to play that the government decreed that future releases had to take place on weekends. In reality, there’s no such law, but as with most myths, the message rings true, even if…

New Times’s top DVD picks for the week of January 10

According to Occam’s Razor (Elite Entertainment) Black Books: The First Complete Series (BBC/Warner) The Chumscrubber (DreamWorks) The Constant Gardener (Universal) Dead Poets Society: Special Edition (Touchstone) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Bueller … Bueller … Edition (Paramount) The Flash: The Complete Series (Warner Bros.) The Gambler (Time Life) Hawthorne Heights: This…

Bet on Black

Over the years, moviegoers who double as sports fans have had ample opportunity to pick and choose their favorite miracle — Shoeless Joe Jackson emerging from the tall corn, Rudy suiting up for Notre Dame, Rocky going the distance with Apollo Creed, the U.S. hockey team taking down the Russkies…

Now Playing

The studied British theatricality and sharp wit of Stephen Frears’s comedy are likely to make it a favorite among nostalgists, theater buffs, and the tea-and-crumpets set. Sailing along on the strength of another showy performance by Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), this is the real-life story of an imperious widow…

Selective Perception

With its unfurled red carpet, jutting boom microphones, flashing lights, and the sound of screeching reporters jockeying for an interview, Malachi Farrell’s Interview (Paparazzi), makes a raucous declaration that France’s National Foundation for Contemporary Art (FNAC) has arrived in highfalutin style. “Shortcuts Between Reality and Fiction: Video, Installations, and Paintings…

Art Capsules

A Day and Forever: Ali Prosch makes a jaw-dropping statement with this multimedia exhibition sprinkled with witty doses of flair and drama that portray the lifestyles of the young and fabulously dissolute. Trafficking in hyperbeautiful imagery, at times evocatively laced with autobiographical commentary, Prosch blithely chops Miami’s decadent run-amok egos…

Just the Funny

David Christopher has reason to gloat. The fourth edition of the Miami Improv Festival, presented through Sunday on two stages at the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium, is “our biggest one … not just in terms of the number of shows and workshops, but also in stature,” says the…

Stage Capsules

Exits and Entrances: Athol Fugard has the well-earned ability to suck the air out of any other plays competing against him on any given night. This snapshot of the mid-twentieth-century crossroads of change in South Africa is no exception. Although the playwright-icon isn’t here in body, his spirit shines through…