Letters from the Issue of January 3, 2008

Standing Up for Stacey She’s won some too: I am writing to you five days after reading Bob Norman’s December 20 story “Stacey and Friends,” about my wife, Stacey Honowitz, because I didn’t want to have a knee-jerk reaction to it. I am absolutely incredulous that your publication could allow…

Zombies Storm South Beach

Click here to check out a slideshow from the Zombie Walk. I was playing fast and loose with other people’s money, and I came up dead one morning in a Dumpster wearing this amazing outfit,” a guy named Jesse says as one of his brown eyes peeks down at me…

Letters from the Issue of December 27, 2007

Homeless Harangues No sympathy here: I am having a hard time finding sympathy for the men in “The People Under the Bridge” by Isaiah Thompson (December 13). They assaulted the innocence of children, as far as I’m concerned. They forfeited their right to state support (I’m not particularly sure I…

Miami’s Best Albums of 2007

It’s that time of year again — the end, that is, when High Fidelity-style geeks compile High Fidelity-style best-of-the-year lists. There are slobbering dissections of Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga, blathering babble about Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, and a crock of criticism of M.I.A.’s Kala. If that’s what you want,…

Letters from the Issue of December 20, 2007

Homeless The Terminator is better than we are: Thank you so much, Isaiah Thompson, for shedding light on this tragic situation in your December 13 article “The People Under the Bridge.” Florida should be ashamed of itself. I can’t believe this is what the sex offender “hysteria” has led to,…

Classic Common Sense

Talk about a throwback! Here’s some old school Common from 1994 off of his Resurrection album. He was still going by Common Sense at the time and still living on the Southside of Chicago…not doing Gap ads, not making movies, not wearing cardigans, and definitely keeping his rhymes simple and…

Throwback Tuesdays: Suck My Kiss

“Hit me, you can’t hurt me…Suck My Kiss” It’s been a long time since this video got any spins on the major Viacom stations and as far as the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ catalogue goes, that’s really a shame. It’s a really well-shot video, especially for the time frame and…

‘Lectric Friends

Back in the mid-Nineties, the Miami-birthed noise act Kreamy ‘Lectric Santa was playing now-defunct Miami Beach venue Washington Square. Suddenly the club’s musical director, a guy named Doc Wiley, cut off the sound. “There’s nothing like tripping on acid and being drunk, and being told by the club’s sound guy:…

Letters from the Issue of December 13, 2007

Thanks for the Tip Danny is not to be missed: It has been many years since I attended the theater, but Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, reviewed by Brandon K. Thorp in “Soul Porn” (December 6), was about the best reintroduction I could have experienced. My wife and I…

Raw Meat

It’s 11:30 p.m. on a Friday at Churchill’s Pub (5501 NE Second Ave.), and Miami filmmaker Aiden Dillard, age 26, is positioning the legs of an inflatable doll on his shoulders. She wears a pink chiffon dress and sequin Santa hat. “Ho, ho, ho, it’s that gift-giving time of year,”…

Juvenile Backs It Up

I don’t know what it is about this song that gets a party started so easily, but Juvenile’s 1999 cut, “Back That Ass Up” is just classic booty music that defies the notion of booty music. Aside from the title, it’s a hell of a well-composed song which features Juvie…

Throwback Tuesdays: Orishas

It’s been awhile since the world has heard anything out of the Cuban emigres, Orishas. The group, which captured the hearts and eardrums of world music fans back in 1999, did put out the album, Antidiotico, a few months back, but that was mainly filled with their past hits and…

Monty’s

Kokomo might not be real, but Monty’s (2550 S. Bayshore Dr., Coconut Grove; 305-858-1431) surely captures the touristy quality of that fictional vacation paradise. At this bar and restaurant situated on the Coconut Grove marina, couples sip fruity frozen cocktails while families congregate under the tiki huts, their children darting…

Letters from the Issue of December 6, 2007

Racist Washing And we’re all along for the spin cycle: The Haitian refugee situation mentioned in Janine Zeitlin’s November 29 article “Washed Up” is to be expected, especially in today’s anti-immigrant climate in the United States. It’s said this climate is created by working, poor whites who believe the country…

StreetWorks – Old Bullfrog Eatz Nightclub

These murals are all that is left of the “Bullfrog Eatz” nightclub on NE 2nd Ave and 23rd Street. Like many Miami night clubs, it existed for less than a year before going out of business, joining the many empty shells in this area of Miami that refuses to be…

Letters from the Issue of November 29, 2007

Liberty City Eight Put the prosecutors on trial too: Regarding Bob Norman’s November 22 story “Have Terror, Will Travel”: Great article about the work of a great investigator whose job is to expose the truth behind the allegations in criminal trials. But the actions taken by this court come as…

Tobacco Road

Surviving for more than 95 years, Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-374-1198) is the oldest bar in town. While other nightclubs pop up and crumble within a year’s time, the ol’ Road’s faithful imbibers shack up within its abiding walls. Inside, a long bar spans the length of…

Sweat It

A formerly unlikely block on the southeastern edge of Little Haiti is set to become a playground of sorts for Miami’s slowly expanding underground culture. Churchill’s has long been holding it down punk rock-style on the corner of NE Second Avenue and 55th Street. Next door a new turquoise-and-purple-stripe awning…

A Little Old School Iggy

It’s hard to stay in a somber mood when you’ve got Iggy Pop in your life. The lean and lanky rocker is actually coming back to South Florida to perform in a couple of weeks with the Stooges, and though it probably won’t be as big and bombast of a…

Throwback Tuesdays: RIP Sean Taylor

Today has certainly started out on a somber note with the unexpected passing of Miami’s star football player Sean Taylor. It’s hard to wrap your brain around a situation that’s so “senseless” but for those of us that did wake up this morning, it’s just a reminder not to take…

LA Sports Bar and Grill

Longtime Kendall biker bar Scully’s Tavern better watch out. LA Sports Bar and Grill (10575 SW 109th Ct., Kendall; 305-270-0311) is new competition. On a recent Thursday night, the row of hogs lined up in LA’s elevated courtyard loomed over the adjacent street like a shiny black fortress. The Hermandads,…