Update: Ron Book tells Banana Republican that it was unfair to characterize his representation of municipal governments and private clients with competing interests as something bad. “I didn’t do anything nefarious or unethical,” he says. “Your story implies I did, and that is wrong.”Just call superlobbyist Ron Book the Waiver…
A muscular, scowling man sits at a dining room table. As he fiddles with a folding knife and puts bullets into a magazine clip, we hear his ominous voice: “Narcotics run Miami. Everyone bossing up trying to be the man and shit. But you know what they say: Don’t hate…
Load Lumberjack Death Luge(Ballad of Son of Crusher) Seven-Inch (House O’Pain Records) I have purposely left Load out of the rotation for a bit now since I started these Blasts From the Past slightly over a year ago. Call it professional payback for Bobby Load never remembering meeting me back in…
The basic aim of a sumo wrestler is to push or throw your opponent out of the ring. The bigger you are, the easier it is to push your opponent — hence the large size of the sumo. How do sumo grow so large, and are they athletes or just…
I didn’t want to have to respond to the Route 9 brouhaha, but so many untruths are out there that I really have no choice. I made four factual errors in one review — it’s pretty hard to imagine making more, and something like that obviously should never happen. I…
WMC and Ultra Week have come and gone. There were mind-blowingly awesome DJ lineups and there were majorly overrated ones. Sure, March has never disappointed. But there’s no denying how bloated and commercial certain chunks of the EDM industry have become. You’d think the likes of Swedish House Mafia and…
Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to that series…
We don’t have to tell you. There’s nothing we dig here at Crossfade more than seeing local bands do their thing. And do it big. One such band: Radioboxer. The bipolar power poppers’ precocious debut album Radio Drama made some serious noise around town. And the set-to-drop follow-up Magic City…
As Julio Robaina courts voters in his quest to become Miami-Dade County mayor, he’s promising to do away with the county commission’s discretionary funds: a chest of taxpayer money the 13 members may dole out to whomever and for whatever they want. How noble of Hialeah’s mayor — and hypocritical.During…
The Crumbs I Fell in Love With An Alien Girl 7″ (Recess Records) recessrecords.com Admittedly, I had some grandiose ideas for this Blast From the Past. But now that I am thick in the drink and have spent the better part of the last hour grinding my needle into the…
Mayor Luther Campbell would tax strippers for the public good
Letters from the issue of March 31, 2011
D.T. Martyrs Narcotics in the Carport (Jeterboy Records & Tapes) D.T. Martyrs website To avoid confusion, you should now that the delirium tremens ceased at some point and the D.T. Martyrs simply became the Martyrs. And while the shortening of the name was the band’s call, forgive me if I…
Looks like Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina wants to rewrite history when it comes to his support for the Marlins’ stadium sweetheart deal. At last week’s Latin Builders Association sponsored mayoral debate, Robaina claimed the stadium didn’t get built in Hialeah because “it wasn’t a good deal for this community and…
Last week we aimed the spotlight at ten overpriced restaurant dishes; this week we go the other way. I would like to have called this The 5 Best Restaurant Dishes For $10 Or Under, but there are way too many great deals in town to warrant so declarative a statement.For…
The election season in the City Beautiful is entering the home stretch. Coral Gables voters will be casting their ballots for mayor and two city commissioners on April 12. The latest quarterly campaign finance reports show the candidates have raised a total of more than $685,000. City residents can meet…
Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke — who is a candidate to replace more-boring-than-bread-pudding Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez — explains his plan to…
People who use Vicks Inhalers are either (a) suffering from severe nasal congestion, or (b) rolling balls at Ultra Music Festival. Each year in March, we buy stock in Procter and Gamble, knowing very well that inhaler sales will skyrocket during the days leading up to the fest. And no,…
Ultra Music Festival is for lovers. We saw so many cute raver couples giving each other little back rubs and blowing kisses at one another while dancing to the beat of house music. Some shared water bottles by pouring ice-cold H20 over their heads. Others professed their love for each…
Everyone knows the best way to smuggle drugs is stashing that weight inside something that’s not typically associated with illicitness, i.e hollowed-out copies of holy texts, extra-large coconuts, live Labrador retriever puppies, etc. So stuffing your four-year-old niece’s Hello Kitty backpack full of pills isn’t a bad strategy for evading…
Eleven days ago, we reported on Richard Moss, the director of the Miami-Dade College police academy with some very bad marks on his resume, including a demotion from captain to commander for insubordination when he was with the Broward County Sherriff’s Office. Since taking the helm of the basic training…
Twenty-year-old Miguel Pando is a tanning butler. His job: to stroll around the Ritz-Carlton South Beach pool and beach and offer tanning supplies to guests. Oh, and to also apply the tanning lotion on hard-to-reach body parts like backs, shoulders, and necks. Michelle Payer, the hotel’s public relations director, created…
