Boca Raton Magazine

Bad Ragaz Pours Good Beer in Boynton

2013-05-21T06:00:00+00:00

Don’t look now, but Boynton Beach seems to be getting its restaurant act together.

Latest example: Bad Ragaz Hall & Biergarten (1417 S. Federal Hwy., 561/336-3297), a stylish, German-inflected restaurant and dispenser of fine suds from local chef Alessandro Silvestri. Named for the Swiss town renowned for its hot springs and spas, this Bad Ragaz is not your granddaddy’s dark, heavy old beergarden but a gorgeously chic, sleek space dominated by a circular, blue-domed bar, with white leather booths, communal tables and coolly modernist gray and white color scheme.

Some 24 draft beers and 50 bottled brewskis are offered, with special VIB (Very Important Beer) tables outfitted with their own taps so, in the words of BR’s website, you can “pour your own damn bier.”

Silvestri’s menu mixes German and other cuisines, with everything from housemade pretzel with Bavarian mustard, pork and veal schnitzel, and a roster of sausages to Korean bulgogi sliders, beef Bourguignon and warm chocolate soufflé, all of which sound pretty good to me.

The Week Ahead: May 21 to 27

2013-05-20T18:54:24+00:00

Friday

Opening night of “tick tick … Boom!” at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 8 p.m.; $30 adults, $25 seniors, $20 students; 954/300-2149 or www.outretheatrecompany.com

Playwright/composer Jonathan Larsen died of an aortic dissection at the very cusp of his fame: the very morning his smash musical “Rent” opened its first preview performance off-Broadway. His legacy has lived on, as “Rent” would become a counter-cultural and then a mainstream classic. But some would argue – and Outre Theatre Company’s artistic director Skye Whitcomb is one of them – that Larsen’s previous work, “tick tick … Boom!” is a more moving piece. First produced on Broadway five years after Larsen’s passing, the pioneering, three-actor rock musical is based on Larsen’s own biography as an aspiring New York City composer grappling with the eternal struggle between show business and domestic security at the turn of his 30^th birthday. I know what you’re thinking: How the play’s young cast could ever find a way to relate to such material is mind-blogging. Complete with a four-piece band performing onstage, and interacting with the cast, Outre’s production of “tick tick … Boom!” runs through June 9.

Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; starting at $35; 561/832-5196 or www.kravis.org

Comedian Steve Martin began playing the banjo at age 17. The instrument would later turn up in some of his manic standup routines from the ‘70s, and he recalled to NPR a few years ago that “I always felt the audience sorta tolerated the serious musical parts while I was doing my comedy.” These days, though, Martin’s bluegrass banjo music has come to dominate his artistic output, even usurping his acting career. With a Grammy award, three full-length albums over the past five years and even a national bluegrass prize named in his honor, Martin has proven he can pluck with the best of them. At this appearance, he will mix humor with bluegrass classics and songs from his latest album “Love Has Come For You,” whose collaborator, Edie Brickell, will join him onstage.

Opening night of “Dancing of Lughnasa” at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; $70 ($55 for non-opening night performances); 561/514-4042 or www.palmbeachdramaworks.org

The Tony Award winner for Best Play back in 1992, dramatist Brian Friel’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” will close what has been another exceptional season for Palm Beach Dramaworks. This memory play is set in 1936 inside a cottage in a fictional Irish town, where three sisters have love in their hearts, holding on to summer’s harvest before an impending collapse threatens the family’s stability. Catholicism, paganism, dancing, folklore and economics color a timeless drama that has enjoyed many revivals over the past 20 years, including a film adaptation with Meryl Streep. The show runs through June 16.

Friday and Saturday

“Empower the Girls” class at Saint Andrew’s School, 3900 Jog Road, Boca Raton; 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday; $65 to $95; 954/255-6300 or www.samprograms.com

The more young women that will be enjoying proms, summer jobs and summer vacations, the higher the chance that they’ll run into danger – from predators they know or don’t know. Before they send their daughters off with pepper spray, parents are urged to bring them to this “Empower the Girls” life safety class organized by local resident Ellen van Olden, who is known for her fast-paced, no-nonsense educational approach to dealing with very real situations. The three-hour program will focus on building awareness, identifying potentially dangerous situations, and trusting one’s instincts, and there also will be self-defense instructions. It’s a scary world there, but classes like this can help all women sleep a little easier – and go out into that world with greater confidence.

“Sleepwalk” at the Plaza Theatre, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan; 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; $20 adults, $15 students; 561/588-1820 or www.theplazatheatre.net

According to facts collected by teensuicidestatistics.com, more than 19 percent of high school students have seriously considered killing themselves, and suicide has risen to the No. 3 cause of death among teenagers, behind accidents and homicides. The Plaza Theatre, which has developed a reputation for producing light, frothy theatrical entertainment, will take a bold step into serious issue-driven theater this weekend with “Sleepwalk,” a new one-act play that directly addresses teen suicide. Blending humor, pathos and imagination, the new play, scripted by veteran American playwright William Mastrosimone, will be performed with a cast of nine actors ranging from ages 15 to 25. Also, two doctors from the Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health will be on hand to foster an open dialogue about this critical issue.

Saturday to Monday

Home Design and Remodeling Show at Broward County Convention Center, 1950 Eisenhower Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; noon to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and noon to 7:30 p.m. Monday; $10 adults, $1 children; 305/667-9299 or www.homeshows.net

It’s the time of year for spring cleanings and new beginnings – time to turn your bathroom from merely functional to luxe, and to transform a kitchen’s dated color palette to a bold, cutting-edge design. This twice-a-year exhibition of the latest in home design and remodeling trends, tips and sales will assist customers in keeping their homes in the vanguard or simply spicing up a room or two. Dozens of vendors and designers will be presenting designer room vignettes; if you can’t make it to this event, the same show will run at the Miami Beach Convention Center the first week of September.

Sunday

Memorial Weekend Comedy Festival at James L. Knight Center, 400 S.E. Second Ave., Miami; 8 p.m.; $40.50 to $100; 305/416-5970 or www.jlkc.com

It wouldn’t be Memorial Day Weekend in Miami without this annual comedy festival, returning for its sixth year with five humorists representing the best in urban comedy. This year’s show will be headlined by Bruce Bruce (pictured), the famously dreadlocked former host of BET’s “ComicView.” He’ll be joined by Corey Holcomb, whose relationship-centric humor has to led his nickname as “the ghetto Dr. Phil;” Shawty Shawty, who has appeared on rap albums and bills himself as the “pioneer of crunk comedy;” and veteran actors/standup comedians Cocoa Brown and Red Grant.

Monday

Palm Beach Jerk and Caribbean Culture Festival at Meyer Amphitheater, 104 Datura St., West Palm Beach; 2 p.m.; $20; 561/822-1515 or www.palmbeachjerkfestival.com

The Jerk Festival has also become a beloved Memorial Day tradition in South Florida, and it has nothing to do with a gathering of jerks. Quite the contrary: Expect much warmth and beauty to emanate from the Meyer Amphitheater in this authentic celebration of all things Caribbean. Promising a bigger and better Jerk Festival in honor of its 10^th anniversary, this year’s event will feature endless Caribbean cuisine; face painting, magic and bounce houses for the little ones; prizes and vendor booths; and, most importantly, a lineup of Caribbean music across two stages. Artists and bands include Konshens, a child prodigy turned rapper; Grammy-winning roots musician Freddie McGregor (pictured); reggae master Frankie Paul; local favorites The Resolvers; and many more.

86’d, the Restaurant Hit List

2013-05-20T06:00:00+00:00

The snowbird season is over and hurricane season is approaching, that means the annual restaurant shakeout season is ramping up too.

Gone to that great dumpster in the sky is Bobbi Sue Bar B Que, a country-fied ‘que joint named after owner Cleve Mash’s fiancé. The Clematis Street eatery lasted only seven months, saying goodbye on its Facebook page with the explanation, “our Downtown location was not conducive to the type of operation we were running.” Let’s hope Cleve and the real Bobbi Sue last longer than the restaurant.

Also over ‘n’ out is Gol, A Taste of Brazil in downtown Delray. The meat-centric churrascuria stuck around for a number of years as the Atlantic Avenue restaurant scene exploded around it, but there’s probably not a more competitive dining street in all of South Florida and Gol never seemed to get the traction of its newer, hipper neighbors.

Better news, though, is that Brian Albe and Brandon Belluscio, the very savvy operators of Cut 432 and Park Tavern, are planning on adding a third eatery to their Delray Beach mini-empire. “Coming soon” is El Camino Tequila Bar, which will be dishing up “Mexican soul food”—plus, one can imagine, lots of tequila drinks—a few steps off Atlantic on Northeast 2^nd Avenue. I’ll get some more details off the guys and get back to you asap.

Animal Magnetism

2013-05-18T17:16:21+00:00

Waking up at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge can produce early morning dialogue that wouldn’t be out of place in any one of “The Hangover” movies.

“Is that a reticulated giraffe outside our hotel window?

“I don’t know, but where did that white-bearded wildebeest come from?”

Unlike some Vegas bachelor parties, there is no forgetting the sights and sounds at perhaps the most original—and easily the most exotic—of all of Disney’s high-end resort properties.

In the years prior to its April 2001 opening, Disney sent teams to more than 20 African lodges in order to bring some of that flavor back to Lake Buena Vista. The result is a 74-acre resort—including a 45-acre “savanna” with nearly 200 mammals and birds—that replicates the African experience in more ways than one.

The wildlife, viewable from many of the rooms and also from specified areas throughout resort, freely roams the savanna—but don’t worry, a perimeter fence keeps them from wandering onto a first-floor balcony. You’ll find everything from impalas and kudu to zebras and gazelles.

This is Disney at its most exorbitant—with room prices to match. The resort is divided into two sections—Kidani Village and Jambo House, which hosts the major restaurants. A standard room with one king bed and a savanna view (based on June 2013 pricing) is nearly $500 per night.

For those with larger families and the means to handle the tab, check out the deluxe two-bedroom villas, which go for $1,800 per night in June and can sleep eight. The dark woods, African artifacts and stunning attention to interior detail throughout the property may be Disney’s finest hour when it comes to decor and design.

The deluxe rooms also open up a world within a world—the Kilimanjaro Club. Guests in one of the 74 club-level rooms can access the sixth-floor concierge lounge, which keeps the food and beverages flowing all day and into the evening—think breakfast treats, appetizers, wines and cordials, desserts and fresh fruits.

As an added bonus, club-level guests are the only ones who can experience (for another $170 per person) a guided sunset safari tour—inside the animal reserve—that ends with dinner at Jiko, the featured fine dining experience. Jiko’s menu, filled with global cuisine, changes each season. At Sanaa, another outstanding sit-down eatery that overlooks the “savanna,” menu favorites (think slow-cooked meats and creative vegetarian offerings) combine East African cuisine with Indian flourishes.

Families also will enjoy Boma, a 270-seat buffet-style “marketplace” restaurant that rotates some 60 mostly regional offerings—from Côte d’Ivoire seafood gumbo to bobotie (a South African dish of spiced minced meat) to Durban-style roasted chicken. There are enough recognizable dishes to keep any fussy eaters happy, but more adventurous diners will have a field day sampling the many exquisite dishes.

Though many visitors to Disney’s theme parks use their hotels as a pit stop between tram rides, Animal Kingdom Lodge gives its guest plenty of reason to kick back and enjoy the resort. Both the Uzima pool (all 11,000 square feet of it) at Jambo House and Samawati Springs pool at Kidani Village feature mega slides. Each section of the resort also houses state-of-the-art exercise centers (the Jambo House version also includes massage and spa treatments).

As one would expect, buses run from early morning to 2 a.m., transporting hotel guests back and forth from Disney’s theme and water parks.

A few nights at the Lodge and, trust us, you’ll never want to get out of Africa.

IF YOU GO

Where: 2901 Osceola Parkway, Lake Buena Vista
Reservations: 407/939-7429
Room rates: Starting at $314
Website: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/animal-kingdom-lodge/

Big Speaker Series Coming to Broward Center

2013-05-17T11:00:00+00:00

South Floridians have one more series to look forward to during the upcoming high season. Starting in October and running through May of 2014, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts will host its inaugural Fort Lauderdale Speaker Series one Wednesday of each month, featuring seven luminaries from the fields of politics, media, literature, finance and exploration.

Sponsored by the Sun Sentinel, WLRN and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, the series should fill a gap in the Broward Center’s diverse season; it’s about time the venue joined the Society of the Four Arts and the Crest Theatre by welcoming esteemed speakers onto its proscenium. Here’s the complete schedule.

Oct. 23: Steve Forbes

An audience of more than 4 million international readers visit Steve Forbes’ media empire; he is the editor-in-chief and CEO of Forbes magazine, which is arguably the pre-eminent American business magazine of record. An impassioned advocate for the flat tax and smaller government, Forbes twice sought the Republican nomination for the presidency, in 1996 and 2000.

Futher reading: Forbes’ latest book “Freedom Manifesto” explores some of his favorite topics: the morality of the free market and the immortality of “big government.”

Nov. 20: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The paternal nephew of slain president John F. Kennedy will visit the Broward Center just days before the 50^th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. As vice chairman of Riverkeeper, he has spearheaded the fight to restore the Hudson River, one of his many initiatives in the field of environmental law. Despite suffering from the speech disorder spasmodic dysphonia, Kennedy co-hosts the respected, syndicated progressive talk show “Ring Of Fire.”

Further reading: Kennedy’s 2005 best-selling “Crimes Against Nature” took aim at the George W. Bush administration.

Jan. 22, 2014: Bob Woodward

Woodward and his former colleague Carl Bernstein literally wrote the book on modern investigative journalism with the seminal “All The President’s Men.” He has continued to bring readers inside the halls of the White House, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill with his exhaustive, fly-on-the-wall accounts of presidents dealing with crises. He is a recipient of Pulitzer, Polk and Lovejoy awards, with nearly every one of his books rocketing to best-seller status.

Further reading: A light read (for Woodward, anyway), his latest book “The Price of Politics” runs 448 pages, chronicling the attempts of President Obama and Congressional Republicans and Democrats to wrest the economy from a recession.

Feb. 12, 2014: Jeannette Walls

Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence has been tapped to portray this famous journalist and columnist in an upcoming movie adaptation of her remarkable memoir “The Glass Castle,” which spent 261 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. After accruing a reputation as a top gossip columnist for MSNBC.com, Walls’ book hit home with readers for its frank depictions of the author’s nomadic, dysfunction-laden upbringing.

Further reading: Next month, Walls will release her much-anticipated follow-up to “The Glass Castle,” a coming-of-age novel called “The Silver Star.”

March 12, 2014: Michael Beschloss

Newsweek called Beschloss “the nation’s leading presidential historian” for good reason. NBC’s official Presidential Historian has penned nine books, including studies of Truman, Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson, plus a tome about presidential courage spanning 200 years. Best known for his work in print, the award-winning commentator has embraced digital media as well; his tweets have earned a spot on Time’s list of “Best Twitter Feeds of 2013.”

Further reading: His latest book is “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy.”

April 23, 2014: Jean-Michel Cousteau

The first son of famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel has followed in his father’s wet footsteps, first diving into the ocean with an aqualung at age 7. Though he has had several public and legal run-ins with his father, Cousteau has nonetheless forged his own career in a similar field, producing some 70 environmental films since 1993 – one of which, “Voyage to Kure,” prompted President George W. Bush to designate a marine monument in northwestern Hawaii as one of the largest Marine Protected Areas in the world.

Further reading: In 2010, Cousteau published a memoir, “My Father, My Captain: My Life with Jacques Cousteau.”

May 21, 2014: Soledad O’Brien

The former co-host of CNN’s “American Morning” and then anchoring its replacement, “Starting Point,” until February of this year, O’Brien is known for her crusading documentaries for the news network, including “Who is Black in America?” and “The Women of 9-11.” She is now founder of Starfish Media Group, a production company that will distribute O’Brien’s documentaries to CNN as well as other potential buyers.

Further reading: O’Brien’s memoir “The Next Big Story,” covers some of the most dramatic worldwide news during her tenure as an anchorperson.

Series tickets run $260 to $475. Call 954/462-0222 or visit fortlauderdalespeakerseries.com.

The Office Celebrates the Burger

2013-05-17T06:00:00+00:00

May is National Hamburger Month, and to celebrate everybody’s favorite disc of ground cow, the folks at downtown Delray’s The Office (201 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/276-3600) have come up with a quartet of beer ‘n’ burger pairings, and you’re running out of time to get yourself some.

Through Wednesday, May 22, you can get a Boss Burger (dry-aged brisket with LTO, pickle and Office sauce) with Oskar Blues G-Night Ale. Then from Thursday, May 23 to Friday, May 31, it’s the Office Burger (LTO, pickle, Office sauce and aged cheddar) with a personal fave, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The beer-burger combos cost $19, which ain’t exactly cheap, but we’re not talking McPatties ‘n’ soda either.

Work out--and help a little boy find a cure

2013-05-16T14:28:58+00:00

Feel like working out at the chic new Xtend Barre Delray Beach? On its grand opening this Saturday? Why not promise yourself you will do that above anything else this weekend--because if you do, you will be donating to a kid who really needs your help.

Now.

North Florida seven-year-old Ayden Jolicoeur is battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer called “Gliobastoma" (High Grade) with which he was diagnosed in 2010. He’s had part of one tumor removed and a battery of treatments, including proton as well as chemotherapy.

In March, the Jolicoeur family received the heartbreaking news that a new spot/tumor was discovered in Ayden's spine.He is now required to receive extensive chemotherapy treatments again.

All—100 percent--of proceeds from Saturday's Xtend Barre Delray classes will go to Ayden and his family to help defray mounting medical expenses.

For information on Xtend Barre Delray Beach please visit xtendbarredelraybeach.com. To learn more about how you can help Ayden, please visit cure4ayden.com.

Xtend Barre Delray is at 14859 Lyons Road, Suite 130, Delray Beach.

Work your heart out.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 59

2013-05-16T09:38:50+00:00

Angela, I'm in my early 30s and struggling in the dating game. Here's my problem: I'm a successful woman. I'm a chef at a growing restaurant, I love reading history novels and swim almost daily. The kicker is when I'm dating, I'm not looking to find a mirror image of myself! I meet these handsome men who almost burn down a kitchen and prefer movies to literature and the closest they come to swimming is fishing. And I'm smitten! But I feel like they don't bite for me. Is that strange that I'm attracted to someone so opposite? I just want someone that can expand my horizons too. Morally we can match up, but interests and activities? Please give me something new! --What's Cooking?

Julia Child, why are you stressing over this? Opposites attract, similars attract, and “I would never under normal circumstances even consider this” attract as well. There is no magic formula. Wait, there is one. It’s called CHEMISTRY! You’re getting the attraction part correct, but then you overthinking it, (as the majority of women do) and sabotaging yourself with all this talk of morals, interest, activities...blah, blah, blah. Are you attracted to the guy are not? That’s the first question you ask. If you feel that tingly sensation all over your body, proceed. If not, take a pass. Chemistry must be there from the beginning or it won’t work.

As far as the rest, I’m going to put it into terms you’ll understand, JC. Let it marinate. Put your checklist away and just have fun without getting so analytical about whether he’s expanding your horizons.

While we’re on the topic of horizon’s expanding, here’s and idea: Why not expand them yourself? Find an activity completely out of your norm. Meet new people. People who don’t have the same interests as you...people who aren’t your mirror image. How about that? We just solved two challenges in one.

Good Luck!

Angela, I want to break up with my boyfriend and keep our dog. I'm literally staying with him right now because I'm worried he'll fight me for our puppy. HELP! --In the Dog House

Dog House, since you didn’t elaborate on the circumstances surrounding your purchase of man’s best friend, here are several scenarios and the action plan for each:

You bought the dog. In this situation, you and your dog get to leave with as you please. However, don’t be a jerk. Grant him visiting rights and the occasional sleep over. (With the dog, not you.)

He bought the dog. I’m sorry but it’s man’s best friend and you have to depart without him. Try to keep it friendly so he’ll let you see Fido.

One of you bought the dog as a gift to the other. The gifter has to relinquish parental rights to the giftee.

The pup was a couples purchase. This is the trickiest situation of all. If you both can be mature about it, you have to look at who has the better living/work arrangement for the dog. If you can’t agree on which arrangement will be better for the pup, then an alternate idea is to suggest that you take turns, with each of you getting a week visitation at a time. Inevitably, because of circumstance changes or a new partner, one of you will voluntarily turn over the dog to the other. When this happens, be gracious about it and agree the party giving up the pup has first right of refusal when you need a dog sitter.

If you can document your arrangement in a written agreement, do so. Tempers can flare and there’s a chance your poor pup will be put in the middle. This won’t be an official binding agreement, but at least you can refer to the terms you both accepted if he ever holds Fido hostage.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Angela Lutin is Essentially Angela. Blogger, Advice Columnist and Dating Guru for the social media age—decoding modern love one tweet, text, and like at a time. Angela’s weekly dating advice column, The Naked Truth, appears exclusively in Boca Raton magazine. Her work appears regularly on the Huffington Post. She can been seen on MTV’s "Made" and Bravo’s hit show, "Millionaire Matchmaker." Crafting personal dating makeovers for her clients, Angela also maintains a private practice, which turns the romantically challenged into the relationship-inclined. Follow Angela on Facebook, facebook.com/EssentiallyAngela or Twitter, @essentiallyang.

Orange You Glad?

2013-05-15T15:49:23+00:00

We recently had a chance to sit down with Neiman Marcus’ Fashion Director Ken Downing. Downing, who issues Neiman’s trend report each season, was passionate about one color in particular this season: juicy, refreshing orange.

We approve of the citrus-colored shade. (It looks great with a our blue ocean backdrop.) Here are a few of our picks available at Town Center:

1. This Alice + Olivia orange lambskin leather skirt can be dressed to match your mood. No easy feat for a bold color...and fabric. Pair this number with a pale blouse for an innocent day-look, or toss on a black leather jacket (and stiletto heels) for a wild night.

2. If you’re worried orange just isn’t your color, you can still hop on this trend in subtle ways. These Reed Krakoff ballet flats have a reserved pop of color on the toe. Pair these puppies with jeans or a light blue sundress.

3. We’re sorry, did you say subtle isn’t your style? You want color and you want it loud? We have a pick for you too, simmer down sassy. These Giuseppe Zanotti booties are screaming your name. Burnt orange and covered in fringe, everyone’s attention is going straight to your feet.

4. Diane von Furstenberg kills the colorful competition with this orange and white silk dress. The nude shoe shown looks nice, but we’d be tempted to wear some sky blue flats with this ensemble.

5. Are you feeling fearless? Look at these crazy orange print pants! Rebecca Minkoff created these breezy, wide-legged pantalones. They are not everyone’s cup of tea, but we love them.

6. This mammoth necklace is a must-have for every South Florida woman. Wear this statement jewelry with a turquoise tunic while shopping Atlantic Avenue or grabbing a couple of pina coladas by the sea.

7. Things we love: Skulls, Alexander McQueen, knuckle clutches, snakeskin and the color orange. Oh? Would you look at that! This little number has all of our favorite things!

8. Here is another pop of color option. Leave your boring watches at home and slip on this Salvatore Ferragamo sparkling quartz watch. Count how many people ask you for the time.

9. These Manolo Blahnik pumps are too delicious not to own. Ripe and soft to the touch, we are confident these heels would not leave our feet for days on end.

10. We’ll end on a rich note...Rich in color! This dark orange Halston gown is stunning. Elegant, with a touch of flirty flavor, this dress has just the slightest train and a beautifully draped back.

Happy shopping!

Are You A Container Store Super Fan?

2013-05-15T13:55:13+00:00

Are you sitting on excuses to organize your messy areas? Enjoy your idle time now! The Container Store will open to the public on Saturday, June 15, at 10 a.m., in Town Center at Boca Raton.

But before the new neat addition opens, the retailer is looking to uncover its Boca Raton super fan.

One winner will receive an invitation to the store’s exclusive private preview party, dibs on being the first in line at the Saturday grand opening, and will be supplied with their very own “Super Fan” shopping cart (complete with sash, crown, box of goodies and a $250 gift card).

To enter, check out the Container Store on Facebook, or e-mail pr@containerstore.com and share why you are the biggest fan in Boca. The deadline to submit your entry is Friday, June 7. Good luck!

'All Florida' Returns With Its Best Exhibition in Years

2013-05-15T11:00:00+00:00

(Karen Tucker Kuykendall's "Pursuit")

Every year, the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s annual All Florida exhibition is intended to showcase a wide swath of Florida’s emerging artists, capturing the variety of the current artistic zeitgeist in the Sunshine State. The best All Floridas do this, but mostly, the exhibition is a reflection of the particular juror’s taste, which doesn’t always translate into a whiz-bang display of eclecticism; a show may be overly abstract, for instance, or too focused on photographic realism, or otherwise too conservative or hidebound in the juror’s selection process.

With that in mind, I’d like to propose the idea that this year’s juror, Nashville curator Mark Scala, be named permanent All Florida juror. The 62nd annual exhibition, which opened at the Boca Museum last week, showcases the edgiest and most exciting crop of work in the seven or eight years I’ve been reviewing All Florida. It is all-encompassing in its breadth, with enough abstracts, landscapes, figural paintings and photography to titillate traditionalists, while forging ahead with enough non-traditional found-object installations, jarring sculptures, provocative video work and rough-hewn outsider art to assert Florida’s stature as a vanguard state. Sprawling across three galleries and divided eloquently by themes and styles, this All Florida is a triumph – for the museum, Scala and the artists he selected.

But enough general praise. Onto the specifics: Scala saw trends in the works he chose, finding personal messages and “startling considerations of identity.” The sense of personal history and cultural identity is perhaps the greatest overriding theme in this variegated show. It manifests itself in works as direct as Alejandro Valencia’s realistic and loving painting, indebted to Vermeer, of his grandmother sewing (pictured above); and as abstract as Marina Font’s “A Sense of Home.” This selection, one of three by the Argentine émigré Font, includes approximately 50 hazy photographs framed above an actual open suitcase, suggesting the transience of her identity and the way a “home” can be remembered in fragments, not entire pictures. I was also taken with West Palm Beach artist Tom Whitten’s “Untitled (What They Want),” in which the artist found a productive use for the endless stream of bills, credit-card offers and bank statements clogging up the USPS. He turned his recent history of junk mail into a collage, the torn envelopes tacked every which way into a tapestry – a surprising, recycled paean to the letters we hate to receive.

Histories of abuse and subjugation among women seems to be a theme within the theme of personal identity. Boca Raton artist Misoo Filan received a well-earned merit prize for “Monster and Me,” a disturbing, vulnerable and deliberately drippy self-portrait of the artist sharing a sofa with a hideous monster seemingly borne of a sci-fi writer’s darkest imagination. This monster is the way Filan views her sexual abuser, and how she deals with this tragedy through the art. Plantation sculptor Judy Polstra’s “Mixed Memories” (pictured) works along the same emotional lines, depicting youthful innocence corrupted by physical abuse: A faceless sculpture is festooned with doll faces, tiny dresses and children’s toys, under which a pile of discarded belts represents beatings from authority figures (visitors to the museum are encouraged to drop their own belts onto the pile).

Boynton Beach artist Choon-Yi’s digital photographs “Frustrated 1” and “Being” are haunted explorations about the oppression of women, with shadowy female figures stifled and cocooned. But the two examples from Gabrielle Wood’s “Disrupted Pleasure” series take the cake – and the Grand Jury Prize. The videos show the artist tantalizing us with her body before subverting our expectations in moves that are equally provocative, hilarious and extraordinarily crafted.

You’ll hear more from Wood here on Bocamag.com, as my coverage of All Florida will continue. Each week until the end of the exhibition’s run, I will interview a different All Florida artist, so check back early and often.

The 62^nd Annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition runs through July 14 at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Admission is $5 to $8. Call 561/392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.

The Fit Life

2013-05-15T09:52:48+00:00

Get fit for a good cause? Sounds like a win-win.

Boca Raton is along the route for the Dolphins Cycling Challenge, a tri-county, two-day cycling event to raise money for the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Dolphins Cycling Challenge, taking place November 2 and 3, 2013, is a collaboration between the Miami Dolphins football franchise and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. This is the fourth year of the challenge. The local trio, Michelle Bazargan, Chelsea Midlarsky and Gina Jenkins, who promoted the recent Delray Twilight Festival bike racing event, has joined forces with Dolphins Cycling Challenge’s Michael Mandich and Nick Capo to support the organization and its cause.

Bazargan says the Dolphins Cycling Challenge is just the kind of event she, Midlarsky and Jenkins plan to promote in southern Palm Beach County and beyond.

"The mission of the organization we are building is to inspire and motivate people to get moving, get active and get connected. We connect the community and encourage them to set goals, such as riding this amazing event,” says Delray Beach businesswoman and athlete Michelle Bazargan.

As far as charities go, the Dolphins Cycling Challenge does have a track record. In 2012, the cycling event raised $2,200,000 for the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Dolphins Cycling Challenge is for people who are new to the sport, as well as experienced cyclists. There are lots of fundraising opportunities, including 30-mile and 60-mile rides and the big one: two-day, 170-mile ride. Cyclists can participate in rides that start and end in Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties, or go for longer stretches through counties. Rides begin in Miami-Dade at Sun Life Stadium, in Broward at Huizenga Plaza and in Palm Beach at CityPlace.

Along each route, water stops will be located about every 15 to 20 miles, with food, beverages, entertainment, restroom facilities, medical treatment and mechanical assistance available for riders.

Following the Dolphins Cycling Challenge weekend, cyclists will be honored by the Miami Dolphins on at a home game (to be announced). The check representing 100 percent of all rider-raised funds will be presented to Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in a pregame on-field ceremony on that day, according to the event’s website at www.rideDCC.com.

One thing to keep in mind, participating in this fundraising event isn’t cheap. It’s $150 to register and there are fundraising requirements, depending on the distance you decide to ride. For more about that, go to the “ride,” then “registration” tabs at www.rideDCC.com.

Those who register will receive an official jersey, in-ride and post-ride food and beverages, medical supplies and assistance, as well as two tickets to the Miami Dolphins DCC celebratory game.

According to Bazargan, she will be announcing local training programs for cyclists who want to prepare for this event in a few weeks. For more information email hello@delraybeachtwilight.com or call 561-869-4916.

About Lisette:

Lisette Hilton, president of Words Come Alive, has had the luxury of reporting on health, fitness and other hot topics for more than 23 years. The long-time Boca Raton resident, University of Florida graduate and fitness buff writes for local, regional and national publications and websites. Find out more on www.wordscomealive.com.

3rd & 3rd Debuts in Delray

2013-05-14T06:00:00+00:00

The restaurant-eating spot at the corner of Northeast Third Street and Northeast Third Avenue in Delray has a new tenant, and this one may have a better chance of sticking around for awhile, even if it is flying pretty far under the local foodie radar.

Appropriately enough, the place is called 3^rd & 3^rd (301 NE Third Ave., 561/303-1939), the brainchild of chef and New Jersey native John Paul Kline, who also runs a catering company called John Paul Custom Cuisine. It would be a good thing to memorize the address, because it’s in a somewhat obscure location with no sign, though if you remember predecessors like Blacktip Reef, Ay Caramba, Monterey Grill, the Annex and Elwood’s Dixie Barbecue you should find it with no problem.

Anyway, 3^rd & 3^rd’s under-the-radarness—and its cozy, artzy décor—is part of the restaurant’s low-key, off the eatin’ path charm. Like most casual restaurants nowadays, it’s got a roster of craft beers, both on tap and in the bottle, as well as a short list of mixological cocktails, and a handful of New and Old World wines.

On the food end of the equation are dishes like duck confit with blood orange gastrique, sea scallops with thyme butter and corn succotash, shrimp and chorizo skewers with sweet chili glaze, and smoked pork sandwich so if you’re having trouble finding the place, just follow your nose.

The Week Ahead: May 14 to 20

2013-05-13T18:21:03+00:00

Wednesday

“Bikes, Check ‘em Out!” at (eventually) Respectable Street, 518 N. Clematis St., West Palm Beach; 7:15 p.m.; free; 561/832-9999 or www.sub-culture.org/respectable-street

May is International Bike Month, a great time to celebrate a form of transportation that is carbon footprint-reducing as well great exercise. Honor the month locally by attending this ride with friends and bicycling brethren, starting from a parking lot at the northeast corner of M Street and Second Avenue North and traveling to Respectable Street, South Florida’s oldest live music concert venue, for live art-making from more than 17 local artists. Three DJs will spin both inside and on the graffitied back patio, and drink specials include $2 Yuenglings and $3 “Spoke Shots,” whatever those are.

Thursday

Screening of “The Rising Tide” at Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center, 1770 Monroe St., Hollywood; 7 p.m.; $5 or free for members; 954/921-3274 or artandculturecenter.org

Nova Southeastern University film professor – and NYU graduate – Robert Adanto has found his niche as a documentary filmmaker by exploring art cultures in far-flung places like China and Iran, discovering threads of artistic brilliance in nations that would seem to suppress creativity. His most recent film “Pearls on the Ocean Floor,” about female artists in Iran, played last year’s Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, but tonight provides a rare opportunity to view his first feature, 2008’s “The Rising Tide.” The film explores photographers and video artists such as Wang Qingsong, Cao Fei and Xu Zhen, contextualizing their work in an increasingly globalized China torn between Communism and capitalism.

