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SunPostWeekly.com Just added: a comprehensive guide to Miami’s Bars and Clubs. Still to come: The SunPost Weekly Dining Guide
Vol. XXV No. 17
May 6, 2010
Visit us at sunpostweekly.com
GET A LITTLE CULTURE May is Museum Month – What Are You Waiting For? MAYHEM P.4
PROFILE P. 6
POLITICS P. 8
CALENDAR P.14
411 P.18
DO P. 21
FILM P. 22
BOUND P.22
SEE PAGE 10
FASHION P. 23
SEX P. 24
HISTORY P. 26
Letters Get Your Facts in Line About South Pointe Park To the Editor: I was dissapointed to read this piece on the South of Fifth neighborhood. Mr. Bradley had obviously not done his research. The South of 5th neighborhood association does not want to " gate the community" when it comes to restricting events in South Pointe Park. In fact, it is the opposite. We want everyone to come to the park and be able to use every square inch of it. Mr. Bradley is right, it IS a public park. It was designed to be passive, not designed to be sectioned off for special events and activities. The fields were not designed to be "rented". The parking lot was not designed to accommodate vehicles for special events and activites as a revenue producer for the city. Regarding the grass, does Mr. Bradley know that then Commissioner Victor Diaz opposed the type of sod the "experts" were pushing right from the beginning? Has he attended the meetings to hear what the residents are really saying? I doubt it. He needs to get his facts in line before offering up his opinion.
Joel Duncan Miami Beach
Tasteless Letter Should Not Have Been Published To the Editor: Frank DelVecchio was singled out in Mr. Branham-Bailey's diatribe "Grumpy Old Farts, Get Over It!". Apparently Mr. Branham-Bailey hasn't seen the YouTube video at www.tinyurl.com/sobeslum (or he might be grumpy too), or your recent cover story about Mr. DelVecchio's pro bono efforts that resulted in a $145 million dollar savings to the City of Miami Beach. Mr. Branham-Bailey's tasteless comments about Mr DelVecchio's imagined bowel movements and digging his own grave should not be dignified by publishing them in the SunPost.
Bernado Campos Miami Beach
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Page 2 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 3
Tropical Mayhem BITS AND PIECES OF MIAMI LIFE
MIAMI, SPEAK YOUR MIND!
Miami through my iphone
New Food Trends in Miami BY ALEJANDRO ARCE
MIAMI BOATING SEASON IS HERE by Ines Hegedus-Garcia - miamism.com - ines@miamism.com Some may say that it was never gone, but for those of us that are true warm blooded animals, the month of May marks the beginning of boating for Miamians. Although the water is still a bit chilly (to our standards), I am soooo happy that cold and very long winter spell is behind us! Bring on the suntan lotion, diving equipment, loud music and parties at the sandbars.
Wicked Wedge
During the last years a significant number of new Peruvian restaurants have appeared in Miami, adding significantly to the already existing ones. Peruvian food is different to Latino food; it has not much in common with the well known Cuban cuisine, Mexican dishes, or Argentinian and Brazilian steaks. Of course, most Latin cuisines use beans (frijoles) of different varieties and colors, and different flavors. Peruvians are endowed, I believe by nature, with the ability to convert dishes from many parts of the world into Peruvian dishes; an example, is the delicious "Arros chaufa," a typical Chinese dish made Peruvian style, and "Arros aeropuerto" a delicious fried rice endowed with native flavors. We can mention when talking about Peruvian dishes, the famous "ceviche" that comes in different arrangements and using several sauces made mainly of hot peppers in three colors; red, yellow and green. It is prepared using fresh fish, preferably corvina and lime juice and
The shoe of summer–the Tyra laser-cut leather wedge from boutique brand Pour La Victoire. Cognac colored, the peep toe bootie has black-tipped cutouts and a 7/8” platform heel. Made from soft as butter leather in Brazil. Perfect for short shorts to show of sun kissed gams to the max. They will also look fab with any of the flowy chiffon maxie or mini dresses being shown for summer. Love them! $315. Neimanmarcus.com Page 4 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
topped with red onions. Once a person familiarizes themselves with Peruvian food, it is difficult to not stop at one of the many restaurants in the area and taste the famous Papa a la Huancaina which is boiled potatoes surrounded by a hot and sweet yellow sauce. The variety of dishes includes beef, pork, lamb, and chicken. Like the internationally famous pollo a la braza or chicken cooked on the rotisserie, arros con pollo and many other chicken dishes. Peru has the advantage of producing a great number of very strong spices. The variety of hot peppers includes the rocoto. One has to be careful when eating rocoto because it is known to produce very uncomfortable and serious side effects. One has to try Picarones, a typical Peruvian dessert that resembles a very crisp donut served in a raw sugar liquid. As far as liquor goes, Pisco Sour, is made of Peruvian white brandy, lemon juice and sugar mixed with egg whites. Sabor al Peru and Ceviche 105 are tops among the famous restaurants in Miami that serve typical native Peruvian dishes. Other restaurants, include the reasonably priced, El Chimu de Oro is one of them. However, you can find Peruvian restaurants in almost every neighborhood. Another restaurant that comes to mind, is Pardo in Coral Gables. Another favorite is Claudia, located in Sunny Isles, where the food is superb and the hugs and kisses never end. Peru has many very attractive things, but in my opinion, the food trumps all.
SPEAK YOUR MIND, MIAMI! WE WELCOME YOUR THOUGHTS, REVIEWS, MUSINGS, AND PONTIFICATIONS ON ANYTHING TO DO WITH MIAMI LIFE. PLEASE MAKE IT SUCCINCT, NEWSWORTHY, INTERESTING AND UNDER 300 WORDS. EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS TO KIM@SUNPOSTWEEKLY.COM ATT: SPEAK YOUR MIND.
www.miamisunpost.com • The SunPost • May 6, 2010 • Page 5
PHOTO: MAGICAL PHOTOS/MITCHELL ZACKS
PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY YOU SHOULD KNOW
Frank Imbarlina Culinary Creative By Thomas Quick Downtown Miami: the hub of urbane nightlife, sky-lining buildings and Florida’s performing arts mecca, the Adrienne Arsht Center. Now this scene is being enriched by a creative chef/restaurant owner who is pioneering eclectic cuisine from regions of the world few have had the luxury to enjoy. Pittsburgh-bred Frank Imbralina and his eatery, Urbanite Bistro, have collectively enriched the metropolis with items ranging from Moroccan lamb sliders to natural boar chops with an Asian flare and a drink menu that can make a thirsty patron salivate. But bistros of this caliber aren’t a dime a dozen and, although Imbarlina opened the chic establishment about seven months ago, the process was 20 years in the making. Imbarlina initially set his sights on pursuing his dreams as a musician, putting the culinary world on the back burner. The blossoming singer/songwriter moved to Boston and attended Northeastern University, where he studied music business. “It was much different back then. There were only a couple of culinary schools and you literally had to have two years’ practical work experience and a reference from a chef to even get in to one of those schools. I was young and I didn’t want to go that route.” After enlightening discussions with a friend who had landed a job in the music biz, the aspiring vocalist soured on the industry and decided that for him, the musical path was bound to be the road not taken. During his college years, Imbarlina dabbled with restaurant work, taking on any positions available. Moving to New Page 6 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
York gave him a more refined education as a restaurateur. In 1999, his days of being the barkeep and eatery manager were put on hold after he started a catering company, Contemporary Caterers, and the kitchen doors were opened wide. Although this was Imbarlina’s first stint as a professional chef, it seemed to be the missing piece in his adventures through the world of wining and dining. In short time, the self-made chef opened a restaurant on the Jersey shore called the Brass Monkey that gained rampant success, receiving four stars from the Courier Post. It was the Brass Monkey that gave Imbarlina the green light to be as creative as he liked with an array of worldly ingredients. When the housing market crashed, the restaurant lost its seasonal partisans and was soon forced to close — but when one door is shut, another is soon to open. Imbarlina moved to Miami more than a year ago and has been pleasing the locals with his eclectic menu ever since. “The clients we are getting, they are loving every single bit of it,” says the chef. “They are eating the rabbit, they are eating the deer. I mean, a lot of things that people haven’t ever tasted before. The concept for both the restaurant itself, the bar and the food, all came from something that I thought Miami needed and also something that I loved and have been wanting to do.” To Frank, this is a mixture of art and business, and saying the man loves what he does only scratches the surface.
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www.miamisunpost.com • The SunPost • April 22, 2010 • Page 3
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ing up a budget shortfall must be brutal… Still, you’ve all elected to do it, and here we are. (On that score, at least, may we offer this tidbit of advice? Don’t be in such a rush to put everyone’s behind in this kind of financial sling again, OK?) Another beneficiary is the Shane Center itself. And who with better right? Maintenance on this icon of the oarlock must be more of a drag than a sea-anchor in heavy weather. The seawall is decaying, and drainage at the wash-down station isn’t quite right. Other vexing problems loom like that gurney in the heart attack commercial that follows its victim around even onto the golf course (luckily it gets stuck in the automated hospital doors). How to raise this money? The lease is quite clear about responsibility of maintenance falling upon the lessee. Sounds like Dr. Shane will have to keep ponying up. But the second floor was “built as an annuity” for the rest of the facility, an unassuming Dr. Shane explained before the committee. Adding that on weekends they’re booked with “weddings and bar mitzvahs for years to come,” that’s only two nights a week; they still need to fill the other five. Thus was the Bingo idea borne, and sent off full-tilt to the City Commission. On such small pivots does history turn. Call us prescient — or is it just that our spies are everywhere? — but we bruited about nearly the same thing back in January, in Crapped Out: “Better yet, Plan B, the Fontainebleau files for bankruptcy and the city buys it and farms out all resort and casino operations (don’t actually want City Hallers running it; can’t see the mayor or commission wearing green eyeshade visors or brandishing a croupier’s rake). That way, we pocket all of the loot, split it with no one and, we could make a killin’, Jack. There are scads of buckets of ducats to be made.” We added the bold italics to emphasize the plan’s brilliance (ain’t quoting oneself a gas?), but, you do get it? That the city’s game plan is a mirror image of our own, we mean. Think on it. By insinuating gambling into a lease agreement (and they call us brilliant?!), the city artfully dodges those nettlesome state regulations concerning gambling and keeps much lucre for itself. Now, when they find a way — and the cahones — to charge market rates for parking, it will positively rain gold. Then we can get on to more important issues, like implementing the South Beach streetcar — which will take real leadership, you betcha. All of which leaves the question of whether Bingo is “gateway gambling” or not unanswered. For now.
