Hip-Hop Till You Drop

The new program director of WMIB-FM (103.5) hasn’t slept in three weeks. In fact he hasn’t even left that radio station’s Miramar studio. Instead he’s manned the controls there around the clock, not even pausing to eat, all part of WMIB’s New Year’s Day format change and a promise to…

Letters from the Issue of January 23, 2002

Your Weakness, My Strength The Herald and WLRN, imperfect singly, are perfect together: To learn from Rebecca Wakefield’s article that cross-marketing opportunities could drive an alliance between public-radio WRLN-FM and the Miami Herald is no surprise (“Radio Free Herald,” January 16). WLRN has never shown any willingness to push the…

Shake

It’s never a good idea to visit a vampire by day. Even if the meeting takes place indoors, shielded from the sun whose rays would vaporize the night crawler. Even if the mirrors are covered, in this case with flyers and posters from nights gone by announcing The Church, the…

Letters from the Issue of January 16, 2003

The Wonders of Everglades National Park Tourists as gator bait by day, billions and billions of stars by night: As Mike Clary noted in “Happy on the Outside” (January 9), Everglades National Park truly is an underappreciated treasure. My wife and I have lived here for more than 25 years…

No Sound Too Strange

Sometime Spam Allstar, redheaded guitarist Adam Zimmon, recently took issue with the media coverage of Miami’s favorite processed beat liberator, DJ Le Spam and his merry avant-jam band. “People always write about the cultural stuff,” Zimmon complains of articles on the Allstars and their ecstatic site of multicultural communion, the…

Scorsese’s Art Dago

Steve Satterwhite, the photographer, and I recently saw Gangs of New York at 11:30 in the morning at the CocoWalk 16 in Coconut Grove. Gangs, director Martin Scorsese’s great American telenovella, had been getting the full media treatment for a week prior, Orwellian slavering for Christmas product from Miramax, and…

Different Slides for Older Guys

You’re middle-age, your hairline is receding, and when the lights go down, keeping it up for your legendary three-hour stretches is getting harder and harder. What do you do? If you’re Bruce Springsteen, you break out a large sponge. He’s traveled a long way from his intimate nightclub glory days,…

Letters from the Issue of January 9, 2003

Fay Wray Days It wasn’t my way or the highway: I enjoyed reading Tom Bowker’s article “Forever Punk” (January 2), but I have a comment to make: If he plans on writing an article based on facts, I suggest he check all sources first. His story was entertaining but the…

Letters from the Issue of January 2, 2003

New Editorial Formula Unveiled Free weekly predicts cost savings, no content change: To make the New Times more profitable in these difficult times, I suggest the following simple cost-cutting measure: Fire Kathy Glasgow and in place of her “Metro” stories, such as “Bolita in Havana” (December 19), run a weekly…

Letters from the Issue of December 26, 2002

Bombs Away: Cheap Shot Surely he doesn’t think we’re all commies: I have a few questions for Brett Sokol regarding his “Kulchur” column “On the Left, Off the Wall” (December 12). I wonder why his article about the November 19 antiwar gathering at the Coral Gables Congregational Church began with…

Sticky Icky Family Fun

Of all Miami’s dubious distinctions, one in particular is X-rated: No other city in the United States boasts a tighter relationship between the hip-hop scene and strip clubs. The reasons why are not so difficult to figure out. But if you’re having trouble, Opa-locka-born singer/rapper Luc Duc is happy to…

Miracle on 41st Street

At 8:33 on the night of December 9, the lights went out along Arthur Godfrey Road, between Alton and Collins. The windy rain was whipping the Beach like one of those Club Madonna dominas, and a power line just gasped and quit. The red and green traffic and matte white…

School Daze

He’s not quite beefy enough to qualify as a Praetorian Guard, but Alex is doing his best to look tough as part of the Socialist Workers Party’s (SWP) security detail. Or at least as tough as you can look standing amid the humor section inside Coral Gables’ Books & Books…

Letters from the Issue of December 19, 2002

Bring Back Bobby Golden Beach, you never had a better cop: I just read Tristram Korten’s article “Officer Trouble” (December 12) and I must say I am baffled that Golden Beach Police Ofcr. Michelle Santinello, who I think is badly in need of a shrink, could destroy the lives of…

Label of Love

“Let me see that!” demands Alexandra Mercedes Cabrera de la Cruz, snatching a CD out of the hands of her singing partner Ramón E. Rijo. The sweet-voiced pair better known as Monchy & Alexandra has ruled the tropical airwaves in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Central America, New York, Miami,…

On the Left, Off the Wall

These are good days to be a revolutionary socialist. Just ask Mary Ann Schmidt, of Miami’s chapter of the Socialist Workers Party. “We signed up four new members at that demonstration,” Schmidt boasts, referring to the 100,000-strong rally on October 26 in Washington, D.C., to protest the looming war with…

Letters from the Issue of December 12, 2002

Targeted Assassination Is Just Fine But don’t even think about stifling free speech: After reading Kirk Nielsen’s article about Miami religious leaders seeking a pardon for anti-Castro Cuban exiles on trial in Panama (“Righteous Bombers?” December 5), two words come to mind: hypocrisy and arrogance. Anyone in full use of…

Poor Miami: More Good Ideas

A few weeks ago I invited readers to submit ideas that might be helpful to the City of Miami, which, being the poorest big city in America, needs all the help it can get. This solicitation arose from our two-part series “We’re Number One!” (September 26 and October 3). An…

Open Ears

Last Saturday, New Times celebrated its sweet fifteenth anniversary by coming out with some great big cakes, a few thousand friends, a few great bands and DJs, fabulous food from fifteen restaurants, and fifteen drag queens all dressed up as quinceañeras. If that last word lost you (Spanish for a…

South Beach Greets the Season

It’s safe to crack jokes inside Miami Beach City Hall again. That much was clear at November’s meeting of the Nightlife Industry Task Force (NITF). In a fourth-floor conference room, the group’s chairman, attorney Steve Polisar, gazed out at a long table’s worth of clubland figures and then motioned toward…

Letters from the Issue of December 5, 2002

Bucks for Blood The business was cash money for donors and it was tainted: I would like to compliment Eric Alan Barton for his detailed story about the finances and competition between South Florida’s two blood banks (“Blood Money,” November 28). If he should write another article, he might be…

Resurgent Rock

“I feel like such an asshole,” joked Rilo Kiley guitarist Blake Sennett to appreciative hoots from the packed audience at Churchill’s. Stepping back from the microphone, he stared incredulously at his broken guitar strap — which had come apart for the fourth time in just as many tunes. It’s hard…