Thursday to Sunday

“Still Jewish After All These Years: A Life in the Theatre” at Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton; 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; $25; 561/347-3948 or www.brtg.org

Judging by local actor Avi Hoffman’s resume as of late, you’d think he was just an antisocial guy: For two shows in a row now, he hasn’t shared a stage with anybody. Fresh off his last solo show, the exceptional “An Iliad” at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, Hoffman is back with another one-man exercise in Boca Raton with “Still Jewish,” the third in his series of autobiographical plays about his life in the theater. The show, which runs about 90 minutes without an intermission, is a truncated version of a production that ran some five years in Boynton Beach. Like its predecessors – “Too Jewish?” and “Too, Jewish, Too,” which ran off-Broadway – “Still Jewish” will feature songs inspired by vaudeville and Catskills comedy. See it here before Hoffman brings it to New York in the fall.

Miami International Piano Festival at Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach; performances at 7:45 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 3 and 7:45 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; $15 to $50; 305/674-1040 or www.colonytheatremiamibeach.com

Classical music lovers will be treated to an auditory feast this week, as six pianists ranging from legends to emerging talents will perform on Miami Beach. The fest starts Thursday with Nikolay Khozyainov who, at 21, is the youngest finalist ever in the International Chopin Piano Competition; and continues Friday with Germany’s award-winning Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy, a professor of music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. Saturday’s program will feature an afternoon showcase of “Prodigies and Masters of Tomorrow” and an evening performance by 25-year-old virtuoso Joseph Moog. The festival concludes Sunday with Spanish composer Jorge Luis Prats (pictured) in the afternoon and a multimedia extravaganza from pianist Misha Dacic and painter Vladimir Markovic at night.

Friday

Sick Puppies comedy troupe at Showtime Performing Arts Theater, 503 S.E. Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton; 9:30 p.m.; 561/394-2626 or sickpuppiescomedy.wordpress.com

Under the radar and with gradual patience, the improv comedy troupe Sick Puppies has been garnering the reputation as one of Boca Raton’s hottest monthly gatherings in town. One Friday each month, the group takes over the Showtime theater in Royal Palm Place for an evening of inspired improvisational humor dictated entirely by audience suggestion, but framed around a theme. This weekend’s theme is “Prom.” The cast will arrive dressed in prom-appropriate attire and, to a soundtrack of nostalgic prom chestnuts, short-form skits will take place, set before, during and after a fictional prom, with the troupe riffing from crowd suggestions. The final hour of the show will involve a couple from the audience appearing onstage to share details of the lives, which the troupe will then create a comedy piece around. Get your tickets now – they always sell out.

Saturday

Old School Beerfest at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 6 to 10 p.m.; $30 to $70; 561/243-7922 or delraycenterforthearts.org

Not many events advertise their festivities with invitations like “Winos welcome!,” but the Old School Beerfest is not like most events, or even like most beer festivals. Wine aficionados can enjoy a sampling area courtesy of Gnarly Head wines, while the beer guzzlers out there can enjoy more than 50 craft brews, ciders and international brews, including Opus Ales, Sweetwater 420, Magners Irish Cider, Thomas Creek and Big Bear Brewing. Gourmet food trucks will proffer the eats, and funk/reggae act the People Upstairs and cover band Preservation will provide live music. Proceeds from this festival will support the Center for the Arts’ popular Free Friday Concerts at the Pavilion series.

Opening night of “Out to Sea” at Ink & Pistons, 2716 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach; 7 to 11 p.m.; free; 561/832-4655 or www.inkandpistons.com

The ocean, and its varied nautical and maritime visitors, will be the subject of this group art show running through June 25 at Ink & Pistons’ 1,000-square-foot Slushbox Art Gallery. Don’t expect many of these pieces to have the stately elegance of a Winslow Homer or the piscatorial affections of a Guy Harvey. Ink & Pistons is a tattoo shop, after all, and its art exhibitions focus on lowbrow and alternative artists. More than 30 artists will participate in this show, whose slogan, which may indicate some of its directions, is “Drifting. Sinking. Shipwrecked. Message in a Bottle.”

Opening night of “Cock” at GableStage, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables; 8 p.m.; $50; 305/445-1119 or www.gablestage.org

If previous GableStage productions like “Smut,” “Fat Pig” and “The Motherf**ker With the Hat” are any indication, this is not a theater that shies away from controversially titled plays, to say nothing of controversial content. Compared to some of these, its latest play “Cock” might be somewhat gentler to the eyes and ears of audiences, because its plot – a man in a committed gay relationship falls for a woman, complicating the situation for all three lovers – is played out entirely by suggestion. There is no sex or nudity; the stage directions require that there is not supposed to be a set, props or miming, either. It’s pure theatrical minimalism. Julie Davis, Ryan Didato and Nicholas Richberg star under Joseph Adler’s direction; the play runs through June 16, and admission prices vary.

Your Pie Coming to Lighthouse Point

2013-05-13T06:00:00+00:00

From salads to burritos to burgers, DIY dining is hotter than South Florida in mid-July. And now folks in Lighthouse Point and points beyond can get a taste of DIY pizza dining with the debut this week of Your Pie (3650 N. Federal Hwy., 954/532-1531), a have-it-your-way pizzeria from professional photographer Kara Seelye and fiancé Jason Harris.

The third of what will soon be five Florida locations of the Georgia-based chainlet, Your Pie channels the Chipotle “fast casual” model with more upscale food, décor and service, with a wide array of choices for customers to create their own personal pizzas. The couple originally planned for a Boca Raton location, Seelye said, but when a suitable site couldn’t be found, made the move to Lighthouse Point.

The restaurant itself will seat 58 indoors and another dozen or so outdoors, with a subdued maroon and gold color scheme and cherrywood accents. A half-dozen TVs tuned to various sporting events are scattered around the dining room; weekends will see live music.

For those who have a hard time making up their minds or just want to leave the pizza-creating business to others, the menu offers several signature pies—from the traditional tomato sauce, sausage and veggies to Thai, BBQ chicken and pesto, tofu and veggie. More hands-on types can choose from white, whole wheat and gluten-free doughs, eight different sauces and cheeses, all manner of veggies and a roster of proteins from anchovies and bacon to meatballs and tofu. The 10-inch individual pizzas bake in a few minutes and, unlike some fast casual eateries, will be delivered to your table.

Continuing the DIY theme, the Lighthouse Point pizzeria will also be one of the few local eateries to have a Coke Freestyle machine, a computerized marvel that allows customers to punch in more than 100 different soft drink choices.

Concert review: Imagine Dragons

2013-05-13T01:18:57+00:00

The greatest artists in rock history have spread their seeds in more ways than one. In the last five decades, consider all the musical offspring (we’re talking bands, not actual progeny) spawned by such luminaries as the Beatles, Stones, Dylan and Zeppelin.

In recent years, it appears that Coldplay has claimed its own branch of rock’s genealogy tree—and it continues to bear fruit, inspiring the likes of Snow Patrol, The Fray and, as evidenced by Friday night’s concert at Sunset Cove Amphitheater, Imagine Dragons.

It’s far too early to know whether the Las Vegas-based band—lead singer Dan Reynolds, bassist Ben McKee, guitarist Wayne Sermon and drummer Dan Platzman—will stick around long enough to take root and bear some fruit of its own. However, in an era where getting anyone to notice you is half the rock battle, the Dragons are having a moment for which most bands these days would give their Les Paul whammy bar.

In early 2012, the Dragons released an EP, “Continued Silence,” followed seven months later by their first full studio album, “Night Visions,” on Interscope Records. The album would top the alternative and rock charts at Billboard, which listed the band as one of last year’s “Brightest New Stars.”

Along the way, the Dragons would score with two singles—“It’s Time” and “Radioactive”—that were propelled by creative videos that, to date, have drawn more than 55.4 million views combined (and counting) on YouTube. (It also didn’t hurt that “It’s Time” reached prime-time audiences with a rendition on “Glee.”)

Reynolds told the crowd of about 4,000 in west Boca that, after kicking around for the past four years, “it was surreal [for the band] to see so many people” at Friday’s show.

“We weren’t even sure [South Florida] knew who we were,” Reynolds quipped.

Of course, unless you’re the Sex Pistols, one studio album does not make a career. If the Dragons plan on sticking around for the long haul, they’d be wise to play to their strengths—and pace their shows accordingly.

The Coldplay influence, most evident during the opening three songs at Sunset Cove (which, by the way, is a terrific place to see an intimate outdoor show), is Imagine Dragons’ wheelhouse. “Round and Round,” “Amsterdam,” and “Tiptoe” are the kind of momentum-building, anthem-esque numbers that showcase Reynolds—who has a little of The Cure’s Robert Smith in his vocals—and the band at their best. Sermon had his own moments on the axe, but you get the feeling that the Dragons have yet to really turn him loose, musically. It would have been nice to see more of Sermon and less of the band’s Taiko drum playing, which, for Boca/Delray fans, must have seemed straight out of the Morikami’s annual Hatsume Fair.

Curiously, after the crowd-pleasing “Radioactive,” the show began to lose steam down the stretch. The closing-set version of “It’s Time,” which should have been the pre-encore exclamation point, felt more like bad karaoke, with Reynolds mailing it in instead of taking the audience for a ride. If the Dragons already are tired of playing “It’s Time,” how are they going to feel five years and 300 performances from now?

It takes stamina, among other things, to perform at the highest levels of rock. Only time will tell if the Dragons have what it takes to last.

Set List
Round and Round
Amsterdam
Tiptoe
Hear Me
Cha-Ching (Till We Grow Older)
Rocks
Radioactive
Thirty Lives
Bleeding Out
Demons
Stand By Me
Hang Me Up to Dry
Underdog
On Top of the World
It’s Time

Encore
Nothing Left to Say

Not Just A Diva For A Day

2013-05-10T20:01:56+00:00

Not too long too in a cheesy keepsake shop, we saw a magnet that said, “If mamma’s not happy, nobody is happy.” And something about the tchotchke just struck a chord. Although Mother’s Day is an all American holiday that was initiated by Anna Jarvis had very poignant origins before it became as commercial as it is over the years. Hallmark dubs it as the third most popular card holiday and consumer spending spiked at a whopping $18 billion and up last year for the holiday. It also has roots in Greek and Roman antiquity.

We’ve got a different take on this though. Although it’s nice to have a day set aside to do this, why not celebrate regular rituals with your mother throughout the year? Why? Because she’s one woman whose seen you at your best and worst. So as much as we love retail therapy, we also believe in the small things that add up to being big memories. Sometimes you have to make things happen instead of letting them take their course. Here are four ideas to shakeup the routine with boss lady (not just on Mother’s Day):

1. More spa days: Sounds like a cliché, but the relaxation makes up for it. Nothing like a girl’s day out to relax, talk your heart out and put a new lease on your relationship. Boca has quite a few serene spots: Maui, Seagate, Bliss and more.

2. Get a makeover: Every mom has an inner diva, keep that fun diva in business, get a makeover together. A crazy hairdo, a wardrobe refresher or something crazier. Mix it up. Go to independent boutiques like Alene Too or an open market like Downtown Open Market to shop unique finds together. Get a similar special pair of shoes.

3. Wine tasting: Try a wine festival, Boca Bacchanal just went by or places like The Rustic Cellar or The Naked Grape (that’s in Wilton Manors).

4. Plan a trip or take class: With the Groupons and Living Socials of the world, this has become easier than ever. Find a unique destination and do this at least once a year. A short trip that will take her mind off the daily drudgery. Learn something new together; who knows it might be a potential business idea—an Etsy store perhaps?

Your mom definitely deserves more than being a calendar reminder or phone call you have to make. Break a pattern here. It will make the gift you’re buying her this Mother’s Day even more special.

About Jo:

Jyoti “Jo” Peswani is a fashion maven. As a Chanel-obsessed, published fashion and lifestyle journalist, she definitely has a nose for everyday style. She's an award-winning copy and strategy girl and runs her own marketing and writing consultancy, The Idea Is {In}. She’s a strong advocate of living (and dressing) creatively and takes great pleasure in denying the existence of “the box.”

Movie Reviews: "The Great Gatsby," "In the House"

2013-05-10T13:53:26+00:00

“The Great Gatsby” has been a thorn in the craw of filmmakers dating back to the silent era. It has been filmed four times prior to this new version, and none of them have been considered the definitive adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel. Even Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote the 1974 version with Robert Redford, couldn’t make it work.

Rather than accept the fact that the lyrical beauty of Fitzgerald’s prose just doesn’t lend itself to cinematic interpretation, Baz Luhrmann has given us his own “Gatsby,” an absurdly expensive $127 million 3D blockbuster opening today that, if my prediction is true, will go down as one of the most extravagant bombs in movie history.

As a framing device, co-screenwriters Luhrmann and Craig Pearce selected the silly conceit of Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) penning his Gatsby narrative from the confines of a sanitarium. Though, as the book’s most levelheaded character, the film never implies that he would grow disturbed enough to belong in one. The story then plays out roughly like Fitzgerald’s, only on steroids and with lots of CGI manipulation: Nick meets Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) at one of the man’s lavish soirees, discovers Gatsby’s intentions to court Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), an ex-flame now married to the philandering brute Tom (Joel Edgerton), and helps the great man achieve his goal. Things get messy, lives change, idealism shatters, people die.

Luhrmann, who directed such abrasive ADD spectacles as “Moulin Rouge” and “Australia,” has filmed a “Gatsby” fit for his shallow vision, turning Fitzgerald’s masterwork into a bombastic soap opera: a talky, glittery trinket lacquered in both chic nostalgia and shrill modernism.

He floods the soundtrack with modern hip-hop and indie music blasting incongruently from the Jazz Age parties’ sound systems, and turns Fitzgerald’s New York into a gleaming graphic-novel megalopolis, with characters who themselves quickly begin to resemble animated cartoons. Alongside such anachronisms, the writer-director painstakingly selected costumes that scream “Twenties!” or, moreover, our idea of what high society types looked like in the ‘20s, and he lifts voice-over narration directly from the source material, whose eloquence chafes against the garish imagery. Torn between homage and reinvention, the film isn’t even as ballsy as Luhrmann’s own “Romeo and Juliet,” which at least had enough consistency of vision to plant the story in a definitive postmodern light.

The usage of 3D is never more than superficial, but superficiality seems to be the be-all and end-all of Luhrmann’s dubious talents. This “Gatsby” doesn’t view vulgar excesses of wealth askance but celebrates them – nay, glorifies them, as gleaming totems to the almighty dollar. Chief characters are introduced by their sparkling rings, well before we get a glimpse of their faces. On-screen deaths are not brutal and shocking; they are exorbitant pieces of crass performance art. There is no soul in the movie, no discernable humanity, and no reason to care about these people: There is only money, privilege and the surfaces of things. This is a movie for the Donald Trumps and Mitt Romneys of the world, the cinematic equivalent of a dressage pony. It’s tonally ugly and tone-deaf, and it couldn’t be less amenable to the times most of us are living in.

********

Watching Francois Ozon’s new film “In the House,” I thought of an old lyric from the Scottish band Belle & Sebastian: “I could kill you, sure, but I could only make you cry with these words.” Contrary to the old saying – “sticks and stones,” and all that – words can definitely hurt people. “In the House” is about Claude (Ernst Umhauer), a precocious high-school sophomore from a broken home who ingratiates himself into the middle-class residence of a vulnerable classmate, simply because it’ll give him fodder to write about for his literature class. He visits the friend under the guise of math tutelage, and he returns to class with acrid, brutal but arguably accurate prose about the boy and his parents, provincial folk struggling with money problems with middle-class malaise.

His teacher, Germain (Fabrice Luchini), sees unusual promise in the boy and helps to foster his talent – staying after class to critique his stories, offering him books from his private library – even as Claude’s narratives grow increasingly uncomfortable. Germain becomes something of an addict for Claude’s words; at one point, he even risks his job, to say nothing of his moral code, to keep the story going.

For Claude, it grows increasingly unclear if the stories we see playing out in front us in his friend’s house – aided by his ever-present voice-over narration – are the truth or his fiction, and that’s part of what makes “In the House” such a keen, cerebral thriller. But more than that, it’s a film about the slippery ethical border between observation and voyeurism – between verite and exploitation. Resembling a younger Michael Cera, Umhauer brilliantly plays a character that is, like Baz Luhrmann’s filmography, seemingly without a soul. There is no empathy in his eyes, only pure calculation. It’s unnerving to watch him prowl the hallways of a family of veritable strangers like a ghost, judging their every move.

At the same time, I couldn’t help relating to Luchini’s teacher, whose life becomes untethered the more he morphs from Claude’s mentor to a sucker in one of his stories. In Germain’s position, we like to think we’d stop the boy when his words become genuinely damaging, or when it puts our own comfort and career in peril. But anyone who’s become hooked on a story knows that sometimes you just want another line, no matter what it takes.

“In the House” opens today at Living Room Theaters at FAU, Regal Shadowood 16, Regal Delray Beach 18, Movies of Lake Worth, Lake Worth Playhouse, The Classic Gateway Theatre in Fort Lauderdale, and the Coral Gables Art Cinema.

James Beard Winners Revealed

2013-05-10T06:00:00+00:00

Well, the 2013 James Beard Award winners were announced this week and, with only one exception, South Florida got skunked.

Despite making it to the finals in the Best Chef South and Outstanding Pastry Chef categories, Jeff McInnis of Yardbird in South Beach and Hedy Goldsmith of Miami’s Michael’s Genuine group didn’t get top honors. Only Venezuelan architect Alejandro Barrios-Carrero got the nod for his stunning rooftop design of Juvia in Miami Beach.

We are getting closer, though. Along with McInnis, our own Clay Conley (Buccan in Palm Beach) and Jose Mendin of Pubbelly in Miami made the semifinals of Best Chef South, and Giorgio Rpaicavoli of Eating House in Coral Gables earned a semifinal spot in the Rising Star Chef of the Year category.

As they say in baseball, wait ‘til next year. . .

The Naked Truth, Vol. 58

2013-05-09T09:45:22+00:00

Angela, my mother tells me that I "mother" my boyfriends. She's been saying it for years (and not always kindly) but I can't really figure out what she means or why it's a negative. I'm a kind, considerate lover. I don't want to be their mom! --Bothered

Dear Bothered,

I’d tell your Mom to mind her own business. I’ve never heard a man complain about being well cared for. One of the commonly cited reasons men give for cheating is that they felt neglected at home. Granted that doesn’t mean you are affair-proofing your relationship if you treat him like a king. There’s plenty guys that will cheat regardless, but you’re certainly going further to keep him satisfied if you are as kind and considerate as you say you are.

Let’s get back to Mom for a second. We’ve established she should stay out of your love life, but perhaps she’s seeing something in your behavior that you are ignoring. There’s a big difference between taking care of your man, and smothering him like he’s a child. Look at your patterns. Are you accommodating or bossy? Do you scold him and constantly need to know his whereabouts or do you pick up his dry cleaning and surprise him with his favorite meal? Reflect on your past relationships. Mom may be onto something.

Men want to be treated well, women have an innate sense to nurture. But men don’t want to sleep with their mothers. Adore him but do it in a manner that reflects the grown man he is.

Angela, love your advice! Mother's Day is coming up and I want to get my mom a man! No, not like a hired dancer, but my father passed away a few years ago and I'd love to see her start dating again. I joke that I'm going to make her a profile on Match.com, but she waves the idea off. She is not old and is beautiful and deserves to be taken care of by someone new. I just think she could love again (or at least have a great time) with someone else. Please tell me what to do! --The Apple

Dear Apple,

Thank you for reading. Now since you do enjoy my advice, I’m hoping you’ll take it to heart when it comes to your Mother. Give Mom a break from the dating talk. I know you want to see her start dating, but she may not be ready yet. Everyone mourns and heals on their own time table. I’m hoping that Mom has an active and full life, and that may be enough for her right now. Or, she could be keeping company with someone she enjoys and just doesn’t want to share that with you yet. Either way, it’s Mom’s life and you have to step back and let her live it on her terms. You’ve been kind enough to offer your assistance. When it’s time, she will come to you.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Concert Review: The Joy Formidable at Culture Room

2013-05-08T14:08:06+00:00

(Photos by Yafi Yair)

To a capacity throng of admiring fans, the Welsh trio Joy Formidable played a pulverizing set last night at Fort Lauderdale’s Culture Room. Slaying guitar, thunderous bass and booming percussion – including a gong, for Pete’s sake – characterized the group’s first South Florida appearance. The show oozed bombast, feeling better suited to a vast, airy arena than an intimate club. It’s a sound that could rock stadiums, and probably will before you know it.

Ritzy Bryan, the band’s charismatic lead singer and guitarist, beamed an ear-to-ear smile as she took the stage in a glittery purple dress and flowing choker, immediately reflecting high energy and exuberance at the thought of playing her songs to a new audience. Opening number “Cholla” drowned in an Olympic-sized pool of bass, but the sound team fixed it by the end of the song, and everything sounded pretty flawless to my ears from that point on. The band tore through another dozen tracks from its debut LP “The Big Roar” and its recent, extraordinary follow-up “Wolf’s Law” – all in front of an inventive, luminous projection screen shaped like a wolf’s head at the back of the stage. Images from Joy Formidable videos, along with animation, old movie montages and political symbolism, accompanied certain tracks.

I enjoyed the surprises here and there – the deviations from the album tracks, like the elegant piano bridge in “Tendons,” a sparse and pretty transition where the original swelled with an orchestral din. Mostly, the changes yielded longer, louder, and more playful riffs on roof-shakers like “Maw Maw Song,” with its pummeling, head-banging squall, and “The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie,” which closed the set list with a raucous thrill.

The band returned for “Wolf’s Law” and “Whirring,” turning the latter hit into an epileptic’s nightmare of popping lights and a dissonant, democratic audio collapse, with Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd passing their instruments into the audience, chafing them against their amplifiers and other instruments, and making a whole bunch of glorious chaos with which to send people off.

In the end, though, my favorite moment of the show – and I’m sure I’m not alone here – was the performance of “Silent Treatment,” the band’s lone acoustic confessional, with Dafydd providing the intricate guitar work and Bryan pouring her heart out with the clearest vocal melodies of the night. I never wanted the moment to end, and it’s proof that there’s a great folk act in this band somewhere, buried under the generous heaps of noise.

Set list:

Cholla

Austere

This Ladder is Ours

The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade

Little Blimp

Cradle

Tendons

Silent Treatment

Maw Maw Song

I Don’t Want to See You Like This

The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie

Encore:

Wolf’s Law

Whirring

The Green Goddess, Vol. 8

2013-05-08T09:39:03+00:00

For all of the health benefits associated with authentic Asian cuisine, it's important to understand that Americanized versions of these same dishes, depending on the restaurant, may not pack the same rewards. Here are a few words to the wise for those craving Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese or other Far East-inspired dishes.

SUSHI

If you want to eat clean, steer clear of anything with tempura or mayo in the sushi rolls. Those words simply translate to high calories and high fat. I like to order an avocado and cucumber roll in brown rice and the Vegi-Vegi Roll at Lemongrass in Royal Palm Place. It's one of the lightest meals on the menu; this all-vegetable roll is wrapped in potassium-rich cucumber.

Z-TIP: If you're eating raw fish, make sure to dip it into soy sauce and have a generous amount of wasabi with it. Those two ingredients can help kill bacteria and parasites.

THAI

One of my top Green Goddess-approved meals is papaya salad. Papaya is knows for its high concentration of digestive enzymes that can help digest fats and aid with assimilation and weight loss. Try it at the Chow Thai on Sandalfood Plaza Drive. My second favorite healthy Thai dish is vegetable curry. I prefer to skip the tofu, unless it is organic, and load the dish up with seasonal vegetables. Besides the delicious flavor, curry dishes are rich in inflammation-fighting turmeric that has even been shown to help reverse Alzheimer’s disease.

Z-TIP: If you choose to go with the curry, opt for waist-trimming steamed brown rice which, unlike white rice, has extra fiber.

CHINESE

Chinese food has been getting a bad rep due to the high-calorie dishes such as General Tso’s chicken or pork fried rice. Despite this not-so-healthy fare, you can find plenty of dishes that are low in calories and high in taste. One of my favorite restaurants for healthy Chinese food is the famous P.F. Chang's on Glades Road; try the low-calorie Buddha Feast or the tasty steamed vegetarian dumplings. I love the extensive nutritional chart on the menu, which allows diners to check what each dish offers. Another bonus is that they have a separate gluten-free menu, so those avoiding wheat, barley or rye can rest assured they will be eating clean!

About Alina Z.

Alina Z., aka “The Green Goddess,” is a certified holistic health coach, detox specialist and raw-food chef (she conducts occasional classes at Whole Foods in Boca). Prior to moving to Florida, Alina hosted her own TV show in Maryland—“Entertaining A to Z”—for people who didn’t have time to cook but wanted to eat healthy. Catch one of her web episodes at eHow.com, visit Alina’s website at alinazhealthcoach.com, or follow her on Facebook (facebook.com/fabulousfoodAZ) or Twitter (@FabulousFood). The Green Goddess blog runs every other Wednesday at bocamag.com.

The Fit Life

2013-05-07T19:49:55+00:00

May is Skin Cancer Awareness month. Water’s Edge Dermatology, which has a few dermatology clinics in Palm Beach and Broward counties, is offering free skin cancer screenings throughout this month.

Free skin cancer screenings are by appointment and take place at the following Water's Edge clinics: Lighthouse Point and Delray Beach on May 20.

“As the old saying goes, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’” says dermatologist and Mohs skin cancer surgeon Justin Platzer. “Say no to tanning beds and always wear sunscreen. And, if you live in sunny Florida, it is critical to have regular skin cancer screenings—and there’s no better time than this month, while we’re offering screenings for free.”

Two great skin cancer prevention strategies are to get an annual skin checkup at a dermatologist's office, and exam your own body, regularly, for changes in moles and freckles. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, these are among the warning signs to look for when examining your body. See your dermatologist if you notice any of these changes.

A skin growth that increases in size and appears pearly, translucent, tan, brown, black, or multicolored
A mole, birthmark, beauty mark, or any brown spot that: changes color; increases in size or thickness; changes in texture; is irregular in outline; or is bigger than the size of a pencil eraser
A spot or sore that continues to itch, hurt, crust, scab, erode, or bleed
An open sore that does not heal within three weeks

Water’s Edge Dermatology offers these tips for having safe fun in the sun:

Generously and regularly apply water-resistant sunscreen that has a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or more. Make sure the sunscreen is labeled as “broad-spectrum,” indicating it protects against ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. Reapply sunscreen every two hours and after swimming or sweating—and use it year-round.
Use extra caution when taking sun-sensitizing medications or are near water, snow and sand. Some over-the-counter medications, such as ibuprofen, and prescription drugs, such as antibiotics, can make your skin more sensitive to sunlight. Water, snow and sand can reflect and/or intensify sun rays, making it easier to burn.
Wear protective clothing, including long-sleeved shirts and pants, a wide-brimmed hat that provides more coverage than a baseball hat and UVA/UVB protective sunglasses.
Seek shade during the middle of the day, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the sun’s rays are strongest, and try to schedule outdoor activities for other times of the day—even when it is cloudy.
Say no to tanning beds. Ultraviolet light from tanning beds can cause skin cancer. New self-tanning lotions and spray booths provide a tan without the risk of cancer.

The Delray Beach office of Waters Edge Dermatology is at: 4600 Linton Blvd., Suite 340, Delray Beach, 33445. For more information, call 561-921-2221. The Lighthouse Point Office is at: 2020 E. Sample Road (NE 36th Street), Lighthouse Point, 33064. For more information, call 954-960-8880.

About Lisette:

Mother's Day Dining

2013-05-07T06:00:00+00:00

You never call, you never write, so the least you can do is take Mom out for a nice meal on her special day. And if you have to ask, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12. These six local restaurants remembered, even if you didn’t.

At Brio Tuscan Grilles in Boca (5050 Town Center Circle, 561/392-3777), CityPlace (550 Rosemary Ave., 561/835-1511) and Palm Beach Gardens (3101 PGA Blvd., 561/622-0491), beginning at 10 a.m. they’ll be offering a special Mother’s Day brunch, as well as lunch and dinner. On the brunch menu are dishes like Eggs Benedictano (pictured), berries and cream French toast, and open-faced chicken and avocado omelet, all served a la carte.

Max’s Grille (404 Plaza Real, 561/368-0080) in Mizner Park will be dishing up an a la carte Mom’s Day brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. On the menu will be blueberry-lemon blintzes, softshell crab BLT, roasted vegetable quiche and triple-layer carrot cake. Dinner specials served from 5 to 10 p.m. include jumbo shrimp cocktail, Florida peach and prosciutto salad, lobster shepherd’s pie and slow-roasted prime rib.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m., Boca’s Casa D’Angelo (171 E. Palmetto Park Blvd., 561/996-1234) will be doing Mother’s Day Italian-style, with a roster of a la carte specials that should make Mom happy. Look for traditional osso buco and fire-grilled filet mignon, wild king salmon and roasted branzio. And for dessert, how about some chocolate profiteroles?

It’s a Mother’s Day Jazz Brunch with the Deborah Paiva Jazz Duo at Pavilion Grille (301 Yamato Rd., 561/912-0000) in Boca, where from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. they’ll be serving a prix fixe meal for $42.95 for adults and $19.95 for kid ages five to 12. Mom can choose from among several stations—omelet, breakfast, carving, Italian and Asian—not to mention salad and dessert displays and a “Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundae” bar. Unlimited mimosas and Bloody Mary’s for $5 too.

There’s an a la carte brunch starting at 11:30 a.m. at City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill (700 S. Rosemary Ave., 561/366-0071) in West Palm Beach. Among the offerings: quiche Lorraine with applewood-smoked bacon and aged cheddar, poached organic eggs with jumbo lump blue crab and Old Bay hollandaise, and free unlimited mimosas for all thirsty Moms. Oh, and kids under 10 can eat for free off the kiddie menu. Specials like pan-seared scallops with sweet corn puree and Kurabuta pancetta will be dished up at dinner.

West Palm’s Backyard Bar (213 S. Rosemary, 561/339-2444) is doing a Mom’s Day brunch buffet. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the charmingly tropical eatery in the Palm Beach Hibiscus House will serve an array of brunchables for $28.95 for adults (plus a free mimosa) and $15.95 for kids 12 and under. Look for fruit salad with roasted almonds, pan-fried salmon with red curry sauce, pork loin with pecan-rosemary crust, a variety of cheeses and cold cuts, plus breads, croissants, muffins and desserts.

The Week Ahead: May 7 to 13

2013-05-06T18:21:18+00:00

Tuesday

Opening night of “War Horse” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m.; $39.50 to $119.50; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

Two years after opening on Broadway, the play that critics have dubbed “the theatrical event of the decade” premieres in South Florida as the jewel in Broadway Across America’s crown. Following a young man’s pursuit of his beloved equine after it is requisitioned during World War 1, the story of “War Horse” is a powerful one—as evidenced by a reading of Michael Morpurgo’s award-winning 1982 children’s book or a viewing of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated 2011 film. The stage version achieves the impossible—it conveys the authenticity, brutality, sensitivity and inspiration of the source material on a bare stage, with puppets for horses. “War Horse” has become the highest grossing production in history in London’s West End, drawing Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to the theater for the first time in four years. The show runs through May 19.

The Joy Formidable at Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale; 7:30 p.m.; $15; 954/564-1074 or www.ticketmaster.com

A basic rock ‘n’ roll trio with guitar, bass and drums: It seems almost quaint in 2013, as pop and indie music alike have become slavishly reliant on electronic beats and AutoTune. The Welsh band Joy Formidable was a breath of fresh, simple air when it emerged in 2008 with a scintillating, expansive indie-pop track called “Whirring,” which became the centerpiece of a remarkably potent debut album, “The Big Roar,” a few years later. But the group outdid itself this year with its new LP “Wolf’s Law,” an instant classic that confronts, soothes and provokes as it runs sonic gamuts from plaintive acoustic melodies to Black Sabbath-like metal riffs, punk-rock energy and indie dream-pop. Expect to hear the most thrilling tracks from both of Joy Formidable’s full-length albums at tonight’s concert. Look for a review of this show on Wednesday here at bocamag.com.

Wednesday

Opening day of 62^nd Annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; 561/392-2500 or www.bocamuseum.org

This summer, as always, our own Boca Raton Museum of Art will be Ground Zero for Florida’s art scene, with the best works from artists spanning the state’s 65,000 square miles exhibiting their work in this juried art competition. The result is intended to reflect today’s state of the art – as well as the art of the state – by spotlighting emerging, under-recognized and mid-career Florida artists working in mediums as diverse as paintings, graphics, drawings, sculptures, installations, photographs, computer-generated images and videos. This year’s juror, Mark Scala, who works as chief curator for Nashville’s Frist Center for Visual Arts, selected 149 works from 122 artists – culled from more than 550 artist submissions.

Friday

Imagine Dragons at Sunset Cove Amphitheater, 12551 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $37.50; 561/488-8069 or www.ticketmaster.com

Thanks to a lack of airplay, music videos don’t have the opportunity to move thousands of records, as they once did, and a lot of bands don’t even bother to film them anymore. But for proof of the art form’s power and creativity beyond the occasional Lady Gaga or MIA track, look no further than Imagine Dragons, the Las Vegas-based quartet that’s spared no expense or ingenuity in putting together its videos. In its video for “Radioactive,” the opening track on its best-selling debut “Night Visions,” the band members are seen at an illegal, underground “puppet fighting” match alongside Lou Diamond Phillips, and in the album’s biggest hit “It’s Time,” the band has apparently survived the apocalypse. If doomsday does come soon, you could have a much worse soundtrack than this band’s booming, bass-heavy alternative rock. Paper Route and XX Ambassadors will open the show.