Politics COLUMN
0-69 By Jeffrey Bradley
Skullduggery abounds. Did you know that Miami Beach is about to get gambling? Maybe not the kind that’ll attract the Rat Pack or professional cardsharps, no, but your grandmother for sure, the way a flame draws moths. What kind of gambling is this, you ask? Bingo! And when is Bingo not just Bingo? When the commissioners get hold of it, of course. …Raising a very interesting question: Is Bingo the gaming equivalent of a gateway drug leading to a slippery slope that’ll flume you straight into oblivion? Or just an innocuous pastime played by the walkers-ontennis-balls set? See here. Don’t be picturing elders dropped off by the Greyhound Bus-full down at Legion Hall digging out some plastized Bingo game on the shelf next to Parcheesi. Or the standing Sunday night Bingo game at the Standard whose plungers wager fiercely for spa gifts and other on-site amenities but not money. Oh, no. Let’s consult Title 46 of the Florida Statutes, specifically Chapter 849: Our new Bingo hall will be regulated by chapter FS 849.0931, under Crime and Punishment, er, Gambling and Crimes, where all it talks about is Bingo: the card size, form number, ticket count, all spelled out, along with precise definitions of the kitschy accruements — the 75 specially marked balls — plus the “Receptacles” (whatever they are), and those baffling but allimportant “Sessions.” It’s quite specific about who rakes in the profit (nonprofits of long standing only, please); even how much can be won has all been proscribed. Another name for this is a blueprint for printing money. This isn’t your father’s Bingo. Why play in some down-at-the-heels VFW Post where all you win is the take-home version of Whack-A-Mole when you can wager in comfort at the Ronald W. Shane Center sculling To raise funds to shade the school’s mecca? And not to worry if you’re not into shell rowing (Stroke, stroke, playground, the South Pointe Elestroke! Bail, bail, bail!) and don’t know this facility on Indian Creek. You mentary PTA, held a fun-filled carwill. It’s privately built on city-owned land and, according to www.shanenival last weekend. A Celebration of center.com, accommodates 200+ guests (400 theater style), comes the Nations, was packed with perequipped with a large outdoor patio and beautiful breezeway, and offormers, rides, prizes, laughing fers a caterer-friendly kitchen. Throw in “ample parking,” and we’re children, glitter tattoos, a world ready to rock. market, candy floss and yummy Still, the esoteric nature and singular profile of this remarkable kid-friendly food. For more images place will change drastically when the City Commission follows the recof this fab event check out our ommendation of the Neighborhoods/Community Affairs Committee, website at sunpostweekly.com which very recently approved the concept that the foundation running the facility offer a twice-weekly Bingo game in the second floor community complex. You read it right (and here first): gambling on Miami Beach! A watered-down version, sure. And a far cry from the casino-style gambling allowed on reservations or the onsite wagering of pari-mutuel locations offering dog or horse racing. Or is it? When the city wants something bad enough, it sure can get creative. Still, there’s a hint of let’s-fly-this-in-under-the-radar here that needs not be. Why use Doolittle tactics when you’re finally finessing creative leadership? Do you see? Nobody wants elected (or administrative) officials sitting around waiting for the next bus — not even those of us who have to. Good Ford! Ladies and gentlemen of the commission, this is hardly the time to hide your light under a bushel. We understand that cops and firemen — the most easily recognized hands of those in the till — are loath to return a plug nickel they’ve wrung in concessions. And the cost of running a city and mak-
South Pointe Elementary Carnival 2010
Page 8 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
PHOTOS: STUART DAVIDSON
Opinion COLUMN
Can He Say That? By Charles Branham-Bailey ast week's issue of Newsweek sports Texas Gov. Rick Perry ("Governor Goodhair" to his detractors) on the cover, big bold letters blazoned across his business suit: DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS. Don't know about you, but I'd like to see Texas messed with just once, if only to shut them up from using that damned infernal slogan anymore. Say what you will about our guv: "He's a closet case." "He's a disloyal Republican." "He hugged Obama. Obama! That SOCIALIST!" At least he's not Rick Perry. Dubya's successor in the Austin statehouse, at a Tax Day Tea Party a year ago, greeted Tea Partiers who shouted "SECEDE!" by saying he didn't want that to happen, but "if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people... who knows what might come out of that?'' Well, that made the Limbaugh/Beck crowd pee in their pants from excitement. In the magazine's interview, Governor Goodhair at least did the country-he-wouldn't-mind-seeing-split-up a favor by taking himself out of contention for its presidential race in 2012: Are you considering running and would you consider it? "No and no." Under any circumstances? "That's correct." Vice president? Would you be willing to consider that? "No. I don't care about going to Washington, D.C." ... Now if only we could convince Sister Sarah, Brother Newt and some of the other Grumpy Old Party president-wannabees to pledge the same. Maybe Perry has the good sense to figure the country ain't ready for another Texan in the White House until this current crop of Americans is dead and gone and no one's left alive who has any memory of the last one we elected. (Or didn't elect, depending on your point of view.) Don't get me wrong — I like Texas. Certainly do. Been through a few times. Drove through the entire state years ago, on a cross-country excursion, from Houston on the east to El Paso on the west. Stopped in Austin mid-course, and enjoyed a night out with friends at an actual, bona fide Tex-Mex restaurant. I remember wondering if this joint was the same one those notorious Bush twins had gotten busted in for underage drinking earlier that year, around the time the 'rents were just settling into their digs in Washington. Have absolutely no recall of the gastronomic-atomic main course on my plate that night, but I do remember washing all that hot & spicy down with the first frozen margarita I ever had the supreme pleasure to imbibe. So good, I followed it with another. I began to feel the pleasure work its effect on me no sooner than I lightheadedly made my way back to the parking lot. (Disclaimer: No, I was not driving. Nor was anyone in my party, to my knowledge, carrying a concealed weapon on their person, as most non-Texans likely assume of most Texans.) A sidebar article that accompanied the Perry piece spotlighted that bastion of educational excellence known as the Texas State Board of Education. These are 15 people who never came across a sex education textbook they liked. Or a history one. Or a social studies one. Or a science one. Hell, pretty much any textbook, for that matter. This month, the SBOE will be reexamining what 4.7 million Texas public high school students will be taught. A few months ago, preliminary discussions on the civics texts saw Thurgood Marshall and Cesar Chavez out, the inventor of the yo-yo in. Aesop's fables and separation of church and state are out; a reglossing of Joseph McCarthy's reputation is in. Oh, Molly Ivins, where are you when we really need you? I kinda like the idea of Texas seceding from the union if only for one reason: so their stinkin' textbooks don't
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bring down the educational standards of the rest of the U.S. of A. I mean, really. Can you just see what those poor Texas schoolkids will be like, years from now, beyond graduation? Carrying with them into adulthood the notion that humans once saddled up and rode the backs of dinosaurs, that evolution is nonsense, that sex... Well, I don't even want to dare conceive what their understanding of sex might be like. All that ignorance and stupidity has a way of being passed down generations and becoming quite stubbornly resistant to scrubbing. What happens to us all if ever one of them grows up and decides to run for president and leader of the free world? I mean, can you imagine in the darkest recesses of your mind one of these Texas dolts making it all the way to the White... Never mind. Oswald forever changed the world that November day from behind the sixth-floor window of a Dallas building that served as the depository for... ... Texas schoolbooks. And they've been a boil on America's butt ever since. ne thing I sure wish they wouldn't mess with is the Jackie Gleason Theater (aka the Fillmore Miami Beach). Evidently, there are thousands who are like-minded. Supporters of the Gleason have a Facebook page up and running for the theater's fans. Word is that a hotel serving the convention center is on the drawing board for the theater’s exact location. Do we really need more hotels? It's performing arts centers we can't spare. Let's have a moratorium on knocking any more of those down, why don't we? The Gleason's main problem is it stays darkened for so much of the year. Just find a better event management firm to come in and infuse it with productions and entertainment galore. If you really want something to demolish, perhaps a building whose occupants don't quite fulfill its potential, I've got a candidate: Miami Beach City Hall. For if those folks can't leave the Gleason well enough alone — especially in wake of all this public love it's now getting — what good are they? Incredible. The idea of turning the Gleason into a rubble pile could only come from the minds of people who embody that expression some Texans have for dumb: "If brains were leather, they couldn’t saddle a flea."
