Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la. That’s the rallying cry of all drunk-folk guitar-twang music lovers come Thursday when none other than the Counting Crows hit the stage at Bayfront Park Amphitheatre (301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami). It’s the Somewhere Under Wonderland tour, but it’s going to be something more than awesome when the band digs into big hits like “Mr. Jones,” “Round Here,” “Hangin’ Around,” “Accidentally in Love,” and, of course, its cover of “Big Yellow Taxi.” Even more exciting will be the moment they rip into “Miami,” the California band’s tour-life love letter to the Magic City. It’s time for one more perfect rendezvous, indeed.
If you know the band only from the Shrek soundtrack, stop what you’re doing and listen to “August and Everything After.” If you’re a real product of the ’90s, you already know. When it comes to alt-rock and barstool poetry, this is the pinnacle.
Showtime is 7 p.m., and tickets cost $30.75 to $70.25. Call 305-358-7550 or visit bayfrontparkmiami.com.
Friday, July 31:
The last Friday of every month, live jazz floats through the courtyard of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami. Sponsored by the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency, the Jazz@MOCA series features musicians from all over the world performing — rain or shine — outside the museum. Additionally, on these nights, the museum galleries are open by donation from 7 to 10 p.m.
This week on Jazz@MOCA’s roster is the Noah Haidu Quartet from New York. Comprising Haidu on piano, Ariel de la Portilla on bass, John Davis on drums, and Sharel Cassity on saxophone, the contemporary jazz group blends memorable melodies with conceptual themes and technical expertise. Haidu, who grew up classically trained and later immersed himself in pop, jazz, and blues, has been lauded as a performer and as a composer. Most recently, his albums Slipstream (released in 2011 on the respected jazz label Posi-Tone Records) and Momentum have garnered significant radio airplay and print recognition.
The Noah Haidu Quartet will perform this Friday at 8 p.m. at MOCA (770 NE 125 St., North Miami). Admission is free. Visit mymoca.org.
Saturday, August 1:
When frolicking on the sands of South Beach, sniffing plumeria on street corners, or ordering cocktails at an outdoor bar, it’s easy to forget there are people who don’t have it as good as most Miamians.
It may seem like slavery died in the 1800s, but sadly, the trade is far from over. Human trafficking still exists, and people are forced into sexual slavery, labor, or commercial sexual exploitation across the globe. This so-called industry led to $31.6 billion in international trade in 2010 alone. To help the victims of this horrific trade, hit up the Free & Fearless 5K art auction. Get gussied up, sip cocktails, and buy exquisite art — all to help those seriously in need. And count your blessings while you’re at it, because life is pretty sweet in our neck of the world.
The event runs from 6 to 10 p.m. at MIArt Space (151 NW 36th St., Miami). Admission is free. Visit miartspace.com or call 786-406-9915.
The challenge: Try more than 150 of the city’s top restaurants in 61 days. The strategy: Miami Spice.
It’s the time of year when the two-month
But fine dining is only the tip of the iceberg. Sure, Milos, Il Mulino, the Forge, and Juvia are on the roster, but there are plenty to choose from in the wide spectrum of dining. From local favorites like Macchialina and Pubbelly to new kids on the block Beachcraft and Red Ginger, the range of choices allows you to hit up a different restaurant every day for the next two months (till September 30) and still not have eaten your way through the list.
So what are you waiting for? Visit ilovemiamispice.com to see the full list of participating restaurants, check out their Spice menus, and form a game plan. Challenge accepted.
Hollywood is often referred to as “the boys’ club,” and there’s no denying that women in the industry have felt that stigma — especially in the 1960s and ’70s, when it wasn’t so easy to call people out for being sexist. Actresses aside, imagine what it was like for female talent agents. Ladies, wouldn’t you rather have an agent who understands you rather than simply wants to see you prancing half-naked onscreen? And gentlemen, wouldn’t it be more advantageous to have a woman in charge who puts your best interest first?
Enter Sue Mengers, a real-life talent agent who shook up perceptions and proved that women can be as tough as the men in the boys’ club. During her time as a talent agent, Mengers represented superstars such as Cher, Steve McQueen, and the queen herself, Barbra Streisand.
In John Logan’s one-character play I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers, audiences get a taste of a day in the life of Mengers. (Apparently, she was a chain smoker — took the edge off.) They also learn that Mengers, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 79, was an extraordinary person, a refugee of Hitler’s Germany who worked her way from the bottom up. I’ll Eat You Last takes audiences into the agent’s fabulous home for a night of gossip as Mengers dishes on Hollywood’s filthiest secrets.
Showtime is 8 p.m. Saturday at GableStage at the Biltmore (1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables). Tickets cost $55, and the show runs through August 30. Call 305-445-1119 or visit gablestage.org.
Looking for a summer diversion that doesn’t involve beaches, bars, or Brazilian bikinis? The sixth-annual African Diaspora Dance & Drum Festival of Florida is a multicultural extravaganza that’s family-friendly, fun, and educational — a rare trio.
Designed to help the community embrace and understand the African diaspora, the event spans two days and includes no shortage of diversions, including African and Caribbean dance, drum and music workshops, a health fair, a raffle for two tickets to South Africa, an artisan marketplace, a free Children’s Village, African folktales, dancing, drumming, arts and crafts, face painting, hula-hooping, and even a bookbag and school supply giveaway.
