Manola’s report from Exxxotica this weekend. Hilarious.

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Looks like all the hipsters that dragged themselves out to see the Stills last week were mostly disappointed.

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The report from Saturday night

Dino lights candles at Dorsch

Dino Felipe sets up for his performance at Dorsch last night. The preparation was fraught with technical difficulty, but got up and running stunningly, a parody (homage?) to Lies, among much else. Even crouched down on the floor and lighting candles, he somehow dominates the room. Dino was also one of the judges in last week’s laptop battle, and has been reviewed by pitchfork and deleted by myspace.

The work in the exhibition was a mixed bag, but there was lots of good stuff to see, especially in the project room, for those who braved the absurd heat. I’m serious, though, it was something like 85° and 80% humidity and no breeze, try standing in an unventilated warehouse with 500 of your closest friends (and another 500 on the street outside). The good news is that I have been personally assured by Mr. Dorsch himself that this is the last exhibition ever without AC. The units are on the roof, and the duct-work is getting run right after the show closes. It’s going to be the end of a sticky era.

Even with all that, the highlight of the evening was Cliff Chidree’s new film, Somethin Awful. Cliff splits the difference between Charlie Chaplain and Matthew Barney, and this 30 minute short (On 16mm! With sound performed live! Shown at the esteemed Bas Fisher Invitational!) must be seen to be believed.

Speaking of homages to Guns n Roses, we stopped briefly at “The Bar” in Coral Gables, where the worst cover band ever played Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (yes I know it’s a Dylan song, but they were covering GnR, trust me) and attempted, rather unsuccessfully, Honky Tonk Women. Could not have gotten out of there fast enough.

TNFH went out too, and has more stuff.

Posted Sunday June 11, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [3]


 

Reading books in Miami: The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, and Notes from Underground. Somebody contribute more of these to this site and let me know. (via Kottke)

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Something Awful Friday

production still from Something Awful

Posted Friday June 9, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [6]


 

Laptop Battle

Notes from the Laptop Battle at Churchill’s on Saturday. It was much stranger, and much more fun, then one might be led to expect. The performers fell into two categories: the straight-ahead music types, and the performance-oriented types, who often just hit ‘play’ on their computer (an MP3 player might have sufficed) and did some performance art. Seen above: Line Noise.

Here we have an attempt at a hybrid. I think this group was called Pet Sounds Kentsoundz, though i was a little too loaded to catch the other names. We have a guy in a wolf mask working a computer an a girl in an angel outfit dancing the Muse behind him.

The judges take this shit very seriously. There was a ‘no microphones’ rule, and the one guy who bent it (by singing without a microphone, at the top of his lungs, into the audience) passed on to the next round (he was wearing a New Kids on the Block shirt, so there was that).

DJ Saul DJ Je Nais Se Qua entertained the audience between matches with silly fake-Frence schtick and cheesy music (The Police? Aphex Twin!?). He would have stolen the show, at least until . . .

This guy WDF fired up his powerbook, pulled his overalls down around his ankles, and jumped into the audience, raving lunatic-like. He has on a leopard print g-string and a little monkey backpack with a strange strap hanging off it.

Yikes!

Ravelstein and friends rounded out the evening with a performance on the back patio. Hell yeah.

Update: Anyone know any of the other names of acts in the pictures? Got ‘em – thanks!

Posted Sunday June 4, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [8]


 

Movie Weekend

Havana Suite still
Image from Suite Habana

Posted Friday June 2, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [3]


 

Jesse Jackson (“not affiliated with the Rev. of the same name”) will be on Ed Bell’s show this afternoon.

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¡MAYDAY!

Oh, boy, here’s something everybody already knows about: local hip-hop duo ¡Mayday! teamed up with the amazing Cee-Lo Green and DJ Craze for the song Groundhog Day. The video, shot in Miami (it doesn’t represent quite to the extent of the Rick Ross video, but it’s pretty damned good), got uploaded to YouTube a week ago, and has become the most popular video there of all time. But nevermind the stats: the video is a funny tribute to Miami visuals (shot on Washington ave and around downtown, including shots on the Metromover), the song is a tribute to (I think) working in an office all day and doing coke all night (and samples a line about TPS reports from Office Space), and the beat is old-school and super-mellow. What’s not to like? (via R: 1, 2)

Posted Tuesday May 23, 2006 · Permalink · Comment


 

Ice skating

iceskating

Ice skating seems like a natural fit for the hot, muggy months in Miami. Yet the only ice skating rink I knew about (up by FIU North) was torn down years ago. For the last few months I’ve been on a quest for ice skating, and it turns out it was under my nose the whole time: a friend pointed out that the Scott Rakow ice rink has public skate on Tuesdays and Saturdays, 8 – 10 pm (plus teen night on Fridays).

