Thursday January 25, 2007
A rendering of the proposed Frank Gehry building for the New World Symphony. No idea where Verticus got it. Read more about the plans at Bloomberg and at the Herald.
Wednesday February 7, 2007
Frank Gehry proposed New World Symphony building
The crappy scan of the Frank Gehry building got some attention, so I e-mailed NWS for a digital copy, and here it is (click it for a screen-filling full sized version). It’s obvious now what’s going on — the rendering isn’t true to color, and the newspaper reproduction obscured the building’s most interesting features: an internal atrium that allows those inside and out to see the performance spaces and rehersal rooms (according to the Bloomberg article).
I recently attended a Musicians Forum that included a recording of an internet feed from video confrencing between some NWS musicians and a Chicago-based contemporary composer. The new building will be wired to make those sorts of interactions an everyday thing.
I had major trouble figuring out where exactly this building will sit, and how the picture above orients to the world. After a phone call to NWS and some quiet time clicking back and forth between the photo and the map, I think I’ve got it. Picture yourself standing in front of the current Lincoln Theater. Now walk down Drexel avenue, around the side of the theater, and behind. Keep going about halfway down the block. Now turn back around the way you came, and you’re just about at the vantage point of the rendering. The glass facade of the building faces east, and the viewer is facing Northwest. The building sits on what is currently a big parking lot, and which will, when it’s all finished, contain a garage, this building, and a new park. What I can’t seem to figure out is why 100% of the cars in the rendering are German.
Anyway, viewed in this light, and with a bit of imagination and optimism, I think this building is going to be suitably spectacular.
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Tuesday May 2, 2006
Michael Tilson Thomas elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Bigups to Michael Tilson Thomas, artistic director of New World Symphony, who who has just been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Other 2006 inductees included Martin Scorsese, Paul Vogel, and Bill Clinton. The distinction “recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large.” While the fellows list mentions MTT’s other gig, as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, the award reflects on the importance of NWS, which he helped to found, and which is creating an important link between serious music’s past and its future.
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Tuesday March 21, 2006
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.
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Friday January 26, 2007
Maps weekend
- Men-Jaro, a contemporary South African dance performnace at Miami Light Project, tonight and tomorrow. ($5 tickets for students under 22 through Culture Shock, $28 otherwise)
- Musical Xchange at New World Symphony tonight at 8pm. These informal small-scale performances by the NWS musicians are really interesting. (free) Also Symphony with a Splash Saturday, sort of a cocktail hour followed by a light concert, which in my opinion is not the right order.
- Playground Theater performs Arthur Miller’s The Creation of the World and Other Business. All weekend long, $15. Arts organizations take note: PT has a perfect website — simple, easy to use, and attractive.
- Cleveland Orchestra’s second weekend at Carnival Center.
- Bill Frisell on Sunday! (Tigertail, $25)
- Viernes Culturales/Cultural Fridays
- The Fourteenth Annual Miami International Map Fair, Saturday and Sundaym, 10 am to 5 pm,
- Merce Cunningham Art Talk with Trevor Carlson at MoCA, Saturday at 1 pm.
- Cage + C-Chan at Studio A, Sunday.
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Friday December 16, 2005
Quick and easy weekend
Quick and easy weekend, my ass: the Saturday before Christmas is the biggest shopping day of the year (contrary to popular belief), and that, my friends, is tomorrow. The smart money is sitting at home, maybe doing some last minute 2-day shipping from Amazon. For those who are impervious to traffic and craving culture, we this a limited offering:
- Miami Light Project presents Will Power, tonight and Saturday.
- The SoFla premier of We Jam Econo: The story of the Minutemen, at Dorsch Gallery ($5).
- Effectively the last weekend to go see Candida Höfer: Architecture of Absence at the Norton.
- Primo Bolshevik culture at New World Symphony – Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony.
- Sort of a ‘yawn,’ but fans of the South Beach Diet can meet it’s author at Books and Books Saturday.
- And for particular masochists, the friggin’ Boat Parade.
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Monday April 10, 2006
New World Symphony does Reich
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!
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Friday February 23, 2007
Metropolis weekend
- Subtropics experimental festival kicks off tomorrow, with events through March 4th. Yeah!
