Celebrating in Style

Artist and gallery owner William Bock has reason to be happy. He’s celebrating the Bock Gallery’s third anniversary at its location in the Fountains Shoppes of Distinction in Plantation, where he moved after surviving a financially challenging stint as part of the revival of downtown Hollywood. The Fountains complex is…

Getting Personal

One of the toughest decisions in my job is choosing a show to cover. Given the amount of theatrical activity in South Florida, our publication just does not have enough room to review every show. This week, though, the choice was easy: I was going to New York. My long-time…

The Brave & the Bold

Before he was editor in chief at Marvel Comics–which, by all rights, makes him the man who tells Spider-Man what he can do with himself and the X-Men where to go–Joe Quesada illustrated a comic book titled Ash. The title did not last long; there was, perhaps, little market for…

Toolin’ Around

Maynard James Keenan has returned with the band that made him big. Following the success of his side project, A Perfect Circle, Keenan and Tool are back in action, touring in support of this year’s angst-ridden release, Lateralus. Of course Tool’s releasing a record filled with dark, brooding themes is…

Gross Anatomy

“Ewww, gross!” is a way-cool way for kids these days to dismiss things they don’t like or understand, but the new exhibition opening Saturday at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale allows them to gross out and learn at the same time. The exhibit, “Grossology: The (Impolite)…

Say Nothing

Serendipity already feels archaic, like some dusty relic that’s been unearthed from an antiques store’s attic and polished for display. It reeks of quaint and cute, from its gauzy panoramas of Manhattan at Christmastime to its tattered plot of lovers bound by destiny to its scenes of travelers casually loitering…

Road to Ruin

A quarter-century after C.W. McCall’s smash novelty single “Convoy,” a generous spirit still exists out there for our 18-wheeled good buddies. But consider the less catchy flip side of that single, “Long, Lonesome Road,” and its lament of a maddeningly grim and endless horizon. It’s within this uniquely American wasteland…

The Tempest

Amid warehouses and train tracks on NE Flagler Drive in Fort Lauderdale, the new Sol Theatre Project’s neon logo lights up the dark night as if the venue were a cheery inn. The interior space is disarming. With a bookcase crammed with scripts, a largemouth bass mounted over a window,…

Women in the Woods

It sounds more California than Florida, but this weekend Fort Lauderdale hosts Femme Fest: A Day of Music in Celebration of the Goddess. It turns out Fort Lauderdale has the perfect locale: Secret Woods Nature Center, a stunningly gorgeous 55-acre, county-owned park hidden a stone’s throw off I-95 and State…

Histrionics on Parade

Lacking the good taste to postpone the release of this silly thriller until a less volatile time in American history (assuming one ever comes), the producers of Don’t Say a Word have opted to foist upon us images of detonating New York City buildings, carefully calculated acts of violence, and…

Making Waves

If you’ve ever felt like a real salty sea dog yourself for accelerating your boat (or that of your gullible friend who was fool enough to give you the controls) to over 30 knots, then get out of the water before you get knocked over, ’cause you ain’t worth the…

Stand By Them

The cynic may notice only how Hearts in Atlantis plays like a Stephen King best-of compilation, a reheating of familiar stories and favorite themes. At times, it feels so much like Stand By Me — with its nostalgic, flashback tale of cherubs and bullies accompanied by sad and weary narration…

Fresh Seasonings

Since the here and now has been so visceral these last few weeks, many South Floridians may have spent little time looking to the future. But eventually they should, when it comes to theater. The upcoming season looks promising; both established companies and upstarts have ambitious plans. As has been…

Law & Disorder

Rene Balcer, like you and everyone you know, can’t stop talking about what we now refer to simply as The Attack. We may resume our lives, fall back into our routine until it again feels mundane and comforting, but sooner or later, The Attack becomes the only topic of conversation…

Driven to Abstraction

Many things grabbed my attention on a visit to Las Olas Fine Arts in Fort Lauderdale; the first were several sculptures by Niso Maman. What caught my eye was not the subject matter, which is conventional, even conservative by the standards of most contemporary sculpture: the headless human torso, its…

Pork Fest 2001

You’d think this sort of event would be illegal. Aren’t there laws against bestiality? And if so, don’t they cover smoochin’ a swine? One would like to think so. However, this shindig raises money for charity, so perhaps those pigs of a different nature will turn a blind eye. The…

Nice Feat, Buddy

Little Feat has spent the last 13 years trying to escape from the shadow of Lowell George. George, along with bassist Roy Estrada, drummer Richard Hayward, and keyboardist Bill Payne, formed the group in 1969 in Los Angeles. From 1971 to 1973, the band released Little Feat, Sailin’ Shoes, and…

A Glitch in Time

The beautiful little conceit at the heart of Brad Anderson’s Happy Accidents is that audiences will sit still once more for the crackpot notion of time travel — and in a movie that’s not science fiction. To his credit, and with an implied bow to Back to the Future and…

Amused to Death

On September 13, at 11:30 a.m., Bryce Zabel was to have met with USA Network executives about a miniseries he was pitching to the cable outlet. Zabel, creator of such television shows as Dark Skies and The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, had the conference on his calendar for weeks. But,…

Feel His Pain

The cold-bloodedness of some entertainment journalists is a thing to be admired; they’ve balls for brains, which gets you far in this profession. The Hollywood press corps’ cynicism is the source of its strength, and God bless the famous fool who plays along, answering every crooked question with the straightest…

Postmodern English

Though Modern English just released a greatest-hits collection, the group seems pretty subdued. When a band comes out with one album in 11 years, then follows it with a compilation record, it’s pretty safe to say the anthology is the group’s swan song. A last-ditch tour should follow in an…

Conspiracy of Silence

OK, we all know UFOs have been visiting Earth pretty much since people have existed. What? You mean you didn’t know that? Get with the program, chump, and quit playing patsy to the government. According to Michael El-Legion, international director of the Extra-Terrestrial Communications Network, not only are we often…