There are many ways to keep Granny and Grandpa’s memory alive. Some people arrange meticulous albums filled with yellowing and faded photographs. Some folks have their grandparents’ cremated remains put in an urn and display them on the mantelpiece. Other people, like artist David Baskin, get their grandpa’s hat, coat,…
There are more than 170 million people living in Brazil, the largest country in South America. Despite the dense population, there are only about 1600 movie houses — roughly the same amount as in Manhattan, according to Adriana Dutra, executive director of the seventh annual Brazilian Film Festival of Miami…
Now 24/7 As you read this the King and Queen of Miami are most likely rocking themselves to a peaceful dither in new fancy recliners. A fitting throne for Ms. Marie Louis Alexis and Mr. Idelfonso Gonzalez, our respective monarchs, who at 103 years of age were named Miami’s most…
Thursday 5/29 Any time you see a cheering band of Hassidic men in high jubilation, you think of a bar mitzvah or circumcision. But at recent boxing bouts at the Seville Hotel, the flinging side locks and hearty hugging is for a different rite of manhood, a win by undefeated…
Thursday 5/29 Is the United States’ wet foot/dry foot policy of immigration prudent? Is it fair? Legions of immigrants from Cuba and Haiti (and points beyond) risk their lives crossing the Florida Straits in rickety vessels each year, and each year the results remain the same: If you’re Cuban and…
Whatever else may be said about the South Florida theater scene, certainly there’s a whole lotta playwrighting going on here. The place seems to be jumping with premieres just about weekly, and several area companies focus on new works, each in its own way. Florida Stage in Manalapan is dedicated…
The hoopla surrounding Art Basel is six months behind us now, which is why it’s as good a time as any to step back and assess our current art scene. When looking at the art being done in Miami, it doesn’t appear much different from what I saw three years…
It’s usually right about this time of year that film critics begin to feel a slow chill of dread creep up their spines. Suppressing that urge, they generally find it quickly replaced by a sudden rush of sneering condescension and smug mock-martyrdom. “Oh no!” they cry. “This is summer, the…
He likes warm wood floors. She prefers cool marble. He likes dark-colored painted walls. She prefers flower-flecked pastel wallpaper. He dreams of taxidermied animal heads mounted, clubby leather furniture, and plaid flannel curtains. She dreams of gold-framed botanical prints, overstuffed shabby chic furniture, and light lacy curtains. This married couple…
The dining room accommodated eight, served from a capacious galley. A queen-sized bed dominated the sleeping quarters, which gave way to a bathroom outfitted with a shower and gold-plated fixtures. A quartet of TVs blared in the conference room, while strewn hither and yon were seven telephones. And a four-person…
Wednesday 5/28 According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are roughly 4000 people in Miami-Dade County who ride their bicycles to work. Unfortunately since the census count was done, most of these bikers are now dead. Because of ever-increasing traffic congestion, snotty Metro Bus drivers who relish cutting off urban…
Saturday 5/24 Hip-hop permeates all cultural boundaries. It cannot be confined to clubland or radio play. It lives in movies and television. It grinds with strippers and revs up motorcycles. Super-sized hip-hop egos are scheduled to make appearances all over the Miami party map this Memorial Day. The glittering posse…
Saturday 5/24 Your toddler may look like an innocent human child, but he already knows more about you than your ex-husband and mother ever did. He sees through you. He will overpower you by the time he turns four, so you better not get in his way. That’s what proponents…
Thursday 5/22 Painter Sebastian Spreng is an utter romanticist, and his sublime landscapes swell with the heartbreak that surrounds true beauty, or the lack of it. The large works in Spreng’s current exhibition at the Americas Collection are richly colored and textured and slightly surreal — paintings as poetic paens…
Friday 5/23 That’s it like to be the mother of a prophet? We couldn’t tell you, but Cedella Booker Marley, mother of Bob, gives us a glimpse in her book Bob Marley, My Son. After all, she has a lot to be proud of. Her son was not only a…
Thrusday 5/22 A pretty girl. A meek florist. A bloodthirsty plant? Must be Little Shop of Horrors! The Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre (280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables) presents a test run of the widely popular Alan Menken and Howard Ashman musical prior to taking it to Broadway this…
Thursday 5/22 In developing his latest project for the Washington, D.C.-based company Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, choreographer and director Peter DiMuro strives to pierce his audience’s consciousness. To do this, DiMuro wants to use the unique stories of the town he’s performing in. To customize his ongoing oeuvre Near/Far/In/Out, a…
Thursday 5/22 Soulful chanteuse/songwriter Abenaa delves into her Ghanaian and Trinidadian roots to craft the deeply intimate and enlightened tunes on her first CD, Tuesday’s Child. Tonight she brings her spellbinding songs to the Funk Jazz Lounge at Sax on the Beach (1756 N. Bayshore Dr.). Her sound is a…
A spotlight shines on the darkened stage alternately illuminating five characters: Arlin Jasper, Dodie and Ed MacDonald, Tom Hawkins, and Denny Hedges. Each one utters a piece of a fragmented soliloquy that speaks for an entire town’s shock, grief, and disgust. Welcome to Irving, a.k.a. “Anywhere, U.S.A.,” a one-post office,…
Neil LaBute is back to his old self again, and the cinematic world is a better place for it. Honestly, what was he thinking when he made Possession? Did the charges of misogyny, still lingering from In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, get to him so…
In March 2002, days before President Bush was scheduled to visit Peru, a car bomb exploded near the U.S. embassy in Lima, killing nine and injuring dozens. Government officials, here and in Peru, blamed the attack on Shining Path — a Marxist terrorist organization with roots dating to the 1960s,…
Time was, moviegoers could rely on European films for interesting ideas and unpredictable storylines. But in the 1990s, foreign producers decided that the way into the American film market was to make American-style movies. Since then we have been besieged by a series of lame comedies and generic thrillers that…
