In 2004, 21 clam diggers, who were also illegal Chinese immigrants, drowned at high tide off the coast of England. Known as the Morecambe Bay Tragedy, the deaths symbolized the grim exile experience in Britain because language barriers or xenophobia might have contributed to the mass drowning. When artist Isaac…

Giant pink snails on South Beach? What’s next, famine and a plagues of locusts? The bubble-gum pink creepers spotted throughout Miami Beach are not a sign of end times. And no, they’re not the work of pink-loving Cristo either. The 45 snails, made from plastic gathered from landfills, are part…

Just off shore, miles past South Beach’s glowing neon marquees, there are graceful and ethereal creatures, pulsing with their own natural fluorescence. These jellyfish, zoanthids, and corals, which pirouette and sway out on Miami’s reefs, are the muses of art/science duo Coral Morphologic. Colin Foord and Jared McKay filmed these…

This Saturday, take Romero’s smiling cats and geometric flowers to Artformz Alternative Gallery and rip them to shreds. You read that right. It’s time for BYOB  — Bring Your Own Britto to Destroy. If you stopped by the Wynwood gallery during last Saturday’s art walk, then you witnessed the Art…

Do you know who had a tough job? Pope Gregory the Great, the guy who narrowed down the deadly sins to just seven. He had to roll vainglory into pride, and acedia (Greek for “not to care”) into sadness, a sin that the church eventually replaced with sloth. Now that…

“Chase me! Mate with me! Seduce me!” yells Isabella Rossellini, dressed in red spandex and bug eyes. “He’s so strong and sharp, he doesn’t need a vagina at all. He ejaculates in my wound.” The Lynchian actress is re-enacting the mating ritual of bedbugs. As if the little bastards weren’t…

This Saturday, take Romero’s smiling cats and geometric flowers to Artformz Alternative Gallery and rip them to shreds. You read that right. It’s time for BYOB (Bring Your Own Britto to Destroy). If you stopped by the Wynwood gallery during last Saturday’s art walk, then you witnessed the Art of…

After witnessing too many Muffys and Duffys exiting beat-up Volvos, wearing Lacoste, and reeking of old money and afternoon G&Ts, Lisa Birnbach wrote The Official Preppy Handbook, a satire on a particular WASP subculture. The problem is that this book-long dig was also a handy field guide for those aspiring…

Giant pink snails on South Beach? What’s next, famine and a plagues of locusts? The bubble-gum pink creepers spotted throughout Miami Beach are not a sign of end times. And no, they’re not the work of pink-loving Cristo either. The 45 snails, made from plastic gathered from landfills, are part…

The 27th annual Miami Book Fair International begins this Sunday and runs through November 21. Though most of the big names make appearances late next week, there are a few highlights on the festival’s front end too. Wednesday, things get interesting when John Waters promotes his recent memoir, Role Models,…

With his novel The Magicians, author Lev Grossman offers an astringent antidote to Pollyanna Harry Potter mania. As he told the Village Voice, he wanted a Potter-like character who was “having sex instead of snogging, or drinking real beer instead of butterbeer, if… his friends didn’t have a Voldemort in…

How do you beat writer’s block? Do you thrash your head against the wall? Down a fifth of Jack and start muttering atonal Bob Dylan songs? Do you give up and start selling insurance? Next time a blank page inspires a panic attack, try doodling. That’s the advice of famed…

Comedy writer and former Upright Citizens Brigade member, Julie Klausner has news from the frontlines – of shitty relationships. Like most of us, she spent her twenties ricocheting from douchebag to douchebag, and she reveals every crappy moment in her dating memoir I Don’t Care About Your Band: What I…