Happy Halloween. Her new video is comparable to getting a razor blade in an apple. Washed up pop stars are the worst. Put on your plastic cape and fake vampire teeth, run down the street and never look back – because the wack hair witch project has awakened from her tanning coffin and she’s out to get ‘cha. Ahhhhh. HS

The subways, roaring buses, highballing yellow cabs, the bustling Broadway streets, the Gotham towers, the bright lights, big city-if New York were a color, it would be flashy, vibrant and unquestionably hard to miss. Strange then how Harvey Zipkin and Patisse, contributors to the exhibit NYC: the Pretentious and Pedestrian at the Daniel Azoulay Gallery, have depicted the incomprehensibly busy metropolis in simplistic black-and-white photography. The display stars a collection of monochromatic snapshots that attempt to reveal the big picture behind the Big Apple.

The gallery, planted in the heart of Miami’s trendy art district, is an archetypal setting for showcasing photography. Inside, stark concrete floors and white walls match the minimalist simplicity of the high ceilings. Sparse studio lighting subtly brightens the room and throbbing world music forms a satisfying atmosphere for drinking.

Zipkin, a New York native who’s been photographing professionally since the early 1960s, includes nothing complicated in his work. There’s no intricate symbolism, no fussy lighting techniques, no unnecessary bells and whistles. Rather, he depicts real, raw humanity: the ups and the downs, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the heart-pounding excitement of life as well as the simple beauty found in everyday routine. “The Hyatt 42nd Street” offers a delightful glimpse of businessmen en route as the busy workday trickles on. Brilliant in its veracity, “Golden Earring” shows a woman staring out of a bus window, the light glinting off a large gilded hoop that dangles from her left ear. “Along Broadway” is a simple aerial shot of a crowded intersection, its focal point a splashy billboard for “Donahue.” Also noteworthy are the cheery scenes that smell of summer-from a swimmer diving neatly into a pool to panoramas with Coney Island roller coasters arching dizzily in the background.

Contrastingly, Patisse takes a darker look at the city, her photos filled with imagery from New York’s bleaker underbelly during the excesses of the ’80s. Nightclubs provide much of the setting for the murky prints, which include shots of glitzy elitists and singers, as well as, interestingly, shots of the then-fledgling pop star Madonna. She also captures other New York personalities such as artist Jean-Michel Basquiat on the road to his eventual demise, as well as drag queens and socialites of the time. Her intuitive view of New York after dark is enticing and elucidating.

Whether you hail from Long Island, have racked up several frequent flyer miles to LaGuardia as a tourist, or even never set foot on the warm streets of Manhattan, there’s something to pique your interest in NYC – don’t pass this one up.

The exhibit runs through Oct. 12th. For more info, call 305-576-1977.

Jessica Misener can be reached at jessm02@yahoo.com

While it may seem far-fetched, writer Alan Ayckbourn lets his imagination run wild in the rather amusing script of “Comic Potential.” In this play set in the distant future, “actoids,” mechanical robots that can remember lines and take direction very well, have replaced actors-all except one robot of course, the beautiful Jacie Triplethree (JC333). She not only has a problem giving the director what he needs, but also has another internal dilemma: she can fall in love.

Claire Tyler, the star that plays Jacie, does a remarkable job in this role, convincingly going from one emotion to the next, making the audience laugh from the moment she gets on the stage. David Kwiat and Lisa Morgan also have memorable roles that help the show, but it seems as if all the other characters are purposefully made into “stock” images in order to make the lead seem more human. Whether this was the intent of the director or playwright is unclear, yet it would have been nice to see other three-dimensional characters emerge from the production as well (not that the acting is bad, mind you, but too many vegetables and not enough meat on a dish isn’t always so appetizing.)

One of the best features of this play comes from M.P. Amico’s picturesque design, which involves a revolving set, and Nate Rausch’s scrupulous sound arrangements. The music aptly coincides with every scene and never once seems obtrusive, unless it is about to make us laugh.

