The NBA playoffs are commonly considered the real season. The 82 regularly scheduled games serve as a seeding process, although tonight’s 7:30 scrimmage versus the New York Knicks has a tinge of drama because back when the Knicks were a pro-level team, the Heat had something of a rivalry with…

Vizcaya is a pretty amazing place: a National Historic Landmark that exemplifies the profound indulgence, natural wealth, and unbridled opportunity that defined South Florida before it became so glutted with humans as to be damn near uninhabitable. Super-rich guy James Deering built the winter mansion on ten acres along Biscayne…

It’s like walking around a parking lot — after traveling into the future by time machine and landing in an extremely wealthy neighborhood. The 36th South Florida International Auto Show fills the Miami Beach Convention Center with cars you’re much more likely to encounter in dreams than on, say, the…

Plenty of big names are associated with the 23rd rendition of Festival Miami, the five-week series of concerts (27 of them this year) that celebrates and shows off the University of Miami’s renowned Frost School of Music. Pop celebs such as Albita, Raul Midón, Richard Stoltzman, and Bruce Hornsby will…

This is it, sports fans, the last game of a season that should be celebrated for its surprising, if relative, success. Today’s 1:05 matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies — a team that spent much of the season just ahead of the Fish in the National League East and in the…

An entertainment shows special promise when it inspires treatment in multiple media. The Light in the Piazza glows with romance hot enough to have moved it from the printed page to one of Broadway’s brightest lights of recent years (six Tony Awards in 2005), with a delightful stop in movie…

Everyone who put money on the Marlins’ being in the playoffs — or even coming close — please stand up and give a big shout. Okay. Now sit down and shut up, you liars. We admit our own derogatory declamation of the teal sleepers (no, it’s not a dream!) in…

The enduring fish called shark might offer a cure for cancer (a disease they’re immune to) and possess an unusual sensory system that can be appropriated for numerous human technological advances. They are beautiful and diverse creatures that include bottom-dwelling peaceniks (nurse), flyers (spinners, which leap above the surface when…

On or about September 8, 1608, two indigenous Indians and a ten-year-old slave boy were caught in a storm, forcing them to land their canoe and encamp. The next day the three, seeking salt for a slaughterhouse to use as a preservative, were back at sea, where they spotted something…

And now we humbly bow our heads to the Baseball Gods and beg forgiveness, we doubters, we sinners, we who mocked and ridiculed the cut-rate version of the Florida Marlins fielded this season. With about three dozen games left, the Marlins are well within win-shot of a wild-card playoff berth…

A devoted Miami FC fan called “rev TT & Grin coco” (or is that two fans?) is so passionate about the United Soccer League that he or she goes to a fan forum site and posts the league’s scores for the week, as well as an ad hoc pitch about…

You would have been mocked and ridiculed, laughed at and possibly urinated upon, had you, early in this season, even suggested the possibility there was a chance the Marlins would make a run at the playoffs. Way underfunded, the scrappy terrors in teal have beat up on and just plain…

Singer Lance Bass, drool-inducer to millions of girls: fag. Actor and announcer George Takei: queer as a three-dollar bill. Mother and brilliant musician Melissa Etheridge: well, you get the idea. Some might say it takes all kinds; others, not so much. What a gruesomely fucked up nation we exist in,…

Two weeks ago Milwaukee and Florida had identical records. With the logic of Major League Baseball, that would mean we could expect a highly competitive matchup as this four-game series winds up at 7:05 tonight. Okay, that actually means blowout. But blowouts can be entertaining, especially if the Marlins are…

The Illusionist is one of those films that can either be staggeringly dull or eternally brilliant. It’s shot in what might be called brown-and-white, a sepia tale (based on Steven Millhauser’s Eisenheim the Illusionist) of love, class, and magic set in old Vienna. Edward Norton is the titular star who…

Miamians who think everything past the toll booth is Key Biscayne could go their whole lives without realizing there are two islands, the first being Virginia Key, which happens to be one of the most interesting — and overlooked — places in South Florida. This was the “Negro” beach before…

Cuban-born filmmaker Rolando Díaz is traveling all the way from his home in the Canary Islands to attend the premiere of his feature Cercaníal(Closeness) — you could at least drive over to the Tower Theater to join him. This evocative tale reminds us of Elián and a million or so…

In an essay about James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces — the Oprah-fide best-selling fiction-as-memoir scam and story of addiction and such — real-life junkie turned media critic (yes, another one!) Seth Mnookin writes, “Were I in my normal frame of mind, I would … scream Fraud, and chase this…

We among others often criticize Miami sports fans for their fickleness. Pondering the approaching Miami Dolphins season raises some justification for the schizo nature of local sportsgoers. Our teams themselves are about as loyal as a crackhead — to themselves. These teams — Marlins, Panthers, even the Heat, and certainly…

Maybe it’s the classic cursive blue logo. Or the legendary names — Roy Campanella, Sandy Koufax, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider — of seasons past. Or the embellished nostalgia of the days of yore in Brooklyn. Or the eternal spirit of Tommy Lasorda. Whatever causes it, there is…