THU 3/31 According to the website www.globalsecurity.org, the largest organized religion in Cuba is the Roman Catholic Church. “Officially,” it says, “Cuba has been an atheist state for most of the Castro era. In 1962, the government of Fidel Castro seized and shut down more than 400 Catholic schools, charging…
FRI 4/1 “Yuh mean to tell mi seh yuh really stop already?” dancehall star Macka Diamond sings to a “one-minute man” on her hit “Yuh Nuh Ready.” She laments, “Like a monkey ‘pon yuh tree mi waan climb/Yuh come so quick, bwoy, yuh commit a crime/I gwaan lock yuh inna…
If nothing else, Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City, co-directed with Frank Miller (and Quentin Tarantino, for a few seconds), will be remembered as the most faithful comic-book adaptation ever put on film (or high-def video, anyway). Rodriguez uses Miller’s hypernoir serial, published over a ten-year period, as a storyboard for the…
What if a man has no friends? What if he speaks only when spoken to, and then only of the weather? What if, every day of the week, he attends Mass, serves as a janitor, and retires to a one-room studio, emerging only to return to work? What happens to…
A spin-off of a sequel, Beauty Shop plays like most Hollywood comedies these days — as tepid sitcom, benign product, and cynical afterthought. If last year’s Barbershop 2: Back in Business was little more than a dilapidated retread of the charmingly lightweight 2002 hit Barbershop, consider this incarnation condemned for…
It’s always difficult to pan a movie that features good actors, important issues, and noble intentions. But In My Country, a romantic drama about two journalists covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in post-Apartheid South Africa, leaves little choice. Clunky and obvious, it makes the mistake of asking drama…
Night falls, a group of people — a family, a clan, a tribe — gathers around a campfire. The flames crackle, the wind whispers, and under the starry sky, one person begins to tell a story. As the tale unwinds, the tale teller shifts from third-person narrative to performance, using…
Every year, the Broward County-based, nonprofit, all-volunteer group ArtsUnited organizes two exhibitions to showcase local gay and lesbian artists: “United & Proud” and “ArtExplosion.” The latest edition of the latter, “ArtsUnited Presents ArtExplosion 2005,” is now on display in the JM Enterprises Family Gallery at ArtServe, and it’s a textbook…
Hang with prominent primatologist Jane Goodall THU 3/24 Until Sigourney Weaver portrayed primatologist Dian Fossey in the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist, Dr. Jane Goodall — one of Fossey’s mentors — was a familiar name mostly to those in zoology circles. Through information provided in the movie, subsequent published…
Josh Kornbluth shows us how to really live THU 3/24 What a charmed life Josh Kornbluth leads. You know you’ve arrived when you’re cashing in on your own IRS disaster. Who would you envy more? The man smiling with four aces? Or the man smiling in the face of a…
Better than I thought it’d be” was the refrain repeated by those exiting the preview screening of Guess Who, which doesn’t mean much — freebie audiences expect nothing and usually receive it. But in this case, it neatly summed up the experience of catching Ashton Kutcher in a part once…
Before we walked out the door to see Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, a colleague sneered, “Why do you even bother with that shit?” It’s a question one’s tempted to ask of its star, Sandra Bullock, as well. (Surely, our answers would be the same: The paycheck, pal.) Hers…
It can’t possibly be their fault, so don’t blame the stars. In fact, give Lucie Arnaz and Elizabeth Ashley two points for doing everything humanly possible to try to make Ann & Debbie work. All their glamour, presence, acting and overacting, terrific timing, gorgeous legs, and distinctive voices, together with…
South Florida has had a big season for big names from the 20th-century art world: solo shows by Louise Nevelson at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Andrew Wyeth at the Boca Museum, Louise Bourgeois at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Now comes “Joan Miró: Illustrated Books,” also at…
There’s nothing like a good, old-fashioned hoedown. Country music blaring as the dance floor fills with men and women following a set of choreographed steps. Cowboy hats and boots as far as the eye can see. Guys with chiseled abs that peek through their unbuttoned, sleeveless flannel shirts, exposing oversized…
THU 24 He’s been called “New York’s Latin Lunatic” and the “Latino Fireball of Comedy.” His name is Seamus O’Shea. Just kidding — his name is J.J. Ramirez. The up-and-comer has appeared on Comedy Central and Showtime at the Apollo, and the word on the street is that, after delivering…
What’s in a name? W`hen it comes to punk rock, not much. The Dead Kennedys aren’t dead, nor are they Kennedys. The Damned were most likely never actually damned. None of the members of the Ramones has a surname that’s even remotely similar to Ramone. And guess what? The Queers…
Where art my harmonica? SAT 3/26 Some fascinating things have happened in the history of folk festivals. Dylan fans will remember how he shattered the rules of convention by wielding an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Shouts of “Judas!” could be heard. Bob responded by kissing the…
Spring training continues THU 3/24 Grapefruit League Spring Training is in full swing in this, the third full week of exhibition baseball. No more one-and-done games for the stars, in which they get a single at-bat cameo and a couple of measly innings in the field. There are fewer split-squad…
Does the world really need a new film from Woody Allen every single year? Yes, he is one of America’s great auteurs. Yes, he’s responsible for some very fine movies, many of them comedies (Annie Hall), several of them tragedies (Crimes and Misdemeanors, Another Woman), and some hovering in that…
Just how cool is photographer Jim Marshall? He calls Bob Dylan “Bobby.” He was the only photographer accompanying the Beatles at their last concert, in Candlestick Park in 1966. He went to San Quentin Prison with Johnny Cash — for a concert, that is, not for a sentence. Marshall’s “Famous…
If you thought smuggling cocaine from Colombia was difficult, try importing 14 films on old-school 35mm reels. “I am still struggling with the transportation of 400 pounds of film from Bogotá to Fort Lauderdale,” Luis Duno-Gottberg, an assistant professor in the department of languages and linguistics at Florida Atlantic University,…