Though it sounds like a truism, this tale reflects on what the meaning of love can and might be: sometimes humans take for granted the power of love, or they miss the boat all together. Some believe that it takes many years to understand this feeling, while others claim to find it at first sight, yet whatever premise underlies its conquest doesn’t matter as long as one is ultimately able to savor love’s bracing medicinal cure.

“Comic Potential” plays at the Actors’ Playhouse in Coral Gables through Oct. 27th. Performance times are Wed. through Sat. at 8 p.m., and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call (305) 444-9293 for more information.

Josh Carabello can be reached at email4josh@aol.com

Swept Away is a movie promoter’s worst nightmare. On one hand there’s the film’s star, Madonna, whose acting has the audience appeal of a Florida Marlins doubleheader. Then there’s writer/director Guy Ritchie, Madonna’s husband. Ritchie’s previous films, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, were very well-received and earned him a respectable fan base. Unfortunately, Swept Away is the exact opposite of these movies.

Lock, Stock and Snatch were heist-comedies, with bumbling crooks thrust into exaggerated situations. Swept Away is a romantic comedy with a social conscience. Some water-boy on the set should have told Ritchie that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Lock, Stock came out in 1998 and immediately Ritchie was a sensation in his native England and in the United States. His camerawork and storytelling methods were flashy and fresh, and gave new life to the stagnant gangster genre. He followed suit in 2000 with Snatch, a strikingly similar film, but no less of a success. Ritchie’s sudden u-turn into romantic comedies would be like Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino signing on for Kate and Leopold 2.

Swept Away starts with a small, affluent group of people boarding a run down an Italian yacht. They’re soon whisked away to the Mediterranean for a nice vacation, but of course nothing goes as planned. Madonna plays Amber, the snobbiest of the bunch. She spends her days ordering around a crew member, Giuseppe, forcing him to wait on her whenever she calls.

After a few days of lounging around and complaining, Madonna orders Giuseppe to accompany her in a small boat to meet her friends on a nearby island. Along the way, the engine breaks, and after a bunch of clever plot devices, Madonna and her archenemy Giuseppe end up stranded on a deserted island.

Up until this point, the movie had been somewhat enjoyable. Ritchie’s witty dialogue and cool camerawork made it seem like a fun film. Then, disaster struck, for both the characters and the viewers. Sticking the pair on an island for the remainder of the film puts all of the chips on Madonna’s acting, or lack thereof.

The last half of the movie is like an extended fight scene, but instead of people fighting, it’s Ritchie’s crafty dialogue battling Madonna’s prima (finish it) acting. To the diva’s credit, her character is meant to be annoying, but so is Carrot Top’s and no one is showering him with praise.

Most of Ritchie’s signature filmmaking techniques go out the window once the pair washes up on the island. Instead of nifty editing tricks and pumped up music, Ritchie directs the last half of the movie like an episode of Total Request Live. There are at least three music montages within 15 minutes of each other, all similarly shot with the sun melting into the water as Madonna and her new friend fall in love. Somebody’s whipped.

No one is interested in watching a relatively new director expand his filmmaking talents in a boring and overdone genre. Adam Sandler has been tweaking Billy Madison for his entire film career, and no one is complaining. He gets rich, people enjoy it and no one cares that he hasn’t challenged himself with an indie Shakespearean role. Ritchie belongs in the gangster-comedy genre, and on his way there he should drop his material girl off at an acting retirement home.

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

Although the Gabe Dixon Band recently signed to a major record label, they have not followed the oft-trend of selling out for barrels of cash and then pumping out jewel cases full of crap. Instead, On a Rolling Ball expands and nearly perfects the sounds that the four University of Miami graduates stumbled across years ago, during countless afternoons spent experimenting inside the UM School of Music.

