Thursday July 26, 2007
“Have you noticed that the Palm Beach Post’s Internet site has become the new ‘tip sheet’ for the Sun-Sentinel?”
Tuesday July 17, 2007
The helpful folks at Miami-Dade.gov are always looking out for you. Next up is an alert system that will send you an e-mail, pager alert, or text message (your choice!) in the event of a hurricane or other warning situation. More about your choice: English, Spanish, or Creole! Kindly direct yourself to this only slightly user-hostile page if you’re interested.
Tuesday February 26, 2008
This week, the Herald is running a 5-part section on the history of 27th Avenue, home among other things of the world’s first Burger King and home to the world’s last standing Royal Castle. Includes a silly scrolling map and audio interviews with local folks (for all of which the second is the better half). Update: I fixed the link. Now everyone go look!
Thursday October 19, 2006
Jim DeFede is moderating a debate between the candidates for Miami District 2 commissioner tomorrow (October 20). 7 pm at the Bayshore Lutheran Church, Biscayne Blvd. and NE 60th Terr. You can send questions you want him to ask to debate@biscayneboulevard.com. (via Biscayne Boulevard Times e-mail)
Thursday January 19, 2006
Wall of hate
Nova Southeastern University has come upon a rather, uh, creative way to celebrate the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King: they’ve erected a wall of cinderblocks and inscribed it with as many racial and other offensive epithets as they could think of. Come noon on Friday, they’re going to ceremoniously tear it down. A sign next to the wall reads:
Through the act of constructing a wall representing our oppression of others and bringing down this structure, participants in this event are reminded of the need to act personally and experience the power to create positive change in the future.
No idea how intentional the Pink Floyd reference is, but the writing on the wall quote in the picture suggests it crossed their minds. We also get “Geek,” “Jap,” “Chico,” “Oreo,” “Dyke,” “Puta,” “Lard Ass,” and “Feminist.”
I wonder about that last one. Sure, “feminist” has sometimes been used as a derisive term in recent years, but are we ready to concede that it is “strictly” negative? Is it a word we want to “tear down”? It seems like a halfhearted step into a completely different set of words: “Communist,” for example comes to mind, and it’s much more likely to be intended as an insult . . . wasn’t Dr. King accused of being a Communist?
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Thursday February 1, 2007
“A city-sponsored party at the Orange Bowl would annoy many Cubans on the island who once supported the Cuban dictatorship, and who — while critical of it now — have fears about their future. And a more subdued, official ‘‘public event’‘ without a clear focus would not be much better, since it would inevitably turn into a party. Instead, Cuban exiles should hold a prayer service for the victims of Castro’s military regime. In addition, they could use the occasion to expose Cuba’s disastrous economic policies by collecting food for the Cuban people, who — under their food rationing cards — do not have access to any red meat; only three quarters of a pound of soybean picadillo per person per month.” — Oppenheimer’s thoughts.
Friday May 19, 2006
There’s been so much grumbling about the raise that county commissioners are asking for that I’ve been waiting for someone to come up with a clear and persuasive argument for the raise. Michael Lewis to the rescue.
Wednesday November 8, 2006
Boxed in. How many times do I have to point out that we’re all in this together, and if we don’t look out for each other, we’re lost? Equally bad: people who park and leave big spaces behind and in front of their car, where a second car could have fit if they’d just scooted forward. People like this deserve unpleasant notes left under their windshield wipers.
Tuesday February 27, 2007
Subtropics: Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams, and Joan LaBarbara
I didn’t quite know what to make of these two during the group pieces the other night. Their contribution was wispy and ethereal, and most difficult to register of the group. But when Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams took the stage, it was obvious from the first notes that they are a powerhouse. They opened with a set of pieces by Conlon Nancarrow written for the player piano. That’s right — they performed music written to be played by a machine. These pieces often involve simultaneous lines at different speeds, notes played together very close to each other on the keyboard, and a general cacophony of piano. Imagine the trip from Keith Jarrett to Cecil Taylor, and then go again as far in the same direction, or imagine ten schoolchildren hitting keys at random on a single keyboard, but then imagine that notated note for note . . . well, it sounds unplayable because it is unplayable, and if I hadn’t seen Bugallo and Williams do it I’d not believe that it was possible.
They actually somehow made it look effortless, too. Working almost as a single being at one piano (the picture above was taken during a later piece by a different composer), their hands frequently crossing and overlapped in bizarre configurations (sometimes all four hands in the space of one keyboard octave), taking turns turning the pages of the score, and hitting each jarring note exactly dead on. It was simply breathtaking.
