The holiday season has strayed from its frankincense and myrrh roots and become an ode to Hannah Montana and the latest iWhatever. You should stop being such a damn consumer, help someone less fortunate, and we’ll take that new Nano in pink while you spend the ducats on your ticket…
How does one describe a Cirque du Soleil show to a person who has never seen one? Close your eyes. Imagine a spectacle unfolding before you — acrobats twisting and contorting their bodies into surreal poses, trapeze artists swooping and drifting on delicate wires, and clowns pratfalling and mugging to…
It’s happened again: you get home on Tuesday night and you can’t even enjoy your evening — your mind is consumed with the number of work days still cock-blocking you from weekend freedom. Your dog, meanwhile, is so terribly thrilled that you’ve walked back through the magical front door. She…
You don’t have to have been raised on colonial Brit lit, classic melodramas, Westerns, war movies, or Gone With the Wind to figure out the likely outcome of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia within its first 15 minutes, but any or all of the above will help. Tightly wound and corseted posh…
Gus Van Sant has never been what you’d call a risk-averse filmmaker, but he directs his Harvey Milk biopic so carefully, there might be a Ming vase balanced on his head. Van Sant’s steps are deliberate, his posture is straight, his attitude is responsible, and his eyes are fixed firmly…
Midway through The Seafarer, when it became clear that the play’s antagonist was not some abstract embodiment of evil but was in fact the devil himself, out to win the soul of the play’s protagonist and send it forever to Judeo-Christian hell, I had a small argument with myself. See,…
Nobody does over the top, envelope-pushing pop music better than Madonna. But when it comes to her other creative pursuits, let’s just say that Madge has often heard the phrase “don’t quit your day job.” But in what was perhaps an attempt to share career interests with her now-ex husband…
Mel Brooks has always stood out as a true comic’s comic. He has a knack for bringing the most showbizzy of all showbiz elements to the most unlikely topics. Who else could have arranged a song and dance sequence about the Spanish Inquisition? And not just a musical spectacle about…
Scranton, Pa., certain parts of Davie, and basically any red state from the last election could fit the description “The Middle of Nowhere.” But for artist Raul Mendez, the concept of absolute remoteness is more complicated — and certainly more philosophical — than most ever consider. His new exhibit at…
Who would’ve thunk that the Miami Dolphins would still be in legitimate playoff contention at this point in the season? With the scrappy Fins performing above all expectations, we finally have a reason to celebrate, tailgate, bar hop, and generally pig out. Although the Fins have already played most of…
Our country was invaded in the early sixties, not by gun-toting militiamen, but by axe-wielding Brits. Such a well-received war on the U.S. status quo hasn’t been repeated to date. One of the most influential of these rock and roll tribes is undoubtedly the Kinks. Deceptively simple pulsating beats drove…
Every year you make a promise to yourself to get your Christmas shopping done early. You swear you won’t procrastinate like you did last Christmas, when you ended up giving out leftover hurricane supplies as last minute presents. (“Oh come on, Dad,” you said, “Sterno is great for sooo many…
New Orleans has its own force of gravity — it’s stronger and more targeted than the scientific law governing the rest of nature. At feeding time, the city attracts those it sees fit like a giant magnet and swallows others entirely, allowing them the privilege to experiment deep in the…
With the exception of your love of Lisa Simpson’s collaboration with Bleeding Gums Murphy, an attentive ear at the beginning and ending credits of Woody Allen films, and a pension for using “jazz hands” to emphasize an important point when you’re giving a presentation — your knowledge of jazz probably…
There’s good news and bad news for the Panthers. The bad news has to do with their stats: the Cats have been at or near the bottom of the league in points for most of the year. That does not bode well for playoff hopes, let alone a division title…
You don’t usually find hand-painted, wooden dildos peeking out of the shrubbery in downtown Fort Lauderdale. While you might wish that you could, there are simply none to be had. But on one evening out of the entire year, all of that changes. On this magical night, it is not…
The Leather Masked Ball whips into action tonight at Purgatory (1000 W. SR 84, Fort Lauderdale). Proceeds benefit Tuesday’s Angels, a local AIDS foundation, and the Leather Archives and Museum, a compound in Chicago that amasses artifacts from the leather world. Charity and leather-fetishism: that’s the Puritan spirit. Last year’s…
Smell that? Smells like, er, livestock? Funnel cakes? No, no… it smells like fun! The 33rd-annual Broward County Fair is hijacking Fort Lauderdale Stadium through November 30, bringing with it over 100 vomit-inducing rides, stacked midway games, live shows, and attractions (1301 NW 55th St., Fort Lauderdale). It’s a place…
Even though many of us are likely to spend tonight on our couches in the throes of a tryptophan-induced coma, there are plenty of reasons why you might want to outsource your Thanksgiving experience. For one, you won’t have to listen to your gun-toting uncle whine about Obama winning the…
So what if Match.com kicked you out — how were you supposed to know it’s not cool to tell your date you have mace in your pocketbook? And eHarmony… hah! Those losers rejected you just because you put “no man-hating she-devils” in your profile. Well, no one said online dating…
Simply put, it has been a banner year for Latin American art in South Florida. Consider that we have already seen such major shows as “Wifredo Lam in North America” at the Miami Art Museum, “Unbroken Ties: Dialogues in Cuban Art” at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, and “Of Rage…
For the “Nothing Moments Project,” now at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, nearly a hundred writers, artists, and designers were invited to participate in “a collaborative project in art, literature and design.” This strangely compelling exhibition collects the results: two dozen limited-edition books and more than 400 drawings…