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“Do we really need more hotels? It’s performing arts centers we can’t spare. Let’s have a moratorium on knocking any more of those down, why don’t we?”
ttended my first Gay Pride Parade coupla Saturdays ago, the one right here in Miami Beach, down Ocean Drive. And I'm not even gay. "Not that there's anything wrong with that." I went because — one, it's not often SoBe hosts a parade. Come to think of it, when else does SoBe have one? And why oughtn't we have more? One every week, I say. It would really put us on the map. Give the tourists something to write home about. Miami: The Parade-A-Week Vacation Spot. As I watched the parade, my thoughts occasionally drifted to the visitors from Iowa or Minnesota whose Miami vacations had somehow collided with Gay Pride weekend. What must their postcards home have said? Dear Aunt Mildred: We saw actual gay people. In the flesh. And they were having a parade on the beach. It was very colorful. They had some interesting floats. We even saw a man dressed up like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. When we come back next year, we'll bring you along. The other reason I went: Out of curiosity for what a gay parade is like. Everybody loves a parade, right? And while practically anybody can do a parade, I had a hunch that when gays have a parade, they know how to throw a PARADE. And I was proven right. By the way, there are no ugly people at a Pride Parade. I mean, really. Do you know of any other denomination of people with more good-looking and aesthetically-pleasing people per capita as the gay community? I saw guys attractive and good-looking enough to tempt me to want to be gay for a day. No kidding. And this from one who considers himself secure enough in his heterosexual masculinity to admit such a thing. And brazen enough to do so within the pages of a newspaper. I came to discover, however, that what really hurts a straight man in a sea of such gay humanity is the sight of so many beautiful, luscious lesbians who will never, EVER be drawn to one like me in the sort of way that I and most other red-blooded straight males would crave. No matter how attractive our face, deep our wallet, or fast our car. Alas, I could only lust and sigh. That's it. 'Nuff said. I hope to return here in this spot next week, before any wrecking ball touches one scintilla of the Gleason, or before BP stock goes gangbusters and the pro-offshore drilling crowd starts cheerleading for oil rigs off Fisher Island.
A
www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 9
TROLLEY AT MIAMIHISTORY
THE MIAMI CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ AT MAM
ILLUSTRATING JUSTICE AT MIAMIHISTORY
ARCANGEL AT MOCA
COVER STORY
CARLSON WINDOW AT LOWE ART
GET A LITTLE
e r u t l Cu May is Museum Month – What Are You Waiting For? Written by John Hood
Keen-minded Miamians know all about our world-class museums, and the even keenerminded among us know they only begin with MAM and MOCA. Indeed, in addition to downtown’s flagship Miami Art Museum (soon to take its place alongside Biscayne Bay) and North Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art (which has become a bona fide beacon to the North Side), we’ve got institutions as diverse and robust as the Bass and the Wolf (both on the Beach), the Lowe and the Frost (Coral Gables and Kendall, respectively), the Miami Children’s Museum (MacArthur Causeway) and the Miami Science Museum (Coconut Grove). Furthermore, we’re blessed with a plethora of smaller yet no less important venues, be it Wynwood’s Bakehouse Art Complex or Overtown’s Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum, and each is as unique as the facility in which it stands. May is Miami Museum Month. That means for the next few weeks you can become a member of all of our beloved cultural institutions for the price of a single membership. “Join one and join them all” runs the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau tagline. And GMCVB should know; after all, they’re the folks who started this program last year and continue to help steer the hordes that make it such a swingin’ success.
SunPost went out and got the lowdown on some of the high-profile action taking place during May. Now you’ve no excuse not to get a little culture too. Bass Museum of Art, 2121 Park Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7530; bassmuseum.org Hard to say what’s more enviable — that Bass Executive Director and Chief Curator Silvia Karman Cubiñá gets to freely rummage around and exhibit one of the most robust collections in the world, or that one day, while picking through the wonders, the museum chief came across “a Polychrome Wood Inner Sarcophagus and Mummy from 25th or 26th Dynasty (808 - 518 B.C.).” How many folks do you know who work in a place that has a mummy in the attic? Thank Ra we’ve got the Bass, a place where attic mummies become the inspiration for an entire Egyptian Gallery of their own. And the mysterious mummy and its attendant sarcophagus are just two of the 15 ancient items on display in the museum’s newly appointed permanent space, and the age of the hieroglyph is but one of the many wondrous eras available to everyone who enters these hallowed halls. Also on display is the just extended “Where Do We Go from Here? Selections from La Colección Jumex,” which, according to the press release, “explores one of the most important collections of con-
COVER STORY
Miami Museum Month cont’d from page 11 temporary art in Latin America” for the first time in the United States. The Jumex is not your daddy’s collection. Using Mexico City as a geographical hotspot, the first grouping includes works from a divergent array of artists, including Francis Alÿs and Carlos Amorales, as well as Jenny Holzer, On Kawara and Andy Warhol. A second textual grouping features everyone from Monica Bonvicini and Joseph Kosuth to Ed Ruscha and Lawrence Weiner. Then there’s a gang of artstars whose works “have been acquired since the beginning of their careers,” among them, Fischli & Weiss, Louise Lawler, Paul McCarthy, Gabriel Orozco and Rudolf Stingel. And if that’s not enough to sate your cultural palate, there’s the Salon of Western Art, which houses historical pieces from the likes of Albrecht Dürer, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Peter Paul Rubens, Gerard Seghers and Ferdinand Bol. Or you can take in the environment created by Mika Tajima, who uses Robert Propst’s Action Office and Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s Performance as a sorta springboard to structurally comment on the way we work and live now. Then mosey on over to see what the French collective Kolkoz has done to free the frame from its inherent restrictions. Oh yeah, don’t forget that on May 6 the Bass is hosting a concert called “A Pilgrim’s Progress,” which features pieces by Francis Poulenc and Bruce Saylor, and May 16 is Family Day (aka IDEA@thebass), where this month they mark the launch of the current exhibition catalog. Then again you’ll probably need no reminder because it may take you the 10 days between those two events just to get through all of the above, and you’ll still be in the building. HistoryMiami, 101 W. Flagler St. Miami; 305-375-1492; hmsf.org When last we covered the Historical Museum of Southern Florida it was actually called the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, and it had been since we can remember. Not anymore though. And we couldn’t be more pleased. Indeed, our most chronologically-obsessed institution is now known simply HistoryMiami. All one word; all encompassing. But don’t think for a second that this bastion of the past has in any way trimmed their devotion to keeping track of where we’ve come from. After all, what better way to puzzle out where we may go? If you caught our HMSF cover story then you’ll know that they’re currently putting on a show called “Crime in Miami.” As we (and they) said, it explores the facts and fictions that have given the Magic City such a bullet-riddled history, and the show’s loaded with enough arcane to sate
even the most savage criminologist among us. In fact, criminology will be the subject on May 20, when HM convenes a panel to discuss “CSI & Forensics.” If ever you wanted to unleash your inner Horatio Caine, this is your chance. But crime’s not the only thing HM’s got going on, and if you’re a more civilized type you may wish to take in the permanent “Tropical Dreams: A People's History of South Florida.” A wide-angle look that nevertheless gets the nuance, this exhibit goes back before the Stone Age and brings us to right now. (Similarities between prehistoric peoples and some of South Beach rowdier crowds are only coincidental.)