Most important, Saturday will showcase the Better Living symposium. This year’s edition, titled “It Takes a Village: Keeping Our Community in Unity,” is a tribute to the far-too-many victims of gun violence. Police officers, city officials, school board members, and others will address this timely issue and its potential solutions.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex (212 NE 59th Ter., Miami). Admission is free. Visit adddff.delouafrica.org
Sunday, August 2:
Discovering up-and-coming talents in the art world is what makes gallery-hopping in Miami so exciting. Despite the elation of all things new, nothing quite replaces the thrill of taking in works by art legends with your own eyes. Giving patrons a bit of everything, Miami Dade College Museum of Art + Design (MOAD) presents “Recent Acquisitions + Highlights,” the museum’s first long-format exhibition featuring selections from MDC’s art collection.
MOAD’s executive director and chief curator, Jeremy Mikolajczak, will lead a public tour and preview of the collection this Sunday from 1 to 2 p.m. The tour will give an in-depth look at the college’s collection, which features pieces by Alex Katz, Ana Mendieta, Andres Serrano, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson, Roy Lichtenstein, and many others. Guests will be invited to a cafecito reception after the tour. The exhibition will be open to the public Wednesday, August 6, and will remain ongoing.
The tour and reception at MDC-MOAD (600 Biscayne Blvd., Miami) are free with RSVP. Call 305-237-7700 or visit mdcmoad.org.
Like many major cities, Miami’s most common denominator is time spent driving. We all share that isolated experience, passing by the landscape and people without really taking it all in. Visual artist Marina Gonella made those sensations tangible with her solo exhibition “Going Home,” on display at O Cinema Wynwood. A collaboration between the theater and ArtCenter/South Florida, the show reflects Gonella’s point of view on her daily commute. Overlooked spaces and features of the terrain, from expressway ramps to road signs, get a wistful treatment in the artist’s photographic format that uses transfers and abstract collage.
Marking the end of this Florida-centric exhibit, O Cinema and ArtCenter invite guests to a closing reception, which will begin with a light brunch of baked goods, fruit, and mimosas, followed by a screening of the 2005 film Broken Flowers. Directed by Jim Jarmusch, the story follows retired and resigned computer magnate Don Johnston (Bill Murray), who is stunned by the news that he possibly has a 19-year-old son he’s never met. Costarring Julie Delpy, Broken Flowers won the 2005 Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
Admission to the closing brunch and screening is free. Brunch begins at 11:30 a.m. Sunday in the O Cinema Wynwood courtyard (90 NW 29th St., Wynwood). Call 305-571-9970 or visit o-cinema.org.
The electricity at Sunday’s Miami Marlins game against the Arizona Diamondbacks won’t be limited to game play. Before the first pitch, the Frost Museum of Science will bring more electricity than the average Marlins’ player can muster, conducting electricity-themed experiments on sustainability for the future at Sunday Funday With the Miami Marlins. The experiments will show how renewable energy works, with activities ranging from mobile circuits to a Van de Graaf generator and a cool Tesla coil.
Anyone attending the Marlins matchup is welcome to participate in the free program, but game tickets are required and cost $13 to $249 per person. Frost will host the activities from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. inside Marlins Park (501 Marlins Way, Miami). Call 305-646-4236 or visit miamisci.org.
Monday, August 3:
Monday is hard, but this is the alt-rock fan’s best week ever. If you can survive the weekend’s hangover and get through the day without incident, you could be rewarded with a majestic and inspiring performance by none other than the indie-psych darlings of My Morning Jacket. These five dudes from Kentucky deliver a smarter, more introspective brand of Southern rock that teeters on the edge of Pink Floyd. They’ve wowed massive crowds at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and Coachella, but nothing compares to seeing these guys perform on their own headlining tour. Plus, the show will take place at the Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theater (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach), an illustrious and ornate venue befitting the ethereal-tinged guitar grit this band emits.
The group’s almost two decades of music and experience should assure fans that the $45-to-$59.50 ticket price is a safe bet to lay down. Plus, 2015’s LP The Waterfall is a really beautiful and funky listen. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Call 305-673-7300 or visit fillmoremb.com.
Wednesday, August 5:
Earlier this year, New Times named Jennine Capó Crucet Best Up-and-Coming Author. Her first book of short stories, How to Leave Hialeah, was a funny and poignant account of the author’s hometown, with particular insight into navigating the often-bumpy road of being a first-generation American. Now Capó Crucet has released her first full-length novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, and the Miami native will fly in from Nebraska, where she works as an assistant professor, to read from her hometown novel.
Make Your Home Among Strangers tells the story of Lizette, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, who is accepted to an elite private university. Her world is rocked when, right before she leaves for college, her parents divorce. She must grapple with the fallout in Miami as she attempts to navigate the foreign world of her new university — a place that’s soaked in wealth and privilege unfamiliar to working-class Lizette. Make Your Home Among Strangers is a playful and touching look at Miami and the lives that are lived in it, and it’s definitely worth reading.
Capó Crucet will read from her novel at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Books & Books (265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables). Admission is free. Visit Earlier this year, New Times named Jennine Capó Crucet Best Up-and-Coming Author. Her first book of short stories, How to Leave Hialeah, was a funny and poignant account of the author’s hometown, with particular insight into navigating the often-bumpy road of being a first-generation American. Now Capó Crucet has released her first full-length novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, and the Miami native will fly in from Nebraska, where she works as an assistant professor, to read from her hometown novel.
Make Your Home Among Strangers tells the story of Lizette, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, who is accepted to an elite private university. Her world is rocked when, right before she leaves for college, her parents divorce. She must grapple with the fallout in Miami as she attempts to navigate the foreign world of her new university — a place that’s soaked in wealth and privilege unfamiliar to working-class Lizette. Make Your Home Among Strangers is a playful and touching look at Miami and the lives that are lived in it, and it’s definitely worth reading.
Capó Crucet will read from her novel at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Books & Books (265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables). Admission is free. Visit booksandbooks.com
