Behind the Scenes at Miami-Dade Public Schools Weird dealings, Ralph Arza, and other scary things: In response to Rebecca Wakefield’s article about state Rep. Ralph Arza (“Meet Mr. Arza,” March 25), I say thank God for New Times and especially for Ms. Wakefield’s ability to investigate and write. Her stories…
Miami-Dade mayoral hopeful José Cancela says that as far as he’s concerned, developer Lowell Dunn, Sr., is unforgiven after a February meeting ended with Dunn handing Cancela a fistful of dollars. Cancela says Dunn, best known for never-ending legal battles over his plan to develop the environmentally sensitive Madden’s Hammock,…
Coming Soon: My Bundle of Joy When I announced I wanted natural childbirth, they freaked: I am eight months pregnant. Like the women in Celeste Fraser Delgado’s article “Cuts You Up” (March 18), I have been greatly troubled by how many of my friends and co-workers in this area have…
Every few years the cultural margins throw up an album that suddenly clears the air, announcing not just a new Zeitgeist but a fresh generation of music consumers coming of age. Critics scramble to evaluate the new sonic terrain while record company executives begin frantically waving contracts in the presumed…
An Angel’s Blessing Free weekly praised for publishing potty-mouth cartoons: I want to thank Francisco Alvarado for his journalistic aggressiveness in reporting the latest chapter in the sick saga of North Bay Village’s political chaos (“The Avenging Angel of North Bay Village,” March 11). The two disgusting cartoons that were…
Standing inside Bal Harbour’s Neiman Marcus, Michael Musto was far from his usual downtown Manhattan stomping grounds, and even farther from the usual fodder for his long-running Village Voice nightlife column. There were no Hollywood celebs behaving badly, no catfighting drag queens, not a single club owner with an underage…
No Time for the Whine Professional protesters like Bork need to get a job — and a life: As long as Kirk Nielsen is the acting head of the Jamie “Bork” Loughner Fan Club, perhaps he can enlighten everyone as to what this professional complainer does for a living (“No…
Kendall: Nightlife Hotspot No velvet ropes, no overpriced cocktails, and lots of free parking: After reading Rebecca Wakefield’s article “Rope Tricks” (February 26), I now know why these South Beach nightspots come and go so rapidly: They refuse entry to almost everyone! Do you think Burdines should tell fat people…
Here on South Beach, folks tend to view current affairs through a slightly warped prism. Did presidential hopeful John Kerry smooth away his visible worries via a Botox treatment? Does Kerry, as one Bush administration aide famously quipped, “look French”? Those are questions this city’s body politic is well prepared…
Don’t You Recognize Blind Ambition When You See It? Free weekly snuggles up to ax-grinders: Could New Times go back to attacking real mismanagement and incompetence, or do you support anybody with a personal ambition and an ax to grind (“Sustained Objections,” February 19)? Is there a public defender’s office…
Kidd Cumbia, a.k.a. David Elizondo, is distracted. He’s trying to focus on the surprise success of A Toda Maquina (Full Force), the debut album from his group ATM. Yet he can’t help looking across the lobby of the Sofitel Hotel near Miami International Airport at a group of young men…
So Many Questions, So Few Answers When did she shoot? Why did she shoot? Where was the emotion? Did Denise Calvo participate in the murder of her husband? I asked myself that on the evening the crime occurred, when it was covered on television news. When I saw Kirk Nielsen’s…
“Havana Suite is sold out?” groused the crestfallen young woman bellying up to the Miami International Film Festival ticket counter. “Are you sure?” Standing nearby, Kulchur tried to offer some words of solace: Don’t worry, I’ve seen it and you’re not missing much. The woman stepped back to re-examine the…
Download This Only a techno-moron would say such a thing: I was appalled by the level of inaccuracy in Tristram Korten’s column “Deeply Digitally Divided” (February 5), in which he stated that the e-Equality computer technology center was “the only tech center in town with the resources to dramatically improve…
While it’s certainly true that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, with Che Guevara that maxim has become downright surreal. Today the revolutionary icon’s writings are simultaneously admired by teenage Howard Dean volunteers in Burlington and Taliban leaders in the Afghan countryside; they are parsed for strategies by…
In Over Their Heads Let’s thank the volunteers serving on public boards, then show them the door: Tristram Korten’s fine column on the Public Health Trust audits (“An Embarrassment of Audits,” January 29) ought to be a lesson to this community on the consequences of placing public institutions in the…
Our Most Sincere Thanks for the Insult Miami’s Pilates professionals will appreciate an apology: I commend assistant calendar editor Juan Carlos Rodriguez on his article about Pilates and the Hub center (“Clearing Mind, Fixing Body,” January 22). The Pilates Method Alliance (PMA) is the international, not-for-profit professional association for the…
This week Universal Music Latino releases a compilation called Heavy Hitters: The Best of Spanish Hip-Hop. Who are these heavy hitters? Best-selling rappers like Big Pun, Fat Joe, and Tego Calderón? Up-and-coming rhymers like Don Dinero and Pitbull? Or old-school pioneers like Vico C, Kid Frost, Delinquent Habits, and Mellow…
Their hours may be different, but Miami’s leading political figures are looking an awful lot like nightclub owners these days. In the looming August race to succeed Alex Penelas as Miami-Dade mayor, no less than in the competitive world of clubland, lining up a steady stream of VIP appearances is…
Bash Us, Lash Us, Trash Us Just don’t bore us: One more time, hats off to Ronald Mangravite — a tough, uncompromising, insightful, passionate, unfailingly decent, and even-handed example of that most dreaded profession: theater criticism (“Aural Sex,” January 15). Even when he “reams” us theater folks, he does it…
“There are five different art fairs in South Florida now!” laughed Manhattan gallery owner Claire Oliver as a well-heeled crowd streamed past her exhibition space at last week’s Art Miami show. “That’s a lot of art for anyone to stay on top of.” Actually there are only three sprawling art…
In the Beginning Was the Word And the word was “awesome”: I just finished reading Rebecca Wakefield’s cover story “The Sociology of Suds” (January 8) and had to write to say that it was awesome. I wish there were more journalism being done like this. I thought it was brilliant…
