Thursday 9/11 It goes without saying that the world has changed since the horrific events that happened on this date two years ago. The day will be full of memorials, but none so dramatic as the minutes in which the two planes slammed into the World Trade Center. In remembrance…
South Beach is famous for its frenzied and bootylicious nightlife, its beaches and all-out debauchery. The profile is brought to life on any given holiday weekend as the place erupts with pleasure-seekers from all over the world. Unfortunately one claim to fame is often ignored by glossy travel brochures and…
MON 9/15 It’s no secret that life in Haiti can be a serious struggle. Five years ago, Monique “Maman Carole” Bartoli set up an orphanage and charitable foundation dedicated to helping children in poverty, to assisting the elderly, and to developing Haitian communities. Working in memory of her father, a…
SAT 9/13 Labor Day is a joke. Supposedly it’s the end of summer. Theoretically it’s time to unpack sweaters and look toward the fall — all that stuff. But not here. In Miami it’s still steamy, hot, and wet. Cooler temperatures won’t hit us for another two months or so…
SUN 9/14 For centuries classical music and dance were thought understandable only to the informed senses of the elite classes. But it’s not wealth or social position that makes an educated music lover — it’s access. Now in its 18th season, Sunday Afternoons of Music for Children brings reasonably priced…
THUR 9/11 The Taliban’s fiercest opponent and a man known to his followers as the Lion of Panjshir was killed by a suicide bomber just 2 days before the attacks on September 11. Ahmad Shah Massoud was the charismatic leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance who battled for the liberation of…
SAT 9/13 I smell trouble, or is that roast pig and caipirinhas? Whatever the source, mix enough Brazilians into a really big party and you’re bound to have trouble keeping a lid on the affair. And this is no ordinary party, but the 3rd annual Miami Beach Luau, featuring the…
Local theater fans have often griped about the state of the stage here in South Florida, and readers of this column will recognize me as one of that disgruntled crew. Despite the wide array of local theater companies, the choice of shows tends to run a narrow gamut from lightweight…
What a difference two years can make. It has been that long (that short, really) since the Sol Theatre of Fort Lauderdale made its debut with a lively but rather shallow production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, an opening gambit that was brave if overly ambitious. Since then the Sol has…
Barbey d’Aurevilly, a French dandy of the Nineteenth Century, used to say that everything has a minor version. So here there are art galleries and then those other ubiquitous establishments set in every little mall in Miami — the so-called frame galleries. In some you may find almost everything except…
Most will deny it, but inside every grown man lurks a hypersensitive adolescent girl. Allow me to tell you all about mine and to share some of my poetry … Whoa! Relax. Put away that gun. Just seeking to emphasize that in the case of director Catherine Hardwicke’s debut feature,…
Key Biscayne’s long-time diner the Donut Gallery might be a tiny, unassuming place, but it’s the kind of joint where you can meet lots of big-name people. Former Key Biscayne resident and President Nixon crony Bebe Rebozo was said to be a frequent patron. Federal prosecutor Dick Gregorie has been…
A new Internet fad has arrived and the admission ticket is likely sitting in your deleted e-mail. Remember a spammish-looking “Invitation to join Friendster” that you were above opening? While you were busy spending Friday night alone again, the already popular matchmaking site was exploding with artists, miscreants, and all…
THUR 9/4 It’s no secret — Miami’s nightlife depends on big, round, usually augmented, breasts. Boobs are huge here, literally. You don’t need a degree in microeconomics to recognize that the best clubs are busting at the seams with buxom bosoms. It makes sense; nice racks attract swarms of male,…
SAT 9/6 A summertime glance at the University of Miami football schedule is usually a letdown. Rarely do the Hurricanes play more than two significant home games a season. This year’s calendar features only one team ranked in a majority of preseason polls: Tennessee. This paucity of talented opponents is…
SUN 9/7 There’s more than just squawking parrots moving onto Watson Island. That white, slightly deconstructivist building sitting across the causeway from Parrot Jungle Island is home to the new Miami Children’s Museum. The vagabond institution, which started out in 1983 as the Miami Youth Museum, moved into the defunct…
THUR 9/4 Face it, Miami has become an awards show mecca. The Source Awards, the BMI Urban Awards, the MTV Latin Music Video Awards, and finally the Latin Grammys have all graced us with their presence. Last year lovely Little Haiti welcomed the supremely politically incorrect Crack Rock Fest. Well,…
FRI 9/5 Ludacris brings his iconoclastic braided ‘fro, mutton chops, and Mick Jagger-esque mouth (the one that asks, “What, what, what’s your fantasy?”) to the University of Miami’s Convocation Center (1245 Walsh Ave., Coral Gables) at 7:30 p.m. But the Atlanta native is no stranger to these parts. The fresh…
Modern-day Miami Beach, where condo canyons stretch skyward, slick shops expand along Lincoln Road Mall (emphasis on “mall”), and overstuffed SUVs jockey for position on overcrowded causeways. Not an ideal milieu for going small and artsy. But bucking the trend for the ever bigger and, uh, bigger, is the newly…
Thursday September 4 She’s a weird chick, that winsome and wispy Tori Amos. She’s a preacher’s daughter who sings about an unreliable god, self-crucifixion, and murder. In other words, we love her. Currently touring in support of her album Scarlet’s Walk, Amos promises to satisfy the droves of her fans…
Harvey Pekar, star of a long-running comic-book series he writes and others illustrate, is reminded early in American Splendor that he’s no superhero. It’s Halloween, and the eleven-year-old Harvey, played by a bent-over, sneering Daniel Tay, stands on a stoop seeking tricks and treats from a woman who recognizes the…
“A film starring Bob Dylan” — five more frightening words you’d be hard-pressed to put into the same sentence, even among those who forgave the man for his grotesquely indulgent 1970 album Self-Portrait or sat through his disjointed home movie Renaldo and Clara in 1978. The apologists, of course, will…
