I went to Egypt in search of music. Music that lives inside of dance. Music that inspires freedom and laughter. What I found was more surprising than I imagined. I’d heard of Whirling Dervishes that spin themselves into ecstasy. I wanted to see belly dancers who light up the stage…
People be asking me all the time, “Yo Mos, what’s getting ready to happen with hip-hop?’ People talk about hip-hop like it’s some kind of giant in the hillside coming down to visit the townspeople. — Mos Def, “Fear Not of Man” “I want to build the Time Warner of…
Strong, Silent TypeBut in the courtroom John de Leon was a brawler: I don’t know former ACLU president John de Leon very well, but I met him several times and believed from his quiet, thoughtful demeanor that there was a lot to him. Jacob Bernstein’s excellent article (“It Takes a…
The invasion began in earnest four months ago, when the Grateful Dread moved into the house next door. Jahsun set up his psychedelic reggae band on the driveway of what had once been a quiet pitstop for airline personnel between flights. The positive vibrations drew more musicians to the street…
Every woman has her breaking point. Amy Gerstenfeld’s arrived at the crowning moment of her wedding vows. As her family and friends sat gathered before her on Memorial Day weekend inside a banquet room at South Beach’s Loews Hotel, she listened solemnly to her rabbi pose that all-important question. Then…
An Informed Public Is an Empowered Public Free weekly cheerfully does its part: Two fine articles in the June 14 edition of New Times prove once again that your paper plays an important role in informing the public. Jacob Bernstein’s article on outgoing ACLU president John de Leon (“It Takes…
The next time you hear Latin rock on the radio it won’t be a beer commercial, at least not if you’re tuned into Radio Uno (WKAT-AM 1360) between 8:00 and 10:00 any night of the week. Kike Posada, the founder and editor of Boom Magazine who won a local hero…
Humble Reader Offers Manager, Mayor Thoughtful AdviceRespond and repent, you two punks: I am writing in response to Jim DeFede’s article “Shadow Dwellers” (June 14). One question: Who the hell do county Manager Steve Shiver and Mayor Alex Penelas think they are? First of all, Mr. Shiver, Katy Sorenson as…
For five bucks back in the early Nineties, you could get a bottle of beer and a hand job from a Central American prostitute in the Little Havana dive at 2212 SW Eighth St. Pepe Horta changed all that when he gutted the bar and opened Café Nostalgia, a gathering…
Last week Katy Sorenson waited patiently for her item on the commission agenda to be called: a report from County Manager Steve Shiver on the future of Homestead Air Force Base. A commissioner for the past seven years, Sorenson is the board’s leading critic of Miami-Dade’s effort to put a…
Nobody’s been this excited about Jermaine Jackson in a very long time. “He dropped by and we spoke,” gushes Algerian singer Cheb Nasro over lunch on Lincoln Road, recalling the fruits of a Los Angeles recording session in a studio owned by Jackson’s long-time bassist. Apparently unaware that Jermaine Jackson…
Hizzonor the OinkerBanish the boobs, the butts, and the bimbos they’re attached to: In heaping abuse on such a sensual, beautiful, and just plain nice person as his wife Mari, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo has once again affirmed that he deserves an addendum to his already dubious “honorable” title: His…
Dressed like a huntress from some faraway heaven, a white feather quiver slung across her back and leather falconry gloves strapped to her forearms, the bald and beautiful Erykah Badu warns roughly 7000 black professionals gathered at the Miami Arena earlier this month: “The papers don’t know us. The commercials…
DeFede and PenelasPardon me for asking, but could there be some perverse attraction here? I can’t believe I’m writing again about one of Jim DeFede’s routine trashings of Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, but his cheap shots make it hard to resist. It seems anything that happens in Florida (or the…
Feet scrape against concrete in a solar off San Lazaro Street in Havana. Dish towels, underclothes, and a pair of rubber slippers hang from lines strewn above the open courtyard. Two children stand watching from an open doorway as four women, black skin glistening in the afternoon sun, roll shoulders…
Nobody was happier to hear that Janet Reno was considering a run for governor than Will Ferrell, the Saturday Night Live cast member who parodies Reno on the show. “My first reaction was that this couldn’t be greater news,” he told me last week. “The Dance Party will live now.”…
West Perrine ParadiseA grateful resident extols the benefits of millions in public money: Susan Eastman’s article about Ed Hanna and the West Perrine Economic Development Corporation (“With Enough Money,” May 24) is just what we have been saying for so long to county government or anyone else who would listen…
The histories of Haiti and Cuba run forever parallel. When the going gets tough, Haitian dictators tend to terrorize the populace while the Cuban dictator prefers to throw open the borders. Either way the result is the same: The populace gets going. In 1980 and again in 1994, tandem crises…
Best CitizenHe didn’t come to play; he came to stay: In “Best of Miami” (May 17) you paid homage to pitcher Rene Arocha as Best Cuban Baseball Player (Recently Retired) and noted that he was the first Cuban ballplayer to come to the United States and make it in the…
After spending eight years in Washington as U.S. Attorney General, Janet Reno was telling everyone who would listen that her only plans were to kayak Florida’s waterways and travel around the nation in her pickup truck. And then, two months ago, her friend Hugh A. Westbrook called and invited her…
For more than two months, Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver has assured commissioners that suing the federal government over its refusal to permit Homestead Air Force Base to be developed as a commercial airport would not adversely affect the county’s chances of taking title to the airport even if the…
It was hard to tell who was more annoying: the shirtless, apparently medicated fellow wobbling up and down Lincoln Road as he bellowed out Doobie Brothers tunes, or the officially sanctioned performers, bashing through some generic altrock atop a small stage. And that felt about right. This was, after all,…