Saturday

Celtic Woman at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 2 and 8 p.m.; starting at $25; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

The lineup of Celtic Woman has changed dramatically since its 2004 inception, when it was co-created by David Downes of “Riverdance” fame. But the musical formula remains consistent: Beautiful women of Celtic origin singing traditional Irish songs and modern pop tunes, surrounded by a bevy of musicians. They flirted with symphonic shows earlier in the 2000s, but the current tour is back to the Celtic Woman basics, with live dancers, pipers, drummers and fiddlers adding instrumental color to the ladies’ powerful pipes. The set list will include Celtic standards, inspirational ballads and pop songs, including the contemporary hymn “You Raise Me Up,” Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” and many more.

“The Fox on the Fairway” at Actors Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables; 7:30 p.m.; $48; 305/444-9293 or www.actorsplayhouse.org

Expect to hear more golf puns that you can shake a putter at during this comedy from playwright Ken Ludwig; hopefully most of them will land on the green and not a sand trap. Inspired by English farces of the 1930s and 1940s, “The Fox on the Fairway” is set in the world of elite golf institutions, where two rival country clubs – Quail Valley and Crouching Squirrel – are rocked by the news that a top player may be defecting one club for the other, just before the teams square off for their annual grudge match. Actors’ Playhouse’s David Arisco, who calls the play a “comedic blast from start to finish,” will direct a multitalented cast including Ken Clement, Todd Allen Durkin, Betsy Graver, Clay Cartland and Amy McKenna. The play runs through June 2, and ticket prices vary depending on date and time.

Saturday and Sunday

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Celebration at Museum of Discovery and Science, 401 S.W. Second St., Fort Lauderdale; noon to 4 p.m.; free with museum exhibit admission; 954/467-6637 or www.mods.org

The Museum of Discovery and Science is going all out in its celebration of Asian-Pacific culture, scheduled in honor of May being Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. For the second year in a row, the museum has slated a daylong series of activities exploring the tradition, cultures and history of the Asian continent and its many surrounding islands. There will be special showings of the IMAX films “Ultimate Wave: Tahiti 3D” and “China: The Panda Adventure” as well as several Polynesian-themed activities, such as dance performances, a fashion show, drum carving demonstrations, poi tasting, surf lessons, warrior face painting and costume dress-up. Asian-themed activities include Japanese origami, taiko drumming (pictured), Chinese lion dance and martial arts, sushi demonstrations and sampling, and cultural dress and traditions.

Sunday

Bill Cosby at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood; 7 p.m.; $54 to $84; 954/797-5531 or www.hardrocklivehollywoodfl.com

It’s 2013, and Bill Cosby is still relevant. That’s quite an achievement, as many comedians from Cosby’s era have either tragically died, delved into serious acting, or faded into the limelight as relics from another era. He’s still putting younger, fresher comics to shame – as his hilarious performance last month on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” can attest. Last November, the 75-year-old multimedia entertainer released his latest best-selling humor book, “I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was),” in paperback, which introduces a host of invented characters and addresses personal memories alongside wacky stories. If his current standup show is half as funny as his book, you’ll get twice your money’s worth.

Small Bites: Sybarite Pig

2013-05-06T06:00:00+00:00

If you weren’t a sybarite pig when you first walked into Daniel Naumko’s thoroughly captivating, bare-bones West Boca eatery, you will be by the time you walk out.

Let’s say it straight up: Sybarite Pig (20642 State Rd. 7, 561/883-3200) is the coolest, hippest restaurant in Palm Beach County, a place where the size of Naumko’s ambitions are matched only by the paucity of his budget. I mean, really, a restaurant that has to take up a collection to upgrade its ventilation system is making everything but the oink (and coarse-grain mustard) from scratch, something that ought to embarrass the shiitake out of restaurateurs who spend more money on their linen service than Naumko probably did on his entire restaurant.

No matter, the food at the Pig is terrific. And even when it’s just good, the pleasure in seeing a talented young chef follow his own culinary muse come hell, high water and crappy economy just seems to make everything taste a little better. One caveat: If you’re a vegetarian, you should probably put on your asbestos pajamas to avoid spontaneously bursting into flames. The Pig is all about meat, more specifically about meat ground up with lots of herbs and spices and stuffed into a casing. In other words, sausages.

There’s merguez (Moroccan-style lamb sausage), duck sausage, apple-lemon-pork sausage, pistachio pork and Caribbean-style pork sausage, the creamy-textured Italian sausage called cotechino. Oh, and porchetta, the Italian king of all pig preparations, plus Korean-style short ribs, roasted marrow bones, beef and lamb burgers, and all manner of sides, including the wickedly addictive “piggy pinwheels,” a sort of savory strudel filled with bacon, olives and more.

The sausages come as sandwiches or “meat boards” with choice of condiments (all house-made, of course). The duck, merguez and “Hellswine” sausages are piggy good, but the star of the tubesteak show is cotechino, with a rich, fatty, porky flavor and texture like meat-flavored cashmere.

And did I mention the beer? A dozen or so unique, hard-to-find craft beers on tap, another 30-plus in bottles. So do the Pig. It’s all(syba)rite.

Positively Charming

2013-05-03T20:33:07+00:00

On a day that featured some heavyweight talent on stage at Delray Center of the Arts, one of the most diminutive speakers at Friday’s TEDx event more than held her own. For anyone familiar with Boca resident Rebecca Zerbo, that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The articulate, engaging eighth grader from Eagles Landing Middle School captivated the sold-out crowd during the second of four TEDx sessions with her tale of turning a sixth-grade bullying experience into an entrepreneurial adventure that shows no signs of slowing down.

What started as a series of laminated cards with confidence-building affirmations has evolved into Positive Pocket LLC, an organization “devoted to empowering others who have suffered from the negative effects of bullying and other social/emotional issues.” After claiming the $30,000 top scholarship prize last year at a national young entrepreneurs competition for the Positive Pocket cards, Zerbo has broadened her business plan to include Positive Pocket jeans, which feature an inspiring message on the inside waistband. Look for the jeans starting May 7 at Kickstarter—the web-based fundraising platform for creative projects—where Zerbo will try to raise $6,000 in 30 days and, hopefully, attract the attention of investors.

Since Boca Raton profiled Zerbo in its December/January issue, the 14-year-old has become something of a local celebrity, as evidenced by the Delray TEDx team’s interest in her story. After working the room Thursday night at a VIP party with the maturity of a savvy businesswoman—she walked up to several strangers, confidently introduced herself, and shared her story—Zerbo took the stage Friday as poised as can be. She shared some of the humbling feedback she’s received since launching Positive Pocket—from a bullied fifth grader who called Zerbo her hero to an adult woman in an abusive relationship who found strength through the laminated cards.

Positive Pocket, she told the audience, doesn’t just inspire the people reading the cards. “It inspires [people to go out] and inspire others.”

Visit positivepocket.org for more information.

TEDx Delray Beach: Session One Recap

2013-05-03T19:12:54+00:00

Delray Beach joined the prestigious numbers of cities worldwide to host its very own TEDx conference: An independently curated festival of ideas produced under license with the global TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference.

The event, which included four sessions at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts, featured nearly 25 presentations from live guests, plus memorable videos from past TED talks. The topics were varied and unpredictable from one speaker to the next. Here’s a look at the enlightening and inspiring guests that took the Crest Theatre stage in the opening session, with selected moments from their speeches.

Motivational speaker Kandee G, creator of Nothing But Good News Media, opened the show with a rapid, rousing peaen to positivity.

“I remember the day when I realized everything was gone. I was in my home, and my little baby girl Katie was sleeping. I went to the refrigerator to get something to eat, and I opened the refrigerator and the only thing that was left was one jar of peanut butter. And I looked at that jar, and I made a decision that I would never be a victim of life’s circumstances. Regardless, I would always be victorious.

“So I took a look at this information I gathered, and I applied it wholly and fully. In a short period of time, I went from a broke, homeless single mother to building a sales team of the top 4 percent in the world. I went from a broke, homeless single mother to making more money in a month than, well, it’s crazy to see. I went from being at my last jar of peanut butter to traveling on a private jet to most places I go. I don’t say that, honestly, to impress anyone. I say that because I recognize that the information I have is teachable. Folks can learn it. Folks can take these principles and concepts and apply them to themselves and create the life they’re meant to have.”

Peppering her speech with pop-culture references to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Tomb Raider” and “Back to the Future,” Florida archaeologist Sarah Nohe presented an entertaining defense of her craft, in a state that is older than we may think.

“In archeology, the people that I work with tend to have one thing in common: That’s that they get super-geeked out about the things they find, and they tend to huddle over them and ooh and aah. And I’ll go and see what it is, and they hold it up, and it’s a dirty piece of broken pottery or a rusty nail. But the things we find don’t need to be beautiful. They need to have one supreme quality, and that’s that they lived longer than us. Someone’s trash or a modified shell that’s been left there for thousands of years tells us a story of people, and it means something. And these things that have been found in Florida tell us a story of 12,000 years.

“Even when you have the written history, archaeology is the best way to find out about the people that were living here. There’s a problem, which is that looters take some of the information out of the ground, and everything that they take, we lose the information about the people that were here. It’s everybody’s history, not one person’s, and it doesn’t belong on eBay being sold or on some person’s mantle. Each item tells a story about humanity, about a culture, about a person, and those stories deserve to be told.”

Musician, caricature artist and branding expert Bruce Turkell riffed on what a brand really is, and focused his lasers on two brands that worked wonders.

“A brand is not a logo or a trademark – it’s none of those things. A brand is what people think about you when you’re not around. And it’s why they buy what you’re selling, hire your service, or agree to your argument. Brands are just as important for first-time job seekers or lawyers in litigation as they are multinational corporations. So the question becomes, how do you build a powerful brand so you can accomplish what you want? And the answer is simple: It’s three words.

“When Apple came out with the iPod, if you remember the ads, they showed a silhouette of a person dancing, surrounding by brilliant color. The only thing you knew about the product was a white box and white headphones. They didn’t tell us anything about the product – they told us about a silhouette. Now, is the silhouette was a woman, it could have been you, your mother, your sister, your aunt, your neighbor – was Apple saying that all those people love iPods? No. They were saying YOU will love an iPod. When Barack Obama went for arguably the most important consumer product in the world, the presidency of the United States, he used three words that I think were the best ad line ever written: Yes we can. Yes: It’s positive. We: It’s inclusive. Can: It’s aspirational. And we believed it, and the majority of voters voted for him. But more importantly, 68 percent of first-time voters bought the brand. Because what Apple knew and what Obama knew was three words: Build your brand.”

Lugging a heavy suitcase onto the stage, motivator John Spannuth talked about the other kind of negative baggage we carry around with us:

“We all have an invisible bag that we’re carrying around. It’s not a suitcase – it’s the invisible things we carry around. The ideas that we’ll never use. The habits that we have. All of these things that are taking up our time and we’re not really using. One of my best parts of my baggage is being a workaholic. I would just keep taking on jobs and more jobs. I ended up sleeping two hours every night for one year. That was probably the biggest lesson I had regarding being a workaholic.

“My father was brought up on a Pennsylvania Dutch farm, and you know what that’s like. Wow, they work all day! Of course, my father worked hard: He’s go to work at the morning at 7:30 and come home at night at 10:30. So I knew that to be a success, you had to work all day long. So that’s what I really worked on – working all day long. But we need to think about reducing things that are no longer of help to us. What are they? Your bad habits? How can you help reduce them? What I’d like to encourage you to do is to live life to its fullest each and every day.”

Lew Crampton, an advocate in informal science education and president and CEO of the South Florida Science Museum, issued a dire prognosis of science education in America, along with a call to action:

“The state of science education in the United States today is woefully bad. At this point, according to a study that was done by the National Academy of Sciences, we are No. 28 in terms of the quality of science education in the world. We are No. 47 in terms of the proportion of college graduates who are in the sciences. Science is very important to our future, to our economy, to job development. The key to success in the world economy is innovation – innovation fueled by science, by growth, by what we learn in school. And what we learn in school, unfortunately, is not enough. My interest is in informal science education.

“We need to create a collective opportunity. Just suppose, for example, that we were to take all of the science fairs that are going on in our community, and if we were to organize them like it was March Madness – 64 teams, a whole series of playoffs, a Final Four, money, prizes, lionizing the winners and the parents of the winners, providing support, exhibiting the winning projects in a museum. What a shot in the arm that would be for science and for kids to get excited.”

Opera soprano Cynthia Makris closed the first session by discussing how she has lived her live with a full emotional spectrum of operatic grandeur – then she sang Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Memory,” to a well-deserved standing ovation:

“I’m a diva. I love huge gestures and I like to use superlatives. But I feel so happy and free playing big, and I never liked being small and feeling controlled. We live in a society which tends to compartmentalize us and often makes us feel like we’re small cogs in a big machine. We feel isolated. We don’t really trust each other, and we don’t trust ourselves, either. Guess what one way out of this misery is: Opera!

“I was only 20 years old when I heard my first opera aria. It was a student recital, and the aria was ‘Pace, Pace, mio dio’ from ‘La Forza del Destino.’ It means ‘God Grant Me Peace’ from ‘The Force of Destiny.’ The pianist started to play, and then the soprano started to sing. I’d never heard anything like it in my life. Then I started to notice that she was crying. I was crying. And I’d never felt so alive before. I was hooked.

“Opera gave me the chance to travel the world. I get to live and work with people from many cultures. But far more importantly, it gave me permission to crack open the shell surrounding my deepest feelings. I discovered there’s incredible freedom in exposing who you really are.”

FAU Artist Finds Our Souls Through Our Shoes

2013-05-03T11:00:00+00:00

What do our shoes say about us? That is the simplest, most essential question posed by “Souls of Our Shoes,” a recently opened photography exhibition at FAU’s Wimberly Library.

The artist, a 20-year-old FAU junior named Maria Mor, “stalked” strangers for about a month, a process that required her to not only photograph their shoes from intimate, artistically specific vantage points, but to strike up conversations with them. The resulting photographs, accompanied by quotations from the shoes’ wearers, offer a window into the their philosophies and cultures – going straight to their hearts through their boots, heels, sneakers and flip-flops.

The images’ titles speak to the personalities of her disembodied subjects. “Confidence” shows a pair of shiny new Nikes poised to sprint on a track, representing the wearer’s athleticism. “Best For Less” shows off a pair of blingy, budget-conscious shoes reflecting the subject’s stylish thriftiness.

I was especially fond of “Put Together,” whose office-appropriate black heels are shot in a low angle and seemingly in mid-air, making them seem giant, ready to crush the Lilliputians below. Given that the subject is a teacher, perhaps the artist is saying something about the position of power she has.

Sometimes, the shoe owners’ testimonies provide all the difference, prompting us to view the image in a more enlightened way. The best example of this is “Wanderer,” (pictured above) which shows a pair of raggedy, decrepit shoes riddled with holes and frayed stitching. But knowing that the owner wore these shoes during an entire adventure in Peru suddenly makes them seem cool, exotic – a keepsake to be memorialized, not discarded. The exhibition concludes with Mor’s own shoes: simple, comfortable, St. Patty’s Day-green slip-ons pointed toward the heavens, alive to the endless possibilities of her art. The entire project is enough to make you think twice about your next shoe purchase.

Just a few steps away in the same FAU Library, you have a couple more weeks to catch “We Are Dragon People,” an evocative exhibition of photographic pop-ups courtesy of the university’s Jaffe Center for the Book Arts. The 2009 series is the work of Philadelphia artist Colette Fu, sampled from a trip to China’s Yunnan Province to explore her tribal roots. Twenty-five of China’s 55’s minority tribes reside in the remote province, and Fu honors this small percentage of tribespeople by monitoring their customs while expanding her own photographic acumen.

It’s a wonderful bit of cultural ethnography in the cloak of art, as Fu excels in finding creative reasons to spring her images forward in three dimensions. In “Wa Hair Swinging Dance,” she shoots a celebration of Wa women dancing to the rhythms of divine drumming, their long black hair bursting forth as vibrant pop-ups. “Tibetan Bear” honors the Tibetan mastiff, its head blooming in multiple dimensions from the base of a flower, reflecting the beauty and respect bestowed on the dutiful guard dog.

In “Hani Rice Terraces,” I counted at least seven 3-D layers of terraces, suggesting the endless bounty of rice fields. But it has nothing on “Hani Long Table Dragon Banquet,” which depicts an autumn harvest of food, with 3,000 tables positioned end to end, the dishes springing from the tables, tempting us.

And you thought Savor the Avenue had a long dining table.

“We Are Dragon People” runs through May 19, and “Souls of Our Shoes” runs through Sept. 27 at FAU’s Wimberly Library, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Admission is free. For information, call 561/297-3770 or visit fau.edu.

Mediterranean Menu Returns to Cafe Boulud

2013-05-03T06:00:00+00:00

It was so good they did it again.

That would be the summertime Boulud Sud pop-up restaurant at Café Boulud (301 Australian Ave., 561/655-6060), Daniel Boulud’s Palm Beach outpost of sophisticated, casual elegance in the tony Brazilian Court hotel.

From Wednesday, July 3, to Monday, Sept. 2, in the café’s charming (and air-conditioned) terrace, chef Jim Leiken and team will dish up refined yet hearty fare that reflects his boss’s love of the bright, sunny, flavorful cuisine of the Mediterranean. Along with wines and cocktails chosen/created by sommelier extraordinaire Mariya Kovacheva, the “Sud” menu is something of a locals treat, a reward for sticking around when so many Palm Beachers flee the summer’s heat, humidity and hurricanes for less, ah. . . challenging climes.

To show off what they’ve wrought, Daniel Boulud himself hosted a multicourse lunch the other day, a chance to sample much of the Sud menu, not to mention while away a gorgeous spring afternoon. Among the don’t miss dishes we devoured were a sizeable sea-sweet prawn, head still on, served with finely diced ratatouille and verdant basil pesto; a pillowy, delicately flavorful filet of lubina (aka, branzino, loup de mer, etc.) with silken romesco sauce and peppery wild arugula; and pastry chef Arnaud Chavigny’s stunning grapefruit givré, plush grapefruit sorbet studded with rose loukoum (gel-like candies flavored with rosewater) in a hollowed-out grapefruit, topped with whipped cream and sesame halva.

The Boulud Sud menu will be served a la carte at dinner daily, also as a three-course $35 prix fixe menu on Saturdays and Sundays. Don’t fret, though. The regular lunch, brunch and dinner menus will continue to be served throughout, but you really owe it to yourself to take advantage of Boulud Sud while you can.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 57

2013-05-02T09:15:33+00:00

Angela, I do not agree with you about your advice to Pretty Woman last week! I never kiss anyone on a first date but that doesn't mean I'm not attracted to them. I just like to be completely sure someone is worth my lips and I believe that takes a date or two. My last beau waited three weeks to kiss me and we were happily together for two years. You may feel a spark, but that doesn't mean you have to pucker up on the first date. --No Loose Lips

No Loose Lips, I appreciate your candor and your strong personal belief that a man should hold out for your kiss. If your stance is that you don’t kiss until two dates or two weeks, I’m certainly not saying you must change your position.

But here is what I will say. Most men aren’t going to stick around while you decide whether or not you want to give him an indication of your attraction level. I’m sure you’re a fascinating conversationalist and your dates have a lovely time with you, but men are simple. They don’t want calculated algorithms to determine if we are showing interest. They react to our responses. So if your body language doesn’t appear that your are into them, guess what? The majority of men will not bother to continue chasing you.

No, you don’t have to pucker up on the first date, and sometimes even when there is chemistry, he won’t initiate. (Always let him initiate the first kiss.) But if there is chemistry, and he does lean in for the kiss, my advice last week is the same as it is today- if you play coy for the sake of being coy, more likely than not, he will lose interest.

I stand by my original answer: Women know by the end of the first date if we are attracted enough to kiss him. If you aren’t, don’t waste his time and yours by going on a second date.

I'm single, but my best friend just filed for divorce from her husband of three years. We are both crushed, and I'm not sure what advice I can say other than, "You will love again." I love your blogs and appreciate your advice in advance. What can I say to make her feel better? She's heartbroken. --BFF

BFF, you’re a good friend and that’s obvious to see from your letter. There’s not much that you will say can diminish what she’s going through right now. Time is really all that will ease her pain. Here are three actions you can take, however, that will help:

Listen. There will be times when she’s angry, or sad, or even elated. This next phase is an emotional rollercoaster. The best thing you can do is just listen when she’s ready to talk. She doesn’t need your opinions right now. Just listen.

Keep her busy. Take her out to dinner, plan a girl’s getaway, go to the movies or do anything that gets her out of the house and occupied by something other than her thoughts.

No judgement. Your friend may go through a period a temporary crazy time. It’s to be expected during this difficult adjustment period. Don’t make judgement or share her personal secrets with anyone. Let her navigate the path organically.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Christine Lynn to be given Ellis Island medal of honor

2013-05-01T15:10:33+00:00

Christine E. Lynn, one of Boca’s longtime mega-philanthropists, is about to receive a very big honor.

The name that appears on buildings and institutions throughout the region, including Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s Christine E. Lynn Heart and Vascular Institute, Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health and Wellness Institute and the Eugene M. and Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute is about to be inscribed on the list of 2013 “Ellis Island Medal of Honor” awardees by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO).

The honor is bestowed each year to approximately 100 individuals who have distinguished themselves within their own ethnic group while exemplifying the values of the American way of life.

Past medalists include six U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners and leaders of industry, education, the arts and sports, as well as everyday Americans who, according to NECO “have made freedom, liberty and compassion a part of their life’s work.” Notable awardees have included George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Lee Iacocca, Muhammad Ali, Joe DiMaggio and Martin Scorsese.

Lynn’s community philanthropic contributions have had a dramatic impact on countless numbers of people and a host of organizations in South Florida. A native of Norway, Ms. Lynn was trained as a registered and surgical nurse in Oslo. She married insurance magnate Eugene Lynn in 1980 and became a longtime resident of Boca Raton. In 2008, Boca Raton magazine named her as its “Hometown Hero” for her outstanding generosity and love for her community. “This honor is especially significant to me,” said Ms. Lynn, who is the recipient of myriad accolades for her social largesse. “Not only am I humbled to be included in such a prestigious list of awardees, but as a young Norwegian woman, I sailed past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and felt the profound effect and meaning those sites have for all Americans, regardless of race, creed or ethnicity.”

Ms. Lynn, along with her fellow honorees, will receive her award in a ceremony and dinner to be held in the Great Hall on Ellis Island May 11^th.

Burt Wins Big!!

2013-05-01T15:02:05+00:00

Way to go, Burt! Our own Burt Rapoport of Rapoport's Restaurant Group has been honored with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's 2013 Community Excellence award.

The Community Excellence award recognizes one business (OUT OF THOUSANDS!) in the United States that has found success in the eyes of its community. Rapoport's Restaurant Group was also named the South East Region finalist for the 2013 Dream Big Small Business of the Year after being nominated by the Boca Chamber. "Rapoport's Restaurant Group is a great example of a small business that gives back and shows leadership in their community," said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber.

Not only has Rapoport been heavily involved in the restaurant business throughout South Florida for decades (his early partnership with Dennis Max continues to this day), but he’s also done a lot of giving back, from his former seat on the Boca Chamber Board of Directors (and past recipient of the Boca Chamber's Business Leader of the Year award) to his stint dancing in Boca’s Ballroom Battle for the George Snow Scholarship Fund few years ago, among other endeavors. Rapoport owns Deck 84, Henrys, Bogart’s at Cinemark Theaters in Boca and Burt & Max’s in the new Delray Beach Marketplace.

Rapoport is always amping up charity events and showing up at them and to help celebrate his own honor, he’s about throw another one. Rapoport is hosting a "Surf Into Summer" concert headlined by the original Beach Boy founder David Marks and the Surf City Allstars at the Delray Beach Marketplace amphitheater on May 11, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., with all proceeds benefiting the Achievement Centers for Children & Families and the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce's Golden Bell Foundation.

We couldn’t be prouder of Burt–stop by one of his restaurants (he’s always at one of them!) and tell him thanks for all he does.

Ten Plays and Musicals to Anticipate in 2013-2014

2013-05-01T14:36:44+00:00

With many regional theaters and touring companies announcing their 2013-2014 theater seasons, we thought it would be a great time to count down some of the most highly anticipated productions to grace South Florida stages in the coming year. Here’s a look at 10 potential highlights from Jupiter to Coral Gables.

10. Making God Laugh, Dec. 4-29 at Actors Playhouse

Any play whose title is inspired by a Woody Allen quote has me at “hello.” Taken from Allen’s joke that “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,” this comedy follows a mother, father and their three children across three holidays separated by decades: Thanksgiving 1980, Christmas 1990 and New Year’s Eve 2000. In the process, as the characters’ lives take unexpected routes, the play touches on the housing crisis, the dot-com boom and Y2K in the context of a family that could just as easily be any of ours.

9. The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Jan. 7-12, 2014 at Kravis Center

The most unique offering in the Kravis Center’s solid Kravis on Broadway series, “Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess” is the latest incarnation of Gershwin and Heyward’s groundbreaking 1935 opera, the first major piece written for an entire cast of African-American trained singers. Updated in 2011 for Broadway, the story about a disabled beggar and a woman in an abusive relationship included some key changes that have suited the work well; it went on to win Best Revival of a Musical at the 2012 Tonys.

8. Chess: The Musical, March 21-April 5, 2014 at Slow Burn Theatre Company

I know what you must be thinking: Nothing screams “Broadway pizzazz” quite like a couple of people playing a protracted, deliberate, cerebral game of chess. This 1984 musical is, of course, about much more than that, touching on Cold War strife between the U.S. and Russia in the context of a chess-centric love triangle. It was written by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, more than a decade before their hit “Mamma Mia!”

7. Other Desert Cities, Feb. 16-March 2 at Maltz Jupiter Theatre

This shattering, uncomfortably authentic drama by “Brothers & Sisters” creator Jon Robin Baitz received its South Florida regional premiere this past January at Actors Playhouse in what may go down as one of the best productions of this year. If any other regional theater could match it in excellence, it’s the Maltz, which will break from its musical-heavy season to stage this domestic melodrama in the arid Southwest. It’s about a family torn apart by politics, their pasts and secrets that bubble to the surface over a Christmas holiday in 2004.

6. Assassins, Jan. 30-Feb. 23, 2014 at Zoetic Stage at the Arsht Center

“Sweeney Todd” may be the darkest musical in Stephen Sondheim’s oeuvre, but it has a worthy competitor in 1990’s “Assassins,” a musical revue of songs sung by, and about, the handful of individuals who have attempted, or succeeded, to kill American presidents. A cast of up to 13 has performed this show in the past, through numerous Broadway and regional adaptations, and characters include President Garfield, John Hinckley, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth. The first musical to be produced by the award-winning Zoetic Stage, this looks like a potent play to revisit in this time of polarizing gun control debate.

5. Mr. Marmalade, March 28-April 13, 2014 at Outre Theatre Company

Continuing to take a chance on controversial work, Boca Raton’s Outre Theatre Company has scheduled a surrealist comedy so black it must be seen to be believed. The main character of “Mr. Marmalade” is a 4-year-old girl with an imaginary friend. Pretty normal, except that the friend is a cocaine and pornography addict who beats up on his personal assistant. Meanwhile, the girl’s only real friend was the youngest suicide attempt in her state’s history. The play was written by emerging talent Noah Haidle; don’t hold his recent work on the lousy Hollywood buddy film “Stand Up Guys” against him.

4. Old Times, Jan. 31-March 2, 2014 at Palm Beach Dramaworks

The only professional theater in South Florida these days to produce the works of the great Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, Palm Beach Dramaworks tackles his 1971 drama “Old Times,” a disturbing triangle about a long-married couple, Kate and Deely, who are visited after 20 years by Kate’s old friend Anna, who apparently had something of a history with Deely as well. Her appearance prompts conflicting memories that could change the present and future of these three lost souls. This mysterious play has received a number of intriguing theories from critics; one of its great attributes is that it lets viewers decipher it themselves.

3. Once, Feb. 4-9, 2014 at Arsht Center

Theater producers wasted little time in adapting the Irish film “Once” – an Academy Award winner and one of the warmest romances of the Aughts – for the stage, building more songs and a theatrical structure around the terrific songs originally written by the movie’s actors, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season. The minimalist set of this Broadway tour – just a bar flanked by chairs on either side – directs the majority of the focus on the great music and the story, about two people who fall in love while pursuing a dream of making music together. “Once” went on to win Best Musical at the 2012 Tonys, and this marks its South Florida premiere.

2. Rose and the Rime, April 23-May 18, 2014 at Arsht Center

The House Theatre of Chicago, the great regional company behind such previous Arsht Center re-mountings as “The Sparrow” and “Death and Harry Houdini,” returns with an updated show originally presented in 2009. It’s about an infertile Michigan town, crippled by a generation-long blizzard, whose one young person, Rose, can save the city from a witch’s curse. House Theatre productions are always high on spectacle, and this one will feature new aerial choreography and magical special effects.

1. The Book of Mormon, Nov. 26-Dec. 22 at Broward Center for the Performing Arts

When it came to selecting the most anticipated show of the season, this was no contest. The winner of nine Tony Awards last year, “South Park” scribes Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s caustic and pee-yourself-hilarious skewering of Mormonism has been Broadway’s hottest ticket for more than two years and running; your changes of getting one are roughly like that of winning the lottery. It’s playing for a full month at the Broward Center – an unusually long run for a Broadway Across America tour – and all of those shows will sell out too, so buy your tickets now.

Great Getaways + Attractions 2013

2013-05-01T09:44:44+00:00

Discover Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach—"an oceanfront hotel like no other"—and enjoy terrific savings.

Revel in a sparkling white beach, splendid accommodations, infinite pleasures, exquisite, nutritious cuisine and complimentary access to an amazing spa, fitness classes and more, and that's just at first glance.

Now through September 30, 2013, Florida residents enjoy a $50 allowance for spa, health & wellness services per night with any stay, arriving any day of the week. Some restrictions apply. Simply mention “Floridian Beach Break” when you call 800-742-9000 or visit canyonranch.com/miamibeach.

Find everything you could possibly wish for without looking very far…

Florida Resident Rates are now available at the intimate, oceanfront Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach starting at $199 through September 30, 2013. Enjoy complimentary access to spa relaxation areas, daily fitness classes, bicycles to cruise along the Intracoastal, kids club, valet parking and more at the Five Star, Five Diamond Resort. Stay active with water sports, tennis and other activities or simply bask in the sun or under umbrellas while our ever-attentive staff pampers you on the island’s most expansive beach.

For reservations, contact the Resort directly at 561-582-2800.

Mandarin Oriental, Miami is the only hotel in Florida, and among only six in the United States, to receive the prestigious Forbes Five-Star designation in all three categories (hotel, spa and restaurant) in 2013. Enjoy beautiful bay views, recline on the private beach or rejuvenate at the exotic spa. Take advantage of the “Insider Offer” providing special nightly rates and a host of amenities. The package includes luxury accommodation, American breakfast and complimentary valet parking.

500 Brickell Key Drive | Miami, Florida | 305.913.8383 | mandarinoriental.com/miami

C’mon, Get Happy! Staycation

Escape to Jupiter, voted “one of the top 15 happiest seaside towns!” The casual elegance of this oceanfront Resort offers everything you need for a quick, fun getaway, guaranteed to put a smile on your face this summer!

20% off best available rates, breakfast for two and tour of the historic Jupiter Lighthouse. Rates starting from $152.00.

Visit www.jupiterbeachresort.com or call 800-228-8810 and mention promo code – BOCAHAPPY

The Seagate Hotel & Spa, Delray Beach

Escape to the award-winning Seagate Hotel & Spa located steps from the beach on Delray's famed Atlantic Avenue. From $179 per night, June 1-Sept. 30, 2013, plus Florida Residents receive 10% off, a $25 gas credit and one night complimentary parking. Visit TheSeagateHotel.com or call 877-57-SEAGATE.

Stay & Play on the Beach
Summer Staycation Special!

Top rated on Trip Advisor, and known as one of south Florida’s best beach getaways, the stunning Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort is running a special staycation package with rates starting at just $139. It includes accommodations in a beautiful City View guestroom–just 33 footsteps from the pristine sands of Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton–a welcome beverage at the Patio Bar and Grill, Wyndham beach ball, bottle of suntan lotion and discounts to local restaurants and attractions. Also dine onsite at Café Med. This new, contemporary hotel boasts a prime beach location with incredible panoramic views from its oceanfront rooms and corner suites. Premium amenities include: free Wi-Fi, free bottled water on arrival, 37” flat screen TVs, refrigerators and premium coffee in all rooms, as well as rainfall showerheads and Gilchrist & Soames bathroom toiletries.

wyndhamdeerfieldresort.com/staycation or call 800-426-0084
2096 NE 2nd Street
Deerfield Beach FL 33441

The Fit Life

2013-04-30T16:30:19+00:00

For May, designated nationally as stroke awareness month, let’s get into stroke prevention. Living the fit life (regular exercise) is one way to lower your risk.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers these others:

Stop smoking! Cigarette smoking contributes to one in every five strokes in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Smoking—and even exposure to second-hand smoke—can thicken the blood and make it more likely to clot. Get help at 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Find out if aspirin therapy is right for you. Ask your doctor.
Control blood pressure. Keeping your blood pressure under control reduces your risk of heart attack and stroke. More than half of the world’s stroke deaths are caused by elevated blood pressure levels.
Manage cholesterol. Get your cholesterol checked regularly and manage it with diet and physical activity or with medication, if needed.
Eat a healthy diet that’s low in sodium.
Maintain a healthy weight.
Prevent or control diabetes.
Limit your alcohol intake (fewer than two drinks each day for men, or one drink each day for women).

