Before talking heads were pretty TUE 11/23 There was a time when the phrase “television journalism” was not an oxymoron. Sure, it’s hard to believe, but people used to think cigarettes were good for you, too. Back in the days before the drive for a larger market share turned local…
Giovanni Luquini wants to free your mind SAT 11/20 It’s not dance, and it’s not theater. It’s cinematographic, but it’s not a movie. You might call it operatic or architectural. Or maybe you’d just throw up your hands and quit trying to categorize it at all. That’s probably what Giovanni…
The official motto of the Coconut Grove Playhouse is “Broadway by the Bay,” but its unofficial one should be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The Playhouse has featured a string of successful if skimpy “biomusicals” about great American songwriters and singing stars — Al Jolson, Al Dubin, Alberta…
Barrio Hollywood: The New Theatre’s latest world premiere has considerable potential: it’s not only a play about boxing, it’s also about Mexican-American culture, family loyalty and cross-cultural romance. To this add some imaginative staging by the New’s Rafael de Acha and evocative, colorful production design and all signs point to…
Miami artist Victor Muñiz is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and an alumnus of Miami’s New World School of the Arts. “Monster,” his show now on display at Leonard Tachmes Gallery, consists of drawings and a mural installation. It is a winner. Graffiti, comics, Pop, and…
Brown Constructions: Curated by Los Angeles artist Amir Zaki and featuring artists Alice Könitz, Anthony Pearson, Tyler Vlahovich. The works here are linked formally by investigations into planar surfaces and solid constructions, which are pierced, impaled or excavated. Pearson’s photos of rocky landscapes are backlit in an intriguingly counterintuitive way…
When was the last time you saw Paul Giamatti? And when the film ended, did you realize how much you would miss him? It was just last year that Giamatti played the hilariously beleaguered Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, a role that he occupied with slumped, head-hanging perfection. Yet as…
I’m not for sale. I’m fucking love. I give it away.” So says Anton Newcombe, the raging megalomaniac who heads the Brian Jonestown Massacre, an underground rock band determined to take over the world. First he hurls the words at the audience. Then he informs the crowd that they bought…
When the Miami Book Fair International began, who would have dreamed that our smoldering, sweaty, sexy city would be the proud annual host to one of the nation’s most prestigious literary events? Every year, more than 500,000 book lovers are drawn to our shores in hopes of hearing their favorite…
About a decade ago, Patrick Gleber — who, along with fellow FIU grad Kevin Rusk, had taken over Tobacco Road in 1982 and transformed the dingy dive into Miami’s best dining-drinking-entertainment complex — was meeting with a local radio personality who wanted to launch a new live-music night in the…
Art show (sans Chong) FRI 11/12 When Cheech Marin torched his way out of the barrio and onto the big screen as half of the burnout franchise Cheech and Chong, few might have guessed he would become a respected art collector and author. Today, Marin, who tripped the counterculture with…
Saddle Up SAT 11/13 Fans of Arabian horses are showcasing their favorite equines with an event that features galloping, jumping, and spectacular duds. The Sunshine State Arabian Horse Club’s show offers a division that refers to the animals’ desert pedigree. The horses run the event regally adorned with tasseled finery;…
French film homage FRI 11/12 Though he’s probably best known for the 1991 historical drama Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World), French director Alain Corneau has cooked up a few noirish potboilers in his day as well. In Serie Noire (Black Series), Corneau takes hard-edged…
Laugh your ass off at the Improv THU 11/11 Comedian D.L. Hughley’s life reads like the classic American rags-to-riches tale. He grew up on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles, where he found himself sporting red bandanas as a member of the notorious Bloods gang. He had a…
THU 11 Ah, The King and I. The 1956 film version of this beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical gave Western audiences sing-along songs “Getting To Know You” and “Shall We Dance,” Deborah Kerr in period gowns that made her rear end look 40 feet wide, and the Oscar-winning performance by…
Ray, director Taylor Hackford’s fifteen-years-in-the-making biography of Ray Charles, begins as you might hope: with 1959’s “What’d I Say (Part 1)” pulsing on the soundtrack, the organ’s low moans building toward that familiar, funky frenzy. It almost serves as an early climax, a bracing thrill served up before a word…
Even before the movie begins, as the New Line logo is still coalescing on a dark screen, a man speaks on the soundtrack. He’s talking about reincarnation and about what he would do if his wife, named Anna, were to die and return as a bird insisting it was indeed…
Where are the flying cars? Isn’t it about time? Seriously, we’re almost five years into the new millennium and by now we expected to be able to hover over the 836 “skyway” like the Jetsons. Perhaps the opportunity to berate those responsible will present itself at the 34th annual South…
Since its modest beginnings back in 1984 as a little thing called Books by the Bay, neither wind nor rain nor threat of hurricane has been enough to knock the Miami Book Fair International off its course to becoming one of the biggest and best (if not the biggest and…
Corvette cult congregates in the Keys SAT 11/6 A timeline of major religious events around the globe would include the crucifixion of Christ around A.D. 30, Mohammed’s return to Mecca in 628, the Protestant Reformation beginning in 1517, and for many, June 30, 1953: the day the first Corvette rolled…
Gear up for a wet hike SUN 11/7 Full of animal magnetism, the Big Cypress National Preserve becomes even more mesmeric with autumn’s cooler weather. During an A.D. Barnes Park Swamp Tromp at this time one year ago, eco tourists spotted deer, otters, snakes, alligators, turtles, and a variety of…
Religious Riddle SAT 11/6 The Bible says: “Judge not lest ye be judged.” But then there’s: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” Jeez,…