Their newest album, On a Rolling Ball, encompasses all genres of music, from piano-fueled pop to blues to straight up funk – think Elton John meets Widespread Panic.

Lead singer/pianist Gabe Dixon and band mates Winston Harris (bass/vocals), Jano Rix (drums/vocals), and Chandler Webber (sax/vocals) will bring their special mix of funk back to the University of Miami this evening at 9 p.m. with a free show on the UC Patio following the Homecoming Parade.

This is a Life & Art interview with Gabe Dixon via telephone.

Q: Were you guys trying to maintain the same style of music with On a Rolling Ball that you had on More Than It Would Seem (first album, independently released) or were you trying to go for something different?

GB: I think that there was kind of a natural progression that happened with the band, but at the same time we were going for something that was a little more representative of what we do live, which is to stretch out a little more. When we recorded our first album with Eddie (Eddie Kramer, famed producer who has worked with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Traffic) we were going with shorter songs so that we could pitch that record to record labels. Since we were doing this current record on a record label, we were able to play more like we play live, which is what we like.

Q: What was it like moving to such a big record label like Reprise/Warner Brothers?

GB: It was great, because they gave us more money to do our record and also tour support so that we could go out and tour. And (the support) was relatively modest compared to a lot of bands on record labels, but they’ve certainly given us the necessary means to get by when we’re on the road. They weren’t trying to dress us up in costumes or anything stupid like that. They let us be the band that we are.

Q: What were some of the bands that influenced you growing up?

GB: When I first started playing stuff other than classical music I was about 11-years-old, and I got into early-70’s stuff like Elton John, The Police, even rockabilly, boogie-woogie, Jerry Lee Lewis type stuff. Then, in high school, I got more into the Dave Matthews Band, Medeski Martin & Wood, Phish, and a lot of the blues people like Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King. . . . But it’s not just about music, you can be influenced by the way you see someone cross the street, or a scene from a movie.

Q: What was your reaction when Paul McCartney asked you to play keyboards on his album Driving Rain?

GB: My reaction was, “Yes. I’ll do it.” I was shocked. I was happy and thrilled to be able to do it, just because I respect Paul so much as an artist, songwriter and bass player. I knew that I could do a good job because . . . I knew his history. The Beatles were the first rock band that I ever got into.

Q: Was there any improvisation going on in the studio? I’ve read that Paul was looking for a raw, less rehearsed sound for this album.

GB: We’d have to go in the studio and try different things out. In one track in particular, called “Rinse the Raindrops,” we ended up playing for like 20 minutes, and we had to cut it down to 10 minutes because there was so much jamming in it.

Q: You played with Paul at Madison Square Garden in the “Concert for New York” to raise money for 9/11 victims’ families. How was that?

GB: It was the largest amount of people that I’ve ever played for . . . it was a sold out crowd. It was mind blowing and a mountaintop experience. It was certainly one of the highlights of my musical career.

Q: Are you looking forward to coming back to Miami for Friday’s show?

GB: Oh yeah, we always love playing in Miami. The people are always so good to us. We haven’t been back since last fall (Surfrider Club shindig at the Rat) so it’ll be good to be back. Come see us play and tell all of your friends.

Kevin Dean can be reached at biigdeano@aol.com.

To some, abstract, modern art is hip and lets you gaze at conceptual pieces that defy the standards of form and outline. To others, it’s just a bunch of haphazard paint smears flung on a canvas. Yet no matter what your take is on the nonfigurative compositions that have been popping up in art galleries for decades now, there’s no avoiding the post-modern style when gallery-hopping in Miami.

This month, Kerry Ware presents his show, Modernism, at the Dorsch Gallery, displaying some of his finer works. A graduate from UM’s MFA program, Ware offers a selection from his cryptically titled “Adnos Cycle” series for his sixth solo show at the Dorsch.

