NOVEMBER 19-25, 2009
VOLUME 1
ISSUE 3
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Editor Katerina Fonte
Managing Editor Timothy Gallagher
Music Editor Stephanie Fonte
Web Editor Katerina Fonte
Staff Writers Ted B. Kissel, P. Scott Cunningham, Ella Taylor,
Phil Freeman, Logan Hill
Editorial Operations Manager Jack Sparrow
Calendar Editor Rosa Fonte
Assistant Calendar Editor P. Scott Cunningham
Club Listings Editor P. Arty Times
Blogger Katerina Fonte
Proofreader K. E. Fonte
Contributors
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Raina McLeod, Jose D. Duran,
Dan Renzi, Ginger Harris,
Brian, Miller, J. Hoberman,
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Editorial Administrator Katerina Fonte
NOV
2009
Contents
Coffin Classics
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ART
EXPOSES
Art Director Katerina Fonte
Assistant Art Director K. E. Fonte
PRODUCTION
Production Manager Timothy Gallagher
Assistant Production Manager Stephanie Fonte
Advertising Art Director Katerina Fonte
Production Artists Katerina Fonte, K. E. Fonte
DARK OCCASIONS
ADVERTISING
Associate Publisher My Epson
Marketing and Promotions Director Caterina Falcone
Operations Manager Rosa Fonte
Senior Account Executives Katerina Fonte,
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CIRCULATION
CAFE
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BUSINESS
November 19 - November 25,2009
A UR O RA
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FILM NOIR
GOTH BOX
South Florida General Manager Katerina Fonte
Staff Accountant Timothy Gallagher
Credit Manager Rosa Fonte
Systems Manager Theresa Gallagher
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Vice President of Human Resources Timothy Gallagher
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Coffin
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The subculture that would not (un) die lusts for
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BY TED B. KISSEL
04 Letters
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07 Exposes
16 Goth Box
Wicked Wonderland Sex
Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Concerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
18 Film Noir
Dear Diary, I Love Edward
19 Craft
The Lurid Beauty of Monsters
11 Dark Occasions
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15 Cafe
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Whisk Whips Up a Crowd
EXPOSES
go
LETTERS
DARK OCCASIONS
CAFE
It's tim
e to
CONTENTS
GOTH BOX
FILM NOIR
CRAFT
AURORA
November 19 - November 25,2009
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Letters
Hack Job
EXPOSES
LETTERS
No license to steal: Regarding "Hackintosh" (Tim
Elfrink, November 12): It would be interesting to see what
would happen if someone tried to open a McDonald's outlet
without a franchise license. It's really the same; one licenses
the use of the work built into the McDonald's name, logo,
etc., just as one licenses the work in the Apple software.
It's been the same for centuries: paying for the right to use
something you did not create. Just because something is in
front of you does not give you license to use it.
Trevor C.
MIAMI
DARK OCCASIONS
Riding Apple's coattails: It's amazing how you have
painted these two as "victims" trying to foster sympathy.
But their own comment says it all: "'These guys are riding
our coattails and we're shouldering all the court costs,' Rudy
huffs." Isn't that what they are doing to Apple?
Tom F.
OCALA
CAFE
Bros get 15 minutes of fame: The two brothers are
class-A morons, and the author of this article is a clueless turd
seeking attention. What a waste of newsprint and bandwidth.
Psystar and the two clowns behind it will die a slow, painful
death, and 30 minutes later, no one will care to remember.
FILM NOIR
GOTH BOX
Jarod
VIA WEB COMMENTARY
atsuko kudo
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
CRAFT
Couture Latex Rubber and Fetish Clothing
4
Stealing for profit: These individuals are stealing Apple's
intellectual property and selling it to make a profit. And
you paint them as innocent victims and underdogs? Good
Lord, what happened to journalistic integrity? You should be
ashamed of yourselves.
Brian Kimble
GAINESVILLE
atsukokudo.com
FOR EVEC ORL L EXXI
CTION
Byte into an Apple: The Pedraza brothers are great
examples of American ingenuity. Apple should be proud of
them, because they are following the company's advertised
salute: "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The
troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones
who see things differently." Apple makes a fine product, but
let's not let the company fool us into siding with it to set a
precedent for copyright law that squelches innovation. Keep
fighting, Pedrazas!
Matt
CORAL GABLES
“HOW CAN ANYONE WITH
INFORMATION ABOUT INTENDED
BAD ACTIONS BE LET FREE? THESE
PEOPLE ARE GIVING OUR ISLAMIC
RELIGION A BAD NAME.”
Barrack Talk
The prez did it: "No Justice" ( James Lieber, October 29):
The Wall Street crooks that President Obama has supposedly
failed to go after didn't just come to power January 20, 2009.
They have been doing this for years. Why didn't the Bush
administration do something about it? Or even the Clinton
administration? If the smarty-pants conservative know-italls don't like the way the current president is handling the
country's problems, they have only themselves to blame. You
can't just wave a magic wand and make everything OK just to
please conservatives.
Caroline K.
HOLLYWOOD
Talkin' Terrorism
You bet we're a beacon: "Holy War" (Trevor Aaronson,
October 8) is yet another tragic example of how this country
made the decision many years ago to forego the collection of
real intelligence and instead use racial profiling, torture, and
fear tactics to wage its war on terror. The United States is the
man's country just as much as it is anyone else's. Let him stay!
Reform the corrupt and backward immigration system, and
block the holes through when asylum seekers like him are
sent to persecution. Ronald Reagan (ironically) said it best:
America is (and should be) a beacon of freedom in the world
for refugees.
Trevor C.
MIAMI
Ira's da man: Ira Kurzban is an exceptional individual.
Without men like him allowed to practice law, U.S.
jurisprudence and the Constitution would be just as big as
a sham as that of the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, or
any other banana republic. Kurzban is truly one in a million
(unfortunately). If he were only interested in making a buck,
the government would have to hire someone to do the kind
of work he does, and the world would be justified in calling
the American court system a sham.
Jeffrey
PLANTATION
Druggie dad no excuse: This article is typical hack
reporting. Let's make these two hometown boys look great
and Apple look like a big meanie. In fact, Apple has been
ruled as not abusing anything by tying its hardware and
software. And the company is the legal copyright holder of the
GUI. Plus the tools to bypass the checks within Mac OS are
illegal, and the lack of receipts to prove the Pedraza brothers
bought and didn't steal the copies of OS doesn't help. Having
a tough life and a druggie daddy doesn't change these facts or
the fact that the brothers are not heroes.
www.forever21.com
Luc B.
MIAMI
Letters Policy
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CONTENTS
LETTERS
EXPOSES
DARK OCCASIONS
CAFE
GOTH BOX
FILM NOIR
CRAFT
AURORA
November 19 - November 25,2009
5
be you.
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Available where art supplies are sold
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CONTENTS
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
CRAFT
FILM NOIR
GOTH BOX
CAFE
6240 SW 8th Street . Miami . 305-264-0888 . www.ochoplacas.com
1.800.bebe.777 www.bebe.com
DARK OCCASIONS
EXPOSES
LETTERS
Express Yourself
6
MIAMI
TWICE
THE VINTAGE DEPARTMENT STORE
miami-twice.com
BY GUS GARCIA-ROBERTS
AURORA
Email [email protected]
Fila's work before the
last alteration.
VIEWS TOO
GOOD TO IGNORE
November 19 - November 25,2009
Atomik, a hot-tempered graffiti bomber, shakes a can of
yellow spray paint and nods toward a pair toothless Haitian
men, "These guys won't mind if I tag their dumpster," he says
and then scribbles his moniker onto the rust-blasted box. In
an alley new NW 71st Street, the onlookers fold their arms
and watch.
The stocky Kendall-bred graphic designer - whom
Exposes agreed not to name because, well, we like outlaws has been arrested five times for tagging rooftops, trains, and
buildings. He's been chased by police dogs and hunted by
helicopters. But his most recent beef isn't with the cops.
Atomik is the Kanye West of the Miami graffiti world:
crazy talented, but with a reputation for pissing on other
artists. After six years at the top of the well-known graffiti
Just before 2 a.m. inside a tony Key Biscayne waterfront
condo, a woman clad only in panties chased a dark-haired
22-year-old into the hallway, screaming
and smacking his face.
The year was 1993. The half-naked
lady was Dorothy Naomi Black, just
divorced from South Florida's most
powerful criminal defense attorney, Roy
Black.
The young man was Metro-Dade cop
Frank Carollo, little brother of former
Miami Mayor "Loco" Joe Carollo.
Today Frank is the leading cadidate to
replace mayoral hopeful Joe Sanchez on
the Miami City Commission. Though
the 39-year-old Brickell accountant has
failed in three campaigns for the Florida
House, this time he has raised more than
CRAFT
BY NATALIE O'NEILL
BY TIM ELFRINK
FILM NOIR
MIAMI'S BEST-KNOWN GRAFFITI
CREW CRUMBLES
A MIAMI COMMISSION
CANDIDATE LIED TO COPS
AFTER BREAKING INTO HIS
LOVER'S APARTMENT
GOTH BOX
TROUBLE ON TOP
A SORDID AFFAIR
CAFE
IT'S A DRAW
DIRTY LAUNDRY
$170,000- a lead of $70,000 on anyone else in the seven-way
race. And players such as County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and
über-lobbyist Ron Boom have given him cash.
But the police report from that escapade - which has
never been written about - shows Carollo not only broke
into Black's apartment and found her with another lvoer, but
also later lied to Key Biscayne cops about his identity to try
to wiggle out of trouble. It's jsut the kind of sordid scene that
could rain on Carollo's hopes of pulling off a big win in the
general election.
The trouble traces back to April 1993, when Naomi Black
divorced her husband of nine years. Roy Black had become
Florida's most famous lawyer after helping clear William
Kennedy Smith of rape charges in 1991. Soon after the
divorce, the former Mrs. Black and Carollo began dating. By
June, however, the passion had cooled- at least on her end.
In the wee hours of June 23, according to a police report
obtained by Exposes, Carollo grew tired of Black avoiding his
phone calls and drove to her condo off Crandon Boulevard. A
little before 12:30, he parked across the street, climbed a wall,
and used a key to enter her apartment. Inside, he found Black
with another gent. She was less than thrilled to see Carollo,
and chased him and hit him repeatedly. Someone called the
cops, and the other man wisely fled the scene.
When Key Biscayne Police arrived, Carollo was "evasive"
about his name. But one officer recognized him and called
a Metro-Dade lieutenant. Again, Carollo tried to cover up
his identity, telling the officer his last name was "Car." The
lieutenant eventually persuaded Carollo to tell him his unit
name and badge number, and quickly found his real identity.
Black eventually dropped all trespassing and assault
charges against Carollo. But his police superiors officially
reprimanded him for lying to the lieutenant about his identity.
"In an effort to thwart a superior officer's investigation of your
involvement in the disturbance, [you] improperly identified
yourself when you lied about your name." a final disciplinary
report notes. "Your conduct leading up to and during the
incident was an affront to the... code of ethics."
DARK OCCASIONS
The saga of "Erin"- the nude, giant-posteriored female
character that artist Daniel Fila first spray-painted onto a wall
on Biscayne Boulevard at NE 37th Street in 2003- has been
rife with plot twists.
