Jacobs Ladder Tour Diary, Part 2: Gainesville and Knoxville

To read the previous installment of Jacobs Ladder’s tour diary, click here. These are the on-the-road chronicles of Miami band Jacobs Ladder as it completes its ninth national tour, brought to you by bassist Sammy Gonzalez.Bands, if you’re heading out on the road and want to share your own tour…

A Reformed Brawler Shoots for MMA Glory

More than two decades ago, Rene Martinez satisfied his lust for violence by engaging in some serious gangbanging. Throughout his teenage and young adult years, the former leader of the Latin Syndicate racked up more than 21 arrests for, among other things, rumbling on the streets of Miami Beach, smashing…

$200K Publicly Funded Bureaucrat to Make the County Green

Facing a $427 million deficit, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez promised he would thin out the county executive offices by 10 percent in his proposed budget. The Herald has written a fair amount about this lately. So have we. What you might not know is that two of them with monster salaries…

The Week That Was: Friday Senate Dump

It was a horribly slow news week. Not going to lie. Then Charlie Crist goes ahead and dumps something we could have squeezed an entire week of posts out of on a Friday. You sly, media savvy bastard.While Charlie Crist sits in Tallahassee serving out the reaming days as Governor…

Flyer of the Week: Monoblock at the Electric Pickle September 4

ince wandering away from the pseudo-industrial barrios of their native Uruguay almost a half-decade ago, the dark, druggy boys of Monoblock — Martin TC and Guikle — have survived and thrived by zigzagging through the secret underground tunnels that connect all international party meccas. Thus far, the techno-house experimentalists have…

Miami Food Scene Is Stalled

For a while there, when Michy’s, Michael’s, Fratelli Lyon, North One 10, Pacific Time 2 and Red Light were all newish news, it looked as though Miami was on its way to becoming a cool food town — the sort with a community of chefs who open restaurants that reflect…

Friday Food Funnies: 3 Profound Questions and a Dowdy Quote

Do chickens think rubber humans are funny? Do cannibals get hungry one hour after eating a Chinese person?If Wile E. Coyote had enough money for all that Acme crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it…

MP3 of the Day: Shut It Down Mixtape by Pitbull and Logan de Gaulle

Last week, you totally blew it, missing the jumpoff for Dade County hustler Pitbull’s impending album Rebelution. (I mean really … Where is your civic pride? The guy carries the keys to our city.) You missed a backdoor taste of club bangers like “Calle Ocho,” “Hotel Room Service,” and “Krazy”…

Casale Pizzeria: Only The Privileged May Park Here

Casale Pizzeria is the new, rustic, informal pizza/mozzarella bar/enoteca-type place next door to and owned by the Sardinia folks. Drove over there the other day and shared a lunch of margherita pie and “Argentinean chorizo with three beans salad”. The latter was actually a cassoulet of warm, long-cooked beans and…

Letters from the Issue of August 27, 2009

Animal Yarn Sickened: “Animal Instincts” (Thomas Francis, August 20), comparing bestiality to homosexuality, is egregious. Shame on this terrible report. Have you lost your ability to be reasonable? Animal abuse is not the same as two consenting adult humans coming together. This article will only give those inclined to animal…

Veteran Miami PD Detective Charged in Crime Stoppers Scam

Federal authorities charged a veteran City of Miami detective today with scamming the Crime Stoppers tip program for thousands of dollars.Wayne Fortella, an 11-year vet, faces wire fraud charges for the scam, which netted him $5,000, says Annette Castillo, a spokeswoman for the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.Fortella worked in the…

Ted Kennedy: A South Florida (Not So) Elegy

Okay, I acknowledge Ted Kennedy did great things in the US Senate. He was a leader and a charmer.Health care would probably be done by now if he hadn’t suffered, then died last night, from a brain tumor. But, like everybody else, he showed his dirty side down here in…

Lido, Canyon Ranch, Frank Bruni, Klime Kovaceski, Julie & Julia

*Frank Bruni, recently retired restaurant reviewer from The New York Times, has been all over the media of late to promote his memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. Bruni writes about food as well as any critic in the country, some of his more cutting comments…

MP3 of the Day: Danny Daze “White Light Mix, Vol. 9”

What to say about local DJ Danny Daze that hasn’t been said before? Daze has been one of the most in demand DJs around the country for the last few years and he keeps busy with side projects like DiscoTech and Señor Stereo. Is it any surprise we picked him…

Beach Commission Candidate Fredric Karlton Had Some Lady Troubles

Fredric Karlton, a first-time candidate for Miami Beach City Commission, is getting a rude introduction to the city’s gutter politics. The 49-year-old real estate investor’s perceived enemies initiated a Miami-Dade ethics commission inquiry into allegedly improper business dealings with his childhood chum, Commissioner Ed Tobin. It went nowhere. And now,…