Remember, stroke symptoms:

Numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
Confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding.
Trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
Trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance and coordination.
Severe headache with no known cause.

When responding to a stroke, every minute counts. The sooner a person receives medical treatment, the lower the risk for death or disability. If you or someone you know experiences these symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately.

Free local screenings for stroke risk

West Boca Medical Center is offering free stroke screenings, including glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure tests, in honor of stoke month.

To schedule your appointment, call 866-904-9262. West Boca Medical Center is at 21644 State Road 7, Boca Raton, 33428.

Another free health screening opportunity…

Delray Medical Center and the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations will host the annual Wellness Screening Expo, Friday, May 3, 2013 at the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach, 33446. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office will also be offering a safe and free way to dispose of unwanted or expired prescription medications with their Operation Pill Drop receptacles. The narcotics division will be present to take in any over-the counter medications, vitamins, ointments, medications for pets and prescriptions that are no longer needed.

“Operation Pill Drop is a great opportunity for our community members to open up their medicine cabinets to safely discard of any old or expired prescribed medications. In addition, our hospital will provide complimentary screenings to add to the atmosphere of wellness.” Says Mark Bryan, Delray Medical Center chief executive officer

Delray Medical Center will offer complimentary screenings from 8 am to 12 pm, which include: biometrics, bone density, vision and glaucoma, lung function breathing test and much more. Healthcare professionals and pharmacists will be available to answer questions from participants. Appointments are required for heart health screenings and fasting is necessary for blood work. Attendees can call 1-800-897-9789 to register.

About Lisette:

Barrel & Grain Debuts in West Palm

2013-04-30T06:00:00+00:00

If you liked the now-defunct Gratify gastropub in downtown West Palm, you’ll be gratified to know that a new pub of the gastro variety has taken its place.

It’s Barrel & Grain (125 Datura St., 561/833-2767), from Chase Woolard of The Local in Coral Gables, and it’s dishing up a menu of hearty, inventive comfort food along with more than four dozen beers on tap, not to mention a hundred or so whiskeys. The space itself sports an artfully funky look, with brick floor, mismatched tables and chairs, open kitchen and blackboard chalked with the day’s specials.

Doing the cheffing is Kevin Preble, late of Delray’s Park Tavern, who’s turning out some pretty interesting-sounding fare, from buttermilk fried oysters with chow chow and smoked salt to bahn mi duck confit tacos to espresso-rubbed hanger steak with chipotle-infused sweet potatoes. There’s weekend brunch too, where you can get such stick to your ribs fare like shrimp and grits, fried chicken and waffle, and steak with huevos rancheros.

The Week Ahead: April 30 to May 4

2013-04-29T18:01:34+00:00

Tuesday

Peter Murphy at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 7 p.m.; $28 to $60; 305/377-2277 or www.grandcentralmiami.com

It hasn’t been the greatest of years so far for Peter Murphy, one of the reigning kings of gothic New Wave music. Just over a month ago, Murphy was charged for three misdemeanor accounts in California, including driving under the influence, possessing methamphetamine, and hitting a vehicle and than taking off. Clearly, former Bauhaus frontmen are not above the law, but Murphy’s tour will commence anyway, and there’s no better way for him to release his legal stress than onstage. Murphy appears in South Florida a lot, but this show is special: It will be composed entirely of Bauhaus tunes, culled from the legendary band’s 35-year career.

Wednesday

“Mud” at Cinemark Palace 20, 3200 Airport Boca Raton; various show times; 800/326-3264 or www.cinemark.com

The appropriately titled new swamp drama “Mud” has been receiving a lot of buzz for its lead performance by Matthew McConaughey, and for good reason. The film, which opened this past Friday in South Florida, provides one of the actor’s gnarliest, earthiest roles yet, as an unkempt fugitive living on a boat in a tree, waiting for the right opportunity to win back his girl (Reese Witherspoon), some time after killing her lover. There’s more to his story than he’s willing to tell, but he finds a naïve accomplice in 14-year-old Ellis (Tye Sheridan), a local boy from a troubled family who comes of age over the film’s two hours and 27 minutes. With great, muddy photography and performances best imbibed in widescreen close-ups, this is an intimate epic well worth seeing on the big screen. You can also catch it at Regal Shadowood, iPic at Mizner Park, and other area theaters.

Wednesday and Thursday

Grand opening of Jazziz Nightlife, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7 and 9 p.m.; $55 to $85; 561/300-0732 or www.jazziznightlife.com

Three cheers for Jazziz Nightlife: Mizner Park finally has a jazz club. And it’s a club with quite a pedigree at that: Relocated from its old stomping ground at Seminole Paradise in Hollywood, Jazziz Nightlife is the live-music extension of the influential Jazziz magazine, the world’s largest-circulation jazz magazine. Founder Michael Fagien worked with Charlie Siemon to bring Jazziz to Mizner Park, and the new space offers indoor and outdoor dining, daily live jazz, weekly concerts from nationally recognized recording artists and annual music festivals. It has been soft-open for some time, but this week, you can celebrate the grand opening with Molly Ringwald, the Gen-X Silver Screen goddess turned author and cabaret singer, who will perform selections from her debut CD of Songbook classics, “Expect Sometimes.”

Wednesday to Sunday

SunFest in downtown West Palm Beach; various start times; $30 to $69; 800/786-3378 or www.sunfest.com

South Florida’s most eclectic music festival returns for another unimpeachably solid lineup of bands traversing pop, rock, jazz and other acts spanning the past 40 years of music. Headliners include Top 40 hit-makers Train; the rejuvenated Smashing Pumpkins, fresh off shooting a New York concert in 3-D; last year’s “American Idol” winner, Phillip Phillips; reggae legend Jimmy Cliff; veteran blues rockers The Black Crowes; the paint-splattered electronic dance party Life in Color; and classic rockers Cheap Trick. Visit the waterfront locale for fine arts and crafts from Friday to Sunday, and stick around for closing night fireworks at 9 p.m. Sunday.

Thursday to Sunday

“La Traviata” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; various show times; $60 to $200; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

In what has become his most famous letter, Giuseppe Verdi wrote to a friend after the opening night of his opera “La Traviata” in 1853 that, “’La Traviata’ last night was a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers’? Time will tell.” First of all, considering the ever-inflating 21^st century ego, an artist showing such vulnerability and self-questioning these days is rare. But secondly, the notion that “La Traviata” is a failure borders on blasphemy; time has indeed shown that the fault was definitely not Verdi’s. The story, about a damaged young courtesan suffering from “consumption” who falls in love with a passionate young suitor in decadent 19^th century Paris has become one of the world’s most-beloved operatic dramas. This production, courtesy of Florida Grand Opera, received much praise in its Miami debut earlier this year.

Friday

TEDx at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; $100 general admission, $75 for enrolled college students; 561/243-7922 or www.tedxdelraybeach.com

The TED conference – which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design – began in Monterey, Calif., in 1990 but has become a global phenomenon, with speakers in various fields disseminating ideas, opening dialogues and expanding world views and technological innovation. Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Richard Dawkins have spoken at the conferences, which have collectively earned more than one billion online views worldwide. So it’s a pretty big deal that Delray Beach has launched its own independent “TEDx” conference under license from TED global. The all-day event will feature 23 speakers influencing Palm Beach County and beyond, including opera star Cynthia Makris, middle-school entrepreneur Rebecca Zerbo, NFL running back Ricky Williams, and best-selling author and actor Frank McKinney. Tickets are hard to come by for this event, and require filling out an application on the TEDx website – but I’m sure the results will be well worth the effort.

Opening day of “Souls of Our Shoes” at FAU’s Wimberly Library, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; free; 561/297-3770 or www.fau.edu/library

During the spring 2012 semester, FAU junior Maria Mor embarked on a unique project that was equal parts sociological inquiry and photography exhibition. Working from the theory that people’s footwear is a window into their souls – or, as she put it in her initial artist statement, an “archive for people’s personalities” – Mor stalked the shoes of FAU students and faculty for a solid month, interviewing her subjects and exploring their brains as well as their decisions for crocs over loafers, high heels over running shoes. The result is the much-anticipated exhibit “The Souls of Our Shoes.” The show is scheduled to run through September, but it may be worth checking out on Sunday, May 5, when the FAU Library will celebrate the 92^nd birthday of Jaffe Center for the Book Arts founder Arthur Jaffe with an ice cream social, screenings of silent films and “printshop high jinks.”

Saturday

“The Intergalactic Nemesis” at Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7 p.m.; starting at $10; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

“The Intergalactic Nemesis” has been called “something you must see if you’re a fan of awesome.” Probably the single nerdiest event on the Kravis Center’s seasonal lineup, “The Intergalactic Nemesis” is a science-fiction epic told in a retro style: It began as a radio play, morphed into a graphic novel and has now been adapted into a stage show combining both of these previous incarnations. Actors speak their gravitas-laden lines in front of old-timey microphones while comic-book images spring up on a projection screen behind them and a foley effects guy works the incredible sound design with a handful of basic objects. The narrative, if it even matters, takes place in 1933, where a Pulitzer-winning reporter, a research assistant and a librarian trek from Europe to North Africa to the Robot Planet to Imperial Zygon to battle an invading force of interstellar sludge-monsters.

Burger Bacchanal at Racks Fish House

2013-04-29T06:00:00+00:00

In the annals of burger decadence, it’s be tough to beat the prodigious patty proffered by Racks Fish House + Oyster Bar (5 SE 2^nd Ave., Delray Beach, 561/450-6718) in honor of National Hamburger Week. (Hey, man doesn’t live by fish and oysters alone. . . though, honestly, that doesn’t sound half bad.)

They call it the New Englander, a half-pound slab of grass-fed Jackman Ranch beef topped with crisp-fried oysters, cheddar cheese, sliced jalapenos, lettuce and aioli on a toasted bun spiked with Old Bay. It’s not exactly cheap—$18—but just looking at the thing you probably won’t have to eat anything else for a day or so after polishing off this monster.

In other burger news, now that Shake Shack and Butcher & Burger have finally opened in Boca, we’re down to waiting for the debut of Shula Burger in the new Delray Marketplace. It’s supposed to be “coming soon” so sit tight and get your appetite ready.

Concert review: Rush at the BB&T

2013-04-29T01:51:14+00:00

On the one hand, the idea that Rush continues to find mainstream acceptance is vindication for a fan base that Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl recently said was “only rivaled by the Grateful Dead” in terms of fervent devotion.

Over the past four years, the Canadian prog-rock trio—singer/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart—has been a plot point in a box-office hit (2009’s “I Love You, Man” with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel) and the focus of a critically acclaimed documentary (2010’s “Beyond the Lighted Stage”) about its career. The crowning validation came on April 18, when Rush—after 15 years of eligibility—earned its rightful place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It came as no surprise that this was the year Rush broke into the Hall; fans were allowed to vote for the first time.

On the other hand, who invited this influx of Fly By Night types into the club? Where were these people in 1976, when Rush released the epic seven-part suite that consumed all 20 minutes, 34 seconds on side one of “2112?” Or in 1977, when Peart had fans scrambling for copies of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan” after penning lyrics to the 11 minute, 7 second “Xanadu?”

More importantly, would Rush accept this long overdue group hug and make Permanent Waves with its core following by trying to appease the masses?

As Rush fans well know—and as evidenced by last Friday’s concert at the BB&T Center in Sunrise—there isn’t a Ghost of a Chance of that happening. At a point in its career—the band has released 19 albums of original material spanning nearly 40 years—where other groups would rely on their greatest hits and call it a night, Rush opened the second set of its fifth South Florida appearance since 2007 with nine consecutive songs off its latest effort, “Clockwork Angels.”

Imagine the Rolling Stones releasing a new album this year—and then playing nine straight songs off it instead of delving deep into the back catalog. The only thing preventing a riot would be the audience’s collective osteoporosis.

Rush fans don’t just tolerate new music by the band, they embrace it. They’re also apt to analyze the concert like the Zapruder film (“Did anyone see the upper left stage light flicker at the 2 minute mark of ‘The Anarchist’?”), but that’s part of the kick of being along for this four-decade ride.

In the spirit of full disclosure, this was my 15th time seeing the band—and it turned out to be one of my favorite shows. In addition to hearing Rush with a string ensemble for the first time (the string group accompanied the band for much of the second set), the nearly three-hour show showcased Lifeson, one of rock’s most underrated guitarists, in fierce form, tearing through featured romps on the likes of “The Analog Kid” and “Force Ten” and soaring on the heavier pieces off the new album.

Peart, meanwhile, eschewed his typically lengthy second-set solo for a couple of shorter vignettes, but any opportunity to see the man that other rock percussionists view as Lord of the Drums is a near-religious experience. In that sense, the past decade has been as much of an unexpected treat for fans as it has been a validation.

When Peart’s daughter, Selena, died in a single-car accident in 1997, followed 10 months later by the cancer-related death of his common-law wife of 22 years, Jacqueline, it appeared that Rush’s unlikely run had come to an end.

But less than four years later, Peart and Rush returned with a vengeance. In 2002, the band released its first album in 27 years without keyboard or synthesizer contributions, the hard-driving “Vapor Trails.” That same year, the ultra-private Peart published Ghost Rider, a deeply personal and revealing look into his “healing road,” which involved 14 months and 55,000 miles on his motorcycle.

Ten years and five tours later, Rush is playing “The Spirit of Radio” and “Tom Sawyer” to a new generation of fans who are finding out what us die-hards have known all along—and what Grohl noted when he inducted the band at the Hall of Fame.

“Rush,” he said, “has always been cool.”

Set 1
Subdivisions
The Big Money
Force Ten
Grand Designs
The Body Electric
Territories
The Analog Kid
Bravado
Where’s My Thing?
Far Cry

Set 2 (with Clockwork Angels string ensemble)
Caravan
Clockwork Angels
The Anarchist
Carnies
The Wreckers
Headlong Flight
Halo Effect
Seven Cities of Gold
The Garden
Manhattan Project
Drum solo
Red Sector A
YYZ
The Spirit of Radio

Encore
Tom Sawyer
2112, Part 1: Overture
2112, Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
2112, Part VII: Grand Finale

Specials Heating Up Ceviche House

2013-04-26T12:00:00+00:00

As the weather heats up, so do restaurant deals.

At Delray’s Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant (116 NE 6^th Ave., 561/895-8599), for example. The cozy Spanish eatery in the old Falcon House location has unveiled a new weekday happy hour, plus food and wine specials on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The Tuesday through Friday happy hour (from 5 to 7 p.m.) features $4 tapas, from shrimp with guacamole and veal, pork and chorizo meatballs in tomato sauce to grilled sausage flambéed with brandy and mussels sautéed with anisette, garlic and cream. Wash them all down with $3 well drinks and select wines and beers, and $4 sangrias and calls.

“Tapas Tuesday” boasts the usual happy hour suspects, plus such additions as crispy chicken livers with mushrooms and smoked bacon and fried shrimp with aioli. Slurp down some $6 Mount Gay rum mojitos too. On “Wine Wednesday” you can get any wine off Ceviche’s list under $100 for half price, which means a helluva deal on wines like the 2008 Alto Moncayo Garnacha, a big, rich, fruity wine from Spain’s Campo de Borja region.

SunFest: A Day By Day Breakdown

2013-04-26T10:00:00+00:00

With SunFest less than a week away (Jeez, 2013 is moving quickly, isn’t it?), we decided to spotlight some of the many acts you shouldn’t miss. Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of SunFest’s best (for a full schedule and to purchase tickets, visit sunfest.com).

Wednesday, May 1

SunFest has a habit, every year, of booking its most interesting breakthrough bands at times when nobody’s there to see them. Don’t let the 6 p.m. midweek start time of Roadkill Ghost Choir deter you from catching them – they’re worth driving through rush hour, and not just for their exceptional band name. The six-piece indie-folk act hails from that music hotbed of DeLand, Fla., making spacious Americana music conjuring Fleet Foxes and Gram Parsons, but with the driving intensity of Radiohead and The National. The band only has a digital EP out at this point, but if you attend this evening’s show, you can say you saw them before they blew up.

They’ll be followed at 7:30 p.m. on the Tire Kingdom Stage by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, a band that already blew up in 2009 with the popular country-pop stomper “Home.” Its accompanying album hit No. 5 on the U.S. album charts despite its lack of major-label distribution, and if the band’s music isn’t as well known as fellow-travelers Mumford & Sons, that’s surely the only reason. Timelessly accessible, the band is known for its busy live performances, with up to 10 musicians playing everything from piano and trumpet to marimba, accordion and clavinet.

Thursday, May 2

Performing at 7 p.m. on the Ford Stage, The Curve is a local-boys-done-good story, a hardworking five-piece band from West Palm Beach whose members have opened for Daughtry and Of Montreal. Lead guitarist Biaggio Cangiano works as an event production manager at the Kravis Center for his day job, and lead singer Mike Sanchez is a former winner of Roxy’s $10,000 Rock Band Karaoke Contest on Clematis Street. The group plays radio-friendly music similar to matchbox twenty; for more on its SunFest show, read our own Cassie Morien’s interview, published earlier this week on SunFest’s site.

Following them on the Ford stage will be Train, that ubiquitous pop-rock success story from San Francisco. Just eight months after touring Mizner Park Amphitheater, the trio is already back as one of SunFest’s major headliners. The group won its first Grammy for 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter,” and its 2009 international hit “Hey, Soul Sister” went six times platinum. Expect to hear these megahits as well as “Calling All Angels” and “Drive By.” The band recently made news by refusing to perform at the Boy Scouts of America’s 2013 National Scout Jamboree if the organization didn’t reverse its policy on prohibiting gay scouts. Good for them.

Friday, May 3

Gary Clark Jr. (7 p.m., Tire Kingdom Stage) has been performing blues music in his native Austin, Texas since 1996, but it wasn’t until he was discovered by renowned filmmaker John Sayles and cast in the director’s 2007 film “Honeydripper,” about a struggling Alabama blues club, that he finally began to receive the recognition he deserved. A far cry from the navel-gazing acoustic bluesmen of yore, Clark sings with a clear voice, a galvanizing stage presence and backed by the sear of electric guitars, justifying his high praise as the next great hope for Texas blues. He’s performed with everyones from Pinetop Perkins to Stevie Ray Vaughn and the Rolling Stones.

Later on, at 9:45 p.m. on the Ford stage, The Offspring will headline the evening’s festivities. Slated to perform at December’s UR1 Festival in Miami before it was canceled, the Offspring has returned to grace us with its presence and perform its rousing brand of snotty punk-rock abandon. The group has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, an astonishing number for a punk rock act. If they haven’t quite reached the success of ‘90s hits like “Come Out and Play,” “Self Esteem” and “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),” it’s only because those hits set the bar impossibly high. The band is supporting its ninth album, “Days Go By.”

Saturday, May 4

Get the afternoon started at 3 p.m. on the FPL stage with The Airborne Toxic Event, a catchy quintet from California that broke into the indie and alt-rock mainstream in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since. For a band that took its name from a section in a Don DeLillo novel, it’s no surprise that they’ve proven to be exceptionally literate lyricists, whether reflecting on failed relationships, war criminals or drone strikes. Meanwhile, the band’s extensive catalog of cover songs, ranging from The Clash to Bruce Springsteen to the Magnetic Fields, suggests the depth of its musicality. This concert happens just four days after the release of its third LP, “Such Hot Blood,” so expect the band to be fresh and in top form.

The evening’s headliners include Cheap Trick and Phillip Phillips, but there’s really nothing to compare to Life in Color, which performs for a full five hours, from 6 to 11 p.m. on the Ford Stage. Life in Color is not a specific group so much as an all-out music circus, and its last local event, in December at the Miami Beach Convention Center, drew more than 14,000 electronic music fans raving to the genre’s top deejays, complete with stilt walkers, acrobats on trampolines and an “astronaut” drenching the audience in multicolored paint. Tonight, expect more of that infectious energy – including fire performers, contortionists and its signature paint cannon – to complement tunes from Grammy-winning producer Morgan Page (pictured) and local DJ David Solano.

Sunday, May 5

At 3 p.m. today, don’t miss my favorite act of the entire festival, Jimmy Cliff, on the Tire Kingdom stage. In my eyes, Cliff is just as important as Bob Marley in the reggae scene, having released a whopping 30 albums in his nearly 50 years as a recording artist. His starring role in the 1972 Jamaican cult film “The Harder They Come” led to him recording a number of iconic songs for the soundtrack, including the title track and “You Can Get it If You Really Want,” one of the music world’s great celebrations of optimism and a reggae breakthrough in the United States. His credibility has never waned, and his voice continues to soar, even at age 65. Last year’s “Rebirth,” his first release in seven years, won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, thanks in part to a production credit from lifetime fan Tim Armstrong, of Rancid.

SunFest has received a number of complaints in the past for booking hip-hop acts in its lineup, with most of these gripes about “the element” the groups attract being clear examples of dog-whistle racism. Thankfully, organizers have continued to book important rap acts, and there is perhaps none hotter than Kendrick Lamar (7:45 p.m. at Ford Stage). Lamar is a great story, rising from poverty in Compton and eschewing the gang-banging and drug-dealing of his peers. The silken-voiced, astronomically talented 25-year-old started out making mixtapes under a different moniker, but found his niche writing confessional songs under his own name, rapping about family life instead of gangsta negativity; his hits, like “Poetic Justice” and “Recipe,” sound like instant classics.

Town Center Shopping Deals

2013-04-25T14:35:44+00:00

There are some great deals going on for the next few days at Town Center mall!

Saks Fifth Avenue:

Enjoy an extra 25 percent off selections of shoes, apparel and accessories when shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue this week!

Between now and Sunday, April 28, enjoy that added discount, as well as 20 percent off select jewelry.

Forever 21:

Also a big deal on April 28, Forever 21 is offering 21 percent off (of course) regular priced apparel! So that neon racerback that costs a few dollars is going to cost even less...which ultimately means we are going to spend more! The discount is only valid on one day so clear your Sunday!

Anthropologie:

One of our favorite stores is offering 20 percent off full price pants, shorts and skirts (both online and in store) between now and Sunday, April 28!

And you know you are going to want new tops to match...

Express:

Express is holding their semi-annual clearance sale! Enjoy an additional 30 percent off clearance items, which means you can enjoy up to 70 percent off great pieces for work and play!

The Body Shop:

Now until Sunday, April 28 (I guess that’s the big day for all great deals to end) you can get select body butter for $10 (regularly $20) at The Body Shop.

Happy shopping!

Dreaming in Color

2013-04-25T10:10:34+00:00

Sun-kissed, golden hued skies; tranquil aquamarine blues of the sea, and fresh after-the-rain greens made a great palette for David Yurman for his spring collection. Yurman has always been a nature buff, the designer is self-admittedly “easily distracted by natural beauty.” Yurman’s label is easily identifiable by its signature cable motif. And legend has it that the designer always likes to infuse a little bit of history in all his pieces almost always fusing classic with contemporary.

The new collection aptly titled Dreaming in Color features vibrant gemstones with shades inspired by a serene day on a tropical shore: sapphire, carnelian, and amethyst. The Renaissance Bracelet is a good piece to have—it has the iconic cable element and trendy colors in gemstones.

Yurman uses techniques to highlight a gem’s natural luminescence to reflect its beauty with a fierce abandon—so it’s almost like wearing a sliver of sunlight or a drop of water crystallized as a stone. Take these Cable Wrap, Lemon Citrine, Double Drop Earrings for example—the setting is unconventional and the cable wraps the bright citrus stone intricately creating a bright divergence.

There’s also a black and White facet of this collection that has gemstones like black spinel, onyx, and moonstone quartz. We thought of the black and white as a delightful anomaly. On one hand, nothing says classic more than the eternal mystique of the monochrome, and on the other, black and white is a show-stopping trend on every glamorous runway in the world this season. Packaging the collection as darkness and light being constant companions, the designer has elevated this everyday contrast to dramatic heights. This Labyrinth Disc Enhancer necklace most definitely caught our fancy.

When it comes to jewelry, always look for a classic sensibility with a hint of trends subtly incorporated. If the opposite becomes true, very often it’s a miss-miss situation and an accessory doesn’t do its job of enhancing an outfit and rather dulls the effect. That’s why it is important to invest in the right pieces.

The Dream in Color collection available at the David Yurman boutique in the Boca Town Center Mall.

About Jo:

The Naked Truth, Vol. 56

2013-04-25T09:52:42+00:00

Hey mama! After watching the preview for next week's "Millionaire Matchmaker" (of course after watching YOUR episode), I realized I'm not the only one who doesn't want to be kissed on the first date. So I'm not alone on this...whew! Is there a necessity to smooch when you've just met the person for the first time and maybe known them 2 hours tops?

Why do guys have to "go for it" on the first date? It would be great for you to give them guidelines for making that move. I never give out body language that I want to be kissed, but they do it anyways and it's a turnoff. Kissing is so intimate and can't be forced as far as I'm concerned. --NoFirstBaseOnFirstDate

Dear Pretty Woman,

Think about your last great kiss. You couldn’t wait to kiss each other, and I’m sure you did as soon as the opportunity arose. I don’t buy the “I’m old-fashioned and need to get to know you first” excuse. It takes five minutes or less to know if there’s chemistry with someone, so if you’re still ambivalent about the guy at the end of the first date, don’t kiss him. But don’t accept a second date either. Why? This is about romance, PW. If your interest level is so iffy that your body is not passionately reacting to him, why waste his time or yours?

A kiss is special. So special, in fact, that it should be reserved for someone that you truly have interest in getting to know better. If it turns you off when this guy you’ve just spent the last few hours getting to know goes in for the kiss, then guess what? THIS is going nowhere...fast or slow.

If you’re going out with man after man that you don’t have any interest in kissing at the end of your first date, you need to reassess with whom you are accepting dates. Stop with the mediocrity. Find the guy that makes your pulse quicken. I guarantee you’ll kiss that guy at the end of the night.

Angela, Love your blog.

I just recently went through an amicable divorce in June 2012 (15 years married/+ 8 years of dating), and my ex and I remain/ed the best of friends. A few months later, he told me that he was dating someone (hereinafter "GF") that he had met online. I was elated that he was dating.

This month he had a business trip and as usual asked if I could take care of the cats and, as always, I said I would. Upon arriving at the home, I did notice a fair amount of women's clothing and personal hygiene items, which I won't lie...I was a bit jealous in seeing them where of course my stuff had been for so many years! I snooped a bit further I came across an email where the "GF" stated that it was difficult for her to stay or move in to what she now was calling "our home" (meaning her's and my ex's) because the decorations/furniture reminded her of us (ex & I) and that, that part of his life was over. Of course that infuriated me because I did all the decorating/furnishing in the house. Of course her closing ended with "Love you, your wife."

Needless to say I called him and went crazy on him (not letting him know I was privy to that email). Needless to say we have not spoken since.

Here is where you come in...is it normal for me to be acting this way? I don't regret the divorce (it was my doing) and do believe it was the best thing for us. I am happy being only his friend and not his mate. But why does this bother me so much and why do I care? Any advice would be appreciated. --Confused

Dear Confused,

The gig is up.

He’s not yours anymore nor do you have control of who he dates, who moves in, or whether or not she calls herself his wife. Your anger has nothing to do with concern for him and everything to do with trying to maintain control. Your letter reads like a child that gives up her toy but throws a tantrum when someone else picks it up. You can’t leave him and have him at the same time, Confused!

If you really care for him as you say you do, stay out of his life and his business. The cats will be fed and life will get sorted out without your intervention. But that’s what this is really about, right? You are going through anger, jealousy and mourning over the fact that he has moved on without you...and that my friend, IS completely normal. (Going through his private emails, however, is not.) Even if we are the ones to leave it always stings when they eventually get over us. It’s our ego.

I empathize with you because I’ve been you. Dominate personalities, male or female, don’t like to give up control. You’re struggling with this because you can’t predict the outcome, not because you wish it were you as the “wifey” again.

All this energy you are spending focused on your ex-husband’s life is better served by directing it towards your life.

Let him go...it will be only then that you can truly move on.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

The Green Goddess, Vol. 7

2013-04-24T21:37:27+00:00

One of my favorite cuisines is Mexican. The challenge, of course, is that it can be full of fat and unwanted calories. With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, here are five bits of healthy advice regarding Mexican foods.

1) Stock up on heart-healthy fresh salsa: Besides being loaded with antioxidants and vitamins, salsa also has antibacterial properties due to garlic and onions. Z-Tip on the chips: Buy Beanitos or Organic Blue-Corn Chips; they are full of healthy fiber and relatively low in fat.

2) Make your own high-protein, low-fat guacamole: For those watching their fat intake, try blending thawed green peas (you can buy them in the frozen section at any grocery store) and adding them to your avocado guacamole. You will cut down the fat—and increase protein and fiber.

3) Beans, beans and more beans: I absolutely love beans; for me, they're like a super-food. They are full of protein and fiber and are perfect as an addition to salads, tacos and nachos (or as part of a main course). Z-Tip on beans: Buy organic, boxed meals at Whole Foods instead of the canned ones. You will skip the chemicals and still save time on the preparation.

4) Create the Green Goddess Mexican Meal: When I crave Mexican food, I like to create my meal of black beans, organic brown rice, guacamole, salsa and a side salad. If I am craving cheese, I go for the Vegan Daiya Cheese in cheddar flavor. It melts beautifully and, I promise, when you have all the right seasonings, you won’t miss the meat or dairy in this dish.

5) Quick appetizer: If you have friends coming over and need a quick and healthy Mexican dish, then try my Raw Vegan Nachos. They take minutes to make, and they are delicious. You can buy all the ingredients at your local Publix or at the Whole Foods Market.

Healthy Raw Vegan Nachos

Mexican Meat:
2 cups walnuts soaked in filtered water for 8 hours and drained
2 cups Brazil nuts
2 cups soaked sundried tomatoes
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup cilantro

In food processor, process all ingredients until chopped well, depending on how crunchy you like your food.

For Serving:
2 large jicamas, sliced in form of chips
1-2 bags of Raw Flax Chips

For Toppings:
16 ounce tubs of guacamole
16 ounce jar of raw salsa

Assembly:

Put Mexican meat on the flax chip or on jicama slice, top with guacamole and salsa.

Florida, Warts and All

2013-04-24T13:24:01+00:00

Is there any image more indicative of Florida than an elderly woman plopped on a bench in front of palm trees swaying in what will likely be the beginning of a nasty thunderstorm? All that’s missing is a pink flamingo trellis and somebody in Mickey Mouse ears.

This image is one of more than 50 photographs shot in Florida, roughly from Daytona Beach to Miami, over the past several decades by Constantine Manos, a former Army photographer of Greek ancestry who has worked for Esquire, Life and Look. In his series, titled “Florida Color,” which opened recently at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, he takes a long, hard, unsentimental look at Florida’s denizens and the beaches, storefronts, circuses, playgrounds and street corners in which they congregate.

The result is far from an objective cross-section of Florida’s population, but rather a study of its outliers. He lingers on the fringes, cataloging the illicit, the depraved, the dispossessed, the hedonistic, the ugly. Daytona Beach, under Manos’ lens, is a playground for sinful bikers, and Miami is a dumping ground for lumpy, unwanted seniors. Many of his images are both sad and funny at the same time, like one of a man with a cane passed out at a booth in a Miami Subs.

Disabled people turn up with unusual frequency in Manos’ work, be they rolling wheelchairs on a beach or walking down the street with crutches, suggesting the sobering flipside to the hedonistic abandon of the young people. In one signature shot, he focuses on three bikini-clad torsos and legs dancing in the foreground, while cars packed with male oglers cheer them on in the background. In many cases like this one, Manos makes the deliberate decision to cut his subjects off at some point, usually at the neck, thereby reducing them to sexual objects, which is their desire, after all.

In another shot, a big-haired woman with skimpy fetish wear and a rose tattoo on her upper arm takes the hand of a shirtless beefcake with an impressive six-pack; he too is cut off at the neck. Lord knows what disease-prone trouble they’ll be getting into. In the most repulsive shot in the series, a Daytona woman obscenely exposes her breasts and tongue while standing on the beach in front of a cadre of Buddhist monks, a moment of exhibitionism so profoundly insensitive that it gives this entire state a bad name. It makes Courtney Love look classy.

But even in Manos’ documentation of Florida’s wayward elements, there are intimations of mystery that undercut their general sense of moral degradation. In a shot of Solo cup-clutching partiers on Fort Lauderdale Beach, a scantily clad young woman in the center of the frame stares directly into the camera with a mournful, desperate expression that suggests more than just the depressants she’s probably ingested. It’s like a part of her doesn’t want to be there at all; call it Girls Gone Introspective.

And in a photograph from Daytona Beach, a couple embraces, sort of, in the far right of the frame, standing in an incomplete industrial building near the beach. She’s hugging him with all of her feeling, but his arms hang limply at his sides. Are they breaking up? Or is he just slow to react to her sudden embrace? Manos’ best works are not the ones that provide answers about Florida’s basest residents, but the ones that ask questions.

“Constantine Manos: Florida Color” is on display through June 9 at Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Admission is $14 adults, $7 children and $9 seniors and military. Call 954/525-5500 or visit moafl.org.

