March 25
Ready to sacrifice your liver for other people's lungs? Check out the Las Olas Wine Festival. Now, sipping spirits in moderation is probably nothing compared to the damage your liver suffered during your high-school and/or college years, but with wine being poured at 24 shops and galleries along Las Olas Boulevard to raise money for the American Lung Association, there will certainly be plenty of opportunities to overindulge. For $25 drinkers get a wine glass with which to cruise the boulevard in search of tasty chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons from a variety of vintners. Restaurants and stores will offer appetizers along the way, and live musicians and radio remote broadcasts will keep folks entertained between gulps -- er, sips. The event begins at 6 p.m. and takes place on Las Olas between SE Sixth and Tenth avenues. Call 954-524-4657.
Friday
March 26
If there's such a thing as "street cred" in the modern dance community, the 28-year-old Pilobolus Dance Theatre is loaded with it. The American company, which combines humor with dramatic movement, is so respected that its offbeat works have been adapted by other prestigious dance troupes, like Joffrey Ballet and the Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine in France. And those companies have plenty of works from which to choose; Pilobolus has created some 70 pieces of choreography, offering a complex, almost endless vocabulary of abstract movements. The troupe's dancers link limbs and balance atop one another to create moving geometric shapes, and sometimes wear psychedelic leotards that add plenty of color to the shows. Pilobolus will perform at the Duncan Theatre, Palm Beach Community College, 4200 S. Congress Ave., Lake Worth, tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m. Ticket prices range from $20 to $30. Call 561-439-8141.
Saturday
March 27
Most refer to it as graffiti, but its creators call it "aerosol" or "spray-can" art or simply "writing." "It's called 'writing,' and that's what the artists like to be called -- 'writers,'" explains Jenice Reddick, a.k.a. Chyna. The publisher uses the pseudonym when she writes for Paradox, her Fort Lauderdale-based urban culture and music magazine. When she started the mag in February 1997, her mission was to obliterate the bad rap that hip-hop culture was getting because of its associations with gangs and graffiti artists. The magazine covers rap, break dancing, and spray-can art, which Reddick says is legitimate. "They create murals and beautiful throw-ups, as opposed to graffiti or tagging just to get noticed," she explains. Writers, she says, create works of art for the community. "A lot of these artists work in the dark," she adds. "And when the morning light comes, [the artists] see it for the first time, along with anyone who might be walking by." In an effort to highlight positive examples of the urban experience, the magazine is hosting its "1st Annual Paradox Spring BreakFest '99. Along with spray-can art exhibitions, the event will showcase local rappers, break dancers, DJs, poets, and health-education displays. BreakFest takes place from noon to 6 p.m. at Mall 441 Flea Market, 2928 N. State Rd. 7, Lauderdale Lakes. Admission is free. Call 954-690-2273 or 305-529-1013.
Sunday
March 28
These days kids are suing Mom and Dad for bad parenting, and parents are sending uncontrollable kids off to military or private schools. Well, playwright William Mastrosimone has a bit of good news to share with theatergoers. In his Tamer of Horses, a rebellious 15-year-old Hispanic kid named Hector runs away from a home for troubled teens and shows up on the doorstep of Ty and Georgiane, a black, middle-class couple. Both are teachers, and Hector is illiterate. Although hesitant at first, Ty and Georgiane take in the "bad seed," then try to turn him around. Instead of taking off with their stereo and TV, Hector sticks around long enough to learn that education and a little compassion are far more rewarding than a life of crime. Horses runs through April 25 at Florida Stage, Plaza Del Mar, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan. Ticket prices range from $28 to $34. Two shows take place today, at 2 and 7 p.m. Call 561-585-3404 or 800-514-3837. See "Stage" listings for a complete schedule.
Monday
March 29
Earlier in this century, Jews were driven out of Germany by the Nazis, and Tibetan Buddhists were driven out of their homeland by the Chinese. Put the two persecuted peoples together, and you have a "Ju-Bu," according to the documentary film The Jew in the Lotus. The film is based on the book The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India (1994) by self-proclaimed "Ju-Bu" Rodger Kamenetz. In 1990 a group of rabbis asked the poet to follow them to India, where they would meet with the Dalai Lama to discuss spiritual issues. While there Kamenetz not only documented the meeting, he became enamored with the Buddhist religion. Film director Laurel Chiten found Kamenetz's book fascinating and later followed him back to India, where he met with Tibetan religious leaders and talked about what it's like to live in exile. The film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. at Kaplan Jewish Community Center, 3151 N. Military Trl., West Palm Beach, and Chiten will discuss her film after the screening. Tickets cost $10 to $15. For more information call 561-689-0818.
Tuesday
March 30
A heel lifted just slightly off the floor, a shaft of light, a red dress rippling with creases -- these are the subtle details in watercolorist David Remfry's Model Turning, which is one of eighteen paintings on view in "David Remfry: Personages". The British-born artist, who now lives in New York City, is considered by some to be a latter-day Toulouse-Lautrec. The comparison is most notable in Heat of the Night, a crowded nightclub scene reminiscent of Toulouse-Lautrec's depictions of nightlife in Montmartre, Paris. "Personages" runs through May 9 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art (801 W. Palmetto Park Rd., Boca Raton) concurrently with exhibitions featuring works by American abstract artist Dorothy Gillespie and Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró. Admission prices range from $1 to $3. Call 561-392-2500.
Wednesday
March 31
One of the reasons that Chariots of Fire still lives vividly in the minds of moviegoers is the film's score by Vangelis. Who could forget the scene on the beach with the young English runners kicking up sand in slo-mo, the loping piano melody matching their strides, the cymbal crashes mirroring the looks of joy on their faces? Now compare that to the shout-at-the-top-of-your-lungs soundtracks that accompany many a teen flick these days, and you realize that the art of scoring and/ or providing an appropriate soundtrack for a movie has been reduced to radio-friendly composition. (Think Celine Dion's tribute to that big sunken ship.) Well, at least somebody cares -- that somebody being the Hollywood Hills Orchestra, which will play memorable movie songs and scores in Romancing the Movies. On the show's program are pieces from Chariots, Rocky, The Godfather, Doctor Zhivago, Casablanca, and other classic films. The orchestra will perform twice today, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., at the Kravis Center For the Performing Arts (701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach). Tickets cost $15. Call 561-833-8300 or 800-572-8471.