Notoriously neurotic comedian Richard Lewis sounds as if he could well be obsessively touching his forehead and running his fingers through his hair while conducting a phone interview. Those are his trademark stage moves — the manic actions that go along with his self-deprecating banter about chronic depression and low…
As Valentine’s Day approaches, couples prepare to trade endearing gifts — and to make florists, jewelers, and candy makers rich in the process. Meanwhile many singles (and some guys actually in relationships) dread the commercialized lovers’ holiday and its sickly sweet sentiment. Things weren’t always this way. Centuries before the…
The dark-haired young woman strolling around the Museum of Art in a fashionable business suit and a pair of Nikes isn’t really a horrible dresser. It’s just curator Ginger Gregg Duggan, and her mismatched clothing and footwear are a prop in the exhibition “do it.” Her fashion faux pas fits…
Where the Las Olas Riverfront entertainment complex now rises above the New River in Fort Lauderdale, John Baker used to park in a dirt lot behind decaying buildings, unload his car, and hoof it west along the Riverwalk to the gazebo near the Broward Center For the Performing Arts, where…
Dance-club DJs ply their craft obscured by clouds of billowing fog and flashing lights, hidden behind banks of equipment. It’s no surprise, then, that the rest of us have no clue what all the mysterious knob-twiddling is about. Truth is, DJs do a lot more behind the turntables than put…
In his epic poem “Song of Myself,” poet Walt Whitman refers to “the hugging and loving bed-fellow [who] sleeps at my side through the night,/And withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy tread….” Whitman (1819-1892) is now celebrated as one of the greatest American poets, but in his…
What goes through someone’s mind when he or she is dangling by his or her ankles, trying to break free from a padlocked straitjacket or attempting to break out of chains while submerged in a tank of water? Master escape artist Harry Houdini took the answer with him to the…
As a marketing director, nightclub maven Teddi Alyce Segal helped create the chic, upscale atmosphere at South Beach hot spots like the Strand and Liquid. The kind of places where beautiful people congregate to flaunt their VIP status and everyone else hopes they can pass muster with the doormen and…
Watching the lumbering mammals that congregate at the Manatee Observation Area at the Florida Power & Light Company’s Riviera Plant, it’s easy to see why they fall victim to speeding boats. Manatees are able to swim at a speed of 20 miles per hour in short bursts but usually travel…
“We’re transforming what is essentially cattle pastureland into a giant campground/wonderland/playground for 75,000 rabid Phish fans,” claims Dave Werlin. The president of Great Northeast Productions, the company responsible for conceptualizing festivals for the jam band Phish, Werlin is a week out from the group’s four-day millennium blowout as he talks…
Monty Alexander Stir It Up — The Music of Bob Marley (Telarc Jazz) For those jazz fans familiar with Monty Alexander but vague on just who Bob Marley is and for those reggae fans who worship Marley but have no idea who Monty Alexander is, this is the ideal disc…
It’s a cool Tuesday evening, perfect patio weather, and the bistro tables outside the Coffee Beanery in Coral Springs are filled to capacity. The crowd’s collective attention is focused on a preteen girl near the entrance to the gourmet coffee shop, where she stands behind a microphone in front of…
Art of Noise The Seduction of Claude Debussy (Zang Tuum Tumb/Universal) British producer Trevor Horn’s avant-garde outfit, Art of Noise, was well ahead of the electronica curve in the early ’80s, using then-new sampling gimmickry to combine found sounds, electronic atmospherics, and synthetic beats to conjure the 1983 break-dance classic…
“Man, this is some disco-sounding shit,” a guy complains to his buddy as they leave the second-floor men’s room at the Chili Pepper nightclub in Fort Lauderdale on a recent Saturday night. Looking around while standing at a urinal isn’t cool, so it’s hard to say for sure, but the…
On the uppermost observation deck of a cruise ship, the pinpoint silhouettes of human heads are visible against the pink afterglow of sunset, giving a sense of the pleasure boat’s massive scale. Off in the distance, the skeletal arms of multistory cranes are visible; at their bases are rows of…
Sitting around at a meeting some months back, the board members of Fort Lauderdale’s Public Theatre were challenged by executive director Vince Rhomberg to come up with something beyond the typical raffle or dinner gala for the next fundraiser. The theater relies on private donations and benefits to stay afloat,…
Men with cigars clenched between their teeth sit around tables with racing programs spread before them and puff pungent smoke into the air as they watch drivers in brightly colored silk shirts crack long whips against the flanks of horses. The equines pull carts called sulkies around the track, and…
OK, here’s a quick gay-porn primer: Two of the biggest-name actors in the industry are Jeff Stryker and Ryan Idol, and the guys who achieve such star status are the ones who appear on top during the action. Joey Stefano was the first, ahem, “bottom guy” to get top billing…
Ridicule a participant at some prissy poetry reading, and you’ll end up looking like a boorish ass. At a poetry slam, however, the crowd is expected to pass judgment on the poets — as obnoxiously and vocally as possible. “It’s anybody in the audience saying whatever they want to say…
As if bosses don’t have enough to worry about in regard to employees wasting time online (think Internet smut and virtual shopping), the Website theestrogenfiles.net wants to get its hooks into women who have Internet access at work. Calling it “the very first Cyber-Sit-Com,” the site launched The Estrogen Files:…
Like most sons, Rich Cohen loved to hear his father tell stories, but his pop’s yarns happened to be true stories about Jewish gangsters in Brooklyn instead of make-believe fairy tales. Cohen, age 31, grew up in suburban Chicago, where his dad recounted being an adolescent in Brooklyn during the…
So you’ve arrived in some exotic locale, say Nepal or Sri Lanka, on one of those ecotourism vacations, and you want to become one with your surroundings. What could be more ecologically sound than to enjoy some local flora? But where do you find a batch of magic mushrooms? You…
