Thursday December 25 Families in search of a new holiday tradition could do worse than the Christmas Day Picnic and Cruise to Deerfield Island Park. The day of Intracoastal cruising begins at 9 a.m. with hourly pickups by boat from Sullivan Park, which is located on Riverview Road at the...
In the radio business, it's known as the New Adult Contemporary format, or NAC, though more descriptive terms might be "smooth jazz," "New Age," "easy listening," or simply "background music." Or as one L.A. Times writer described it, "instrumental wallpaper." Its most famous practitioners are the pianists Jim Brickman (who...
Edwyn Collins I'm Not Following You (Epic) As long as we're being forced to relive the Seventies, why not let Edwyn Collins score the soundtrack? His darkly reedy voice, pop-culture fetishism, and cheesy synthesizers make for an appropriate, end-of-the-millennium update on that never-ending decade. On this, his fourth solo release,...
Let the naysayers natter: They declared the redevelopment of Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale a lost cause; they considered the rehabbing of Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach a waste of time; and they dismissed the resurrection of South Beach as a pipe dream. (They're the same ones who now...
In John Berendt's beguiling travel-cum-true-crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the people of Savannah "flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener. The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure than would have been...
In 1996 Rent picked up the Pulitzer Prize for its rock and roll update of Puccini's La Boheme, edging out another work that has ties to the classical canon: Jon Marans' drama Old Wicked Songs. The latter play, about the life lessons a young pianist and his seasoned vocal coach...
Is it possible to have eyes of two different colors? I scoffed when I heard this at work recently, but others said it happens all the time, and one guy even claimed to know a woman who was "bi" (colored, that is). Are these people imagining things, or is it...
Expectation can be a diner's worst enemy, leading down the path of culinary disaster. I can't count how many times I've entered a restaurant run by people who operate other well-known eateries with good reputations and left bewildered by an unappealing menu, poor service, or icky food. The most recent...
"Ska is an organic product with deep cultural roots that is far better for you than major-label chemicals," notes Rob "Bucket" Hingley, founder of the Toasters, a seven-member multiracial combo that unleashed its catchy, up-tempo ska strains onto U.S. shores for the first time fifteen years ago. "You'll never see...
Kacy Crowley Anchorless (Atlantic) This talented singer-songwriter was born in Connecticut and grew up listening to the heartland rock and roll of John Cougar Mellencamp. She did a brief stint as a Grateful Dead groupie then devoted herself to playing music in the coffeehouses of Los Angeles. She played with...
A pair of mangy dogs, too languid to bark, scratch and sniff themselves in front of a row of weathered wood houses set atop cinder blocks. A sign is tacked on the door of each of a dozen or so dwellings on this block in the northern section of West...
Over the past three years, Twentieth Century Fox has built an ambitious new animation studio in Phoenix, putting the promising Don Bluth and Gary Goldman in charge. The two were obvious choices. Since the animators defected from Disney Studios in 1979 to form Don Bluth Productions, they've turned out the...
With breathless intensity Kim Mascola's story jumps from the TV screen: "Tonight on Crime Special Edition, 'MURDER FOR HIRE!,'" thunders the announcer. "A wealthy lawyer hires a hit man to kill his unborn twins, even if it means murdering their mother. And what was her crime? Well, she wasn't Jewish...
The limo driver straightened his tux and scratched his head. To the east the giant glow of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach urban corridor was clearly visible, a comforting sign of modernity. But brighter still and directly overhead lay Orion, the hunter's constellation. The air was unseasonably cold, there was blood...
For a man who just pulled off an unlikely victory over a more powerful and entrenched opponent, Shane Anderson doesn't look the part of the conquering hero. A sheen of sweat is breaking out on his forehead, his face is unnaturally pale beneath its sprinkling of freckles, there's a slight...
With Christmas still two days away, Micki Burton put on her best holiday dress and loaded her arms with presents. Waiting for her just seven miles away was her 47-year-old son, Jimmy Burgess, who lives in a group home in Plantation. Burton was excited, because, usually, she is allowed to...
Seldom does the clock seem so unmerciful as when a child is trapped in a burning bedroom and the fire engine has yet to arrive. "Every minute -- every second -- seems like it takes at least an hour," says Lt. Don Petito of the EMS division of the Coral...
Having delivered their verdict, the members of the jury shuffled slowly out of the jury box, the gravity of their judgment reflected in somber, averted faces. Moments before, on this 19th day of December, 1997, the twelve sworn citizens had found 39-year-old Henry Wallace guilty of second-degree murder. Now they...
Judging from his rap sheet, Jesus Garcia is not the sort of guy you'd want for a next-door neighbor. Since 1972 he's been arrested nineteen times under various aliases and charged with crimes ranging from cocaine possession and disorderly conduct to aggravated battery and homicide. Of course Garcia's neighbors in...
You don't hear much about the Italian contribution to the distinctive cuisine of New Orleans. You can discern the French influence easily enough, as well as the Spanish and African-American -- cookbooks and historical tomes alike laud the region's primary settlers and their edible offerings. But pasta and marinara sauce?...
John Grisham's The Rainmaker lulls you into the mindset you get while reading a bestseller at the beach. What a sad thing to say about a Francis Ford Coppola movie! Rather than heighten your awareness the way director Coppola's The Godfather (1972) or The Conversation (1974) did, The Rainmaker makes...
The most fascinating thing about Andy Warhol wasn't his platinum blond hair, his gaunt face, or his creepy entourage of attention-starved hipsters. Nor was it his artwork. Though Warhol's contributions to popular art and popular culture are impossible to quantify, his simple soup cans and Day-Glo Marilyns were far less...
