It's Trapped by Mormons' CD-release party at Churchill's Hideaway, and as usual, trouble has found them. Right before TBM's midnight slot, Orlando punk ruffians the Stud Dogs bum-rush the stage and start setting up. Harsh words are exchanged. TBM bassist Mark O'Toole grabs one of the Stud Dogs for a...
What the Jackson Five did for Motown, what the Osmonds did for... well, whatever kind of music that is, Morgan Heritage has done for reggae. The family conglomerate's distinctive, grassroots style is crammed with calming, melodious rhythms and conscious lyrics. Echoes of late reggae vocalist Garnett Silk or one of...
Mike HamptonHow can we tell Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria doesn’t give a flying fish about winning in this town? Let’s just take a look at the ones that got away. Two spring trainings ago, in a salary-dumping move, the team traded its closer, Antonio Alfonseca, and its fifth starter, Matt Clement, for Julian Tavarez and a […]
Mike HamptonHow can we tell Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria doesn’t give a flying fish about winning in this town? Let’s just take a look at the ones that got away. Two spring trainings ago, in a salary-dumping move, the team traded its closer, Antonio Alfonseca, and its fifth starter, Matt Clement, for Julian Tavarez and a […]
Imagine Ravi Shankar jamming with Big Country. Add an electronic backbeat and you're pretty close to the title track of Ocean Birds from Nataraj XT. The title rings of New Age, and there are hints of such sounds here: the downtempo trippiness and weepy slide guitar of "Space In..."; the...
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone to challenge the notion that America's gay liberation movement started with the Stonewall riots, which began on June 22, 1969, coincidentally (not to mention fortuitously) the same day Judy Garland died. You'd be equally hard-pressed to find any acknowledgment of this momentous event at...
SAT 5/24 "The Human Comedy" is the aptly chosen title of the upcoming Red Grooms exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art (1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach). In case you were absent that day, Red Grooms is one of the most celebrated portrait artists of our time, and...
Warning: If you have a tough time making decisions, do not, I repeat, do not go to Flip's Ice Café (2233 E. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach, 954-782-1414). This new ice cream parlor offers 120 flavors and will even make custom flavors to order. Best of all, the café has frozen...
Sometimes a few wrong turns can balance themselves out. That seems to be the happy circumstance with Palm Beach Dramaworks' vivid revival of South African playwright Athol Fugard's domestic drama The Road to Mecca. Although the script's sociopolitical intentions might have been unintentionally stymied in this production, director William Hayes...
Funny thing about being a mentor: The young genius you help today may be nipping at your heels tomorrow. No need to tell that to storied R&B producer Teddy Riley. Riley, in his umpteenth entry into the black-music market, has re-formed his doo-wop group Blackstreet, choosing to release its latest...
On a recent Saturday morning, the sole employee on duty at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood rushed around turning on audiovisual equipment for several pieces in "The Hollywood All-Media Juried Biennial," a show that had opened just the night before. The volume on two video installations was out...
For a few years now, a handful of musicians have been trying to translate DNA codes as directly as possible into electronic music. Letting biology sing is an interesting concept, but the results so far have been a little placid. On his third album, Chopped Zombie Fungus, Otto Von Schirach...
FRI 5/2 Can we still learn a little more about the facts of life? Audiences seem to think so, as Eve Ensler's smash hit The Vagina Monologues goes into its fourth year of production since its original off-Broadway run in 1999. The play reveals almost everything you've ever wanted to...
At six foot one, 365 pounds, Richard Nielsen Jr. was a man-giant with huge arms that hung from broad thick shoulders. On his left biceps was an enormous tattoo of a fisherman above a line from the Book of Psalms: "They that go down to the sea in ships." Though...
Talk about tough acts to follow: The original, 1999 Matrix, a critical and commercial smash, came almost as a revelation out of nowhere -- if the combination of Joel Silver, Warner Bros., and roughly 60 million bucks qualifies as "nowhere." After more than four years, The Matrix Reloaded -- the...
What does it take to succeed on Broadway these days? Nobody has the exact answer to that question, but many think they do. One long-standing strategy is to import London hits. Another is to stuff the show with movie stars. A third, and perhaps the most widely used ploy, is...
Ever heard of someone by the name of Ida B. Wells? She is the largely unknown but fascinating subject of Constant Star, a beautifully produced study of determination and courage, now playing at the Florida Stage in Manalapan. Wells was an American original. Born a black slave in the Civil...
As a vocalist, Caroline Herve, a.k.a. Miss Kittin, is a familiar name among followers of what's been termed electroclash. In case you've managed to escape the media hype overload, the genre is populated with young bands attempting to pay homage to -- and put their own spin on -- early...
Stan Lee, for better or worse the most recognizable face in the history of the comic book, insists he has no love for rehashing his past. He claims to take no great joy from talking about long-ago yesterdays spent in smoky rooms co-creating the likes of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man,...
It is rare to find a film that defies one's expectations as sweetly and satisfyingly as this coming-of-age comedy-drama from first-time feature writer-director Peter Sollett. The surprise isn't in the plot of Raising Victor Vargas -- that would be too easy -- but rather in the extraordinarily subtle and convincing...
It's Memorial Day weekend, and Miami is partying. With no alarm clocks set for Monday's workday world, South Beach sidewalks and nightclubs have turned into a rocking planet hip-hop. But a few miles away and across Biscayne Bay on NE 11th Street, another huge (if not overlooked) scene is building...
