The great irony is that pelicans secrete a little oil to waterproof their plumage. But the recent tarring of their feathers by BP’s oil spill will be one of the great tragedies of the decade. No longer able to regulate their temperatures, the birds could freeze to death, and every…

As if exhibiting quarters armed with razor blades wasn’t provocative enough, the Museum of Contemporary Art is supplementing its Claire Fontaine exhibit “Economies” with films that influenced the French artist collective. Next up is Reassemblage, Vietnamese academic and filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha’s 1982 film about rural Senegalese women. This is…

William Shakespeare was actually an author collective comprising imaginative Zimbabwean midgets. OK, that’s a stretch, but there’s plenty of evidence that the Bard wasn’t who we think he was. The same goes for Stieg Larsson, credited with penning the best-selling Swedish Millennium trilogy, which begins with the popular The Girl…

In one of Frank Paulin’s most iconic images, a boy wearing a gas mask stands on the periphery of a playground, where carefree children run around monkey bars. The photojournalist began snapping bombed-out European cities during World War II, when he was employed to take Army ID photos. He moved…

Starting today, the American Black Film Festival takes over the Ritz-Carlton as its headquarters and will screen films at Lincoln Road’s Colony Theatre and the Española Way’s Miami Beach Cinematheque through Saturday. But with 17 films, a shorts competition, workshops, and symposiums, you can’t make it to everything. Here’s where…

Ah, the first day of Summer. But as the mercury rises, our finances continue to dip. Here’s a rundown of free things to do this week.Monday: Don’t wait for a plague of locusts. See the end-of-days exhibit “20(12)” at a pop-up midtown venue called Miami Art Space. Local painter Kiki…

Much like director Luc Besson’s other films, Nikita and The Fifth Element, Angel-A tracks a mysterious beauty with unearthly powers. Angela is an angel, fallen from the sky, who helps a poor Parisian with his mounting debt and personal woes. It’s as if Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire was made…

An exhibit that calls religious rites into question is perhaps a moot point in a town like Miami. You can see only so many decapitated goats discarded in Biscayne Bay without realizing that what’s pious practice to some is horrific animal cruelty to others. Still, even those dulled by prevalent…

Not one to pander, director Spike Lee once said, “What’s the difference between Hollywood actors and my characters? Mine are real.” Lee has made it his mission to portray on the big screen the realities of being black in America. In Do the Right Thing, he sketched a rich portrait…

Thanks to Power 96 in the ’80s, every Camaro and Trans Am blared freestyle’s syncopated drum machines and vocoder vocals. It was the heyday of Afrika Bambaata’s “Planet Rock,” which melded the tweaks of Kraftwerk with the soul of George Clinton. As the genre morphed, freestyle became synonymous with dance…

On a recent trip to Egypt, Anthony Bourdain ditches the pyramids to feast on some stuffed pigeons. As he eloquently says, “Fresh from an orgy of pigeon killing, and still spitting feathers and beak bits on the floor of the cab,” he heads to the next meal — lamb nuts…

Just when we got in sync with the rhythm of the galleries and new exhibits opening every six weeks, along came summer. Don’t expect many new openings until fall, and some galleries might even close for the entire month of August. The current exhibit at David Castillo Gallery, “DCG Open,”…

The Daily Show With Jon StewartChristopher Hitchenswww.thedailyshow.comYou might be surprised to hear that Christopher Hitchens — best-selling author and contributing editor for Vanity Fair — toiled at a work camp for young revolutionaries in 1968 Cuba. Last week, on The Daily Show, he told Jon Stewart that he watched the…

Grab the nearest mouth guard, roller derby is coming to Miami. Actually, it’s always been here. We’ve just had to share a team with those less cool counties up north. (Suck it, New Times Broward-Palm Beach!) But this Saturday, South Florida’s Gold Coast Derby Grrls take on Atlanta’s Sake Tuyas…

If the words of Gabriel García Márquez were converted into paintings, they would look like Nancy Friedemann’s. Using enamel on Mylar, she paints lace-like designs on black backgrounds, evoking Colombia’s colonial past. In Forecast, brightly colored insects and flowers are tangled in a mass of ghostly, doily-esque designs. She explains,…