The Designer Series: Jonathan Adler

2013-04-24T06:00:00+00:00

It’s difficult not to gush over potter, artist, interior decorator and author Jonathan Adler.

His playful creations range from cheeky white vases and customizable floor rugs, to yellow chevron chairs and dinnerware so delectable you almost don’t want eat off of them. His products are instantly recognizable and fiercely cherished by his fans.

Adler recently stopped by Neiman Marcus in Town Center to meet with shoppers and fans, and celebrate his new accessory line. Beefing up his already impressive resume (which includes redesigning California’s Parker Palm Springs hotel and Mattel’s “real” Barbie Dream House), Adler recently launched a 300 piece line of wallets, purses, belts, hats and handbags.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Adler about his fabulous accessories, Pinterest and his love for Ke$ha.

How do you describe your style?

I define it as style, craft and joy. It’s something that I’ve thought a lot about and style really [refers] to the fact that everything should be chic. Craft is the key to everything I do. I started out as a potter and I believe everything should be beautifully crafted and made of amazing materials and really considered. Joy is about the spirit I try to infuse in my work, I want everything to be optimistic and hopefully make people feel good. So style, craft, joy!

What is one thing every room in the house should have?

Good lighting is sort of the under appreciated hero of interior design. I think lighting can make or break a space. It should always come from multiple [locations]. It should come from a ceiling lamp, a floor lamp, a table lamp.

Where do you begin when decorating a blank room?

I always like to start with a kapow rug. A rug of note.

What colors are trending for 2013?

If you are looking for a neutral, look no further than gray. I am thrilled to see the ascent of emerald. My two favorite colors are orange and turquoise.

How do you balance a room full of color?

People think I love color, and I do, but I’m actually very restrained in my color sense. What I like to do is use white, white, white, white, white as the basis for everything and then a neutral and an accent color. If you go with white, gray and orange, or turquoise, you will never look back.

Why white?

White is just like a palate cleanser for the eye. Everything I do just has tons and tons of white in it because it’s clean and bright and optimistic.

What was your inspiration for your accessories line?

Jet set glamour should be the inspiration for everything. I think design should transport you and make you feel richer, thinner and more glamourous than you ever thought you could be. That’s what I strive to do in all of my work and in my new line of accessories. It’s about creating an evermore eccentrically glamorous you.

Did you learn anything new when designing for the accessories line?

It’s kind of all the same stuff. I wish I could say that it was new. Same issues, just new canvas and new challenges. My whole job is an unexpected delight. I welcome and love a new design challenge. It’s been a blast.

What are your thoughts on sites like Pinterest and Etsy?

I use them. I love them. I think they are the best thing thats ever happened, on earth, ever. It’s genius. The only problem with all of these sites is that they’ve destroyed my, and everyone else in my office’s, productivity. But other than that, I think they are amazing tools.

When I started, none of that stuff was available to me. I wish I could bring Esty back 20 years so I could have had a platform to sell my stuff when I first started.

You often reference a certain college professor who suggested you stop designing and become a lawyer. Have you run into this professor since graduating?

I have run into her and there was a little light gloating and appreciation because I think everyone should have a discouraging naysayer to rebel against. Anybody who wants to do anything or achieve anything needs a meany to discourage them.

What is on your iPod currently?

My musical tastes are really embarrassing. I have the musical tastes of a 16-year-old [girl]. It’s all Kesha, Kesha, Kesha and then more Kesha! I feel like she and I are one person.

[Mattel's Barbie Dream House]

Are you as happy as you seem?

I’m really not. People think I’ve very happy but in all honesty, I am deadly serious about what I do. It takes a lot of angst and thought and struggle to make my stuff. I’m being totally sincere. I’m a happy person in general, but my job is very challenging. I lose a lot of sleep and I go through a lot of angst.

I’m happy when something comes out really great. I’m happy when I really nail it with a product, but the process of getting there is often quite torturous.

Where do you hope to be in 10 years?

Honestly, my life is great. I just hope I get to be as happy and fulfilled in ten years as I am today.

California Closets Opens in Boca

2013-04-23T23:39:55+00:00

There is a new addition to Royal Palm Place and it may just help you with that spring cleaning you have planned.

California Closets specializes in creating custom pieces for your closet (of course) but also entryways, kids’ rooms, home offices, garages, media centers, pantries and more!

A little backstory: According to the company’s website the company was “founded in 1978 by an [California] 18-year-old college student who turned his innovative idea of maximizing space in his dorm room closet into a successful small business.”

Since then the company has gone on to open more than 100 showrooms in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Domican Republic.

What we found most impressive though is the company’s commitment to sustainability. They make clear that providing clients with environmentally friendly options is a priority.

Most of the boards used by the company are manufactured in the U.S. and all boards are made with recycled wood fibers. California Closets also offers sustainable panels made from organic materials.

We love companies committed to green alternatives!

We also love the idea that more (organized) space means more room for shoes...

Happy shopping!

The Fit Life: Boston Marathon 2014

2013-04-23T15:00:48+00:00

April 15, 2013 will forever remain on our minds, as the tragic day terrorists attacked, killed and maimed people at the Boston Marathon.

But there are things we can do to defy intentions to take our spirit and instill fear. I call these the unintended consequences of terrorism: Positive pledges we make as a freedom-loving people, as a result of bad things that happen. You’re about to see how we can use this tragedy to improve our individual lives and the future of sporting events, like the Boston Marathon.

I’ve run the Boston Marathon. It’s among the most magical events in the world. You have to qualify for Boston, which makes it a great source of pride for those who run it. And when you get to Boston, you see people of all walks of life--there with a common goal to tackle the famous Boston course. People line the streets, cheering. As a participant, you can’t help but marvel at the spirit of Boston. I’ll never forget the Boston cop I turned to as I was running uphill. I was tired and needed confirmation that I would be able to keep going. I asked him if I’d be able to finish. He looked right at me, as I shuffled by and said, “You will.”

Let’s turn what happened around and use it to increase our support of this and other fitness events around the world. Get in the spirit of Boston. Don’t only get fit, but bring your fitness level up a notch. Don’t fear. Show your support for events like Boston by running a local race, cycling or swimming competitively, doing a triathlon...Whatever your sport, do it and pledge to do it well.

Doing exercise is one thing; competing with other people who share your love for a sport is another. You’ll find it gives you energy and incentive to become stronger.

Finally, let’s show our support for events like Boston. Whether you’ve run Boston, plan to run it or have no plans to run it, one way to send a message of support is to purchase and wear this t-shirt: http://www.adidas.com/us/boston-tribute-tee/_/N-1z125b0. The Boston Athletic Association advertises it on its homepage. And, according to its maker, Adidas, 100% of the profit from the shirt goes to OnefundBoston.org, which aims to help people hurt that day. Be patient, however. Many sizes in this t-shirt have sold out. Adidas plans to make more and asks that people check the website periodically for when more are available. Another option: Make your own t-shirt or other sports apparel, pledging to support the spirit of Boston. There are various websites for making custom clothes. Even Adidas has a section on its website for customizing.

We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share your memories of Boston Marathon on Bocamag.com.

About Lisette:

Boston Proper is Now Open in Town Center

2013-04-23T14:31:26+00:00

We were thrilled when Boston Proper (one of our favorite online and catalog brands) first shared the news that they were planning on opening a brick and mortar location in Town Center. Now, after months of anticipation their store is finally open!

Located in Palm Court, between Bloomingdale’s and Bulgari, Boca Raton-based Boston Proper is delivering a new shopping experience for their “fearless” customers.

“When you walk into the store you’re really going to get this feeling of a walk-in closet,” Boston Proper's Creative Director Ernie Sulpizio told Boca Mag.

And you do. The boutique is inviting and comfortable and full of all your favorite clothes...just like your own closet. The fitting room area is more than a third of the store. Sulpizio explained that Boston Proper wanted to shopping experience to continue in the dressing area.

The store is decorated in sun-kissed shades of bronze, blush and rose gold. There is a lounge seating area (where you can leave your husband!) and trained stylists on hand to help you find your perfect look. You’ll also notice sunburst sculptures, which match BP’s new logo.

But one thing you won’t see in the store? A cash register.

Boston Proper is taking a few cues from Apple. No cash registers, you can pay with the swipe of your card on an iPhone. The boutique also has a media table, with built in screens (think of an horizontal iPad) that will allow you to shop online, in the store! The storefront also has stacked video screens that face the mall’s interior, so you may notice window shoppers doing a double take as they stroll past.

If that wasn’t enough to make you head to the mall, it’s also worth mentioning that the merchandise on the floor will change out every three weeks. Every three weeks! So you will constantly have new choices to choose from.

Happy shopping!

Dandelion Blooms in Town Center

2013-04-23T06:00:00+00:00

A little more info on Dandelion, the health-oriented Middle Eastern “fast casual” eatery that made its debut last Friday in Boca’s Town Center shopping mall. It’s a sister restaurant to the mall’s just-opened Butcher & the Burger, another DIY diner by Chicagoan Allen Sternweiler.

The concept is the same, only the ingredients and cuisine have changed. At Dandelion you choose your protein delivery system (pita, flatbread roll or over greens), your protein (chicken, steak, fish, grilled veggies, lamb gyro and daily gyro special), then your various toppings (from cucumber and tomato to tzatziki and honey-mustard dressing).

There’s also a small selection of soups, salads and sides, with choices like chicken soup with rice, lemon and egg; rice and feta-stuffed grape leaves; baked cottage fries with lemon, oregano and olive oil; and your basic Greek salad. Also look for olive oil-roasted chicken and a daily pasta special.

The Week Ahead: April 23 to 29

2013-04-22T15:14:48+00:00

Tuesday

Billy Rogan and Chloe Dolandis at The Plaza Theatre, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan; 7:30 p.m.; $25; 561/588-1820 or www.theplazatheatre.net

Ever since she won Boca Raton's first-ever Rising Star Competition, local jazz/pop vocalist Chloe Dolandis has enjoyed a fruitful artistic career: She has hosted two programs on Nickelodeon, opened for entertainers as varied as Pitbull, Jeff Dunham and Billy Stritch, and recorded a debut album, “Bring Back the Fever,” which reached the Top 20 of iTunes’ Jazz Album Downloads within a week of its release. Tonight, she'll add another notch to her belt, by opening up for acoustic guitarist Billy Rogan at the Plaza Theatre, the lovely former home of Florida Stage. Rogan, who has been praised by Good Morning America and was recently featured on the American Society of Composers and Publishing's acclaimed Audio Portraits series, has mastered a finger style that combines classical and modern playing, and has been compared to artists such as Leo Kottke and Kaki King.

Wednesday

Brit Floyd at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 7 p.m.; $29 to $49; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

It seems as if there are more Pink Floyd tribute bands than there are stars in the sky – a sky punctured by smoke, roving spotlights, rotating laser beams and giant video projection screens. The stoned-night-at-the-planetarium aesthetic of the Pink Floyd tribute show is the conventional wisdom, and this band, formerly known as Australian Pink Floyd, certainly adheres to it. But with a professional 10-piece band of nearly perfect Floyd mimics, this cover band has risen to the top of the cluttered ranks. Tonight’s three-hour extravaganza, billed as the Pink Floyd Ultimate Light and Sound Experience, is a three-hour show featuring note-for-note renditions of five full album sides, including “The Dark Side of the Moon,” in celebration of the album’s 40^th anniversary.

Thursday

Ladies Night Out at Sequins B, 100 Plaza Real South, Boca Raton; 5:30 p.m.; free but reservation required; 561/392-7676 or www.royalpalmplace.com

Women’s clothing and jewelry retailer Sequins B will keep its doors open until 9 p.m. tonight for this Ladies Night Out, featuring closeout sales of up to 75 percent off, along with refreshments, hors d’oeuvres, raffles and a fashion show, including our favorite part of the evening: puppy fashions by Chewy Chic. Tonight’s event will also feature a performance by Latin music headliner Jossie Cordoba (pictured), a success story from the Republic of Panama who has recorded four Latin fusion albums and appeared at several award shows.

Al Pacino at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood; 8 p.m.; $104 to $154; 954/797-5531 or www.hardrocklivehollywoodfl.com

Somehow, in between all of the acting for stage and film that befits an in-demand actor of his status, Al Pacino has managed to tour a one-man show, on and off, for the past two years. Billed as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for South Floridians, this Pacino Unplugged concert finally arrives in our neck of the woods. If past shows are any indication, it will include a video montage of the actor’s work, an onstage interview with a local moderator, a Q&A section with the audience and, if we’re lucky, a live reading of some poetry and a David Mamet monologue. The show will likely run a couple of hours, and we assume it’ll be infinitely more coherent than Charlie Sheen’s “Violent Torpedo of Truth” tour.

Alice in Chains at Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 8:30 p.m.; $39.50 to $65; 305/673-7300 or www.livenation.com

You’ve got to hand it to Alice in Chains: After the deaths of two of its founding members, Layne Staley and Mike Starr, from drug overdoses, the group has continued to persevere, never breaking up despite the kind of difficult hiatuses that would break less committed acts. Associated with the grunge movement largely because the band formed in Seattle, Alice in Chains carved its own crunchy, soaring, heavy metal-influenced niche outside of Washington State compatriots Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The band has gone on to sell more than 25 million albums worldwide; even its comeback album, 2009’s “Black Gives Way to Blue,” proved to be a huge success, earning Alice in Chains new fans for a new generation. This May, the group returns with a new record bearing one of my favorite titles in a long time: “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.” Get your tickets for this concert now; it will sell out.

Friday

Opening receptions of new exhibitions at Art and Culture Center, 1650 Harrison St., Hollywood; 6 to 9 p.m.; $10 or free for members; 954/921-3274 or artandculturecenter.org

One of the Art and Culture Center’s most hotly anticipated exhibitions, the Sixth All-Media Juried Biennial features the best new work from dozens of Florida artists, from Farley Aguilar to Rodolfo Vanmarcke – a hipper and alternative appetizer, perhaps, to the Boca Museum’s All Florida show, which opens in May. The exhibit features works in painting, drawing, print, sculpture, photography, video, computer-generated imagery and site-specific installation, with top winners receiving $400 to $2,000 in prize money. Tonight also marks the opening receptions for an exhibition of abstract paintings by South Florida’s Joshua Silver Banks and a psychedelic installation from Elaine Defibaugh.

Opening night of Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival at the Gusman Center, 174 E. Flagler St., Miami; 8 p.m.; $10 to $25; 305/751-6305 or www.mglff.com

At the expense of burying the lede, let me tell you right off the bat that James Franco will be in attendance at this festival on Saturday night at the Gusman Theater to accept an award for his career achievements and support of the LGBT community. The actor, known for his award-winning role in “127 Hours” and celebrated part in the LGBT classic “Milk” will appear onstage prior to a 9:15 p.m. screening of “Out in the Dark.” It’s a big deal for this festival, but there’s a lot more going on, over a program lasting two weeks. Tonight’s opening night film, “G.B.F.,” is a comic send-up of high-school clique culture, about a school’s first openly gay male student and the attraction he engenders in the fashion-conscious female student body. Visit the festival’s website for a full list of titles, show times and theaters.

Saturday

Art Rock at Armory Art Center, 1700 Parker Ave., West Palm Beach; noon to 6 p.m.; $5 adults, free for children 12 and younger; www.artrockrocks.com

For the best in unusual and offbeat South Florida artists, look no further than this one-day cash-and-carry marketplace, one of three popular annual events from local indie-craft impresario Amanda Linton. Like her flagship venture, October’s Stitch Rock, Art Rock will feature DIY fashion, funky jewelry and home decorative items, but with an added emphasis on local art of the pop-surrealist, outsider, lowbrow and street-art persuasions. All mediums, including edible art, will be represented among the 55 artist/vendor booths. Among them: Chris’ Creepy Corner (sci-fi and horror art), Instasparkle (wearable photos) and Voodo Vixen (glass art). Be sure to show up early; the first 100 participants receive free “swag bags.”

Sunday

Renaissance at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 7 p.m.; $45 to $125; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

It didn’t make much news outside of the niche music press, but last November, Michael Dunford, guitarist of the British progressive band Renaissance, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The band, largely unnoticed in the U.S. even during its prime in the 1970s, had reunited in 2009 with Dunford and singer Annie Haslam as the two original members still on board. Now, sadly, it’s just Haslam, who has continued to tour with this latest incarnation of Renaissance, dedicating their concerts to Dunford. Combining folk and classical influences in its airy art-rock signature sound, the group will perform its albums “Turn of the Cards” and “Scheherazade and Other Stories” in their entireties over this two-part concert, possibly the last chance you’ll have to hear these great songs live.

Monday

Shen Yun Performing Arts at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m. starting at $50; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

Promising to revive 5,000 years of civilization, Shen Yun Performing Arts has been honoring China’s rich theatrical heritage since 2006. The New York-based group tours with its cast of top-notch principal dancers, orchestra players, soloists, choreographers, composers and conductors, presenting energetic, flowing vignettes that transport viewers across several centuries and locales, from the highest heavens to Middle Kingdom plateaus, in a show that defies easy categorization. Take note of the especially impressive costume designs and period props. The show also runs at 7:30 p.m. April 30.

Shake Shack Opens in Boca

2013-04-22T06:00:00+00:00

The Big Dog of the “gourmet” burger world—NYC’s restaurant mogul Danny Meyer—is today opening the third South Florida outpost of his burgeoning Shake Shack empire at the University Commons shopping center on Glades Road.

The Boca Shack joins siblings in South Beach and Coral Gables, dishing up 100-percent, all-natural Angus beef burgers, ground fresh daily, plus hot dogs in various guises, fries, shakes, sodas and desserts. Given its selection and prices (burgers range from $3.85 for a single patty plain to $8.90 for a double bacon-topped burger), expect the place to be swarmed with students from nearby FAU before opening day is out.

Two things of particular note. There will be plenty of outdoor seating to take advantage of South Florida’s general excellent weather, and desserts—in a nod to local producers—will come from West Palm’s own Sugar Monkey, owned by pastry chef Jennifer Reed (who also happens to be ex-Café Boulud chef Zach Bell’s wife). The “Burrowing Banana” certainly shook my shack, being an irresistible-sounding mélange of chocolate custard with a slice of the Monkey’s salted caramel banana cream pie.

Movie Review: "Oblivion"

2013-04-19T13:35:25+00:00

Let’s hope the new sci-fi movie “Oblivion” is mere fiction and not prophecy. Because if it’s the latter, we don’t have much time left. The film is set in 2077, where Earth has become a colorless, post-apocalyptic wasteland, battered from 2017 on in a decades-long war with extraterrestrial humanoids called Scavengers, or “Scavs.”

The Scavs destroyed the moon, which now looks like monochromatic abstract art on a stillborn sky, and earthquakes and tsunamis soon followed this act of interstellar terrorism like falling dominoes. Nuclear plants melted down, and the planet became uninhabitable. Sixty years have passed, and a pair of attractive humans, preserved in cryogenic sleep, have been dispatched to Earth to oversee hydro-rigs extracting energy from the earth – which will be transferred to a colony on one of Saturn’s moons, to help rebuild the human race – as well as to maintain the arsenal of robot drones, the species’ first line of defense.

Got all that? All of this information is dispensed in the first five minutes of the film. In retrospect, it’s the kind of blistering introduction that should almost be preceded by, “Previously on Oblivion.” It’s backstory for the Twitter generation.

Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) live on a well-appointed spacecraft on Earth – tomorrow’s gray planet – where they share a bed and a mission. They’re the “clean-up crew,” as Jack describes it, overseeing this barren waystation before they join their compatriots on Saturn. But after a seemingly routine drone-repair expedition that raises more questions that it answers, Jack watches as a prewar space capsule crash-lands, revealing a few human survivors, including a woman who looks eerily similar to a figure populating his dreams and whatever memories his government failed to eradicate.

As you might guess, there is a lot going on in “Oblivion,” and I haven’t even touched on the stuff with Morgan Freeman, whose deified oration reverberates through space before we even see him. It’s to the credit of sophomore director Joseph Kosinksi that he paces this busy film at a relatively lean and never-boring 126 minutes.

Originally pitched as a graphic novel, “Oblivion” may wear Kosinski’s homages on its sleeves – “Solaris” is an evergreen influence on every cloistered spaceship thriller since the ‘70s, and the HAL 9000 of “2001: A Space Odyssey” has morphed into the sweet, southern-fried voice of Sally (Melissa Leo) – but the movie’s thematic anxieties are firmly rooted in 2013. Its dystopian future of a perennially surveilled, drone-“protected” environment follows the natural extension of where our current, unconstitutional drone program is headed. The film catalogs the perils of delegating morality to thoughtless machines, as well as the perennial sci-fi theme of relying on technology over humanity. Issues of war propaganda and conditioning also seem to reflect the United States’ disastrous military adventurous in Iraq and Afghanistan, as withdrawals commence from these countries and we attempt to save face. “We won the war,” Jack continues to insist, repeating the company line despite the obliteration of the planet and most of humanity in the process.

These are all admirable points of view in a Hollywood blockbuster, and Kosinski and company should be commended. This is not to say that “Oblivion” values cerebral commentary first and foremost, a la the still-provocative “Starship Troopers.” This is an action spectacular, and expensive CGI set-pieces eventually consume the narrative to its own debasement. There are far too many last-minute saves, far too many unlikely decisions on the part of the film’s villains, far too many quippy wisecracks that sound enticing on trailers. But, with a few admirable plot twists, superlative visual effects, and serviceable enough acting, this is a major studio attraction whose pertinent message is the intellectual icing on a pretty solid cake of entertainment.

Small Bites: Restaurant News

2013-04-19T06:00:00+00:00

With the slow season coming up fast, it’s time for restaurants to start tweaking their menus to keep all of us locals interested.

At Max’s Harvest (169 NE 2^nd Ave., Delray Beach, 561/381-9970) they’re ramping up their focus on local-slash-organic ingredients, sourcing shrimp from the Gulf, snapper from the Keys and all-natural Seminole Pride beef. They’re even composting their produce scraps and handing them over to Farmer Jay’s Organics in Delray.

Among the menu newbies: pan-seared diver scallops with forbidden black rice, toasted cashews, green beans and Vietnamese-scented aioli; Palmetto Creek Farms prok chop with sweet corn sformato, braised collard greens and green tomato jam; and banana custard layered with bananas Foster and gilded with molasses cookie crumbs and bruleed vanilla custard.

At the former Tapas Lantana, now Tapas Fusion (210 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana, 561/533-5580), the gorgeous indoor-outdoor eatery has added several new small plates and cocktails. Menu highlights include fish tacos with avocado, citrus cabbage slaw and chipotle aioli; shrimp lettuce wraps with pepper, basil, papaya and crispy noodles; and grilled skirt steak with lump crabmeat and chimichurri.

Wash them all down with a Habanero Margarita (blue agave tequila, habanero chilies, brown sugar, simple syrup, lime juice and habanero bitters) or “Agua de Valencia,” a vodka and gin martini dressed up with orange, lemon, rosemary and cava, which sounds like something that might fuse your head to the floor if you’re not careful.

The Fit Life

2013-04-18T10:11:55+00:00

Medical research going on at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) could have big impacts on health and quality of life. Here are some of the newest areas of research going on in our very own backyard.

FAU announced April 11, 2013 that it entered into a licensing agreement with Eco Neurologics, Inc., a start-up company based on FAU’s intellectual property in Jupiter, to develop novel drugs for febrile epilepsy (a febrile seizure is a convulsion in a child triggered by fever), migraine and brain injury during stroke.

Through the agreement, Dr. Ken Dawson-Scully an assistant professor in biological sciences, received a $353,000 sponsored research grant from Eco Neurologics, Inc. to support his laboratory and expand his patent portfolio in this scientific area.

“We are at a critical stage in developing therapies for these devastating diseases, and this support will initiate a strong relationship between Eco Neurologics, Inc. and FAU,” according to Dawson-Scully.

For more information, contact Ken Dawson-Scully at 561-297-0337 or ken.dawson-scully@fau.edu.

In other news, scientists at FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have been awarded a $345,716 grant by the National Institutes of Health to identify marine natural products for their potential use in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, with a five-year survival rate of only 6 percent.

Researchers will use the grant to discover inhibitors of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products (RAGE) in pancreatic cancer cells using Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute’s unique library of marine natural products. RAGE has emerged as an important regulator of inflammatory, stress and cell survival pathways, which contribute to the aggressiveness of pancreatic cancer, according to an April 10, 2013 FAU press release.

“Chronic inflammation creates a microenvironment that is conducive to cancer formation. RAGE has recently been shown to be a key factor in driving the inflammatory process in pancreatic cancer cells and discovery of inhibitors that block its action may provide new therapeutic options. We hope that inhibitors of RAGE will not only have the ability to fight pancreatic cancer but may also be used to prevent it from ever developing,” says the grant’s principal investigator Dr. Esther Guzmán.

For more information, contact Carin Campbell Smith at 772-242-2230 or carinsmith@fau.edu, or visit www.cebmb.info/.

West Boca Medical Center Opens New Breast Center

West Boca Medical Center now offers comprehensive breast care services at its new Breast Center at West Boca Diagnostic Imaging. The center provides one location for all aspects of breast care including prevention, early disease detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast conditions, according to an April 11, 2013 press release.

Among the center’s features:

An onsite team specializing in breast care, including a physician specializing in breast disease, fellowship trained radiologists and a patient navigator.
Access to clinical research trials
Clinical breast exams
Diagnostic procedures including mammogram, ultrasound, MRI and core needle biopsies
Genetics counseling and testing
High-risk assessments
Personalized follow-up programs based on individual risk factors
Surgical consultations

The Breast Center at West Boca Diagnostic Imaging is led by Dr. Cheryl Moss-Mellman, along with medical oncologists, pathologists, plastic surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiologists and several surgeons. The center will offer educational and research activities and $99 screening mammograms.

For more information on the Breast Center at West Boca Diagnostic Imaging, call 561-417-7920, or visit www.westbocamedctr.com.

Raising money to cure stomach cancer

Looking to have fun for a good cause? The Fourth Annual Dream Maker’s Gala for Can’t Stomach Cancer: The Foundation of Debbie’s Dream is this weekend, Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Davie, Fla.-based Can't Stomach Cancer: The Foundation of Debbie's Dream is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about stomach cancer, advancing funding for research, and providing education and support internationally to patients, families and caregivers.

Where: The Westin Diplomat, 3555 South Ocean Drive, Hollywood, Fla. 3301

When: 7 p.m. to midnight

Fun lineup: Look for exciting live and silent auction prizes, music by Chris Cruz of Y-100, beautiful decor by Noel Brown of Medallion Occasion Boutique, dinner, dancing and entertainment. Master of ceremonies is Willard Shepard from NBC 6.

To RSVP or more info: Call (954) 475-1200 or email Events@CantStomachCancer.org.

About Lisette:

The Naked Truth, Vol. 55

2013-04-18T09:30:20+00:00

Angela, I'm a quiet young woman. I live locally. I'm 31 and single. I work with preschool children and like to go running. I feel I lead a satisfying and active life, but I know I am meeker than most. When it comes to dating, especially first dates, I feel like I don't have a lot to say. I don't feel I come across very interesting. Do you have any advice? --Ashley

Ashley, how you view yourself directly influences how others view you. Therefore, if you think you are uninteresting, sadly, everyone else will too.

I’m troubled by your description of yourself. You feel as if your opinions and feelings are unimportant. My advice is this: You are spectacular in your own unique way so start thinking like it.

The things in life that we are most passionate about are also the ones that make us the most interesting. You enjoy running and there must be something about teaching young children that fulfills you. It takes a very special person to nurture little people all day. Speak about why it is you do what you do when on your dates. Find those nuggets of your life that make your heart beat faster...the ones you can’t wait to get out of bed and conquer every day. Being excited about your life is what people will find fascinating about you.

P.S. Don’t ever feel like you aren’t interesting. You are. You just have to realize it.

Angela, I've read that women hit their sexual peak in their early 30s, but I'm 35 and feel like I haven't hit it yet. I don't know what I'm suppose to be feeling, but I certainly have never felt like a tiger or super confident in my own skin. Is there a chance I could peak but just a little later than most? --Red

Red, not everyone needs to be a tiger. In fact, the truth is, most of us are domesticated house cats. The media perpetuates the myth that women in their 30-40’s are swinging from the chandeliers on a nightly basis. Don’t let that be your standard for comparing your sex life.

While it’s true many factors contribute to the sexual self-confidence women gain as they get older (body acceptance, past child bearing age), everyone’s sexual appetite is different. You aren’t “supposed” to be feeling anything other than what you are. Sex drive is as individual as shoe size.

The good news is, you’ve got plenty of time left to start enjoying your sexual revolution. Most women don’t tap into their confidence until they turn 40 or even later.

Remember, even house cats can meow.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Theater Review: "Sweeney Todd" at Slow Burn Theatre Company

2013-04-17T12:00:00+00:00

Exactly one year after earning near-unanimous raves for its production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” West Boca’s adventurous Slow Burn Theatre Company has decided to tackle another ambitious Sondheim masterpiece: “Sweeney Todd,” that family show about revenge, rape, cannibalism and a throat-slitting demon barber. In his curtain speech on opening night last weekend, director/choreographer Patrick Fitzwater called it “The biggest show I’ve ever mounted.” I believe him; “Sweeney Todd” runs two and a half hours and contains 27 credited songs, many of which constitute a medley of numbers, sometimes sung simultaneously. It is not an easy task even for Broadway, and while I commend Slow Burn’s braveness, its production is not quite ready for prime time.

You probably know the story: Matthew Korinko plays Sweeney, the barber-turned-prisoner who has returned to his London stomping ground to exact revenge on the vindictive judge who banished him to exile and stole his wife and daughter away from him. His only friends are Mrs. Lovett (Karen Chandler), an incompetent baker who strikes a unique business proposal with Sweeney; and Anthony (Christian Vandepas), a young sailor who will soon become smitten with Sweeney’s daughter Johanna (Kaela Antolino), who is still languishing under the care of the corrupt and lustful Judge Turpin (Shawn Wayne King). In their attempt to discretely kill their way toward Turpin, Sweeney and Lovett take in their own ward, an innocent huckster’s assistant named Tobias (Bruno Vida), who will ultimately prove Sweeney’s downfall.

It’s a good thing I knew this story going in, because if not, I would be hopelessly lost during most of Slow Burn’s first act. The show’s sound design is remarkably poor, crushing the show’s momentum before it even gets under way. On opening night, certain microphones were so low that the singers’ vocals were barely comprehensible, and much of the dialogue sounded muddled. Sondheim’s masterly wit hardly translates when nobody can understand it.

Other times, the actors themselves are the problem, as when they can’t keep up with Manny Schvartzman’s musical direction; on opening night, it often appeared they were rushing through the numbers to get through them on time. Karen Chandler channels the correct kooky spirit for Mrs. Lovett, but she could have used a (better?) dialogue coach, because her British accent is inconsistent. King’s performance as Judge Turpin is all affect and no conviction, failing to instill any of the scorn and creepiness his character is supposed to engender; when he limply strokes his back with a whip in the self-flagellation scene, it comes off as comic, not disturbed. Vandepas and Antolino have lovely voices, and they sing well together, but as actors, they’re ciphers going through the motions. I haven’t even mentioned Ann Marie Olson, as the Beggar Woman; her amateur mistake at the end of the play undercut a tragic plot twist and resulted in derisive giggles from the audience; afterwards, probably frazzled, she missed a cue.

These are all individual failings, but the big-picture problem is this: Fitzwater’s cast struggles so much to simply get through this difficult material in one piece that they fail to connect emotionally, a problem that even plagued Korinko, a Carbonell-nominated actor as formidable as anyone on the Slow Burn stage. There wasn’t enough anti in his antihero; I wanted more menace oozing from his pale countenance.

I don’t want to dismiss this production entirely. Some of it is quite lovely, especially the intimate numbers between two characters – “By the Sea” and “Not While I’m Around” are both terrific, falling in a second act that is solidly more polished than the first. As Tobias, Vida is the show’s great discovery, exhibiting a flawless comprehension of his character and realizing both his initial innocence and his devastating breakdown. And Ian T. Almeida’s set design feels like a 3D Expressionist goth-scape brought to life by the slicing chiaroscuro lighting of Lance Blank. All of these elements give me hope that in this weekend’s final productions of Sweeney Todd, redemption may be possible for the rest of the show; let’s hope that the kinks, which should have been ironed out before opening night, will have dwindled to a minimum.

“Sweeney Todd” runs through Sunday at Slow Burn Theatre at West Boca Performing Arts Theater, 12811 W. Glades Road, Boca Raton. Tickets are $35 adults, $30 seniors and $20 students. Call 866/811-4111 or visit slowburntheatre.org.

Kravis Center Dancing Toward the Stars This Weekend

2013-04-17T08:14:54+00:00

It must be dancing season…the Boca Ballroom Battle is later this summer—but this weekend you can get your dancing fix (followed by a delish gourmet tasting) up at the Kravis Center, when the Young Friends of the Kravis stage their 20th Annual Reach For The Stars ballroom competition. Here’s the scoop:

When: Saturday, April 20, 6 p.m.