The exhibit features nine compositions of Rorschach-like splotches. Upon first glance, the artist’s paintings may seem like dismissible, eccentric material, the kind of “art” that makes you muse about how you could create the same thing in your sleep and sell it for thousands of dollars (yet you end up never creating anything). However, there’s more to these paintings than erratic blotches. Highlights include “#4”, which swirls together colors of terra cotta and spring green, with accents of dusty blue. Generating a cool, Mediterranean mood, “#7” blends deep blues and green with speckles of cream and yellow.

Ware paints with oil on prepared plaster panels, layering paint coats and then sanding through the strata to create the desired multifaceted effect. The undulating spots of paint make for interesting viewing, inveigling your eyes to rise and fall with the rippling rolls of color.

According to Brook Dorsch, the gallery owner, Ware’s work has been likened to “aerial landscapes,” although the artist eschews associating his paintings with any type of specific subject matter. Accordingly then, this isn’t controversial, emotive material. It’s more suited to decorating a home, or being arranged neatly in a row along a lengthy hallway. “I see such a lack of seriousness and sophistication in most of the work being regarded as ’emerging,’ ‘new,’ and ‘cutting edge’ – a total disregard of aesthetic sensibility,” explains Ware of his motive to put together this exhibit.

Could this art be satisfying to your aesthetic taste buds, and is there more to Ware’s work than aesthetic value? Some will say yes, others will give an emphatic thumbs-down. Bottom line: check it out for yourself and form your own opinion.

Brook Dorsch lives and works Saturdays at his eponymous gallery, a small, simple studio hidden along a back street. The charming space with its enormous, high-vaulted rooms is surprisingly tucked away from Miami’s stylish art district, although its lime green stucco exterior is hard to miss.

Modernism runs through Nov. 2nd at the Dorsch Gallery in Miami. For hours, directions, and more information, call 305-576-1278.

Jessica Misener can be reached at jessm02@yahoo.com

Five minutes into a conversation with Ben Kweller over the telephone, you realize that he is not the precocious, complex rock star the media often portrays him to be. Musically gifted from the get-go (he founded his first band, Radish, at age 12) and a maturing songwriter, Kweller’s voice personifies youthful cheer. Unlike most musicians his age, Kweller, now 20, utilizes the piano and guitar to escape and convey his feelings to the world.

A resident of Brooklyn, New York, Kweller has managed to solidify an eclectic fan base that includes American college students, jaded metropolitan critics and cutting-edge Japanese adolescents. His unique mix of folk, punk, pop and indie rock locks him opening tour slots for artists such as Evan Dando, Juliana Hatfield and Jeff Tweed, and most recently, the Strokes. Kweller continues to tour to promote his debut album Sha Sha.

This is a Life & Art interview with Kweller via telephone.

Q: Has living in Brooklyn changed your music and lyrics from when you were in Texas?

BK: It has really changed it because I’m so invigorated by the energy of the city and it’s just been so exciting. You know, just listening to bands like the Velvet Underground singing about New York and living here at the same time, it’s such an incredible vibe. Recording the album Sha Sha was so cool because I could hop on the train and go to work every morning. It is all so inspiring.

Q: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?

BK: Oh shit. I’d probably wanna be a professional bass fisher – a fisherman down in Texas taking people on tours to go fishing. Something chill like that, or, own a baseball card shop.

Q: When are you heading back to the studio?

BK: I’ll think Ill go to the studio probably in June or July. It all depends on how the album does. If it keeps doing well, I’ll stay on the road for another year.

Q: What direction are the new songs taking? Are you using the same formula as in Sha Sha?

BK: They’re similar songs. I don’t want to try for my next album to have a new sound, you know? I don’t wanna be like Radiohead and make Kid A. I’m not ready for that. One day I might do something tripped out and f***ed up. Right now I just wanna be consistent. If you look at Tom Petty or the Beatles or Nirvana – all their first albums sound the same with different songs and people love that.

Q: We’re you surprised and overwhelmed by the success of Sha Sha?

