The University of Miami’s law library contains more than one million pages and another million microfilm-reel frames documenting federal and state actions regarding the Everglades. That’s not really much when you consider that the beleaguered swamp, already half drained, provides all the drinking water for about six million South Floridians…
Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers Those who can’t make the Toussaint gig should consider a jaunt north to catch the tenth appearance of Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers at the Tropicale. Only this year, the band would like fans to pay for what has always been a free show. No,…
In the Eighties, there were an estimated 500 million bicycles in China. As more people obtained have cars in recent years, pollution has become so awful that the government has ordered built-over bike paths to be restored. Like those once hidden lanes, Dr. Paul Gannon believes, the South Beach bike…
It was clean. It was wholesome. It was family-friendly. That’s right. It sucked! — David Letterman, about Paul McCartney’s Super Bowl XXXIX halftime show As the Global Alliance of Couch Potatoes shifts its collective attention to our very own big game this Sunday, many of us will be wondering the…
Loving sports is becoming extremely difficult around here. Gainesville has been cleaning up at the collegiate level (gag), while UM’s football Hurricanes fell apart, the Dolphins dived, the Marlins are still behaving like holiday guests, and the pro hockey team is…. Do we still have a pro hockey team? Worst…
So now we find out just how cool Johnny Depp really is. Way back, young girls would pack local clubs to see a band called the Kids, fronted by a scraggly young man named Johnny. Now the Kids, along with other bands upon whose shoulders South Florida’s original rock scene…
After a lengthy holiday hiatus, live music has returned to South Florida with a vengeance that can be described only as deeply disorienting. So disorienting that we’ve temporarily shelved our plan to firebomb Ticketmaster and instead would like someone to prepare us warm milk with brandy. Lots of brandy. This…
Live dance performance can be grueling, as dull as a spoon. But, at its best, it can also be explosive and propulsive, an in-the-face assault on the senses that leaves audiences so drained they feel like they did the steppin’ themselves. Vincent Mantsoe’s work definitely falls under the latter description…
What does Snoop Dogg call a light rain? A drizzle. (Ouch.) Professional comedians would refer to that, derisively, as a “street joke.” Justine Barron, Michael Murray, and the rest of the Cine-Improv troupe work at a higher level than even the pros you see on Comedy Central, late-night TV, and…
Questions: (1) Why does it make sense that so many Cubans have found a home in South Florida and that Spanish is commonly spoken throughout Greater Miami? (2) Miami isn’t even the largest city in Florida (Jacksonville is), but the metropolitan area has a population of more than five million…
Buddhism transcends religion. It can, and really must, be pursued individually. Anyone can benefit from a glancing consideration of the Four Noble Truths: (1) Life is suffering; (2) Suffering is caused by an ignorant attachment to things and ideas, all of which are transient; (3) Suffering can be ended with…
Dwyane Wade is back to leading off headlines — “Wade’s heroics …” — and was recently named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated. But a better example of why the NBA and your Miami Heat are the coolest things going came a couple of weeks ago in a game…
Though the Israel of today didn’t exist in biblical times, the wise guys publicizing the new Israel Baseball League tryouts still went to the Good Book to hype the event, noting that the Rebecca of Genesis (24:45) knew something about using a bullpen: “Behold, Rebecca brought forth her pitcher.” Beginning…
One of Miami’s legitimate cultural treasures, the Miami Beach Cinematheque, defines itself with the word escapism. Two current projects take that idea to its ultimate, um, conclusion. Robert Altman, a key figure in America’s auteur movement of the late Sixties and early Seventies – who, unlike, say, Dennis Hopper, didn’t…
Local hero Udonis Haslem has shown himself again and again to be reliable, talented, versatile, and, perhaps most important, uninjured. But the Miami Heat has struggled much with the question of what to do at the other forward spot. Both Antoine Walker and James Posey have demonstrated ample skill, but…
Time to stop making excuses about how difficult it is for a championship team to motivate itself early in a season. The Miami Heat need to get winning, and get winning now, or they won’t even make the playoffs this year. Yikes. Time to bring back Stan Van Gundy? Maybe…
It is the immortal debate among those who know, or think they know, more than most about South Florida. Is the 150-square-mile rural area in South Miami-Dade the Redland, or is it the Redlands? Lexicographers have long sought a definitive answer, without luck. The style mavens at this newspaper decided…
In a division (the Atlantic) where no team has a winning record, Toronto has achieved what some thought to be an impossibility: knocking the Knicks out of last place. Don’t laugh too hard, fans, because the Raptors’ terrible record isn’t all that much worse than your Miami Heat’s. Yes, the…
It is one of the great tragedies of moviedom that Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant career ended with Eyes Wide Shut, a terribly awful film by anyone’s hand, but especially lousy compared to any of the great American auteur’s other works. To make a comparison, spend the weekend with host Shelley Novak…
Way back, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids would rent a van from Crease and cruise down from Broward to play what became known as the “chocolate cow” shows (don’t ask, don’t tell) at the perfect rock and roll club, Washington Square in South Beach. And even then, clueful rock…
Dear Mr. Riley: With due respect, and an awareness that Shaquille O’Neal is being paid an enormous sum of money, we don’t understand why Alonzo Mourning isn’t the starting center for your World Champion Miami Heat. You have always been so defense-oriented, and in Zo you have one of the…
With the exceptions of a couple of appropriate jags and ledges, the musical mountain scaled by Diane Ward is almost perfectly vertical. Despite her lithe blond beauty, she was a hard-hitting drummer who sometimes shattered sticks until, damn near twenty years ago, she stepped from behind the kit to front…