Where: Dreyfoos Hall, Kravis Center

Who’s shaking a leg:

FOXTROT: J. Gwendolynne Berry, Swirl Girl from the Palm Beach Post with Angelo Caruso, Caruso Dancesport

CHA CHA: Suzanne Boyd, CBS12 News This Morning with Alex Foraponov, Dance With Us Studios

WALTZ: Tim Byrd, “The Byrdman” ~ PalmBeachliveworkplay.com with Livia Maciel, Caruso Dancesport

RUMBA: Erin Guy, WPBF 25 News with Armando Vega-Perez, Dance Tonight

TANGO: Eric Roby, CBS12 News This Morning with Sandra Caruso, Caruso Dancesport

QUICKSTEP: Leslie Gray Streeter, The Palm Beach Post with Michael Housel, Dance Tonight

SWING/JIVE: T.A. Walker, “The Mo & Sally Morning Show” on KOOL 105.5 FM with Diana Heilig, Dance Tonight

Who it benefits: Kravis Center’s S*T*A*R (Students and Teachers Arts Resource) Series and education programs.

Cost: $60 for Young Friends of the Kravis Center, $75 for General Admission and $125 for Premium tickets, which includes on stage assigned seating for the dance competition and valet parking.

Who you gonna call: 561/832-7469 or 800/572-8471 or visit kravis.org/reachforthestars.

Participating Restaurants:

Angle at the Ritz-Carlton. Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, Cabo Flats, Café Centro, Café Chardonnay, Cha Cha’s Palm Beach, Echo, Havana. Lantana Jack’s. Leila Restaurant, Pampas Grille, PB Catch Seafood and Raw Bar, Seasons 52, Temple Orange at the Ritz-Carlton

Breakfast Gets a Wake-up Call

2013-04-17T06:00:00+00:00

Once upon a time, the first meal of the day was a piece of toast and a bowl of cereal. But those days are over, at least locally, thanks to chefs interested in recasting the morning menu as part of their weekend brunch presentation.

More and more spots are serving brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. The demand in Delray and Boca certainly is there—and with good reason. Friends and family enjoy kicking off the weekend in style over a few mimosas and Bloody Marys. And chefs dig the opportunity to go beyond bacon and eggs.

Take Tanzy (301 Plaza Real, 561/922-6699) at Mizner Park in Boca. The brunch menu here has old favorites with an Italian flourish. Try the Eggs Sardou, which resembles eggs Benedict but with baby artichokes, prosciutto and truffle hollandaise. The umami flavor of the truffle makes for quite the hearty meal. The poached eggs and whipped ricotta are reminiscent of a dish found on Tanzy’s Parma Bar menu; the tang of the homemade ricotta offers a delicate balance with the soft egg.

Rebel House (297 E. Palmetto Park Road, 561/353-5888) in Boca has become known for its eclectic dinner options, but the new brunch menu is equally compelling. The short rib and Gruyère frittata with forest mushrooms is served with smoked ketchup, which cuts the richness. The jalapeño cheddar biscuits, a famous complement to Rebel House’s fried chicken at dinner, are now offered with biscuits & gravy.

Boheme Bistro (1118 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/278-4899) in Delray has been serving breakfast favorites for some time. The Mediterranean omelet is a staple on the menu, as are the croissants and stuffed baguettes.

For those who enjoy brunch as much for the libations as the meal, many restaurants offer bottomless mimosas and Bloody Mary bars. Max’s Harvest (169 N.E. Second Ave., 561/381-9970) in Delray is one of them—and the price is quite nice. Be sure to branch out and try a juice other than orange. The slight bitterness will play well off the sweetness of the bubbly.

Make A Splash

2013-04-16T10:25:05+00:00

Summer is almost here (not that it necessarily left sunny South Florida) and we are already planning our beach attire. We decided to profile Miami girl Lila Nikole who is best known for bathing suit designs for the Miami Dolphin cheerleaders. Formerly known as Amaya, her namesake label has come a long way. Her steamy suits have made the cut in Sports Illustrated. As is typical of her style, the designer doles out swimwear advice to note: this season has no room for boring and typical. Invest in neons, wild floral prints, ruched accents and cutouts a la vintage glam, she advises.

Nikole’s imagination is sparked by music, events and travel. Her latest collection was transpired by the rhythm and beats at Ultra Music Festival.

“House, dance, trance music inspired a wild neon colored collection, music track line prints, with trance and trippy prints," Nikole said. "My last collection was inspired by an old Spanish song called Aguanile [by] Hector Lavoe."

A graduate of the Art Institute, she began designing swimsuits to meet a pre-req and with encouragement from fellow students, decided to create her own label. The Miami girl has positioned her label like a pro, leveraging its caliente flavor well suited to the weather. The best part is that her line is manufactured right here in Miami with fabrics imported from all over the world.

We asked if she was experimenting with any new fabrics.

“I use fabrics like stretch sequins, fringe accents, metallic mesh webs, embossed tan thru metallics and some recycled prints made on a semi synthetic base," she said. "I love to incorporate funky textures with traditional pieces. I experiment with all kinds of material, non-traditional accents and new technologies. Some of our current fabrics are created with recycled materials and inks that are eco friendly."

And how did the sports association come about? As a diehard football fan, Nikole reached out to a handful of NFL teams to handle their swim apparel.

“The match worked well for us all," she said. "I did eight NFL teams last year and two NBA teams. It was an honor to work with the Dolphins. They are an amazing corporation and a lot of fun to work with. I will be working with them again this year! Designing pieces as we speak.”

The next step for the design maven is opening more retail locations locally and nationally and then adding a children’s line to the mix.

Lila Nikole's swimwear designs can be viewed here. Happy shopping!

About Jo:

DIY Burger Coming to Town Center

2013-04-16T06:00:00+00:00

Set to open this week in the Town Center shopping mall off Glades Road in Boca is an eatery we teased a couple-three weeks ago, Butcher & the Burger.

This Chicago export, from Windy City chef Allen Sternweiler, is (not surprisingly) all about the patty and how you want to gild it. We’re not just talking beef either. There’s turkey, heritage pork, lentils, Key West pink shrimp, bison and salmon, with specials like wild boar, ostrich and duck.

Then the fun really begins. You can have your burger seasoned with everything from salt ‘n’ pepper to “umami” (garlic, ginger, scallions, back sesame seeds, sweet soy glaze). Then pick your bun (or get your burger wrapped in lettuce), cheese and other toppings, which are as prosaic as the ubiquitous LTO and as fancy-pants as sauteed foie gras and black truffle aioli. There’s also a selection of salads, sides and sweets.

They’re not kidding about the butcher thing either. Burgers can be purchased raw, for your own cooking, as well as specialty meats for holidays and such. They’ll also be holding cooking, butchering and food prepping classes for the real do it yourselfers.

The Week Ahead: April 16 to 22

2013-04-15T17:49:52+00:00

Tuesday

“The Ultimate Ponzi” book signing at Cinema Paradiso, 503 S.E. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale; 6 p.m.; $5 or free for members; 954/525-3456 or www.fliff.com

South Florida’s own ultimate Ponzi schemer is not Bernard Madoff – though he certainly plundered the bank accounts of many Palm Beachers. I prefer the meteoric rise and karmic collapse of Scott Rothstein, the extravagant lawyer currently serving a 50-year sentence for a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme that helped fund a $6 million Fort Lauderdale home (one of three residences across the country), a $5 million yacht and a fleet of exotic cars. He was almost a parody of a wealthy, egomaniacal sociopath – “I joke around that there are 43 people living in my head and you never know what you’re going to get,” he once told an interviewer – and his journey is chronicled in an exhaustively researched new book by Chuck Malkus. Malkus will present clips from Rothstein’s career and sign copies of his book at this event; light refreshments will be served.

Mike Tyson: “Undisputed Truth” at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 8 p.m.; $35-$500; 305/949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

It seems like eons ago that Mike Tyson bit into Evander Holyfield’s ear, and epochs since his notorious rape conviction in the early 1990s. Redemption, apparently, is possible for boxing’s baddest boy, who has reclaimed his image and possibly his mental health thanks to show business. Tyson 2.0 started with an intimate, thoughtful 2008 documentary of his life and was followed by acting roles in “The Hangover” and “Law & Order: SVU.” But perhaps more than anything else, it’s Tyson’s surprising turn as the star of a one-man Broadway show directed by Spike Lee that has raised his credibility to new heights. The funny and grotesque show, which features an unfiltered Tyson dishing on his career highs and lows, has received critical raves to justify its high ticket price. He’s proven to be witty offstage, too, telling reporter Rick Reilly that the pressure of acting onstage is “the same as a fight, but I don’t have to worry about going to the hospital afterwards.”

Wednesday to Sunday

South Beach Comedy Festival at various South Beach venues; various ticket prices; southbeachcomedyfestival.com

Wisely pushed back from its usual March engagement, this year’s South Beach Comedy Festival will run in the (relatively) slower month of April, where a handful of top comedians will headline this festival’s most exciting lineup in years. The festival begins on Wednesday with a quality workshop production of Mad Cat Theatre Company’s “Charming Acts of Misery” – a comedy about the tragic life of fashion muse Isabella Blow. The fun continues with rising actor Bill Burr, also on Wednesday, “Weekend Update” host Seth Meyers on Thursday, “30 Rock” alum Tracy Morgan on Friday and the wickedly funny Sarah Silverman on Saturday, all at the Fillmore Miami Beach. And you can catch more comics at “Backstage @ the Fillmore,” the Colony Theatre and the Lincoln Road Free Stage throughout the weekend.

Friday

Esperanza Spalding at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 8:30 p.m.; $55-$95; 305/949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

In February 2011, jazz singer Esperanza Spalding stunned the music world when she won the Best New Artist Grammy, upsetting Justin Bieber and Mumford & Sons to become the first jazz performer to win the award. Not bad for a high school dropout from Portland who trained her voice primarily by singing in the shower. A lovely, big-haired melting pot of music and culture, Spalding sings in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and plays intimate jazz on her instrument of choice, the upright bass.

Friday and Saturday

“An Evening with Groucho” at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m. Friday and 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; $35; 561/832-7169 or www.kravis.org

The thick moustache, striking eyebrows, phallic cigar and safari hat are only the finishing touches on actor Frank Ferrante’s spot-on impersonation of Groucho Marx, which he’ll bring to the Kravis Center for these three performances. Discovered in 1985 by Groucho’s son, Arthur, for a play he was working on about his father, Ferrante soon became the go-to Groucho in the theater world. He’s played the Marx brother at age 15 on through to age 85 and has won awards for his work in the Arthur Marx/Robert Fisher play “Groucho: A Life in Revue.” For this new solo show, he’ll play Groucho during the artistic peak of the comedian’s career, and it will include songs, one-liners, anecdotes and inspired audience improvisation.

Saturday

Second Anniversary Celebration at Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach; 7:30 p.m.; $100; 561/450-6357 or www.artsgarage.org

Simply surviving two years as a nonprofit arts startup is a laudable accomplishment in this economy. Pineapple Grove’s Arts Garage has managed to do so while battling its potential banishment from its current, choice location – a battle with a prestigious law firm which the city is still deciding. Now something of an institution in Delray Beach, this beloved organization can use your support more than ever, and this fundraiser will go a long way in helping to ensure its survival, while directly benefiting educational initiatives. Little Jake Mitchell and the Soul Searchers, a nine-piece soul and blues act from Detroit, will highlight the festivities, and attendees can enjoy cocktails and delicacies from some of the city’s finest restaurants.

Sunday

The Smithereens at Meyer Amphitheater, 104 Datura St., West Palm Beach; 4:30 p.m.; free; 561/822-1515

If talent and fame had any correlation whatsoever, the Smithereens would be one of the most popular bands on the planet. Instead, the New Jersey power-popsters have had just one album peak on the Billboard charts – at No. 41, in 1990. But this hardworking band has been recording albums and touring for the past 33 years, occasionally accruing the misguided accusation that they steal from the Beatles and other British Invasion acts. To my ears, Elvis Costello is a far more obvious influence, but the Smithereens have eked out a cult niche all their own, by playing music that should be for the masses. At this special free concert, expect to hear hits like “A Girl Like You” and “Blood and Roses” along with cuts from the band’s powerful 2011 release, matter-of-factly titled “2011.”

Monday

“Finding Mona Lisa” play reading at Lynn University’s Wold Performing Arts Center, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $10; 561/237-9000 or www.lynn.edu

Local theater maven Jan McArt’s New Play Reading Series at Lynn University has grown in leaps and bounds this past season, growing from audience figures that just barely cracked double digits last season to more than 400 for last month’s reading of Jay Stuart’s “Champagne and Bosom Buddies.” The series concludes tonight with perhaps its most anticipated entry, “Finding Mona Lisa,” a new play from South Florida’s most recognizable playwright, Michael McKeever. It’s about the rich history of the Mona Lisa painting, intertwining six storylines from 1503 Florence to 2013 New York, and it features a dynamite cast: Alex Alvarez, Lindsey Forgey, Maribeth Graham, Peter Haig, Matthew Korinko and Scott Douglas Wilson. See it in its inception before a major regional theater snatches it up.

Two Fast Casual Eateries to Debut

2013-04-15T06:00:00+00:00

The fastest-growing segment of the restaurant industry these days is “fast casual,” minimal service eateries that offer a customizable menu of accessible, easy to like dishes at prices that won’t frighten children and small animals.

Coming at the end of the month to West Palm Beach is PDQ, a chicken-centric restaurant from a pair of Outback Steakhouse founders. Standing for People Dedicated to Quality (or Pretty Darn Quick), PDQ is offering a relatively limited menu with lots of DIY choices, like crispy chicken tenders with choice of seven sauces (from blue cheese to ranch to honey mustard), a roster of chicken and turkey sandwiches, and freshly made salads with choice of dressings. Once the West Palm outlet is up and running, look for others in Wellington and Boca.

Also coming to West Palm Beach, to CityPlace, to be exact, is Moe’s Southwest Grill. Expected to debut in late summer-early fall, Moe’s will slide into a space just across South Rosemary Avenue from the mammoth Revolutions Bowling, Bar & Grill. If you’ve ever been to a Moe’s (there are almost 500 of them across the country), you know what to expect: burritos the size of duffel bags (gotta love that Homewrecker), tacos, quesadillas, nachos, salads and more, including a small salsa bar. In this case, less really isn’t Moe.

Royal DIning in Delray Beach

2013-04-12T15:48:29+00:00

The smells of delicious tenderloin steak and three-cheese polenta wafted from the stage of the Crest Theatre at Delray Center for the Arts yesterday afternoon, to join the ripples of laughter already reverberating across the auditorium. Darren McGrady, who spent 15 years cooking in Britain’s royal kitchen as personal chef to Queen Elizabeth and later Princess Diana, spoke for more than an hour to a packed house at the Crest, even while cooking a special meal on hot plates for four local diners who won a raffle to savor the dishes.

McGrady shared hilarious and touching anecdotes from his times in Buckingham and Kensington palaces, and it was a great way to conclude the Crest’s 2012-2013 season. I heard many patrons say that it was the best lecture they’d heard all season. Here are a few of the highlights.

“I was born in Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire is in the middle of the country, famous for Robin Hood and Nottingham Castle, which I thought was a huge castle in England until I started working for the Royal Family and went to Windsor Castle. Then I saw a real castle. Nottingham is also home to Stilton cheese – the king of cheese in England. It’s a region-protected dish, meaning it can only be prepared in Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. It’s region-protected, just like Champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France, that Parma ham can only come from the Parma region of Italy, and that chicken-fried steak can only come from Texas!

“I applied to the Savoy Hotel in London, one of our big five-star hotels. I thought, well, I probably won’t be head chef. I’ll probably be No. 2. I was actually chef No. 70 of 70 chefs. So I spent the next two years in the royal kitchens, working my way through the partie system.

“Buckingham Palace is amazing – 775 rooms. A movie theater. A post office. Even a helicopter pad out the back. It was everything I’d imagined it would be.

“The queen has 20 chefs, and those chefs would travel with Her Majesty all around the world, to the royal residences and on the Royal Britannia. For my first job at Buckingham Palace in the kitchens, the head chef called me in and said, ‘Darren, I need you to help me out. Come and peel some carrots for the queen.’ He said, ‘I’ll show you how to do them!’ Really? He took three carrots and peeled them all. Then he cut them to finger length. Then he patted them down and trimmed them again. Then he put them in a paper sack and folded the creases down. I said, ‘Chef, she likes her carrots, doesn’t she, Her Majesty?’ And he said, ‘Why’d I say they’re for the queen – they’re for the queen’s horse!’

“The banquet rooms are pretty special. My favorite of all is the queen’s ballroom. It seats 156 people for a state banquet. Her Majesty sits in the center of the table, and the visiting king, queen or president sits next to her. When the queen is ready to start the meal, a page stands behind Her Majesty and presses a button. The traffic lights at the four exit doors change from red to green, and the footmen start coming out with the plates. When Her Majesty put down her knife and fork from the first course, that meant the course was over. You’d finished, even if you hadn’t finished!

“We had 6,000 people at diplomatic receptions. All the embassies in London would come and bring their wives and families for this huge reception. Princess Diana didn’t really like the big receptions. She’d get pinned into the corner by someone and couldn’t get away. One time, she came in, and she was carrying a box of mangos. She said, ‘Darren, you remember the diplomatic reception last week? Well, there was a gentleman there I couldn’t get away from, and he said to me, Lady Diana, in my country we have the best mangos in the world. Well, naturally I said to him, I love mangos. He sent me a box of mangos – how kind of him.’ So I took the mangos, and I made sorbets and smoothies and shakes. A week later, another box arrived, and a week later another box came. And then another box, the fourth week. This went on for six weeks. I was putting them in the refrigerator, behind the refrigerator, anywhere I could. On the last week, the princess came into the kitchen with this box of mangos. She dropped them on the table and said, ‘Darren, if ever I see that man again, I’m going to tell him I like diamonds!’

Christmas was always so much fun, working for the royal family. The royal family are German by descent, and they carry on the tradition of opening their gifts on Christmas Eve. I remember being in the kitchens on Christmas Eve and listening to them in the ballroom next door, opening all these presents and laughing and joking. We did this huge buffet in the evening. We were in the kitchen and suddenly we hear ‘Charge!’ William and Harry come racing into the kitchen. They’d got pump-action water guns that Prince Andrew had bought them for Christmas, and they were firing at all the chefs. We got absolutely soaked. I said to my friend Arthur, we’re going to get our own guns and get these boys back.

“We did – we found the only two replica Uzi machine guns in the whole town. In those days, they didn’t have the orange caps on the end – they looked real! Better still, they had batteries, and the water fired 30 feet. We were so excited, like little boys. We raced back to Sandringham ready to start the evening shift. It was cold, dark, miserable, snowing, windy, and we got into chef uniforms and knew we had to get across the parking lot and into Sandringham House before the boys got out of afternoon tea and went up to the nursery for bath and bed. We got halfway across the parking lot, and we heard, ‘Freeze! Armed police!’ Out of nowhere came a policeman with a gun. A real gun. Fortunately, he recognized us. He came over to us and said, ‘What are you doing?’ Before I could say anything, Arthur says, ‘We’re going to shoot William and Harry!’

“The people Diana had over were people that would write in and say, I want to meet Princess Diana and see if she could help with my charity. One day she came into the kitchen and said, ‘Darren, no lunch today, I’m going out.’ I said, ‘Your Royal Highness, I’ve made lunch for you. Where are you going?’ She said, ‘I’m going to see a little boy who’s dying of AIDS.’ That hit me. I said, ‘wow, what can you say? What can you do?’ She said, ‘There’s nothing much I can do and very little I can say, but if just by sitting with him for half an hour, if just by holding his hand, if just by telling him some of my jokes, takes his mind off the pain, then that will have been worth it.’

“She’d do this all the time. She got into trouble for being the first member of the royal family that wouldn’t go on a walkabout wearing gloves. She told the rest of the royals, ‘I need to touch hands. I need to feel the warmth and connect to the person I’m talking to.’ She got into trouble for kneeling down to a little girl to take flowers from her. Prince Charles said, ‘We don’t bow down to our servants.” And Princess Diana said, ‘But you have to go down to a little girl’s level when you talk to her so you can look her in the eye.’ She used to take the boys to homeless shelters and let them see what life was really like, so that they’d grow up and appreciate the luxuries that they had.

“We had a famous talk-show host coming for lunch with the princess. I can’t say who it was – Oprah – and they were eating the tomato mousse, and Oprah said, how do you manage to stay so slim, Diana, eating rich foods like this? The reason was that Oprah was on the full-fat version of the tomato mousse, and Diana was on the fat-free version. I never did tell her that.”

DVF, Robert Graham Open in Sawgrass, Versace Coming Soon

2013-04-12T14:25:16+00:00

It’s hard to believe that the largest outlet mall in the United States still has room to accommodate new brands, but they’ve shocked us again! Sawgrass Mills recently celebrated the opening of two new stores, Diane von Furstenberg and Robert Graham, and there are more on the way.

Versace, Roberto Cavalli and Frette are also slated to set up shop in South Florida. No official dates have been announced.

Zinburger Wine and Burger Bar (I’m sorry, did you say wine AND burgers!?) will open its first and only Florida location at Sawgrass later this year.

So to quickly recap:

You can shop today for beautiful designs by DVF and easy apparel from Robert Graham. And in a few months you can work up an appetite browsing through Versace’s gorgeous creations, and then refuel on wine and burgers.

This is going to be a great year!

Happy shopping!

First Look: HMF at The Breakers

2013-04-12T08:18:33+00:00

If I told you the hottest dining ticket in Palm Beach County is at The Breakers, would you say I’m out of my mind?

I might be, at that. But you’d still be wrong, because the gorgeously rococo space at Palm Beach’s palace of the One Percent dubbed HMF (for resort founder Henry Morrison Flagler) is indeed the hottest dining ticket in town. Also one of the best.

You can check out a complete review in the July/August issue of the magazine, but for now let’s just say that most everything on the small plates menu that channels hip urban cafes, food trucks, contemporary sushi bars and farm-to-table eateries is terrific. It’s not cheap—this is, after all, The Breakers. But when you add up the extensive roster of inventive, flavorful, fun-to-eat dishes, excellent service from a female staff that appears to have been pulled off a Paris fashion runway and wine list that will leave even the most jaded cork dork drooling, you’ve got to say it’s worth every penny.

Just a few of my favorites: warm onion and Parmesan dip that’s a creamy-cheesy pillow for smearing on wafer-thin crisps of fingerling potato, dusky wild boar empanaditas with a mildly spicy, lightly chocolate-y Spanish molé, a perfect wild mushroom and fennel sausage flatbread, and luscious pumpkin praline bread pudding with vanilla bean custard.

Just one caveat: HMF doesn’t take reservations, and the spaces—as big as it is—fills up early, even on supposedly “off” midweek nights. But, really, don’t let that stop you. Get to HMF PDQ.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 54

2013-04-11T09:41:51+00:00

Angela, in my last relationship I contracted an sexually transmitted disease. After a long break from dating, I think I'm ready to put myself out there again, but I don't know how or when to tell someone new. I am stressed I'm going to meet someone great and they are not going to want to be with me when they learn the news. --Anonymous

Dear Anon,

You weren’t specific as to which STD you contracted, and not all STDs are created equally. I’m going to assume the concern here is that you could pass this STD along to another partner. While I certainly don’t make light of STDs or unsafe sex, more than half of those sexually active have had a STD in their lifetime. My point is, you aren’t the only one on the dating scene with this issue so go ahead and put your scarlet STD letters away.

Educate yourself, if you haven’t already, regarding the specifics of you STD. I suggest Planned Parenthood. Their website provides easy to comprehend facts about disease and where to turn if you need counseling or screening. Your worry may be eased by learning you can move forward with a normal life after diagnosis.

As for dating and disclosing to potential partners...

There’s no dating creed that states you must disclose an STD. However, morally speaking, you’d be of questionable character if you didn’t. How you deliver the news will make a difference. (I suggest refraining from balloon-grams that say, “Guess What? I have Herpes!”) In all seriousness, there’s no right or wrong way to tell you how to talk to a potential partner about your STD. The timing of this disclosure must fit your trust and comfort level with each other. If you do meet someone great, are honest and forthright about the STD you contracted, and let them be in control of protecting themselves, this is a small hurdle to jump in relationship land even if it doesn’t seem like one now.

The reason 50% of sexually active people have contracted some type of STD, Anon, is because many aren’t upfront and don’t disclose critical past sexual activity to their partners. I applaud your commitment to honesty about your situation. There is a healthy sex life after an STD diagnosis.

Angela, are there any advantages for staying together "for the kids?" --Dad

Dad, one quick search of the internet under the theme of “Are children of divorce more likely” will lead you to believe children of divorce will become drugging, sexually-active alcoholics that dropout of school and get in trouble with the law...

But here’s the deal- whether your personal scenario is the societal accepted ideal, a two parent household, or what critics believe is the recipe for doom, an unwed single mother- there is no guarantee you are going to raise them right. Or wrong. Do statistics indicate a two parent household work best for successful child rearing? Absolutely. But statistics also say that vanilla ice cream is the most popular flavor for Americans, and guess what? My favorite is pistachio.

There is no one size fits all solution. I speak as a child of divorce and also as a parent raising a child of divorce. As a child of divorce I can tell you that I would not be where I am today had I not had to learn to be self sufficient after my parents’ divorce. Despite the hardships (and there were many) from my perspective, I am a better person for it. As a parent of a child of divorce, I made a commitment I would not let divorce change my values or responsibility to raise him to the best of my ability. That’s all anyone can do.

So, do you stay together “for the kids?” The answer is no. You stay together because marriage is a sacred institution and you made a vow that, for better or worse, you would honor that commitment. But sometimes no matter how hard we try, or how much we want to do so, that institution becomes irretrievably broken. If it is your children are not destined for failure. Get it? Divorce is not a conviction to a terrible life for your children.

There’s a Proverb that states, “Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it.” No matter what the circumstances, if you do the best of your ability as a parent, you’ve done exactly enough.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Get out there with The Barefoot Mailman

2013-04-11T08:27:15+00:00

This Sunday, April 14, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. the old days come alive again at Sandoway House Nature Center, 142 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, with a day-long celebration of our beloved Barefoot Mailman, an iconic figure of early Delray history. Michael Bornstein as the Barefoot Mailman will lead a walk on the beach tracing the footsteps of the original Barefoot Mailman, and there will be arts and crafts, treasure hunts, reggae music, boxed lunches and more.

Back in the old days, when South Florida was the province of a few plucky farmers and adventurers, it was not easy to get your mail. No one was worried about Saturday delivery being interrupted; they were hoping to get a letter at all--months after it was written. These were the days of The Barefoot Mailman route, which extended from Palm Beach to Miami and back--and took six days. This was considered an improvement over the old route, which involved going from New York to Havana to Miami, which took considerably longer.

There were at least 10 different barefoot mailmen, with the most famous James E. “Ed” Hamilton, who disappeared delivering mail on the route in 1887, presumably drowned or taken by an alligator or crocodile while trying to swim across Hillsboro Inlet. His body was never recovered.

Delray may be the most fun small town in America, but it is events like these that connect the dots to its rich history--and legacy. So turn off the iphones, unplug the TV and get out here in the real world with your family. This sounds like a great Sunday—in Real Life 3D ---with history come to life. The cost is $10 per person all-inclusive, and you can find out more at historicalsocietypbc.org.

The Fit Life

2013-04-10T19:23:35+00:00

There’s a newcomer to the world of workouts opening in Delray Beach: Xtend Barre.

The new location of the worldwide franchise, created by former professional dancer and choreographer Andrea Rogers, is celebrating the launch of its Delray Beach studio on Saturday, May 4, 2013.

The Xtend Barre program features a Pilates-based, dance-amplified workout that uses the ballet barre, yoga straps, balls, weights, and stretch bands to maximize fat burning, improve posture, tone and lengthen muscles. The workout is ideal for busy moms and working professionals as participants are able to complete a full body workout—including cardio and stretching—in just 55 minutes, according to the company’s website at http://www.xtendbarredelraybeach.com/.

Boynton Beach resident Stacie Willhite-Mauro, is owner and instructor at the new location. She grew up studying all forms of dance and was a cheerleader. After becoming a full-time mom, she searched for a fitness regime which she enjoyed and would incorporate her passion for dance. Once she found Xtend Barre, she instantly knew it was perfect for her needs. She loves that Xtend provides a full-body workout, which includes lengthening and stretching. Willhite-Mauro became mat Pilates certified through Power Pilates and Xtend Barre and Stick certified, according to the Xtend Barre website.

For those who are intrigued, classes are free the first week.

“The May 4 kickoff will be the start our week of free classes. We will have an Xtend Barre class that day with Laurie at 930 and an Xtend Stick class with Andreina at 10:45. There will be two classes each day that week that will be free. We will also be running a special sale that week on packages,” according to Mauro.

Classes start at $20 a class, but package pricing is available. For more information, call 561/265-5174, or visit http://www.xtendbarredelraybeach.com.

Xtend Barre also has locations in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. To find those, go to: http://xtendbarreworkout.com/new/state/florida/.

Lace up!

Boca Raton Road Runner has announced its 36th Annual Memorial Day Family Affair 5K, youth mile and little people run.

When: Monday May 27, 2013, starting at 7:30 am.

Where: 900 Broken Sound Blvd, Boca Raton, 33487.

Tee shirts, awards to age group winners and 250 Publix pies to be given away to 5K runners!

Registration is $30 for the 5K, if you register before race day. Discounts are available. For more about pricing or the race in general, go to http://memorialdayfamilyaffair.com/ or call the Runner’s Edge at 561/361-1950.

Local hospital earns awards

West Boca Medical Center has earned the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association for its excellence in the treatment of patients with heart failure. Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to improve outcomes, prevent future hospitalizations and prolong life.

Under Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics, and anticoagulants in the hospital. They also receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged.

In other news…

West Boca Diagnostic Imaging Center has achieved a three-year term of accreditation in breast ultrasound as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology. Ultrasound imaging is a noninvasive medical test that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce images of internal body parts to help physicians diagnose and better treat medical conditions. Ultrasound imaging of the breast produces a picture of the internal structures of the breast. The American College of Radiology’s gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety, according to a West Boca Medical Center press release.

For more information about West Boca Medical Center or for physician referral, call 866-904-WBMC (9262) or visit the website at www.westbocamedctr.com.

About Lisette:

Movie Review: "Trance"

2013-04-10T15:11:08+00:00

Hypnotherapy has never been sexier than it is in Danny Boyle’s “Trance,” opening Friday across South Florida.

This is a film that will likely foster a vast uptick in straight men trolling their local businesses looking for the kind of exotic, promiscuous clinician played here by Rosario Dawson, in efforts to curb their overeating, their restless leg syndrome, or (god forbid) their sex addiction. Dawson’s hypnotherapist, Elizabeth Lamb, enters the picture about 20 minutes in, summoned to help Simon (James McAvoy) remember where he hid a priceless Goya painting – which he happened to help steal, as the inside man on an art-auction heist. In the process, she becomes the therapist who knows too much, not to mention reveals too much: Dawson goes full-frontal nude in this film, and you can almost see the drool trickling down Boyle’s chin as he fetishizes her, foot to head, in an idolatrous upward tilt shot.

The director would no doubt make a game argument for the artistic necessity of this shot, which, 20 years ago, would have guaranteed the film an NC-17 smack-down from the MPAA. He’d probably hedge his argument in the pseudo-feminist hogwash this film peddles. But the fact is, this very shot must be the reason “Trance” has been accruing such ceaseless buzz over the past couple of months, with features, interviews and reviews in all the major men’s magazines and even by film journalists, whose scholarly brains have apparently been overtaken by another organ.

After all of this hype, I can’t believe what a preposterous trifle this film really is – an insubstantial, unintentional parody of “what is reality?” think pieces that yearns to be taken seriously. Instead, it comes off as the work of a director regressing into the formal and narrative infantilism of his earlier films, just a few years after expanding his own vocabulary so intensely with “127 Hours.”

The movie begins at the Sotheby’s-like fine art auction, where an unexpected hiccup botches the calculated theft of Goya’s mesmerizing “Witches in the Air:” In an effort to appear loyal to his employers, auctioneer Simon electrocutes his partner-in-crime Franck (Vincent Cassel); Franck retaliates by slugging Simon with his gun and grabbing the painting, which is supposedly housed in a black zip-case. Simon ends up with a concussion and selective amnesia; Franck ends up with an empty picture frame and no Goya masterpiece.

After a nasty bit of torturing Simon to trigger his memory, Franck and his band of thugs enlist the help of Elizabeth to retrieve the suppressed memory of the painting from Simon’s steel-trapped mind. It’s a promising premise, but the Goya quickly becomes this movie’s MacGuffin, inciting a string of narrative twists and reversals, nightmares and fantasies, flashbacks and revelations. Dreams become increasingly difficult to differentiate from reality, and the more “Trance” devolves a convoluted game of who’s playing who, the more ridiculous it becomes, following a trajectory similar to Steven Soderbergh’s disappointing “Side Effects.”

This is a film borne of repugnant narcissism, in love with its own cleverness. It’s cripplingly infatuated with its own ability to confuse us and then rectify our confusion with enlightening narrative koans that only make “sense” if you don’t think about them too much. When everything comes together, the final picture doesn’t have the classical harmony of a Goya so much as the cubist chaos of a Picasso – and Boyle is no Picasso.

The Green Goddess, Vol. 6

2013-04-10T10:35:27+00:00

You can’t throw a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano in Boca without hitting an Italian restaurant. Calorie counters, especially, have a love-hate relationship with the cuisine; we love how it tastes, but we hate how it weighs us down. Is it possible to enjoy a guilt-free Italian meal? You bet—and here’s how:

• Pasta: The word “cream” with any pasta dish screams “calories, calories, calories.” And with good reason: They’re packed with loads of saturated fat. My suggestion is to skip the Alfredo and go for pastas with tomato-based sauces, which are high in heart-healthy lycopene and low in fat and calories.