First, a pushy conservative artist, presumably offended bu
the giant cheeks marking Miamians' commute, whitewashed
the figure. Fila responded by repainting the woman and
turning her around so she faced the viewer with a shocked
expression. "The idea was to have her be mortified, like, 'I
didn't know anybody was watching me!'" Fila tells Exposes.
He gave her a massive-shouldered male companion- bearing
the artist's own face- and renamed the mural Adam and Eve.
The woman's face was a former college "crush" of Fila's.
When the real-life Erin- last name Wozniak- caught wind
of the tribute, she wasn't flattered. In fact, the photographer
accused the aerosal artist of stealing from her own selfportrait- and condemned his work as a "grossly oversexualized
naked figure."
Boo. Thus obliged, Fila replaced the woman's face- with
Shakira's, of course.
Just in time for Art Basel, the artist has again altered
the mural. Erin has become a brunette and now hold a
big-headed babay near her bosom. Her new face is modeled
loosely after his girlfriend's, Fila says.
So is the new baby his? "I guess so," Fila responds
ponderously. "There's nobody else in the picture."
crew MSG - or Miami Style Gods - he's leaving. The reason:
He and the founder, Crome, had a blowout over how to
handle turf war.
Crook, the cofounder, says, "It's like... your parents
splitting up."
MSG knows what drama feels like. In 1999, Crome and
Crook were charged with felonies after allegedly destroying
tens of thousands of dollars' worth of property. The crew also
snagged a spot on Miami evening news for spraying a freeway
sign this past February.
Then, a couple months ago, Atomik tried to scare off a
group of rival graffiti bombers called KBT. The group had
been painting over his best work for more than five years.
And he claims a member even pulled a gun on him at a
Wynwood art walk. Says Atomik: "It was beyond a little
fucking graffiti beef."
So, inside an abandoned warehouse, he found one of
KBT's most elaborate murals. It was a tribute to a tagger who
had taken his own life. Atomik splashed a bucket of paint
over the piece and then wrote, "Commit suicide."
Crome was pissed. He demanded Atomik paint an
apology mural, but Atomik refused. Crome began taking
steps to get him booted from MSG, Atomik says, so he left
about a month ago.
Explains Crome: "He disrespected someone who had
passed away. You don't do that shit."
EXPOSES
JUST IN TIME FOR ART BASEL:
BISCAYNE'S BIGGEST-BOOTY
BABE HAS A BABY
WHEN THE KEY BISCAYNE POLICE ARRIVED, CAROLLO WAS "EVASIVE"
ABOUT HIS NAME, TELLING THE OFFICER HIS LAST NAME WAS "CAR."
LETTERS
BIG BOOTY BABE
CONTENTS
STREET WORKS
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CONTENTS
LETTERS
EXPOSES
DARK OCCASIONS
GOTH BOX
CAFE
THE SUBCULTURE THAT WOULD
(UN) DIE LUSTS FOR
NEW BLOOD
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
CRAFT
FILM NOIR
BY TED B. KISSELL
8
M
antilla black, clown white, and blood
red are definitely the preferred colors
of clothing and makeup on the second
floor of SoHo Lounge in the Miami
Design District, where the music ranges from pulsing
EBM (electronic body music) to a particularly aggro
Ministry cut to such crossover classics as the Cure and
Wolfshein. A few images stand out: penetrating brown
eyes under penciled eyebrows and black Betty Page
bangs, a swirl of green Victorian lace, black trenchcoat
and eyeliner, blond ponytail.
But the majority of the hundred or so revelers milling
about the balcony bar and swaying around the dance
floor during the Kitchen Club's 16th Anniversary
Party are what some Goths call "The Mundanes" non-Goths. Just your average Miami clubgoers whose
musical tastes run toward the drum-andsynthesizerbased. So what does this relative dearth of deathly
pale partiers tell us? After the Kitchen helped grow
and define what it meant to be a Goth in Miami, why
haven't more hard-core Goths showed up to celevrate?
Some veterans of our local Goth culture have been
giving this some serious thought in recent years. As
anyone Goth will tell you, the club scene is only on
aspect of Gothdom, but as the most visible facet, it is as
good a place as any to take the subculture's pulse. Most
in the scene agree its heartbeat is fluttering like a plastic
bat on a string; what they can't agree on is why.
That is hardly surprising. You would be hard-pressed
to find any two Goths who agree completely on an allencompassing definition of what Goth is anyway. The
former South Florida club kid now known as Marilyn
Manson has appropriated and popularized certain
aspects of the Goth aesthetic - to the near-universal
disdain of Gotherati in South Florida and around the
world. (The Marilyn Manson entry in 21st Century
With his folksy North Florida-meets-North
Carolina drawl, fine blond hair, and round, open face,
Aiden seems an unlikely lightning rod for Goth-scene
controversy. But while the Coral Springs resident's
manner is polite and self-effacing (he jokes that one
reason he wears black at this point in his life is because
it's "slimming"), there's definitely an iron fist in that
black velvet glove.
"This may be somewhat controversial, but myself,
I see Florida has lost touch with the international
Goth community," he declares. "If you go to the clubs,
most of it is EBM, industrial synth-pop dominated."
And, based upon his travels to such annual Gothfests
as Release the Bats in Los Angeles and Dead and
Buried in London, the electronic stuff, he says, is not
what's hot internationally. The Death Rock Revival,
featuring bands including Cinema Strange, Ausgang,
and Skeletal Family, began as a reaction against the
domination of electronic music, the freshest, most
current strain of Gothic music.
"There are dozens of excellent Goth bands who get
played all over the world but we don't hear in South
Florida," Aiden says. "A lot of younger Goths say that
older Goths like myself are stuck in the past. But the
truth is, it's not stuck in the past, because there are
dozens of these new bands coming out, which aren't
exactly like the old Batcave days, but have the same
spirit, and the same foundations."
night, or an underground night. But is it really
a Goth night? Probably not."
The cramped living room of Juan
"Count Prince" Rivera's Hialeah Gardens
condominium bristles with Catholic imagery.
Gazing at the porcelain San Lazaro and the
shimmering Lady of Peace icon, one wonders:
Can this Puerto Rican guy, more homebody
than homeboy, possibly live up to his most
Gothic of handles?
Then he emerges from his office/sanctuary,
a slight, ponytailed figure with cafe-con-leche
skin and a neat goatee. He wears a burgundy
velvet robe over a black silk shirt and black
velvet trousers. At his throat, a black ... wait
for it ... ascot.
In other words, he dresses like the Count,
and looks like Prince. And that is where his
nickname came from.
He got seriously into the club scene and
Gothic fashion in the early Nineties; he
eventually became a fixture at the Kitchen,
especially the Grove and North Miami
incarnations. He describes his style as
"Romantic Vampire."
EXPOSES
DARK OCCASIONS
CAFE
GOTH BOX
CRAFT
AURORA
November 19 - November 25,2009
Contact the author to discuss the story:
[email protected]
FILM NOIR
None of that daunted Aldo, Wispe
says. "[Gothic music] was just what he was
into. We used to yell at him: 'This is what
you like, not what the people like.' But he
stuck to his guns. He just loves the scene."
(Unfortunately, Aldo did not respond to
requests to be interviewed for this article. )
The Grove location closed in 1995, then
reopened roughly a year later in the Design
District. Even after it moved yet again, to
Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami in 1997,
it remained a "sanctuary" for South Florida's
small but established Goth scene. Saint
Germain bcaome Aldo's formal business
partner at the North Miami location, but
shortly thereafter, Saint Germain skipped
town to join the band Apocalypse Theater.
After two years on the road with the popular
Goth/Industrial act, he decided to return to
South Florida.
What he saw troubled him. While the
term Goth was getting thrown around
on flyers as never before, and the number
of ostensibly Gothic DJs had grown,
something had changed. "Before, it was like,
the Kitchen was the shit, and there weren't other clubs,"
he remembers. "The Kitchen set the standard. Now,
that's not good enough for some of the people who've
been around a long time. I don't get it."
Saint Germain has a couple of gigs, including
spinning for his old pal Aldo at the Kitchen's current,
multiroom incarnation at SoHo Lounge. And though
he tries to keep the cold flame burning, he's not having
much success. "I don't know what the deal is, because I
see so many people that appear and act like they're into
the Gothic scene, but then I'll throw a Goth party, and
I'll be playing, like, old-school Gothic music, and it's
like people just don't respond to it," he declares. "People
are scared when they hear a little guitar, or when they
hear real drums. If I spin Goth at 1:30 in the morning,
it's going to clear the dance floor.
"Unfortunately, it's back to where is started," he
concludes, referring to the Kitchen's early nights in the
Grove. "That's when you could get away with playing
that music, because the select 25 people that were
into it would stick around and hear that music. I get
disappointed, but I still stick to it, and I still stick to
playing those songs."
And he doesn't think that that multiroom,
multigenre approach employed by the Kitchen and
Funeral is doing the Goth scene any favors.
"The Mundanes are the problem," he states. "That's
a big turnoff. I don't have a problem, but that does
He's talking about some of the same bands
that Saint Germain says will clear the dance
floor, and he doesn't agree. "I know of a few
times that I've been able to take it to places,
and people go, wow, what is that? That's great.
A lot of the younger people think it's old stuff,
and don't understand that it's cutting edge,
it's brand-new, these are bands which are
performing all over the world."
Aiden says you can count him among the
Elder Goths in South Florida who've pretty
much given up on the club scene. He says
he's gotten burned too many times "A lot of
clubs will use the word Goth on their flyers.
They'll say EBM, industrial synth-pop, retro,
Goth. But when you actually go in, they play
very little Goth. You'll hear a Cure song or a
Siouxsie song, and that's it. I think properly
you can call something like that an alternative
LETTERS
If every club were to shut
down in, you would still have
a Gothic culure.
bother some people; They have a problem with normal
people." "The Gothic culture does not depend on the
club scene," declares Aiden, editor of the goth e-zine
Midnight Calling. "It exists independently of the scene.
If every club were to shut down in South Florida, you
would still have a Gothic culture.
"Goth probably is the real underground. We get
together at Starbucks," he says through the pungent
aroma of the half-caf grande lattes being slung by the
barista behind him. "There's a saying that Denny's is
the biggest Goth club in Florida."
Aiden, who, because of his age (43, he grudgingly
admits) and his world view, fits just about everybody's
definition of an Elder Goth, arrived in his everyday
attire: black blazer with Christian Death pins, black
jeans, a paisley shirt and vest with ornate pewter buttons,
round metal-rimmed shades, and, most distinctively, a
bowler hat. ("I'm kind of the last of a dying breed; I'm a
Victorian Goth," he says.)
CONTENTS
When we say Goth, what do we mean? In this
chicken-and-egg equation, the music definitely cam
first, and definitely came from England in the New
Wave/Postpunk era: Bauhaus, Joy Division, Siouxsie
and the Banshees, Alien Sex Fiend, the Sisters of Mercy
(who have vehemently repudiated the Goth tag). The
Cure? Yeah, sorta, but they're generally viewed as more
of a "crossover" band. Stray any farther afield than these
core artists, and you're sure to violate some Goth or
other's definition of what the genre is and what it ain't.
