New Jersey high school students recently created a Facebook page to protest the new federal regulations requiring public schools to provide healthier lunches.As a parent, I am well aware of how unhealthy these lunches are. My daughter would come home and tell me all about the wretched food served in…
Sometimes you gotta blog about poop. Certain people (e.g. coprophobics, squares, the devoutly religious, the squeamish) will gasp at the mere mention of doo-doo. But Crossfade will not stand for the repressive constraints of a hegemonic power structure that demand we deny the relationship feces has to existence, from birth…
Much like phony-baloney award shows or boring-as-shit overpriced music festivals, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is — generally speaking — a big bunch of bullshit. Or as the Sex Pistols would say, “a piss stain.” Look, we’re totally stoked that Kraftwerk, N.W.A., and Public Enemy might finally going…
Happy Birthday, Nielson! The SoundScan system just turned 20. And although it’s probably on its deathbed, Billboard is celebrating the watermark with a series of chart-topping lists. The latest release: The top 100 pop songs since the system’s implementation, back in ’92. Some Miami-bred musicians made the cut, with Pitbull,…
Would you eat a dozen churros every day for pay?Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine are paying participants to eat, particularly fast food from McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.Participants are being compensated up to $3500 depending on how quickly they reach their…
Instagram, the wildly popular photo sharing social media application, has garnered over 100 million users since its founding in 2010. Today, smart phone users now share breakfast moments and coffee breaks with the press of two or three buttons. But, for the most part, these quick snaps and shares have…
According to a study conducted by Professor Aradnha Krishna from the University of Michigan, many Americans are big, fat dummies whose psyches and eating habits are manipulated by suits in the marketing, advertising, and fashion industries. Krishna’s study involved one experiment in which she mislabeled the size of food to test…
Alright, the YMCMB crew is definitely at the top of the world right now. But it seems like things are beginning to go astray. The label’s Holy Trinity is Wayne, Drake, and Nicki. But lately, they’re doing strange things, picking dumb fights with other famous people, and garnering the wrong…
Ever since the Beat Generation, youth culture in America has been a vibrant and rebellious driving force. The Beats had risky views on race relations, jazz, and pot. The hippies had psychedelic drugs, sit-ins, and protest songs. Punks had mosh pits, spitting in each other’s faces, and rivet jackets. Hip-hoppers…
There are a million reasons to love Miami: the weather, the melange of culture, the Miami Heat. Pero ask anyone under the age of 80 what the most redeeming quality of our city is, and chances are that they’ll mention at least one of the three P’s: playa, puta o…
Tall, slender, and dressed in plaid trousers held up by dark suspenders, Zak Stern of Zak the Baker more closely resembles a character out of a 1930s film than an artisan baker in South Florida. But there’s nothing insincere about his appearance, or his fervent dedication to the craft of…
Hip-hop is a rich and varied culture. It’s more than just the music, encompassing street art, DJing, fashion, and most definitely dancing. But this ain’t the ’90s, B. In recent years, the music has become mad ig’nant, and the b-boys have followed. Almost every shitty new rap song comes with…
Last night, it was NFL. Today, it’s the MTV Video Music Awards. But are professional football games and Chris Brown’s dance moves really more important than democracy? No … The only thing worth watching on television tonight is the Democratic National Convention. And if you don’t believe us, we’ve got…
No Reservations, the final tour, premiered last evening. The series, which features host Anthony Bourdain eating, drinking, and behaving badly, has won both awards and a loyal fan base. In this, the first of the countdown to the end of Bourdain’s Travel Channel show, we travel to Austin, Texas, for…
See the full archive of Pepe Billete’s columns here.Dear Micky Arison:As owner of the Miami Heat, you’ve nurtured the evolution of a legacy that was humbly born in the late ’80s, developed in the ’90s, and unmistakably solidified in the new millennium. Your dedication to Miami sports revitalized a city…
Foodies, restaurant critics, and even food novices (often called ‘diners’) are aware that when it comes to service, Miami is somewhat lacking.Rude and negligent servers make you wait eons for a napkin or glass of wine, and respond with a barely concealed sneer when you dare to mention your frustration. I…
See the full archive of Pepe Billete’s columns here.A couple of weeks ago I wrote an open letter to Chad “OchoCinco” Johnson, welcoming him back to Miami and updating him on some things that have changed in the 305 since his departure to Langston, Oklahoma in 1997. I was excited…
The only thing consistent about pop-up restaurants in Miami is that they are the latest form of branding. They can be used to build a client base that will sustain a permanent space while others are done simply because you can’t feed weird people weird food in a normal space…
See also “DJ Khaled’s ‘I’m On One’: Five Reasons Why It Was 2011’s Most Miami-Tastic Music Video.” DJ Khaled keeps making hits and filling them out with his bestest friends. In fact, he’s turning ’em out so fast that we just got a two-for-one special. Maybe Khaled saved some cash…
Who “Luv Dem Strippers”? Well, we here at Crossfade do. Ditto 2 Chainz and Nicki MInaj, whose new music video features enough bulbous, earthquakin’ ass to force a 12-year-old boy into puberty. “I Luv Dem Strippers” is a modern-day love song to the working girls of America. Plus, it features…
See also “Kim Kardashian ‘Honored’ to be Kanye’s ‘Perfect Bitch,’ Causes Twitter Uproar.” Kanye West has reportedly given girlfriend Kim Kardashian a new pet name … The “perfect bitch.” According to the New York Daily News, the 35-year-old rapper dropped some previously unreleased tracks at a Manhattan nightclub over the…
See the full archive of Pepe Billete’s columns here.Last week I took a little break from the column to celebrate my birthday. The party was amazing and even managed to get the attention of NBC!While it did take me a couple of days to recover, I had a plan to…
