You know how Michael Benjamin Bay got his start? He made a short film about a helicopter flying into the sunset:Which he parlayed into multi-million dollar box office smashes. This is how it works, fledgling film directors. You make a kick-ass short. People take notice.That’s why you should enter the…

Forget the haunted houses and the crappy slasher films — the scariest spectacle you can treat yourself to this weekend is the premiere of Ground Up and Rising’s production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman at ArtSouth Sanctuary Performing Arts Center. The most ambitious work in the young Irishman’s acclaimed oeuvre,…

Sometimes the “Day” doesn’t get enough respect here at “Night & Day,” especially on that most nighttime of holidays — Halloween. But for those of you who plan your days like Amish farmers in a candle wax shortage, here are some things to do this Saturday before the sun goes…

For folks across the causeway, head to Miami Beach Botanical Garden for Halloween Family Day. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the name of the game is pumpkins: Youngsters can carve them and paint them, and adults can buy them. There will also be holiday-themed arts and crafts, along with…

If you live south of downtown, take care of your little ghouls by taking them to the Gables. Head to Miracle Mile for Halloween on the Mile, a city-sponsored and supersafe trick-or-treat event from 3 to 6 p.m. There will also be a scavenger hunt, a haunted house, and a…

Yes, this Saturday’s Captain Morgan’s Fantasy Fest Parade on Duval Street in Key West is a healthy distance from Miami. But is three hours really so long to drive for hordes of shirtless women with butterflies painted on their boobs? We think not. Especially when the theme this year —…

The fact that Congress chose Miami as one of 11 cities to host events celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth says a lot about how far the Big Orange has come. And to its credit, the city didn’t half-step when organizing this Sunday’s culminating event, A Lincoln Town…

Author Philip Smith grew up in a world most Americans can’t understand: Miami, specifically 1960s Miami, a time of heightened racial tension and bad city planning. Even weirder, one day Smith’s dad, a decorator (it’s Miami!), realized he had a gift for healing the sick and communicating with the dead…

Based on award-winning author Sherman Alexie’s short stories, Smoke Signals centers on two boys on the Coeur D’Alene Indian reservation in Idaho, who could not be more different. Victor is the extrovert who excels at basketball and Thomas is the savant who lives with his grandmother after the death of…

When he’s not cheering on the Dolphins, Miami-native Jack Rapke is calling the shots at ImageMovers Digital, the film studio he founded in 1998 with Robert Zemeckis and Steve Starkey. The trio’s first film was the wildly successful Cast Away (2000), and since then, they’ve been at the forefront of…

If you’re young and male and highly educated, you’ve inevitably viewed the sea as a potential testing ground, an antidote of sorts to the education you didn’t receive. And most likely, you chickened out, or we’d have read about it, because nearly every piece of literature about an intellectual picking…

The heterosexual man cannot live on eye candy alone. Sure, South Beach rules Miami-Dade (and perhaps the world) in terms of beautiful women, but what about those other manly pursuits: red meat, sports bars, and poker? In these categories, our local paradise has been deficient — until now. The newly…

Halloween’s a holiday that seems concocted by the pagan gods just for Miami: a dash of exhibitionism, a touch of erotica, and a hint of danger. And what better place to celebrate than at that temple of Miami luxury and old-world opulence Vizcaya Museum and Gardens? For the 23rd year…

So you think you can make it to the So You Think You Can Dance 2009 tour? You think you can get to the American Airlines Arena by 7:30 p.m. this Thursday? You think you have what it takes to watch the best reality dance show on television, live and…

Abraham Lincoln was born 200 years ago in, yes, a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. Nine years later, on a farm in Talbot County, Maryland, Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. From humble beginnings, these two men shaped the course of the nation, and in celebration of the 200th…

Touché, New York. After years of Allan Houston and company owning the Miami Heat’s balls in the playoffs, you went into the toilet when James Dolan sold MSG’s soul to free-spending, non-winning Isiah Thomas. And we laughed at you as we held up our NBA championship trophy. But then somehow,…

You know the story: Beethoven was deaf when he wrote his ninth and final symphony based on a poem by Friedrich Schiller called “Ode to Joy.” You know the story because it’s one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the Western canon, a symbol of genius, progress, and…

Edited by local poets Campbell McGrath, Denise Duhamel, and Michael Hettich. Art by Miami’s own Susan Lee-Chun. Poetry by FIU alums Jill Allen and Hugo Rodriguez, plus Yayha Frederickson. What’s not to like?It’s the seventh version of Tigertail: A South Florida Poetry Annual, and the debut and reading is tonight…