During the Nineties, Gothic music became entwined
with the industrial grindcore scene and the label grew to
include everyone from Nine Inch Nails, whose brilliant
frontman Trent Reznor birthed a few radio-friendly
hits, to dystopic, experimental noise units such as
Chemlab, Frontline Assembly, and, well, Noise Unit.
People who were into these bands, and went to clubs
to hear them, hadn't necessarily applied the Gothic tag
to the music - or to themselves. Carlos Saint Germain,
who moved from Kansas to Miami in 1991, began
frequenting the Kitchen at its Miami Beach location in
the Seagull Hotel at 21st Street and Collins Avenue,
where it had opened in 1988. He liked the music being
played, but he also had a few of his own dark favorites
that he began bringing in for the DJs to play.
Once the Kitchen moved to its Coconut Grove
location at the intersection of McDonald Street and
Grand Avenue in 1993, Saint Germain came with
it, and began playing a more active role, eventually
promoting his own extremely Gothic night and
DJing it himself. He dressed the part, tending toward
the Victorian/Vampire side of the Goth spectrum.
He cemented his cred by running a Vampire: The
Masquerade game at the club.
His reputation was even Gother than that. "There
were rumors going around that it was a Satanic cult
based here in Miami," he remembers with a wry grin.
"I'd have people come up to me from out of state, and
be like, oh, you're the one that throws those parties,
and I'm like yeah, and they're like, well, where do you
guys meet other than here? I'm like, meet? What do
you mean? I even had a couple different parents tell me
that they took their children to psychologists, and were
giving them my flyers." He remembers that one party
in particular, which was called "Kill Yourself," caused
something of a stir, even earning a mention from Miami
Herald nightlife columnist Tara Solomon. The flyers,
he remembers, were hand-colored by his five-year-old
niece and her friends. "It was cute," he says.
As the Kitchen, under the guidance of owner/DJ
Aldo G, moved in an ever-more-Goth direction, the
club's staff had to deal with Those Pesky Mundanes.
Humberto Wispe, long-time bouncer for the Kitchen
(also a long-time New Times employee, now classified
advertising director at New Times Broward-Palm
Beach) remembers that his services were regularly
required to keep certain club patrons and passersby
from harassing the Anne Rice fans.
"There was also a lot of moshing at the Kitchen - it
was one of the last clubs in Miami for ... not skinheads,
but, you know, whoever was into the moshing scene.
They'd play some Ministry and White Zombie, and in
between that, music for the Goths. And there was a lot
of picking on them - outside of the club, too."
aurora
publication.com
Goth, the 2002 tome by British scene chronicler Mick
Mercer, reads simply, "Bowie tribute band.")
Indeed, if you shine a dripping pewter candelabrum
around the dark, dark corners of this dark, dark
subculture, you'll find the rhetorical barbs, bruised
egos, and hurt feelings typical of any ideological battle.
What are they squabbling about? Darkwave vs. EBM,
Fetish Goths vs. Romantic Vampires, dress codes vs.
all access. Some want to grow the scene by blending
genres of music and style. Others argue that too much
of that kind of mixing dilutes the spirit of what Goth is
supposed to be about.
And you're not going to get to the bottom of this pit
by talking to some Baby Bat fresh from his first trip to
Hot Topic. No, you need to talk to the kind of Goths
who have seen at least four iterations of the Kitchen
come and go, who know Christian Death from Cinema
Strange, a Gangrel from a Ventrue.
You're going to have to knock on the coffin doors of
the Elder Goths.
9
10
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
CRAFT
FILM NOIR
GOTH BOX
CAFE
DARK OCCASIONS
DECEMBER 12
1000 W State Road 84
Ft. Lauderdale
Purgatory
10 PM
to Midnight
thefetishparty.com
EXPOSES
LETTERS
CONTENTS
aurora
publication.com
aurora
publication.com
TUESDAY
RokBar
Sheky Till You Drop
FRI 11.20
SPIN ME
RIGHT ROUND.
'80s Prom,
Wednesday
fundraiser
This Is It
50, 485 Brickell Ave, Miami. Visit miamithinkers.com.
RAINA MCLEOD
readings
To Go or Not to Go? Go.
Get thee to a nunnery, said William Shakespeare in Hamlet.
As a scholar would point out, what Will really meant was,
"You belong in a whorehouse."
Hardly tame material, yet sometimes it takes a modern
twist to breathe life back into the Ol' English. Enter writer
Vanessa Garcia and her collective, the Krane,
the folks behind a night of bawdy, Shakespeareinspired monologues called Shake It Up. Prompted
by lines from the Bard, the writers - many of
whom hail from the venerable MFA program at
the University of Miami - have crafted soliloquies
that would get them thrown out of English class
but which fit right in at the edgy and downright
stylish confines of AE District (3852 N. Miami
Ave, Miami). To wit, your $15 ticket gets you access
November 19 - November 25,2009
When Art Basel rolls into town, try not to be blinded by its
international glamour and I'm-so-cool-I-come-to-Miamionce-a-year bravado. Our advice: Keep your 305 spirit high
and patronize the local artists who grind it out year-round.
The folks at Miami's It are all about keeping the spotlight on
South Florida. Just as our city is a crossroads of cross-cultural
pollination, the organization brings together artists working
in various mediums, in both public and private spaces, and
will feature them all during Basel at Miami's Independent
Thinkers, a multimedia satellite fair designed to showcase
new talent and blow your mind.
The event is still weeks away, but join Miami's It this
Friday for a fundraiser that will make sure each sculpture,
painting, and collage will be primed and ready for viewing.
Partake in Fashion, Film & Music - a place to mingle with
fellow culture lovers and float a few dollars to a great local
cause. A minimum $15 donation is required, but feel free to
dig a little deeper if you want to play patron for a night. The
giving, fashion, music, and art will go down at 10 p.m. at Club
AURORA
Three hundred sixy-one days of the year, Milan, Paris, and
New York are the world's fashion capitals. But for four
glorious days in November, South Florida captures fashion's
attention when Rock Fashion Week Miami Beach and Elle
magazine models clad in spring/summer couture to the Eden
Roc Renaissance (4525 Collins Ave., Miami Beach).
This Thursday's lineup for the fashion fete mixes local
flavor from Lorie Lester at 7 p.m. and KRELwear at 8 with
fashion mogul Russell Simmon's Argyleculture at 10. Catch
Bullets 4 Peace this Friday and an Elle-presented surprise
designer Saturday. Now is your chance to see duded-up
models shake thier little things on the catwalk. And don't
forget the after-party disco. Admission is free, but an RSVP
is required and pace is severely limited. Call 800-319-5354 or
visit rockfashionwk.com. GINGER HARRIS
CLAUDIA SANTANA
CRAFT
fashion
If the Show Fits, Wear It
FILM NOIR
Some women will trek to the far corners of the world
(Sawgrass Mills, Dolphin Mall) for a chance at a discounted
shopping spree. And when it comes to throwing elbows
at fellow customers and rummaging through the racks for
hidden treasures, some treat it like an Olympic sport. So
when Shecky's Girls' Night Out rolls in with an array
of high-end vendors, it's like the world championship of
bargain shopping. This Thursday from 6 to 11 p.m., the
Catalina Hotel (1732 Collins Ave., Miami Beach) will turn
into its own version of an outlet mall - one that serves gratis
cocktails, nibbles, and beauty services. If sales make you sad
and bargains aren't your bag, stay away. But if you're the type
of gal who would never turn down anything that's more than
5 percent off, visit sheckys.com to buy $25 advance tickets.
They'll be $35 at the door. MONICA MENDEZ
GOTH BOX
shopping
Royale With Cheese, Please
Ooh-la-la! This Thursday marks the beginning of the second
annual French Week Miami, hosted by the French American
Chamber of Commerce of Florida, and it would be, like,
totally a faux pas to miss it.
It all kicks off with the opening cocktail party at Sofitel
Luxury Hotel (5800 Blue Lagoon Dr., Miami) at 6:30 p.m.,
but pardonne-moi mes amis, it's by invite only. Not one of the
lucky few? C'est pas un problème. Just call 305-374-5000 or
visit frenchweekmiami.com and get yourself a passport to the
party. It's followed by the launch of French Morning Miami,
the first French web magazine covering Miami (frenchmorning.com/miami). Still not satisfied? Get absorbed in
the language and romance of France at the film festivals this
Saturday at the Tower Theater (1508 SW Eighth St., Miami)
and at Sunrise Cinemas (301 Plaza Real, Boca Raton). Call
305-374-5000 or visit frenchweekmiami.com.
CAFE
THU 11.19
celebrations
DARK OCCASIONS
WEEK OF
NOVEMBER 19-25
EXPOSES
Dark Occasions
LETTERS
TUESDAY
DREAM Nightclub
CONTENTS
SIDE
DOOR
11
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
CRAFT
FILM NOIR
GOTH BOX
CAFE
DARK OCCASIONS
LETTERS
SUN
FEBRUARY 21
7:30 PM
EXPOSES
ticketmaster.com
12
THIS IS WAR
THE SPELL
THIRTYSECONDSTOMARS.COM
thisisalphabeat.com
CONTENTS
aurora
publication.com
P. SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
fashion
What Are You Wearing?
festivals
Take Me to the River
art
Pop Goes the Easel
festivals
art
Flower Power
In the Magic City's version of Pandora's tale, hope isn't the
only thing left in the box. Peek inside and you'll find enough
After God warmed up by making man and woman, he set his
sights on creating a truly perfect creature - the pig. What part
of the Great and Holy Pig is not tasty? Hoofs? Tasty. Tail?
Tasty. Nose? Tasty. If the finger-wagging vegan right wing is
correct and humans were not meant to barbecue ribs, roast
pork chops, and fry bacon, why did God make these things so
goddamn delicious? The defense rests.
At least we know Harvey's by the Bay (6445 NE Seventh
Ave., Miami) has our backs - and our baby-backs - because
this Sunday from 3:15 to 8 p.m., it will host PIG: Pig is
Good. If you've been to Harvey's, you know the drinks are
cheap and the inside/outside space is indeed spacious. So,
your mouth must be salivating by now at the prospect of an
all-afternoon barbecue prepared by chef Jeremiah Bullfrog
(Rick Ross's personal chef - no joke), who promises to use all
the delicious parts of our favorite animal. You can also expect
a live acoustic set from Afrobeta, along with Elastic Bond,
Uncle Scotchy, and DJs Christian and Libran from Electric
Porkchop. Call 954-394-2763 or visit harveysbythebay.com.
P. SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
His name is Zach Galifianakis, and you might recognize
him as the schlub that Mike Tyson hilariously KO'd in Todd
Phillips's The Hangover. Or maybe you know him better as
the blubbery dude from HBO's new comedy, Bored to Death.
Point is, a year ago, Galifianakis was a hirsute heavyweight on
NYC's underground comedy scene; these days, he's on the
way to becoming America's favorite fat guy.