- Merce in Miami kicks off tonight. Here is the schedule (and look, it includes the schedule for Subtropics). This is a big deal, and by the way, Sigur Rós perform live as part of Sunday’s performance.
- SpeakOut with Emanuel Xavier (gay and lesbian spoken word workshops and performances), presented (free) by Tigertail, who’s website now alarmingly autolaunches videos upon page load.
- Seraphic Fire performs at three different locations, tonight, Saturday, and Sunday.
- Viernes Culturales.
- Off the Radar 2nd anniversary tonight at PS14. Tigercity and Modernage perform.
- The New World Symphony does Shostakovich this weekend — his 5th Symphony, accompanied by the Cello Concerto #2 on Saturday and by itself (but cheaper) on Friday.
- Saturday afternoon, Felice Grodin presents Metropolis, the classic 1927 silent science-fiction film, at Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts. Her show “Cartographies” is up, and the movie should provide an interesting context for her drawings and new sculptures. Reception begins at 11:30 am, the movie’s at 2:30 pm.
- Slayer on Saturday and The Roots on Sunday at Revolution.
- Sunday, a performance of The Vagina Monologues. $50 benefit for local organizations working to end violence against women and girls.
- Oh right, a little thing called the Wine and Food festival.
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Wednesday January 24, 2007
Cleveland Orchestra at Carnival Center
photo: Roger Mastroianni
For all intents and purposes, this past weekend was the night everyone was waiting for with respect to the Carnival Center’s concert hall — the first performance by by a full-scale, professional orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra did it right, too, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, paired with Leonard Bernstein’s 1st, to a sold-out audience. We already know that the Cleveland Orchestra is considered the best in the country, so the real question regards the Knight Concert Hall’s acoustics. (Although “Are they so good that a few performances a year make up for not having a local orchestra?” comes to mind.)
So let’s just get it out of the way: the room sounds great. When the music goes lound and fast in the 4th movement of the 9th it was almost overpowering. But where it really shines is on the quiet bits. Bernstein gets all 20th-century-American experimental in the first movement of his symphony, and there are little one and two bar solos for various instruments. Each time, it sounded like the player was sitting in my lap. Your ear adjusts for dynamic levels the same way your eye does going from a darkened theater into bright sunlight, but the Knight hall made everything sound just right.
The hall’s sound-modifying features were in their medium-intimate setting, with the canopy in its lowest position and the sound-doors partially open. I spoke to Gary Hanson, the Cleveland Orchestra’s executive director, who told me that this was the orchestra’s preferred configuration, giving the Knight Concert Hall an intimate sound, not unlike that of their own Severance Hall. The configuration was determined during the orchestra’s tuning visit to Miami last year, and will be used for all Cleveland Orchestra performances at Carnival Center. Other orchestras may choose a different configuration; for example, the New World Symphony actually changed the configuration between pieces during their inaugural performance last year.
Hanson was enthusiastic about the sound. He pointed out that like any concert hall, the sound is a little more reverberant in the top balconies and a little more present on the floor, but it is generally very consistent, which is in fact one of the marks of a great hall. The Cleveland Orchestra is very happy in the Knight Concert Hall.
So on to the show. The performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was spectacular, comparing very favorably with my London Symphony Orchestra recording, especially in the third movement, which sounded the most modern. The biggest difference I noticed was in the opening; whereas on my recording the first movement opens with a bang, on Saturday it built dramatically from a quiet foundation. This performance featured 180 singers from the U/M Frost Chorale and the Master Chorale of South Florida. They sat motionless behind the orchestra for the first three movements, and only came in for the grand fourth movement (the longest), which goes full-tilt almost from beginning to end. Wow. Lawrence Johnson checked the Friday show out for the Herald, and he was also thrilled. (By the way, here is an interesting radio interview with conductor Franz Welser-Möst about his views of Beethoven’s 9th.)
What do you pair the most famous symphony in history with? Welser-Möst chose Leonard Bernstein’s 1st symphony, which seems odd only at first blush. Bernstein’s three movements are very different from each other; one is probing and experimental in a early-20th century sort of way (quirky two-bar solos! woodblock!), the second is fast and dramatic, and the third is mournful, and featured Kelly O’Connor’s vocal (which was wonderful, but honestly I couldn’t even tell what language she was singing, and it was English); this was the perfect thing to wake up the ears.
