The first time, self-appointed arbiters dismissed it as a lark, this weird underwater musical performance (in January) concocted by a radio newsman (Bill Becker) and his dentist/arts-council diving buddy Dr. Fred Troxel. A few years later, doubters allowed that the “gimmick” had achieved fad status. Celebrating its twentieth anniversary, the…
Sat 7/10 During the 20th Century, people were fascinated with the future and the past. On the verge of moving into outer space, humanity ostensibly needed to recover its roots. From an Oscar Wilde play based on the Salome Bible story, an accused spy named Mata Hari, and other misrepresentations,…
Thu 7/8 Artist Rodney Jackson’s portraits are as bold and brash as the hip-hop icons he paints. Tupac Shakur, headscarf and all, stares defiantly from a solid-color, Pop Art background. A lively Aaliyah and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes are captured too as part of Jackson’s Angels of Hip-Hop series memorializing…
Sat 7/10 “They also serve who stand and wait,” said John Milton in Paradise Lost. But that was 350 years ago. At today’s 6th annual Waiters/Waitress Race, in downtown Coral Gables, they who serve will not be doing a whole lot of standing. Rather, local waiters and waitresses will be…
Thu 7/8 In the swelter of a South Florida summer, it is difficult to imagine anything more desirable than getting wet. Running the garden hose on your head is the low-end option. Much better is the high end, an aquatic chill-out that could change your life and maybe even allow…
Cakewalk: Aesthetic experience and erogenous pleasure have always been close relatives, to be sure. But rather than any genuine countercultural agenda, artists in 2004 are armed with a stylist’s finely tuned eye for the retro, a fascination with the abject and unlovable, a salacious eye for soft porn, and an…
The Life: The tiny Atlantis Playhouse takes a crazy gamble on The Life, a dark and gritty musical about pimps and prostitutes on New York’s mean streets in the Eighties. The risk pays off. This rarely produced Tony Award winner (in its first-ever regional production) features a fine score from…
The first exceptional drama of 2004 is here, and it only took, what, seven months? Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Mother comes from British writer Hanif Kureishi, who penned the gritty, South Asian-in-London marvels My Beautiful Laundrette and My Son the Fanatic. On the other hand, its director is Roger Michell, lately…
All you need to know about Spider-Man 2 is revealed in the opening credits, in which comic-book artist Alex Ross recaps the 2002 original in lovingly, lavishly painted panels. Spidey and Mary Jane Watson are once again entangled in that now-iconic upside-down kiss; nutty Norman Osborn, out of Green Goblin…
The Russian language and culture are complex, mysterious, and beautiful in their own way, but for vocalist Tierney Sutton, Russian was no match for the magical powers of jazz. While a Russian major at Wesleyan University in the Eighties, Sutton heard the music of sublime chanteuse Sarah Vaughan, among other…
Thursday, July 01 Hearing — or is that seeing — is believing at Miami-Dade Public Library (101 W. Flagler St.), at least if you’re an artist who is participating in the exhibition “The Spectacle of Sound.” In the auditorium, local painters, sculptors, and photographers who have been influenced by sound…
Its the moment once again to break out the old Red, White, and Blue. The Fourth of July is upon us and in Miami the colors will be flying in the hot Miami swelter reminding all that they are, in fact, living in America. There will be fireworks, rock stars,…
Sat 7/3 The enchanting grounds of Vizcaya (3251 S. Miami Ave.) begin Independence Day celebrations ahead of schedule since the attractions 6th annual Red, White, and Blue Pre-Independence Celebration occurs a day early every year. But the historically inclined villa is just keeping in theme with regard to a popular…
Fri 7/2 When it comes to love, what’s worse, being a hopeless romantic or a hopeful romantic? Silver-haired author/singer David Leddick leans toward the latter, or so his musical collaborator/pianist Andrew Sargent has noted. Sargent should know. The duo has worked closely together, creating the book and songs for last…
Mon 7/5 Once a year the clothing-optionals, the true embodiment of our own neurotic fears, celebrate their lifestyle during Nude Recreation Week (NRW). They do activities such as frolic in the surf at nude beaches, play volleyball naked, compare their wealth of unusual moles, or wag their naked boom-booms to…
Sat 7/3 The lore around 130-pound, Cuban-born pugilist Joel Casamayor, above, can be seen as allegorical for Cuban Americans. After Casamayor won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics, Fidel Castro presented the worlds best bantamweight amateur boxer with a bicycle. Casamayor is said to have sold the bicycle to…
Let’s begin with the bottom line: By any measure, The Shakespeare Project, the New Theatre’s summer repertory of King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is an undeniable success. These masterworks, played by a plucky acting ensemble of thirteen, are delivered in visually striking stagings by artistic director Rafael de…
Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out, now in its Florida premiere at the Caldwell Theatre, is nothing if not ambitious. Its subjects are wide-ranging — among them, major-league baseball, gay identity, prejudice, and tolerance — and so are its genres. The play wants to be both a pressure-cooker drama and a…
Richard Feynman was a physicist who won a Nobel Prize in 1965, helped develop the atomic bomb, and was a key member of a panel that investigated the Challenger explosion in 1986. He was also a loon. Oozing eccentricity as often as possible, Feynman — aside from being considered the…
Thanks to a group of individuals with vision, our arts scene keeps developing. Usually the vision is unfunded, and they start from scratch. So realizing their dreams requires a great deal of resolve. Two of those people with vision and resolve are Susan Caraballo and José-Carlos Diaz. New Times spoke…
Definitive Juxt: Curated by Lissette Garcia and co-organized by José Carlos Diaz at the Odegard Building in the Design District, this show challenges viewers to accommodate highly personal visions of a group of Miami artists. Works by the Paper Dolls, Mauricio Espinosa, Sarah Murrie, Brian O’Dell, Jason/Opalka, Bert Rodriguez, Gustavo…
Desert Storm: Jim Tommaney’s antiwar fable balances three stories: soldiers on the war front, their concerned parents back home, and inside the Oval Office as the first President Bush and aides discuss U.S. involvement in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. The fictional plight of the soldiers and families hits hard,…