This Monday, hit Sweat Records (5505 NE Second Ave.,
Miami) for an 8 p.m. screening of the Zach man's lesserknown 2008 flick, Visioneers. Directed by Jared Drake, it's
a dark comedy starring Galifianakis as George Washington
Winsterhammerman, a deeply depressed drone for the
dystopian Jeffers Corporation. One day, George's co-workers
begin exploding due to unhappiness, and it looks like he's
next. This is Galifianakis at his absurdist, occasionally spastic,
and beardedly chubby best. The screening is free. Call 305342-0953 or visit sweatrecordsmiami.com. S. PAJOT
CRYTØFANATIC
book events
Night of the Living Word
You have two choices this Monday. Stay home and listen to
kidneythieves.com
November 19 - November 25,2009
Some women will trek to the far corners of the world
(Sawgrass Mills, Dolphin Mall) for a chance at a discounted
shopping spree. And when it comes to throwing elbows
at fellow customers and rummaging through the racks for
hidden treasures, some treat it like an Olympic sport. So
when Shecky's Girls' Night Out rolls in with an array
of high-end vendors, it's like the world championship of
bargain shopping. This Thursday from 6 to 11 p.m., the
Catalina Hotel (1732 Collins Ave., Miami Beach) will turn
into its own version of an outlet mall - one that serves gratis
cocktails, nibbles, and beauty services. If sales make you sad
and bargains aren't your bag, stay away. But if you're the type
of gal who would never turn down anything that's more than
5 percent off, visit sheckys.com to buy $25 advance tickets.
They'll be $35 at the door. JOE LAPIN
food & wine
Meat is Murder. Tasty Murder.
film
Zach Attack
AURORA
Pump Up the Jams
SUN 11.22
MON 11.22
CRAFT
SAT 11.21
FILM NOIR
Fashionista Alert.
P. SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
T
H
I
E
V
E
S
GOTH BOX
Ever consider pasting a Big Mac wrapper onto a canvas?
Then you've pondered entering the artistic realm of pop art.
The genre, defined by an artist's use of images and physical
items found in popular culture, is like candy: yummy, often
colorful, and utterly indulgent when consumed in large doses.
Pinecrest Gardens' (11000 Red Rd., Pinecrest) latest exhibit
and sale, Garden Pop, will appeal to your sweet tooth witha
collection of original works from world-renowned artists
such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Donald Sultan
alongside those of locals Romero Britto, Purvis Young, Erika
King, and Eileen Seitz. Opening night's cocktail reception
at the gardens Satuday would have gotten you some live
music, grub, and gratis Baxardi for a cool $100. But you, my
frugal friend, can see the exhibit for free this Sunday through
November 25. Park hours are noon to 5 p.m. Call 305-7427071 or visit pinecrestgardens.com. RAINA MCLEOD
CAFE
It might have taken a whole year for pundit Glenn Beck to
start hating the families of 9/11 victims, but it took the rest of
us about two minutes to start hating Glenn Beck. Who cares
if he flip-flops on the issue of health care, hits on attractive
female visitors to his show, calls President Obama a racist
in one breath, and then disparages Mexican immigrants in
the next? All you need to know about why you should hate
Glenn Beck is that he'll read at Barnes & Noble (2501 N.
Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale). Props to small business
owner Mitchell Kaplan at Books & Books for not hosting
Beck's bizarro children's show or selling any mishmash of
the English language he's calling a "book." Furthermore, we
mention Beck's 7:30 p.m. appearance this Friday only as a
cautionary measure, so that no sane individual unwittingly
wanders into B&N and gets hit over the head by a shovel.
For further instructions on how to avoid such a disaster, call
954-561-3732 or visit barnesandnoble.com.
DARK OCCASIONS
book events
Rage Against the Machine
K
I
D
N
E
Y
EXPOSES
P. SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
Hans, Go Fly a Kite
In the cool, mountainous climes of Bavaria, the tradition
of stuffing yourself full of sausage and beer to celebrate
autumn seems like mankind's best idea ever. But here in the
subtropical heat, a smorgasbord of weiners and brewskis loses
some luster. That's why we Miamians need to lighten our
Oktoberfest load with some physical fun.
This Sunday at noon, begin your bratwurst-and-booze
binge at the German American Social Club of Greater
Miami (11919 SW 56th St., Miami), where Oktoberfest
Miami will wrap up its first weekend. That's right, the bash
will return October 23 through 25 for another run. But why
wait? Get your fill of hendl, haxn, würstel, weizen, and bock
right away. Admission is ten bucks for adults, free for kids
under 12. Call 305-552-5123 or visit germanamericanclubmiami.org.
Then, before joining the bierleichen (beer corpses), hit
Kiteoberfest at Haulover Park (10800 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach) for your afternoon exercise. From noon to 5 p.m.,
Skyward Kites and Miami-Dade Parks will present kiteflying competitions, aerial candy drops, and kite-building
classes. Bring your own tricked-out contraption or buy
one there. Admission is free. Call 305-893-0906 or visit
skywardkites.net. S. PAJOT
LETTERS
It's baffling to us that, in a city drowning in natural water
features, we rarely end up at events that take place on the
water. This weekend will be different, though, thanks to
the second annual Downtown Miami Riverwalk Festival.
Held at the confluence of Biscayne Bay and the Miami River
(325-335 Biscayne Blvd., Miami), the festival aims to put
Miamians where they belong. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this
Saturday, the family-friendly event will feature a boat parade
led by the Coast Guard, ethnic cuisine, face painting, clowns,
strolling musicians, and your general allotment of festivalstyle pageantry. Admission is free and all are welcome, even
pets. Call 305-416-6868 and enjoy the view.
festivals
CONTENTS
Though the New York fashion set likes to tease that Miami
style is all about skin-tight dresses and Ed Hardy T-shirts, let
us not be judged by the dodgy clothing choices of the tourists
we attract. Sure, we don't have four full, defined seasons, and
the weather lands us in a nearly year-round resort-wear rut,
but our city is about more than just putting on whatever piece
of fabric we can find.
This Friday evening, the fashion set's glitterati, the Miami
Fashion Association, will show how it's done. The superstyle
conglomerate will take over über-chic high-rise boutique
hotel the Webster (919 Collins Ave., Miami Beach) for its
annual gala celebrating the people who don't leave the house
without at least one piece of wearable art. Donning perhaps
a puffy-sleeved blouse or a chunky Lucite bangle, local
fashionistas will jockey for the title of Best Dressed. Designers
Julian Chang and Danny Santiago will be the guests of honor,
so attendees should dress to impress - the gods are watching.
Cocktails flow at 7 p.m. Call 305-674-7899 or visit miamifa.
org. RAINA MCLEOD
art, poetry, and performance art to ease the ills of these
soul-withering times. This Friday at 8 p.m. at the Margulies
Warehouse (591 NW 27th St., Miami) the fifth annual
Hope Blossoms: An Art Happening will gather scores of
local and international creative types .
Tickets cost $100. Call 305-365-2478 or visit
lotushouseshelter.org. CARLOS SUAREZ DE JESUS
aurora
publication.com
to an open bar this Friday night from 6:30 till they kick your
drunk ass out. The show begins at 8. For advance tickets, call
Vanessa at 305-450-9931 or visit thekrane.com.
13
aurora
publication.com
CONTENTS
LETTERS
EXPOSES
DARK OCCASIONS
CAFE
GOTH BOX
FILM NOIR
CRAFT
Ron Jaworski vocally fellate mediocre Denver Broncos QB
Kyle Orton and his horrendous neck beard, or brave the
85-degree weather and venture out to Miami Dade College
Wolfson Campus (300 NE Second Ave., Miami) for one of
the greatest author combinations the Miami Book Fair has
ever assembled for an Evenings With... event.
At 6 p.m., former Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl
will dish out a reading from her newest tome, Gourmet Today:
More Than 1,000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $40). Since she has won four
James Beard Awards and made or broken the reputations
of more restaurants than we can count, it's probably safe to
assume the book is incredible.
After Reichl, comes literary fiction giant Barbara
Kingsolver, whom you might have mistaken for someone
who lives inside the New York Times building because she
spends so much time on the paper's best-seller list. Her
first hit, 1998's The Poisonwood Bible, was like The White
Album of Oprah's Book Club, and its gargantuan success led
President Bill Clinton to award her a National Humanities
Medal in 2000. She'll read at 8 p.m. from her new novel,
The Lacuna (Harper, $26.99), the kind of sweeping historical
work that gets instantly canonized. Tickets cost ten dollars
for each reading. Prak for free at Building 7 and then head to
Chapman. Call 305-237-3258 or visit miamibookfair.com for
a map. P. SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
A U RO R A
November 19 - November 25,2009
WED 11.25
parties
We Love the '80s
TUE 11.24
nightlife
DreamSex LoveSounds
You probably don't need a DJ to save your life, but it is likely
you could benefit from one injecting same fiyah beats into
your cranium. And if said sound selector can also spice up
your bedroom action, well, it doesn't get any better than that.
Every Tuesday at Dream Nightclub (1532 Washington Ave.,
Miami Beach), Porn to Be a Star and DJ Ron Luna hit sexstarved nightlifers (yes, there are some) with an "orgas-mix"
that mashes the hottest house music into a tantalizing audio
delight.
Whether it causes panties to drop is something you'll have
to find out yourself. With stripper poles, seductive lighting,
and more than enough hidden enclaves for you to, er, dance,
Dream is hot any night. But when Luna is on the ones and
twos, it gets downright steamy. Admission is $20. Call 786566-0393 or visit dreammia.com. RAINA MCLEOD
nightlife
Are You a Side Door Man?
14
Sounds of Sex.
South Beach's Rokbar (1905 Collins Ave., Miami Beach) is
really neither a rock club nor a bar. Instead, the hip lounge
focuses on bringing together beautiful people with a yen
for bottle service and plenty of attitude. Still, the venue has
always made a name for itself by doing the unexpected. It has
hosted events as divergent as live band performances, keggers,
and art parties. Now Rokbar is doing it again with its new
Tuesday-night party, Side Door.
Launched by the lounge's director of events, Sebastian
Puga, and former Bella Rosa co-owner Keith Paciello, the
night promises to be quintessentially anti-South Beach - no
bottle service, no dorr fee, and no model/promoter tables.
In fact, it's embracing the dive bar theme by not using the
Collins Avenue portal. To gain entry, guests must use the
back alley, hence the name Side Door.
Also given the boot is normal Top 40 set list found at
most Beach clubs. Resident DJs Troy Kurtz, Ryan Evans,
Johnny the Boy, Damaged Goods, and a slew of special guests
will instead spin a mix of electro, indie-dance, and nu-disco.
The party starts at midnight. Call 305-674-4397 or visit
rokbarmiami.com. JOSE D. DURAN
The '80s brought Reaganomics, Rubik's Cube, New Coke,
Madonna, the end of the Cold War, high-tops, Swatches, and
teased hair. They're all awesome, so it's no wonder that local
indie record store Sweat Records holds an anuual ode to the
decade with its '80s Prom. Already in its seventh year, the
nostalgic trip promises plenty of clichés mixed with hipster
aesthetics at the Vagabond (30 NE 14th St., Miami). DJ
Hottpants and WVUM's Laura of Miami will spin the tunes
to make your rump move, while Ray Milian will take charge
of the decks in the main room. Since no prom is complete
without a live band, The State Of will play plenty of cover
songs to transport you back to when the Internet was a thing
nerds played with.
