Sometimes life really does imitate art. In a parallel universe, the New Theatre's artistic director, Rafael de Acha, could be a world-famous Hollywood studio chief, renowned for his skill at ferreting out new works of genius. In our own less-judicious universe, de Acha isn't well-known outside of South Florida. But...
THU 15 Alexandra Nechita may be young, but the 18-year-old Romanian artist is more accomplished than many artists thrice her age. Her paintings, lithographs, and drawings have found a home in the collections of Bill Clinton, the Vatican, and Oprah Winfrey and have won honors from the American Red Cross...
On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in late May, Ric Bradshaw was ready to show off the support he'd garnered for his campaign for the sheriff's office in Palm Beach County. About 50 supporters had gathered just outside the Palm Beach governmental center in downtown West Palm Beach. Some were West...
Air makes great softcore-porn music. At least seven of the ten songs on the new album Talkie Walkie could back the drawn-out, slow-motion sex scenes to those old, dubbed-in-English Emmanuelle skin flicks and, in some of those instances, actually improve the aesthetic. The tunes really are that evocative of the...
The Caldwell Theatre's current show, Iago, certainly offers the promise of blood-pumping drama. James McLure's play is set backstage during a mid-20th-century production of Shakespeare's Othello and takes its inspiration from the tempestuous real-life relationship between Vivien Leigh and Laurence Oliver and Leigh's adulterous affair with the young Peter Finch...
Some bands don't like to travel far to play shows, much less to hold band practice. Even the hour-and-a-half trek from Miami to West Palm Beach is often more of a pain than it's worth. But for some bands, no distance is too far; their love of making music far...
The last time Broward County mounted a big dredging program at Port Everglades, environmentalists raised so much hell that taxpayers had to spend millions to create a whole new mangrove marsh along the edge of John Lloyd Park. It was the late 1980s, and port officials vowed that the adjoining...
Sol Kitchen in Delray Beach is the sunny new sister of 32 East. Both are located on the same block of East Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, both are operated by the Straub restaurant team, and both offer menus orchestrated by Executive Chef Nick Morfogen, whose glowing résumé includes training...
SAT 3/27 If there are two things punk bands sang about en masse in the 1980s, it was Ronald Reagan and beer. With many of these bands now reuniting, it's obvious which subject has stood the test of time. Fortunately, Gainesville's Roach Motel had the foresight to stick with the...
"I don't care to do the traditional things a band does, like playing 1,000 shows," says See Venus vocalist Rocky Ordoñez, who, along with three band cohorts, sits in her Kendall apartment, which is decorated college dorm-style using bits and pieces from anything salvageable. "We started [the band] to make...
Remember Omar Sharif? He's been all but absent from the silver screen in recent years (though he has been seen -- or at least heard -- on television). According to the actor, he left the trade by choice: "Let us stop this nonsense, these meal tickets that we do because...
Some acts of courage command everyone's respect: the firefighter's return to a burning house to rescue a child, the infantryman's sacrifice of self for a wounded comrade, the weary black woman's refusal to yield her seat on a segregated bus. Sometimes, though, courage can feel clouded -- especially when it's...
Painter David Maxwell is sitting in the spacious backyard at his Miramar duplex (one of his daughters lives in the front half) when I arrive for a visit on a perfect South Florida Sunday morning. He and his wife of 33 years, Mary, have just returned from their customary weekend...
THU 18 For the enterprising cartoonist, freelancing is the ultimate gig. You get to set your own schedule, pick your own clients, and work from your own home. But there's also a lot of hard work, long hours, and tough deadlines. Just ask Arnold Roth. He's been at it for...
At the opening of The Fog of War, the brilliant new documentary from director Errol Morris, we see a composed, sharply groomed, middle-aged Robert McNamara preparing to brief the press on the Vietnam War. He asks two questions: First, if the chart he's set up is visible and, second, whether...
The audacious bid to gain control of government money and media coverage began with a strange but simple equation: a quarter a head. That's how much the downtown developers and businessmen who formed the Broward Alliance in 1998 felt they deserved from your local tax coffers. Twenty-five cents for every...
Uh oh. When I learn that a screenwriter has just written a play, I usually look for a place to hide. Many, no, most successful writers fall into the trap of hubris: If they thrive in one medium, they assume they will triumph in all. The result is often abysmal...
FRI 2/13 Sewing has spun a long history with the women's movement. For many, the tool of choice for a revolution was the needle. Susan B. Anthony crafted the first American flag, and handmade quilts were hung in windows of houses used in the Underground Railroad. Find a local quilting...
In the past four years, the music business has experienced a near meltdown, hemorrhaging billions of dollars and sending shock waves that have reverberated all the way to South Florida's dance music industry. Slow CD sales, a lukewarm U.S. economy, and peer-to-peer downloading of copyrighted music have continued to hammer...
Lucero frontman Ben Nichols went through the punk phase, then survived the metal years. But, ultimately he settled on country. It wasn't the Memphis surroundings that influenced his taste for the form but rather an urge to grow as a songwriter. "I don't think I was looking for something more...
So, have you ever wondered what exactly goes into the painting of a portrait? You might have suspected there might be more to it than a painter saying something along the lines of, "Hey, baby, can I, uh, paint you?" and then someone else saying, "Yeah, sure, that'd be cool."...
Improvisation doesn't always equal innovation. Sometimes, the lack of connection among a group of musicians can result in nothing short of a muddled affair. Thankfully, Vienna-based trio Trapist has the talent and cohesion to turn an organic sound into an at-times-brilliant portrait of electronic orchestration. A concept album of sorts,...