Bugallo and Williams took a break from Nancarrow to perform three longer compositions by other composers, most notably the Sonata for Two Pianos by Salvatore Sciarrino. From the Subtropics site:
The two performers must simultaneously operate in two mindsets: one characterized by a great deal of indeterminacy (no precise rhythms, pitches, dynamics, or tempi are specified) and the other dominated by extremely precise ornamentation (black and/or white note glissandi of varying lengths, no less than fourteen different types of trills, and a wide range of clusters). The gesture of ornamentation is brought to the forefront.
They’re not kidding. The performance was a romp through ultra-fast repeating patterns on the upper range of the pianos, full of the aforementioned glissandi and trills, and it was positively dazzling. I think iSAW has been recording the whole festival, and this piece belongs on any collection of highlights.
What’s surprising about the work of Joan LaBarbara is actually how unique it is. Voice is such a primal component of the human experience, yet we spend so little time considering its possibilities beyond utilitarian speech and a still relatively conservative approach to “singing.” LaBarbara has been exploring the other possibilities of vocal performance in the 1970s, and remains one of the very few artists working in this mode. Trained as a classical singer, LaBarbara began toward the end of her training to gravitate towards the extended vocal techniques and an experimental approach out of a desire to work with living (read: avant-garde) composers, and hasn’t looked back since. I cherish my copy of Voice is the Original Instrument, and I was blown away by seeing her live.
She performed an all-Cage concert, suitable to the theme of the festival but highlighting her (considerable) talents as a traditional singer more so then her “extended technique.” But the material was impeccably chosen, and we did get a taste — a piece where LaBarbara dueted with a pre-recorded version of herself (synchronized with a stopwatch — see the photo!), hissing, yelping, and . . . actually nevermind, verbal descriptions will never do this music justice. Suffice it to say that it’s transportative in a way that nothing else is. She also performed a piece with short phrases interspersed with long silences (Cage trademark), which was the height of drama (at least until someone’s cell phone went off).
I could go on and on about Joan LaBarbara, but suffice it to say that she’s a legend, and it was a privilege to see her perform.
Tonight: The Subtropics Marathon! (7 pm, $10)
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Wednesday February 21, 2007
A rundown of the upcoming Subtropics festival, including an interview with Subtropics’ founder, Gustavo Matamoros. “Miami has been a big failure at trying to be like New York. This is because to be like New York one must start with the subway.”
Monday December 12, 2005
Gulfstream horse track revamp
The old grandstand was cool, but we’re enjoying how the new Gulfstream Park building, on Biscayne Blvd at the northern edge of the county, is shaping up. No doubt they’re going to ruin it with McMansion flourishes before all is said and done. Why do they always have to do that?
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Friday November 24, 2006
Armed cartoonist storms El Nuevo Herald
Earlier today, an El Nuevo Herald cartoonist, Jose Varela, came to the office camoed up and armed with what appears to be a submachine gun. He took control of executive editor Humberto Castelló‘s office and trashed it. He had this to say (translated from Spanish):
You know that the newspaper lasts little today. This little problem is over now. This is a pig sty and somebody needs to pay, somebody has to do it, because this is how you clean shit. It’s about time, now that they’re mocking people. Today they’re going to see it as violence. But somebody has to pay and that is going to be Castello.
The news room was evacuated, and a swat team’s been called in. Herald report.
Update: From the Reuters report (emphasis added):
El Nuevo reporter Rui Ferreira said in a blog that he had spoken to the gunman, who told him, “You are speaking to the new director of the newspaper and I am going to unmask all of the true conflicts in the newspaper.”
Varela called the paper a “pigsty”, said it made fun of the Cuban exile community in Miami and that the paper paid poorly.
“They’ve been making fun of people long enough and today they will see it end in violence. But someone has to pay and that person is going to be (Humberto) Castello.” he said, referring to the Spanish-language paper’s executive editor.
Ferreira said Varela had been in the newsroom a week ago and told former colleagues he had bought himself a sawn-off shotgun and an Uzi submachine gun because he felt unsafe in Jupiter, a Florida town he moved to after his recent divorce.
Update (2:45pm): Police just arrested the guy. Nobody hurt. The update is at the original Herald link, along with a picture of Varela.
