February 10, 1992 Mr. James Batten, Chairman/CEO One Herald Plaza Miami, Florida 33132 Dear Mr. Batten: Last Wednesday, you called me and complained in rather accusatory terms of my “activities during the last ten days.” You proceeded to confront me with supposed quotes from a radio program in which I…
You people are too damn good to me. I mean, I spend about 30 hours per day seeking out the creamo music and ways to turn you on to it, and what do you do? You call me and thank me, tell me you actually went out and bought the…
Mittelman was quoted in a local actors’ trade paper saying that Miami actors are not serious. This is interesting, since he has never been seen at any local production or the workshops presented by the Professional Actors Association. His sweeping generalizations show his contempt for the very people from whom…
The Elvis principle, alive and well on Miami Beach. The opening of “From Memphis to Tokyo” at the World Gallery on Lincoln Road, featuring the usual cast of South Beach thousands and the very tasty hand-colored photographic work of George Hirose, encompassing everything from Japanese 7-Eleven stores to Elvis’s birthplace…
President Bush and the State Department are quite right in stating they want to come here for economic, not political, asylum! Their main objective is to get on welfare and food stamps right away. Taxpayers are hurting now under the tax burden with so many homeless and jobless here -…
Nightlife land. An Avenue A party at The Institute, beautiful space, good music, great fun. A frenzied mob clustered around the door at midnight, the place virtually empty inside – the oldest and most unerringly effective club hype trick in the book. The room gradually filling up with an interesting…
Jungle Fever. Spike Lee. Boyz N the Hood. Juice. Ice Cube. New Jack City. Oh, really? “Black” films have been around for decades, and they’ve always been skewed by the life fact that tellin’ it isn’t the same as livin’ it. Shaft and Superfly were just as real as the…
If you read anything (besides “Program Notes”) this year, it should be the new Musicians Guide to Touring & Promotion, especially if you’re a musician. (Duh.) The 132-page package includes label contacts, publishing companies, tape and CD manufacturers, radio, press, and publicity outlets, clubs, and more, such as advice from…
The celebrity action dies down and the punch suddenly goes out of the city. In the vacuum, the void of noncelebness, even the weather somehow changes: it actually feels hot again, sticky and unpleasant, an unfit atmosphere for any self-respecting famous person. And in the meantime, there’s only culture, and…
DIVING FOR CULPRITS: BLAME HIM In response to Kirk Semple’s “Deep Trouble” (February 26), I would like to do my best to stand up for and defend a sport that is proven to be both safe and educational. I must say that I feel very sorry about the loss of…
The Miami Herald has taken a pretty ugly beating in its confrontation with Cuban American National Foundation chairman Jorge Mas Canosa. Recent tough talk by publisher David Lawrence simply hasn’t been able to overcome the damage done by his simpering, obsequious, early responses. But there’s blame enough to spread around,…
Pop history, the weekend that Miami finally crystalized into one big Molotov cocktail of hype and glitz, a neverending parade of possibilities for the new beautiful people. A summit gathering of the glamarati – Chris Blackwell, Madonna, Grace Jones, Suzanne Bartsch, Bruce Weber, David Reiff, Kenny Scharf, Joey Arias, even…
Every time I hear Luther R. “Luke” Campbell’s name, I consider entering law school. If I got good at it, he could make me rich, or at least keep me very busy. Campbell drafts so many attorneys he ought to just buy a law firm. Set up a cot at…
Willy and Sal’s case is based on government information received from convicted informants who are bargaining for a reduction in their prison sentences. Specifically, Mr. Ray Corona, a very unreliable source who is presently serving time, is cooperating and supplying the government with false information to reduce the length of…
Quite frankly, we had no choice. Mr. Kunst had financially bled and mismanaged the organization so severely that we were facing the certainty of bankruptcy within one week. Body Positive, earnestly concerned about having many of their homebound clients face a disruption in their home-delivered meals, was preparing to take…
They aren’t on MTV yet, at least not that I know of, and maybe they never will be, but the mighty Mavericks played for all America on Friday as guests of the Today show, broadcast from the Rusty Pelican on Key Biscayne. Pretty cool, man, even if it was a…
Fame. Big fame, little fame, it’s all the frenzy of renown. The place where things are hollow but kind of fun, too. Miami as the new Ibiza, a hothouse for international jet set types. It’s Madonna in town – no, really in town this time – shooting her new book…
I also understand Mr. Spector’s anger and his position. The recording industry has done as much evil as good in the last century. They’ve blocked digital audio tape, refused to lower wholesale CD prices as profits grew, screwed artists out of royalties over “giveaways” at record clubs, refused to adopt…
Forget about it, Jake, it’s Toon Town. Nothing makes sense. Hetero citadel goiste, oye-chica-shake-that-bumba-land, venturing into the gay marketplace with a new one-nighter called Le Trick. The classic Village Inn, the place where I first fell in love with my wife, for God’s sake, now the homorama-esque 3131, a pink-accented…
I don’t actually talk to these people, you know, but the buzz back in November was that Bruce Springsteen’s handlers were extremely bemused by that little Parking Free hoax me and Ben Greenman pulled. (In fact, Greenman, allegedly the target of New Jersey hit men, is currently in hiding somewhere…
A CLOWN? NO WAY. THE RINGMASTER! The best thing that clown Mas Canosa and his right-wing Cuban American National Foundation could do is take the circus somewhere else (“A Clown? No Way. A Genius!”, January 29). In his narrow mind, he sees himself as Cuba’s next president, even if it…
Performance art. It’s brilliant, irritating, verging on the psychotic, irony-clogged stuff that neatly dissects the angst of the modern metropolis. Or maybe it’s just television: Short, brutish, nasty, lots of jump cuts, kind of like real life but with better production values. It’s Laurie, it’s Mary, it’s celebrity parties as…
