This is How We Do in the XM2

Menudo has gone through more teenage boys than Sam Adams and Mark Foley combined, but what ever becomes of them once their days of Puerto Rican pop success subsides? Why, they try to get more of that sweet, sweet Puerto Rican pop success, of course. Two members of the band’s…

Airport Director Sets Record Straight

Yesterday, I blogged about Secure Wrap of Miami’s eight year lock on a Miami International Airport contract to wrap travelers’ luggage in a cellophane-type material to deter theft of personal items. The post was based on a recent report by the county’s inspector general criticizing the Miami-Dade Aviation Department for…

PETA’s Super Bowl Advert is Banned, Legions of Sports Fans Indifferent

Just how irrelevant has PETA become? The one-time-animal-rights-organization-turned-ludicrous-marketing-machine long ago gave up trying to reach people with reasoned arguments about the sanctity of all life or the wastefulness of our meat-happy culture. Instead they’ve adopted a fairly standard marketing strategy with which to convert confused meaties: 1) Create supposedly offensive…

Secure No More?

Turns out Miami International Airport bureaucrats aren’t so lazy, just a bit slow at fostering competition. Earlier today, I wrote about the Miami-Dade Aviation Department’s reluctance to competitively bid the baggage-wrapping concession operated by Secure Wrap of Miami, which has held on to the lucrative business for more than eight…

Amazingly, This Race Show Has Gone on 14 Seasons

There have been 14 seasons of The Amazing Race? That is just, kind of, amazing, because I’ve never watched more than five seconds of it at a time. Also, consider that unlike so many other reality shows, The Race has never really contributed a catch phrase or pseudo-celebrity to the…

Throwback Tuesdays: John Cougar – “Miami”

Here’s a great video I found by none other than John Cougar before he added that stupid Mellencamp and ruined everything. This video pioneers the South – Beach – music – video genre and exceeds the quality of almost everything that came after it. Here are the lyrics to the…

Secure Monopoly

Owing to the laziness of Transportation Security Administration and Miami-Dade County Aviation Department bureacrats, a company with a lucrative venture at Miami International Airport won’t be getting any competition anytime soon. For the past eight years, Secure Wrap of Miami has held the exclusive rights to wrap luggage in a …

Died in a Plane Crash Last Night at Churchill’s

I had this epiphany last night, while I was sitting at the Churchill’s bar sipping my third Jack and Coke: Every single bar in Miami (and possibly the whole country) has at least one TV set tuned to ESPN at all times. I went outside and saw Penny talking to…

Dennis Moss Picks Committee Chairs

Dennis Moss is done putting together the new make-up of the county commission’s committees and I’m impressed with most of his selections. In case you don’t know, the commissioners use the committee system to hammer out decisions that ultimately impact our tax dollars, from formulating new ways to tax us…

¿Que Pasa, M.I.A.? Bros Vs. Rockers

The events that happen in childhood shape us, haunt us and turn us into the men and women that will lead the world. It’s sociological science fact. When I borrowed a taped copy of Appetite for Destruction from Enrique Fernandez at age nine, I had no idea that 2 Live…

Diary of an Overtown Pimp, Part 2

In a second entry of the handwritten autobiography he recently wrote in jail, Overtown hustler Big Red talks about an unusual robbery for which he received six years in state prison. He leaves out names and some important details, but offers a peek at a different side of Miami street…

Charlie Pickett & The Eggs Buy Heroin From Overtown

      As long as we’re talkin about Charlie Pickett getting his due, here’s one of the reasons why, this video for the song “Overtown” written by Dave Froshneider and performed by “Charlie Pickett and The Eggs” is some real pioneer shit. Now, I’ll admit it, I hadn’t ever heard of…

Letters from the Issue of January 22, 2009

Omnirific The new mall, just like the old mall: It’s been more than 100 years since poet George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I thought of that after reading “Midtown Meltdown” (Francisco Alvarado, January 8). I’m referring to the Omni Mall, which…

Diary of an Overtown Pimp

Usually, if a guy calls himself a pimp, he’s using a frat boy Urban Dictionary term for how he’s, like, totally good with the ladies. But when Big Red drops those four letters, he’s talking about the ten-plus years he has spent soliciting females’ bodies for money on the street…

Musings: South Beach Wine & Food, Midtown and Root Beer

In light of the upcoming South Beach Wine & Food Festival, I propose a law requiring that no posted photo of any Food Network personality ever exceed the size of a postage stamp. Our fine dining establishments are much improved in terms of the quality of cuisine served, but they’ve…

Hope for Overtown

At 11:45 this morning, Jackson Soul Food restaurant at 950 NW Third Ave. was standing-room-only. Overtown and Liberty City residents packed every booth, table, and counter inside the storied and recently  remodeled soul food eatery as they watched President Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony on three brand-new flat-screen TV sets on…

Miami Beach’s cabbie problem

Georgina Lee has been driving a cab for 32 years. Times have never been tougher for a Beach cabbie, the 55-year-old Cuban American attests. So please excuse her if she’s a bit bent out of shape with the rough treatment she’s been getting from Miami Beach’s finest.”We’re not making any…

South Beach Tunnel Crooks

For the past 28 years, Harold Rengifo has sold natural foods, vitamins, fresh juices, and herbal teas on Miami Beach. Throughout this time Rengifo’s Natural Life Center has operated from various retail locations, most recently at 405 15th Street, a storefront located between Drexel and Washington avenues. Never had a…