And so we have one of the best orchestras in the world in town for a few weeks every year. And while some former members of the defunct Florida Philharmonic feel that this will make it more difficult to re-form a local orchestra, as an audience all we can do is enjoy it. Apropos of that, extra seats have just been released (on the choral riser! should be a great place to sit) for the performances this weekend (Mahler!), and tickets are also available for the March performances (Tchaikovsky!).
I wouldn’t let the high-art thing intimidate me, by the way. Dress nice and bring your active-listening ears and you’ll be fine. If you can avoid wearing a loud jangly bracelet and moving around all night, you’ll be doing better then the woman sitting across the aisle from me (what was she thinking?). There is nothing quite like being in this particular room listening to this particular band; it’s something everyone should do.
See also: More information about the Knight Concert Hall at my Carnival Center writeup.
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Friday March 31, 2006
Orchid Weekend
- Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s International Orchid Festival.
- At the Art and Culture Center, Elisa Monte Dance.
- At MAC, Al Otro Lado a 66 minute film from Mexico, about a 23 year old drug trafficker with a talent for composing “corridos” – ballads about the narcotics underworld and illegal immigrant life.
- You might live under a rock. Otherwise you’d know that the Alvin Ailey Dance Company is in town.
- Note to self: two more weekends to see the shows at MoCA.
- Mozart’s Mass in C minor was unfinished when he died. Now, it’s been “reconstructed and completed” from new material found by Mozart scholars, which I’m totally not down with. Nonetheless, you can expose yourself to the results Sunday.
- Huh? The Go-Gos??
- Monday, free: “join the fellows of the New World Symphony for an evening of learning and lively discussion about the elements which shape the world of classical music.” It sounds lame, but if my experience with Musicians’ Forum is any indication, it won’t be.
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.”
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Friday September 14, 2007
Earthdance weekend
- Great free shows happening at New World Symphony all weekend, but all the tickets are gone, suckers.
- The Truth (About the Down Low) at the Gusman. It’s some sort of a gospel family musical theater performance thing.
Tonight
- A celebration of choreographer Roland Petit at Carnival Center.
- Miami Unsigned [MySpace] featuring Blue Man Grove (hmm…) at Soya e Pomodoro, a restaurant of some sort.
- KRS One at Studio A, again.
- Stefan Svensson is doing a series of lectures on photography (scroll way down) starting today. They’re $20 each(!) or $60 for all four, but I suppose if you need a crash course in how to look at pictures, this might be a bargain.
Saturday
- Not to be outdone, Miami Beach Botanical Garden has a $40 lecture/workshop on building a barrel. (OK, OK, it’s a materials fee, and you get to actually build one and take it home. And it’s good for the environment, so if you have a house go do this. (But you have to RSVP right now.)) Then you can go to . . .
- EarthDance. A neo-hippie extravaganza happening simultaneously at 340 locations around the world, and Miami’s lineup looks pretty great. It starts at 2 pm, and it’s two-for-one tickets before 4 pm (otherwise $20 or $15 advance). Ends ~4 am Sunday morning. Here.
Sunday
- Violinist Aaron Rosand”:http://www.sundaymusicals.org/calendar.htm at the Gusman concert hall at UM.
- Getting In college planning workshop for high school seniors. Free?
- Blow-Up at Miami Beach Cinematheque. White pants extraordinaire.
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Saturday October 15, 2005
More stuff then you can handle
Hope you haven’t made any plans for the weekend yet! Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of your cultural events for the next few days.
Good
- This weekend the World Theater festival ends. Catch something while you can.
- Sunrise Cinemas does a monthly foreign film series, Cafe Cinematheque International. This Sunday (at 10 am!), Voyages, an apparently great (a rottontomatoes score of 100% is pretty rare) movie about the holocaust.
- Pablo Cano’s exhibition at MoCA includes nine performances of a marionette show. The premiere is Sunday, 2 pm.
- Also Sunday at 2, some free classical music.
- How much do you love the Miami Beach Cinematheque? In case we forget, their David Lynch festival starts next Friday.
Bad
- We love the New World Symphony, but spare us the opening night’s all Beethoven program.
- We’re very skeptical about ballet, and this is not doing anything reassuring.
- Monday, the Miami Children’s Museum unveils a huge Britto sculpture. Actually, this may well be the one place in the city one of these things belongs.
