“I’m covered with paint, all colors,” says a spry Grace Slick on the phone at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time from her Malibu, California, home. The 61-year-old Slick, owner of the vigorous voice that guided the Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship to hits such as “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”…
Charging lions, smiling natives, preening supermodels — all have their place in the life of intrepid photographer Peter Beard. Born in 1938 into an affluent family, the dashing Beard eschewed studies in medicine in favor of art. Reading Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa compelled him to visit that continent in…
You have to wonder about a circus that has a mission statement. Devoid of midgets, animals, and freaks, Cirque du Soleil is no ordinary spectacle. No girls hanging from their hair, no men shooting out of cannons, no dancing elephants. Just a bunch of highly flexible acrobats clad in brightly…
The idea that slavery existed in past centuries is disturbing enough. To think that it still exists somewhere in the world is even more troubling. But it does go on today in northwestern Africa and other parts of the Arab world, where Africans use the force of Islam’s doctrines to…
Just because Miami, at a little more than 100 years old, is so young, doesn’t mean its history is any easier to figure out than that of an older town. Our callow condition notwithstanding, misconceptions abound. Ask any Miami buff what purpose was served by the small limestone and wood…
How does the thought of dinner with a horse grab you? Not dinner made from a horse but eating your meal, drinking your drinks, right next to an enormous whinnying animal. If you’re appalled by that idea and think of yourself as more of an ecology-minded type, then how about…
It seemed as if December 10, 2000, would be known as the day the music drowned. Undeterred by the sheets of rain that flooded the streets in Miami-Dade County, Ellen Bukstel Segal was preparing to host a little musical get-together. A graphic designer and the vocalist for the folk band…
“I’ve been on my knees for days!” admits designer Juan Carlos Arcila-Duque. Coproprietor of the Design District showroom called ROOM and soon owner of a-d furniture interiors, Arcila-Duque hasn’t taken on a new position as a presidential intern. He’s just adding the job of curator to his résumé, since he’s…
Jazz, that most ignored of musical genres, seems to be sweeping the nation of late. Currently holding musically inclined audiences in its thrall is prodigious documentarian Ken Burns’s multipart series about the uniquely American art form, which recently made its much-anticipated debut on PBS. Jazz piano gal Diana Krall is…
We all have issues. Millions of people with millions of problems spend day after day muddling through life, rarely thinking what a tremendous toll it takes, or what a joy it can be. As if we need to be reminded of our sometimes pathetic plight, eight folks will make drama…
“Chickens fascinate me,” said hyperactive man-child character Stuart with wide-eyed wonder on the late-night comedy show MAD TV. As far as we know, local artist Robert Flynn has never been into domestic fowl, but he has in the past favored cows. From 1993 through 1996 he produced a series of…
Wasn’t it Frank Sinatra who once said, “A dame’s work is never done?” The perennially politically incorrect crooner most likely was referring to dames the same way he would talk about other women he didn’t respect: as broads, babes, or chicks. When we say dames, we mean Dames with an…
For many people the month of December signifies a time to celebrate. Jews have Hanukkah. Christians have Christmas. Blacks of all religions have Kwanzaa. But make no mistake, Kwanzaa is a holiday, not a holy day. Created in 1966 by California State University professor/activist Maulana Karenga, the seven-day observance, which…
For the longest time you’ve sported the black-turtleneck-and-narrow-pant uniform worn by Mike Myers’s German beatnik character Dieter. Yet you’ve never understood what compelled you to adopt such a somber-hued wardrobe. You live in sunny Miami, not dreary Berlin. You’re a computer programmer, not an avant-garde performance artist. You’re often seen…
In 1950 Rex Artist Supplies was just another business on Coral Gables’ Miracle Mile. Purveyors of house paint, wallpaper, frames, and, of course, art supplies, the store was cofounded by artist E. Rex Gerlach and housepainter Joseph Platt. By the mid-Fifties, Rex had evolved into a reliable outlet for artists…
“Last year I met the girl of my dreams at the event and we fell in love and we got married and we had three kids and we got a house and we got a dog and a new car and I got the job of a lifetime working on…
“There was all sorts of giggling and exclamations and lively conversation,” recalls translator and author Suzanne Jill Levine about her first meeting with Manuel Puig in a Chinese restaurant in New York City’s Greenwich Village during the winter of 1969. The gay Argentine writer had just published his first two…
About 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 8, under the auspices of the Miami Light Project, the doctor was in. Escorted by a well-dressed man to a microphone at the center of the Gusman Center’s stage, Dr. Nina Simone, recipient of honorary degrees from Amherst College and Malcolm X University, began what…
What gets you banned in Boston surely will get you embraced in Miami. Wait a second: These days what gets banned in Boston? Or anywhere else for that matter? A naughty little theater production courtesy of the Canada-based Caravan Stage theater company. This past summer, when they pulled their 90-foot…
You know about Friday night: end of the week, beginning of the weekend, the day millions of workers all over the nation indulge in happy hours, the night where if you have nothing to do, you can pretty much consider yourself a loser. Well, even if you don’t have a…
First came the name. “We actually had the name even before we dared to put a band together and play live,” says singer Michael Roderick about Maria, the rock group he founded with childhood pal Paul Molina. It may seem as if they’re commemorating the Virgin Mary’s Spanish nombre or…
A Coconut Grove psychiatrist named Dr. Camote visits his past life and learns he was once the idealistic Don Quixote. That’s the plot of the zany theater production The Adventures of Don Quixote in Miami. Not the handiwork of regression specialist Brian Weiss on a comedic bent, the play is…
