The Miami Light Project, a non-profit cultural organization that showcases live performances by artist internationally, might illuminate your mind if you give it a try. Their current show at the Gusman Center of the Arts, a medley of dancers, musicians, and comedians, featured a striking performance by Salia Ni Seydou of Burkina Faso, Africa.
A spiritual journey began as soon as the lights dimmed and the African instruments played in the background, therein setting a melodious tone. Surprisingly, the African sounds soon faded and this is what made the show particularly intriguing–there was hardly any music, the bodies created the music themselves. It was a play of dance with no plot, yet with emotional climaxes.
At one point, a performer was bent over with his feet grounded, his back arched, resting on one hand. He seemed completely unbalanced. The whole crowd stared in disbelief as seconds later another performer jumped into a handstand on his back and remained poised on the one hand–all acrobatic feats that flaunted their flexibility, making them almost seem like alien beings. While at times they performed like ballerinas, their movements often seemed like cryptic seizures.
Salia Ni Seydou represented only one of the many types of artists than can be found in the Miami Light Project collection. It hosts performances all year round and has been giving artists international exposure since 1989. In addition to the Contemporary Performance Series which has brought over 300 world-renowned artists to Miami, their other programs include Here and Now, for instance, which presents and tours the work of Miami- based performance and media artists. All in all, this company projects light on city whose provisions for cultural arts have sometimes been declared to be subdued.

Latisha Rowe can be reached at misange@hotmail.com.

If you have a computer, newspaper subscription, television, ears or any other means of receiving news, you’ve probably heard about the recent filming of Bad Boys 2 and The Fast and the Furious 2 in South Florida. The former’s production was especially newsworthy, since it required sections of Miami’s main roads to be closed for days, leaving fellow Miamians even redder faced in heavy traffic.

Throughout the history of film, South Florida has been a shooting location for a variety of reasons. Obviously, the colorful scenery is a major draw, since there are few other areas in the United States that wear the tropical paradise-look. Then there’s the glitzy atmosphere of South Beach, where celebrities flock like sheep and wannabe celebrities flock like smaller, less important sheep. There are the hoards of awful drivers, allowing for the convenient and cheap filming of car crashes.

Regardless of the reasons, Miami is and always has been an appreciated, low-key area for films of all kinds, from independents to Hollywood blockbusters. The following are informative vignettes of four different movies set (totally or partially) in South Florida – from Trick Daddy’s favorite gangster epic of the ’80s, to a whimsy romantic comedy, to one of the most brutally and sexually raw films of our present decade.

Bully
2001
Director Larry Clark taught shock to audiences with Kids in 1995, an NC-17, documentary-style look at the sweaty, drug-induced adolescent bastion of New York. Filled with images of teen sex (some of which bordered the real thing), Kids disturbed many of its viewers, but earned powerful critical acclaim and blew AIDS into high school lunch discussions everywhere.
Clark later made the similarly themed Bully, the true story of a South Florida murder in the early ’90s. Nick Stahl (Terminator 3) plays Bobby Kent, a tough high school student whose mistreatment of his friends, both male and female, causes them to band together and slay him. If you’re an out-of-state UM student, this film gives you a humorously biased pinch of the local high schoolers’ white trash shenanigans.
Bully is set in eerily familiar strips of South Florida, but the Everglades are where the blood hits the sand. The film found a limited release in 2001, as Clark’s avant-garde, arguably exploitative material involving young people would have assuredly resulted in an NC-17 rating. Instead, it was released as unrated, which allows it to be stocked in some Blockbuster stores.
With Bully, Clark cements his position as the best director of movies about kids doing bad stuff. Bully is daring, gripping, and strewn with nonfiction sinew – three elements that make it a great film.

Scarface
1983
Scarface is a film that wants to be as raw and real as Bully, if on a larger scale, but fails in its attempt. Al Pacino plays a Cuban immigrant who laboriously builds a drug empire in Miami. Since its original theatrical run, Scarface has gained cult, college poster staple status, and many viewers place it among the classics of American gangster cinema, with the likes of The Godfather and Goodfellas. Though Scarface has flashes of brilliance – Brian De Palma is certainly a talented director – the movie dons flaws like Hawaiian shirts from Target.
Pacino plays Tony Montana in an intensely charismatic role, but not necessarily a great one. The main problem with Scarface is that it doesn’t fall into one of the two categories of successful gangster movies – stylish or gritty. It tries to be a little bit of both, but since it can’t commit to either, the movie ends up falling on its face and becoming a long, self absorbed mess that only succeeds in its coke-fueled action sequences (ironically, just like ’80s).
Scarface is a movie that’s supposed to comment on the Hispanic cultural struggle of Miami, but the casting sure doesn’t show it. Pacino plays a Cuban character, and his excessive use of the word “man” (pronounced “meyn”) is just one of many stereotypes. Possibly the most ridiculous of the supporting characters is F. Murray Abraham as a Hispanic drug dealer. You might remember Abraham from one his many American roles, including the bad guy teacher in Finding Forrester or the envious composer in Amadeus.

