Treasure is inside. She’s been in and out of so-called correctional institutions most of her 21 years. Now, on her birthday, she’s moving from a juvenile joint to a tougher state women’s facility, where she hopes to reunite with the mother she’s never met. Without irony she explains the transfer’s…
Many well-known houses have sprung up around Miami over the years. Coming to mind immediately is Vizcaya, the opulent Italian Renaissance-style villa with lush adjacent gardens built on the fringe of Coconut Grove by International Harvester scion James Deering in 1916, and now a must-see for tourists. A few years…
Joe Simon doesn’t read comic books anymore, and not because he’s an 87-year-old man with far better ways to spend his time. The former and, perhaps, future comics writer and illustrator simply doesn’t get them anymore; he doesn’t know who they’re for, what they’re about, why most of them even…
At best the revival of a classic stirs our sensibilities much like a remarkable piece of music. A chord is struck that reverberates from antiquity to the present, reuniting us with the universality of our most human emotions. At its worst a classic only manages to transport us as far…
Seems like only yesterday Miami had no Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. And here comes the third one. Like the previous two, this festival is stacked with movies of all shapes and sizes: They come in the form of documentaries, Hollywood features, short series, gay-themed, lesbian-themed, animation, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish,…
What exactly is a gay film? A film about gay characters? A film by gay filmmakers? Or is gay cinema a marketing construct to attract a niche audience for a film in trouble? The last of these appears to be the correct answer when it comes to Julie Johnson, a…
Ah, summer love! Most adults can hark back to the days of their youth, especially that first wild, unforgettable rush of sexuality. Many stories try to capture those breathless moments: the first kiss, the first love, the awakening of desire. Imagine a picture-perfect Spanish beach town, pleasant summer weather, and…
It may be an odd occurrence for Miami, home to so much political strife in the recent past, but an inordinately large gathering of piecemakers will take place this weekend. Notice that’s piece. Not peace. Piece as in squares of colorful fabric. As in quilts. And quiltmakers. Banded together. Strong…
Denise Duhamel gets things all wrong brilliantly. In her prosey poems, a Barbie doll winds up at a twelve-step meeting — and ends up enjoying it. (“She wished she could clap like the others/when there was a good story about recovery.”) In another the poet mistakenly reads the word Pope…
Paul McGuinness has never thought of himself as a teacher of life lessons, so it comes as a bit of a surprise for him to hear it relayed that Kelly Curtis considers him an adviser–hell, a mentor. It comes as even more of a shock to discover that Curtis recalls…
If Robert Johnson made a deal with the Devil, then Bessie Smith drank gin with him — and put him under the table. As soon as she steps onto the set of Florida Stage’s production of The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, Smith (Miche Braden) sets…
Pop art brings to mind those extraordinary images from the cold-war and civil-rights era of the Sixties: a startling moment when the United State’s middle class seemingly swept up the proletariat. Mixing liberal democracy with Coca-Cola, Elvis, and Little Orphan Annie, pop art became more than a fad; it became…
Chinese cinema has long been at the forefront of modern moviemaking, but widespread recognition of this fact has been a long time coming, at least in the United States. Although enthusiasm for Hong Kong-style kung fu movies dates to Bruce Lee in the Seventies, such fervor generally has been derided…
September 9, 1966: Adam Sandler is born in Brooklyn, New York. He is raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. September 1987: Sandler joins Ken Ober, Colin Quinn, and Denis Leary as cast member on MTV’s game show Remote Control. Sometime in 1989: Sandler lands first starring role in a movie, playing…
Keep a diary, and one day it’ll keep you,” said Mae West, and while the sentiment rings true, it does little to explain the mystery of why Helen Fielding’s sliver of literary history managed to keep anyone. Fluffy, shrill, and approximately as deep as Cosmo magazine, the book somehow hit…
From: Nina.Korman@miaminewtimes.com To: RussellPerreault@randomhouse.com Subject: Dave Eggers? Hi, Russell: I’m the calendar editor at Miami New Times newspaper. Do you think there’s any chance I could speak to Dave Eggers on the phone (briefly!) next week for an interview in anticipation of his reading in Miami? Best, Nina Korman Author:RussellPerreault@randomhouse.com…
Ellie Schneiderman can’t seem to look at property and not think about artists — how they populate a blighted area and eventually get driven out of their spaces when the rest of the world catches on to how hip the enclave has become. A long-time ceramist and tireless activist, Schneiderman…
This is how famous Denis Leary is: He begins and ends a story by saying, “To this day, when I see Mick…,” and by Mick, he means Mick Jagger. They became pals, oh, seven years back, when the Rolling Stones were on that week’s farewell tour, kickin’ it in the…
When one thinks of William Shakespeare, great cities such as London come to mind. That’s why much ado is being made about the 29th annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, which will be held April 12 through April 14 in Miami. Each year a different city is chosen…
Justice may be blind, but vengeance, it turns out, has a very short memory. So it goes in Memento, the much anticipated “puzzle” movie from Christopher Nolan (Following), which — as is already fairly well-known — plays out its plot more or less in reverse. Pitting the protagonist (and us)…
Easily the creepiest (and by far the most interesting) thing about Along Came a Spider, yet another adaptation of one of James Patterson’s alleged mystery novels featuring beleaguered Det. Alex Cross, is how much costar Monica Potter looks, sounds, and acts like Julia Roberts. Granted it’s hardly a revelation to…
Hello, what’s this? Could it be another cautionary tale from Hollywood about recreational drugs being — alert the media! — not particularly good for people? Indeed with Blow, director Ted Demme (Beautiful Girls, Monument Ave.) has set us up with a morality tale in which the moral is obvious from…