Have your limo pull up at 9:30, because that's when the
celebration begins. Visit sweatrecordsmiami.com.
JOSE D. DURAN
parties
White Is Right
Only in Miami is Thanksgiving parlayed into a major party
weekend. And the White Party, a series of events benefiting
HIV/AIDS service provider Care Resource, is one of the
beggest parties there is, at least in the gay world. Now in its
25th year, White Party Weekend is spread over six days at
venues throughout town, drawing crowds from around the
world who flock to the M.I.A. to dance the weekend away
and indulge in a few recreational pleasures of the flesh.
And though White Party has historically been targeted
at gay men, this Wednesday night, the bash is for the ladies.
Called Dolce, the all-female event will take place at Crème
Lounge, the space above Score (727 Lincoln Rd., Miami
Beach). The DJ will be drag superstar Daisy Deadpetals,
who is fantastic enough for any gender. Tickets cost only ten
dollars at the door, and the party starts at 9 p.m. Just don't
stay out too late, beause there's lots more fun to be had the
rest of the week. Visit whiteparty.org. DAN RENZI
Dark Occasions are offered free to AURORA readers,
subject to space restrictions. Send submission to AURORA
Editor by e-mail ([email protected]), fax
(305-458-9879), or mail (AURORA, 12059 SW 10th St,
Miami, FL 33184). Please include zip code. Continuing items
must be resubmitted monthly. No submissions will be taken
by telephone. Deadline is noon Tuesday for the following
week's issue, but it's best to send information three weeks
in advance. Search our complete AURORA listings online.
Because event dates and times are subject to change,
please call the venue ahead of time to verify.
Whisk Gourmet Food & Catering
BY LEE KLEIN
Email [email protected]
November 19 - November 25,2009
ROCK
HARD
AURORA
steaks, burritos, brownies, blondies, cupcakes... You scream, I
scream, we all scream for this sort of stuff, even more so when
ingredients are locally sourced, often organic, and prepared
with a deft touch.
Let’s begin with starters. A chickpea-dominant hummus
comes with thick, tough corn chips. “Peruvian-style” grouper
ceviche arrives with finer tarot root chips. Each satisfies in
CRAFT
SUSHI
" 'Good food served here.' "
FILM NOIR
THAI RAMA
61 Curtiss Pkwy, Miami Springs
305.884.4390
the selections comprise not only food that’s good for you,
but also things you like to eat. Generally that means fresh
salads, savory sandwiches, hearty entrées, and homemade
desserts. More specifically, it translates to goat cheese fritters,
fried green tomatoes, juicy burgers, fingerling Frech fries,
grilled grouper sandwiches, buttermilk fried chicken, chrrasco
GOTH BOX
during seasonal slowdowns. Business at Whisk became brisk
right away.
Some of the folks marching into the cozy café have called
in advance and are there to grab lunches to go. Others fill
three tables that altogether seat 15. Still others wait outside
in the slender strip mall until some of those seats turn over.
Every now and then, one of Kristin or Brendan’s high school
teachers stops by to eat; both are Miami natives and graduates
of Coral Gables Senior High, located two blocks away.
A sign on Whisk’s window reads, “Good food served
here,” and indeed this place is testament to just how far fresh
ingrdients and fair value can carry a restaurant. There is no
cutting-edge concept at work- no reinvention, deconstruction,
or reconstruction. There’s not even any truffle oil. The onepage paper menu, including specials, is printed each day, and
CAFE
I
t has long been am aphorism of the food world: Those
who can’t cook, cater. Snarky, yes, but it is generally true
that chefs of catering firms lack the professional training
and/or talent of their restaurant-running brethren. Brendan
Connor, top toque at Whisk Gourmet Food & Catering, is
clearly an exception to this rule. In fact, he and sister Kristin,
Whisk’s managing partner, could teach seasoned restaurateurs
a thing or two about succeeding in the business - or at least
it appears that way, based on the steady stream of customers
going in and out of the tiny storefront eatery every weekday.
Some might contend the siblings’ talents eclipse those of
other caterers because both come from professional restaurant
backgrounds. Brendan began his career a decade ago at the
Hominy Grill in Charleston, South Carolina, and eventually
worked his way to chef de cuisine at that city’s upscale
Anson’s, a well-regarded American fusion establishment; his
last stint was as kitchen manager at Tarpon Bend on Miracle
Mile. Kristin worked with Myriad Restaurant Group in New
York (Montrachet, Tribeca Grill) before returning to the
Gables as general manager of the Café at Books & Books.
They started Whisk as a catering outfit only- thus the tiny
space- and then tacked on the café and takeaway ventures
almost three years ago as a means of filling income gaps
DARK OCCASIONS
Hummus with tortilla chips $5
Fried green tomato and smoked bacon sandwich $8
Skirt steak salad $14
Pan-seared tripletail $20
Key lime pie $5
EXPOSES
4702 S. Le Jeune Rd., Coral Gables
786-268-8350; whiskgourmet.com
Lunch and early dinner Monday
through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
LETTERS
Whisk’s brisk business is testament to how far frest ingredients and fair value can carry a restaurant.
CONTENTS
Whisk Whips Up a Crowd
aurora
publication.com
Cafe
basic fashion. But the soup du jour swept us away;
it was sweet delicious butternut squash bisque
boasting pure notes of the puréed vegetable merely
buttered up and dabbed with fresh cream and a
pinch of chives.
The only other appetizer choices, barring
specials such as fresh stone crabs and the
aforementioned ceviche, are beef bresaola, and fried
green tomatoes with herb-buttermilk dressing. The
air-dried beef was wrapped cigarette-like around
walnut-and-raisin-studded goat cheese, with a
side dip of clover honey, resulting ina tad too many
tastes. The green tomatoes were cornmeal-dusted
and freid to perfection, but we preferred them on
a sandwich, between grilled slices of multi-grain
bread, with lettuce, red tomato slices, applewoodsmoked bacon, and a thin veneer of Dijon mustard
and mayonnaise.
Unless specified otherwise, all sandwiches are
similarly garnished (except no bacon) and served
on either multigrain or whole-wheat toast. Hefty
fillings include roast rukey with Brie cheese and
cranberry mayonnaise; tuna salad made with freshly
girlled fish and classic mayo-celery-onion mix-ins; a
veggie combo with hummus, avocado, and sprouts;
and Charleston chicken salad, moist chunks of
breast meat melded with walnuts, raisins, celery, red
onion, mayo, and Dijon.
You get a grilled skirt steak sandwich too, but
we tried the meat fanned out on a salad plate
of mixed greena, cucumber slices, grape tomato
halves, and crumbles of Gorgonzola cheese in a
bright cider vinaigrette. A dry-spice rub on the
six ounces of steak gives it a delectable kick. A
slightly larger length of skirt is offered as an entrée,
and so is churrasco, whose seared beef is bathed
in garlic-chili-coconut sauce. Buttermilk fried
chicken, another popular special, is available on the
regular menu atop a salad of organic spinach greens,
local avocado, red onion, chopped egg, cremini
mushrooms, and honey-mustard dressing.
Among the desert choices most days are cookies,
cupcakes, brownies, and blondies- fresh, not too
sweet, and recommendable. Do not, however,
bypass the key lime pie, one of the finest we've had
in a long, long time. The thin, fresh graham crust
was just firm enough; the glossy condensed-milk
custard impeccably balanced with tart key lime
flavor; and the topping not an ostentatious crown of
meringue, but a puff of whipped cream cradling a
ripe halved blackberry- like the cherry capping that
is lunch at Whisk.
15
aurora
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CONTENTS
LETTERS
EXPOSES
DARK OCCASIONS
CAFE
GOTH BOX
FILM NOIR
CRAFT
Wicked Wonderland Sex
Lita Ford is back and she’s hotter and dirtier than ever with her new release “Wicked Wonderland”.
Lita Ford
“Wicked Wonderland”
Lita Ford, Jim Gillette, Greg Hampton, Chris
Collier, and Stet Howland
Album Out Now
www.litaxx.tv/lita
BY PHIL FREEMAN
L
ita Ford has been a professional musician
since she was a teenager. As the though
lead guitarist with the L.A. all-female hard
rockers the Runaways, the statuesque California
blonde held her ground onstage and shredded as
ferociously as heroes Ritchie Blackmore and Jeff
Beck. The group recorded four studio albums
(and a live disc during a rapturously received
tour of Japan) before disbanding due to creative
differences. Guitarist (and, on the last two albums,
lead vocalist) Joan Jett wanted to pursue a barebones, punky sound, while Ford’s interest in the
heavier, more metallic side of things was only
growing heavier.
Ford made her solo debut in 1983, with Out for
Blood, a ten-track blast of glam-metal fury with
street-gang lyrics and screaming leads and solos.
And on its cover, she swapped her Runaways look
of T-shirts and bellbottoms for a black leather
ensemble that revealed the body beneath.
“Me and the bass player came up with that,”
Ford laughs by phone from New York, when
reminded of the Out for Blood cover ensemble.
“That was quite a long time ago, so I had to think
about that. The bass player [Neil Merryweather]
made that outfit. He used to make leather stuff,
and he was really good at it, like the gauntlet on my
hand and the crotch piece, he actually hand-made
all that stuff. So that was an easy one, having him in my band,
he was a really talented guy as well.”
In a way, Ford’s come full circle since that album cover in
‘83. She had a brand-new release, Wicked Wonderland, and
Lita Ford is a badass, possibly
more now than ever before.
it;s the heaviest, hardest thing she’s recorded since her earliest
days. And inside the lavish booklet and on her website, the
51-year-old married mother of two os pictured in a variety of
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
Goth
Box
16
leather and fetish ensembles and sometimes holding an axe (a
real one, not a guitar) or a double-barreled shotgun. Lita Ford
is a badass, possibly more now than ever after 15 years out of
the spotlight.
She’s been married since the mid-’90s to Jim Gillette,
former lead vocalist for the over-the-top glam-metal act
Nitro. In recent years they’ve been living a secluded life on
an island in the Caribbean - fishing, growing their own food,
and homeschooling sons James and Rocco. Even the album
was a family affair: Gillette, who also produced it at their
home, handles co-lead vocals on many tracks. And, as Ford
says with a laugh, “the kids were there when we were making
it. You can probably hear them yelling in the background of
some tracks.”
When Ford walked away from the industry, she did so as
decisively can be. “I pretty much was a full-time parent,” she
says. “We did record some songs for my older son, just for fun,
but other than that I didn’t really play too much once I had
my first son. I really hung it up for a while. I got bored with
it, like some people get bored with whatever they do. But
it’s something that’s also addictive. It’s in my blood, and I’m
not ready to completely hang it up. I’ve gotta give it another
go-around for me and for my family. I want my kids to see
me play.”
Though some songs are hooky, with choruses you can
pump your fist and sing along to, Wicked Wonderland strays
quite far from the pop metal and radio-friendly hard rock of
1988’s Lita and 1991’s Dangerous Curves. (Those, of course,
are the albums that sported hits like “Kiss Me Deadly,”
“Close My Eyes Forever,” and “Shot of Poison”). It’s a heavy,
industrial-tinged album, almost closer in spirit to a Rob
Zombie or Marilyn Manson disc, and Gillette’s vocals are
hoarse and grunge-influenced, not the high-pitched shriek of
his previous work. “I needed somebody to hit the heavier side,
which, being a female, I can’t do,” says Ford. “So I wanted him
to be able to cover that side of the album.”
