Culture in Spaaaaaace!

[To be read in the announcer’s voice from the Muppet Show’s “Pigs in Space” segment.] “Brought to you by the thought-provoking and well-rounded Culture Vultures organization, with input from our notable and national organization, NASA, and the amateur, yet serious, astronomer and NASA consultant, Dr. Carlos Hernandezzzzzzz! On Sunday our…

Surprise: Buttsechs?

Last month, guitarist Alex Lifeson of the prog rock super-trio Rush enticed fans by telling Billboard that the group would unveil something very secret and very surprising during their forthcoming Snakes & Arrows World tour. The mind reels. What could Rush — only the dorkiest, most insular band ever to…

Walk Hard

Life’s certainly no party for the more than 6,000 folks living with Multiple Sclerosis in South Florida, but on Sunday many of us locals can help them out by raising money at the MS Walk. Walkers older than 17 are asked to raise a minimum of $50, which, as we…

Who Loves Watersports?

We have the Chinese to thank for paper and fireworks, but the Orient should be roundly condemned for its 2000-year-old invention, the Dragon Boat: An overlong canoe powered by two-dozen paddlers egged on by a drummer. Why a person would participate in this loud, masochistically strenuous watersport is beyond imagining…

Oi, Oi, We’re the Brews!

Here’s a helpful tip: Did you know Amazon.com has a huge assortment of liver cleansers available for purchase online? You can get a liquid delivery starting at just $12.25, or a supply of complex capsules costing over 26 bucks. But price is not a factor here; you’ll need the best…

Feeling Haute Haute Haute

From the low-budget runway shows you put on for mom and dad as a kid to the way you now stare longingly into boutique windows – it’s safe to say that you’ve always had a bit of a thread lust. As an adult your tastes have matured with you. While…

The Revolution is Now

Since Fidel Castro stepped down as President of Cuba in February, there’s been speculation that relations between America and the island country might change. But the truth is many Cuban-Americans have struggled against the embargo for years. Take Max Lesnik. He’s a former associate of Castro’s who fought alongside the…

Sushi and Sodomy

It’s weird but totally true: Gay men love raw fish. In Wilton Manors, Galangas Thai & Sushi has been the site of more romantic first dates than Georgie’s Alibi and Jim Naugle’s favorite bathroom stall, combined. That’s why it makes intuitive sense that, just to the north, Sushi Groove (2730…

Picture Perfect Wine Sampling

You’re in a rut. You’re still drinking the same merlot with the same stale group at the same wine bar, just as you’ve done for years. But that’s wearing thin. You need to shake things up! You need Art of Wine Nights at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art (One…

I’ll Be Your Puppet on a String

Go ahead: Take cheap shots at puppeteers, see if they care. Puppet people rise above your negativity. They do noble storytelling work — with children. What do you do for a living, huh? Work at the Gap? Does folding skinny jeans and cardigans give you the same inner joy as,…

It’s Pummeling Time

When is the last time you saw a good fight right in front of your face? I’m not talking about some high school locker room dust up; I’m talking about seeing a pair of grown men with hatred in their eyes and power behind their punches slugging away at one…

Client Number 9

Even 30 years on, the plot of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas seems more plausible than ever: In far away Gilbert, Texas, a brothel called the Chicken Ranch, catering to football players, socialites, policemen, and politicians, comes under fire when a nosey reporter decides to cast a light on the…

Trade in Your Simple Life for a Hotter One

Watching the Simple Life makes you irate. You know in your soul that you are a much better match to be Paris Hilton’s BFF than Nicole Richie. And now that the Nickster has traded in her flask and sleeping aids for a stroller and a wedding band, Paris is a…

Feeling Haute Haute Haute

From the low-budget runway shows you put on for mom and dad as a kid, to the way you now stare longingly into boutique windows – it’s safe to say that you’ve always had a bit of a thread-lust. As an adult your tastes have matured with you. While you…

East Wind A’Blowin’

“Exploding the Lotus” is heavy on conceptual art — to the point, perhaps, of inducing a mild headache. The show, now at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, was jointly curated by the center’s curator of exhibitions, Jane Hart, and the New York-based Jaishri Abichandani, who’s also represented in…

Some Country for Old Men

Mick Jagger’s most essential physical feature, according to Martin Scorsese: his bellystache. On the poster for Shine a Light, the big-shot director’s Rolling Stones concert film, Sir Mick is frozen in mid-song aerobics, his back arched, his half-shirt raised, that yawning navel and faint hairline more prominently showcased than his…

Fourth and Inches

When Time recently featured George Clooney on its cover accompanied by the headline “The Last Movie Star” — note, not even a question mark at the end — you didn’t have to read the article to know where it was coming from. After all, stars of the postpubescent variety are…

Paging Freaks

As a kid, I spent countless hours thumbing through a dog-eared copy of The Guinness Book of World Records, determined to find just the right stupid human trick to vault me into freak-show history. Turns out I didn’t need to waste all those years stretching my neck with metal rings;…

Calder Jewelry

Most of us know Alexander Calder, the famous sculptor. Both his stationary works, which he called “stabiles”, and his revolutionary “mobiles” define our cities in displays of public art. But how many are familiar with Calder the jeweler? The first exhibition dedicated to his lesser known, more diminutive work, Calder…

Cairo Rose

In November of 2006, Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny sparked a heap of controversy when he publicly commented about the resurgence of the Islamic veil among Egyptian women. Speaking in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper, Hosny said that woman are “roses not to be covered or veiled,” their…

Pop Goes the Art

On Easter Sunday, President Bush presided over the Egg Roll on the White House lawn, which “commemorates our Savior’s triumph over sin” (his words). At his side was a mascot bunny in a disturbing pink-and-purple apron, one of several Official White House Easter Bunnies. An A.P. photograph immortalized the pair…

Life Lessons from New Times

Some people find Mitch Albom’s heartwarming-as-apple-pie novel Tuesdays with Morrie a tad trite. Haters. They’re either jealous writers who think that Albom’s life-affirming messages are facile or they’re drunks who think all that happy-crappy stuff is pure bullshit but still clutch their pillow at night wondering why life isn’t working…