Update (11-25-06): OK, the machine gun was a toy(!), although he also had a knife. The “Herald report” link above now has a detailed account of how everything happened (not sure how I feel about them completely rewriting the story as it happens). It seems pretty clear that what we had here was a crazy guy going crazy. Check out a transcript where he compares himself to Rosa Parks at Herald Watch. And at the Pulp, Bob had this to say (after quoting the same “he shoulda grabbed Fiedler” comment from Babalu that Rick jumped on):
I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but I’m starting to think there needs to be some kind of town hall meeting with Fiedler, other newspaper editors and reporters, Cuban exile leaders, and anybody else interested in these issues. Stick Michael Putney in there to moderate. Start it at 7:30 and let it last until the wee hours if it has to.
One thing’s for sure: for better or worse, this has definitely piqued some interest in Varela’s work.
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Friday July 13, 2007
Mango Weekend
- The International Mango Festival at Fairchild. Yes yes, unbeknownst to most Americans, there are actually dozens of varieties of mangoes. Learn about, and sample, them all. Note especially: the mango brunch on Sunday (reservations required).
- Colombian Film Festival at Miami Beach Cinematheque.
- Tonight: Dandi Wind at Off the Radar, PS14.
- Saturday: Critical Mass one year anniversary.
- Critical Mass’ goody-two-shoe alternative, the Miami Beach Community Bicycle Ride.
- Chef Sattie Narace will demonstrate the preparation of traditional Trinidad and Tobago dishes. Dadeland Macy’s, 1 pm.
- Yep, Morrissey at Mizner Park Amphitheater, Boca.
- Black Violin again at the Joseph Caleb Auditorium.
- Gallery hop. Masochists will brave the atmospheric conditions to find any number of closed galleries. The open ones presumably feature artists gallerists are least sure about, so potentially some diamonds in the rough. Reality: mostly hodgepodge group shows. Try Snitzer, Lowenstein, Kunsthaus, Antikulture, Buena Vista Building, and Locust.
- Dirty Disco at Pawn Shop.
- Sunday: Off-beat meetup of the day: Neo Shamanism (RSVP required I think).
- Dunkxchange at Stuido A, 1-6 pm.
- Later at Studio A, Da Dog Dayz Of Summer Tour, with DMX.
Update: I completely forgot about Tom Scicluna’s Mast installation at Twenty Twenty, the one thing that has a shot of getting me down to Wynwood Saturday. More at TnfH (and here) and Dig.
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Monday July 16, 2007
The odd case of Tough Sports Live, a locally based website that broadcasts cockfights from Puerto Rico (where they’re legal) on the internet. David Oscar Markus of the Southern District of Florida Blog is defending the site in court. The Herald’s coverage of the case links to the site, which Bob Norman points out is unusual, and may be a sign of some shifting realities in how the newspaper deals with the internet.
Monday February 5, 2007
Miami-Dade’s new housing locator appears to be pretty comprehensive, and lets you search by area, number of bedrooms, and price range. Even has Google maps integration. Too bad you can’t pull up a map with all the results and click from there. (via Miami Vision)
Tuesday October 11, 2005
Happy Jew Year!
[Contributed by Steve Klotz]
If you know any Jewish folks (and “some of your best friends are Jews,” right?), you might be aware that they’re in the midst of the holiest time of year. The 10 days between Rosh Hashana
(New Year’s) and Yom Kippur (Juvenile Sardine) include Shabbat Shuva, the “Sabbath of Returning,” a period for self-reflection in which to justify their existence to god. The way it works, god opens the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah, and by the time he slams it shut 10 days later on Yom Kippur, he has determined whether or not your dirt nap is scheduled in the next 12 moons.
Sounds cut and dried, no? But the way it’s set up, you have those 10 days to repent, to cleanse, to ask forgiveness of those you’ve screwed over or treated badly in the course of the year. And if your performance is satisfactory, maybe the Big Guy cuts you a break, although let’s face it—the god of the Old Testament was known for having a shorter fuse than George Steinbrenner. And a little less money.
On Yom Kippur, often referred to as the Holiest Day of the Year, Jews are required to fast, avoiding all food and beverages from sundown to sundown (actually, 25 hours). In so doing, they emulate the angels, which never eat or drink—or bathe, and in fact, certain Orthodox Jewish groups practice this omission as well. In sticky South Florida, this is inadvisable if popularity is a priority. In any event, it means that at the conclusion of the holiday—yeah, some holiday, sort of like calling a trip to the colon cleanser a holiday—there are lots of teeth-grindingly hungry people let loose in the streets. Many head for restaurants to break their fast.