Once Upon a Time in America
1984
Once Upon a Time in America is one of those great movies that falls through the cracks and gets stuck behind endless copies of The Country Bears at local video stores. Director Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) is not as much a household name as De Palma, but Leone’s ’80s gangster saga is way better than De Palma’s.
Once Upon a Time tells three stories at once, and in a way, it’s like watching three different movies. The film, which lasts almost four hours, spends a great deal of time on one central character, Noodles, played by Robert DeNiro. Leone tenderly develops the character from his childhood in New York, the middle period of his life where he’s reunited with childhood friends in illegal business, and the later part of his life when he’s crossing paths with back stabbing gangsters. Although most of the movie takes place in New York, parts also occur in South Beach.
As the viewer becomes wrapped in the three different stories, the endings of each soon unfold, giving us clues to loose details in the others. It’s sort of a predecessor to recent time-jumping movies like Memento and The Hours, and a meaty textbook on a life in crime.

Miami Rhapsody
1995
Surprisingly, this offbeat, blithe romantic comedy does not highlight homicide, drugs or crime like most Miami films. Rhapsody stars Sarah Jessica Parker (“Sex and the City”) in a likeable role as a woman with many different versions of infidelity happening all around her. Like most films limited to this genre, it’s not great, cursed by the same annoying nuances that run throughout your girlfriend’s VHS collection, but the characters are real enough and the setting airy enough to make it tolerable.
The cast boasts a large group of semi-popular actors, including Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), Jeremy Piven (Old School) and Antonio Banderas (Desperado).
Rhapsody doesn’t dive deep into the Miami setting, letting it linger like a daydream or a Cranberries song, although we do see Parker’s character shopping at local malls, and one of the characters plays for the Dolphins. It’s a nice alternative to violence and drugs, but the Miami moviegoers continue to relish for is the one in muscle excessive fluff like Bad Boys or in rough, shady dramas like Bully.

Shawn Wines can be reached at shawnwines@aol.com.

Count Bass D, who’s that? Yeah, that’s what you’re probably wondering. I know I was, until I listened to his new album Dwight Spitz and started talking to people other than myself. The Count’s latest LP (his third)- emerging from the green mist of High Times’ newly sprouted record label – is exactly what Count Bass D professes; a mastery of the MPC (the Akai drum machine/sampler), a device that has basically spawned every beat you’ve nodded your head to in the ’90s, think Premier).

Based on the sound of the album and Count’s casual affiliations with MF DOOM, J Rawls and Madlib (among others), he appeared to be a beat head from day one. After checking his website (yes, please give me a wedgie and hang me up on the edge of a locker; for I am a nerd) and discovering that he’d done collaborations ranging from Vitamin C (what?) to Victor Wooten (who?), I wasn’t sure what the hell to think.

So, I gave the man a phone call at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. Trust me, asking for someone by the name of “CountBassD” is far more awkward than you can imagine; it’s like calling up a “Sesame Street” puppeteer’s house and asking for Snufalufagus. Over the tele, the Count recounted, OK never mind, here you go:

Q: My friend told me your earlier work was more gospel, Biblical even? What’s that about?
CBS: Nah, your friend’s just wrong. I’ve done two guest appearances with some guys who are pretty big in the gospel music scene. It seems like anybody that does anything on anybody’s album they automatically wanna claim that as one of their own. I’m far from anything like that, even though I do believe in Jesus Christ and my father’s a minister and…

Q: You switched styles from your first album, right?
CBS: The guy whose equipment we were using had some personal problems at the time, and I didn’t know how to program as far as samples were concerned, so I had to do what I knew, which was play an instrument. I never planned to make a “live” instrument album, until my third or fourth one; it just so happened that it was in my cards to do it as my first record. I’ve kind of been doing it backwards.

Un-huh.

CBS: Honest to God, you know? Trust be told, I really feel like I’m better than everybody.