“We just started jamming, and that’s what we came up
with,” she says of the new sound. “We didn’t want to do an
album that was lightweight and adult contemporary, which is
what people would probably expect from somebody who’s 51
years old. But I just wanted to rock. I think a lot of Lita fans
will listen to my stuff and say, ‘It doesn’t sound like her, but
then again it does sound like her.’ As soon as the vocals kick
in or the guitar kicks in, you know it’s me. It didn’t lose the
Lita vibe - my voice still sounds the same.”
Almost all the songs on Wicked Wonderland are about
sex - but not the love-song-with-an-edge way Ford’s earlier
material was. These are raunchy anthems sung by a woman
whose bedroom tastes run to the kinky side. “Bed” includes
lyrics such as, “Tie me to the bed/Bow your head when
you approach your queen... You give me pleasure with pain
and always make me scream,” and has been licensed to the
fetish website Stockroom.com, where Ford and Gillette
have a mini-store selling gear they personally endorse. “I love
waering their clothes and using their toys. They’re just classy,
very wonderful, high-quality items,” she says.
On the surface, such lyrical content might seem like a
surprise coming from a woman who lives far from civilization,
homeschooling her kids - and who’s also included a song
called “Patriotic S.O.B.” on Wicked Wonderland. But Lita Ford
hasn’t transformed into a female Ted Nugent by any stretch.
“I am a little bit patriotic/conservative,” she says, “but I think
Jim is more so. That song actually wasn’t supposed to be a
Lita song, but then I was like, ‘Whoa! Wait a minute! This
song rocks! We gotta use this song!’ It absolutely fits because
of our new president, and the way things are going with that.
It’s our first black president, you know? It’s a very right-withthe-times song. So it’s got its place on Wicked Wonderland,
even though it’s not sexual. It’s one of my favorites.”
Ford’s currently on the road with Queensrÿche, whose
new release is the self-explanatory concept album American
Soldier. Rather than do a traditional opening set, though, she’s
appearing with the headliners, singing three songs with them
as her backing band. “I’m gonna sing with Geoff Tate, we’re
doing ‘Close My Eyes Forever,’ then we’re gonna do a couple
of new songs,” she says. “Jim’s gonna come out and sing, too.
So it’s not like I’m the support act or they’re the headliners,
it’s a team effort.”
Sheplans to assemble a band of her own for festivals and
other tour dates in 2010, and who knows? It might turn into
a full-on family affair. As Ford explains, “James is now playing
guitar, he’s 12 years old, and he shreds. He’s doing great. We
gave him a Goldtop Les Paul for his birthday a year ago, and
he uses it every day. Rocco is into drums; he’s only eight years
old but he loves heavy metal and wants to play drums, so he’s
working with that. Yeah, they’re little rocker kids.”
Email [email protected]
COMING TO SPACE
In Stores Now
NOV 28
clubspace.com
CLUB LISTINGS
PUNK
ROCK
HIPSTER
SATURDAY, NOV. 21
Forecast
NOVEMBER
The Panix: Guerrilleros de Nadie, Baker Acted, Eztorbo
Social, the Actuaries, AssPiss, and Years Ago., Thu.,
Nov. 26, 9 p.m. Churchill’s, 5501 NE 2nd Ave, Miami,
305-757-1807, churchillspub.com.
Rusted Root: The rambling, bluegrassy quartet is
now here in Miami., Sat., Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m., $20.
Revolution Live, 200 W Broward Blvd, Fort Lauderdale,
954-727-0950, jointherevolution.net.
David Guetta: Join Guetta for a night of sexed-up house
music when he swings by Mansion., Sat., Nov. 28,
11 p.m., $50. Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave, Miami
Beach, 305-532-1525, mansionmiami.com.
Paul Van Dyk: The master mixer is back in Miami for a
tranced up night at Space., Sat., Nov. 28, 11 p.m.,
$60. Space, 34 NE 11th St, Miami, 305-375-0001,
clubspace.com.
DECEMBER
Kreamy ‘Lectric Santa: Tue., Dec. 1, 9 p.m.
Chuchill’s, 5501 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, 305-757-1807,
churchillspub.com.
Amanda Blank: myspace.com/amandablank. Wed., Dec.
2, 10 p.m., Free. Collins Park, 201 21st St, Miami
Beach, 305-673-7730.
Justice: Yes, you read it correctly. They’re back and just in
time for Art Basel., Fri., Dec. 4, 11 p.m., $30. Mansion,
1235 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, 305-532-1525,
mansionmiami.com.
Misfits: A live show by the current incarnation of these
O.G. horror punks., Fri., Dec. 4, 8 p.m., $20. Culture
Room, 3045 N Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, 954-5641074, cultureroom.net.
For more info and other concerts, check our website.
aurorapublication.com
Dec 7
myspace.com/
amandablank
mansionmiami.com
November 19 - November 25,2009
@ MANSION
AURORA
SUNDAY, NOV. 22
Emerge M.I.A. Music Festival: Featuring Locos Por
Juana, Art Official, Afrobeta, DJ Le Spam, Bachaco,
and Brenden O’Hara., 9 p.m., $10, emrgemia.com.
White Room, 1306 N Miami Ave, Miami, 305-995-5050,
whiteroommiami.com.
Megadeth: With Machine Head, Suicide Silence, and
Arcanium., 6 p.m., $33, megadeth.com. Revolution
Live, 200 W Broward Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, 954-7270950, jointherevolution.net.
CRAFT
The 97th Anniversary Party, Day 2: FeaturingIko Iko, Elastic Bond,
Afrobeta, Walking Delta, City of God, and Frontline., 6 p.m., $10,
Tobacco Road, 626 S Miami Ave, Miami, 305-374-1198, tobaccoroad.com.
Awesome New Republic: The official end-of-tour party with Panic
Bomber, Life of Seals, Nived-N-Hydro, and DJPJ., 8 p.m., $10,
anrmiami.com. Studio 1415, 1415 NE 129th St, North Miami.
Forever the Sickest Kids: With the Rocket Summer, Sing It Loud,
and My Favorite Highway., 6:30 p.m., $18, foreverthesickestkids.
com. Culture Room, 3045 N Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, 954564-1074, cultureroom.net.
The Revelators: A debut concert by this local band, starring Charlie
Pickett, Henk Milne, Chris DeAngelis, and Alexander Milne., 9 p.m.,
revelators.us. Churchill’s, 5501 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, 305-757-1807,
churchillspub.com.
Kaskade: A DJ set by the Chicago-born deep house head., 11 p.m.,
$20, myspace.com/kaskademusic. Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave,
Miami Beach, 305-532-1525, mansionmiami.com.
Sebastian Ingrosso: The Swedish House Mafia member shows
you how the Scandinavians do it., 11 p.m., $40, myspace.com/
sebastianingrosso. SET Nightclub, 320 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach,
305-531-2800, setmiami.com.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25
FILM NOIR
amanda
blank
The 97th Anniversary Party, Day 1: Featuring Five Ninez, Jahfe,
Suenalo, Electric Piquete, DC-3, and Bachaco., 6 p.m., $10,
Tobacco Road, 626 S Miami Ave, Miami, 305-374-1198, tobaccoroad.com.
DJ M.O.S.: The Brooklyn-based DJ kicks it at the Beach’s glossy
hipster club., 10 p.m., $20, myspace.com/djmos6. LIV,
(Fountainebleau Hotel) 4441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, 305-6744680, livnightclub.com.
Gaiser: With Will Renuart, Basti, and Alejandro Sab., 10 p.m., $15,
m-nus.com. Electric Pickle, 2826 N Miami Ave, Miami, 305-4565613.
Sexy Bitch: Featuring O-Gun, JP Rigaud, Juan Arenas, JRF, and DJ
Freek., 11 p.m., $15. Grass, 28 NE 40th St, Miami, 305-573-3355,
grasslounge.com.
Furious Dudes: Alongside the Sick Boys, Hit Play!, and Mad
Martigan., 9 p.m., myspace.com/furiousdudes. Churchill’s, 5501
NE 2nd Ave, Miami, 305-757-1807, churchillspub.com.
Underoath: A night of saintly shredding with
Florida’s own Christian metal crew., 6:30 p.m., $20,
underoath777.com. Revolution Live, 200 Broward Blvd,
Fort Lauderdale, 954-727-0950, jointherevolution.net.
GOTH BOX
Club listings are offered as a free service to AURORA
readers and are subject to space restrictions. To have
a listing added, contact Katerina Fonte by email (kat.
[email protected]), fax (305-554-7585), or
mail (12059 SW 10th St, Miami, FL 33184). To change an
existing listing, call 305-554-7584. Deadline is 4 p.m. Friday
for the following week’s issue. Call individual clubs for
show details. Listings rotate regularly, as space allows. Our
complete listings of local clubs-searchable by keyword,
date, and genre-are avaiable online.
FRIDAY, NOV. 20
TUESDAY, NOV. 24
CAFE
Club X-It: 219 N. 21st Ave, Hollywood, 954-925-5801. Ritual,
Industrial and dark wave with rotating DJs Tek-z, C. Baldwin,
Antichrist, Reptile, Dave Markiss, Random Blare, Cyn, Falstaff,
Dino, K7, Nemises, Lady Anime, and many more., Fridays, 9 p.m.;
Latin Fiesta, Live DJ, Fridays, 10 p.m.
Dance Against Domestic Violence: A consciousness-raising event
with George Acosta, Willie Moralles, Edgar V., Parantula, and
Lazardi., 10 p.m., $20. La Covacha, 10730 NW 25th St, Doral, 305594-3717, lacovacha.com.
Joker and MC Nomad: It’s a Brit invasion for Get Low at (((Shake))).,
10 p.m., $10, myspace.com/thejokerproductions. The Vagabond,
30 NE 14th St, Miami, 305-379-0508, thevagabondmiami.com.
Just Blaze: As part of In the Studio., 11 p.m., $15, myspace.com/
justblazeradio. Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave, Miami Beach,
305-532-1525, mansionmiami.com
Ska is Dead IV: Featuring the Toasters, Mustard Plug, Voodoo Glow
Skulls, and Deal’s Gone Bad., 7:30 p.m., $14.99, toasters.org.
Culture Room, 3045 N Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, 954-5641074, cultureroom.net.
DARK OCCASIONS
ADULT
THURSDAY, NOV. 19
EXPOSES
Electric Pickle: 2826 N Miami Ave, Miami, 305-456-5613. Stop,
Drop N’ Roll, A weekly rockabilly and swing party, featuring live
bands, burlesque shows, and other dangerous fun., Thursdays, 10
p.m. Aquaboogie, With Strickly B, Will Renuart, Tomas (Aquabooty),
and guests., Fridays. Live & Direct, A night of funk, soul, AfroLatin, and classic dance floor killers., Saturdays, 10 p.m.; Poplife,
With DJs Aramis and Induce., Saturdays, 10 p.m., free before
midnight, epoplife.com. Champion Sound Wednesdays, Presents
live funk with Fusik and DJs Mr. Brown. Sire Esq., and A-Train.,
Wednesdays, 10 p.m., free.