WOLFSONIAN MUSEUM, MIAMI BEACH
Lowe Art Museum, 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables; 305-2843603; miami.edu/lowe The Lowe is devoting its May slate to studio glass artist William Carlson, whose show “Aquila Non Capit Muscas (An Eagle Does Not Catch Flies)” will be up and running through June 6. Carlson also happens to be endowed chair and UM Art Department professor, but we won’t hold that against him. Especially considering that he’s reportedly done wonders for the university’s various art programs since he arrived in 2003. He’s also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award, which leads us to believe he’s got chops enough to wow the whole wide world. And if you make it to the May 6 LOWEdown, Carlson will tell you all about it himself. But you don’t need to get face-to-face with the creator to appreciate his elegant use of light and space, nor do you need a guide to realize that the gentleman’s created a thing of great, good grace. May Day marked the second anniversary of the Lowe’s Myrna and Sheldon Palley Pavilion for Contemporary Glass and Studio Arts, a sleek space that also boasts works by Dale Chihuly, Richard Jolley and Robert Arneson, among others. It’s one of those hidden gems Miamians are fond of
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keeping to themselves. But in this case you’ll have to forgive us, because this is the kinda secret that just can’t be kept. Miami Art Museum, 101 W. Flagler St. Miami; 305-375-3000; miamiartmuseum.org No need to wait for MAM to make its Herzog & de Meuron-designed move to Museum Park, not when the folks are putting on shows as robust as Carlos Cruz-Diez’s “The Embodied Experience of Color” (through June 20) and “BETWEEN HERE AND THERE: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection.” According to MAM’s site, the Cruz-Diez “exhibition will feature Cromosaturación (Chromosaturation), a site-specific environment designed by the artist that focuses on the relationship between color and perception.” The work was “Initially conceived in 1965 and presented for the first time in 1968 in the Ostwald Museum in Dortmund, Germany,” but we’re thinkin’ its time has come right now. Add the Venezuelan’s Showers of Chromatic Induction, Chromo-interferent Environment, and Aleatory Interactive Chromatic Experience, and all that right now might just blow your mind. “BETWEEN HERE AND THERE,” in contrast, won’t close in June, and, with some exceptions, will stay showing until MAM’s 2013 move. Lucky for us it will too, because the amount of ultra vivid art that will be on display in that 9,000 square foot Upper Level Gallery will surely take some time to fully consider. “Among the artists represented are Carlos Alfonso, José Bedia, Adolph Gottlieb, Francesco Clemente, Chuck Close, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Alfredo Jaar, Wifredo Lam, Sol LeWitt, Morris Louis, Anna Maria Maiolino, Anna Mendieta, Vik Muniz, Ruben Ochoa, Damian Ortega, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Regina Silveira, Lorna Simpson, Frank Stella, Rachel Whiteread and Kehinde Wile,” any one of which is worth at least a day of diligent viewing. Also on tap for May will be “Assessing Miami Art 2010” with Associatre Curator René Morales on the 12th (part of MAM’s Morning Lecture Series), the MAM Contemporaries Social on the 13th, and “Transatlantic Encounters: Latin American Artists in Paris between the Wars,” with Dr. Michele Greet, who’s Assistant Professor, Department of History & Art History at George Mason University (5/20). Need we really say more? Miami Children's Museum, 980 MacArthur Causeway, Miami; 305-373-5437; miamichildrensmuseum.org There’s not a soul among us who hasn’t crossed the Macarthur Causeway and considered pulling over to kid around at the Miami Children’s Museum. Heck, just looking at the place is enough to unlock your inner scamp. And
if you’ve logged on to MCM’s site and taken the 3-D tour, well, chances are you went out and got yourself a child of your own so you wouldn’t have to go it alone. MCM’s a local treasure, a place of fun and wonder. It’s big and bold and more colorful than any dozen rainbows. It boasts a hodgepodge of daily programs that are both entertaining and educational. And its 14 different galleries run the gamut from sand (Castle of Dreams) to swamp (Everglades Park) to the deep, blue sea (The Sea and Me, Ocean Odyssey). There’s a cruise ship, a world music studio and a rock wall called Mt. MiChiMu, not to mention an exhibit entitled “Meet Miami” that takes a tot from ‘hood to ‘hood without missing a beat. And though we’re here to praise May, mention should be made of MCM’s upcoming “Dino Island,” a prehistoric adventure replete with a “periodically erupting volcano, a swamp with bubbling water, a cave with a ‘fireside’ reading nook area, and more.” If you hurry, though, you can still catch the interactive exhibit devoted to The Wizard of Oz, which closes on May 9. Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-893-6211; mocanomi.org MOCA’s two main shows are on view only until May 9, so if you wanna catch the modern magic of either Ceal Floyer (“Auto Focus”) or Cory Arcangel (“The Sharper Image”), you’d best get on your way. On view through the end of the month, however, is the work of Haitian artists Serge Jolimeau and Michee Ramil Remy, who craft some very clever contemporary artifacts. Coming up in June will be the work of “Paris-based collective artist” Claire Fontaine, whose ready-made approach to 21st-century life seems to have left postmodernism in the proverbial dust — or at least delegated it to history’s dustbin. That’s not to say this dame has forsaken modernism, for her site goes directly to Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Destructive RIGHT: ANDY WARHOL Character,” one of Theoria’s “documents in JACKIE (SMILbarbarism.” Benjamin was a pal of Brecht, ING) 1964 AT and he’s perhaps most known for essaying THE BASS MUSEUM. BELOW: about Baudelaire, but one gets the im- KIDS GET CREpression that Fontaine might be drawn to ATIVE AT THE BASS MUwhat he called “auratic perception,” which SEUM KIDS Wiki cites is “the aesthetic faculty through DAY. which civilization would recover a lost appreciation of myth.” Then again, what else can we cull from a chick who says she’s got the power to become “an existential terrorist in search of subjective emancipation”? Miami Science Museum, 3280 S. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-646-4200; miamisci.org Talk about whimsical! Up and running (literally) is something called “Cabaret Mechanical Theater,” a collection of more than 40 throwback sculptures known as “automata.” They’re delightful semi-beings of which both Dadaists and children would undoubtedly approve. And they can be seen (and in some cases operated) through September.
Also on tap in this landmark haven of knowing and exploration is the monthly Fabulous First Friday, which on May 7 can either send you to space or have you climbing trees. The former comes courtesy of MiaSci’s beloved planetarium and rooftop observatory, a place that has been wowing locals since 1966 (when it was called the Space Transit Planetarium). The latter will be a lecture from Fairchild Tropical Garden’s Dr. Richard J. Campbell entitled “Collecting Mayan Fruits for South Florida.” The good doctor has been head of Fairchild’s tropical fruit program for 19 years, so there’s no doubt he knows what he’s talkin’ about. In addition, on May 9 moms get in free; May 15 is devoted to endangered species; and May 23 is “Nano Day,” when “real life scientists” will be on hand to help you deal with the scale of these tiny things. The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, 10975 SW 17th St., Miami; 305-348-2890; thefrost.fiu.edu For more than three decades, the Frost (formerly the Art Museum of FIU) has given Miamians an excuse to head west and get themselves some culture. In 1981, it launched the Steven and Dorothea Green Lecture Series, which compounded
that culture exponentially. Then back in November ’08, the Frost unveiled its soaring, 46,000-square-foot Yann Weymouth building, and the Miamians who arrived en masse came in conjunction with an onslaught of world travelers. This year the Frost is throwing the Miami Museum Month closing party and celebrating the opening of four (count ‘em!) new shows. So if the streets of the east seemed deserted that night, you’ll know why. It’s all part of Target Wednesday After Hours, a unique program that often allows art fans to meet and greet the artists themselves. The four shows featured are “TapTap: Celebrating the Art of Haiti,” “Spiritual Healing – Shamans of the Northwest Coast: Art and the Cultural Approach to Healing,” “Paul Strand in Mexico” and “Volf Roitman: From MADI to the Ludic Revolution.” Okay, so Strand won’t be on hand (he died in ’76), but it’s a bet there’ll be someone from either the Mexican Consulate or the Aperture Foundation (two of the show’s presenters) to expound about his vivid photographs. As for the rest, well, it’s anyone’s guess, yet there’s no doubt that what’s on display will speak the proverbial volumes. The Wolfsonian – FIU, 1001 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 305-535-1001; wolfsonian.org Hard to believe that South Beach boasts an institution that holds in its midst more than 120,000 of the best objects of art and design ever created, but it’s true. And while only a fraction of that collection is ever on display, there’s not a day when a visit to the Wolf doesn’t reveal an enlightening surprise. With the current subject devoted to Art and Design in the Modern Age and covering everything from Advertising for Health to the American Physical Culture LEFT: TRIBAL Movement, May promises to be all that MASK AT THE and then some. On May 7 The Wolf Book FROST Club digs into Aleksandar Hemon’s The MUSEUM Lazarus Project; on May 14 it’s “The Gifts of American Opera and Song,” which finds the Florida Grand Opera Young Artist Studio performing works by Kurt Weill, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and others. May 21 features the monthly Deco and Design Tour, which scours the ‘hood and then returns to indulge in The Wolf’s permanent collection, as well as a discussion with New York Times man Daniel Okrent about his Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.
ON THE COVER: CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ, DUCHAS DE INDUCCION CROMATICA. (SHOWERS OF CHROMATIC INDUCTION). MIAMI ART MUSEUM. www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 13
Calendar WHAT TO DO IN MIAMI THIS WEEK
GUSTAVO CERRATI
Page 14 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
SAVE THE DATE:
May 7
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31
CINEMA French Thriller The Miami Theatrical Digital premiere of Jacques Audiard's, The Prophet will be shown this week at the Cinematheque. Condemned to six years in prison, Malik L Djebna, cannot read or write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone at 19 years old, he is cornered by the leader of the Corsican Gang currently ruling the prison, he is given a number of missions to carry out. Malik is a fast learner and rises up the prison ranks, all the while devising his own plans. 6:50pm. $10. Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Española Way, Miami Beach. For info: mbcinema.com
May 7
MUSIC Soul Jam Rock out with Reggae songstress, Nadine Sutherland during Reggae Soul Jam at Tobacco Road this weekend. Resident DJ Oski will spin. $10. 10pm. Tobacco Road, 626 South Miamii Ave., Miami. For info: 305.374.1198 or tobaccoroad.com
May 7
MUSIC Music at MOCA Catch up-and-coming young opera singers perform during Music at MOCA. A selection of works by American composers will be performed by Julie Ebner, Amanda Crider, David Bailey Jonathan Michie, Benjamin Clements with Ashley Anderson on piano. 7:30pm. $5. MOCA, 770 NE 125th Street, North Miami. For info: 305-893-6211 or mocanomi.org.
CREED RECENTLY RE-UNITED, THE BAND CREED WILL HIT TOWN FOR A ONE-NIGHT ONLY PERFORMANCE IN WEST PALM. AMERICAN POST-GRUNGE BAND FROM TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA, BECAME POPULAR IN THE LATE 90'S AND EARLY 2000S. THE BAND WON A GRAMMY AWARD FOR BEST ROCK SONG FOR THE SONG WITH ARMS WIDE OPEN IN 2001. THE BAND DISBANDED IN 2004 AFTER THREE MULTI-PLATINUM ALBUMS, SELLING AN ESTIMATED 35 MILLION RECORDS WORLD WIDE, INCLUDING 26 MILLION RECORDS IN THE UNITED STATES ALONE.7:30PM. CRUZAN AMPHITHEATRE, 601-7 SANSBURY'S WAY, WEST PALM BEACH. FOR INFO: 561-795-8883 OR LIVENATION.COM
May 7
May 7
Catch a reading by poet Zachary Schomburg when he hits town May 7 for the University of Wynwood visiting poet series. Schomburg is the author of two collections of poetry, The Man Suit and Scary, No Scary. 8pm. Gallery Diet, 174 NW 23rd St; Miami. For info: universityofwynwood.org
Argentine pop singer & songwriter, Gustavo Cerati will embark on his solo tour in Miami this friday night. Cerati, formally of the popular Argentine Rock group Soda Stereo, is best known for his lead and rhythm guitar talents and for his ability to play intricate leads. 8pm. 46.75-$66.75. American Airlines Arena, 601 Biscayne Blvd, Miami. For info. aaa.com
PERFORMANCE Poetry
MUSIC Gustavo Cerati
May 8 ART JJ Peet
The first solo painting exhibition of NY-based artist JJ Peet, The Sunday Painter will open at Gallery Diet this weekend in time for Saturday Art Walk. The Sunday Painter is part of an ongoing project in which Peet responds to contemporary social, economic and political events through the process of art-making. Opening reception from 7-10pm. Gallery Diet, 174 NW 23rd St; Miami. For info: gallerydiet.com
May 8
ART How to Read a Book How to Read a Book, an exhibition of contemporary art derived from and influenced by influential works of 'classic' novels. Curated by Michael Wilson, the exhibit will feature work by Becky Beasley, Guy Ben-Ner, Lorin Davies, Harrell Fletcher, Jeff Gabel, Anna Gray, Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Graham Parker, Christina Pettersson, Leanne Shapton, Eve K. Tremblay, and Matt Wiegle. Opening reception 7-10pm. Locust Projects, 155 Northeast 38th St., Miami. For info: 305-576-8570
May 8
BOOKS Dave Barry ABOVE LEFT: JOHANNAH O’DONNELL, I AM THE CUTE ONE. ABOVE RIGHT: JOHANNAH O’DONNELL, SHE'S JUST MY SISTER.
