In the early Eighties a phenomenon unfolded in Cologne, Germany, that has art bigwigs scratching their noggins to this day: The industrial burg on the Rhine, 90 percent of which had been flattened by Allied bombing raids during World War II, exploded as the most consequential contemporary art capital outside...
Lily Tomlin opened her set at the Carnival Center last night with a riff on Miami's notoriously confusing street grid. Brandishing a map, she said, "I'm not saying Miami's street system is complicated, but it is true that after visiting Miami the creator of Rand-McNally committed suicide," she said. She...
Back in 2001, Ricky Martin was invited to perform at the Presidential inaugural for President George W. Bush. On that cold and snowy eve, Martin sang his hit "The Cup of Life" in front of the Lincoln Memorial. To everyone's surprise, the ultimate Latin party boy invited Dubya to join...
The June afternoon is surprisingly cool at this secret location in the Everglades. Rich moss and strange plants — strangler figs, palm apples — lace the ghostly gray trunks of cypress trees that stretch from the water to a dense green canopy. Below the high, clear waterline, weird fish dart...
It's July 13, and in an effort to evade the brutal midafternoon sun, Cesar Ramirez cools off in the shade of a tree near the entrance of Allapattah Middle School. The wiry Puerto Rican waits for his daughter Amanda to emerge through the turquoise-color doors. From 8:00 to 4:00 Monday...
When you first lay eyes on Jediah, you can't help but notice the teardrop-shape tattoo on his upper left cheek, not to mention the barrels of two smoking shotguns inked on either side of his neck. "I got a lot of tattoos," Jediah says, lifting his pant leg to display...
There is a moment early on in "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers," the 14th episode of the brilliant but canceled television series Freaks and Geeks, in which gangly, bespectacled, picked-last-in-gym-class high school freshman Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr) arrives home from school, makes himself a grilled cheese sandwich, and sits down...
Frances Nash Mmmmmm In a post from her http://f-i-n.diaryland.com/index.html">Sunshine State blog aptly titled"strawberry fields forever," Frances Nash writes about a recent tour of Homestead U-Pick Knaus Berry Farm, where "the air smells sticky and sweet, like the strawberries boiled by the sun." Her photos and prose ("their strawberry shakes taste...
Note the Rust painted by the old salt Dirk Verdoorn does not just like to paint little boats — non, monsieur! He is a — how do you say, a Peintre de la Marine — an official marine painter. It's an old and unique distinction — "It exists only in...
So what if you’re a tomboy who can play with the big boys? As the late, great James Brown once screamed, “This is a man’s world,” so the ladies need to have each other’s backs. Simone Kelly-Brown, president and CEO of Gots to Have It Marketing, has created a venue...
As midnight approached this past Monday, Radio Mambí host Ninoska Pérez Castellón cautioned against speculation of Fidel Castro's death. But on Calle Ocho, no one seemed to be listening. Block after block teemed with revelers waving Cuban flags, leaning on car horns, dancing on SUV roofs. From the sidewalks, onlookers...
When Tammy met Bill, she was a freshman at Miami Northwestern Senior High School, a pretty girl of medium height with long black eyelashes and pearly white teeth. He was a handsome senior who played basketball. The pair began dating, and a couple of years later, son Robert was born...
In the song "Street Fighting Man," Mick Jagger wrote a lyric that seemed to suggest an employment opportunity: "What can a poor boy do but to sing for a rock 'n' roll band?" Indeed the Stones have slogged it out for the better part of the past 45 years, but...
The sad and seamy underbelly of the mythical American dream is not a place of hope. Nor is it a world that is easily described, though New Theatre's powerful production of Day of Reckoning makes a scattered attempt at embracing quite a bit of America's historical landscape: Ku Klux Klan...
With its unfurled red carpet, jutting boom microphones, flashing lights, and the sound of screeching reporters jockeying for an interview, Malachi Farrell's Interview (Paparazzi), makes a raucous declaration that France's National Foundation for Contemporary Art (FNAC) has arrived in highfalutin style. "Shortcuts Between Reality and Fiction: Video, Installations, and Paintings...
Tijuana-based Tania Candiani teases rather than ignites fires with her solo show at Kunsthaus Miami, but her work might provoke if one's perceptual libido responds to erotic irony laced with the soft and subtle instead of the hot and sweaty. "Mattresses" distills what she refers to as "the cruel game...
This past May 1, Donna Halpern arrived at the Miami-Dade County Animal Services shelter to rescue a Persian cat that had been surrendered by its owner. She arrived at the shelter, walked into the sick ward where the Persian was being held, and was flummoxed by the scene. Two three-by-three-foot...
After ingesting the weird brew served up at the Bettcher Gallery, one is left wondering whether Toc Fetch and Tricia Cline are savant fugitives from Bellvue's Peter Pan ward or just plain old-fangled eccentrics living off the fat of imagination in their Woodstock Xanadu. "Exiles in Lower Utopia" narrates the...
National Weather Service and National Hurricane CenterBEST WEATHERCASTER National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center Some people get the weather by sticking their heads out the window. Everybody else gets their weather — at least partially — from the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. Even the major news outlets rely on information from the NWS and NHC before […]
Madiba has come to South Beach by way of South Africa, with a stopover at Fort Greene, Brooklyn — which is where Mark and Jenny Henegan, with long-time friend Serge Jules, opened their first Madiba in 1999. Their new establishment made its debut this past September in the neighborhood once...
The idea of organic, nutritional, sustainable cuisine, first replanted in this country by Alice Waters, has since sprouted into a whole-food movement that has widely affected the American diet. Anyone who doubts this observation need only note the crowds strolling through the gargantuan Whole Foods Market. In recent years, raw...
Five weeks after the Miami Herald canned columnist Jim DeFede, his spot in the newsroom appeared, well, rather strange. A crash dummy in a baseball cap, jeans, and Nikes sat in his chair. Its left hand rested on the desk next to a bottle of Australian Chardonnay. Nearby was a...