Q: Alright? (It’s kind of hard to come up with something to say after hearing that, you know?)
CBS: The same way the Oakland Raiders felt like they were better than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

(Note to reader: at this point I really had no idea what was going on, as far as I could remember the Raider’s lost the Super Bowl, but anyway…)

CBS: I personally believe Mike Tyson’s the best heavyweight out there, but he’s having a hard time proving that, you see what I’m saying?

Q: Um, not being put in the most favorable situations?
CBS: Just like basketball, I’m sure there’s a basketball player doing 25-to-life that would give Michael Jordan a run for his money as the greatest basketball player of all time.

(Another note: Possibly. I’ve seen Rebound: The Legend of Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault. Exchanging change on the top of a backboard, c’mon.)
Short of Teddy Riley (he produced “No Diggity” for Blackstreet, woo hoo, gotta bag it up!), maybe, I don’t believe that there’s anybody who has the type of skills that I have. Only because I have more training than anybody who I’ve ever even heard of.

Q: What kind of “training” are we talking about here?
CBS: I sung classically in Hungary, you know in tenth grade? I toured Austria, you know, even before I was graduated high school.

Q: Uh huh?
CBS: I went to boarding school just on a music scholarship, so as far as me doing rap, a lot of my teachers are disappointed…it’s just, for me, rap is second nature to me, you know, this is not difficult.

Q: So is the next step complete mastery and domination of hip-hop?
CBS: Honestly I’m just livin’ my life man, I don’t feel like I have anything to prove.

Ahhh…
CBS: I think that’s the problem. If I had a drive to really get out there and “rah rah rah sis boom bah, look what I can do,” I would fare better than a lot of these other cats. I have a wife, I’ve got three children; I’m just really try to become a better husband and father to them. I’m just gonna express myself and just hope there are enough people out there who enjoy it.

Un huh.
CBS: You hear these football players all the time, ” If I’m playing my best game, I feel like no one can touch me,” I feel that same way. I don’t care what beat maker it is out there and we start talking about you know (forgive the spelling here) Mixalidied Modes and Dorian Scales…

Oh?
CBS: They gonna get squashed. But personally, you know, I can’t shoot a gun well, I can’t drive cars real fast, I’ve never had rims on my car, I’ve never owned a pair of Timberland boots and I don’t really know how to walk around like I’m a b-boy, I’m just a musician.

Q: Are you considering taking some classes to work your b-boy stance?
CBS: Nope.

Q: As far as being on High Times Records and having a song called “Say No To Drugs”?
CBS: I’m talking about say no to sugar, say no to caffeine, say no to meat, that’s the biggest dope out there, say no to cigarettes. There’s a whole bunch of other things out there, you know, High Times and things like that, whatever people plan to do with marijuana, and all this other type of thing, that’s their personal business. I personally have two jobs right now and have random drug tests and I don’t participate in that.

Q: What, two jobs?
CBS: I work at FedEx and an insurance company…I’m trying to get an IRA eventually.

So there you have it, more or less. Count Bass D has more projects in the works (excluding selling policies and delivering packages) than you can shake a stick of Nag Champa at: including, well just check www.countbassd.com, it’s thorough.
For more info visit www.hightimes.com.

Sven Barth can be reached at big_sven@hotmail.com.

With so many young girls trying to attain a false sense of sexuality made popular by magazines, movie stars, and music icons, A.A. Rucci shows a much more realistic portrayal of femininity and sensuality. Living up to his current reputation as one of the most innovative and creative artists touring the Miami art circuit, Rucci’s works were nothing less than inspiring.

His “Headless” series, currently displayed at the Ambrosino Gallery in North Miami, shows his work from 2000 to the present. Six large acrylic paintings portray an approximately two-inch headless female figure reproduced in various poses and stages of undress, centered on a single-colored background. Each work, explicitly different in its poses and overall appeal, was drawn with meticulous detail and specific attention to the interactions between the figures. “Small works engage the viewer to observe each work intimately,” Rucci explained at his opening last Friday.

Rucci’s search for a female figure to draw eventually led him to a close friend who he felt epitomizes real-life women. Strangely, I found myself relating some paintings to members of the Spice Girls or to some other imaginary train-wreck of a girl group. Soon I was putting a face to each figure just as Rucci had expected of his viewers.

“Posh:” The most erotic of the works with figures laying or sitting with legs open and inviting. One woman’s hand is outstretched towards the sky while another’s explores the crevices of her own womanhood against a navy blue background.

“Scary:” Aggressive and wild like the ultra red canvas, women prance around holding sharp menacing objects like meat cleavers, spades, and machetes.