Pulitzer Prize winning South Florida author Dave Barry will be in top form as he talks about his new book I'll Mature When I'm Dead: Dave Barry's Amazing Tales of Adulthood. Presented by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Books and Books. Tickets required. $35 members, $40 non-members. 3pm. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Rd; Coral Gables. For info: www.booksandbooks.com or fairchildgarden.org
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Calendar WHAT TO DO IN MIAMI THIS WEEK
DAVE BARRY
May 8
May 9
A new exhibit opening at Edge Zones, Face to Face curated by Juan Carballo will show works by artists, Lucas Blanco, Juan Carballo, Franklin Einspruch, Ernie Sandidge and Claudia Scalise. Opening reception to meet the artists: 7pm. Edge Zones, 47 NE 25th St; Miami. For info: edgezones.org
Local Artist Victor Payares will host this exhibition with some friends, who also happen to be artists. Reinier Gamboa, Mauricio Gonzales, Alvaro Ilizarbe, Herman Felipe Kaizedo, Luis Pinto and Orlando Robaina will show. Free. Edge Zones, 47 NE 25th St; Miami. For info: edgezones.org
May 8
May 10
ART Face to Face
KIDS Family Expo The Children’s Trust Family Expo is a day-long family festival featuring activities and entertainment for the entire family. Face painters, clowns, stiltwalkers, magicians, arts & crafts, bounce houses, rock climbing walls, performances, child fingerprinting, Pre-K registration, KidCare outreach, vaccination information, after-school programs, child seat safety demonstrations, puppet shows, appearances by well-known PBS characters, and much more. Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition, 10901 Coral Way, Miami. For info: 305-571-5700 or thechildrenstrust.org
May 9
MOTHER’S DAY Gospel Concert Celebrate mom in style by taking her to the All Star Mother’s Day Celebration. Performances by Kirk Franklin, Lee Williams & Spiritual QC’s, Vickie Winans and James Fortune & Fiya. $67.50 & $57.50. 6pm. James L. Knight Center, 400 SE 2nd Ave; Miami. For info: jlkc.com
ART Just Friends
ART Believe the Hype Catch the Believe the Hype Exhibit at Eazy Street gallery. An art show featuring paintings, sculptures and installations created by a collective or urban contemporary, pop surrealist, mixed media and kill or be killed street artists, from around the world. Artwork by: Jesse Reno, Doug Boehm, Robert Bellm, Levon Jihanian, David Chung, Johnny Robles, Nick Gazin, Andrew Spear, Johannah O’Donnell, Dolla, Brandon Dunlap, Eric Althin, Dustin Orlando, Mat Curran, Parail, Dubelyoo, Adriaan Mol, Dres13, David Hoskins, Scott Donald , Brandon McLean, Jose Mertz and Lucy Furs. Eazy Street Gallery, 3501 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami. For info: ezstreetgallery.com
May 11 FILM Cinema Green
MOTHER’S DAY Brunch at the Zoo
Dolphins in Distress is a documentary that chronicles the rescue, rehabilitation and eventual release of the surviving dolphins who stranded themselves on the sand flats off Marathon, Florida with little hope of survival. This film was made by Bob Care for the Marine Mammal Conservancy. MMC is committed to protecting Marine Mammals & Their Habitats Through Research, Rescue, Rehabilitation, Release and Education. Also showing is Acid Test, a film produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council, to raise awareness about ocean acidification, which poses a fundamental challenge to life in the seas. 8pm. $10. Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Española Way, Miami Beach. For info: mbcinema.com
Something a little different for mom this year is a wild brunch at Metrozoo. Get an inside look at some of zoo's wild moms with a tour on a safari tram. Munch on a buffet brunch at the air-conditioned Oasis Grille Pavilion with an array of delicious goodies like Cheese blintzes with warm fruit toppings, frittatas, Sourdough french toast with guava maple syrup and much more. $37.95-$39.95. 11am. 9:30am. Metrozoo, 12400 SW 152 St., Miami. For info: 305-251-0400 or miamimetrozoo.com
RIGHT: VICKIE WINANS. ABOVE: A SCENE FROM FILM THE PROPHET. FAR ABOVE: JJ PEET, RUMI 2009.
May 9
MOTHER’S DAY Tea in the Garden Celebrate mothers and grandmothers with a Mothers Day Afternoon Tea. Scones, savories and desserts served by garden volunteers is on the tea menu. Music of guitarist Rob Friedman. Tea service begins at 3pm. Cost per person is $27 for members, $37 for non-members and $17 for children 12 and under. Veranda and in the Ballroom of the Jean Ellen DuPont Shehan Visitor Center, Fairchild Tropical Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Road Coral Gables. For info: fairchildgarden.org or 305-667-1651
May 9
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www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 17
The 411
Tara Solomon & Brett Orlando at Cafeina SamRobin & Iran Issa-Khan
Ivette Naranjo and Navi Rawat at Cafeina
Francesco Caracciolo de Marano & Sam Robin
COLUMN
People We Love By Mary Jo Almeida-Shore maryjoshore@sunpostweekly.com Photos by Mary Jo Almeida-Shore
Tino Schuster, Princess Isabelle, & Barbara Becker
LITTLE DITTY, ABOUT SAM AND IRAN…
Sam and Iran shared this quote, “We want to thank Tara, Ink
…Two fabulous gals with a whole lot of fans… Could have
and Cafeina for loving us so much! The feeling is completely mu-
been the theme song at Wynwood hotspot Cafeina for the third in-
tual…. A great time was had by all and we look forward to spend-
stallment of its “People We Love” party series on Thursday night,
ing many evenings enjoying Ivette Naranjo’s fabulous hospitality!”
honoring longtime BFFs, acclaimed designer Sam Robin and noted
Don’t’ miss Cafeina’s next People We Love party, on Thursday, May
photographer Iran Issa-Khan. The party might as well have been
13, when nine-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter and pro-
named “People Who Made/Make Miami” as an old-school crowd
ducer Rudy Perez will be on hand to help celebrate songstress and
and vibe permeated the chic, trendy space. An incognito Sam
designer Jamie Jo Harris as she hosts the fourth installment of the
(barely recognizable without her trademark Jackie O. glasses) and
party series. Attendees will also be treated to the exclusive debut of
Iran were joined by an international jet-set crowd, many of whom
the music duo’s latest collaboration.
comprise their everyday entourage, including Barbara Becker, Tui Pranich, Wallid and Susie Wahab, Alvaro Cuadrado, Francesco
Sam Robin, Cosima Preuss-Kuhne, Iran Issa Khan
THE SWEET SPOT
Caracciolo de Marano, Cosima Preuss-Kuhne, Gary and Dana
“Kick back, eat well and stay… all night long” is the mantra at
Shear, Daniela Swaebe and Michael Comras, Suzy Buckley, Lily
Sugarcane Raw Bar and Grill, which was officially unveiled at a
Zanardi, Claudia Potamkin, Bruce and Kathryn Orosz, Criselda
party thrown by Ocean Drive magazine, keeping Midtown Miami
and Jonathan Breene, Terry and Rob Schecter, Alison An-
up all night Thursday with live music by the Spam All Stars and the
throbus and Adam Shepard, Heidi and Pierre Charalamdides,
hustle and bustle of local VIPs. Among them were Tracy Wilson
Eric Newill, Terry Cohen, Tara Solomon, Nick D’Annunzio and
Mourning; Lisa Pliner; Bravo’s Ariel Stein; WSVN’s Belkys Nerey
Sam’s son (whom she calls “son of Sam”) Gregory Robin, to name
and VH1’s Glenn Packard (Brooke Knows Best); Laura Posada;
a few. Burn Notice cast-mates Jeffrey Donovan and Navi Rawat
Tony Cho; Max Pierre; managing partners Danielle Billera, Shi-
(Sam’s goddaughter) added a sprinkle of TV stardust to the already
mon Bokovza and Matt Johnson; and hundreds of Miami’s most
fantastic group, who could barely stop dancing long enough to pose
stylish party people who danced to the Latin beats between bites of
for photos, thanks to the creative sounds of DJ Joe Dert, who even
stuffed dates, duck confit eggrolls, sushi, oysters, sliders and lots
threw in a little Neil Diamond to his already irresistible ‘80s
of other Sugarcane specialties created by Executive Chef Timon
mashups.
Balloo.
