Arts & Culture

When the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival rolls around, heads in this sleepy burg actually get a taste of what it’s like to hobnob with actual stars. Well tonight, Lauderdalians won’t just settle for hobnobbing – they’ll be sharing the dance floor with celebs at the Dancing With the Stars…

Question: What do chili, hunky firefighter calendars, and the fiery 1977 plane crash of Lynyrd Skynyrd have in common? Answer: All three are shown great reverence at the 11th Annual Firefighter and Paramedics Chili Cook-Off. See, true Skynyrd fans (here’s where you scream “Skeeenarrd!) know that Saturday marks the 30…

Stand up comedy must be one of the few areas in the pop culture world where hard work and talent still count for something. See, unlike music biz wannabes, comedians can’t rely on good looks or slick technical gimmickry; it’s just them and the microphone, and they’ve got to deliver…

A lot can happen in 24 hours: You can drive from South Florida to New York City, win a sleep deprivation contest, or even create a 24-page comic book. Granted, it would be quite a feat to write, draw, and ink one page-per-hour of paneled cartooning, but there’s nothing like…

There are a great many things that you shouldn’t trust to amateurs, and one of them is this: dancing and singing doo-woppy show tunes while tending to a 2,000-pound carnivorous plant from outer space. But the folks at the Arts Academy of Hollywood love their leafy danger — they live…

Question: What do chili, hunky firefighter calendars, and the fiery 1977 plane crash of Lynyrd Skynyrd have in common? Answer: All three are shown great reverence at the 11th Annual Firefighter and Paramedics Chili Cook-Off. See, true Skynyrd fans (here’s where you scream “Skeeenarrd!) know that Saturday marks the 30…

As a stand-up comic and Jewish mother of two, Judy Gold is infinitely qualified to dish on the idiosyncrasies of wiping schmutz off faces and schlepping children to school. But in her new off-Broadway play, 25 Questions For a Jewish Mother, Gold doesn’t just tackle stereotype. Instead, the one-woman show…

What’s left to say about Halo 3? How about this: All the pomp and circumstance surrounding its launch sure has been distracting. Commercials that look like clips from a Hollywood movie, extravagant collectors’ sets that sell for $130, limited-edition Xbox 360s with a green-and-gold Halo-inspired color scheme, and a midnight…

‘Tis the season to be hot for teacher (easy when there’s a kiln involved) and for the faculty to debunk that nasty adage about those who teach. “Annual Faculty Exhibition” shows what these teachers can do in three galleries full of ceramics, sculpture, jewelry and metals, glass, printmaking and photography,…

Shared experience: You are in a bar, sipping whatever you’re sipping, waiting for a friend to come back from the bathroom. There’s a lone man a few seats away, and he makes you nervous — he keeps giving you a look that says, “Man, I really want to talk to…

In a move almost as brilliant as pervy Lou Pearlman’s invention of the 1990’s boy band “father of Chinese rock music,” Wang Xaio-Jing’s concoction of China’s Twelve Girls Band has created an unexpected pre-pubescent-like frenzy in the otherwise comatose world of classical music. So much so that even in the…

Life is exhausting, especially facing the daily car-mageddon inappropriately known as rush hour. It’s enough to make a sane soul snap. Thankfully, Monday kicks off the greatest week of the year: Spa Week. During the next seven ahh-inspiring days, some of the greatest spas in the country are cutting prices,…

Like his namesake C.H.U.D.s (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers for you uninitiated) Dr. Chud is not so much a reanimated corpse bent on eating your brains or frolicking with your innards as a fun-loving zombie looking to rock out a bit before the rigor mortis takes over. The horror-punk virtuoso has…

Dracula has come a long way since his stint in the mid-1400s as Prince of Wallachia. Now, centuries later, he’s the inspiration behind Sesame Street’s Count von Count, a Halloween celebrity, and an eternal myth given wings through Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Tonight, the story sinks its teeth into the audience…

Somewhere in Florida, a shrewd, pantyhosed seductress is tearing two brothers apart. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering love triangles are as common as the clap. But while savvier siblings would jilt the scheming coquette for someone less promiscuous, the numskull bros in playwright Juan Sanchez’s Red Tide didn’t get that…

How big is the divide between fine art and graffiti art? You’d think the two would be polar opposites – graffiti is, after all, a form of vandalism that acts as a window into urban discontent. Then again, the classic definition of fine art as something exclusive and refined has…

California’s got smog, traffic, plastic surgery disasters, and a dirty, unswimmable ocean; but anyone whose ever spent time outside of L.A. knows the rest is beautiful country. You want inspiring? Drive down the Pacific Coast Highway or trek through the nearly-neon green hills of Sonoma. How about breathtaking? Well, the…

Unfortunately, ten dollars doesn’t go very far these days. It’ll buy you a large sub from Quizno’s, two hours of parking on South Beach, or a dime bag of oregano; all of which may leave you feeling unfulfilled. But tonight, that ten bucks will allow you entry into the Future…