He’s a cowboy. He’s a construction worker. He’s a sailor. And a leather man. Anatomically correct — okay, he’s hung like a horse — and buff as a bodybuilder, he’s Billy the gay doll. Dreamed up by designer John McKitterick and debuted in a limited edition for a 1994 AIDS…

Watch your back for flying debris: Miami landmarks are falling fast. Witness the recent demolition of the 1899 house owned by Miami’s first doctor, James Jackson (as in Jackson Memorial Hospital), ranked second on Dade Heritage Trust’s list of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites just a short time ago…

It’s 9:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, and Sergio Mendes, undisputed master of jazzy bossa nova, the man who put much of the ease in easy listening, the creature who created the soundtrack for the international jet set with his cohorts Brasil 66, has just gotten through 45 minutes on his…

Fish. Nice in a net or attached to the end of a line. Great on the grill. Wonderful on the wall. But dangling from your neck? Hollywood, Florida, artist Pam Dugger seems to think it’s a perfectly fine notion as long as the fish are one of her spectacular glass…

“If you interview the artists, especially from the English-speaking Caribbean and the nonpopular Latin-American countries, you will hear this vast cry of not being able to show their work,” claims cultural crusader Rosie Gordon-Wallace of the local art scene. And it’s a situation that’s been going on for years, she…

For something that encompasses the word freedom in its name, the stately Freedom Tower has seemingly been in bondage for quite a long time. A bit of its tangled history: Modeled after Seville, Spain’s Giralda Tower, it was built in 1925 by Shultze and Weaver (the same firm that designed…

For all of us everything began with Mom, in the sense that we owe her our lives. But for Elvis Presley, his mom was responsible for a little more — his career. If it weren’t for Gladys Presley’s love of music, her son would never have gone into the studios…

Usually found in its storefront space in North Miami, M Ensemble Company, the oldest African-American theater organization in Miami-Dade County at 30 years of age, has certainly been around. From its beginnings in a Liberty City warehouse to an eleven-year tenure at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center to a…

Many well-known houses have sprung up around Miami over the years. Coming to mind immediately is Vizcaya, the opulent Italian Renaissance-style villa with lush adjacent gardens built on the fringe of Coconut Grove by International Harvester scion James Deering in 1916, and now a must-see for tourists. A few years…

It may be an odd occurrence for Miami, home to so much political strife in the recent past, but an inordinately large gathering of piecemakers will take place this weekend. Notice that’s piece. Not peace. Piece as in squares of colorful fabric. As in quilts. And quiltmakers. Banded together. Strong…

Ellie Schneiderman can’t seem to look at property and not think about artists — how they populate a blighted area and eventually get driven out of their spaces when the rest of the world catches on to how hip the enclave has become. A long-time ceramist and tireless activist, Schneiderman…

From: Nina.Korman@miaminewtimes.com To: RussellPerreault@randomhouse.com Subject: Dave Eggers? Hi, Russell: I’m the calendar editor at Miami New Times newspaper. Do you think there’s any chance I could speak to Dave Eggers on the phone (briefly!) next week for an interview in anticipation of his reading in Miami? Best, Nina Korman Author:RussellPerreault@randomhouse.com…

Alone on a stage, without props, just a microphone to speak in, a stool to sit on, playing a slew of characters. Monologist/lyricist/writer/actor David Cale wouldn’t have it any other way. The British expatriate, who has penned and starred in six one-man shows, including the Obie Award-winning Lillian, readily admits…

“This isn’t about trying to turn any place into Miami Beach or trying to duplicate Miami Beach,” says Randall Robinson. “It’s about offering the experiences of Miami Beach to people so they can take from it what they will, to lend a hand because we know that nobody wants the…

Despite its rather odd name, the organization dubbed MIAPUG! has nothing to do with chubby smash-faced dogs that roam wild through Miami International Airport. The moniker actually describes a group of enthusiastic PDA aficionados. Okay, we’ll stop with the acronyms. PDA stands for personal digital assistant, the latest accessory people…

Vibrant colors leap from artist Peter Max’s canvases — not to mention from the posters, murals, wrapping paper, T-shirts, jumbo jets, and racing cars he’s decorated in a more than three-decade-long career. Born in Berlin, Max spent his formative years in Shanghai, Tibet, Israel, and Paris, arriving in the United…

Okay, in terms of history Miami is not exactly New England. No Pilgrims landed on any famous rocks here in the 1600s. No people burned each other at the stake. Aside from Indians whom outsiders almost eliminated, youthful Miami lacks droves of natives. Most residents have moved here from somewhere…

Diving into Dumpsters to retrieve discarded footage is another day at the office for experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin, who makes what he refers to as “collage essays.” Known among the arthouse crowd for his films Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (1992), a satiric take on xenophobia and CIA covert…

“The greatness of a film is out there at a point beyond the lines,” says novelist and sometime screenwriter Robert Stone. “It’s really how those lines are made to play in terms of photography, in terms of so many other elements. Writing for the movies, I think, is something relatively…