BK: Oh, I’m surprised and so happy. I’m just so flattered. When I made the album I made it for myself, and to see all these great reviews and everything, it’s been great.

Q: When will you feel fully accomplished as an artist?

BK: Oh god. I used to think when I sold 50,000 records that would be it, and now I’ve sold 55,000 and I can’t believe it. And then my other goal was to tour with the Strokes and now I’m going on tour with them.

Q: Do you have any backstage pre -show rituals?

BK: Ahh, let’s see. I’m definitely neurotic before I go on stage. I’m totally weirded out and running around screaming. I can’t have a real conversation. I’m just like ‘yeah yeah yeah.’ I get butterflies and get so nervous. But the second I get on stage, it’s all gone. You have to talk to the audience like you would talk to your friends backstage. I’m always like ‘What’s up yo? I’m nervous as shit.’ It’s all about keeping it real. That’s how you connect with people, by being yourself. People like that. But I really don’t have any…I do like, jumping jacks (laughs).

Q: Which do you like performing in more: smaller clubs or bigger venues?

BK: I like medium-sized. A thousand people is really cool, because it’s big but it’s intimate enough and feels like a small club. You can connect with everybody. But like 2000 people gets too big and then arenas and shit, that’s just ridiculous. My whole thing is about connecting, so to answer your question, I prefer the small clubs.

Q: Of the guitars you play, which is your favorite one?

BK: My favorite guitar is my Gibson Acoustic G45. Actually you know what? I’m kind of pissed off at it right now ’cause I haven’t written any songs with it. So my favorite guitar is my 1972 Fender Mustang.

Q: How is your songwriting process?

BK: I sit at the piano or with the guitar and come up with the music first usually. Once the music is down, I start singing whatever comes out, then I write it down and work with it.

Q: Do you ever get scared that you might be growing up too fast?

BK: Nah, you know what? You grow up as fast as you want really. At the end of the day, it’s like, if I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t. Every kid wants to grow up to be an adult but I don’t regret anything. I’ve had such a fun time and I think I’m really lucky.

Diana Pastrana can be reached godess_diana@hotmail.com

Tonight
Revolver explodes with a show from Atmosphere (Slug, Mr. Dibbs and Blueprint), an underground hip hop act from Minneapolis, for their God Loves Ugly Tour. Guests include Murs of Living Legends, DJ BK One and DeeJay Bird and it takes place at Soho Lounge, 175 NE 36th St., Miami. $10. Be there because this shit’s gonna get ugly. 305-576-1988.

If you want to sink into the tropical waters of SoBe, try Blue, 222 Espanola Way, Miami Beach, an ambient, relaxed lounge right next door to Lost Weekend. The bouncers’ egos are (slightly) quelled and there usually isn’t an enforced dress code. 305-534-1009.

Saturday, October 12
Poplife’s got the flavor to rev-up your weekend tonight with The Kickovers, a group feat. an ex-member of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Opening act is the Damn Personals and doors open at 11 p.m. at Piccadilly Garden, 35 NE 40th St., Miami. $10 for ages 18-20 and $8 for 21-and-up. Call 305-573-8221.

Sunday, October 13
The Gabe Dixon Band, a pop/rock band made of UM graduates, performs today at 3 p.m. at the Mars Music Amphitheatre, 12115 Biscayne Blvd., N. Miami. The concert is free so check this out. Call 305-893-0191 for more info.

Monday, October 14
Midtown plays with Recover and Taking Back Sunday as of 6:30 p.m. at the Factory, 2674 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. $10 in advance, $11 at the door. Call 954-564-ROCK.

Friday, October 18
The 17th Annual Fort Lauderdale Int’l Film Festival starts today and runs through November 24th, featuring an array of international films as well as a number of American indies and Gay/Lesbian movies. Screenings take place at venues around Fort Lauderdale.
Go to www.fliff.com for more info.

Tuesday, October 22
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the Cosford-time TBA.