“I don’t support it.” — Carlos Alvarez on maintaining Miami-Dade’s gay rights ordinance, speaking in Spanish, August 28, 2004 “It’s a law … The citizens have spoken.” — Alvarez on upholding Miami-Dade’s gay rights ordinance, speaking in English, August 29, 2004 Give Carlos Alvarez credit for being a quick study…
Porn Defined You are holding it in your hands right now: The American Heritage dictionary describes “pornography” as “lurid or sensational material.” Under that definition, Kris Conesa’s one-sided hatchet job on Bangbus.com certainly qualifies as pornography (“The Ride to Perdition,” October 14). Please don’t misconstrue my comments. I’m no fan…
It was very bad luck for radio station WLRN that two of the three presidential debates fell during the week of its semiannual fundraising marathon; the station interrupted the collection-plate-passing to air Bush vs. Kerry. A potential disruption more immediate, tragic, and profound for both the station’s staff and thousands…
So I Said to Donna Shalala… One billionaire’s recollection of the first presidential debate: In reference to The Bitch’s observations on the presidential debate at the University of Miami (“Definitive Gaze,” October 7), those of us who were fortunate enough to attend the event also were able to listen to…
One of the zaniest, most influential horror films of all time has been disinterred and lovingly necromanced back to undeadness by Claudia and Larry Brahms, owners of Miami’s very-much-alive MTI Home Video. Save for its brief theatrical release in 1970, I Drink Your Blood has never before been viewable in…
Somewhere in Texas a two-time presidential aspirant is laughing, no doubt feeling more than a little vindicated. When he first announced his Oval Office intentions, the pundits were dismissive of this rough-edged Texan. Those self-made business-mogul credentials he kept touting? Bah! Merely the results of cronyism and shameless influence-peddling. And…
People Belong in Bicentennial Park Only the unenlightened would pave over the last waterfront green space: The county wants us to vote yes on bond issue #8 and spend $275 million on two massive museums in Bicentennial Park, hijacking the last green space on the water in the heart of…
Living in a democratic society is time-consuming. Under totalitarian regimes, no one has to spend valuable hours evaluating candidates. The deal with dictators is that they abolish voting, and as long as you don’t try to depose them or say bad things about them, they don’t drag you in front…
Let’s hope Laurence Tribe has a finely honed sense of irony. It was nearly four years ago that Tribe, a Harvard University constitutional scholar, saluted the Florida Supreme Court for ordering a manual recount of our state’s now-notorious presidential votes. The court had declared it was duty-bound to “safeguard the…
An ambitious and costly plan to put two museums in Bicentennial Park came under attack this week when the Urban Environment League demanded dramatic changes to the proposal and an influential art collector voiced his complete opposition to the development idea. The Miami Art Museum, the Miami Museum of Science,…
Toronto would seem an odd place to take the pulse of Latin cinema. Sure, you can buy Cuban cigars, fresh from Havana, at any of the corner newsstands that dot the city’s downtown — there’s no embargo here, compañero. However, actual flesh-and-blood Cubans, or indeed Latinos of any national stripe,…
Prominent Lobbyist Exposes Breast “If successfully suckling at the public teat is a crime, then consider me guilty!” As a lawyer who is well past his early development years, I was a little surprised by Rebecca Wakefield’s statement in “Rage Against the Machines” (September 23) to the effect that I…
Life is tough for old musicians. Just ask Ricky Williams — not the pot-smoking, team-quitting ex-Dolphin. This Williams is a six-and-half-foot-tall, blind piano player, lately of the Forge, currently of nowhere in particular. For the past decade Williams played piano a couple of shows a week at the club most…
The Story Is Not All Right How easy to avoid the tough questions and aim for the sensational: Rebecca Wakefield’s article “The Kids Aren’t All Right” (September 16) was a sensationally crass attempt at journalism. Although the information she used may be publicly accessible, her “look at these nutcases” portrayal…
The beckoning of a pay phone ringing on a derelict downtown corner, in front of a seedy convenience store, or better yet, in the arid lobby of an office building, offers the thrill of random human contact, or at least the opportunity to generate good prank karma by helping the…
The clearest lesson from the August 31 county mayoral election: $1.8 million just doesn’t buy what it used to. That was the size of candidate José Cancela’s immense campaign war chest, and it delivered only a distant fifth-place finish for the media mogul turned pol. Contacted by Kulchur, Cancela declined…
Bus People: Don’t Bother Complaining Miami-Dade Transit customer service — now there’s an oxymoron: Kudos to Francisco Alvarado for exposing the mismanagement and lack of commitment to customer service so rampant at the Miami-Dade Transit Agency (“Critical Mass Transit,” September 2). My dependency on transit is a constant frustration and…
The Teele Inaccuracy A phone call would have been nice, but I didn’t even get that: My name was wrongly inserted in your article “The Teele Conspiracy” by Francisco Alvarado, Kirk Nielsen, and Rebecca Wakefield (September 2). At no time did I speak to anyone at New Times or anyone…
Seaquarium nemesis Russ Rector is at it again. In October 2003 the founder of the Dolphin Freedom Foundation hired a public safety expert to check out the aquatic attraction. The ensuing report, along with videotape of the Seaquarium, became the basis for federal and city inspectors to cite 137 violations…
Big Sugar vs. Silly MTV Guess which one gets the cover treatment: Bravo to Eric Alan Barton and New Times for the story on the Fanjul family and their wicked ways (“From Bitter to Sweet,” August 26). This type of writing, and the reporter’s active prodding to force the Fanjuls…
The MTV Video Music Awards went off as planned Sunday at the American Airlines Arena, with no known interference from Alberto Ibargüen. Celebrities did what they were supposed to do — look remote and beautiful, and throngs of Miamians massed outside VMA ground zero as well as indoors in the…
Eohippus, the miniature five-toed ancestor of the modern horse, bounded through the rainforests of South America dodging dire wolves and munching lush vegetation. As primitive ponies emerged from the forest to gallop across plains and continents, another eohippus descendant, the tapir, remained in the jungles along the Amazon River. Tapirs…
