Program Notes

I try to avoid using this space to plug myself (do too) and last week was a refreshing reminder why. Under the sadly mistaken impression that I could get a life, and caught up in the be-nice spirit of Chanukah et al., I hyped two events — “I’ll be there”…

Swelter

Christmas looming up, the time when WASPs begin to feel cozy, expansive, suicidal, and the mood is, as a German friend of ours used to say, “so schtincky.” Time for the I-Cover-the-Waterfront beat. Warsaw has apparently finalized a deal to take over The Building in New York, according to co-owner…

Letters

Larie V. Dasthuld Miami TIRELESS EFFORTS HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGED I’m writing in regard to Ben Greenman’s article about monologuist John O’Keefe (“A Knockout Performance,” December 4). While the article was a comprehensive tribute to the artist and his body of work, one vital piece of information was missing regarding his Miami…

Program Notes

Is this the tiny part of the year during which it’s okay to be kind to people and generous? I always forget which week people give instead of take. Well if it is this week, here are three timely events: If your wishes include some hard-as-Quayle’s-head rock, nine bands deliver…

Swelter

Club World. Openings and conceptual openings. Possible closings. The Tatou team, prospective Japanese investors and all, missing the parade: still no “serious offers,” according to Egoiste publicist Woody Graber. Uncle Charlie’s being raided for drugs. The killing fields at Luke’s. The continuing Hipodrome nightmare: Doran Jason Property Management posting a…

Swelter

Post-Hipodrome frenzy: the fallout, a sudden void. And then…business as usual, clubs and one-nighters proliferating like mutant spores, feeding on the carcass. It’s just business, club business, and there’s no business like it. Thank God. Official and unofficial paperwork is flying in the wake of Hipodrome’s opening. Unofficial calls from…

Letters

I greatly admire Shirley McGreal, chairwoman and founder of the International Primate Protection League. She is an honest person who sincerely believes we owe the primates worldwide some respect and protection. She is a brave woman who has dared to expose unscrupulous animal traders and dealers around the world who…

Program Notes

Everywhere you turn, with the exception of George “Mr. Denial” Bush, it’s the same story: “We’re just getting by, what with this recession and all.” “Yeah, I hope to get some work soon, but it’s tough with this recession going on.” “I prefer steak to beans, too, but we’re in…

Letters

McGreal should keep up her efforts to uncover the sleaze of the wildlife trade that even is able to penetrate governments. The animals have her voice, which is the voice of millions of people, too. Roger Fried Boca Raton IT JUST GOES TO SHOW WHAT A WARM SMILE WILL DO…

Swelter

It’s a visit to a nasty little place that makes you want to go somewhere else. Except that you already live there, it’s home, and there’s no way out anytime soon. It’s parties where you don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted by being included on the guest list…

Program Notes

What this town needs is some new trends, fads, something, anything, new. Oh, all right, we’ll take something borrowed, then. Rave, the British rage where thousands of people gather in fields to hear techno music, comes to South Florida tonight. DJ Pierre from London, DJ T4 from Jamaica, Freedom of…

Swelter

Fall in New York, the leaves turning color, the air crisp and almost clean, the prospect of a sort of Merry Christmas. And the fashionable life, back in full swing. Apocalypse, the new heavy-duty industrial night at The Building, put together by Gary James and Bobby Stark of Disco Inferno…

Letters

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO “IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY…”? How refreshing to read Manuel Pila’s bull’s-eye description of Doc Wiley and Washington Square (“Letters,” November 13)! The number of people who must feel the same way might be into the hundreds by now. Doc is a sick pup…

Program Notes

Ya know snowbound New York rock-industry hotshots have their calendars blocked out, and so should you, even if you aren’t escaping the big chill. You rock, right? Mark off December 9 for the South Florida Rock Awards at the Button South. (By the way, I think the battle between this…

Letters

Let’s get something perfectly clear; Planets bassist and Washington Square music director Doc Wiley is an asshole on a petty power trip, and a self-aggrandizing one, at that. I know people who’ve played at Washington Square. I’ve played there myself. And it’s not that musicians in South Florida are jealous…

Swelter

You go out often enough and the countless episodes of boredom, low-grade idiocy, and nausea get to you eventually. So many pointless conversations, so many brushes with the ignoble, so much trash to wade through. But then, once in a while, something interesting happens. The singular capacity of nightlife to…

Program Notes

Things are different now. Pee-wee Herman. Kathy Willets. Jimmy Swaggart. Willie Smith. Clarence Thomas. It seems like a 2 Live Crew album come to life. And, coincidentally enough, there is a new Crew album out, Sports Weekend, the group’s best work yet. And you know what that means. Up north…

Swelter

Until very recently, we had always prided ourselves on certain core values, a minimum set of operative social standards. No drinking straight from the bottle. No lying, cheating, or stealing. No using the word “fabulous” without irony. No hanging out with criminals, overextended homosexuals, possibly psychotic sex-act performance artists, party-hearty…

Letters

I’ve attended several citizens’ meetings at which Huber spoke, and my impression of him was similar to that of several people quoted in the article. He was full of energy, determination, and drive – at the same time, he strongly projected an attitude of “I have never made a mistake,…

Program Notes

Unlike a year ago, this autumn seems to be devoid of rampant censorship. Thank goodness, ’cause the F-Boyz are back in town. Long before there was a Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, Methadone Actors, or Human Oddities, there was F-Boyz, the most musical dick waggers to ever rock a…

Swelter

So there’s Halloween, looming up on the horizon with all the sickening dear-God-please-fix-my-life-and-make-it-glamorous inevitability of New Year’s Eve. And as usual the members of the fun brigade are honing the necessary social skills of envy and malice, desperately pining to be invited to something truly spectacular, the ultimate party that…

Letters

Marilyn Manson is a wild treat live, and Bergasse 19 seems to be from another planet, bringing to Earth a unique psychedelic, industrial matrix of cosmic sound. I wish we had more bands like these two. Ana Romano Miami Springs DE NADA, FOR THIS YEAR AND ALL YEARS PREVIOUS I…