• Antipasti: Loaded with veggies, the antipasti servings at an Italian restaurant are culinary paradise for health-conscious diners like me. This is a great opportunity to try different types of vegetables; a skilled chef can transform ordinary eggplant into decadent melanzane with the right Italian touch. One of my favorite places for antipasti in Boca is Trattoria Romana (499 E. Palmetto Park Road, 561/393-6715); you can make an entire main course out of their outstanding antipasti selection.

• The great grill: If you’re watching your carbs as much as calories, then go for perfectly seasoned, oil-free grilled items at your favorite Italian spot. Hungry for fish? Try the white, wild-caught variety that is popular in Northern Italy. Get a side of grilled vegetables and lightly drizzle some olive oil for extra flavor.

• Pizza: Did you know that traditional Italian pizza is thin and flaky and doesn’t have as much cheese as American versions? If you are craving the real deal, try one of the authentic Neapolitan pies—baked at high temperature in a wood-burning oven—at Scuola Vecchia in Delray Beach (522 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/865-5923). Note: Ask the server at your favorite pizza place if the restaurant has vegan cheese; you get all the flavor and save some calories.

• Green Goddess favorite: If I don’t find anything on the menu that piques my interest, I usually ask the chef to make me a plate of oil-free, sautéed spinach with mushrooms, fresh oregano, tomatoes and house-made tomato sauce. I invented this dish with the help of the wonderful chefs at Villagio at Mizner Park in Boca (344 Plaza Real, 561/447-2257) and fell in love with this creation. I now order it at other restaurants as well.

• Dessert: If you’re looking to satisfy a sweet tooth without the caloric damage, skip the heavy tiramisu and indulge in one scoop of true Italian gelato. Unlike American ice cream, gelato is lower in fat and choices can include great dairy-free options besides traditional flavors. Nobody does it better locally than Sonny’s Gelato Café in Boca (2151 N. Federal Highway, 561/362-0447).

Buon appetito!

About Alina Z.

Saltwater Brewery Coming to Delray

2013-04-09T06:00:00+00:00

Come June it should be “Saltwater Time” in Delray Beach, when the much-anticipated Saltwater Brewery makes its debut on West Atlantic Avenue just off I-95.

The brewchild of a quartet of Delray Beach friends and natives and dedicated home-brewers—Chris Gove, Bo Eaton, Peter Agardy and Dustin Jeffers—Saltwater brings together its founders’ love of fine suds and good fishing. Brewmaster will be Bill Taylor, a 15-year vet of craft brewing.

The barn-like, 1952-vintage building, formerly the site of the Rustic Rooster furniture store, is in the process of being converted into an 8,000-square-foot brewery that will celebrate its Dade County pine construction and include a large tasting room, retail shop and outdoor tropical beer garden.

At first, Saltwater will be producing six beers—blond, American and India pale ales, milk stout, Scottish and session (generally defined as a lower-alcohol brew with a flavor that balances malt and hops). A few snacks might be available to sop up some of that alcohol, with heartier fare to be delivered from local restaurants. And in the future, look for Saltwater to team up with some of those restaurants for beer-food pairing dinners.

Truly, beer’s not just for breakfast anymore.

The Week Ahead: April 9 to 15

2013-04-08T18:20:42+00:00

Wednesday

Kevin James at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; starting at $25; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

Last September, envious entertainment and real estate bloggers gushed over the news that comedian Kevin James purchased an $18.5 million mansion in Delray Beach. Word has it he may be settled in; he was spotted a couple of times at Gary Rack’s Fish House + Oyster Bar in the span of a week recently. If the “King of Queens” funnyman is indeed a permanent South Florida resident, we may get more shows like this one. James’ cinematic output has been spotty – insert derisive joke here about “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” or “Here Comes the Broom” – but he’s still a comic powerhouse when on a stage by himself.

Thursday

Darren McGrady at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 2 p.m.; $25; 561/243-7922 or delraycenterforthearts.com

Surprisingly, as the British royal family’s pastry chef turned personal chef for Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana for 15 years, Darren McGrady describes his salary as “pretty lousy” in his 2007 book “Eating Royally.” But he’s not complaining; after all, he got to hobnob with world leaders, provide kings and queens with potent sugar rushes, sail in the HMY Britannia, attend annual balls and charity events at Buckingham Palace and travel to places like New Zealand, Nepal, France, Italy, Cypress and the Channel Islands. And today he’ll be here in Delray, discussing royal eating habits and some of his employers’ favorite recipes, like “Her Majesty’s Birthday Chocolate Cake” and “Poached Eggs Suzettes.” Joe Gillie, artistic director at Delray Center for the Arts, has assured us that a cooking demonstration will be a part of McGrady’s lecture, so come hungry.

Friday

Opening night of “Lysistrata” at Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 7 p.m.; $20; 800/564-9539 or www.fauevents.com

It turns out that one of the world’s earliest sex comedies is also one of its most insightful, at least in the hands of modern translators. Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” originally performed in classical Athens in 411 B.C., is built on an ingenious premise: To end the Peloponnesian War, its title character leads a revolt in which the women of Greece will withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers until the warring factions negotiate a peace treaty. Sex being the universal language, it’s tempting to think a similar tactic couldn’t be attempted in our war-torn regions today; in fact, as recently as last year, a civil-rights lawyer in the African nation of Togo called on Togolese women to withhold sex to protest corrupt president Faure Gnassingbe. FAU’s theater department will take on this ambitious classic, which often has a cast of more than 20.

Opening night of “The Savannah Disputation” at Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 7:30 p.m.; $45; 305/949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

Moral relativism aside, all religions are not borne equal; even within large umbrellas like Christianity, you’re likely to find internecine squabbling. This is the premise behind Evan Smith’s southern-fried comedy “The Savannah Disputation,” which centers on a conflict between two Christian sects. In what looks to be marvelous casting, Barbara Bradshaw and Laura Turnbull play Roman Catholic sisters living in a quiet Georgia neighborhood. They’re soon visited by their new next-door neighbor, a perky Evangelical blonde (played by rising star Lindsey Forgey), who insists that the sisters be saved, lest they burn in eternal damnation. The ladies corral their local priest (John Felix) and, naturally, all hell breaks loose, regardless if any of these hidebound theologians actually end up there. The comedy runs through April 28 at the Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theatre, courtesy of Miami’s award-winning Zoetic Stage.

Saturday

Bluegrass in the Pavilion at Flagler Museum, One Whitehall Way, Palm Beach; 3 p.m.; $30; 561/655-2833 or www.flaglermuseum.us

In the world of bluegrass, there are few figures more prominent than mandolin player Doyle Lawson, a student of the “founding father” of bluegrass, Bill Monroe. Doyle and his Grammy-nominated group Quicksilver have released a whopping 35 albums since 1977, including last year’s “Sing Me a Song About Jesus” (Doyle rededicated his life to Christ in 1985) and its current release, “Roads Less Traveled.” The group will headline the Flagler Museum’s ninth annual Bluegrass in the Pavilion Concert, an essential afternoon for lovers of the fast-picking, harmonic music. They’ll be joined by Audie Blaylock & Redline, traditional blues artists with a boatload of No. 1 singles to their credit, and all proceeds will benefit the South Arts’ emergency planning for Gulf Coast cultural institutions.

Delray Beach Chorale at First Presbyterian Church, 33 Gleason St., Delray Beach; 3 p.m.; $20 adults, $5 students; 800/984-7282 or delraybeachchorale.org

The poster for Delray Beach Chorale’s latest event, “Bernstein and Sondheim,” depicts the titular composers superimposed on top of George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s chiseled faces on Mount Rushmore. Some may object to this, but any lover of musical theater would no doubt approve of this editorial suggestion. Backed with instrumental accompaniment, Delray Beach’s very own 60-voice chorale will play hit tunes from Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, borrowing from shows like “West Side Story,” “On the Town,” “Sweeney Todd” and “A Little Night Music.” Stick around after the show for a reception.

Saturday and Sunday

Tortuga Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach; 11:30 a.m. to around 9:30 p.m. both days; $149; www.tortugamusicfestival.com

As we previously reported here at bocamag.com, there’s a new music festival in town, and as far as we’re concerned, there’s no better location for it than Fort Lauderdale Beach, and no better cause than the Rock the Ocean Foundation, a nonprofit supporting ocean conservation efforts, which will receive proceeds from every ticket purchased. The lineup is a little bit country – Kenny Chesney, Eric Church and Jake Owen (pictured) are among the marquee acts – but the more you delve into the lineup, the more diversity appears, in the form of Americana (The Avett Brothers), pop-rock (Sister Hazel), classic rock (Lynyrd Skynyrd), reggae (the Wailers) and indie rock (Bright Light Social Hour), among other genres.

Sunday to April 16

Symphony of the Americas: “The Five Beethovens” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 2 p.m. Sunday and 8:15 p.m. April 15 and 16; $25 to $75; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

Symphony of the Americas has promised us a blockbuster finish to its landmark 25^th anniversary season: Live performances of Beethoven’s five piano concertos, performed over a three-day period. This is newsworthy in itself, but this mini-festival’s performer makes this event a must-attend: It’ll be Conrad Tao, the 18-year-old prodigy who had already mastered Mozart around age 8. As well as being granted his own PBS special and winning eight consecutive ASCAP Young Composer awards, Tao is a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts; during all of this time, he even managed to enroll in a Columbia/Juilliard joint degree program and record a synthpop album. We think he’ll be the perfect match for Beethoven’s evocative concertos.

Terra Fiamma Opens in Delray

2013-04-08T06:00:00+00:00

If you’re a fan of Wendy Rosano’s traditional and contemporary takes on Italian cuisine and have been nursing a major food jones since she lost her lease on Cucino Mio in West Delray, then get your hungry self over to the newly opened Delray Marketplace, where Rosano and partner Tom Corning have just debuted Terra Fiamma (9169 W. Atlantic Ave., 561/495-5570).

The restaurant seats 150 indoors and another 40 on a trellised outdoor –patio. There’s also an indoor-outdoor bar. The dining room is done in earth and flame colors (“Terra Fiamma” translates as “earth” and “flame”), and boasts a pair of pizza ovens (one wood-fired, the other gas), plus a private dining room for more than two dozen.

The menu swings both old school and nouveau, as exemplified by the roster of pizzas—New York-style pies from the gas oven (like meatballs with ricotta) and Neapolitan-style from the wood-burning oven (like margherita made with San Marzano tomatoes and fresh mozzarella di bufala). Pastas range from lusty (orechietti with sausage and broccoli rabe) to rather more elegant (lobster ravioli with rock shrimp and tomato cream sauce). Then there are the chicken and veal parmigianas and marsalas, plus less ubiquitous choices like pistachio-crusted salmon with crispy artichokes and Dijon cream sauce.

A couple things I think are really cool. . . A selection of five meatballs (beef, veal, pork, turkey and Buffalo chicken), also four different kinds of mozzarella (bufala, burrata, fior di latte and afumatico), and four-item charcuterie and cheese plates.

Designer Appearance: Michael Aram

2013-04-05T11:59:14+00:00

Boca Raton always lucks out with designers. Our affluent market is a big draw for big names in the fashion industry.

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 6, artist and designer Michael Aram will be in Town Center’s Bloomingdale’s from 1 to 4 p.m. to meet with shoppers and sign purchases.

The American born artist is well known for his metal craftsmanship. According to his website biography, Aram took a “life-altering trip to India” which has inspired his creative, handmade designs.

Here are a few of our favorite pieces available at Bloomingdale’s:

1. Silver Bark & Branch 5-Piece Twig Serving Set, $99

Dinner is served! We don’t know what it is about branch-like bracelets, rings and silverware that we find so appealing, but we know this five piece set will look perfect on our dining room table.

2. "Botanical Leaf" Wine Rest, $98

If you are looking for a unique gift for the hostess with the mostess, look no further than this beautiful wine rest. Wine should breathe in style.

3. "Botanical" Trivet, $65

This gorgeous leafy trivet could serve as a pretty table piece or a useful heat protector. Either way, we are planning a dinner party around it!

Happy shopping!

New York's Photo League: Shooting for Change

2013-04-05T11:00:00+00:00

The landscapes of New York and beyond that show up in the photos of the Norton Museum’s comprehensive exhibition about the city’s legendary Photo League will be familiar and nostalgic for many. The Photo League operated during three tumultuous decades, in and out of the boroughs, from 1936 to 1951, where its members captured the Great Depression, the raid on Normandy, City Hall, Mulberry Street, Coney Island, Muscle Beach, the legendary Zito’s Bakery in Greenwich Village, all on crisp, clear, black-and-white 35mm film.

But beyond the nods of recognition these images will trigger for the countless New Yorkers now living in South Florida – the fashion of the era, with long overcoats, fedoras and top hats, also evokes nostalgia – is a general feeling of unease, a powder keg on the verge of bursting.

In the League’s central shooting locale of New York City, Jews and Christians, blacks and whites, the young and old, coexisted then as now, but, if the photos don’t lie, rarely did they live together as peacefully. These shots document the tense, precarious (im)balance struck between races, cultures and faiths, whether it’s African-Americans dealing with bigotry under Jim Crow, Jews sharing their collective suffering on a bus bench, or Japanese-American children shamefully rounded up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

One of the exhibition’s objectives is to chronicle the Photo League’s shift from objective documentarians of street life to provocateurs for progressivism, and it’s a movement that resounds loud and clear, on every wall, across a swath of nearly 150 images. The sense you get while strolling through this exhibition it that, morally, these talented photographers couldn’t just remain impartial journalists – that they were driven to expose injustice. It’s no surprise this collective was blacklisted for its efforts, a Communist witch-hunt that forced its dissolution.

Surprisingly, even a half-century later, some of these pieces still shock. There is inherent controversy in Paul Strand’s “Swastika,” a harrowing photograph of a skeleton crucified on a giant Nazi emblem. Eliot Elisofon’s “Child Bride, Age 15, Memphis” resonates deeper than its matter-of-fact title suggests, showing us a stoic, pregnant teenager at the edge of a nearly disemboweled bed, its exposed springs saying all that needs to be said about the future of the girl and her offspring. And Marvin E. Newman’s “Halloween, South Side” is creepier and more unforgettable than most horror-film images, with its three trick-or-treaters – one of them masked – suggesting something between Diane Arbus and Wes Craven (pictured above).

Occasionally, the photographers would capture genuine hard news, as opposed to ethnographic studies or human-interest images – yet always with an artistic eye. George S. Zimbel’s “Dead Man Under Third Avenue El” is chilling and voyeuristic, with the photographer spotting the titular corpse in long shot, peering through openings in the railway structure to do so. Like all great photographers, the League’s artists captured the perfect subjects, in their perfect essences, from the perfect angles – From rooftops, trains, cars, bridges, storefronts, markets, festivals and battlegrounds. They were perched everywhere, like omnipresent gods, or perhaps like an inverted Big Brother, out to expose the status quo rather than enforce it.

For me, the most powerful image in the exhibition is a disturbing photo from Vivian Cherry that show the casual cruelty of two white children in Harlem who pretend to lynch a black boy as part of a game; another one of Cherry’s shots shows a black child, perhaps the same boy, pantomiming the posture of being hung by the neck. These shocking photographs imply how far racism permeated the national fabric of life, even in the so-called progressive north. It’s scary and vital – a cautionary tale that, in our own racially fractious time, we shouldn’t soon forget.

"The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951" is on display through June 16 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Tickets cost $12 adults and $5 students. Call 561/832-5196 or www.norton.org.

Small Bites: All the Restaurant News You Can Use

2013-04-05T06:00:00+00:00

Good deal for the dog days of summer from Max’s Grille (404 Plaza Real, 561/368-0080). The still wildly popular Mizner Park eatery, going into its 22^nd year in business, is offering a $10 lunch from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, for throughout the summer.

What you get is half a multiculti sammie plus a choice of kettle chips, cup of soup, and house or Caesar salad. Among your sandwich choices: ahi tuna with arugula and red onion on pita; blackened salmon quesadilla with spinach, goat cheese, pico de gallo and poblano crema; turkey BLT; and three-egg omelet with scallions, tomato, cheddar and baby greens.

And if you really, really like sushi or think you’ve got the chops (and choppers) to become a professional eater, then you’ll want to check out RA Sushi’s Sushi Showdown.

At RA’s Downtown at the Gardens location (11701 Lake Victoria Gardens, Ave., 561/340-2112), the contest takes place Sunday, April 7, from 3 to 6 p.m. Here’s the deal: You’ve got to be 18, you’ve got to be one of the first 24 entries, and you’ve got to eat a whole lot of Tootsy Makis (kani kama crab mix, shrimp and cucumber topped with tempura bits).

The contest is set up March Madness style, with the first round pitting two heats of 12 competitors gobbling the most Tootsies in three minutes. The top three gluttons, er. . . competitors in each round then have to gobble Tootsies for five minutes, with the winner get 12 $50 RA gift certificates. Second place finisher gets a $100 certificate, third gets $50 and fourth gets $25. Everyone gets a complementary appetizer or lunch gift card and RA Sushi sweatband. No mention of Pepto.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 53

2013-04-04T09:20:28+00:00

Angela, I know, I KNOW, that revenge is bad karma. I'm not keying anyone's car. But tell me why again, in a situation where your significant other is cheating on you with another person also in a relationship, you shouldn't tell the other innocent party. --Gerri

Gerri, remember how badly it felt when you found out your guy was cheating? That sickening, gut-wrenching heartache...Do you really want to be responsible for delivering that kind of news to someone else? Granted, you didn’t cause the harm, but you shouldn’t perpetuate it either.

If you found out, chances are, this other innocent party will too. Stay away from it. The only person that had a responsibility to you and wronged you here is your significant other. You are upset at the situation, but don’t confuse the players or who owed you fidelity.

I’m sure you have already, but dump the cheater. You’re better without him.

Angela, I think I have hangups when it comes to money. I'm a successful and talented young woman, and I am able to support myself and most of my whims. But when it comes to dating, if I meet someone who makes more money than me (I'm talking, a LOT more money) I immediately turn off to them. How can I just relax? I'd love to meet someone successful (and humble). I just worry I'm going to feel like I'm being "bought." Does that make sense? --Melissa

Melissa, let me guess...when Destiny’s Child “Independent Women” comes on in the club, you are the first one up, singing every word. You’re no princess, but rather, a queen. And a queen doesn’t need a man to rescue her.

Here’s the problem...it gets really lonely sitting on your throne, going it alone.

Good men, yes, even men that might have more money than you, would LOVE to meet a successful self-sufficient woman like yourself. But rich or poor, no guy will be attracted to a woman who judges them on financials alone.

I get it. I’ve seen the guys with flashy cars (and flashy everything else) that don’t appeal to you. They have zero appeal to me either. Don’t associate that guy with all successful men. The flashy guy might want to “buy” your affection, but he’s not all that’s out there. You say you want a successful man. If that’s the case, get over your money issue. Most successful men will have amassed financial rewards. Having, (or not having) money, doesn’t make the man. Character does. A man with character won’t attempt to buy your affection...but if he does offer to buy you a pair of shoes, don’t be an idiot. You take the shoes and say thank you.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

So You're Having a Birthday

2013-04-04T08:15:14+00:00

I have a vague image--a memory—of me somewhere in the neighborhood of four years old at the foot of the stairs in our basement in Alexandria, Virginia, with books on my lap. I know I learned to read at an early age but even before, I must have known I would love them. And a library, for all of my lifetime, has been the mother ship, the place of endless possibility and dreams and voices—the place our humanity is stored, book by book.

Ok, so I get a little dramatic when it comes to books. That’s probably why I am wishing the Delray public library a heartfelt Happy 100^th Birthday April 11, just days from now.

“It’s really a celebration of our town,” says Nancy Dockerty, a member of the library’s board of directors and volunteer chair of the birthday bash. “The library truly is there for everyone in our community.”

Te event will take place Thursday night beginning at 6:30 p.m.--and history will come alive. In one section, guests are likely to see people wearing clothes that were popular about the time the library was first created in 1913. In another area of the library, guests might stumble onto the pre-World War II, and n another, the British invasion with the Beatles.

The $100-per-person event will also feature cocktails and “dinner by the bite”–and free admission to the event to anyone aged 100 or older.

In addition to the bash, there will also be a free community-wide celebration on Saturday, April 13, with a focus on family fun.

The event, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., will kick off with a kids and dogs parade around the library building (with pups decked out for the special occasion) as well as music, stories by “Centennial Sue” and a tea ceremony presented by the staff of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.

Co-chaired by Deborah Dowd and David Ranzor, the community event will also feature local dance troupes and of course ice cream and other frozen treats.

To find out more about either event, call the Delray Beach Public Library at 561/266-0194.

Celebrate one of Delray’s most treasured resources and raise a glass to 100 years of magic.

Palm Beach International Film Festival: Three Reviews

2013-04-03T11:00:00+00:00

The Palm Beach International Film Festival kicks off Thursday for a weeklong bonanza of movies, including more than two dozen world premieres and many more documentaries, shorts, and international and domestic feature films at four Palm Beach County theaters. Here’s a look at three of the titles I had the pleasure to screen in advance. For the full schedule of films and events, visit pbifilmfest.org.

In the brave and discomfiting issue movie “Lonely Boy” (8:45 p.m. April 10 at Muvico Parisian in West Palm Beach), protagonist Franky (Alev Aydin) is not in the best place. His parents are long dead, he has no personal relationships to speak of, and he’s just been fired from his job at a copy shop when his boss discovers his paranoid manifesto, which casts aspersions on his co-workers. And he lives in an unkempt hovel with three silent, unwanted houseguests – all of whom are recurring hallucinations from Franky’s schizophrenic mind. The only cure for his condition – aside from medication, which he refuses to take – is a good old-fashioned Manic Pixie Dream Girl named Alex (Natalie Distler), who materializes out of nowhere in a superstore and not only tolerates Franky’s eccentricities but seems genuinely attracted to him (shades of a less coherent “Silver Linings Playbook?”).

It may seem that there are portions of “Lonely Boy” that don’t add up, and others that seem so implausible that they undermine what is otherwise a sobering depiction of a crippling mental illness. But stick with it, because it gets better, and Franky grows more likeable, as the picture wears on, building backwards toward crystallizing flashbacks of Franky’s traumatic childhood. Dale Fabrigar directs the film with an uncomfortable, cringe-worthy magnetism, bolstered by Aydin’s own screenplay and his impeccable, volcanic acting. It’s a movie that never takes the easy way out, admirably confronting an unpretty subject matter – and concluding with a twist that even redeems its weaknesses.

Roman Polanski’s "Knife in the Water" and Alfred Hitchcock’s "Lifeboat" feel like signposts along the way to Italian director Corrado Sassi’s "Waves" (9:30 p.m. April 5 at Frank Theaters & Cinebowl in Delray Beach), a meticulous psychodrama on the high seas. Three men board a sailboat for a two-week excursion in the Pacific Ocean. Two of them seem to be conspiring against the other; their destination is unknown, but it surely involves criminal activity. Tensions mount as alcohol is consumed and turbulence worsens, and events take a surprising turn when a gorgeous woman jumps the plank of a nearby ship and takes refuge on their boat.

Sassi understands that less is more, eschewing a manipulative score and talky exposition and letting the suspense organically wash over the proceedings. His dialogue sounds authentic, but Waves derives its power foremost from his visuals. He often frames his characters against enormous, imposing landscapes of towering rock formations and bleak, endless seas – rendering them as tiny drops of paint on nature’s immense canvas. Like many a film noir from the past, "Waves" is grounded in the cosmic machinations of fate, one that its morally bankrupt sailors cannot escape. This film is nervy, cold-blooded, matter-of-fact and unforgettable – the best movie I saw for the Palm Beach Film Festival.

British director Julian Doyle bills his exhausting chamber drama "Twilight of the Gods" (8:30 p.m. April 8 at Muvico Parisian), which captures an 85-minute dialogue between Frederich Nietzsche and the ghost of his greatest frenemy, Richard Wagner, as “Superman versus Lord of the Ring.” I get the references, but this film has as much in common with a Hollywood blockbuster as Wagner does with the Anti-Defamation League.

A large chunk of this moody tete-a-tete – set in the Turin Lunatic Asylum where Nietzsche spent his last self-aware days – is little more than an deconstructed Masterpiece Theatre history lesson on the two titans’ biographies and worldviews, written with florid language better suited to academia or the critical essay than the spoken word. It’s difficult for anyone not already versed in the characters’ backgrounds to keep up with the ceaseless density of the dialogue, so don’t be surprised if your mind drifts.

Doyle adapted his own play for this film, and it never sheds its theatrical origins. Twilight of the Gods is best when Wagner and Nietzsche’s sophisticated veneers come off and they actually sound like people; as Nietzsche, Jud Charlton is a magnetic presence, channeling a wide-eyed sense of crazed inspiration at every exhorted soliloquy. And it’s always welcome when the movie becomes playful about its supernatural conceit, and doesn’t take itself as seriously as its subjects take each other. In the end, though it reserves justifiable praise for Wagner’s music, the composer’s moral failings mount so high that the movie comes across as a screed against an already hated figure; despite all of its highbrow intellectual banter, it doesn’t really teach us anything.

The Fit Life

2013-04-03T06:00:00+00:00

Fitness should be fun; not a chore. Local (Delray Beach) fitness guru Megan Hurdman believes just that. She strives to make exercising enjoyable and anything but boring.

We asked her a few questions about SutraFit Adventures, which she owns with her husband Andy Hurdman. Megan also is teaching yoga at a new yoga studio in Delray, Bamboo Garden Yoga.

Tell us about SutraFit Adventures.

SutraFit Adventures is a concept that brings fitness out of the structured gym setting and into a fun active lifestyle. [We] host events like ‘Full Moon Paddle Boarding’ and ‘Paddle and Pint’ (happy hour) socials, and stand-up paddle boarding yoga and boot camp as well as beach and outdoor classes and activities. This year, SutraFit Adventures plans on introducing destination active retreats, including kite boarding, yoga, stand-up paddle boarding and other fun adventures to island and coastal destinations.

Stand-up paddle boarding yoga looks intriguing. Could you describe it for our readers?

Stand up paddle boarding yoga...is an amazing way to really help you ‘stay present,’ one of the main goals and hardest challenges in any yoga practice. Any Asana (pose) practiced on the boards is basically rediscovered, as the element of instability is added. When the mind wanders you get pulled back to the moment to stay steady on the board. Imagine some of your favorite poses done in the sunshine and on the water, add the challenge of focus and stability and you have a very rewarding and effective workout and work-in!

What are you doing at Bamboo Garden Yoga? Tell us about the new studio.

Bamboo Garden Yoga is a new yoga studio located [at 88 SE 4th Ave. Delray Beach], just half a block south of Atlantic Ave. [It features] an intimate indoor setting and an amazing outdoor platform surrounded by bamboo for outdoor practice. Bamboo Garden Yoga plans to add Ariel yoga (suspension yoga on Ariel silks) to its schedule, mid-summer. Bamboo Garden Yoga is teamed up with Performance Fitness and Nutrition (95 SE 4th Ave., Delray Beach, 33483) to offer a variety of other classes, including spin and total body circuit and boot camps. Together, Bamboo Garden Yoga and Performance Fitness and Nutrition are creating Club Fit Delray to create group within the local community that enjoy events such as mud runs and obstacle races and other outdoor activities. Club Fit Delray members will have special events and training opportunities just for group events.

For more information check out www.sutrafitadventures.com. Stand-up paddle boarding class prices vary from $15 a class, if you have your own board, to $35, should you need a rental. Package pricing is available. If you have specific questions, you can call Megan at 954/703.0892 or e-mail megan@sutrayoga.com. For more about Bamboo Garden Yoga, go to bamboogardenyoga.com or call 561/665-1770. Single classes at the yoga studio are $18, with package pricing available.

About Lisette:

Tamiami Tile Celebrates 75 Years

2013-04-02T16:50:21+00:00

In our March/April issue of Delray Beach magazine we featured a gorgeous selection of tile in our Great Finds section.

One of the local businesses we featured was Tamiami Tile, and this year the store is celebrating their 75th anniversary in South Florida.

Tamiami Tile is inviting the public to their showroom facility on Friday, April 5, to celebrate their milestone anniversary. Their showroom facility will be open from noon to 9 p.m.

Originally founded in central Miami, the successful family business opened doors in Delray Beach in 1981. The store has affiliated showrooms in South Miami, Miami’s Design District, Fort Lauderdale, Kendall, Tampa, the Design Center of the Americas, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Come out to celebrate the past and take a peek at the future of tile and flooring. We will be attending the celebration in the early afternoon and hope to see you there!

H&M Is Coming To CityPlace

2013-04-02T14:37:01+00:00

H&M is opening another location in South Florida and we are not complaining. The worldwide retailer specializing in affordable, on-trend apparel, will be settling into West Palm Beach’s CityPlace this fall.

We only have brief details at this time. The store will be approximately 19,000 square feet, and will include collections for women, men, boy and girls, and infants. That’s right, babies! The store will feature attire for newborn children to age eight.

We are so smitten with the idea of dressing up little munchkins, we picked a few of our favorite H&M looks:

1. Butterfly overall shorts, $17.95

We knew overalls were going to make a comeback! These super sweet shorts are too cute for words. You must pair this look with pigtails!

2. Bear T-shirt, $9.95

Leave the teddy bear at home. This funky “Mr. Bear” t-shirt is perfect for the playground and pre-school.

3. Heart leggings, $6.95

Behold! The cutest leggings that have ever existed! We’d finish this adorable look with an adorable yellow T-shirt and white sneakers.

4. Superman T-shirt, $14.95

The perfect shirt for any little boy who already runs around the house with a pillow case tied around his neck. How simple and smart are these designers? This Superman shirt has a detachable cape, so your mini super hero can save the world.

5. Pink espadrilles, $12.95

Um, do these open-toed, pink flats come in adult sizes?

6. Cap, $6.95

We are on board with this recent mustache fad, and love little boys dressed as hipsters. This tiny teal hat will make your kid the coolest on the street.

Happy shopping!

Casting Call: Reality Hits Boca

2013-04-02T11:54:00+00:00

Is Boca ready for its reality close-up? It better be.

According to a representative for Boca Raton’s dating blogger, Angela Lutin, a Los Angeles-based production company is looking for local socialites to star in a new reality show based in our backyard. Lutin, who pens “The Naked Truth” for Boca Raton and who has recently made appearances on Bravo’s “Millionaire Matchmaker” and MTV’s “Made,” would be the featured personality on the yet-to-be titled series. The casting is for additional “characters.”

No details on the specific spin of this possible reality entry, but the casting guidelines reveal plenty about the probable storyline. “We are looking for single, married and divorced ladies between the ages of 28 and 46 who are true Boca beauties and are living a high-end life in Boca.” Producers also are interested in women who are considering a move to Boca—or who just come to town on weekends.

Candidates should send written submissions with photos (no videos) and contact numbers to realitycast@gmail.com. In addition to looking for ladies who “mingle with the who’s who of Boca’s elite” and who “love to experience the finer things in life,” producers would like those interested to answer the following questions.

• How old are you?

• What do you do?

• Do you have kids?

• Why would you be great for TV?

• If you are single, tell us about the dating life in Boca. What are the guys like? Is it hard out there?

• If you are married, tell us about your life and husband.

• If you are divorced, tell us what it’s like to get back in the dating scene. How long have you been divorced?

No word on the deadline for submissions—except that producers are looking for entries "ASAP." Good luck, reality candidates!

Spadini’s Comes to Mizner Plaza

2013-04-02T06:00:00+00:00

Bringing a taste of New York-style pizza to Boca Raton is Spadini’s Mizner Pizzeria (134 NE 2^nd St., 561/826-7123), the progeny of 31-year-old New York pizza vet (and tattoo fanatic) Thomas Sellick.

The place itself has a quirky, slightly upscale pizza joint feel, with tile floor in mottle earth tones, granite tabletops, comfy leather chairs, stone-faced counter and walls hung with big photos of assorted actors and celebrities.

Pizzas come by the slice and in 16 and 20-inch sizes, in all the usual guises and a few more venturesome, like baked ziti, Greek salad and eggplant. There’s a lot more than just pizza though, from apps like fried ravioli and jalapeno poppers to hot and cold heroes to a dozen or so pastas to entrees like veal Parmigiana, shrimp scampi and chicken Sorrentino. For dessert, freshly made zeppoli, one of the most addictive of all Italian sweets.

You can get out of Spadini’s without breaking the bank, as most entrees come in at $12 and under, heroes range from $8 to $10, and pizzas from $3.50 a slice to around $20 for the big ‘uns.

Web Extras: May/June 2013

2013-04-01T16:05:30+00:00

You read our latest issue--- now check out our exclusive web extras!

BACKSTAGE PASSES: Go on location with Boca Raton for behind-the-scenes looks at two pictorials in this issue—our swimsuit fashion, staged at Boca Beach Club, and our “housewives” feature, shot at One Thousand Ocean.

http://www.bocamag.com/videos/

BAMBOO MAN: Russ Hibbard, owner of the legendary Bamboo Room in Lake Worth, shares one of his favorite stories about the club with A&E editor John Thomason.

http://www.bocamag.com/blog/2013/04/01/web-extra-russell-hibbard/

THE GREEN GODDESS: Join our resident health-food blogger, Alina Z., as she dishes dietary tips, local restaurant news and special recipes every other Wednesday.

http://www.bocamag.com/blog/category/dining/

THE WRITE STUFF: Learn more about local poet Renda Writer’s storied journey, including his quest to read a poem on Ellen DeGeneres’ show.

http://www.bocamag.com/blog/2013/04/01/a-writers-journey/

HAVE BLOG, WILL TRAVEL: Click on our new “Travel” link for the inside scoop on everything from hotel openings and local getaway specials to exotic escapes and cruise news.

http://www.bocamag.com/blog/category/travel/

The Blair Walsh Project: Boca’s place-kicking sensation has a rookie NFL season for the ages.

http://bocamag.com/blog/2013/04/01/the-blair-walsh-project/

Can’t Be Contained

2013-04-01T15:46:37+00:00

In July we shared word that the Container Store would be coming to our very own Town Center at Boca Raton. Now we have a few updates!