People We Love Party for Sam Robin and Iran Issa Khan at Cafeina
Page 18 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
Sam and Gregory Robin
Daniela Swaebe and Michael Comras
Brooke Jospeh & Adam Rosenfeld at Cafeina
Christina Getty-Maercks & Yolanda Berkowitz at the Bass
CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS: Tracy Wilson Mourning hosted the eighth annual “Hats Off” Luncheon presented by ING at the Treetop Ballroom at Jungle Island on Tuesday. Notorious reality TV star Nick Hogan, also known as “DJ Nick Hogan,” debuted his spinning persona on Wednesday at Kitchen 305. Hogan and DJ Frank Vazquez rocked the Miami hotspot to a crowd of 300 including Linda Hogan, NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman and hip-hop artist The Game. Our source tells us Hogan played a three-hour set, as Rodman worked the crowd while indulging in his drink of choice, Jaeger bombs; and that Linda kept things PG with her “cub” Charley Hill, a former classmate of her
Renee & Steven Gans, Nikki & Michael Simkins at the Bass Museum
Ana Maria Canseco & Alfredo Gonzales at A Night at the Museum at the Bass
children, avoiding the champagne and cocktail specials of the night. Molly Sims hosted a party at LIV Friday night celebrating her jewelry line, Grace by Molly Sims. Belkys Nerey and Louis Aguirre from Deco Drive hosted a party on Saturday night for “stylist to the stars” Mario Vergel’s birthday at Bar 721. Pop-artist Carlos Betancourt and 7 News anchor Craig Stevens joined in the fun. When asked about the party, Nerey said, “It's not every day your "bestie" turns 40. We wanted to celebrate with all his favorite people just letting loose and having a good time. No stuffy dinner, no fancy cocktail party. What better place than bar 721? At this age when your birthday number ends in a zero
Lindemann, Cubina, & Exposito
Kelly & Peter Gold at the Bass Museum
you’ve got to do it up! The birthdays in between don't count.” Earlier in the week, Brooke Hogan and her roommie, Glen Packard popped in to Bar 721 for a few cocktails. Brooke Hogan and members of Burn Notice, including Jeffrey Donovan, were spotted at Lucky Strike Lanes & Lounge to bowl and watch the Mayweather vs. Mosley fight on Saturday.
Yolanda Rossi, Jillian Sanz at opening of Angelique Euro Cafe in the Gables
Adam Rosenfeld & Michael Simkins
www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 19
411
Nick and Linda Hogan at Kitchen 305
Dana Rhoden Maxwell Blanford and Alexis Knapp at the Sugarcane Opening
Belkys Nerey and Eduardo Marquez at the opening of Sugarcane
Dennis Rodman and Friend at Kitchen 305
Jon Sharvit of Stone Rose, Alexis Knapp of Tresko PR & Joanna Cisowska of Sushi Samba
Mariana Loumiet and friend at Sugarcane
Spam Allstars perform at the Sugarcane Opening
Max Pierre at the Sugarcane Opening
Page 20 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
Miriam Zadok with featured artist Karim Ghidinelli at the opening of Zag Gallery
Arnona Morr, Tova Bilu, ZAG owners Dror & Miriam Zadok, Dan Morr & Yosi Bilu at the opening of Zag Gallery in Wynwood
GO! EVENTS
Upcoming Social Events By Mary Jo Almeida-Shore maryjoshore@sunpostweekly.com
SET UP THURSDAYS AT SET This Thursday, May 6, the Opium Group’s SET nightclub is launching its newest weekly party, “The Set Up.” The Spy vs. Spy (Mad Magazine’s famed comic strip) inspired party will take place in the nightclub’s intimate, clandestine upstairs room and is hosted by well-known local purveyors of fun: Zac Courtney, Javier Pacheco and George Coronado. DJs Gil Montiel, Oren Nizri and Nando will take turns on the turntables (read – Mac Books) and provide partygoers with a night full of electro-indie and house music. The Set Up begins at 10 p.m. SET is located at 320 Lincoln Road. For more information, please call 305-531-2800 and/or visit setmiami.com.
HEAVY PETTING Florida's own The Heavy Pets are celebrating the release of their second full-length studio effort on Saturday, May 8, at the Culture Room, 3045 Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. The eponymous album features 12 colorful tracks, a slew of special guest musicians and a distinctly bold new statement from THP. The party starts at 7 p.m. and features a live performance at 9. Tickets cost $10. No RSVP required.
BE A FRIEND Treat your mom or that special someone in your life to the Miami Light Project’s annual Friends Dinner fundraiser on Saturday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. at their brand new 14,000-square-foot Wynwood arts space, The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse (404 NW 26th St.). The evening promises to be filled with “celebrated food, robust beverages, rousing entertainment and the most fascinating gathering of Miami glitterati. With its innovative location and no-holds-barred party atmosphere, you will find artists, power brokers, dowagers, hipsters, notables and socialites cheek to jowl, having the time of their lives!”
DJ Joe Dert
This year’s Friends Dinner will honor visionary developer Tony Goldman. Expect feature performances by Miami-based fusion band ¡MAYDAY! and performance troupe Circ X. Dinner will be served by Thierry’s Catering with décor provided by Las Tias, the Wynwood vintage store. Other sponsors include Ocean Drive magazine, Heineken and Wish. Individual tickets cost $150; host levels range in price from $1,000-$10,000. For tickets call 305576-4350.
HARLEY DOG DAYS Lilac and Lilies Boutique is hosting a fashion show and pop-up boutique at the Ninth Annual Harley Dog Days event benefitting PAWS (Pets Are worth Saving) and the Humane Society of Broward County. The fundraiser dinner takes place on Saturday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. at the waterfront estate home of PAWS’ honorary chairs, Ron Picou and Michelle DiMarco, celebrity stylist and owner of Lilac and Lilies. The evening will feature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a fashion show and intimate dinner with a live auction and tribute to the late Bruce Rossmeyer. Dessert will be served along with a dueling pianos act and tunes from Fifth Avenue Music. Doc Reno from Big 105 will serve as emcee. A popup Lilac and Lilies Boutique will offer guests the chance to score some of their favorite designers, with a portion of proceeds going to PAWS. Tickets are $200 per person. Visit humanebroward.com/paws for more information.
www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 21
Cinema REVIEW
COLUMN
Oscar’s Secrets By Ruben Rosario (ruben@sunpostweekly.com) The end of spring is a dead zone nestled between awards season and the forthcoming onslaught of summer blockbusters (“tentpoles” in studio speak). Never mind that it’s only the first weekend in May; as far as Hollywood is concerned, summer is already here. As you’re reading this, family members are planning their sneaking-off strategy to catch Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 after taking Mom out to lunch on Sunday. This particular time in the moviegoing calendar, however, lends itself perfectly to catching up on titles that figured prominently at this year’s Academy Awards. This is also the opportunity to see which films deliver the goods and which fail to live up to the hype. Jacques Audiard’s prison drama, A Prophet, which screens this weekend at the Miami Beach Cinematheque following a successful theatrical release earlier this spring, arrives with a truckload of awards and rave reviews. The film premiered nearly a year ago at the Cannes Film Festival, where it walked off with the Grand Jury Prize (second only to the Palme d’Or). It won nine Césars (the French Oscars) including Best Picture, the National Board of Review award for Foreign Language Film, and also made the final shortlist for the Oscars and Golden Globes in the same category. So how come sitting through it feels like such a chore? Blame Audiard’s rigorous approach in telling the story of Malik El Djebena, a young Arab who experiences quite the rite of passage behind bars. When we first see him, he’s a monosyllabic 19-yearold runt who, we soon learn, is illiterate. We brace ourselves for the inevitable shanking. But Malik turns out to be a resilient inmate, thanks in part to his involvement with the Corsican mafia and, in particular, his relationship with César Luciani (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’s Niels Arestrup), the weathered mobster who becomes his mentor. What sounds like a sweeping crime epic winds up feeling like a navel-gazing look at the passage of time. Audiard, whose previous films (A Self-Made Hero, Read My Lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) showed a fascination with ethical dilemmas, wants to ensure we feel like we’re incarcerated along with his protagonist, and in this regard, he succeeds. The racial tensions between Muslims and Corsicans always feel genuine, and newcomer Tahar Rahim captures Malik’s feeling of displacement as he straddles both communities while never fully belonging to either. With the exception of two very well-staged sequences of violence, though, A Prophet is dramatically more inert than it should be. It captures the details of contemporary prison life, but none of the juice. Next to this film, The Shawshank Redemption plays like an episode of HBO’s Oz. Where’s Brad Davis when you need him? I wish Audiard had displayed some of the brio and panache that Son of the Bride director Juan José Campanella brings to The Secret in Their Eyes, the mystery/love story that took this year’s Foreign Language Oscar from A Prophet and Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon. The film revolves around the 1974 rape and murder of Liliana Collotti, a young schoolteacher in Buenos Aires. It’s a heinous crime that ripples across the decades for court investigator Benjamín Espósito (Nine Queens con artist Ricardo Darín). Now retired, he plans to write a novel about the case,
Bound
which gives him an ideal excuse to reconnect with Irene, the wellbred, Ivy League-educated court secretary with whom he was secretly smitten. Campanella alternates between time periods in a structure reminiscent of The English Patient, but the present-day framing device is creaky, the upstairs/downstairs romance forced. The Secret in Their Eyes thrives when it deals with the corruption Benjamín encounters as he tries to solve Liliana’s death, as well as in a tour-de-force, seemingly uninterrupted shot in which Benjamín and his partner attempt to find the prime suspect during a soccer match. It’s a filmmaking coup de grace that, coupled with Campanella’s irresistibly salty dialogue (much of it, sadly, gets lost in translation for non-Spanish speakers), helps compensate for the contrivances in the film’s last 20 minutes, which include a revelation that I didn’t buy for a second. Before it turns into a South American episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (Campanella has actually directed some episodes), this is an absorbing meditation on memory and regret in the guise of a cop thriller. I still think The White Ribbon was robbed. The Academy has been known to spring out-of-left-field surprises, and none this year was sweeter than seeing the littleknown Irish film The Secret of Kells nominated for Animated Feature. That Pixar’s Up would win was a foregone conclusion (the award, in my opinion, belonged to Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox), but director Tomm Moore’s medieval tale, which just ended a one-week run at the Intracoastal Sunrise Cinemas in North Miami Beach following its local premiere at the KidFlix Festival last month, holds its own against its higher-profile competitors. Our hero is 12-year-old Brendan, a bright monk who lives in a remote abbey with his stern uncle. The arrival of a master illuminator (the Dark Ages’ equivalent of a graphic novel illustrator) —along with a mysterious manuscript — awakens Brendan to the enchanted forest that lies outside the wall his uncle is building to fend off barbarians (the “v” word is never used, but when you see those horns, there’s little doubt whom Moore is referring to). Suddenly Brendan’s off on secret missions to help the illustrator finish his book, and to this end he is aided by the fairy Aisling, who, in a tip of the hat to Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, is a young wolf-girl. Every frame of this meticulously crafted film brims with movement. What’s striking about Moore’s style, besides the angular character designs (love those square fingers), is how it’s able to entice you into this world while remaining gloriously abstract. I also admire Moore’s refusal to abide by the usual story beats one comes to expect from animated features. When the invaders come, the screen is bathed in dark reds, and the director doesn’t shy away from conveying the devastation. Full of wondrous sights, The Secret of Kells gave my imagination a muchneeded workout. It’s the calm before the summer-movie storm. For showtimes of A Prophet, go to mbcinema.com. The Secret in Their Eyes is now showing at South Beach Regal Cinemas; for showtimes go to fandango.com The Secret of Kells returns to South Florida later this summer. Stay tuned for details.
