You know, evolution is a funny thing. The vagaries of climate and isolation at the tip of our peninsula have given us such quirky critters as the manatee, the roseate spoonbill, and the sensitive singer-songwriter who happens to be revered by a sect of teenage punk rockers. Yes, I'm talking...
When Fort Lauderdale banished the under-21 posse from live-music venues within the posh city's limits, the kids cried foul. After all, they charged, who wants to carve out an emo-punk scene in Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, or Davie? But persevere they have, in exactly the noxious, nefarious suburban squalor they claim...
The older Frank Black gets, the less he sounds like himself, which probably happens to everybody at some point. But ever since Pudge let his monkey go to heaven, he flat out refuses to scream at traffic anymore -- or at the powers that be. He's like a tired, prospectin'...
Maybe it wasn't such a bad year for filmgoing after all, if only because it's far harder to assemble a Top 10 list this year than it was last year. Or maybe the best of 1999 towered so far above the worst (and the middling, which includes the grossly overrated...
Gadzooks! Can the tribulations of Fort Lauderdale's beleaguered nightclubs get any worse? The venues are running scared, unsure of whether they're going to be raided, busted, or forced to close. (The third looks likely in the case of Atlantis Night Club.) Yet for one brief, shining moment last week, the...
We enjoy a classic whodunit in the same way we enjoy Christmas carolers -- with a certain amused detachment. We are not seeking new insight into the human condition but instead are indulging in a bit of nostalgic escapism. Thus, if the revival of a genre piece like Ira Levin's...
People make much of first impressions. You either believe in them or don't, trust them or not. They're always wrong, or they're always right. You should base your judgments on them, or you shouldn't. Why doesn't anyone debate the merits of last impressions? When it comes to restaurants, these are...
Throw a stick and you're apt to hit someone who thinks the current pop scene is the worst ever. And who, other than nine-year-old white girls, could argue with that logic? Britney Spears and Celine Dion, to name just two, seem more like actors portraying musicians than the real thing...
What's Fort Lauderdale's nightlife going to look like when we kick out all the underage kids? Skip Murray of the Chili Pepper sees it turning into a "faceless condo hotel earlybird special" kind of place now that the city commission has resurrected -- and appears ready to push through --...
A recent article in The New York Times' dining section, entitled "Navigating the Bar When It's Three Drinkers Deep," offers the following advice on how to get a drink: "Seek out the shortest people and get behind them -- same strategy as at a rock concert. Wave a large wad...
On paper it is, at best, a dubious concept: a Latin dance combo covering German avant-garde pioneers Kraftwerk's repetitive back catalog. It would seem that the two types of music, both of which possess a somewhat limited appeal, would probably hold allure for almost no one when merged together. In...
For nearly two years, Aventura widow Regina Greenhill expressed nothing but praise for her former aide, Bridget Garcia. Bridget, a certified nursing assistant, had treated the 87-year-old Regina with great care, spending every day of the week cooking her meals, driving her around town, and allowing her to live an...
The marvelously twisted Mael brothers, known in pop circles as Sparks for the past 30 years or so, are living proof of the adage that if you stick around long enough, eventually you'll be back in style. Sparks began life as a slightly more than standard power-pop band, with Russell...
Regina Greenhill is a wealthy Jewish widow. A stroke victim, she lives alone in a condominium tower, just across a parking lot from Aventura Mall. Bridget Garcia is a working-class black native of the U.S. Virgin Islands. For nearly two years, Bridget worked as Regina's private nurse, spending up to...
Murphy and Pryor. Skywalker and Kenobi. Amos and Zeppelin. Regardless of the creative universe, the maverick apprentice tends to stride off into territory beyond the edges of the master's map. So it is with Alan Rudolph, whose career blossomed after serving as assistant director to Robert Altman on Nashville in...
Spin City: It's sad, but this very newspaper had the poor judgment to name Best Buy as the best place to buy CDs in Broward and Palm Beach. (Why dontcha just go shoot Mom and Pop in the head, huh?) We all know that saving a few bucks on that...
In Bryan Singer's last movie, 1998's Apt Pupil, Ian McKellen portrayed a Nazi war criminal hiding out in the suburbs, passing himself off as an ordinary old man crouching behind drawn blinds. In Singer's new movie, X-Men, McKellen plays Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, the son of Jews who were murdered in...
One man might really appreciate what's happening in Plantation. But unfortunately, Richard Nixon is dead. We must not forget, however, that we owe Tricky Dick for immersing us in the dark side of politics. Otherwise the Plantation story might be shocking. It goes like this: A crusading, antiestablishment Plantation councilman...
Maria Austin is frying bacon in the kitchen of her canalside house in North Lauderdale, unaware that four men with chain saws have just pulled up in a pickup truck. It is 11:15 on a Friday morning in June, and the 70-year-old madrileña and her 54-year-old husband, Lawrence, are about...
The architectural firm of Pierce Goodwin Alexander & Linville (PGAL) has never seemed to have a difficult time getting public contracts. In Houston, where the company is based, and in Florida, PGAL has profited from designing everything from airports to colleges to courthouses.But PGAL never could crack one of the...
One day soon little Elián will be ripped from our collective bosom and sent back to the clutches of El Jefe -- it is in the wind. Our lives will drag on without the Divine Child, denied the playful spirit he embodies and the smoldering lust for freedom he represents...
Let's dispense with the easy digs first: Each member of AC/DC is probably old enough to be your grandpa. And at that age, the schoolboy getup preferred by Aussie axmeister Angus Young is less cute than disturbing, as are the sounds put forth by the presumably scarred mass that once...
