Before there were grooves, string quartets, jazz trumpet solos, or Kanye West, there was sound. That, in short, is the subject of Subtropics XXIII, Miami’s experimental biennial of music and sound art, taking place this Wednesday through March 8. Founded in 1989 by Venezuela-born, Miami-based local artist and composer Gustavo…
Named after the group of laborers that mounts plays in the woods in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this Austin-based collective launched in 1995 after its members, then undergrads at the University of Texas, studied the Bard in barns. It was all part of a summer retreat called Shakespeare at…
Forty-eight hours before the curtain rises, director James Danner, assistant director Déa Julien, and production designer Rachel Libeskind take a short break at the Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI). They’ve been at the artist-run space, nestled among culturally disparate downtown locales such as Club Space and Museum Park, since Thursday, making…
For Hattie Mae Williams, Miami is the ultimate performance space. Williams, a longtime dancer and choreographer, created her own style and company, the Tattooed Ballerinas, to bring movement and attention to both everyday and unique spots. Their guerrilla-style dancing began in New York subway stations and supermarkets before moving south…
Miami is the hottest thing to emerge from a swamp since Jennifer Lopez in Anaconda. The city’s friendly neighbor Doral just hosted 88 of the world’s hottest women for the Miss Universe Pageant. Beacons of hotness Debbie Harry and Eva Mendes are natives. In short, Miami is hot. But a…
Lil Daggers – Dada Brown [Official Video] from Michael J. Ruiz-Unger on Vimeo. For Brian Kurtz, it all started with a Fisher-Price record player in his Brooklyn apartment. When he was a kid, Kurtz fell in love with music while spending hours listening to Michael Jackson and the Pointer Sisters…
Jake Gyllenhaal is set to star in the biopic The Man Who Made It Snow, the tale of Max Mermelstein, a notorious 1980s drug smuggler who pioneered the cocaine pipeline from Medellín to Miami before eventually turning rat and tearing it all down. At the time, Mermelstein was the only…
First comes Netflix; then comes Late Night. In the latest example of the loosening travel restrictions with Cuba, longtime comedian and TV host Conan O’Brien is filming an episode of his TBS show in Havana. Deadline reports O’Brien’s show flew to Havana last Thursday, taking advantage of the time off…
Happy Presidents’ Day! Let’s take this day off from work to reflect on the awesomeness of presidents past. Abe Lincoln, for example. That dude could rock a stovepipe while simultaneously making serious inroads for equality. More like him, please. In honor of our former presidents, here’s a bunch of stuff…
Last night in Midtown, the VIP Preview kicked off the 2015 edition of Art Wynwood, the baby sister to Art Miami that features over 70 galleries from around the world. Collectors, artists, and anyone lucky enough to get a ticket to the exclusive event packed the tent at 3101 NE…
This year Cupid’s holiday coincides with the Second Saturday Art Walk. All of Wynwood will be fluttering with plenty of romance to go with an abundance of new exhibitions where you and your honey can share your love of art and culture. Beginning at 6 p.m. tomorrow you can rendezvous…
If your S.O. would love to spend Valentine’s weekend at the ballet, but to you that sounds like a total bore, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo may be a happy compromise. This all-male, drag version of classic ballet has been charming audiences around the world for almost 40 years,…
When the Art Wynwood Fair opens today, it will accomplish a milestone that Art Basel in Miami Beach has never managed to achieve. That’s because unlike Art Basel, this weekend’s event will present a side-by-side showcase of our city’s top galleries and artists under one roof. Art Wynwood will offer…
“Home,” painter John Bailly says, “is an abstract place.” John Bailly has spent most of his life thinking about the concept of home, as a physical place but also as a state of mind. Maybe that’s because the painter has never really felt at home anywhere. The 46-year-old was born…
It’s February 13, which means only one thing: Galentine’s Day. For those of you not yet introduced to the charms of this fem-friendly holiday, it’s in the grand tradition of Festivus. As Seinfeld’s Frank Costanza was the originator of the holiday about airing grievances and worshiping a pole, so Parks…
Theater, art, and kites: These are just a few of the things that Miami has to offer this weekend. If those things aren’t your jam, there’s plenty more to choose from. Hear Tony Bennett croon, ogle some boats, or find unusual ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Whatever it is, enjoy…
In the olden days, what month it was never mattered to movies. But today the late-winter months are well known as a weedy boneyard of mouth-breathing Hollywood castoffs, and we explore it at the cost of our patience, time, shekels, and optimism. For the love of everything holy, stay home…
Whitney Cummings is concerned she may be a little too PG for Miami’s brand of raunchiness. “I’m actually worried I won’t be edgy enough for Miami,” the actress-slash-comedian-slash-writer told me as we talked about her upcoming show at the Magic City Casino on February 13. I Love You, first produced…
In 2004, I worked at a bar in Kansas City’s River Market district. One night, a woman handed me her credit card to pay her tab; I looked at it and said, “HAHA. Your name is Monica Ross!” She made a big, exasperated noise and dropped her forehead to the…
Just behind Jason Fitzroy Jeffers’ desk in his North Miami apartment is an ominous-looking pile of sharpened machetes and handmade leather sheaths. It’s not a deadly personal arsenal, though — it’s just the Kickstarter prizes he sent out to supporters of his short film Papa Machete. The briskly paced, poetic…
Self-taught Overtown artist Purvis Young used little more than found objects and paint to craft his works, renowned for their rare ability to capture both hope and despair in the midst of urban strife and upheaval. Finding patrons and fans like Bernard Davis (owner of the now-defunct Miami Museum of…
Crazy-Pants Spy Parody Kingsman Smartly Exposes Us as the Bad Guys
