Art Basel Transformed My Life In three short years I went from vulgarian to sophisticate: Reading through the New Times guide to Art Basel Miami Beach (“Artquake,” December 2) reminded me that three years ago I knew next to nothing about art. I had a Marlins poster on my wall…
Jessica Dorsee endured not a moment of that whole teenage self-loathing thing. “I’d be sitting in my high school classroom and I’d see myself, instead of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressing crowds. I had visions of myself as a great leader. If you went back and talked to the…
They aren’t nearly as morbid as the tourists who swarm to the entryway of Gianni Versace’s South Beach mansion, taking snapshots of each other on the very spot where the fashion designer was gunned down in 1997. But then the steady stream of pilgrims arriving at 461 Ocean Boulevard in…
Only a Fool Would Say People Were Duped Voters knew perfectly well that $275 million would go to two museums in a waterfront park: It is ludicrous to suggest, as Kirk Nielsen did in “Vote for Culture” (November 18), that Miami-Dade County voters were “lured” into passing bond issue #8…
Temblors above, business continues below; such is the topography of Miami’s burgeoning artscape. But just as our city’s established and emerging serious artists get ready to snatch the limelight from the poseurs — at least for a few days, during Art Basel — tectonic plates grind to create a little…
“Why are people wondering why the Republicans won the election?” asks Ruthie J with a touch of annoyance. During the course of Kulchur’s conversation with the midday host of Miami’s Christian radio station WMCU-FM (89.7), this is the only subject that ruffles her eminently patient demeanor. “Why is this such…
Gail Bobb is a single mom. A pretty, prim 39-year-old native of Guyana, she moved to South Florida in 2001 with her two nearly grown kids, Frank and Theresa. “It was paradise,” she recalls with a Caribbean lilt. “At first.” Bobb padded the pavement for four months until, finally, she…
Space Cadets, Don’t Mess with My Music In a word, it’s c-r-a-z-y to try competing with Ultra: I am a loyal electronica junkie and have been to every Ultra Music Festival since year three (I was out of town for both one and two). Ultra was, is, and always will…
On November 2, weeks before the December 21 solstice, a long, dark winter began for our country, its icy tendrils curling around the equator and stretching from pole to pole. During this new Ice Age, species will perish. The Alaskan wilderness will become an oil field. Government will be based…
All right, progressives. You want a real reason to cry? Enough with the voting machines already. Please shut up about an Ohio recount. And forget the much-vaunted Republican turnout in Florida’s I-4 suburban corridor. Instead look to our own backyard, right here on South Beach. In the 72 hours preceding…
The Embrace of Public Radio Peter J just wants to give you a big hug: Such venom! Such bile! And personal attacks! Gee, it’s public radio, can’t we all just get along? As Joe Cassara’s counterpart at WLRN-FM, and the subject of one of the aforementioned attacks, I’d like to…
Ultra Music Festival, the annual one-day mega-rave that brought out an estimated 35,000 people this past March, is going to have some steep competition when it returns to Bayfront Park for a seventh edition in 2005. Club Space, the biggest nightclub in the city, is pitching a rival festival. According…
“You can’t be a happy newspaper columnist, you can’t be Erma Bombeck,” Carl Hiaasen insists, stabbing the air with a forkful of grouper as he lays out the tenets of Journalism 101 over lunch. “All of my best work comes from some kind of anger. If you go up to…
Trust Us, Put Your Ballot in Here And don’t worry, we’ll take care of any “problems”: Thanks to Kirk Nielsen for covering one problem with the absentee balloting in his article “Absentee Minded” (October 28). Here’s what you would find had you used your absentee ballot. In the instructions for…
Democracy: It’s All About Tough Choices A District 7 voter ponders his options: After reading Francisco Alvarado’s article about the county commission race between Xavier Suarez and Carlos Gimenez (“The X Man Returns,” October 21), I say wow — what an impressive list of political heavyweights backing Gimenez, all of…
Julieta Venegas was the big winner at this past Thursday’s MTV Video Music Awards Latin America, and you just have to be happy for such a buoyantly talented singer-songwriter and snappy dresser, not to mention that Venegas looks like a flower. Not that there’s vegetative stillness about Venegas, she just…
“I don’t support it.” — Carlos Alvarez on maintaining Miami-Dade’s gay rights ordinance, speaking in Spanish, August 28, 2004 “It’s a law … The citizens have spoken.” — Alvarez on upholding Miami-Dade’s gay rights ordinance, speaking in English, August 29, 2004 Give Carlos Alvarez credit for being a quick study…
Porn Defined You are holding it in your hands right now: The American Heritage dictionary describes “pornography” as “lurid or sensational material.” Under that definition, Kris Conesa’s one-sided hatchet job on Bangbus.com certainly qualifies as pornography (“The Ride to Perdition,” October 14). Please don’t misconstrue my comments. I’m no fan…
It was very bad luck for radio station WLRN that two of the three presidential debates fell during the week of its semiannual fundraising marathon; the station interrupted the collection-plate-passing to air Bush vs. Kerry. A potential disruption more immediate, tragic, and profound for both the station’s staff and thousands…
So I Said to Donna Shalala… One billionaire’s recollection of the first presidential debate: In reference to The Bitch’s observations on the presidential debate at the University of Miami (“Definitive Gaze,” October 7), those of us who were fortunate enough to attend the event also were able to listen to…
One of the zaniest, most influential horror films of all time has been disinterred and lovingly necromanced back to undeadness by Claudia and Larry Brahms, owners of Miami’s very-much-alive MTI Home Video. Save for its brief theatrical release in 1970, I Drink Your Blood has never before been viewable in…
Somewhere in Texas a two-time presidential aspirant is laughing, no doubt feeling more than a little vindicated. When he first announced his Oval Office intentions, the pundits were dismissive of this rough-edged Texan. Those self-made business-mogul credentials he kept touting? Bah! Merely the results of cronyism and shameless influence-peddling. And…
