Drink and Draw

Pooka is 23 years old. She’s a petite girl with strawberry blond (emphasis on the strawberry) hair and bangs pulled back and pumped up into a Gwen Stefani pompadour. She looks at a piece of paper on which someone has drawn a crude picture of a giraffe, complete with a…

Wynwood Gallery Walk

Thanks to the gentrification of central Miami and the wacky ingenuity of local artists, the monthly Wynwood Gallery Walk has become a colorful addition to the otherwise formulaic local party scene. On the second Saturday of every month, those looking for stimulation in a place other than their pants can…

Letters from the Issue of October 25, 2007

A Sugar Babe Babbles … viciously: I am a vivacious, slender, curvy, big-breasted beauty of 25 years, who always has older men panting after me, drooling like Great Danes with a Milk-Bone, and slobbering all over themselves like English bulldogs (less the manners) at the mere thought of getting into…

Tommy Lee’s Back, and He Didn’t Come to Rock

When infamous Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee rolls into town Saturday night, he won’t be here to check on Rok Bar, the currently under-renovation high-glam-trash-rock spot in which he’s partner. Nor will he rehash the past like former Crüe bandmate Vince Neil, who recently played a gig at Dolphin Stadium…

John Lee Hooker “It Serves Me Right to Suffer”

I came across this video a few weeks ago while surfing on YouTube and fell in love with John Lee Hooker’s eerie songwriting ability all over again. I’m not sure what this clip is from; presumably it’s one of Hooker’s early television appearances, but exactly what show it’s from is…

A Reporter on the Lam in Latin America

Gonzalo Guillén is on the lam. His wife and son are in hiding. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe publicly belittled the reporter. Strangers repeatedly threatened to murder him. His bodyguard disappeared. “I got a call at my home … a guy said, ‘We can kill you,'” Guillén recalls from Lima, Peru,…

Caribian Sport Bar

I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, but I had my suspicions. The waddling Muscovy ducks in the parking lot, the black-tinted storefront windows, a misspelled sign that reads Caribian Sport Bar (10805 Sunset Dr., Kendall; 305-559-5229) — they all contributed to my conjecture. But when I…

Letters from the Issue of October 18, 2007

Viva la Familia Alonso Showing the human side: Janine Zeitlin, I love you! You made me cry in your article “Guarimba!” (October 11). You have the ability to exactly portray my feelings and allow people to grab the emotions and sorrow, as well as the love and commitment, involved. Thank…

Octo-Beer Fest

Walking into the shoebox-size Abbey Brewing Co. (1115 16th St., Miami Beach) for an Oktoberfest bash, I found it difficult not to notice the burly man-mass. The stained-T-shirt-clad brotherhood was comfortably crammed into the bar’s limited wooden booths. Fifty or so dudes pounded foamy beers while peering at various muted…

J Dilla–Nothing Like This

This is one of the strangest animations I’ve seen in awhile but it goes well with a great song. It’s for the posthumous release of “Nothing Like This” from the late great Detroit producer, J Dilla, and is basically a really cute underwater love story. Go figure? But Dilla and…

Speaking of A Tribe Called Quest

I’m not sure how Lupe Fiasco could claim he’s never listened to A Tribe Called Quest before, but the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it sounds. That’s like Norah Jones saying she’s never listened to Billie Holiday. Or Interpol claiming they were never interested in Joy Division…

Upper Eastside Garden

It was about 9:00 on a Saturday night, and partygoers had yet to emerge from their caves. The shindig at the Upper Eastside Garden (7244 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-984-3231) was sparsely populated, but because the event was scheduled from 8:00 to midnight, I arrived early to take full advantage of…

Feast Your Ears

In a city with no memory, few local bands are remembered by anyone except members and their friends. Even fewer are mourned by out-of-state fans, and virtually none gain admirers posthumously. One exception to all of these rules is the Eat, a Miami punk band that formed in 1978 and…

Letters from the Issue of October 11, 2007

Beefcake Bingo Aquaman versus Merman: Who knew monofin swimming even existed? “Merman” by Tamara Lush (October 4) is yet another example of a worldwide sports phenomenon to which we Americans are completely oblivious. However, I have to commend you on your cover photo. It’s hot! I’m more than happy to…

Mazzy Star–Fade Into You

Feeling a bit nostalgic and blue today. Can’t explain why, but this old Mazzy Star video from 1993 seems to fit the mood perfectly. It was off their stellar, So Tonight That I Might See album which is worth revisiting if you haven’t listened to it in awhile and is…

The Missing Piece

The history of the sludgy, heavy rockers of Alice in Chains has been as misery-riddled as much of the band’s music. Its sound owed less to punk than it did to, say, metal, but its Seattle origin and late-Eighties birth date meant it was swiftly pigeonholed as grunge. It was…

Karu & Y

On a recent Saturday night, Karu & Y (71 NW 14th St., Miami; 305-403-7850) gave new meaning to the phrase disco inferno. Inside the 5000-square-foot Tottem Lounge, one of the sprawling complex’s clubs-within-a-club, a Seventies-theme party unfolded hellishly. But to be fair, Hell and that decade had a lot in…

Letters from the Issue of October 4, 2007

Plump Is Perfect Stop with the anorexia already: “Fat Chance” by Amy Guthrie (September 27) was a surprising yet refreshing look into the desires of homosexual men — a topic that does not get exposure in most of the mainstream media. While reading it, even as a heterosexual woman, I…

More Carnival Vibes

The first of South Florida’s pre-Carnival parties are jumping off tonight and with the weather warming up a touch, this should all make for a good five day weekend from here on out. Since soca doesn’t get nearly enough love on CrossFade, here’s some Machel Montano with his ever popular…

Caribbean Carnival is in the Air

Carnival season is upon us here in South Florida and it’s only fitting to kick off the week with a video to celebrate. Thousands upon thousands of Caribbean folks will be rolling into South Florida every day this week for the dual carnivals happening in Miami and Broward County through…

Letters from the Issue of September 27, 2007

Timoney’s Travels Where’s the meat?: Next time you chase a “provocative” piece of investigative journalism, make sure (a) there actually is a story and (b) you assign it to someone other than a wide-eyed cub reporter such as Tamara Lush. As someone with a mild disdain for the behavior of…