Rules of Subtraction

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,…

Letters from the Issue of March 25, 2004

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…

The Next Big Thing

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…

Letters from the Issue of March 18, 2004

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…

Food and Fundraising

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…

Letters from the Issue of March 11, 2004

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…

Letters from the Issue of March 4, 2004

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…

Culture Snob Alert

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…

Letters from the Issue of February 26, 2004

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…

Sofrito con Guacamole

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…

Letters from the Issue of February 19, 2004

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…

Scene Stealer

“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…

Letters from the Issue of February 12, 2004

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…

Myth Makers

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…

Letters from the Issue of February 5, 2004

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…

Letters from the Issue of January 29, 2004

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…

Heavy in Hialeah

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…

Miguel and the Money Man

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…

Letters from the Issue of January 22, 2004

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…

The War of Art

“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…

Letters from the Issue of January 15, 2004

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…

Letters from the Issue of January 8, 2004

I Know a Thing or Two about Beauty Pageants And this one is anything but beautiful: Thanks to Forrest Norman for his article about Mario Princigalli and his Miss Cuban-American pageant (“Tiara Squirm-a!” December 25). I competed in this year’s pageant and I had a terrible experience. My parents were…