Page 22 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
Knowing Noir Overlook’s Film Noir Encyclopedia Fills in the Shadows By John Hood
Man, do I dig it when a plan comes together. When that plan wasn’t even a plan to begin with and it comes together by accident, well, hell, that’s even more diggable. Take last Friday. I open my front door to find a package bearing Overlook’s ultrafine Film Noir: The Encyclopedia ($45). I’d put in a request for a review copy some weeks back and had been itchy with anticipation ever since. And why wouldn’t I be? I mean, I’m the kinda cat who’s either watching film noir or attempting to re-create it in real life, and it’s a cinch I’d wanna get my mitts on something that covers the subject in such depth. Anyway, as I say, the book arrives. Thrill enough in itself for a shady guy like me. But then when I sashay out to my mailbox I find that the thrill has been compounded by Netflix. Yep, you guessed it, they’d kindly sent along some noir of their own. In fact, it was Where Danger Lives, one of the feistiest films in the genre. And it came backed by another dark little ditty called Tension. Naturally I was psyched, doubly psyched, and keen to see if either of the above got any play in my new Encyclopedia. I shouldn’t have questioned the premise. Not only are both flicks well covered in the book, but Danger gets its own six pages of duly explained sequence shots. That’s right, shot-by-shots of “fugitive couple” Jeff Cameron (played by Robert Mitchum) and Margo Lannington (Faith
Domergue) — first before some roly-poly Alice in a back-alley burlesque; second, getting shaken down in a carny kingpin’s office; and third, in four groupings, coming unhinged in some fleabag hotel room while they wait to make their escape to Mexico. I tell ya, it was enough to make me flip my proverbial lid. If this Encyclopedia would do all this for one of Mitch’s lesser known noirs, what would it do for more famous flicks such as Crossfire, Macao, Out of the Past and The Racket? Turns out, a lot. All four of the aforementioned are thoroughly covered as well, though not nearly as thoroughly as Danger. Perhaps that’s because two of the four authors of the Encyclopedia handle Danger’s “commentary.” Or maybe it’s just that the flick is held in higher esteem than I ever imagined. It was some kinda wonderful. And if noted noir ops Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward see fit to give the flick major play, who am I to argue? Indeed, Silver and Ward, and their encyclopedic colleagues, James Ursini and Robert Porfirio, have their mitts on just about all the noir out there, from each Film Noir Reader that’s been fit to print, to every flick ever to be reissued. In other words, these four have cornered the market on shadows and fog. And they’re undoubtedly the most informed film noir historians working today. Of course noir didn’t begin or end with Mitchum, nor did it stop with the dissolution of black-and-white, and Film Noir: The Encyclopedia fills you in on what came before and after, be it back in noir’s heyday or in its more recent neo-noir incarnations. And the book does so with wily eye for detail. There’s a good reason why noir continues to be watched and studied and celebrated: It takes us to places where but for the grace of a god each and every one of us could easily go. Dark, dreary and dangerous places, dig? — where the risk of death is all too real and the thrill of life is ever present. That the form just happens to do all this with a certain style only makes it that much more compelling. If you dig noir (and you should), then you’d do well to have this handbook by your side while you’re digging it. Besides, even the loneliest walk alone needs a guide every once in a while.
Style INTERVIEW
Lilac and Lilies By Jennifer Fragoso (jennifer@sunpostweekly.com) Lilac and Lilies began as an online shop that evolved into a brick and mortar boutique located in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea one year ago. At the helm of this burgeoning retail enterprise is Michelle DiMarco, personal stylist, FIT graduate and all-around fashionista. Both the store and the website are chock-full of chic, contemporary clothing and accessories from designers such as Black Halo, Lauren Moffatt, Geren Ford, Alexis Hudson and Rebecca Minkoff, to name a few. “I wanted Lilac and Lilies to resemble a fabulous and well-edited closet filled with your favorite designer clothes,” says DiMarco. Michelle and I sat down last week in her lovely boutique to dish on life and the labels she likes to live in. SunPost: Where do you like to go to shop for the store? Michelle DiMarco: The LA Market has a vibe I mesh well with and I like to go to Europe for inspiration. Did you always know that you wanted to be in fashion? It was an evolution. As a child I would have sleepovers and create runway shows with all of my friends and I read all of the fashion magazines but I didn’t really know where I fit into fashion.
What is your style mantra? I never like to dress too trendy. I like classic pieces and then inject a little bit of trend. What trend are you loving right now? Nautical Stripes is one of the all-time classic looks and is currently one of the biggest trends. (Check out Michelle’s Lilac and Lilies blog for more info.) Who is your favorite RTW designer? Missoni. I think their clothes are the epitome of understated elegance. Who is your favorite shoe designer? Gucci. What is your favorite handbag line? I would have to say, right now, Gucci and Miu Miu. What’s next for Lilac and Lilies? Doing private label and incorporating beauty products into the store. We already have Kai body products, fragrances and candles available both in the store and online. What keeps you going? My business. It is my life but I love it!
ABOVE: ELIZABETH HALTER DRESS BY JAY GODFREY ABOVE RIGHT: MICHELLE’S FAVORITE: MYSTIFY BEADED TANK BY MADISON MARCUS. RIGHT: ALEXIS HUDSON GLAM BAG IN GINGER AND AT LEFT IN TURQUOISE
Visit Lilac and Lilies at 229 Commercial Blvd., Lauderdale-by-the-Sea; 954-530-3109 or log on to www.lilacandlilies.com.
How did you become a stylist? It just happened. Becoming a stylist was somewhat of a natural evolution from working in boutiques, listening to clients and helping them with their individual needs. What do you envision when you start your day? Owning your own business means that every day there is so much to do that some days I just hope to simply get through the day. But it is a good feeling that I wouldn’t trade. How do you approach dressing? The way I dress depends on my mood but my look generally goes from girlie to rock and roll.
