It’s a requirement that you, as a Miamian, have really strong feelings about those 23 golden blocks on the southern end of Miami Beach. South Beach, either you love it or you hate it. But if SoBe is your preferred party spot, you might have mixed emotions. Which means you…

Every summer since 1952, South Floridians have made a play date with the annual David Deal Playday for hours of city-sponsored fun in the sun. This year Fort Lauderdale Parks and Recreation has teamed up with Black Entertainment Television’s Rap-It-Up Campaign, a partnership that will pair entertainment with HIV/AIDS awareness…

It seems like every bar, restaurant, and corner store offers a happy hour. But few realize that overcooked hot wings and watered-down drinks do not a happy hour make. As a matter of fact, just thinking about that crap makes us kinda sad. But one of our favorite downtown restaurants,…

The protagonist of How Stella Got Her Groove Back had to go all the way to Jamaica to revive her fading mojo. So far we’ve saved $126.12 in our island-getaway fund. Lucky for us, we won’t need to travel. Alonzo Mourning brings Zo’s Summer Groove to our doorstep every year…

It’s mid-July and you and your sweetheart are enjoying a little backseat action at your favorite make-out spot. The windows are foggy, and Michael Lington’s saxophone is singing to you through the speakers. Things are getting so hot and heavy inside the ride that if you wanted to cool off,…

Who doesn’t love when holidays fall on Mondays and Fridays? But sometimes the little buggers pop up on a day of the week so crappy that not even a sky full of fireballs can help us enjoy it. (Hello, Fourth of July 2007.) But we’ll make up for that today…

This summer you won’t need Jenny Craig, Dr. Agatston, or Richard Simmons to cure your swimsuit angst. The truth is, a little style, a lot of moxie, and a ticket to just one of the shows during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami Swim will do the trick. You’re on your…

A superfunky beat drops. The woman onstage looks into your eyes and coos, “Didn’t notice you standing there. It took a long time, but you didn’t care.” You think she has mistaken you for someone else, a long-lost love or maybe a drunken one-night stand. But her voice continues to…

Of course you’ve heard all about how good it will make you feel; you even Googled “the benefits of yoga.” But you were intimidated by the pics of women in rubber-band-man positions, and put off by tales of unruly flatulence. If you’ve still never tried yoga, your muscles and bones…

Usually, to call someone a snob is to suggest he or she is a name-dropper or a snooty Suzie. But there are times when being called a snob isn’t so bad. If you’re a vodka snob, it means you’re picky about the degree of burn that comes after a straight…

If the Miami fashion industry were a family, Rene Ruiz would be your sophisticated uncle who never let you leap into his arms, but was also never at a loss when you asked him all the difficult questions. About, you know, proper winetasting techniques, selecting the perfect stone for an…

When we hear a promoter rave about an event, he’s usually gushing about how it’s different from anything we’ve seen before. Then we show up and, $20 later, it’s just like everything we’ve seen before. We were beginning to get jaded. Then we met Andre Soul, who explained why he…

We walk around, absorbed in our own existence, our minds on some unattainable pot of gold. If we were left to our own devices, who would take care of the world? Not to worry: Fairies have us covered. “If you’re out trimming your garden or picking up trash, that is…

Remember the time you were listening to R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly,” and by the time Kellz sang, “I believe I can touch the sky,” you were trying to leap head-first out of your first-story window? You might blame it on that hand-rolled cigarette, but we blame it…

Back in the day, when the lights went down and the bass went up, party people busted moves like the typewriter and the running man. Nowadays dance moves have made way for moves that are usually reserved for in between the sheets. We know who came up with the “chicken…

Some of us have a special affinity for all things French. Who doesn’t love a perfectly positioned jaunty beret or the way the language makes obscenities ring like romantic poetry? And much like we have done with the French fry and French toast and, hell, the French martini, we have…

Thanks to a phase in our youth when we decided to follow in the footsteps of musical legends and experiment — yet never with music — many memories play back in our minds like fuzzy, old black-and-white westerns. But one incident that will forever be in Technicolor is the time…

You’re at a table by yourself in a semidark, semismoky club. An artist takes the stage. A poet. He begins his set, performing piece after piece, each one more powerful than the last. You’re mesmerized, along with the rest of the room. But as you look around the club, you…

Some things are obvious. Sixteen is sweet, love is blind, and Wine Is Fun … Period! Tonight at Bizcaya Restaurant, chef de cuisine Jason Schneider and sommelier Jeffrey Galloway will host their monthly wine/dinner series, a dinner party that will change everything you thought you knew about eating out. Your…

If you blink — or get distracted by a beach babe — you might miss it. But once you know it’s there, escaping the suffocating heat of a summer in South Beach will be only one of your favorite things about the World Erotic Art Museum. Your current second good…

Over the years many Miamians have ended up on the business end of a policeman’s baton or Taser. And whether you’re innocent or guilty, right or wrong, simply the thought of that moment can sting a little. Actually it just might give you the urge to punch a hole through…

The boy playfully dunks the girl’s head under the water, holding her there until she grabs his thigh in mock distress. With her mop of curly hair drenched straight, she emerges like a mermaid. The boy’s eyes follow her entire ascent. She spits crystal-clear water at him and pauses. His…