Above is a shot of 17-foot Burmese caught outside of an Okeechobee vet hospital. Burmese pythons have been around south florida for years, but now the local government is calling in catchers to knock down the population. Read up on the expert killer Bob Hill and how he goes about business.
If you’ve seen Rakontur’s Cocaine Cowboys then you already know about 80s swindler Jon Roberts. Before his autobiographical novel hits shelves, Miami New Times got an interesting feature on his come ups and downs.
He’s worried this article could spoil the publicity for his book deal. When I told him last week this story would be published, the craggy, gray-mustached ex-gangster vowed, “You will never write another word in this town again… I will go on TV and tell them everything in your article is bold-faced lies. I hope you get hit by a truck, you little scumbag.”
Che Guevara’s granddaughter Lydia poses with a bandolier of carrots to promote a campaign for PETA. Nice PR move, full story via Huffington Post
The tourist fatally shot by a Miami Beach police officer may have concealed an empty beer bottle under his shirt that appeared to some passers-by to be a gun, sparking several 911 calls about an armed man on the street, law enforcement sources told The Miami Herald.
Walking down Washington Avenue, a bar bouncer recognized Samer from the earlier fight. He believed the men were armed with guns and called 911. He reported that one might be armed with an assault rifle — investigators believe the coat hanger might have appeared like the folded stock of a long rifle.
Full story from the Herald
Before Jigga’s recent D.O.A., Wax Poetics had put out an extensive feature on the talk-box ‘movement’ including an article on the originator Roger Troutman. You’ve got to read the paper issue for that one, but the talk box excerpt and footage from Roger live and Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street using the tube are up on their site.
In an age in which robotic vocals have become cliche, the most important thing to know about the talk box is that it’s not a vocoder.
SAO PAULO — A plot to smuggle cellular phones into a prison yard using a remote-control model helicopter has been foiled after Brazilian police discovered the high-tech toy in the trunk of a car outside a maximum-security lockup.
Full story via Miami Herald
The ambassador of ‘modern funk’ breaks down some of his influences and flying saucers in this month’s XLR8R magazine. Preview some tracks off his upcoming LP, Toeachizown on this mix for BBC’s Mary Anne Hobbs’s Experimental show. There’s talk Dam could be touching down in the Miami galaxy this summer.
Jimmy Buffet’s branded beer has leased the name for Dolphin Stadium thru the year. Presidente or Steel Reserve could have been a better look.
Sources told The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson that the Dolphins received no money in the LandShark naming deal — an unheard of concession for a league where companies will pay $20 million a year to attach their brands to stadiums. Anheuser-Busch produces and sells LandShark under a marketing arrangement with Buffett.
Full story with background on Buffet’s business savvy and bad music career via the Miami Herald
A scrappy campaign to save the long-shuttered Miami Marine Stadium, increasingly admired as a masterpiece of modern architecture, will get a major boost Tuesday when the country’s principal preservation group names the city-owned site as one of the most endangered historic places in the United States.
Full story from the Herald.
Founded by Scion in 2007 to support young, emerging filmmakers, Scion Easy 10 gives up-and-coming visual artists a chance to shoot a short film on a topic of their choice. This year, Scion will be switching up the format by selecting ten media outlets to express their creativity through film. Scion allotted each filmmaker three months and a modest budget to transform their idea into a cinematic reality.
Includes Wax Poetics background on the East of Underground LP and Frank 151′s look into the Lower East Side. Trailers and photos here
Sirius XM, the embattled satellite radio company, said early Tuesday that it reached an 11th-hour deal with Liberty Media that will allow it to repay maturing debt and avoid a bankruptcy filing, at least for the moment.
The stock went up over 50% on the news! Full article from the NY Times
This fly Israeli model makes this years Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue a collectors edition. Also has a feature with NBA dancers that the Heat wins hands down.
Aubrey should have stuck to the dirty girl Complex shots instead of Playboy gloss.
Anyone who turns in a gun gets a free rose and an electronics store gift card. A handgun gets a $100 gift card, while a rifle or shotgun nets a $50 gift card.
Valentines Day Special via MSNBC
Hundreds of Gothamites shivered to line up for cash handouts from this mystery man, the New York Daily News reports. From a booth in Times Square, Bailout Bill divvied up $50,000 a day based on the tales of woe from those who queued up in the cold. Most got $50 or $100 though a lucky few wound up with as much as $3,000.It actually was all a publicity stunt for an advertising Website, but one appreciated with the mounting toll of layoffs in the Big Apple.
This one had Denny’s beat, wsup with making a trip to Miami Beach? Full story from NBC New York
23- year old Efraim Diveroli first become national news when he was arrested last March on a story broken by the New York Times for selling Chinese-made ammunition to the US of A. The story keeps growing as the Miami New Times reports, some assets of his are being returned and business is still booming. Read this weeks story here, and view the video below in question.
Interesting piece from this weekend’s Miami Herald on the musical mecca of Overtown during the 1950s-60s. It was the birthplace of soul acts from Sam & Dave to Betty Wright and where greats like James Brown & Ray Charles loved to record. Black musicians would come in and perform at the Miami Beach hotels, but weren’t allowed to sleep there, so they would come back across the bridge and then the party would really begin. All until the highway expansion destroyed the area.
People sang doo-wop on the corner. Jazz flourished, and the blues resounded. The area bustled with clubs: the Knightbeat, the Mary Elizabeth Lounge, the Harlem Square and many more. The action also brought in white musicians and music fans, creating a racial mix unique for the time in a segregated South.
View the article and video commentary here.
Jerusalem Post- Israel’s cease-fire conditions
IDF & Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sets post-truce response formula for future Hamas attacks
San Francisco Gate- Calif. dad sold 14-year-old into marriage
A California man has been arrested for arranging for his 14-year-old daughter to marry a neighbor in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat, police said.
Duke University- First Demonstration of a Working Invisibility Cloak
A team led by scientists at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has demonstrated the first working “invisibility cloak.” The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a “hidden” object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all.
Miami Herald- Dead End for Palestinians
Israeli columnist Freda Ghitis’s great column on what terrorist group Hamas is really about
Miami New Times- The Agent from Iran
Cover story from this week detailing the story of an Iranian woman charged in plot to smuggle hi-tech army goggles from Iran to the US of A
Miami Herald- World chess queen Alexandra Kosteniuk plots her next move
The women’s world chess champion is a 24-year-old Russian aspiring model who lives with her husband and baby in Key Biscayne.
Perestroika, sign us up!
Miami Herald- Hatian Ponzi Scheme
A Miami man is accused of bilking thousands of Haitian-Americans of more than $23 million in an investment scheme where he promised to create a “nation of Haitian millionaires.”
Chicago Tribune- Bank Robbery gone Dumb
The robber’s threatening note made a Chicago bank job easy to solve: The FBI says the suspect wrote it on his pay stub.
Boston Globe- THC Decriminalized in Beantown
It’s no longer a crime to have one ounce or less of pot. The state’s new marijuana decriminalization law, approved by voters in a November referendum, goes into effect today.
Music labels, websites tussle over music videos via the Miami Herald
The removal of Warner Music Group’s videos from YouTube over the weekend highlights the growing tension between music labels and websites over what is becoming an important source of revenue for the beleaguered recorded-music industry: advertising and licensing fees from music videos, the foundation that built MTV but which has now largely migrated to the Internet.
