StreetWorks – North Miami Ave and NW 34th Terrace

Being anywhere near I-95 in the afternoon is a guaranteed way to get a headache. So I decided to be adventurous and take North Miami Avenue as an alternate route home, it’s a congested route but at least my wheels turn more than once an hour. While, I stared at…

Punks Have Hearts Too

The words punk rock love song might seem like a contradiction in terms, but those who have spent any time in punk’s prickly embrace know better. Beneath the trappings of a costume, beneath the pent-up aggressive energy, there’s usually a big softy who just wants a big ol’ hug. And…

Letters from the Issue of February 14, 2008

Whole Lotta Sharing Goin’ On He’s been whacked: In response to Isaiah Thompson’s January 31 story, “Share the F**king Road”: I have been a bike rider in Miami Beach for the past seven years and have had many accidents. 1) In 2002, a bus on Collins Avenue threw me off…

Subterranean Homesick Blues

It’s Throwback Tuesdays here at CrossFade and we’re going way back with some vintage Bobby Dylan. This was always one of my favorite early music videos and its great to see the original bald head slick AKA Allen Ginsberg in the background enjoying a cameo. — Jonathan Cunningham…

Letters from the Issue of February 7, 2008

Move Over, Motorists! Chicken, egg, and spoke: Thanks for Isaiah Thompson’s article about cycling in Miami, “Share the F***ing Road” (January 31). Eric Tullberg is rapidly becoming one of my heroes. Thompson hit the nail on the head with the cyclist who said that, a short while ago, he was…

In Flames

Last Friday the crowd at Churchill’s included hesher types, bikers in Motörhead jackets, crusty bicycle people wearing shorts and stitched-up leather fanny packs, and a gaggle of of-the-moment local artists. Then there was the guy my companion pointed out: “Surprise! There’s someone in a Star Wars shirt.” In short, it…

Greatest Show on Earth

The first time I tried absinthe, I didn’t feel compelled to hack off my ear. Nor did I see any green fairies. In fact the only things I remember are sugar, a lighter, a shot glass, and the booze hitting my lips. That’s it. Well, that and the flush of…

Streetworks – NW 36th Street and 5th Ave.

Rather than dealing with people on Biscayne Boulevard who don’t know how to merge, I chose to go down NW 36th Street. As I was reaching the light at NW 5th Avenue, the dude in front of me slammed on the brakes. After holding back a few expletives and regaining…

Letters from the Issue of January 31, 2008

Dissin’ Cousins Give this man a polygraph!: Congratulations to Miami New Times and Francisco Alvarado for having the courage to print the truth about my first cousin, Chris Korge (“Hillary’s Money Man,” January 24). I will be more than happy to take a lie detector test concerning the events that…

Reasons to Believe

I don’t care about his feathered hair. I don’t care about his unfortunate fascination, in the Seventies and Eighties, with puff sleeves. Or his continuing fascination with white suits. Or the fact that, with some teenage parenting, he could technically be old enough to be my grandfather. I love Rod…

Bambi Bump-Off

Three skulls lay in the dust beneath silvery buttonwood leaves. Two were covered in rotting flesh. One had been severed by a hacksaw. That was December. A month prior, a truck driver had swerved off the road to eviscerate an endangered key deer, spreading her organs over 30 yards of…

StreetWorks – Wynwood Art District

As I walked from gallery to gallery during this year’s first Wynwood art walk, I noticed a lot of graffiti but assumed most of it was there as part of an exhibition. But this one on NW 2nd Avenue and 24th Street was far from most of the galleries and…

Codepink Stink

First there was the menacing claim broadcast on Spanish-language television that “someone might crack your head like a coconut.” Next came three death threats. Finally, as the peace loonies recently piloted their Dodge Ram pickup onto SW Eighth Street, an angry crowd composed mostly of Cuban exiles — spitting and…

Letters from the Issue of January 24, 2008

Heroes All So proud: Thanks so much for Janine Zeitlin’s “Frogmen” (January 17); it’s such an amazing article. I’m so proud of my father, Andy Pruna, for being one of the heroes in this article. I read this great story to my kids so they could hear the truth about…

Throwback Tuesdays: Biz Markie!!

There’s something about the video for “Just a Friend” and the song in general that was pivotal for an entire generation to get a better understand of what hip-hop really is. Up until this song went national, most hip-hop singles were either serious, message driven tunes of the “White Lines”…

Club Action

With the conversion last year of the old Jackie Gleason Theater to the Fillmore Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County gained yet another live music venue. And it was yet another enticement for bands to play down here, rather than make the rest of us trek up to Broward or even Palm…

New Times Turns 20

The beef began with a fish. Fueled by liquor, it ended with Miami New Times owner Mike Lacey launching a bottle at its editor Jim Mullin. “One of our sarcastic writers called [legendary newscaster] Ann Bishop ‘a bossy old trout’ in, I think, the first ‘Best of Miami’ issue,” Mullin…

Letters from the Issue of January 17, 2008

Thanks, We Think Now you’ve got it: Jason Handelsman’s January 10 article about Rick Ross, “Still Hustlin’,” was 10 times better than the garbage he wrote about Bigg D (“Bigg Pimpin’,” December 13). The focus was on Rick Ross and his music, not on fried chicken and strippers. Thanks! John…

StreetWorks – NW 167 St. and Palmetto Expressway

After missing my exit on the Palmetto Expressway, the one that leads to NW 167th Street, because some dude couldn’t show me some common courtesy. I had to take the long way back onto the expressway. I looked to my left as i traveled up the ramp back onto State…

Letters from the Issue of January 10, 2008

A Wicked Check into the Boards Chris, can you skate backward?: Brett Gillin proves in his January 3 article “The Whiny One” that he knows nothing about hockey or Sidney Crosby. It’s one thing to talk about something he knows about, but it’s another to repeat things he has heard…

The Shows Go On

I know, a couple of weeks ago I talked smack about year-end lists while dispensing a roundup of my favorite local albums of 2007. But I couldn’t resist one more, especially with the previous issue’s national roundup of the year in music. For some local flavor I racked my brain…