Louis Bar-Lounge: 2325 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, 3005-531-4600,
louismiami.com, Renaissance Thursdays, With DJ Louis Dee.,
Thursdays, 10 p.m. Misfit Fridays, With DJ Konflikt., Fridays, 10
p.m. Rock the house, With DJ Sub Zero., Saturdays, 10 p.m. Viva La
Revolucion, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.
The Vagabond: This is where the now defunct I/O Lounge once stood.
The location has been renovated, and the club that is here now
is the shit. The outskirts of Miami’s Overtown hood are becoming
a gentrified version of the Sunset Strip in LA. This club’s DJ plays
Bad Brains, as skate videos are projected onto a large outcoord
movie screen. Any questions? 30 NE 14th St, Miami, 305-3790508, thevagabondmiami.com. (((Shake))), Thursdays. Fridays
at The Vagabond, Fridays, myspace.com/thevagabondmiami.
Backdoor Bamby, On the patio, enjoy barbecued chicken and ribs
along with the music of Juan Mejia and Kool Large, Saturdays;
Shameless Burlesque, Sat., Nov. 21, 10 p.m. Stone Groove,
Tuesdays, free. ‘80s Prom VII, Wed., Nov. 25, 9:30 p.m.
This Week
LETTERS
Churchill’s: Located in Little Haiti, this British-style pub is a
historical landmark. Did you know Marilyn Manson played his
first show ever, right here in 1989? It has been Miami’s mecca of
underground music, art, and entertainment since 1979, way before
there was a Midtown or a Design District. Churchill’s is where
dreams come true. Start a band, call up Dave (the owner), and he
will book you. At this place, Miami’s punk rock and indie music
scenes are still partying like it’s 1979. 5501 NE 2nd Ave, Miami,
305-757-1807, churchillspub.com. Theatre de Underground
II, A second night of insanity on the fourth day of every week.,
Thursdays, 9 p.m.; Crisis in Hollywood, With In Violent Times, The
Flashes, Fight Like Animals, and Gate 1., Thu., Nov. 19, 9 p.m.
Friday BBQ, Fridays. Guilty Fingers, With South Groove, Oso y Gato,
and Shroudereater Band., Sun., Nov. 22, 9 p.m. Best of Miami
Jazz Jam, With Nando Ulibarra, plus Mike Wood and Dan Serro
spinning vinyl jazz, Mondays, 9 p.m. Nasty’s Thanksgiving Fest,
Wed., Nov. 25, 9 p.m.; Three-Ring Circus, With Brandon and Juan.,
Wednesdays, 9 p.m.
CONTENTS
RokBar: Finally there’s a rock club on South Beach. Tommy Lee’s
joint, next to Mynt Ultralounge, is a good place to get away from
the SoBe attitude, without having to slum it too much. 1905
Collins Ave, Miami Beach, 305-674-4397. Rok Thursdays, DJ
Danny Daze and Sujinho spin the wheels of steel until the sun
comes up, Thursdays. Good Clean Fun, With special guest DJ BLU
JEMZ from NYC, plus photos by 8MTS., Thursdays, midnight, no
cover, epoplife.com; Riot Riot Riot, DJ Gunars spins open format all
night., Fridays, 11 p.m. Fresh 2 Death Saturdays, with DJ Tommy
Ryk, Saturdays. Trash Tuesdays, Josh Menendez hosts a night of
electro, indie, hipster music spun by DJ Ryan Evans, Tuesdays.
Side Door Tuesdays, Tuesdays, midnight, No cover, rokbarmiami.
com; Damaged, DJ Brandon P and guests spin open format,
Wednesdays, 11 p.m.
Love Hate Lounge: You can bet that when the Miami Ink guys are
behind anything, it’s going to appeal to the hippest of the hip,
the coolest of the cool. And so it is with Love and Hate Lounge.
Traditional-style tattoo art decorates the walls and bartop, while
mortocycle-inspired seats give tragically cool clientèle a place to
rest their well-coiffed booties. 423 Washington Ave, Miami Beach,
305-695-8616, lovehatemiami.com. Eclectic Thursdays, Hosted
by Angel Bichara, Tuki, Danny Lopez, and Jose Ares., Thursdays,
10 p.m. DJ Drop, Fridays. DJ Icue, Freestyle hip hop, and rock deep
into the morning hours., Saturdays, no cover. Classic Sundays,
Boogie to the beats of the pioneers who made today’s hip-pop
phenomenon possible., Sundays, 10 p.m. Back Seat Betty, With
Mykel Stevens and Dan Sehres, Mondays, 10 p.m., $5. Chillax
Lounge, With DJ Drop., Tuesdays, 10 p.m., Classroom 423, A DJ
battle between student spinners, presented by Scratch Academy.,
Wednesdays, 10 p.m.
Poprox: The Beach rock bar belongs to a breed of boutique clubs
that puts a premium on being small, exclusive, and difficult to
locate. The club’s backalley entrance is hidden neear the end
of 27th, but once you get inside this place is drenched in ‘80s
gloss rock appeal. There’s a massive mirror-encircled bar, 14foot ceilings done up in faux-vintage tin panels, and glo-paint
graffiti murals by Crome. 2701 Collins Ave (side entrance on 27th
Stree), Miami Beach, 305-744-2242, poproxmiami.com. Reggae
Thursdays, A night of chilled out jams fused with hip hop, ska,
and dancehall influences., Thursdays, 9 p.m., no cover. Open
Bar, Get free draft beer and mixed drinks every day for one hour
after opening., Daily, 9-10 p.m. Miller & Jager, Get sloshed on
supercheap three-dollar Miller Light and two-for-one Jager shots.,
Thursdays, 10 p.m. Open Format, Fridays, Saturdays, 9 p.m. La
Industria, Cumbia, rock en espanol, and mariachi with DJ Fo
and DJ Sho. Plus a five-dollar Presidente-tequila shot special.,
Sundays, 9 p.m.; Two-for-One Sundays, Two-for-one rum and
cokes, plus purchase a five-dollar Presidente to score a free shot
of tequila., Sundays, 10 p.m. In the Biz Happy Hour, Two-for-one
draft beer and mixed drinks., Mondays, 9-11 p.m. & 3 a.m.; Martini
Madness, Get five-dollar Blue Martinis all night., Mondays, 9 p.m.;
Hip Hop Night, Featuring Talent Catalogue, Mondays, 9 p.m., $5.
Tuesday Jam Session, Tuesdays, 9 p.m., $5; Two-for-One Tuesdays,
Two-for-one well drinks and draft beer all night, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.
Girls That Rock, A weekly showcase of bands fronted by female
rockers., Wednesdays, 9 p.m., $5; Sex On The Beach, Get two-forone Sex on the Beach all night, Wednesdays, 10 p.m.
Transit Lounge: Located on one of Miami’s downtown strips (next to
Tobacco Road, Blue Martini, and Hoy Como Ayer), Transit has great
live music on a nightly basis. There is a nice bar, a pool table,
and friendly cocktail waitresses. The walls are adorned with art by
local artists, and there are jam sessions every night. 729 SW 1st
Ave, Miami, 305-377-4628, transitlounge.us. Happy Hour, Buy one,
get the next free., Mondays-Fridays, 5-8 p.m. Thirsty Thursdays,
Get a 16 oz. tall drink for the price of a small., Thursdays, 10
p.m.-2 a.m., no cover. In the Biz, Get two-for-one drinks all night,
Sundays, 9 p.m. Ladies ‘80s, Ladies drink free while the DJ spins
CONCERTS
Kim Fai: As part of Sundance., 11 p.m., $20, myspace.
com/kimfai. SET Nightclub, 320 Lincoln Rd, Miami
Beach, 305-531-2800, setmiami.com.
The Robby Hunter Band: Some rock and pop from the
local singer-songwriter and his backing band., 10 p.m.,
no cover, robbyhunter.com. Bougainvillea’s Old Florida
Tavern, 7221 SW 58th Ave, South Miami, 305-6698577, bougiesbar.com.
aurora
publication.com
‘80s hits., Tuesdays, 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Rock Band, Playing video
games in public while drunk might be the best decision you ever
make., Wednesdays, 6-11 p.m.
17
aurora
publication.com
CONTENTS
LETTERS
EXPOSES
DARK OCCASIONS
CAFE
GOTH BOX
FILM NOIR
CRAFT
A U RO R A
November 19 - November 25,2009
18
Dear Diary, I miss Edward
Film
Noir
The highly anticipated sequel toTwilight is merely a melodramatic tween drama, aiming for substance.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Robert Pattinson as
“Edward” and Kristen
Stewart as “Bella”.
Directed by Chris Weitz
Written by Melissa Rosenberg
Based on the book by Stephenie Meyer
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson,
Taylor Lautner, and Michael Sheen
Rated PG-13
BY ELLA TAYLOR
W
orry not for the purity of your
tween girls, global mothers. Where
Catherine Hardwicke’s lively,
irreverent take on the first book in the Twilight
series at least made room for a few suggestive
winks, the sequel is stuck right in the abstinence
mud with author Stephenie Meyer. Meyer might
be, as Oprah admiringly call her recently, a “blackbelt reader,” but as a writer, she’s strictly Dear Diary,
and Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote The Twilight
Saga: New Moon, is nothing if not respectful of
her vapid prose. The movie, directed by Chris
Weitz, comes off very much like Clint Eastwood’s
The Bridges of Madison County - proffesional
filmmaking applied to subliterary euphemistic
trash, in this case couched in the jejune crushfantasies of a Mormon mom stranded at home
with three little boys.
I don’t get the lure of vampire chic, but attention
must be paid, if only because millions of girls
on the cusp of adolescence and beyond - not to
mention, after the lights out, their mothers - groove
to Meyer’s chaste, oddly bloodless, and nearby
plotless saga of a troubled high school outsider
who finds love and protection with a family of
expensively attired bloodsuckers in red-gold contact
lenses and bourgeois house in the woods.
If nothing else, the new movie honors the anodyne spirit
of its source - give or take a few CGI face-offs between
werewolves and vampires. New moon or not, Bella (Kristen
Stewart) is still yearning on, and on and on and on, for the
neck bite that will be her ticket to eternal supernatural bliss
with Edward (Robert Pattinson), he of the moussed hair,
fairy-dusted skin, and no personality.
All media reports to the contrary, Edward has not left the
building. After a very long goodbye, repeated at 15-minute
The sequel is stuck right in the
abstinence mud...
intervals with mournful stares and fluttery mini-kisses, he
mysteriously retreats briefly to vampire country and then
returns in ghostly form to protect Bella from, well, not much,
unless you count the more than three months, unfolding in
what feels like real-time, that spends pining away in bed.
Someday, Kristen Stewart, who cut a striking presence earlier
this year in Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, will do great things
with her instinctive intensity, but as Bella, she stares and
mutters, mutters and stares until, discovering risky behavior à
la Church of Latter-Day Saints, she settles for bike assembly
with good old reliable schoolmate Jacob (Taylor Lautner),
who is not all he seems.
