Betsy Ross’s name will forever be linked with flags, rocking chairs, and red, white, and blue thread. But the Fourth of July show at Orbit by the local band that bears her name will solidify another association: aggressive rap-metal. Pete Gross, late of industrial-rap mayhem bringers Collapsing Lungs, wanted to…
People usually associate the War Memorial Auditorium with graduation ceremonies, computer sales, and the gun shows that are a godsend for all the people who need guns but can’t be pestered with mundane details like background checks. It is not, in short, generally used as a concert venue. But this…
In the history of rock ‘n’ roll, perhaps no one has sold out with more success than Rod Stewart. The sad part is that he didn’t need to. Stewart’s first five solo albums blended folk and rock and kicked some ass. This was much to the dismay of Faces, the…
Who would have imagined that at this late date — more than half a century after the end of World War II, after The Diary of Anne Frank, Schindler’s List, Au Revoir, Les Enfants, Pierre Sauvage’s documentary Weapons of the Spirit, and Jan Kadar’s amazing The Shop on Main Street…
If internal combustion ever becomes obsolete — that is, if the auto industry ever allows internal combustion to become obsolete — whatever will movies do for heart-stopping drama? Hoof beats are dramatic, the chug of a steam engine is suspenseful, but the roar of a gasoline-powered vehicle stirs the blood…
Alan Cumming is, in no particular order, the following: an actor, a pop icon, a Renaissance man, a sex symbol, a bon viveur and the boy next door. “I am a combination of all those things,” insists the 36-year-old Scot, who punctuates every other sentence with a sly giggle that…
Ominous techno music engulfs the expectant audience at the Museum of Art Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale. The stage is barren except for a black office chair and desk. The desk is covered with a black cloth. As if the title of the play, The Penis’ Responses to the Vagina Monologues…
For the next five days, Richard Lewis will seldom leave his North Dallas hotel room, hidden away at the far end of the top floor with a view of overpasses, office buildings and distant dark clouds. He will venture out only to visit a couple of radio and television stations,…
If Deerfield Beach is nothing more to you than a couple of exits whizzing by on your daily commute, then you need to stop and smell the mangoes. With its 16th Annual Mango Festival this weekend, the Broward/ Palm Beach border town demands recognition for both itself and Mangifera indica…
What do an accounts-receivable clerk, an exterminator, a sociologist, and a pawnshop worker have in common? These are not recovering alcoholics huddling in a basement for a noontime 12-step meeting, nor are they castaways in a reality-based TV show. These seemingly everyday folk are some of South Florida’s most accomplished…
In a year inundated with massive movies, it’s a pleasant surprise to note that a truly spectacular adventure has arrived in the form of a Disney cartoon called Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Gushing aside, let us now consider the Atlanteans, the mythic race that codirectors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise…
When I heard that a new gallery called Moonflowers was exhibiting blotter acid paper art, I decided to investigate. I’d heard about such art and seen it in reproduction but never firsthand; I was also curious to see what Moonflowers was all about. It turns out that the exotic-sounding Moonflowers,…
A ragtag group of travelers, one of whom is a violent man prone to aggressive outbursts, rides in a ramshackle transport on a journey through dark terrain. Mostly they sleep peacefully, until an error in their navigation equipment becomes apparent and their vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere…
At this moment, Baz Luhrmann, control freak and self-proclaimed ringleader of conspirators “who conspire to something greater than ourselves,” is not in control at all. The cameraman trailing behind him, like a faithful puppy awaiting treats, does not work for the director; rather, he is in the employ of the…
The XVI International Hispanic Theatre Festival kicked off June 1 at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach with a production of José Assad’s Cenizas Sobre el Mar. That’s “Ashes on the Sea” for all you English-speaking types. But even if you need translation to understand theater from South America, you’ll…
The next best thing to owning a boat is sailing with Capt. Dave McCullum on Healing Time, his 33-foot Beneteau 2000. Heck, the price sure beats the expense of owning and maintaining your own ship. A three-and-a-half-hour cruise costs only $35 per person, a six-and-a-half-hour cruise runs $60 per person,…
When he was in his thirties, Ivan Reitman made comedies like a young man. His early movies, among them Stripes, Meatballs, and Ghostbusters, were messy, cocky, charming, daffy, and restless; they did anything for a laugh, even if that meant dousing John Candy in mud or Bill Murray in a…
When aspiring lyricist Sonia (Connie SaLoutos) meets successful composer Vernon (Dan Kelley) in They’re Playing Our Song, she hesitates while searching for the right words to describe his work: “Your music is, well, universally embraced…. I don’t want to use the word commercial.” Adjectives like commercial have plagued author Neil…
Tamra Davis is bound by contract not to discuss the film that, at this very moment, she’s editing for release next year. “I’m officially not supposed to do any press for it,” the director says sheepishly, so she offers a few off-the-record comments about the movie, a road-trip comedy-drama starring…
“You know, between getting punched in the jaw and hit in the nose, it was a blurry evening at best,” says Bret Michaels. “C.C. was just gone, and at that point in my life, I wasn’t in much more sober shape.” By all rights it should have been the end…
Wherever there’s a talking vagina, a penis in need of dialogue can’t be far away. It’s no surprise then that on the heels of Eve Ensler’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful The Vagina Monologues comes Dr. Dean C. Dauw (a.k.a. Dr. Love) and his play, The Penis’ Responses to the…
Remember glee? Perhaps not, given our penchant in recent times to chuck giddy hearts aside in favor of being stupid, obnoxious, and mean. But hey, it’s all right, because the fizzy, caffeinated beverage known as Baz Luhrmann seeks to re-create this elusive emotion for all of us in the form…
