Letters from the Issue of July 08, 2004

Portrait of the Artist as an Old Hag That was my mother you smeared: I’m Neith Nevelson’s youngest daughter and I would like to comment on Forrest Norman’s story about her (“A Brush with Death,” June 24). My mother seemed very excited that someone was interested in interviewing her, and…

Two in the Bush

A few months ago The Bitch was waiting for the bus at the Omni station when she observed a man capturing flocks of pigeons in a wire-mesh trap set with bread-crumb bait, then dumping the bewildered, cooing birds into a bicycle basket seemingly made exactly for the job of avian…

Letters from the Issue of July 01, 2004

Old Friend, New Story I know Neith, and this was Neith: Thanks to Forrest Norman for writing such a great article about the artist Neith Nevelson (“A Brush with Death,” June 24). Neith is a long-time friend. I represented her for many years during the Eighties and early Nineties at…

The Gridlock Candidate

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in I-95’s snarl, gazing with envy as a television news helicopter whipped past overhead, take comfort in Dave Slater’s anger. Before he retired in 1996 as a traffic reporter for both WPLG-TV (Channel 10) and WIOD-AM (610), Slater spent nearly twenty years flying above…

Gang Related

Many faithful — okay, a few faithful readers of The Bitch have written to inquire about an earlier reference to throwing gang signs. Some have expressed a desire to get in on the bandanna-happy action. So here is some lowdown: Before the deployment of complex gang greetings may commence, one…

Letters from the Issue of June 24, 2004

Sure Sign of a Wise Leader Knowing when to call it quits: Brett Sokol hits the nail on the head in his “Kulchur” column about Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Maurice Ferré (“Ego Without End,” June 17). It was a great piece about a has-been who doesn’t know when to stop. Obviously…

Fear? No, Evil

The amount of research and study that has been brought to the subject of “the eternal battle between good and evil” in the 21st Century is truly amazing. It seems to overflow from the pages of university dissertations, newspapers, popular psychology books, and comic books with such spellbinding regularity that…

Letters from the Issue of June 17, 2004

Pipe Dreams vs. Harsh Reality Simply put, the Star of Miami ain’t gonna happen: If I were Jewish, I’d say, “Oy vey!” But I’m Italian so I’ll say, “Fuhgeddaboutit.” While Kirk Nielsen’s article “Aqua Nova” (June 10) regarding Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt’s plans for the Henry Flagler monument and…

Ego Without End

“This is it. I am done.” — Maurice Ferré, announcing the end of his political career after decisively losing the Miami-Dade County mayoral race in September 1996 “I’m finished. I’m no longer a candidate for anything.” — Ferré, after losing the City of Miami mayoral race in November 2001 “Hey,…

Things to Do in Miami When You’re Dead

In her abundant spare time, The Bitch has been thinking of ways to entertain herself while annoying others this summer, and has decided to adopt the following affectations: 1. Pretending to smoke Nat Sherman’s clove cigarettes. 2. Developing and deploying a complex personal gang sign. 3. Angrily demanding that people…

Letters from the Issue of June 10, 2004

A Family in Perfect Harmony It’s the Lord’s work, and the Lord loves pedal steel guitars: I am the eldest daughter of the Lee family (the one next door to Mom) and am writing to say how much I enjoyed reading John Anderson’s story about steel guitars and the music…

Head Case

As rip currents swept unsuspecting swimmers out to sea along the Miami Beach coast two weeks ago, a couple of lifeguards went mano a mano during a workout session gone awry. According to a tale told to the sun-averse Bitch by a retired leathery lifeguard, Vince Andreano, captain of the…

Pay to Play

It’s hardly surprising that Micky Arison wrote out a $2000 check to President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. After all, last year the Carnival Corporation CEO and Miami Heat owner cashed in $66.1 million of his cruise line’s stock, on top of receiving another $90 million in stock dividend payments…

Letters from the Issue of June 3, 2004

Best Magic City Reunion Hell’s flames reignite passion: Kudos on the annual Best of Miami issue (May 13)! I always look forward to it with great anticipation. I inevitably find some cool restaurant, club, something new to check out … but ay dios mio! Who is that hottie with the…

Letters from the Issue of May 27, 2004

A Grateful Mother, a Lost Son And a crime unsolved: Bill Jensen’s article about my late son RJ Lockwood (“Hardcore and Bleeding,” May 20) was great except for one thing: I didn’t see the sentence for people who want to help to contact me or law-enforcement authorities. I also didn’t…

Bass Relief

The Bitch has been thinking and cannot come up with one single reason why it would possibly ever be okay to drive a Boeing 747 up and down the boulevards of our municipality. The 100-plus decibels made by the airbus are nonetheless commonplace in Miami, courtesy of legions of “motorcycle…

Photo Finish

With whiskey-warmed, Factory-fab openings (even by post-Basel standards); connectedness in the art, fashion, and nightclub worlds; favorable mentions in Art in America and the recent coup of being host to the traveling exhibit William John Kennedy Meets Andy Warhol at 231 East 47 St… 1964, times seemed flash for the…

Letters from the Issue of May 20, 2004

Club Kids: Rude, Crude, and Stoopid Exactly the kind of jerks who do disgusting things in your front yard: What a nasty little article by Humberto Guida. In his “BuzzIn” column about the Miami Beach City Commission meeting that considered changes in nightlife regulations (“Party Poopers,” May 13), his pen…

Chronicle of a CocoWalk Death Foretold

The cinnabar landscape is littered with the carcasses of ‘roos and koalas … no, wait, that’s the Australian Outback. The Bitch had the vastness of the barren expanse confused momentarily with that of the wasteland known as the Coconut Grove retail district, which includes the epitome of the void, CocoWalk…

Behind Bush

Police officers call it stalking. Kulchur, however, prefers the term “field research.” So let’s just split the difference and say that for the second time in as many months, President George W. Bush’s chief advisor, Karen Hughes, was a bit, er, concerned over Kulchur’s extreme dedication to the craft of…

Letters from the Issue of May 13, 2004

South Beach Nightclubs: The Verdict Velvet ropes? Flashy bling bling? Uninspired music? It’s very unhip: In response to Mosi Reeves’s “Life After WMC” (May 6), I’m a house DJ from New Jersey who moved here just a couple of months ago. When I first arrived I was excited to go…

Junk Bonds

The fairy-tale rehabilitation of the Sony Music Building from architectural eyesore to Miami Beach’s version of Manhattan’s Flatiron skyscraper is part of Lincoln Road lore. “I said, ‘This could be an amazing place,'” developer Mera Rubell, who purchased and renovated the building, told Variety magazine in 1999. In those days,…