Ugly
- The FIU Music Festival has a laughably useless web site, and the cast-iron balls it takes to charge between $15 and $25 for tickets (which, btw, you have to launch a microsoft excel spreadsheet to see).
- It’s been a very long time since the Bass has been worth attending, but their Objects of Desire auction is so terrifyingly desperate that we’ve taken the added measure of archiving it to our server for posterity. “Save the Date,” indeed.
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Saturday November 26, 2005
SoFla blog scene picks up steam
Sorry to bug you with a nother post about Miami blogs, but there’s lots going on. We’re going to sail through it, and then lay off the blogs for awhile; fair enough? (BTW, we’re much more interested in blogs about Miami, not just bloggers who happen to be in Miami).
- By far the biggest deal is that Miami now has its own Metroblogging site. The more DIY, widespread, and cooler alternative to the -ist sites, this is sort of what we’ve been waiting for. Curiously, most of the writers already have blogs of their own (Franklin, Kathleen, and Kyle have all signed on); it’ll be interesting how they balance their contributions.
- The Herald’s Infomaniac, Elisabeth Donovan, arguably their only real blogger, seems to read Critical Miami; here is her response to our article about the Herald’s arts coverage. Thanks Liz!
- Hella Frisch is a blog by a bassist for the New World Symphony. Kicking some interesting perspectives and cool photos; worth reading despite the hideous blogspot template (via 411).
- Stuck on the Plametto is less then a week old, but seems to have some interesting perspectives, more cool photos, and a slightly more tolerable blogspot template.
- Hidden City, the granddaddy of Miami blogs, has been doing some nice stuff lately.
- OMG: Frances Nash ran into a mariachi band at her dentist’s office. Unfortunately, she’s switched from the huge pictures posts to small pictures, with links to flickr.
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Friday November 4, 2005
Weekend digestion
- The super-cool Guillermo Gómez-Peña [pictured] is doing a performance called “Mexterminator Vs. The Global Predator” at the Frost tonight.
- Apparently great, the Seraphic Fire vocal group and the New World Symphony perform baroque music together, also tonight.
- We rag on the Bass, but their exhibition Shortcuts Between Reality And Fiction: Video, Installations And Painting From Le Fonds National D’art Contemporain, looks cool.
- Whatever the hell Miami Monument is, registration ends Nobember 15.
- We’re inclined to be skeptical, but classes start this week at the Miami Scratch DJ Academy.
- Jazz titan Ron Carter is on the bass, tonight at the Gusman.
- They did it. They passed a law requiring gas stations to have generators. Duh.
- Now even the Herald is getting upset with FPL.
- Drop everything: Miami Beach Cinematheque and France Cinema Miami (yes there is such a thing!) presents “Jean-Luc Godard: Then and Now,” a sort of mini-festival with two old and two recent movies; here’s the top-secret schedule: – Fri, Nov. 04, 8:30pm: THEN: Les Carabiniers (The Riflemen) (1963) – Thu, Nov. 10, 8:30pm: THEN: Weekend (1967) – Fri, Nov. 21, 8:30pm: NOW: E’loge de l’Amour (In Praise Of Love) (2001) – Fri, Nov. 25, 8:30pm: NOW: Notre Musique (Our Music) (2004)
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Friday April 28, 2006
A childrens' weekend
- New World Symphony has their kids’ program, Orchestra Let Loose, and something called the ‘Instrument Petting Zoo’ (pictured). Get kids together, let them play with the instruments (under serious-musician-supervision) and let them hear some zingers from the repertoire. Sounds like a winner. Sunday, 12:30.
- The Wolfsonian screens Wondrous Oblivion, tonight at 7 pm.
- The Miami Performing Arts Center presents Walking Tall Circus, wherein 120 local children in colorful costumes get down with trapeze, juggling, stilt walking, puppetry, and clowning. Saturday, 2 pm, North Shore Park and Youth Center
(501 72nd Street, Miami Beach). Free. (And yes, the MPAC site talks about it like it happened already, and doesn’t give the location, but it’s on the arts calendar, and here, so go figure.)
Just in case you’re an adult
- Tonight, the Rhythm Foundation presents Seu Jorge, who I can’t find a reasonable web site for, but who’s cool; trust me.
