Desert Storm

NOW SHOWING Desert Storm: Jim Tommaney’s antiwar fable balances three stories: soldiers on the war front, their concerned parents back home, and inside the Oval Office as the first President Bush and aides discuss U.S. involvement in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. The fictional plight of the soldiers and families…

Ralphie, May I?

Mixing standup comedy with political correctness is about as funny as, well, politicians trying to be comedians (Bush’s joke about looking for missing WMDs under a couch, you might’ve noticed, was neither funny nor PC). Comedy is an art form of sorts; it shouldn’t be held to the same standards…

Not Over Judy’s Dead Body, Pigs!

It was a really bad idea to bust up a gay bar the same week Judy Garland died. The police officers who raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in the early hours of June 28, 1969 — the official explanation for doing so was to enforce a liquor law…

Fruit and Funk

A whole lotta mangoes goin’ on FRI 6/18 More than 20 million metric tons of mangoes are grown throughout the tropical and subtropical world, and June is when the “king of fruit” ripens in South Florida. Any excuse for a festival. In proper “set up tents and they will come”…

Midnight Mudness

Night rides and nightgowns FRI 6/18 Yes, we know we’ve been writing about Club Mud a lot lately. Well, if any other sports organization held events half as fun as Mud’s Feminine Flow Rides, its Ugly Bike Contests, and its PJ party and night ride, we might pay attention to…

Wet Dreams

THU 6/17 Does size really matter? The Palm Beach County Boat Show at the South Florida Fairgrounds Expo Center (9067 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach) won’t flaunt the mega-yachts its downtown counterpart does, but some 600 vessels of up to 45 feet are likely to fulfill wet dreams nonetheless. The…

Playing on Fear

Getting stranded at snowbound O’Hare for the night is one thing. You call home, maybe knock down a couple of martinis, then grab a blanket. A century ago, being quarantined at Ellis Island for eight months because you were, say, a part-time anarchist from Campobasso with a big mustache and…

Feels Like 160 Days

You might think that with the technological advances in moviemaking since 1956, this new version of Around the World in 80 Days would at least look better than its predecessor did. You could not be faulted for believing you’d be wowed by the Rube Goldberg gadgets of inventor Phileas Fogg,…

They Work Hard for the Money

All hail irrationality! And Wayne Gretsky too (hold on a minute — we’ll get to that). Irrationality is the only explanation of why the Atlantis Playhouse’s Gary Waldman decided against all logic to present The Life, a stark, gritty musical about pimps and prostitutes that’s a 180-degree change from the…

Stagebeat

City Shorts: City Theatre’s annual festival of short plays, a highlight of the South Florida stage scene, is back with mini comedies and dramas in all styles and sizes. Twenty playlets from one to 20 minutes long are presented in two programs, which can be taken in on separate nights…

See-Through Virtuosity

Maybe it was that name, shimmering with possibilities: “Othoniel: Crystal Palace.” I envisioned some magical environment out of, say, Lothlórien, home of the tree elves in The Lord of the Rings. Or something as droll and pixilated as some of the settings in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or The Wizard…

Styline Furniture of Distinction

Chances are, driving north on Federal Highway, you’ve glanced to your right more than once upon emerging from “the tunnel,” just before Broward Boulevard, and noticed a storefront full of exotic-looking items. That would be Styline Furniture of Distinction. If it’s after dark when you pass, the store’s windows will…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

THU 17 Prices being what they are these days, you’re lucky if $12 gets you a single glass of wine at a nice restaurant. Alcohol is, like, almost as expensive as gas! Well, how about eight glasses of wine for 12 bucks? During the monthly Design & Wine event in…

Nashville’s Newbies

Reality TV spawns more greatness WED 6/23 Ain’t democracy great? We get to choose our presidents, our pop stars, and our country stars. Yet again, the people have spoken. And they’ve chosen Brad Cotter as the new Nashville Star, the USA Network’s answer to American Idol. Cotter beat 20 finalists…

Desert Storm

Desert Storm: Jim Tommaney’s antiwar fable balances three stories: soldiers on the war front, their concerned parents back home, and inside the Oval Office as the first President Bush and aides discuss U.S. involvement in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. The fictional plight of the soldiers and families hits hard…

“Ansel Adams: A Celebration of Genius/Clyde Butcher: Photographer of the Wilderness”

NOW ON DISPLAY “Ansel Adams: A Celebration of Genius/Clyde Butcher: Photographer of the Wilderness” — Two American giants specializing in black-and-white nature photography come together in this inspired pairing. Adams is the visual poet of the American West, here represented by more than 120 small but extraordinary images, including a…

Rave Against the Dying of the Light

Since the 1980s, the folks at Lumonics Light Museum have populated their Lauderdale warehouse with trancey light sculptures, fountains, and comfy chairs. They sprayed video projections against the wall, cranked up the techno, and invited us in for tea. The result? Years of late-night, mind-liberating circuses of light and sound…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

THU 10 Going to see comedian Angel Salazar is a lot like going to see Shamu at Sea World. You have to decide: Are you one of those people who wants to sit in the front row, getting a faceful of Salazar’s butt when he takes off his miniskirt and…

In Defense of Dashboard

The legend goes something like this: Chris Carrabba was singing with the Pompano Beach-based band Further Seems Forever when he went through a devastating breakup, wrote songs about it while driving, and performed them solo as a side project, aptly named Dashboard Confessional. He gained a following, got signed, and…

Reggae’s Revenge

and soca’s solution SAT 6/12 Nowadays there is a Grammy category for Best Reggae Album, but “if you don’t look very closely at the fine print running at the end of the credits, you won’t know who [won],” Winsome Charlton says. “It was kind of pissing me off.” Not one…

Can Fish Do It?

… knock the Sox off? TUE 6/15 Things are going well for baseball’s defending World Champions. They hold one of the best records in the majors and have held the top spot in the NL East nearly every day of the ’04 campaign. Mike Lowell, the team’s franchise player, is…