He who holds the camera controls history, leaving viewers to peek around the corners, wondering what’s been left out and why. Fernando Trueba’s loving testament to Latin jazz, Calle 54, touches ground in Havana, New York, San Juan, Cádiz, and even Stockholm, mapping the travels of the masters of the…
Chances are good that downtown Miami will soon have a new baseball stadium. Don’t believe it? The only obstacle I can see is a reluctant state legislature, whose approval is required for crucial parts of the complex funding package put together by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and Marlins owner John…
When Bob Marley spoke of gathering the mythical Twelve Tribes of Israel for a final assault on Babylon, it’s doubtful he envisioned the 10,000-strong crowd that turned out February 17 for the eighth annual Bob Marley Caribbean Festival. Who’d a thunk so many of the Children of Jah would be,…
Marta: AYou’ll cover for me, right? I must commend Rebecca Wakefield for her poignant and succinct story about Marta Perez’s struggle to reform the Miami-Dade County Public School Board (“Rebel with a Cause,” February 15). Allow me to reinforce Wakefield’s report on Mrs. Perez’s commitment to students’ needs in this…
When emaciated guitarist Stuka nearly kicked over the sound system at Señor Frog’s the Monday before last and rescue vehicles arrived to break up a brawl, Miami Beach 2001 started to look a lot like Buenos Aires 1981. At the debut show of Argentine punks Los Violadores in the midst…
“You should start at the beginning …. Kierkegaard said, “Every duty is essentially duty to God.'” “Nigga be a leader, not a follower.” “What?” “Master P said that.” “You still listen to rap?” “Why?” “It’s just all about marketing now.” — Matt “Big Pussy, Jr.,” Bompensiero to Anthony Soprano, Jr.,…
I’m Just a Wisconsin CheeseheadWhat the heck would I know about Cuba? I need to start this letter with an apology. I’ve been meaning to write to you ever since I moved here last September. To say thank you. I appreciate what you do, and I’m happy you’re around, although…
Within political circles the buzz is almost deafening: “What’s wrong with Penelas?” “Has Miami-Dade’s boy-king lost his mind?” “Is the mayor off his medication or what?” All around town people are asking the same questions following a month in which every decision Alex Penelas made left even the most sophisticated…
Glasgow Shall Lead the WayFree weekly respectfully ponders sage advice: My opinion: Kathy Glasgow’s article “A Cuban Idyll” (February 8) is the best piece ever written for New Times. It was absolutely the least-biased piece ever to appear in your pages. The editors should consider: This is the direction for…
Even before Harry Wayne Casey made his start-and-stop strut through Hialeah Park on February 3 — kissing cheeks and posing with every friendly face — enormous ice sculptures of his stage initials, “KC,” and his age, “50,” caused a bottleneck on the central walkway. Matrons in sequined sweaters paused reverently…
They’re coming so fast and furious now, it’s difficult to keep track of all the proposals for a Marlins baseball stadium. Team owner John Henry continues to insist that the only feasible location is smack-dab in the center of Bicentennial Park (though I think he’s bluffing). Others claim a site…
In this high-tech era of worldwide Internet connections and satellite uplinks, an age when even junior-high kids are carrying cell phones, who on Earth still listens to fusty old shortwave radios? Spies, that’s who. As the ongoing espionage trial of the Wasp Network of Cuban spies definitively reveals, cold war…
Zealots Eat Their YoungAnd somehow they manage to make a shabby place like Vermont look good: With Juan Carlos Rodriguez’s article “Petition Suspicion” (February 1), New Times has once again exposed how corrupt Miami governmental and lobbying organizations can be. It blows my mind that a place as diverse as…
It’s a memory I try to suppress. December 3, 1999. The eve of Saint Barbara’s feast day at the now-defunct Mojito Room on Collins Avenue. Nearly everyone in the elegant Havana-esque parlor was dressed in red, in honor of the Christian saint’s African alter ego, Shangó. A frail Gina Martin,…
Monday, January 15, 11:30 p.m. You never forget your first time. “Lua was just incredible,” sighs nightclub promoter Mykel Stevens with a smile. He’s momentarily lost in a wistful memory for the Española Way space in which he first threw his weekly Back Door Bamby party in the mid-Nineties. Stevens…
Government of the Cronies, by the Lobbyists, for the Special Interests Pardon me for being paranoid about Homestead Air Force Base: As happy and relieved as I am over the decision not to transform Homestead Air Force Base into a regional airport, I am still troubled by the idea, as…
With Abraham Lincoln glowering in the background and fireworks bursting in the sky, Ricky Martin swung his famous hips at the opening ceremony of the presidential inauguration to his bombastic hit “The Cup of Life.” His dance pupil, barely president-elect George W. Bush, put his hands on his own stationary…
The rationale for rejecting Homestead Air Force Base as the site for a new commercial airport was both forceful and unambiguous. “Special circumstances exist regarding the Homestead property,” the U.S. Air Force concluded. “It is proximate to and located between two national parks. The parks are under assault from urbanization…
It all looks so easy. Just lease a space on Washington Avenue, hire a DJ, throw a velvet rope up out front, and voilà! You’re a South Beach club owner! All that’s left to do now is pick out a name for your venture, preferably one with a not-so-subtle allusion…
Knight Ridder Confidential Action Report #01-47Miami simpleton strategy exceeds projections; prepare to roll out in all KR Latin markets: I stopped getting the Miami Herald because it neither understands nor represents me. And I don’t read El Nuevo Herald despite having free daily access to it and being part of…
“We’re putting together the online with the offline,” booms Yemil Martinez with the enthusiasm of a game show host. The chat events coordinator for Starmedia.com proudly sweeps his arm across the panorama of Espacio Latino, the new Latin night inaugurated last Thursday at Club Space. Before beginning their first Miami…
Nearly two decades before legions of concerned parents and oh-so-earnest editorial writers spent sleepless nights fretting over Eminem winning a Grammy Award, heavy metal was the musical siren luring America’s impressionable youth to their ruin. As he answers the door to his spacious Miami Shores home, Swedish-born heavy-metal warrior Yngwie…