We stopped by last week (it was on Tuesday, and it was rainy, probably hence the relative emptiness of the place), and it was great. The serious skaters show up early and zip around, doing spins and jumps and and skating backwards (which I fell on my ass trying to replicate), along with a few couples. There was also a family with a few cool kids. I’m sure it’s kind of a crazy social scene on the weekends; the Tuesday thing is probably better for novices and serious skaters. Either way, though: FUN. $9 for adults, $6 for kids, $3 for Miami Beach residents(!), which includes skate rental. Here’s a Mapquest link, otherwise you’ll never find it.

And yes, there’s also the Kendall Ice Arena.

Posted Monday May 22, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [3]


 

Nostalgia weekend

Posted Friday May 19, 2006 · Permalink · Comment


 

Heat playoffs tickets presale passwords. I don’t care about the Heat; in fact, I have no idea what this is all about. Might be interesting for the b-ball fans, tho.

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Coconut Grove Playhouse director resigns

Unbelievable. Arnold Mittelman, artistic director of the Coconut Grove Playhouse resigned with an e-mail that accuses the board of treating him bad. Note that part of the reason for the mess is he took out an unauthorized $125,000 loan to cover salaries. Including his own. Which, by the way, just happens to be $220,000!

It sounds to me like his resignation will be helping the Playhouse out of its troubles in at least two distinct ways. Assuming, of course, that the place still has a chance. My guess is that only some government intervention can save the day at this point (and why not; a CGP bailout would be a lot less expensive then even just the most recent MPAC bailout).

Posted Tuesday May 16, 2006 · Permalink · Comment


 

An article that is nominally a criticism of the forthcoming Miami Vice movie turns out to be a celebration of the original series.

The dark and cynical “Miami Vice” blew open Reagan-Bush/Iran-Contra era America, and carved open the hypocrisy of the “war on drugs.” The show dared expose US government corruption, the CIA, covert operations, CIA involvement in narco-trafficking, and US imperialism. It dared show how rank and file cops, drug agents and whistleblowers who tried to do their jobs in earnest were manipulated, obstructed and betrayed by their own government.

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Holy crap: on Metroblogging, Bianca writes the ode to Mondays at Churchill’s that I wish I’d written. “Churchill’s…it’s like my dirty living room. I can kick my feet up, sit on the tables, but never do I sit on the toilet seats.” Let’s have more shit like this out of Metroblogging!

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AMC movie theaters at Aventura Mall and Cocowalk will begin showing independent movies. Great, but the South Beach Regal has been doing that since it opened.

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Crockett's Theme

Let’s have s’more stoopid Miami Vice nostalgia videos. Here’s Don Johnson getting all deep with it.

Posted Saturday May 6, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [1]


 

South Beach Chamber Ensemble

SBCE

The South Beach Chamber Ensemble performs at MAC at 4 pm on Sunday. I caught them doing the same program a few weeks ago at the Miami Beach Community Church, and they are excellent. Drawn from the teaching staff at New World School for the Arts, SBCE is a surprisingly hip string quartet. This program, for instance, includes nothing older then 1957. Between pieces, they explain, give background, and tell stories, sometimes interrupting each other to jump in on a point.

They open with Shostakovich’s String Quartet #7, which is Russian modernism at it’s best – dissonant, dramatic, and in places just plain weird. It’s the sort of piece that demonstrates why the string quartet can be the most effective of classical music units – it is able to create rich layers of texture with unusual techniques on each instrument, while allowing each of the instruments to be heard as a distinct voice. The show continues with Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae” (composed in 2003) a shimmering, slowly developing tribute to a visit to a planetarium, and concludes, fittingly, with a string quartet by Villa-Lobos, the Brazilian master.

The show is part of the ensemble’s “Music in Beautiful Spaces,” a good execution of a good idea. ($5)

Posted Friday May 5, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [4]


 

Breakin' weekend

mlp hip hop

Posted Friday May 5, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [7]


 

Everyday I'm hustlin'

“The bridge separates South Beach from my Miami. The real Miami.”

Rick Ross: representin’ Dade County, Carol City, BMW 745’s, and a very prominently product-placed Treo 650.

Posted Saturday April 29, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [8]


 

A childrens' weekend

kid with horn

Posted Friday April 28, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [5]


 

Flew Friday

Posted Friday April 21, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [3]


 

Precious little weekend

clubbin' as far as the eye can see

Not much going on this weekend that I can see. I guess it’s the

Posted Friday April 14, 2006 · Permalink · Comment


 

New World Symphony does Reich

Cookin:' Part IV

The New World Symphony’s performnace of Steve Reich’s Drumming on Saturday was pretty mind-bending. Exploring the same themes that occupied Reich’s entire career, the piece is built up from simple rhythmic motifs which grow increasingly complex through layering, variation, and “phasing.” The later technique is particularly key – it involves a repeating pattern played by two musicians, whom gradually fall out of sync with each other (one playing just slightly faster), then back into sync (when the “faster” variation gets a full eight-note ahead of the other). The effect is maddeningly complex when done by two musicians, let alone 13. Drumming opens up on four pairs of tuned bongos, moves to marimbas for the second section, to glockenspiels for the third, and finishes with all the instruments playing together. At various points, vocalists, a piccolo, and whistling augment the percussion. All of the action of the piece takes place in a very limited frequency range, and often with incredible density of notes, which result in overtones and perceived sounds that cannot be coming from the actual instruments. The piece also challenges you to “follow the pattern,” knowing full well that the variations will grown too complex by several orders of magnitude for that to be possible—at one particularly hot moment, there are nine musicians playing different patterns on the marimbas. Think of future robots playing patty-cake, fractal/chaos theory, and the game simon, but mostly nevermind: you just have to listen to it from beginning to end to get it.

