Opinion & Commentary

Last Friday’s performance at The Vagabond by 3 One G, the Winter Haven-based Joy Division tribute band, was jammed to the rafters. Surprisingly high-energy and weirdly thrilling, it also raised a number of philosophical questions, among them: 1. If someone wears a Joy Division T-shirt to a show by a…

I’m keeping this one short and sweet this morning. Since Isaac Hayes passed away over the weekend, it’s only fitting to kick off this Throwback Tuesday with my favorite song of his–“Walk on By.” To me, it’s the best song he ever sang, even though I know it’s originally a…

Nude Attitude Not so much: “Naked Lunch” (Janine Zeitlin, July 24) shocking? Maybe for the reporter. I realize New Times is supposed to be the “cool paper,” where you can curse and print the kind of sex stories that don’t make it into the mainstream. But stripping in the middle…

Marisol, a lovely Latina with sleek brown hair, blended bangs, and skintight jeans, saunters down a quiet hallway when, suddenly, she stumbles. Perhaps it’s because she’s wearing stilettos. Or maybe it’s that her husband is dragging her by the wrist. No. Most likely it’s due to the fact that she’s…

“So I’m about to call up Peter Hook and hopefully also talk to Ian Curtis,” I recently told two friends. “That’s amaaaazing,” they cooed back — and then we all laughed, because we knew I was lying, sort of. Because if it looks like Ian Curtis, sings like Ian Curtis,…

Did anybody see N.O.R.E. this past weekend at the Rock the Bell’s concert over the weekend? Dude needs to lay off all that mofongo and pollo a la plancha!! Naw, I’m kidding. Although N.O.R.E. definitely looked way heavier than he needed to be, he definitely came out and rocked it…

Back on April 2, I wrote about Gregory “Silk” Thomas, a colorful character living on Miami Beach who’s had more than his fair share of run-ins with the city’s PO-lice. Thomas, a tall man with graying dreadlocks and gold teeth, reached out to me after he was fired from his…

Nude Can Be Profitable Thanks to Tootsies: Regarding “Naked Lunch” by Janine Zeitlin (July 24): I am an African-American woman with a joyous smile and athletic body type. I have been dancing at strip clubs on and off since August 2005. I work in retail and I dance when I’m…

I’m cawing like a crow, quietly at first, and with my eye on the front door. “Caawwww?” I try a little louder. Then I’m imitating a car. “Pirrrratessss are waaaaiting!” I finally yell, the r’s rolling and gurgling somewhere in the space around my soft palate. Peeking through my blinds…

So with this upcoming Rock the Bells concert around the corner, perhaps the biggest, WTF act on the line-up this year is the Pharcyde. It’s been 11 years since the California-based group last performed together as a foursome. Lot’s of personal issues (money, drugs, and internal fistfights) caused the group…

So with the large scale hip-hop extravaganza, Rock the Bells, coming up this Saturday, it seems fitting to kick off this week’s version of Throwback Tuesdays with an artist performing at the concert. But which one to choose? There’s so many, and most of them have careers that run back…

When election time rolls into gear, the union representing Miami-Dade County fire fighters doesn’t waste time getting into action. According to campaign financial disclosure reports, Dade County Firefighters Local 1403 contributed $500 each to the reelection campaigns of Bruno Barreiro, Audrey Edmonson, Carlos Gimenez, Barbara Jordan, Joe Martinez, and Natacha…

Wicked Indeed Toil and trouble: Thank you to Francisco Alvarado for keeping an eye on Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas and her dirty campaign tactics in “The Witch’s Way” (Riptide, July 10). Her history of “investigating” and intimidating anyone who dares to cross her is a page out of Castro’s…

One of the more fun music-related things to do this hot, slow summer has been to check out the one-off events surrounding the Museum of Contemporary Art’s excellent show, “Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967.” Besides the exhibit itself (which demonstrates, among other things, that…

Puerto Rico has the goat-sucking Chupacabra. West Virginia has the prophetic Mothman. Even Mobile, Alabama, boasts a dusk-dwelling tree leprechaun who climbed to fame in March 2006, when residents endlessly asked, “Where the gold at?” And though nothing in the United States compares to the strangeness that is the Gobi…

Greco-Homo Wrestling Bad journalism: What makes people gay is their emotional attachment to a person of the same sex. When you equate activities such as wrestling to homophobic behavior (“Gaytastic!” by Elyse Wanshel, July 10), you are showing your ignorance. Either that or your maturity level hasn’t made it beyond…

This humble blog, South Florida Music Scene Past and Present, is on CrossFade’s blogroll, but it’s such a wealth of local music history goodness that I wanted to highlight it for this installment of Throwback Tuesdays. I sat down to delve into the entire archive of posts last night (good…

And why not? Miami-Dade government is about as stable as a Sagdiyev family reunion. I have to thank an anonymous commenter over at eyeonmiami for the headline. It was in response to a post about Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez endorsing Natacha Seijas for reelection, nearly two years after Carlito and…

Fortunetelling Baloney Tarot is just for fun: Miami New Times should be ashamed of “Pollsters Schmollsters” (July 3). Not only are these so-called psychics ripping people off, but also they are misrepresenting and stereotyping other people’s culture. Tarot cards were not meant for predicting the future; they were meant for…

A trio of women in their midtwenties is huddled in a dark booth in a corner of Gatsby’s (8575 SW 124th Ave., Miami, 305-412-2220). Most of the bar is amped, but these women sit far from all the beer and chest pounding. Staring quietly at a cartoonish Britto-inspired mural, they…