What with Christmas coming up and all, I’ve been trying to exorcise hatefulness from my being — without much luck, unfortunately. Leave the house or pick up the phone, and someone eventually pisses you off. At an advanced stage of meanness, you even start to piss yourself off. Over time…
Tongue Lashing I applaud Office Depot for its “English first” policy with regard to South Florida customers (“Remember: The Customer Is Always American,” December 7). In Elise Ackerman’s article, a Spanish-speaking cashier was quoted as saying, “It’s because not all the employees speak Spanish, and they feel bad if they…
Miami Bites the Big Apple Cigar smoke, girls in tight Lycra dresses, and Nil Lara without shoes. Just another night in Miami– uh, make that New York City. Lara’s November 30 gig at downtown Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge — part of a recent East Coast tour — attracted a large crowd…
Inquiring Minds Sure, sure, anybody can do a fanzine. That’s why you see so many of the inky creations cluttering up the countertops of record stores and skateboard shops across the nation. Plow through a stack of them, though, and you’ll soon learn that doing a fanzine well isn’t so…
It’s been a week of limited social engagement, removed from the hoopla and horror, the spirits soaring amid a host of quiet rewards and epiphanies in the oddest places. For instance, dinner at Curry’s Restaurant on upper Collins Avenue, the place that time forgot. For some unfathomable reason, the interior…
Art a Go-Go Judy Cantor’s clear and evenhanded expose on the South Florida Art Center was a great read (“The Long and Winding Road,” November 30). If the SFAC wants to continue leading greater Miami in helping its artists and promoting the cultural life of this city (which it sincerely…
South Beach alt-rock quartet Muse recently signed a multialbum recording deal with Lava, a subsidiary of industry behemoth Atlantic Records. The group, which released its own CD in May, will travel to Los Angeles in January to record its debut for the label. “We could not be more pleased with…
Once in a while, even an idiot savant of gossip has to gush a little, and Ingrid Casares — homegirl image consultant, Madonna pal, and co-owner of Liquid — absolutely ruled last week with that club’s grand opening, the South Beach club equivalent of Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball…
Pillars of Prosperity: O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Thomas Kramer What will it take for the Miami Beach City Commission and other local cronies, hangers-on, flunkies, recipients of two-bit contributions, casinoheads, rationalizing lawyers, suddenly converted “mediators,” the INS, and unscrupulous big-shot newspaper editors to wake up and smell the coffee about…
South Florida’s Favorite Stalinist Leeches Kathy Glasgow’s article “Breach of Faith” (November 16) concerning radio commentator Emilio Milian merely whets one’s appetite when it comes to the smorgasbord of incidents in which people are silenced because they fail to adhere to the official line of the Cuban American National Foundation…
When you own a record store called Blue Note, also the name of music’s greatest jazz label, your stock better go a hell of a lot deeper than a stuffed Kenny G. section and a handful of Duke Ellington albums. Blue Note Records in North Miami Beach deserves its name…
Standing there on Washington Avenue for the midnight reckoning, confronting the nasty mob waving VIP opening-night invitations around the front door to Liquid, my entire career as Stepin Fetchit to the nightlife industry assumed the clarity of a bullet to the brain. If the club had gotten it together to…
Why Ron Book Avoids Libertarians I enjoyed Jim DeFede’s article about Ron Croo…er…Book (“Crime and Politics,” November 9), but I have a suggestion for future political coverage. Print an R for Republican or D for Democrat after each politician’s name in order to designate the political affiliation of that individual…
Sound and Vision On-screen, Nanook and a small posse of Eskimos sneak up on a slumbering group of walruses. The men inch closer, crawling on their bellies, harpoons clutched to their sides. About ten feet away from the screen, off to one side of B.A.R. Space, Paul Berry strums some…
Aside from the usual jaunts down the humiliation highway, the pointless theatrics and endless hook-up requests to dark world, the onerousness of being considered a combination of Michael Aller, Fredo Corleone, the social director on the Love Boat, and a dumbed-down Samuel Pepys, and the cruel dichotomy of living in…
Unrealistic Profile, City in Chaos, Skeletons Aplenty Art Levine is one of the most unprofessional writers I’ve ever met. If his intention was to present readers with a realistic profile of Miami Beach mayoral candidate Andrew Delaplaine, he was not successful (“Attitude Dancing,” November 2). If Mr. Levine thinks that…
And you thought Harry Pussy couldn’t get booked on Miami Beach. Ha! The majordomos of the local noise band scene have agreed to play a gig on Thursday, November 16, at Black Box, the multimedia performance space that opened last weekend in the South Florida Art Center’s Ground Level gallery…
While rampant dementia might be tough on the citizenry, insanity does lend pungency to the more popular cultures, and soon enough there’ll be no limits whatsoever. Samuel Beckett will cash in and approve Endgame as a comeback vehicle for Gary Coleman. The silicone warriors of Baywatch will remake Waterworld as…
Matti Bower: Eloquent and Busy For Kirk Semple to say that Matti Bower “isn’t a particularly articulate or precise speaker” is ludicrous (“Mistaken Identity,” October 26). She is so articulate that her phone, even prior to this city commission election, never stops ringing. When people have a problem, it is…
Let’s jump right in and confront the important, chew on the big issues: art, life, illusion versus reality, truth, sex, class chaos, and whatever else may be grist for the short-order sociology mill. It’s a world rich with blessings and beatitudes, everything intersecting at the nexus of nightlife, the gilded…
“I guess it would be nice to say it’s a sequel, but it’s not,” Jodi Horovitz says as she emits a big laugh. “Subconsciously, I’m sure, Freedy was spinning around in my head.” Singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston, that is, whose fine 1994 album This Perfect World contains an affecting song about…
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