Our top DVD picks for the week of April 11.

Caved In: Prehistoric Terror (Lions Gate) The Dark (Sony) Death Cab for Cutie: Directions (Atlantic) Deep Blue (Miramax) Dora the Explorer: Dora’s First Trip (Paramount) 18 Fingers of Death (MCA) The Greatest Game Ever Played (Disney) Laugh or I’ll Shoot Collection: The Naked Gun, Airplane!, and Top Secret! (Paramount) The…

Eat It!

There’s only one rule when it comes to winning a hot-dog eating contest: It’s not the size of your stomach that counts; it’s how you use it. If size really mattered, a pipsqueak like Takeru Kobayashi wouldn’t be the five-year returning champion of Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot…

For Pete’s Sake

What’s that you say? There’s the chance to rock out to seven bands, bid on some cool art, and help out a cancer patient? That’s right. In honor of artist Peter Giovenco, who is currently battling a brain tumor, a cornucopia of local bands and artists are putting on a…

Running, Good For Your Art

So, you want to help the kids? You could donate, volunteer, or even lecture them about the good `ol days. But who has that much free time, cash, or dedication? Instead, head up to West Palm Beach and spend a few hours in the sun getting some exercise at Saturday’s…

Make Her Look Good

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez might have burned a few bridges when she resigned from the Los Angeles Times (which she accused of genocide for using the term Latino). But that was before her novel The Dirty Girls Social Club became a New York Times best-seller. Since then, the New Mexico native has…

Photo Progeny

Having grown up with a horseman for a father and a photojournalist for a mother, Carlos Eduardo never had to look far for an artistic calling. Like mumsy, the Coral Gables native took up photography and began exhibiting his work about five years ago. The inspiration for his photographs –…

Les Anti-Miserables

Don’t let the name mislead you; Les Ballets Africains don’t perform plies or wear tutus. Rather, they blend dance, acrobatics, storytelling, and comedy – and set it to a beat of African drums. Think of a more badass version of the Lion King, for grownups. The ensemble was founded in…

Life in Hell

There are few more tragic examples of man’s cruelty to other men than the Holocaust, and few more riveting documents about attempting to survive such cruelty than Anne Frank’s diary. For those who don’t already know the story, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who, along with her family,…

Getting Hot in Herrre

At press time, the Miami Heat had already clinched a playoff spot, although they were scrambling to hold the number-two place in the Eastern Conference. Their ranking determines who they will face when the playoffs begin on April 22. Forward Udonis Haslem was confident regardless of the opponent. He told…

Pool Party!

Another April Fool’s Day has passed, and so has the fear of being pranked by your buddies around the office. Now it’s time for another annual April event — April Pool’s Day, the yearly fiesta hosted by Miami’s kings of creep-core, Pool Party. OK, so maybe creep-core isn’t a real…

Grimly Fiendish

It’s a no-brainer. A long-defunct band you grew up worshipping gets back together and chooses you to replace the original vocalist… How can you say no? Sure, there’ll be plenty of griping from diehard fans about how you’re not the real singer. But that’ll pass. At least, it did for…

Nick at Night

Nick Griffin went into comedy “because he’s funny and hates having a boss,” according to his bio. But we’re glad he did, because he makes us laugh, and he brings an endearing sort of humble charm to the stage. His personality shines through in his stream-of-consciousness blog, where he talks…

Don’t Cry for Me

Quick, what’s the world’s eighth-largest country? Yeah, that’s right – Argentina. So why don’t you know more about it? (Don’t even try to say you can locate Tierra del Fuego, and then point to your pants.) Don’t worry, you’re not in for a lecture – just a film fest. FAU…

Wasn’t Bob Marley a Rasta?

“Everyone tends to think that all Rastas are musicians,” says Jabulani Tafari, who publishes Roots Reggae and Culture magazine out of Fort Lauderdale. “They come up and say, ‘Hey, Bob Marley!’” To set people straight, Tafari is organizing a symposium called “Rastafari: Past, Present and Future” at Broward Community College’s…

A Changing China

If political pundits weren’t so busy harping on the so-called immigration crisis, they might take a few steps back and see the bigger issues at play – namely, the growing economic challenge posed by China. For most Americans, China’s as foreign as a country can be. But what the mass…

Sans Quentin

You may not yet have lost your ardor and respect for the pressure-point hammer blow that Quentin Tarantino executed on American movies, but it’s difficult at this late date not to view him as an imperative inoculation with unfortunate side effects: gas, bloating, dizziness, delusions of cleverness. Imitators flock when…

Latino Heat

It’s difficult to tell from the image on the poster for Take the Lead, but that’s not star Antonio Banderas dancing in blue silhouette. In fact, the movie isn’t even about Banderas’ dancing — it’s about Banderas teaching teenagers to dance. You’d think that might be a dream come true…

Puff Piece

“You want an easy job, go join the Red Cross,” someone says well into Thank You for Smoking, a gleeful farce about capitalist mendacity based on Christopher Buckley’s 1994 bestseller. The implication, made drummingly plain in the film’s every bon mot, is that our ethical barometers skew lazily toward goodness,…

Devil Inside

Ed Bullins is one of the most influential and controversial names in African-American history. Spike Lee may be more familiar; Denzel Washington and Halle Berry are undoubtedly more bankable. And in modern literary circles, Toni Morrison’s moniker might spark more interest. But Bullins, a prize-winning African-American playwright who dominated the…

Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.

You’ll find an artistic Zen and natural reverence in “Isabel Bigelow: Paintings & Monoprints and Luis Castro: Sculpture.” The wife-and-husband show demonstrates the balance necessary to make relationships work, whether personal or aesthetic, two-dimensional or three-. Like the Japanese shoji (translucent, decorative screens) that inspire her, Bigelow’s art is as…

Some Kind of Joke

The Mel Brooks Collection (Fox) Talk about taking the good with the bad; how else to describe a boxed set containing Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (Brooks’ silly masterpieces), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights and History of the World, Part 1 (both overrated, even by people who can’t stand…

Tainted Black

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platform: PS2, Xbox

Price: $39.99

ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)

Score: 5 (out of 10)