“Sporty:” Its grayish-blue backdrop surrounds a group of figures whose poses ooze Bob Fosse-like appeal.

Ginger:” Everyone’s favorite slut (before Christina Aguilera of course)! Sexy, alluring poses, and hands exploring each other’s bodies seem to tease the viewer amidst a deep green backdrop.

“Baby:” A virginal pink canvas surrounds a group of headless cheerleaders. The sweet seemingly innocent “Britney Spears/ Olsen twin hybrids” pose as one defiant cheerleader facing backwards bends down with legs spread just enough that her panties peak out from below her skirt. Rucci had decided his opening would be the metaphorical cherry popping of these pieces…in celebration of the Olsen twins becoming of legal age (hey, someone had to do it).

In the future, Rucci plans to make larger headless composites with up to four hundred figures on one canvas and is also thinking about creating a coloring book for adults using some of his figures.

His work is on display at the Ambrosino Gallery, 769 NE 125th St., North Miami, through Feb. 23. Call 305-891-5577 for more info.

Chris Howard can be reached at BBHMM3234@aol.com

Rob Zombie promoted his first flick, House of 1000 Corpses (which is set to hit theatres on March 28), at the Comic Book and Pop Culture Convention at the Pasadena Center in California this past weekend. By making this appearance, the fright-rocker wants to legitimize himself as a credible writer/director.

A new spy thriller, The Recruit, starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell, debuted at No. 1 in the box office, grossing $16.5 million in its first weekend. It was followed by Final Destination 2–a horror film about death lurking around young people on Spring Break–with $16.2 million, according to studio estimates.

A group of notable American poets, invited to the White House poetry symposium on Feb. 12, were planning to use the event to criticize the administration’s policies towards Iraq. However, when the First Lady heard of this, the occasion was indefinitely adjourned.

Controversial Russian lesbian duo, Tatu, have recently topped the British singles charts, wearing racy school uniforms in their video, while kissing and cuddling. The music group’s been accused of “targeting the dirty old man market” and of “pedophile porn” by child protection agencies and British TV hosts.

Dirty South rapper Juvenile got busted again: the MC and friends were arrested from a Lincoln Town Car during a traffic stop in New Orleans and were charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine. In the past, Juvenile’s been charged with aggravated battery with a bottle, battery on a law enforcement officer, simple battery when he punched his barber, two counts of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in Miami.