South Florida has a large Jewish population, which suggests that area restaurants must brace themselves for an influx of ravenously hungry diners. I called around to a few that share their neighborhood with synagogues to ask what it was like. (None of them would talk to me unless I promised not to identify them.)
“It’s the worst goddam day of the year,” one deli owner exploded. “I wanna tell you, and remember, these are my people I’m talkin’ about, they’re pushy and demanding when they’re not starvin’ to death. When they bust through that door on Thursday they’re positively drooling. Some of ‘em start licking the salt shakers!”
The manager of a Spanish cuisine restaurant shrugged his shoulders. “The customers are no worse than they are any other night around here,” he said. (Pause. Smile.) “They’re no better, either.”
The Chinese restaurant manager got indignant. “Jews good customers! Jews very good customers! You no make fun of Jewish customers! Thursday very big day here for Jewish customers. You come you see! You no make fun!”
The guy behind the barbecue waved his hand dismissively. “Nobody’s eatin’ pulled pork sandwiches on Yom Kippur, ” he said. “A lotta Jews come in here alla time, but Yom Kippur Pork? That’s just fuckin’ wrong.”
At the pizzeria the chef laughed and clapped his hands. “Oh, boy, Young Kipper!” he exclaimed. “Bigger than the SuperBowl! Better’n Christmas and the 4th of July! What I do is I bake ahead—I got dozens and dozens of shells all set to go half heated. They come through the door all dressed up screamin’ and wavin’ and shovin’ aside the old and the lame and I’m slicin’ and boxin’ and grabbing the cash! You never seen so many people burnin’ their mouths, tomato stain all over their white shirts, neckties and beanies. Hooey! I bring in my whole family to help out. I fuckin’ love Young Kipper!”
So there’s your story, South Florida. Family values, respect for tradition, celebration of diversity, observation of faith. What a great community we share.
[See all Articles by Steve]
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Thursday November 2, 2006
How to recycle phone books. Fine, but how do you get them to stop delivering them in the first place? There are stacks of phone books in the hallway of my apartment building that nobody wants. Why would they, when it takes a fraction of a second to find any phone number on Google?
Wednesday July 12, 2006
At arcuRADIO, a slam of the SunPost Best-of 2006. And really, it did come across as very corporate and pro-business and a lame waste of time. All the annoying qualities of the New Times version (and more), with none of the redeeming charms (which not that they’re that charming anyway). It was just disappointing. (via ignore, w/r/t which, read the whole post; they get all cute and pissed off at “most white, middle-class bloggers” (wait a sec… that’s me!) for linking to their dis of “Vice” but not to their A-Trak interview. But get real, guys; A-Trak is cool, but that doesn’t make your stoned conversation with him any more worth reading.)
Tuesday July 31, 2007
“It appears that males seek females in the spring by following scent trails, so park biologists, along with other scientists, are testing whether females — with radio transmitters inserted into their body cavities — can serve as ‘Judas snakes,’ a living lure for mate-seeking males.” — The New York Times on fighting the growing Python infestation in the Everglades.
Monday January 15, 2007
Carlos Alvarez on Topical Currents (91.3fm, 1 pm) today to discuss the strong mayor proposal.
Thursday June 22, 2006
There is no shortage of Heat victory celebration posts and articles around. The only one remotely worth it is Christian’s post about the impromptu parade on Washington Avenue Tuesday night (ever the generous one, he also uploaded his full 457 picture roll). I’m sure the official parade will be great. But c’mon – a celebration three days after the victory? And only for people who can take a half-day off work?
Update: Oh, and read Christian’s hilarious reflections on posting the images, a comment that’s longer then any post he’s done on fanless in months.
Monday December 19, 2005
Joy To the Hurled
[Contributed by Steve Klotz]
How’d we miss out on this all these years? Seems there’s a world-wide movement launched by the Cacophony Society to trash Christmas. Loosely organized (if that), Santarchy features Santa-clad hooligans committing public acts of intoxicated chaos. Most recently, the Auckland (New Zealand) chapter gathered some media coverage when about 40 Kringloids vandalized a department store, peed on pedestrians off an overpass, and assaulted security guards, all in the name of the Christmas spirit.