- The M-Ensemble presents Seven Guitars. “In the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948, friends gather to mourn for a blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career was on the verge of taking off. Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” is the sixth chapter in the continuing theatrical saga that explores the hope, heartbreak, and heritage of the African American experience in the twentieth century.” Runs for the next few weekends.
- BB King at the Mizner, Sunday.
- The FIU BFA, mentioned previously.
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Tuesday February 14, 2006
Oh another Tuesday
- You can’t really tell, but that’s a picture of manatees huddling around a power substation because it’s fucking cold. nbc6
- Katie Danza smokes pot? Big deal. No link, but if you must, check out the picture of the four girls with those awesome sunglasses. Dang.
- The Herald just heard about the Miami Performing Arts Center parking situation, which Michael Lewis was talking about back in September. Meanwhile, the contracts are coming in, especially the big ones, with Concert Association of Florida, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, and New World Symphony. Expect trouble and spin if any one of the four backs out.
- Huh? We’ve been calling 311 with this kind of stuff for months…
- New Times reads Critical.
- Miamista goes off on the validity of this article, then on the whole educational system (especially read the heartbreaking #4 in his post, about the Heiken Children’s Vision Fund, an organization so broke, their web site is on angelfire), then (of course) on the whole city.
- Uh . . . something of a Valentine’s Day link.
- New toilets at 14th street on the Beach. Stay tuned for a Critical Miami inside investigation…
- Here and here is some information on the courthouse pictured here.
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Friday April 20, 2007
420 Weekend
- Hey look, today’s 420! Not actually a whole lot of official events (duh), except for a sort of who’s who of Miami music (three stages!) at Churchill’s. Mum’s the word on Meetup. There’s a big Drum ‘n Bass party at Laundry Bar (myspace), but . . .
really nowactually, Photek will be there, so maybe some primo 90’s nostalgia? - McCoy Tyner at the Gusman.
- Miami Light Project presents Giovanni Luquini’s Idalina.
- Miami Beach Dance Festival concludes.
- Saturday, Marian Marzynski will, if I’ve got this right, present a documentary he made about himself and his life of making documentaries at Miami Beach Cinematheque.
- The Second Annual Haitian Jazz Music Festival
- New World Symphony presents new orchestral works by two contemporary composers.
- Velveteen Pink at Circa Saturdays.
- Sunday, Earthfest at Crandon Park.
- Or, Slow Food Miami’s Blue Crab Picnic.
- Speaking of Earth Day, free viewings of An Inconvenient Truth, all over town.
- 1 pm at the Macy’s at Dadeland Mall, Cat Cora from Iron Chef will discusses her new book Cooking From the Hip.
Courtesy of MLP, this traffic update for the weekend around Carnival Center: “Northbound Biscayne Blvd. will be closed from 11:00 pm Friday through 6:00 am Monday. Southbound Biscayne traffic will be open throughout the weekend, but at times may be reduced to a single lane. This closure is due to the Biscayne Blvd. reconstruction project.”
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Tuesday February 7, 2006
Supreme happiness Tuesday
- Not happy with the price he got on his Explorer, this guy torched the dealership.
- Bob Norman, a columnist at New Times Broward, started a blog a few weeks ago wherein he comments on local reporting, and he’s killing it: check out today’s post, which he starts by tearing into a Sentinel article on kids use of myspace, and concludes with a transcript of the Explorer arsonist with his dealer.
- In Sun Post, Omar Sommereyns interviews police chief John Timoney re the ACLU lawsuite re the Miami Police’s handling of the 2003 FTAA meeting.
- The closest Target is 11.36 miles from my house. But maybe not for long.
- Carl Fisher’s house, on City Debate.
- Per the WLRN interview, Jim DeFede’s got a show on WIOD.
- Carl Hiaasen on white-foot, black-foot. (Via Robert, who disagrees with Hiaasen: “blaming the discrepancy in handling of Cuban and Haitian immigrants on racism is pretty stupid. I guess all those Haitians working hard to make a decent living in Little Haiti must be white, no?” To which I say: huh?)
- A maybe-interesting book.
- Jonathan’s Photoblog is
apparently abandonedalive and well. - A little something: the NY Times Correspondents guide to Miami.
- Emily Witt reviews a New World Symphony young professionals event. Hella Frisch responds.
- Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Miami mansion
- Maybe this.
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Friday April 7, 2006
Drumming Friday
- Steve Reich‘s Drumming, [listen to samples at this link] will be performed by the New World Symphony Saturday. This is a modern masterpiece, but please listen to the samples and decide if you can take a whole evening of it before you go — it splits the difference between music and doing your math homework. (There’s a “Happy Hour” at 7:30; concert starts at 9 pm.)
- Speaking of 20th century composers (and 21st), the New Music Miami ISCM Festival looks awesome (the program, not the web page), and it’s all free!
- The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Ft. Lauderdale.
- The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival at Cinema Vortex (Saturday afternoon, free).
- The South Beach Chamber Ensemble does the string quartet thing at the Miami Beach Community Church on Lincoln Rd., 4 pm Sunday.
- It’s 2nd Saturday, and openings abound.
- For the brave: some UM students got together and made a musical based on the Breakfast Club (free).
- At Jimbo’s, Jimbo Luznar celebrates his 79th birthday on Sunday. You are encouraged to “Bring a little something to the party if you can, or perhaps a token of your appreciation.” Noon ‘till ??
Don’t ask me:a Memorial for“Julie Sparker”:http://www.undergroundparis.com/chapter22.htmlJulie Starker at Churchills on Sunday. (Thanks Christian; the spelling came from the pub’s calendar.)- Not ‘till next Thursday, but the Black Eyed Peas play at the BA Center (wtf?! – you have to “join” their website to “read more“ about their concerts? Somebody needs an urgent clue-implant).
Anything else?
Update: Immigrant solidarity rallies (from the Herald):
- Sunday 3 p.m., rally and march by various groups including Archdiocese of Miami and Florida Immigrant Coalition, starting from the Stephen P. Clark government center, 111 Northwest 1st St., in downtown Miami, to the Torch of Friendship on Biscayne Boulevard.
- Monday 10 a.m., rally and march in Lake Worth at City Hall, starting at 7 North Dixie Highway and marching toward Bryant Park.
- Monday 3 p.m., rally in Fort Lauderdale between Broward Boulevard and 3rd Avenue in front of the federal courthouse.
- Monday 6 p.m., rally in Homestead at Harris Field, Campbell Drive and U.S. 1.
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Friday September 21, 2007
Park(ing) weekend
Tonight
- Today is National Park(ing) day . . . this started in 2005 when a few artists in San Francisco turned a parking space into a temporary park. Since then, it’s been a yearly thing on September 21, replicated around the country, including two locations in Miami, with support from the Trust for Public Land. U: More about PARKing day at TransitMiami.
- CIFO’s Positions in Context opening reception.
- Samantha Natalie does Miami Unsigned [MySpace all around].
- I try to stay away from flamenco-jazz fusion, but this show has lots of promise, actually.
- Marqui Adora at Circa 28.
- Yom Kippur begins at sundown. Eat a big meal in the afternoon, as you’ll have to last until nightfall Saturday. During that period, also: no leather shoes, no sex, no washing(!), and no lotions/perfumes. (That’s unless you think religion is silly.)
Saturday
- Miami Short Film Festival Preview at Miami Beach Cinematheque.
- High School Musical: the Ice tour [obnoxious Flash] at AAA. No idea what the appeal of the whole “X on ice” thing is.
- Israel ‘Cachao’ Lopez. Drop what you’re doing.
- A Night in the Clouds charity party for African children, in an old-school place.
- Lanzallamas Monofonica at Transit Lounge.
Sunday
- The ESCAPE TO MIAMI TRIATHLON.
- I haven’t posted about the Rufino Tamayo: A Modern Icon Reinterpreted exhibition at MAM because the museum didn’t have rights to let me reproduce the piece I wanted to talk about. But the show is completely worthy (and, note to Franklin: a painting show at the MAM), and if you haven’t seen it, today’s your last chance.
- Fanfare for the 20th at New World Symphony, if you grabbed tickets in time.
- The South Beach Chamber Ensemble plays at the Bass Museum at 2pm. Free with museum admission; anybody know what’s up?
- The South Florida Meditation meetup at 4 pm. Get your OM on.
- These people might have something interesting going on, but you’ll have to call them and ask them to put it on their website.
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