Amidst the bustle of ostentatious pedestrians, flashy neon signs, Art Deco-designed restaurants and ritzy edifices such as the Tides Hotel and the Versace Mansion on SoBe’s Ocean Drive, a disparate brand of festivity installed itself among the lush sand and palm trees. Ostensibly, it seemed like a paradox for the Miami Beach International World of Beer Festival 2003 to inaugurate the first global beer fiesta in South Florida on the beachfront between 7th and 8th St., an area usually plagued by Mango’s cocktails and Wet Willies’ frozen drinks.
“The goal of the event is to erase the stigma attached to beer drinkers,” said Justine Stock, the head volunteer coordinator and daughter of one of the event’s organizers, Melissa Frantz. “Beer shouldn’t just be associated with white trash. It has history, they had casks in Noah’s Arc. Americans care more about the marketing. I mean, Budweiser tastes like shit, but they have great ad campaigns. We want to create more awareness about world beer and show that it can be as interesting as wine and cocktails.”
Whether or not beer can have this epicurean value didn’t matter: Life & Art had to dive in and savor what such a festival could offer. Upon entering, my photographer quickly disappeared into the various tents, letting me scrutinize the surrounding alone-on stage, a jam band played a miscellany of Goo Goo Dolls, “Sweet Home Alabama,” and original Celtic flute tunes. Along the sandy field, an eclectic tang of bourbon chicken, Maryland crab cakes and fried alligator blended with the potent aroma of beer inside the many pavilions boasting more than 300 international singular brews.
Thirsty amblers-ranging from the preppies in Hilfiger and Polos to the pot-bellied beer devotees to the few mullet-heads rocking flickering ornaments on their bodies-wandered around to taste the different flavors, yet the crowd was slim compared to the amount of space at the festival. Stock blamed this on the recession and $25 price tag for admission, also pointing out that this was the event’s first year. In any case, I was starting to feel dehydrated and so made my way to the most lively, gregarious booth: the Belgian beer stand. While shouting out “Mussels from Brussels!” and singing along to “It’s Great to Be a Belgian,” Paul Cuypers, president of the Belgian Club of Florida, greeted me.
“Belgium has the best and most different kinds of beer in the world,” he said. “Every little village has several small breweries and so everyone tries to make theirs better. It’s very competitive and a big incentive to make good beer.” He also noted that each habitant in Belgium consumes about 130 liters of beer per year (the second largest consummation after Germany, which holds first place with 142 liters). Also, many international beers are brewed using Belgian techniques, he said.
After guzzling down a Saxo (really sweet and fruity), a Hoegarden (pungent, flavorful) and a Stella Artois (a perfect mix between dry and sweet), I was off to a good start and walked over to the Warsteiner booth, a pilsner brewed in Warstein, Germany. A flabby, red-nosed sort, Mark Dean, special events coordinator for Warsteiner importers, conceitedly proclaimed his beer to be the “nectar of the gods.”
“It’s crisp and clean, easy for the American palette and many people think that our dark beer tastes lighter than the regular pilsner,” he told me. He also emphasized that his beer is brewed in its native land, then imported to the U.S., while another representative elucidated that a lot of imports aren’t made in their country of origin-Guinness and Fosters are both made in Canada, instead of Ireland and Australia, respectively. I tasted both the dark and light varieties of Warsteiner, but couldn’t really tell the difference because I was drinking both at the same time.
Across this booth, another Belgian stand caught my eye. Dubbed L’Alsacienne “Sans Culotte” (i.e., “without underwear” in French), the bottle’s label portrays “Fannie” lifting up her skirt to reveal a bare ass. However, explained Mike Cutter, president of the company that imports these beers from their brewery in Erteveldt, Belgium, the ass has to be censored otherwise it would be deemed indecent in the U.S. since it’s an alcoholic bottle, while this isn’t the case in Belgium. Cleverly and humorously, Cutter stamped a censor that could easily be scratched off when the bottle is bought and describes it as having a “non-hop finish” and a “non-bitter and refreshing taste.”
Moving along, I bumped into the Unibroue stand-beers from Chambly, Quebec, with eccentric gothic designs on the bottles. Perhaps the image enticed me to taste, yet I will attest that these brews had the most original flavor and a delectable zest. “We make our beers Belgian style, using techniques like refermentation, aging, etc., to make it more flavorful,” said Michael Hruska, regional sales manager for the company. “It’s enjoying beer for what it can be, flavor wise. American beers aren’t as exciting as Belgian or German ones and you could compare our brew to a champagne or even a port wine finish.”
At this point, while handling three sampling cups, I was searching for my photographer and observing the Canstruction “can castle.” Night had fallen and the brew was heating me up. Steve, a volunteer, came up to me for a chat and praised the array of people. “There was this girl who was soaking wet from swimming in the cold ocean,” he said. “She was from Norway.” Meantime, an older man was having a hard time standing up, and after crashing twice onto the ground, he belched out the beer and was escorted to the exit.
Back inside the exhibition area, I stumbled upon Magner’s Cider, brewed in Ireland. Sales rep Shane McCarthy noted that while American ciders tend to be very sweet, English ones are very dry, so Magner’s is pegged in the middle. John Keogh, a sales manager for the English cider Strongbow, mentioned that before the prohibition, cider was widely consumed in the U.S. Due to the introduction of malt beverages such as Smirnoff Ice, Americans hardly consume cider, while it’s the first alcoholic drink young Brits buy when growing up because it’s cheap, he said.
Kalik, a popular Bahamian brew, was described to have the “lightness of American beers and the full body of European ones” by Micheal Larsen, sales director of Commonwealth Brewery. And, on the other side of the planet, Singha, the oldest Thai beer, is more bitter and contains more alcohol (6%) than American brews. Nondhee Trananon, of the Thai Trade Center, noted that in Thailand, beer is served with more alcohol (8%) and in larger volumes.
While drunkenly jotting down the last few notes for my story, I finally found my photographer, looking hammered, his body oscillating in his corner. I drifted towards him and we both noticed the semi-empty Miller Lite stand, jokingly pondering who would even want an American beer after relishing the succulent flavor of the international selection offered here. Moreover, we ran into the Mango’s booth, the only one serving liquor instead of beer with a blonde in a see-through leopard suit pouring Bacardi bottles, which prompted a reality check-we were still in the middle of South Beach. As we meandered back through the gaudy Ocean Drive crowd and glistening Porsches, I felt rather disoriented, as if I stepped in from some strange, outside land.
Omar Sommereyns can be reached at SOASIS@aol.com