Not all chapters approach their mission identically. A review of individual Santarchists’ websites reveals seasonal amusements like hanging Santa Claus from a street lamp in San Franciso to innocent dressing as Santa for a little pub-crawling in Pittsburgh. Perhaps the Aucklanders carried it a bit far—or maybe this is the movement evolving into soccer-hooliganism-style celebration.
In any event, it’s quite timely. The tired concept of an aged, bearded, avoirdupoisdically-challenged white man dressing up in black boots and a red suit to invite little children to sit on his lap, well, you see the problem. Are we really comfortable converting every department store, including the storied Great Hall at Macy’s New York, into a pedophiliac boot camp, or a Brokeback Mountain? Who denies any more that this whole gift-giving thing stinks of greed, consumerism run amok. And the perfect symbol of it all is Santa F. Claus himself, presiding over a WalMartian offshore non-union workshop, populated by midgets. How un-pc can you get?
It’s disturbing that Miami hasn’t been a leader in this movement: there is no American city evidencing less Christmas spirit than this one, as any unfortunate driver or shopper can attest. And the natural linkages between Santarchy and Santeria suggest a viable constituency. I challenge the community to incorporate a chapter pronto. The natural choice for a spiritual leader would be a clergyman, journalist, or other moral giant. .
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Sunday October 29, 2006
You must use Internet Explorer to live in Miami-Dade
Excellent work, guys, really. This is the page from which I got there, by clicking the “Find a park near you” link. Three observations here:
- A different level of government once sued Microsoft for monopolistic practices, remember? Here’s our county government doing its part to extend that monopoly.
- The error message is an absurdity at best, a lie at worst. It should say “This website is broken,” or “Sorry, this website doesn’t work with standards-compliant browsers,” or something.
- 99% of the people who make websites bust their asses to make their sites cross-compatible (it’s a pain mainly because of Microsoft’s malice and incompetence, btw). The fact that the government of our county — the 8th most populous in the nation — can’t be bothered is disgusting.
Overall, my impression is that miamidade.gov is a very information-rich site, but with lots of baffling gaps. Check out how the parks listed on pages like this don’t link to the parks’ pages. C’mon, guys; you can do better. Update: Dugg.
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Thursday January 3, 2008
“a pork is roasted at tom’s barbecue on eighth street…not a BBQ place at all, more like a super cuban dive”
Tuesday January 16, 2007
Nipples. Biscayne Blvd renovations, around 50th Street.
Friday October 12, 2007
Miami International Airport employees are being sent to customer service training at Walt Disney’s Disney Institute.
Wednesday October 4, 2006
More about the future of newspapers
A great article about the dangers and opportunities newspapers face in case my rant from Monday wasn’t long enough.
Internet advertising revenues account on average for no more than 10 percent of total ad revenues because online readers of newspapers still have small value for advertisers. Newspapers need to expand their Internet readership very substantially and, particularly, persuade their online readers to stay hooked to their digital versions much longer. The way to do that is to embrace the cultural change.”
It goes on to suggest customization as one way to embrace cultural change. In one way, the Herald is doing this: they have hundreds of RSS feeds, so anyone who knows about RSS can get a customized version of the Herald. Which makes me wonder: why not a customized home page, ala My Yahoo?
Unfortounately, even the RSS feeds are slightly snafu’d: right at the top is Liz Donovan, who hasn’t written for the Herald since July. And just this morning, when I clicked an item from the Local section’s feed for a brand new article, I got this error message page. Great, I guess I’m back to wading through web site. Good thing I caught it today, because by tomorrow I’d be forced to use the dreaded search engine. (thanks, Val)
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Monday May 22, 2006
The oceans between Miami and Bimini are home to all sorts of stuff, including some major deep-sea reefs, home to many completely unknown creatures. Over the next week, a team will be exploring some of those reefs. “A primary goal of the upcoming expedition . . . will be to search for marine organisms that produce chemical compounds with the potential to treat human diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.”
Monday September 25, 2006
Two good ones via Miami Nights: Lastnightsparty.com Book Tour: Miami (NSFW) and Bacardi denies its 151 rum caused bar burn injuries. w/r/t the latter, wtf?—everybody knows 75% alcohol solutions are flammable. It’s like suing a bridge manufacturer for someone jumping off…
Monday February 26, 2007
Mark Bittman stopped by a few Miami restaurants and wrote a NYTimes piece full of mixed reviews. In C305, Pamela Robin Brandt was not amused, and basically handed Bittman his ass.