A moment of carnal potential briefly rears its head when
Lautner, pumped unto incredible hulk, strips off his shirt,
eliciting girlish screams from the audience that even the
subsequent display of Pattinson’s puny white torso can’t
measure up to. Weitz, who seems to have dozed through
the making of New Moon thus far, wakes up long enough to
deliver a short display of bare-fanged competitive masculinity,
follwed by a sudden trip to something resembling Italy, with
lots of red robes (thank you, Dan Brown) and over-the-top
Catholicity. There, in a movie almost totally devoid of humor,
let alone real passion, waits Michael Sheen, king of the
evil Volturi, decked out in a long black wig and curling lip.
Alone of all the earnest players in the turgidly euphemistic
melodrama, Sheen seems to grasp that the only way you can
keep a straight face through this choked-up virginity is to
carry it way into camp.
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NOW PLAYING
Ninja Assassin Isn’t that a tautology-both ninja and assassin?
Redundancy aside, having braved zombies in 28 Days Later,
Naomie Harris now faces a centuries-old clan of ninjas who have
been hiring themselves out, Blackwater style, as government
mercenaries. Sad to say, the undead were more fun. Directed by
James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), and with Joel Silver and the
Wachowskis as producers, Ninja Assassin is a hard-R blood-fest
with much CG and many severed limbs. Eurocop Harris discovers
the ninja’s secret role in black-ops history, so, naturally, the come
after her-that’s the entire plot. But on Bourne-like rogue ninja
(South Korean pop star Rain) does try to protect her from the silent
swarm of sword weilding assassins. (Strict tradionalists, ninjas
here appear incapable of driving, using guns or cell phones, or
smiling.) Ninjas love the shadows and abhor the light, leaving
most of their battles murky and difficult to follow. (Try to count the
screams, arterial geysers, and fallen limobs, then do the math;
the ninjas always win.) With a passable smirk, 300-style abs, and
limited English, Rain has zero chemistry with Harris; indeed, they
spend half the movie apart. (Interminable flashbacks to his early
training are like a ninja Hogwarts, complete with magical powers
and puppy love.) A triple-cross plot with Harris’s superiors doesn’t
help the movie’s clarity-neither does the clattering sound design.
Shouldn’t throwing stars be silent? If they’re gonna sound like
gunshots, why not just use guns? (B.M.)
Old Dogs Robin Williams works hard for his paycheck, give him that.
I hope he was paid per square inch of bared flesh, much of it
shorn of its thick fur coating, for Old Dogs. A chest tattoo factors
in as a sight gag, repeatedly; there’s also an overlong encounter
with a spray-on tanning tank, in which Williams is left to beg
for mercy, and what’s intended to play as comedy comes off as...
disconcerting. Joh Travolta likewise doesn’t hold back- appearing
face-down in a dead woman’s rhubarb pie, which isn’t even a
euphemism. Williams and Travolta play lifelong BFFs who are
also the namesakes of a sports-marketing firm trying to land a
Japanese account that’ll set them for life. Into this internationalincident-in-waiting walk two cherubic seven-year-olds (Cooner
Rayburn and Ella Bleu Travolta as fraternal twins), the result of a
drunken South Beach one-nighter that Williams’s Dan spent with a
woman named Vicki (Kelly Preston-yes, John’s wife and Ella Bleu’s
actual mother). Dan and Travolta’s “Uncle” Charlie are left to cope
with the twosome for two weeks, during which Uncomfortable
Moments will eventually melt away into Bonding Experiences as
strangers become family. A note: You see where this is going, but,
apparently, kids don’t know the formula. My easily amused sixyear-old thought the copious sight gags were absolutely hysterical,
especially that bit from the trailer involving Seth Green and a
gorilla. Disconcerting. (R.W.)
The Road The Road, Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning,
Oprah-endorsed post-apocalyptic survivalist prose poem-in which
a father and his 10-year-old son traverse a despoiled landscape
of unspeakable horror-was a quick, lacerating read. John Hillcoat’s
literal adaptation, which arrives one Thanksgiving past its original
release date is, by contrast, a long, dull slog. Fidelity to the
material is not the problem. On the contrary. Freezing, starving,
and dodging cannibal marauders, The Man (earnest, increasingly
Christ-like Viggo Mortensen) and The Boy (stolidly whimpering Kodi
Smit-McPhee) follow the novel’s keep-on-keepin’-on trajectory,
“carrying the fire” of human decency, as well as a gun loaded
with two suicide bullets. But there’s a bizarre absence of dramatic
tension. The Road’s long and winding path to the multiplex might
make a more fascinating saga than the movie itself. That the 2008
version was evidently deemed too bleak for audience consumption
may account for the presence of Mortensen’s lugubrious, voiceover
croon and the ruminative keyboard doodling used. (J.H.)
Unless otherwise noted, the reviews were written and
initialed by Brian Miller, Robert Wilonsky, and J Hoberman.
For showtimes and locations, click Cinema at www.
aurorapublication.com or contact local theaters.
N O W P L AY I N G
N O W P L AY I N G
I N A L L T H E AT E R S
Tim Burton
W
AURORA
NOVEMBER 30
7-10 PM
DURBAN SEGNINI GALLERY
November 19 - November 25,2009
December 1
7pm to 12am
CRAFT
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C
LOCKWORK
A GALLERY OF SORTS
Grand Openning
FILM NOIR
SyFy Channel and the chief curator of film is Rajendra Roy.
Many have nothing to do with the films he’s directed. Some
are on canvas, many on notebook paper. Quite a few are on
cocktail napkins. “Sometimes these things look like they’re
just weird,” Burton says, “but I don’t keep a journal or a diary.
They help me to remember a certain feeling-they become
time capsules.”
For instance, he says his acrylic painting The Green Man
(1996-1998) is a kind of self-portrait and memento mori. It’s
about “a feeling of being in a pub in England, thinking about
from museum reps, “I thought it was an elaborate
joke of some sort.” The helmer, working on a new
version of “Alice in Wonderland” for Disney, said
the exhibit’s organizers excavated a huge collection
of work, much of which even he had forgotten.
“It’s easier for me to think things through visually
instead of verbally, so it’s like a diary in that way,”
Burton said of the show. “I have so many drawings.
I never look at the stuff-I just keep doint it.” Much
of that unseen output was produced by Burton
while he was working for Disney, ostensibly
on “The Fox and the Hound” and “The Black
Cauldron,” bu also on his own projects. “When you
make a film, you feel exposed in a way, and this feels
even more exposing. I feel like it’s a real honor and
all, but I’m a bit nervous about it too. People always
say, But what does it mean? This doesn’t have any
meaning! Everything has meaning,” says Burton.
“It’s just whether you can see it or not.”
GOTH BOX
Untitled (1982-84), Tim Burton
“I thought it was an
elaborate joke of some
sort.”
CAFE
ith characters ranging from Jack Skellington
and Edward Scissorhands to Sweeney Todd
and Batman, Tim Burton has spent his film
career inventing and reinventing shadowy, mysterious antiheroes-so much so that he’s become enshrouded in his own
mad-scientist persona. Our most deviously inventive director
now looms like a future-gothic Dr. Frankenstein, reanimating
our favorite pretty-monster Johnny Depp again and again.
(Depp will next portray the Mad Hatter in 2010’s Alice in
Wonderland.) While not wntirely off-base, that creeptastic
idea of Burton has become a mask, obscuring both the creator
and his craft. It’s time for a clearer look, and New Yorkers
can peek inside the director’s secret laboratories at MoMA’s
retrospective “Tim Burton,” opening November 22. “It’s
exciting and surreal and all the things that go with it,” he says
of the honor. “It’s going to be an out-of-body experience.”
For the show, curators Jenny He and Ron Magliozzi
raided Burton’s curiosity cabinets for more than 500
photographs, paintings, doodles, storyboards, stories,
sculptures, and sketches dating back to his student years at
the California Institute of the Arts. “There is no other living
filmmaker possessing Tim Burton’s level of accomplishment
and reputation whose full body of work has been so well
hideen from public view,” said Magliozzi. “Seeing so much
that was previously inaccessible in a museum context should
serve to fuel renewed appreciation and fresh appraisal of this
much-admired artist.” The exhibtion is sponsored by the
DARK OCCASIONS
BY LOGAN HILL, PETER KNEGT, and SAM THIELMAN
my grandmother who had died,
and feeling the connections she
had with me.” The sharp edges of
the triangular blue mask invoke
her death in a traumatic accident.
The stitching all over the man’s
face is “a symbol for the internal,
an indicator of a person’s different
sides and struggle to keep it
together.” “The coat is classic
Burton gothicism: “the exact
opposite of Southern California,”
where he incongruously grew
up. And the striped shirt? “I was
depressed and disconnected. I
couldn’t feel my hands. I bought
some striped socks and suddenly
felt very connected to the Earth
again.” Really? Striped socks?
“I have strange things happen
to me.” Which will come as a
surprise to exactly no one.
Burtons films will, of course,
be on view, but much of the
pleasure of the show comes
from seeing how his private work bleeds into his megaplex
creations: the suddenly familiar stitches on Sally’s face and
body in A Nightmare Before Christmas, the striped red shirt in
a powerful early sketch for Jack Nicholson’s Joker. “Everybody
draws,” Burton observed. “I just never stopped when the
teachers told me to.” Not only are these little-known
drawings included, most of them were created in the spirit
of contemporary Pop Surrealism, as well as work generated
during the conception and production of his films, such
as original “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “The
Corpse Bride” puppets; “Edward Scissorhands,” Batman
EXPOSES
Through April 26
MoMA
11 West 53 Street, New York
212.708.9400
10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Closed Tuesday
LETTERS
Tim Burton’s new exhibit at MoMA in New York is a major retrospective of the director’s work.
CONTENTS
The Lurid Beauty of Monsters
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Craft
Returns,” and “Sleepy Hollow Costumes;” and even
severed-head props from “Mars Attacks!”
Examples of his work for the flash animation
internet series “The World of Stainboy” (2000); a
selection of the artist’s oversized Polaroid prints;
graphic art and texts for non-film projects, like
“The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other
Stories” (1997) and “Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for
Girls and Boys” (2003) collectible figure series;
and art from a number of early unrealized projects.
Additionally, a selection of international posters
from Burton’s films will be on display in the theater
lobby galleries.
In conjunction with Tim Burton, MoMA will
also present “The Lurid Beauty of Monsters,”
a series of films that influenced, inspired, and
intrigued Burton. Taking as its starting point a
screening of horror movies that Burton organized
in Burbank in 1977, the series includes such
films as “Jason and the Argonauts” (Don Chaffey,
1963), “Frankenstein” ( James Whale, 1931), “The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (Robert Wiene, 1920),
“The Pit and the Pendulum” (Roger Corman,
1961), “Nosferatu” (F.W. Murnau, 1922), and
“Earthquake” (Mark Robson, 1974).
Burton confessed that when he first heard
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CONTENTS
EXPOSES
LETTERS
She may not be a "real" general, but she
sure is amazing. She's all American and
loves to travel. She likes polos and custom
belt buckles. She might use you for a
quickie, but don't old that against her.
November 19 - November 25,2009
A U RO R A
CRAFT
FILM NOIR
GOTH BOX
CAFE
DARK OCCASIONS
Meet
General Lee.
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