South Florida never took up arms in the Great Microbrew Revolution. Sure, there are chain macrobrewpubs to wet your whistle, but the only sure-fire source for a fresh, handcrafted ale in the subtropics comes courtesy of Adam Fine. The Fort Lauderdale entrepreneur honed his home-brewing skills in Houston, but when…
Imagine owning waterfront property in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Imagine it’s worth four times what it cost five years ago. Most of us would kill for that rate of return. For several condominium residents, it’s killing them. “I may make a lot of money,” Lou Cioffi admits, “but I’ll be worse…
This was a first for the two veteran fugitive trackers. Never had Miami-based FBI agent Paul Russell and Fort Lauderdale detective Chuck Morrow busted a crook in exclusive Colee Hammock, one of Fort Lauderdale’s priciest waterfront neighborhoods. But here they were, casing a new, $5 million estate, catercornered across the…
Studies indicate that rap-metal ages about as well as pig slop in the sun. But that hasn’t stopped venerable Fort Lauderdale combo Collapsing Lungs from reuniting every few years or so to wallow in it. Back in the Spooky Kids days — “before Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park made…
Morgana, a beautiful golden retriever with starry brown eyes and a recklessly wagging tail, belongs to a psychic healer. Maybe she’s wondering, as she bites herself obsessively, why her owner won’t heal these damn fleas right off her. This night, when she isn’t whipping her head around to attack the…
Ten years ago, the Album Leaf’s main man, Jimmy LaValle, was part of San Diego hard-core noise demons the Locust. “I played keyboards,” he says. “And screamed.” He went on to play guitar, drums, and bass in three different seminal indie bands, inching away from bombast toward the peaceful melodicism…
Ten past 10 p.m. on a Wednesday. A secret undisclosed location in north Miami-Dade. Special guest DJ Mixette is ready to spin a late-night set for those tuning in to the illegal signal of a pirate radio station. Mark T, a fast-talking, Haitian-born impresario, is tonight’s host. His agenda: a…
It doesn’t sound like anyone’s staring at his shoes in Timonium. Instead, the soundscapes offered by this Northern California quartet feel like watching clouds float across a summer sky. Getting lost in the band’s celestial extendo-epics is easy enough — songs build and build forever only to suddenly dissipate or…
The first time Thomas Lyttle dropped acid, he had a bad trip. His high school friends had to sit on his chest just to keep him from flailing around the room. Terrified, the 16-year-old thought he was going to die, or at least lose his marbles. “I took too much,”…
All Raphael Clemente wants is to not risk his life every time he hits the streets. He’s been screamed at and spit upon. He’s been pelted with coins, McDonald’s milkshakes, and full bottles of water. He’s been punched, knocked into the dirt, and run off the road. He’s been hassled…
Plenty of stout fellows and fair maidens have passed through Sherwood Forest, bedding down for a night or two in the pines. A few dozen call it home. Smack in the center of overpopulated, ultradeveloped Broward County, the one-acre tract of trees and bushes is a perfect place to hide…
When Tracy McGrady Jr. landed a multimillion-dollar contract by signing with the Orlando Magic, one of the first things the Central Florida basketball prodigy did was buy his dad the car he’d always wanted — a black, 2002 Lincoln Navigator SUV. But Tracy McGrady Sr. hasn’t enjoyed a whiff of…
For 15 years, David Silverburg couldn’t shake loose his secret identity. Eventually, it just took over. “I was so fuckin’ normal,” he says after stubbing out a cigarette in a crowded ashtray, clearly relieved not to be hawking home insurance, as he did for nearly two decades. With a business…
Jamaican folks sing the praises of Devon House, a Kingston landmark and popular purveyor of island-style ice cream. But instead of booking the next flight on Air Jamaica to the island, head for the Highway 441 strip mall that offers a remarkable facsimile. At York Castle Tropical Ice Cream (61…
After a Skinny Puppy concert this summer, electronic keyboarder cEvin Key was greeted by an enthralled female fan, joyous at having just seen Key’s reunited band perform after a ten-year absence. Smiling, she offered Key a gift. Into the palm of his hand she placed a baggie filled with some…
John McCurdy knew riding his bicycle down Delray Beach’s scenic stretch of A1A could be treacherous. Sharing the road with cars meant he ran the risk of getting cursed out, being swerved at, becoming a target for beer cans, or enduring much worse. But on a sun-drenched late September morning…
Hall Pass was Lorrie Tennant’s last poem. She read it aloud on the night of August 25 at Hollywood’s Ginger Bay Cafe, one of a string of venues in South Florida that hosts a weekly open-mic poetry event. Memories vary about Tennant’s delivery that night, but the poem itself has…
Listen up, Jamaicans. There are approximately 5 million of you on the planet — 2.6 million on the island and another 2.5 million living in Toronto, New York City, London, and especially here in South Florida. Parts of Miami-Dade County and especially the Broward enclaves of Lauderhill and Miramar are…
“If you get busted for drugs over there, you’re in for the hassle of your life.” — ominous, 1970s-era U.S. Public Service Announcement Last month in Istanbul, two Broward County women made history when they were arrested in what is reportedly Turkey’s biggest drug bust ever. The incident has gone…
Some sadistic soul has placed South Florida’s sun directly overhead and cranked up the heat to the “July” notch, brutalizing the small Lake Worth apartment where Gidget Gein sleeps and paints. A single window-mounted air conditioner valiantly cools the small bedroom. All day, Gein has worked alone in the stuffy,…
What would Granny do? Probably take him to the hospital. But tonight, stitches and duct tape will have to suffice for Al Michael. Michael was ATVing a recent Saturday out by Mack’s Fish Camp when he rolled his machine and split his scalp wide open. “Anyone else would have laid…
When Desmond Chambers found the corpse of his friend, Brian Williamson, he couldn’t believe the carnage. Blood was spattered on all four walls of the tiny bedroom in New Kingston, a well-to-do part of the Jamaican capital. The carpet was drenched from multiple wounds to Williamson’s head and neck. The…
