“I went out to protest the traitors to the Revolution. Little did I know I was about to become one of them.” Juan Carlos Zaldivar’s words foreshadow the series of contradictions raised in his documentary 90 Miles. As a thirteen-year-old Cuban boy from the small town of Holguin, Zaldivar was…
If, in keeping with current fads, you seek movies featuring females kicking a bunch of ass, your appetite will be tended (and cultivated) at the multiplex all summer long. Wander into your local art-house, however, and you may find a fine if somewhat challenging import called The Legend of Suriyothai…
Following suit, trumping. Sound familiar? Those everyday expressions come straight from the card game bridge. You know, that game your parents or your grandparents might play in their spare time. But who in this age of fast-paced everything — 200 cable channels and video games, movies, and magazines designed for…
Thursday July 24 As you crunch your way through a box of Goobers while watching 2 Fast 2 Furious, you might mistake that sweat rolling down your temples as the product of too much excitement. Or you might blame it on the air conditioner in the theater being on the…
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone arranged a celebration marking the fifth anniversary of the discovery of the Miami Circle? A day of speeches, music, and perhaps a glimpse of Miami’s “Stonehenge” to sweeten the pot. Well, such an event is planned but you’re not invited. Almost five years ago…
Bar trivia: What Miami watering hole boasts a bed center stage instead of a band? Forget the prissy canopies of South Beach. We’re talking stained Sealy Posturepedic sans headboard or box spring, an amplifier and mike in one corner, with Sears catalog, crusty take-out boxes, and empty bottles of Jack…
There’s something to be said for a movie that’s honest enough to transcribe dialogue that must have emanated from the director’s mouth, and make it part of the script. “Everybody start shooting at somebody!” yells Det. Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) in the midst of a particular situation. Earlier, he gives…
So much for those crackpot theories about flighty teenagers and their short attention spans. For four long years now the bland pop star Mandy Moore has stuck in the brain pan of white adolescent America like a wad of bubblegum, and there’s no sign that she will loosen her grip…
“Like many immigrants, I’m constantly traveling and telling stories about what I see, and that ends up creating liaisons everywhere I go — it can be Bogota, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, or Santiago,” says busy Argentine rocker Fito Páez, explaining how comfortable he feels about his fifth visit to…
Thursday July 17 During the Nineteenth Century the Fisk Jubilee Singers were considered the last word in Negro spirituals, their heartfelt performances enchanting audiences around the world. These days the celebrated National Spiritual Ensemble has been handed the torch, keeping spirituals resonating in concert halls everywhere. Begun in 1994 as…
If David Copperfield could make a historic monument like the Statue of Liberty disappear, why couldn’t he do the same to Cher? Surely the aging pop diva must be dying to get away. Her farewell concert tour just keeps dragging on. Even after her parting performance was aired on network…
Friday July 18 Remember that dream you used to have repeatedly as a kid? You were sitting at your desk in school chatting with your friends, passing notes, shooting spitballs, and even answering the occasional teacher’s question when you looked down and realized your clothing was a bit baggier than…
Saturday July 19 The days are long and hot. You’ve been staring at the pavement again, huffing Metrobus exhaust, drinking lemonade made from a powdered mix, and perhaps wondering what happened to the good ole summertime. Well, it’s back in full swing today at Roberto Clemente Park (101 NW 34th…
Thursday July 17 Does a bear cha-cha-cha in the woods? Let’s see. It does if it’s the furry, 7-foot-tall star of Jim Henson Television’s Bear in the Big Blue House, which comes to interactive life onstage this weekend. The Emmy Award-winning show on the Disney Channel is beloved by both…
Thursday July 17 When artist David Rohn is made-up, costumed, and in character, he’s not himself. So pulling him aside and trying to chat about buying a painting or sculpture is fruitless. Just stand back and enjoy the show — whether he’s playing clueless real estate agent Gretchen Bender leading…
Thursday July 17 Local playwright Mario Diament might enjoy the production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure just a little too much. So, too, might the directors of Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre Company and Miami’s EDGE Theatre. The reason for their salivation? This production of the Elizabethan dark comedy is directed…
Part of the trick of producing plays is deciding not only what to stage but when. Some shows work better in the fall than the summer, some are hurt by financial bad times, others are helped by same. But all attempts to time a play’s opening are still subject to…
“Treasures from the Collection of the Bass Museum of Art” features a work that was a collaboration between Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. This is the same Botticelli who painted one of the most famous images in the history of art — The Birth of Venus, commonly known as Venus on the…
Those quirky kids over at the Florida Moving Image Archive are at it again, throwing the third annual film and video festival that highlights their amazing stash of archival footage. Never call this festival staid. It’s always bubbling with the unexpected, from the serious to the comically frivolous. This year…
To the wide U.S. audience who may not recognize the rockers in the new video from Chilean band La Ley, it should be said that indeed the group was not like this back in 1989. When they released their first album in Chile, they emphasized their good looks, plus a…
Thursday July 10 Hand-wringing, eye-rolling, and shrugging shoulders is the best we non-Jews/non-Palestinians can do when we consider the absurd, blood-soaked comedy that’s become the Middle East. Both sides have their screaming fanatics, each with children who speak with blood lust against each other. Although recent reports of a sunny…
With a name that sounds like a blaxploitation heroine, author Aphrodite Jones has been energetically kicking publishing-world ass since her first true-crime book, The FBI Killer, appeared on shelves eleven years ago. Among her quintet of compelling best sellers: Cruel Sacrifice, the gruesome tale of four teenage girls in Indiana…
