Tag Archives: miami writer

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Five Wines for Five Occasions From Master Sommelier Larry Stone

If you’re anything like the rest of us in the First World, you’ve spent many panicked minutes scanning the shelves of a liquor store before heading to a party. Choosing the right booze is one of those etiquette skills most of us never learn, leaving us the loser who always shows up with a bottle of Korbel.

So to help guide you on the path to superlative wine selection, we spoke to award-winning master sommelier Larry Stone. Stone is hosting an über-upscale, five-course wine dinner at the Fontainebleau’s Gotham Steak tonight, and we took advantage of his appearance to avail ourselves of his vast vino knowledge. Get his two cents on the perfect wines for specific occasions — from popping the question to buying your boss’ good favor to meeting the parents — after the jump.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Why Broward County needs a food policy council

Like most issues in our labyrinthian modern lives, the concept of eating locally can be a lot more complicated than it looks. From a lack of local farms to dubious sourcing by supermarkets, it can be tough for consumers to make the right decisions, even with the best of intentions behind them.

Michael Madfis, owner of Fort Lauderdale Vegetables and advocate for decentralized farming, thinks that one of the key elements to upping our consumption of locally grown food is to start a Food Policy Council (FPC). An FPC is, essentially, a group of stakeholders from different food-related sectors that examine how the food system is operating and figure out how to improve it. And Madfis thinks South Florida needs one, stat.

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Arts & Culture

Les Miserables movie review

For fans of the epic, enduring stage spectacular Les Miserables, a movie version worth watching has been a long time coming. And because of the play’s enduring popularity, the movie’s all-star cast and the preemptive Oscar buzz – the hype for its Christmas Day opening was undeniably huge.

But realistically, could the flick ever live up to its fevered expectation?

I’m a lifelong Les Miz fan(atic) – a tradition passed down from my parents before me. My father scored us seats on Broadway just ahead of NYC’s millennium celebration, and it made my little teenage heart swell to twice its size. Like so many others, I was waiting with baited breath and absurdly high expectations to see this year’s big screen incarnation.

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Plant-Based Food & Drink

Food fails list

When it comes to our favorite brands, it seems we’re more likely to remember the epic successes (Doritos Locos Tacos anyone?) than the equally epic failures. But failures, there are aplenty.

Dangerous, disgusting, or just plain absurd, these gastronomic gaffes may be fun to laugh at now, but it wouldn’t be so amusing if we were all forced to drink New Coke, now would it?

From Four Loko to KFC’s Double Down, here’s our round up of some of the food industry’s most notorious creations.

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Events

Miami Book Fair preview

Every fall, as eagerly as we await 75 degree temperatures and a break in our AC bills, Miami’s bibliophiles anticipate the literary amusement park known as the Miami Book Fair International. And for all those bookworms champing at the bit, there’s good news: the nearly 300-strong author attendee list has officially been released — and it’s chock full of big names.

Some of the most notable include young adult horror kings Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine, actress (and new author) Molly Ringwald, conservative mouthpiece Bill O’Reilly, pop culture critic Tom Wolfe (who was announced back in June) and bestselling novelist James Patterson, all plugging their newest tomes.

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Celebrities

John Corbett interview for New Times’ Cultist blog

If you’re a woman who came of age sometime in the last 20 years, chances are the mere mention of John Corbett makes you swoon. For some, the name sparks fond memories of Chris Stevens in Northern Exposure; for others, it’s Aidan Shaw in Sex and the City. Either way, the hearts, they tend to throb.

And eight years after the final frame of Sex and the City faded away, he’s still wowing women with his salt & pepper beard and dulcet vocals. And he’s doing stuff for charity, to boot.

Cultist caught up with Corbett as he kicked off the Kiehl’s LifeRide for amFar, a nine-day celebrity motorcycle ride to benefit HIV/AIDS research. In the back room of Kiehl’s jam-packed Lincoln Road location, we chatted him up about motorcycles, female fans and the allure of made for TV movies.

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Highlights

Humor piece for New Times’ Cultist blog

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As Mother’s Day approaches, we’re reminded of the tireless efforts of the women who lovingly raised us into the neuroses-plagued adults we are today. They cooked for us, they cleaned up after us, they dressed our wounds and taught us manners. And along the way, they left us with more than a few emotional battle scars.

But despite the many flaws of our maternal role models, most of us should thank our lucky stars. After all, it could have been worse. Much worse.

Just take a look at this list of abusers, murderers, and straight-up sociopaths. You’ll be kissing your momma’s feet in no time, even though you’re still mad at her for dressing you up as a Care Bear on Halloween years ago.

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Events, Highlights

Yelp tribute to Miami

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Before I met Miami, my life was a series of mercurial moves. I was a wanderer; a gypsy; always fleeing in earnest from one city to another. A “rambling (wo)man”, so to speak. In the words of Hank Williams, “Some folks may say that I’m no good/That I wouldn’t settle down if I could/But when that open road starts to calling me/There’s something o’er that hill that I gotta see.”

That was me. From Honolulu to Laramie and New York City to Napa; from Dallas to Washington, DC and Panama City Beach to Hollywood: my nomadic nature led me from one new city to another; free to begin anew, alone and unhindered.

Relationships were ended. Furniture was given away. Friends were left behind. Jobs were quit. After nine months or so in a new place, the familiar feelings of discontent would roll in like the tide and I’d be planning my next escape.

Then, I met the Magic City, and everything changed.

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Events, Highlights

Miami New Times event preview

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For children of the ’80s, nothing brings back the days of playgrounds and juice boxes like Steven Spielberg’s E.T. This epic tale of an unlikely friendship is the quintessential throwback to pre-CGI filmmaking and a pre-rehab Drew Barrymore. Some observers claim the film has a Christian subtext, others argue it’s a treatise on relationships between diverse races, and still another segment claims it’s a dark commentary on suburban boyhood. But whether you see E.T. as a Jesus-like figurehead or a first-generation X-File, it’s hard to ignore the cultural impact of the so-ugly-he’s-cute alien.

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Marketing copy for B2B website

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JB Inc. believes in bucking the trends. The concept: Forget the status quo. “Best practices” is a tired cliche. Start fresh. Don’t follow the trends – create them. Use the incredible fluidity of the web to create new standards of excellence.

The result: A boutique agency with the sole purpose of mentoring organizations to build creative, intelligent and innovative web programs. Our mission is to educate and develop thought-leaders in an effort to better our economy, environment and create a better, more integrated world for the next generation.

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