www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 23
Sex
Health COLUMN
COLUMN
Being Me Smoke-Free
Designer Dope By Dr. Sonjia Kenya Do drugs make sex better? I’m not referring to medications prescribed to improve basic sexual functions. I’m talking about common illicit drugs often associated with exciting sexual encounters, such as cocaine, ecstasy, and increasingly popular methamphetamines. Despite urban myths, every Miamian (individual 21+ years old living in Miami by choice) I asked said, “No, drugs do not make sex better.” This may surprise tourists, but most who call Miami home know the vast majority of attractive, successful locals are pretty tame compared to the shallow media images associated with our city of paradise. I should disclose that those answering my questions enjoy socializing at the same places, during the same times as I do and I make absolutely no attempt to get opinions from people who are not within my radar. Actually, this week’s column is inspired by a reader who approached me last week with a complaint: “I’m so sick of all the guys taking drugs. They get all horny and then they can’t get it up. Why don’t you write about that?” I’ll do my best. I began researching the story Friday night at Lou’s Beer Garden, an adorable outdoor café at the New Hotel in North Beach. Surprised to find the place packed with just one bar seat available, I got busy immediately. To my left sat a man in his early 30s wearing a worn T-shirt and baseball cap, drinking a beer. An obvious, easy target. “Hello,” I said. Within five minutes, I knew he was from Costa Rica; had lived in an apartment in North Bay Village for three years; wants to go to Ireland because he loves pale skin and redheads, although he thinks his taste in women is unusual; and he once smoked six rocks of crack but never used again. Did it make him want to have sex? Not while on crack, he said, because “it was all about the drug. Getting to know the drug, feeling the high. I didn’t leave the crack house. I didn’t think about sex.” I asked whether other drugs, like marijuana, made sex better? He responded with a question, “Is pot a drug?” Looking for more insight, I found my next respondents at Flanigan’s in Surfside during a break from my Saturday afternoon bike ride. I ventured here to determine whether my neighbor was right about this place serving the best wings in Miami (he was), but I also found great company from enthusiastic locals. The 40something band manager and concert producer sitting to my left said, “Drugs kind of numb the experience. I don’t think they make sex better.” Given his profession and that his meal eaten at the bar at 4 p.m. seemed to be his first of the day, I imagine this man has had many opportunities to test the effects of drugs on sex. Therefore, I weighted his opinion as very, very qualified. The two female bartenders agreed. Both pretty girls
in their early 20s, they thought about it for a second before shaking their heads. One said, “No. Not really. It might make you do things you wouldn’t normally do but drugs don’t make sex better.” The other bartender added, “It’s ironic. People think it does but it really doesn’t.” Later at Lemon Twist, the quaint French Bistro in Normandy Island, I met this column’s muse to pick his brain for thoughts on the relationship between sex and drugs. “I’ve been in more twosomes, threesomes and whateversomes lately where I’m the only one able to get hard. It’s very frustrating and a total waste of time!” he exclaimed. What are they using? He screamed the answer across the restaurant, surprising several patrons: “They’re all using methamphetamines and ecstasy. It’s gotten out of control! I don’t even want to try that stuff once if that’s what it does!” In reality, that’s what drug use really does. It is much more likely to ruin sex than improve it. One of the most common reasons people report becoming addicted to methamphetamines is because sex is supposedly amazing when high on this drug. Meth-induced sex has been described as “intense and detached.” Users say sexual inhibitions are replaced with strong feelings of exhilarating sexual power that last for endless hours. Meth also makes you take risks you wouldn’t engage in while sober, like having unprotected sex with four strangers in a public hallway. When that’s not enough fun, long-term users also report inability to orgasm or maintain a firm erection. If you think that’s frustrating for a user, imagine how happy their partner must be. Ecstasy, the drug named for ultimate pleasure, can also be a downer in bed. While many users report increased feelings of sensuality and sexual desire, almost half of all men in most studies have problems becoming erect and both genders describe delayed orgasms resulting from ecstasy use. Perhaps the scariest thing about the drug is its strong association with risky sex. Condom use declines significantly when people have sex on ecstasy. Another considerable risk for frequent users is chronic depression. The brain’s pleasure sensors get out of whack with ecstasy and may never recover the ability to function normally. Imagine losing your ability to feel pleasure for the rest of your life because of one too many ecstasy-induced evenings. Similar problems are linked to cocaine, barbiturates and especially crack. While it’s true that not everyone has a negative experience with drugs and sex, it is also possible everyone is taking different types of drugs. Crack, ecstasy, and methamphetamines are “designer drugs,” which means they are made by man and therefore only as good as the “designer” who creates them. This is
Page 24 • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • SunPost Weekly • www.sunpostweekly.com
By Jennifer Fragoso (jennifer@sunpostweekly.com)
an important point because if someone takes a drug made from bad ingredients, they could die in the worst scenario or get very sick in the best scenario. If a drug dealer knew that spraying insect repellent increased a drug’s potency, consumer satisfaction and the rate of return customers, would they spray it on the product? Perhaps that’s why hospital admission rates for bad reactions to ecstasy have steadily increased in the past two decades, just as use of the designer drug has increased among adolescents and young adults. Designers of manmade drugs are not following some secret recipe. They are not obligated to put nutrition or ingredient labels on their products. There is no governing body to make sure they don’t use too much bleach, rat poison or Lysol in the drug they’re preparing to sell. The very synthetic nature of designer drugs is what makes them so risky to ingest. Not only can they destroy your sex life, but they can also wreak havoc on your body — you’re essentially taking mystery ingredients a stranger put together to get you high. There is no guarantee of quality, no return policy and no seller’s remorse if you die from a drug they designed. On the other hand, sex without drugs may get you high and improve your mental state! Studies have shown that sex can be a potent pain-killer for many mild conditions, and renowned sexologist Beverly Whipple found that women who achieved orgasm felt significantly less pain compared to their pre-orgasmic state. Who knew a good climax could relieve that nagging headache? Sober sex may also be an effective way to make college females happier. A State University of New York study, which I suspect was conducted by a team of males, found that women who had unprotected sex were less likely to be depressed than those who had sex with condoms or no sex at all. Yep, you read right. Unprotected sex with your man may be an effective antidepressant. To confirm their findings, the research team encourages more studies of unprotected sex with college women. The bottom line is sex is sexier without drugs. Dope may reduce your inhibitions and motivate you to do things your sober self would never consider. But love, intimacy and respect can have the same effect. People in love are more comfortable releasing inhibitions, enacting wild fantasies and still respecting each other in the morning. Remember this the next time you consider having sex with someone on drugs: How much respect is someone showing you if they need to get high before getting down?
Name: Jennifer Fragoso Age: 38 Years smoking: 23 SMOKE FREE: Nine Weeks
WEEK 9: DOING EVERYDAY THINGS SMOKE FREE Apart from last week, I’ve been mainly talking about the emotional effects of quitting smoking, but as I was running the other day I realized that I’m starting to feel the physical benefits of being me smoke-free. So I went online and looked up the health benefits of quitting smoking. It looks and feels like I’m right on track. Research indicates improved circulation and an increase in lung function around the two-week to three-month period after quitting smoking. I guess that’s why I feel as light as a bird when I’m running now, whereas when I smoked I felt weighed down and uncomfortable running. Now instead of huffing and puffing, I’m bobbing and weaving through these hot MB streets and having a great time. Every smoke-free day gives me opportunities to re-fall in love with the things I used to enjoy while smoking. By now you’ve probably seen the commercials by BecomeAnEX.org that show people trying to do things like wake up, drive and — my favorite — drink coffee without smoking cigarettes. (If you haven’t, take a quick look on YouTube). In these commercials we see people fumbling with everyday things because they are not smoking. Taking a cigarette away from your morning coffee can seem horrific, but in time you begin to relearn how to do these little everyday things. Better yet, you learn how to enjoy them smoke-free. Every day I overcome another hurdle. I’m even more amazed at how resilient the body and mind can be. Just as I learned to smoke some 23 years ago, I now can learn how not to smoke. Each day I’m given fresh opportunities to flourish in my new smoke-free life. With each unencumbered deep breath I take, I’m reminded of what smoking took away from me rather than romanticizing what it gave me. I’m yearning the escape less and less and choosing the soft embrace of a crowded space. I’m living my life, eating my food, drinking my wine and enjoying my morning cup of coffee completely smoke-free. During weeks 1-3 this would have made me feel uneasy. Now with time and a clear mind, I can handle everyday things smoke-free. If you want to know what to expect when you decide to quit, log on to whyquit.com the page lays out the immediate and long-term benefits to quitting. Good luck and God bless you on your new smoke-free journey.
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A Special Moment in Time COLUMN
There Was a Real Steve Hannagan! By Seth H. Bramson (seth@sunpostweekly.com)
Much has been made of and about the man who was truly behind Carl Fisher and Jim Allison’s success in promoting a place called Miami Beach, that man’s name being Steve Hannagan. But little is known about Hannagan, other than the fact that John H. Levi, Fisher’s “ramrod” and righthand man, brought Hannagan down from New York to, essentially, save Miami Beach for Fisher and Allison. Things had gotten so bad on the island city that even after Pete Chase (founder of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce and for whom Chase Avenue is named) suggested they give the lots free to anybody willing to build a home, they still couldn’t give them away! Fortunately, Levi, who had introduced Fisher and Allison to John S. Collins and Thomas Pancoast and who had been the yacht broker from whom Fisher purchased his boat, knew of and about Hannagan and his publicity and public relations work in New York, where he was considered not only the “whiz kid” of New York p.r., but also the boy genius in his field. With Fisher and Allison’s approval, Levi contacted Hannagan, told him about Miami Beach and the problems they were facing, and asked if Hannagan could help. Hannagan, coming to Miami Beach for the first time in (it is believed) 1923, took one look around and knew that, indeed, he could “help.” And help is what Hannagan did, so much so that within just a few short years Miami Beach had eclipsed St. Augustine, Ormond and Palm Beach as the most glamorous and desirous winter destination in the country. Life Magazine, in its Nov. 30, 1936 issue, devoted six full pages to Hannagan and what he did for Miami Beach, and it appears that that article is, today, the primary source for, on and about Steve Hannagan, as so little remains of his great work other than the material that this writer preserved when he cleaned out the old Miami Beach City Hall following the move to the new building. Hannagan had, as his associates, Joe Copps (who became a famous writer in his own right), Robert Barron and Larry Smits, who was no relation to Jimmy. Beginning with the 1924 season, Hannagan began to work his magic. From sometime around Thanksgiving of that year, and starting on or about every Thanksgiving thereafter until St. Patrick’s Day or Easter in the late 1940s, when Hannagan’s contract was not renewed by the city, U.S. newspapers were filled with pictures of pretty girls in bathing suits. Sometimes the girls were shown solo, sometimes in groups of two or three or more, but, almost always, in glamorous poses and brief (for the time) bathing suits. It was, of course, the tag lines on the photos that made equally great impressions! Hannagan, aided by a staff of 11 people, managed what he named Miami Beach News Service. For a number of years he was paid the princely sum of $25,000 a season, an amount the city fathers of the time considered money well spent for the unending front pages that Steve’s pictures would receive. The captions were enough to entice anybody, whether a big, tough male enchanted by the beautiful girls
he would surely meet on his visit to Miami Beach or the lovely lady of the house, who couldn’t wait to spend her vacation on the sands of Miami Beach in the dead of winter, with the beach temperature at 78 degrees while back home they were battling four feet of snow and 6 degrees above zero! Next week: Part two of the Steve Hannagan story and more about his publicity, which, for all intents and purposes, created Miami Beach.
www.sunpostweekly.com • SunPost Weekly • Thursday, May 6, 2010 • Page 26
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