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A Tribute to Blues Man Big Poppa E

The South Florida blues scene has suffered a tremendous loss with the passing of Musi “Big Poppa E” Faisal. The popular Miami-based vocalist, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player died on Saturday following a heart attack. He was 64. The first time I met Poppa, he was performing in a tiny storefront café in North Miami [...]

California Bill Will Deem Reparative Therapy Abuse, But What About Raising Children in Certain Faiths?

California’s Senate Bill 1172 shall soon be on its way to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown, where it will almost certainly become law. The bill, the first of its kind in the nation, bans the administering of “reparative therapy” to minors. That is, it prohibits parents from hiring psychiatrists, psychologists, or counselors to de-gay [...]

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s Terrible Tweets

Because Cuba is tiny, Fidel Castro has never racked up the body count of the 20th century’s other dictators, despots, and strongmen. But he still might be eviler than they. For neither Hitler, nor Stalin, nor Mao, nor Kim Jong Un, nor Pol Pot, nor Charles Taylor, nor any of the rest possessed the power [...]

Extreme Makeover Miami: Marine Stadium Needs $30 Million to Be Awesomest Venue Ever

When Hurricane Andrew tore through Southern Florida 20 years ago this week, one of its casualties was a structure that survived the storm but not the aftermath: Marine Stadium, a towering grandstand with a sail-like concrete roof and the waters of Virginia Key for a stage, withstood Andrew but was quickly declared unsafe by its [...]

Mr. Jesus Goes To Washington

The Washington Post reported this week on the planned construction of a “Bible museum” in Washington D.C. This ought to be happy news for those of us fascinated by the Bible’s power, longevity, and million tantalizing clues to the deep history of human civilization in North Africa. As it happens, the museum’s not for us. It is, [...]

Dan Hosker (the Bikes, Holy Terrors) Struck By Car, in ICU

For a while in the late ’90s and early-to-mid-2000s, Dan Hosker seemed to be in about half the bands in South Florida – the Holy Terrors, the Bikes, Harry Pussy, the Laundry Room Squelchers – the list goes on. If it had strings, Dan played it, along with a few instruments that didn’t, and when he wasn’t [...]

Dharun Ravi Has Been Thoroughly Chastised

I came out of the closet during my freshman year at Florida Southern College, an improbably scenic institution erected in the hellish swampgrass between Tampa and Orlando. Some new arrivals at FSC that year referred to certain kinds of locals as “swampcrackers,” which seemed apt. My coming out occurred just after Christmas break. I told [...]

Danation: You Say You Want a Revolution

The NATO conference in Chicago went off without much of a hitch over the weekend. Out in the streets, however, there were multiple hitches. Chicago police arrested at least 45 people. At least seven protesters were injured, along with four cops. But through it all, there was a surprising lack of Molotov cocktails being thrown [...]

Five Disturbing Currents in the Internet Response to Pro-Rihanna, Anti-slut-shaming Articles

Russell Simmons’ Global Grind post this past Tuesday, which urged a mass of unnamed rappers and entertainers to “Get Off Rihanna’s Dick,” has taken on an Internet life of its own. We dubbed Simmons’ the pop and hip-hop world’s first unwitting marquee-name feminist for his takedown of the criticism over what Rihanna may or may [...]

Obama Pushes “Buffett Rule” at FAU, Wins Over Some Students

Speaking to a crowd of about 3,500 adoring college students at Boca Raton’s Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday, President Barack Obama blasted Republican economic proposals and pushed a populist message of fairer taxation rates by which the wealthiest Americans pay the same rates as middle- and lower-income earners: no less than 30 percent. His proposal, [...]

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