What I’m trying to say is that this shit is weird. And that gets me to how cool the New World Symphony is for doing it (and doing it well: the performance was easily as good as the one one my box cd.) And getting people to come hear it: the 704-seat theater was maybe 90% full. I was skeptical of combining a show like this with a 90-minute cocktail reception (“Symphony with a Twist,” indeed), but the proof is in the pudding: no more then one person left during the performance, and most of the crowd cheered furiously at the end (from the balcony, I saw a few people sitting with arms folded across their chest throughout the standing ovation, but that’s less then I’d have expected). Before the show, Michael Linville came out and explained the basic concepts of the piece (with a quick demonstration by a couple of the musicians) to give the audience a little background, but mostly they were just thrown in the deep end. So we have another case of NWS doing uncompromising work, and getting people to hear it. Bravo!

Posted Monday April 10, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [2]


 

Drumming Friday

Tuned bongos, y'all!

Anything else?

Update: Immigrant solidarity rallies (from the Herald):

Posted Friday April 7, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [4]


 

Orchid Weekend

Hey: Also, I’m working on something about the UM Janitor strike. Anyone have any thoughts, e-mail me; think of it like comments in reverse. In particular, I want to get my hands on something called “Why the Protest Continues: It’s All About Democracy.”

Posted Friday March 31, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [3]


 

Poquito Tuesday

Posted Tuesday March 28, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [12]


 

Let's get this weekend started

Posted Thursday March 23, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [3]


 

Musicians' Forum

The New World Symphony gets plenty of lip service around here, and I’ve been thinking I need to start actually attending more of their concerts (particularly after Marc’s recent visit, which he sounded exited about).

The Musicians’ Forum sounded like casual, adventurous fun (and it’s one of New World Symphony’s free events), although it turned out to be less casual then expected. The musicianship was first-rate, of course, but the program was pretty long, varied, and excellent. The evening opened with a couple of duets (who knew that a pair of trombones could be fun to listen to?), followed by the only piece composed by a NWS affiliate, 28 year old Fellow (?) Piotr Szewczyk’s violin concerto. Accompanied by a 38 piece orchestra, Szewczyk was obviously exited premiering the piece. Though I’m not sure it lived up to whatever expectations may be cast by the “very new music” claim, the piece was brooding and dramatic, and an excellent vehicle for the violinist’s scorching playing.

After intermission, more trombones, this time as part of a brass quintet, followed by an early-20th century solo flute piece. Performed by Ebonee Thomas, it had the drifting quality of much of the music of that time (see Saite and Debussy), along with some super-fast passages that Thomas executed gracefully. Ravel’s Tzigane, a violin/piano duet, closed out the evening. Ravel uses beautiful passages which dissolve into frenzied, hyperfast runs, and some Reeves Gabriel-style extended technique, atonality, rapidly alternating picking and bowing, and general craziness. A total show-stopper (the performers, Boris Zelichenok and Ching Ming Cheng, seen above accepting ample applause from the audience). Wow.

Next stop: the Percussion Consort.

Posted Tuesday March 21, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [4]


 

The new Gulfstream horse races

A lot has happened in Broward since the law allowing slot machines at horse tracks and similar facilities, but the complete rebuilding of the Gulfstream horse track is the most visible development. And while details are still being worked out on how slot machines and poker will work (the Gulfstream site says “We expect to open the 20-table poker room in July,” nothing about slots), horse racing is in full effect at the new facility.

The large building overlooks a positively huge plot of land. Currently mostly parking, a hotel, condos, shopping, and other facilities are planned (and presumably a garage).

The grand entrance includes a walkway where jockeys show off their horses before every race. None of these photos quite express just how packed the place was.

These look like slot machines, but they are for horse-racing only.

Still more horse-racing terminals, these look much more serious (I have no idea what all of this stuff is for – looks a little like mission controll, right?).

Each race is a different length, and the starting gate gets moved around. Track conditions were reported on the board as “fast” and “firm.”

You would think the race itself would be a let-down, but it’s kind of fun. There is much bilingual hollering from the (mostly male, mostly beer-drinking) audience. A nice Canadian lady filled me in on win, place, and show, and other subtleties of betting.

Jockeys chill after the race. I wonder about the horses. They seem to have it pretty cushy, but who really knows?

My favorite way to bet? Forget the computers – find one of the “Bet With Me” girls wandering the stands. Minimum bet is $2, so you can learn by doing, all without having to worry about spilling your drink.

Posted Monday March 20, 2006 · Permalink · Comment [5]


 

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