The well-known storage store will open to the public on Saturday, June 15, and will be located in the Sears wing of the mall. This sounds like an excellent excuse to skip the spring cleaning and start organizing your life this summer!

During opening weekend, the Container Store will donate 10 percent of the store’s sales to the Junior League of Boca Raton. So the more you spend, the more you help our local Junior League!

The new addition will also help our community by providing about 55 jobs to Boca Raton. The Container Store was recently listed as one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Interested candidates are encouraged to apply online.

Here are few fun, fast facts about the Container Store:

The Boca location will cover 21,000-square-feet and will feature more than 10,000 products that can help assist with any clutter.
The store will be organized in 16 signature lifestyle departments including closet, kitchen, office, travel and laundry.
The store will include more than 120 food storage solutions, 700 organized office products, 45 types of laundry hampers, 350 travel-friendly products and 80 styles of hangers.
Each full-time salesperson receives more than 263 hours of training in their first year. Customer service is taken very seriously.

We can barely CONTAIN ourselves, we are so excited!

The Week Ahead: April 2 to 8

2013-04-01T15:46:26+00:00

Tuesday

Diana Krall at Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 8 p.m.; $75 to $99.50; 305/949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

Canadian jazz pianist Diana Krall’s music usually exists out of time and certainly out of trend, scoring hits with her original renditions of Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin songs on through to Burt Bacharach and Tom Waits. Having conquered the Great American Songbook and much of the Great White Way to the tune of two Grammy Awards and more than 15 million albums sold worldwide, Mrs. Elvis Costello decided to narrow her gaze to 1920s and 1930s jazz music on her latest release, 2012’s “Glad Rag Doll,” which her current tour is supporting. She worked with legendary producer T. Bone Burnett to create an album inspired by her father’s collection of 78-rpm records, saying that, “I was just trying to recreate my own old movie, trying to live the Carole Lombard characters I saw on late-night pictures.”

Thursday

Opening night of Palm Beach Film Festival at Muvico Parisian, 545 Hibiscus St., West Palm Beach; 7 p.m.; $75; 561/362-0003 or www.pbifilmfest.org

Now in its 18^th year, the Palm Beach International Film Festival will offer another solid week of some 26 world premieres and eight U.S. premieres from nearly 20 countries, at four theaters across the county. Tonight’s opening-night film is a coup for the festival; titled “Decoding Annie Parker” (pictured), it’s a true-story based dramedy about the title character’s lifelong battle with cancer and the simultaneous, decades-long labor of a geneticist to sequence a breast cancer gene. Samantha Morton, Helen Hunt and Aaron Paul star in the film, which should have a nice shelf life long after the festival. Director Steven Bernstein and the real-life Anne Parker will be in attendance for a Q&A following the film, and stick around for a luxurious party on the rooftop of Two City Plaza. The festival continues until April 11.

Victoria Jolson at Broward County Main Library, 100 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 2 p.m.; free; 954/357-7443

Sound-film pioneer Al Jolson – whose improvised line of “wait a minute, wait a minute … you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” changed the course of cinema forever – wasn’t the only Jolson to make it in showbiz. His daughter-in-law Victoria, who happens to live in Weston, also enjoyed success as a Rockette dancer, opera star and big band singer. Her 2007 memoir “Beneath the Laughter” chronicles her rise in the entertainment industry, as well as her relationship to her father-in-law and the Jolson legacy. The book is filled with juicy insider vignettes about countless entertainment and political figures, not limited to Billy Graham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Milton Berle, Madonna, Frank Sinatra, Ringo Starr and Hillary Clinton. She will discuss some of them, and sign her book, at this special event.

Edward Albee at Miniaci Center at Nova Southeastern University, 3100 Ray Ferraro Jr. Blvd., Davie; 7 p.m.; free; 954/262-8236

I shouldn’t need to tell you that this evening with Edward Albee is the most important cameo from a world-renowned playwright to hit South Florida since Stephen Sondheim spoke at the Kravis Center in 2009. A hush-hush event – it isn’t even listed on the Miniaci Center’s website – the event is promoted under the radar but is still likely to sell out all of its free tickets, which must be obtained, beginning today, at the Office of the Dean, in the Mailman-Hollywood Building on the NSU campus. Albee has written a number of the most enduring plays of the last half-century, with “The Zoo Story,” “Three Tall Women,” “A Delicate Balance” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” which receive frequent revivals on Broadway and at regional theaters across the country. The 85-year-old Albee has purportedly been in ill health recently, and his lecture, titled “Life and Death,” may address this.

Friday

Opening night of “An Iliad” at Mizner Park Studio Theatre, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 8 p.m.; $20 to $30; 954/300-2149 or www.outretheatrecompany.com

In the modern vulgate, Homer’s legendary Greek poem “The Iliad” contains 15,693 lines. We assume that not all of them will be included in this revisionist take on the literary masterwork, which runs an hour and a half with no intermission. Re-conceived by playwrights Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson, “An Iliad” is another challenging, ambitious production from Boca Raton’s Outre Theatre Company, which premiered with Andrew Lippa’s difficult “Wild Party” last year. This spartan production presents the Homeric epic as a one-man show with direct audience address – an intimate rendering of Achilles, Hector and the battle of Troy that, if it works well, will relate to modern times. The actor tasked with the Herculean job is Avi Hoffman, no stranger to one-man shows. The production runs through April 14.

Inaugural First Friday Art Walk at various downtown Miami galleries; 6 to 10 p.m.; free; 239/949-5411 or www.expoships.com/firstfridays

It’s hard to believe that downtown Miami didn’t already have a monthly art walk, but apparently not: The traditional Second Saturday art walks are limited to areas like Wynwood and the Design District, which cover different ground. Tonight’s debut Friday night shindig will feature the work of more than 150 exhibiting artists, in venues like the MDC Museum of Art (pictured), Bas Fisher Invitational, TM Sisters, Press Studio, Nina Torres Fine Art, Etra Fine Art/Wine Bar, McCormick Place and many others. If you have been waiting for the perfect time to explore downtown Miami’s vibrant art culture, this is it. Furthermore, this particular art walk coincides with the debut of the MIA Encore Fair, a mini-Basel composed of 28 international art dealers displaying and selling the work of established and emerging artists; the fair is free as well, and will take place throughout the weekend.

Friday to Sunday

Delray Affair along Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Delray Beach; 10 a.m. to 6 p p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday; free; 561/279-0907 or www.delrayaffair.com

Long, long before Delray Beach was christened the Most Fun Small Town in America – heck, long before Atlantic Avenue was Atlantic Avenue – the Delray Affair was drawing attention from locals as a top-caliber art fair, and it has since grown to be the largest arts and crafts festival in the Southeastern United States. The Affair is now entering its 51^st year, with the 2013 edition taking place a bit earlier in the social season than usual, which is just fine with us. Expect to see artists representing a dozen countries, in media including oils, watercolors, photography, jewelry, pottery, sculpture and more, along with strolling entertainment, vendor booths and festival food, like the acclaimed conch fritters. Be sure to turn up early for a half-decent parking space.

Miami City Ballet’s Program IV at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday; starting at $20; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

This weekend, the Kravis Center will get first dibs on Miami City Ballet’s season-closing production, a full month before it plays its hometown of Miami. George Balanchine’s 1936 ballet “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” will headline the evening – a pulpy, hard-boiled crime narrative plucked from the end of Rodgers and Hart’s Broadway musical “On Your Toes.” A rowdy piece rife with ultra-fast tap dancing and talking parts, the engrossing narrative centers on a hoofer, a dance-hall girl and her jealous boyfriend, and the violence that ensues. The program also includes Jerome Robbins’ beloved “Dances at a Gathering,” the choreographer's celebration of the form, featuring 10 dancers moving to a live Chopin score. There may be some bittersweetness to this production, given that it’s the last program created by former Artistic Director Edward Villella; luckily, his successor, Lourdes Lopez, has already announced the company’s 2013-2014 season, and she’s not missing a beat.

Web Extra: Russell Hibbard

2013-04-01T15:35:04+00:00

Bamboo Room owner Russell Hibbard shares one of his favorite stories from his many years at the iconic venue.

“I’ll never forget a performance by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys (a western swing band from California). We had those hurricanes here in 2004 and 2005. And we had gotten our power back before FP&L, even. So it was kind of cool; within this core of downtown, we were doing OK. And we had not been able to be operating because of the curfews. So when were finally able to open, one of the first shows after a storm was Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys.

They started the show, and about 45 minutes in, the power went out. Now, it’s dusk, right? We have these candelas. We all got together, and were talking about it – we didn’t know how long it was going to be out. Do we tell everybody we’ll refund their money and rain-check the show, or what? And Sandy and his drummer go, ‘Hell no! Let’s do a show!’

He goes up and shouts out, ‘Everybody, pass those candles up here.’ It was the neatest thing. These are chargeable candelas. Everybody passed them forward to create footlights. The band sat at the age of the stage and did the coolest acoustic set. I shouted, ‘Does anyone have a handheld that they’re recording this with?’ Because it was one of those lighting-in-a-bottle moments. It’s vivid for me. When the power came back on about halfway through that set, everybody went, ‘awwwww. Turn it back off!’ It was great."

A Writer’s Journey

2013-04-01T15:20:53+00:00

The back of Renda Writer’s 1991 Ford Explorer is a smorgasbord of material – the collected detritus of a poet, artist and nonstop creator seeking to arrive at the intersection of art and commerce. There are boxes filled with marketing material, including fliers, business cards and copies of his two CDs of music-backed poetry: 2006’s “Eclectic Poetic” and this year’s “Workaholic” – both titles appropriate to Renda’s personality.

There are carpet samples carved into the shapes of hearts. There are pendants of jewelry inscribed on both sides with nuggets of wisdom Renda wrote or repurposed, and thrift-shop vinyl records markered with his original designs, intended for an art show in Fort Lauderdale dedicated to vinyl canvases. And there is plenty of other people’s garbage: pieces of discarded furniture, culled from Dumpster diving sessions, which have been “upcycled” and transformed into rustic artwork bearing slogans like “Help is on the way” and “every minute matters … more.”

At night, the 34-year-old poet will somehow find a way to condense all of this labor enough so that he can rest his six-foot frame on a makeshift bed of couch cushions in the back of the SUV. Because, for most of the past three and a half years, this most-familiar face in South Florida’s poetry-performance scene has been homeless.

“I think it was sometime in ’09 when my girlfriend and I broke up,” he recalls. “We had a one-bedroom apartment in Boca. We dated for four years, and when we broke up, I didn’t have the money to get a new place. I just was kind of intimidated by the idea of the search for one. I had no money, I didn’t want to be someone’s roommate, I didn’t want to find some awkward living situation on Craigslist that I’m not going to like in a month. Since I’m tough enough to handle it, I decided that I’m just going to live wherever.”

With his few possessions housed in a storage facility in Fort Lauderdale and spread across the homes of a few friends whose couches he occasionally surfs, Renda today lives like a gypsy, spreading art instead of curses. His home is the tri-county area, and his office is any of a number of 24-hour Wi-Fi hot spots. He showers at the beach or the gym he joined, which he could afford since he doesn’t have to worry about rent or any other attachments, like a significant other, children or pets. He is the epitome of the bohemian artist, and he’s come to appreciate a situation most of us might not be able to handle.

“I’m fairly comfortable,” he says. “When the weather is cool, I enjoy it thoroughly. This is camping weather, and that’s essentially what I’m doing. My tent is my car. That’s how I look at it. It might be weird, but I have to look at things differently in order to stay positive. Because negativity and doubt is always nipping at your heels, waiting to give you a nervous breakdown.

“Even when I had a home, I still had this brain,” he continues. “I still had this counter-culture mentality. I was still a victim of society’s prescribed way of thinking, but I grew out of it very gradually. So now here I am.”

Nevertheless, this turn of events may come as a surprise to those who have watched Renda’s rise through South Florida’s coffeehouse culture. Creative of all types – writers, poets, visual artists, filmmakers, comedians – know Renda Writer (who won’t give away his real name), because he’s an excellent marketer and a loquacious people’s person; he’s not the stereotype of a homeless person, whatever that stereotype is.

After arriving to Florida from New York in the mid-2000s, the aspiring poet answered a Craigslist ad to be an open-mic host at the now-defunct Hideout Bar and Grille in Boca. That gig kick-started a fertile period of hosting open-mics throughout the region, at places like Kevro’s in Delray Beach, ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale, and Stage 84 in Davie. His poetry was maturing too, and he soon began a quest that’s been six years in the making.

In 2007, while watching “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” Renda launched a goal: to appear on her show to read one of his poems, a romantic piece titled “Half Hearted” that he wrote in Central Park in 2001.

“It entailed a lot of the regular stuff you’d imagine, making phone calls to casting directors, sending e-mails, general inquiries. I made a petition, and got a thousand signatures on paper. I got two thousand signatures on an online petition. Then I set up an art show in Miami, in Ellen’s honor, on the weekend of her birthday. I’ve sent her every piece of press I’ve gotten. When I published my own magazine, called WeMerge, I would mention my goal in the letter to the editor, and then send it to her.”

Renda even performed on two local NBC affiliates in South Florida, hoping that the national network, which syndicates Degeneres’ show, would take notice. No dice.

His most lucrative attempt to catch Ellen’s attention was an art show organized in Los Angeles, to support a charity, which featured artists from multiple states creating likenesses of Ellen. It cost Renda $9,000 and seven months of time to put it together, and instead of inviting Renda on her show to promote it, Degeneres recapped the event with a few scornful comments about two of the paintings, insisting that she knew nothing of the show’s existence … or its creator.

“I’m not focused on that goal anymore,” Renda says. “I still have the desire to get on the show, but I’m not doing anything on a daily basis to reach it. I’m not a one-trick pony, and I’m not ever going to put all my eggs in one basket. So here we are a year later, and Ellen is very rarely the topic of discussion when I’m talking to people.”

On the day of our interview, in which Renda would go on to host a monthly poetry showcase at the Palm Coast Educational Center in West Palm Beach, he had spent six hours making artisanal jewelry he hoped to sell. As far as the next day goes, and the day after that, who knows? Not Renda, who tends to live moment by moment – spontaneous and, for now, always mobile.

For more on Renda Writer, and other South Florida poets, pick up the May-June issue of Boca Raton.

The Blair Walsh Project

2013-04-01T15:13:03+00:00

Blair Walsh’s size-9 cleats are on their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, a stunning achievement for the 23-year-old place-kicker from Boca Raton, who, just one year earlier, struggled through his most challenging season as a football player.

Seeing the potential in his booming right leg, the Minnesota Vikings looked past Walsh’s on-field struggles during his senior year at the University of Georgia and selected him in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft. The former standout at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale rewarded the Vikings’ faith with a rookie season for the ages when it comes to kickers. Walsh set NFL records for most field goals of 50 yards or more in a season and highest single-season field-goal percentage by a rookie.

Here’s a look at Walsh, by the numbers:

At the University of Georgia

• Made 184 of 185 PATs

• Converted 76 of 103 field goal attempts

• Longest made field goal: 56 yards (senior year against Coastal Carolina)

2012 with the Vikings

• Signed four-year contract worth $2.2 million and a $118,000 signing bonus

• 2012 AP All-Pro First Team (only rookie selected)

NFL Records in 2012

• Most field goals of 50 yards or more in a season: 10

• Most field goals of 50 yards or more without missing: 10

• Most field goals of 37+ yards in a game: 5 (tied with Chris Boniol)

• Highest field goal percentage in a season by a rookie: 92.1 percent (35 of 38)

• Most field goals in a season by a rookie: 35 (tied with Ali Haji-Sheikh)

The 30 Minute Interview: Wendy Kupfer

2013-04-01T15:00:33+00:00

Here’s what we learned about Wendy Kupfer, children’s book author, during a half-hour conversation with Boca Raton.

1) Kupfer was 24 when her daughter, Ali, was born prematurely—and with complications. Among them: a virus that left her with severe hearing loss in both ears, a condition that wasn’t properly diagnosed (one doctor told Kupfer that her daughter was mentally challenged) until she was 10 months. “I know how it feels when a doctor gives you a diagnosis like that—it creates a lifelong challenge,” Kupfer says. “But, as a parent, you need to be that No. 1 advocate for your child. If you don’t believe in your child, you can be sure that the teachers and other kids won’t believe in them.”

2) Fast forward more than three decades. Kupfer had retired after a career in financial services when she received a call from Thomas Balkany, director of the University of Miami Ear Institute and a pioneer in the field of cochlear implants. Balkany, who performed Ali’s cochlear implants when she was 29, asked for Kupfer’s help with fundraising. She worked with him for about a year, but the experience of seeing so many toddlers with hearing loss—coupled with Kupfer’s frequent trips to Barnes & Nobles to buy children’s books for her three granddaughters (from son Adam)—sparked an idea.

3) “There were all these wonderful children’s books that dealt with various issues, but not one featuring a child wearing a hearing aid [which Ali did in both ears prior to the cochlear implants],” Kupfer says.

4) Thus began the process that would culminate in the 2012 release of Let’s Hear It For Almigal, the story of a young girl with a hearing aid “who feels unlucky because she can’t hear everything she wants to hear”—but who ultimately discovers a solution. The lead character is not only based on Ali but pulls directly from her childhood—like the time she fell into a pool with her hearing aids and Kupfer frantically tried to salvage the devices with a hairdryer.

5) In many ways, it’s also Kupfer’s tribute to a confident, driven daughter who thrived in both mainstream situations (Ali attended Spanish River High School in Boca) and in the deaf community. Ali, who works for the Jewish Social Service Agency in Rockville, Md., earned her master’s degree at Gallaudet University, a renowned liberal arts college in Washington, D.C., for deaf and hard of hearing students. “My daughter has always been the type of person who just happened to be hard of hearing,” Kupfer says. “It never defined her.”

6) “It started out as a project for self-esteem for children with hearing loss, but it’s become so much more,” says Kupfer, who will continue the Almigal series. “For kids, anything that makes them feel different is a challenge. It can be freckles. It can be being the tallest kids in the class. Almigal addresses that for all kids with a universal message of inclusion—and accepting and respecting one another.”

Giving Back

Kupfer donates 5 percent of all sales from Let’s Hear It For Almigal to organizations involved with deaf children, including the Florida chapter of Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. To purchase the book, visit almigal.com.

The Boca interview: Chris Carrabba

2013-04-01T14:54:50+00:00

For Chris Carrabba, everything old is new again.

The singer, guitarist and Boca Raton resident launched his career in Pompano Beach in 1998 when he joined the upstart rock quintet Further Seems Forever. Three years later, the band released the seminal album “The Moon is Down,” an independent record inspired by groups like Sunny Day Real Estate, which performed an emotionally naked mix of quiet melodicism and passionate hardcore music that its supporters, and later its detractors, labeled as “emo.”

“The Moon is Down” would be Carrabba’s first and only album with Further Seems Forever—until 2012, that is, when he rejoined his former bandmates to record “Penny Black,” an LP that picked up exactly where “Moon” left off. The subsequent tour, which has yet to include a hometown show in South Florida, has played to packed houses of energetic fans who have waited more than a decade to see Carrabba, 37, once again front his first band.

A lot happened in between Carrabba’s two stints with Further Seems Forever. In 2000, while still in Further, he formed Dashboard Confessional. Initially a solo project, it chafed against the grain of the punk and hardcore environment in which Carrabba grew up. Fans at his earliest shows, which would feature Carrabba and his acoustic guitar opening up for much heavier, faster bands, would watch in puzzlement, if not outright hostility, as Carrabba would exorcise his relationship demons on tracks such as “The Sharp Hint of New Tears.” The songs were so, well...confessional that they made brash punks feel uncomfortable.

But then people started relating to them, and Dashboard Confessional would ultimately get the last laugh. It wasn’t long before Carrabba was recruiting band members for a more muscular sound, signing to a major label, playing sold-out shows, opening arenas for Bon Jovi, writing songs for blockbuster movies and recording an “Unplugged” session for MTV. His songwriting and musicianship matured, and his audience ballooned.

Few would predict that Carrabba’s next move would be to reunite Further Seems Forever, but he’s never been one for predictability, from playing unannounced “secret shows” in small South Florida clubs to raising $3,500 for victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti during a series of legendary concerts at Lynn University.

Is there something special about playing shows in your hometown?

I can’t help but think of that show I did at Propaganda [a tiny bar in Lake Worth] a few years ago. Steve [Rullman, a local promoter] announced it the night before the show, and the place was on fire. They went bananas. I find in South Florida, specifically, that fans enjoy a smaller show. And I’d rather do multiple small-room shows than one big room show.

South Florida has been a hotbed for pop-punk, emo and alternative music, scenes that you’ve been involved in. Why do you think this area has birthed this kind of angst-y music?

I don’t know if we do more of that than anywhere else, but I do know that bands don’t come here as often as we’d like them to. It’s just a little further out of the way for most bands, just because of the logistics of it—fuel prices, the distance to get down to South Florida when they can sweep in and possibly do Gainesville or Orlando. So I think that in the isolation we have here, we developed our own music that was pretty vibrant, and that’s a tradition that stands today.

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our May/June issue.

Faces: Suzanne Boyd

2013-04-01T14:49:05+00:00

On workdays, news anchor Suzanne Boyd wakes up around the time that much of America goes to sleep. She’s out of bed by 1:30 a.m., arrives at her job by 2:30 and is on the air, beaming into more than 794,000 homes in the West Palm Beach market, by 4:30 a.m., when the national news channels are airing reruns. Her on-camera shift ends at 7.

Needless to say, she’s thankful for coffee.

“My commute is awesome,” she says. “There’s no one on the road except for a couple of drunks.”

Boyd, 39 and a mother of two, is one of the flagship anchors on WPEC-TV, Palm Beach County’s CBS affiliate. The graveyard shift is a relatively new one for her and longtime co-anchor Eric Roby. Over a 15-year career with the network, she’s worked weekends, 5 p.m. slots and 10 p.m. broadcasts.

Boyd has covered three hurricanes, the 2000 election debacle, the anthrax scares and Sept. 11. On the lighter side, she’s done her share of weird Florida stories—from a high-flying department store Santa whose beard caught in a wire at Gardens Mall to a Stuart woman who weighed so much that a flatbed truck had to remove her from her couch.

Along the way, Boyd has earned three Associated Press awards for her feature-story work, including one in which she tested local leaders, parents and teachers on the controversial FCAT (in reading comprehension, the students outperformed the adults).

An anchorperson with the mind-set of an investigative journalist, she loves the pace of news, relishing the days when it breaks every minute.

“That’s why I got into the business,” she says. “I’m not someone who can sit behind a desk and have stuff piling up and have projects to work on months in advance. I like the fact that you come in, it’s different from minute to minute, and when it’s over it’s over. There’s nothing hanging over your head. And I’m a procrastinator. I wait until the last minute to do everything, so this is a perfect job for me..."

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our May/June issue.

For Better or Verse

2013-04-01T14:39:43+00:00

P. Scott Cunningham

His story: P. Scott Cunningham can’t remember when his interest in poetry began. “I was supposed to be wrapping up my Hall of Fame baseball career right now,” he says. Instead, Cunningham has gone from scribbling unrequited love poems in college to becoming Miami-Dade County’s chief poetry ambassador. His festival—O, Miami—launched in 2011 and returned this past April with the lofty goal of introducing a poem to every Miami resident. Aided by a Knight Foundation grant and highlighted by live readings by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and this year’s presidential inauguration poet, Richard Blanco, the core of O, Miami involves integrating poetry into Miami’s infrastructure and cultural life—such as when, in 2011, a local artist clandestinely sewed poetry snippets onto items in thrift stores.

His style: Cunningham prefers his poems to be heard as well as read, and he says he’ll perform “anywhere. My performance style is all about clarity: clarity of speech, clarity of intention, clarity of emotion.” His works read the same way, vivid with everyday details, arresting analogies and surprising twists.

Website: p-s-c.tumblr.com

Two people, naked, in a gondola
suspended over Mt. Blanc.
Lightning strikes the tower, shorting the wires.
Wind and snow shake the gondola.
The two people are you
and your infant daughter.

You’re trying to think about your child
but you keep thinking about yourself.
Imagine you’re the child.

Imagine you’re a gondola in a blizzard.
Imagine the blizzard is inside the gondola.
Let go of the wire.

—from “Poems About Concentration for People Who Can’t Concentrate”

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our May/June issue.

Iconic Florida

2013-04-01T14:18:37+00:00

SOUTH FLORIDA

The Mai-Kai

Where: Fort Lauderdale

What’s the allure: The legendary restaurant serves an authentic slice of the South Pacific unlike any other in the country. Those who come for the food (think panang curry shrimp, Polynesian chicken and Tahitian cheese tangs) end up staying for atmosphere.

Part of a wave of Polynesian bars/restaurants to cash in on an island trend following World War II, the Mai Kai opened in 1956 at a cost of $300,000; it earned over $1 million in its first year alone.

Fifty years later, the tiki trend has diminished from a national sensation to a niche market. There are few places left like the Mai-Kai, which makes it so special. Waitresses in bikini tops and wraparound sarongs serve imaginative rum libations, and hula dancers in grass skirts and scantily clad fire-eaters entertain guests during the Polynesian Islander Revue Floor show, an irresistible spin on the tired old term “dinner theater.” The Mai-Kai is fun all year round, but be sure to stop by between June 6 and 9 for the Hukilau, the biggest Polynesian celebration on the East Coast.

Contact: 954/563-3272, maikai.com

Loxahatchee Everglades Tours

Where: Parkland

What’s the allure: An airboat ride is the easiest way to get into the heart of Florida’s wilderness, the Everglades, pegged as one of the seven natural wonders of North America. It may not be as peaceful as a canoe or a kayak, but it’s the noisy, fun and fast alternative, an adventurous way to explore this eccentric and fragile ecosystem.

The Everglades of the Loxahatchee Preserve is more than a remnant swamp just past our western suburbs; it is the northernmost tip of the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. It is, as Marjorie Stoneman Douglas said, a true “river of grass”—for which airboats are made. The airboat skims over marshland, startling slithery alligators, slicing through floating islands, flushing flocks of ibis and herons and roseate spoonbills out of the sawgrass. This is about as real a Florida experience as one can get.

Contact: 800/683-5873, evergladesairboattours.com

Sawgrass Mills

Where: Sunrise

What’s the allure: Forget the beach. The state’s largest outlet retail/entertainment destination is such an irresistible draw to out-of-country visitors that nearly 50 percent of the mall’s shopper base is made up of international tourists. It’s no wonder given the more than 350 stores—including outlet incarnations for the likes of Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, Michael Kors and Tommy Bahama, and St. John and Gucci. More than 40 of the outlets are unique to South Florida, from Burberry Factory Outlet to Salvatore Ferrgamo Company Store.

The sprawling complex, which covers 2 million-plus square feet of terrain, recently added a Sawgrass shuttle ($25 round trip) to and from hotels along Fort Lauderdale Beach. Check the new website (below) for the dining/shopping specials and discounts, as well as links to social media updates about the respective stores.

Contact: sawgrassmills.com

To continue reading, please pick up a copy of our May/June issue of Boca Raton magazine.

Artizan Flatbread Opens in Boca

2013-04-01T06:00:00+00:00

Not everything with a crust, sauce and toppings is a pizza. Just ask Larry Schulsinger and Alain Amiel.

The pair of fledgling restaurateurs are the proprietors of the new Artizan Flatbread Co. (141 Via Naranjas, 561/395-0380), which recently took up residence in Boca’s Royal Palm Place. Instead of the ubiquitous pizza pie, they’re dishing up cracker-crisp rounds gilded with everything from classic Italian-American sausage and peppers to their own version of the traditional margherita to Buffalo chicken, shrimp scampi and goat cheese and veggies.

There’s more too—soups and salads and sammies and a handful of desserts, including the dessert that made (or helped make) New Orleans famous: beignets, here served with a wicked-sounding chocolate-hazelnut ganache for dipping. And don’t forget the short list of craft—or artisan—beers.

The place itself is cute and tidy—sage green walls with cream-colored wainscoting, hung with colorful artworks. Small tables with sturdy wooden chairs, another handful of tables under red canvas umbrellas on an outdoor patio. Flatbreads come in two sizes, with most larger ones priced at $15 or less and smaller flatbreads under $10. Just don’t call them pizzas.

Inside South Florida's Newest Music Festival

2013-03-29T10:00:00+00:00

Live music lovers who are still dusting off the Day-Glo and blinking away the neon from this past weekend’s Ultra Music Festival already have another major event to prepare for in what has become South Florida’s peak music-festival season. And I’m not even talking about SunFest, which will rock downtown West Palm Beach for five days at the dawn of May. Two weekends from now, Fort Lauderdale Beach will play host to the Tortuga Musical Festival, a first-time event featuring three outdoor stages on April 13 and 14.

The initial artist announcement had the star power of a Country Megaticket, with the likes of Kenny Chesney, Eric Church and Jake Owen paired well with the spacious Americana sounds of the Avett Brothers and blues fusion of Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite. The undercard acts, announced later, increased the festival’s eclecticism: Now the lineup includes southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd (yes, they’re still around!); the versatile blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr.; reggae legends The Wailers; the clever multi-instrumentalist and road warrior Grace Potter; ‘90s alternative rockers Sister Hazel; and Austin indie rockers Bright Light Social Hour (pictured below).

“The concept was always, let’s break down the walls of genre and make this a festival where you close your eyes and open them and you’re on the beach. You’re feeling the music, the waves are in the background, your feet are in the sand,” says Jeff Kreinik, COO of Huka Entertainment, which is co-producing the festival. “That’s Kenny Chesney, Donovan Frankenreiter, G. Love, Jake Owen. It’s a combination of the sound that lends itself to the beach and the artists themselves, [some of whom] are boaters from Florida and who are all about the beach. It felt right and made sense, and in many ways it organically came together.”

Tortuga is the brainchild of Chris Stacey, a Nashville record executive (hence the southern sounds of most of the bands), and Huka Entertainment’s AJ Niland, founder of the popular Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala. Like many great musical gatherings, it started with a cause: Stacey, who founded the Rock the Ocean nonprofit, is passionate about ocean conservation, and he thought that staging a concert was the best way to raise awareness about the topic. Portions of the ticket price (it’s $149 for the two days, or $649 for VIP tickets) will benefit the Guy Harvey Foundation and Rock the Ocean, which supports scientific research into the issues impacting the world’s oceans – like the plastic waste that kills 1 million seabirds each year.

Appropriately enough, the festival is named after a sea animal; tortuga is Spanish for turtle. “We know it’s turtle nesting season, and we named the festival in celebration of the turtles,” Kreinik says. “We understand that we’re in the front side of turtle season, and we’re taking every step necessary to make sure that the turtles are unabated and can nest as needed.”

And what about the fact that the previous festival that attempted to launch in South Florida, the UR1 Festival in Miami, announced a killer lineup only to be canceled shortly thereafter – presumably because the ticket price was too high? Not to mention the formerly great Langerado Festival, which met the same fate after its own lineup announcement in 2011? Kreinik is unfazed, though he says there are challenges in putting together any first-time festival.

“If I had to put my finger on something, it’s that we’re introducing a new brand. It’s about branding – what is Tortuga? It’s this festival, with the conservation message, we’re raising awareness, it’s great talent, we’re in the sand of Fort Lauderdale Beach. We expect it to take place year after year moving forward.”

For more information on the festival, including the full lineup and ticketing options, visit tortugamusicfestival.com.

Small Bites: All the Restaurant News You Can Use

2013-03-29T06:00:00+00:00

They’ve reworked the happy hour at Tanzy (301 Plaza Real, 561/922-6699), the sleek, chic Mizner Park restaurant counterpart to the giant iPic Theater. Weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m. you can drown your workday sorrows with $5 signature cocktails and wines, $4 draft beers and $8 bar bites, like meatball and garlic crostini and pan-seared calamari. Tuesday nights it’s Ladies Drink Free, including the restaurant’s house-made infused vodkas, flavored with herbs from the on-premise garden.

Around the corner in Mizner Park, the Cheese Course (305 Plaza Real, 561/395-4354) has rolled out a new roster of gift baskets and a rotating Cheese Steward’s Tasting Plate, a $16 platter of three specially chosen cheeses with a pair of appropriate accompaniments and a baguette. And you still have until Sunday, March 31, to take advantage of the Cheese Course’s $10 gift certificate, which you get with any purchase of from $50 to $99.

Already one of the place to sea and been seen in Palm Beach, piscine purveyor PB Catch (251 Sunrise Ave., 561/655-5558) is ramping up its Saturday night scene with a host of new bar munchies, mixological cocktails and live music. From 9 p.m. to midnight you can listen to musicians like gypsy flamenco guitarist Fuego Gitano while sipping chilled adult beverages like the Watermelon SOB (tequila, watermelon and cilantro infusion) and noshing on dishes like mahi lettuce wraps with peanut sauce.

Comfortably Yum

2013-03-28T14:33:43+00:00

Whether it’s a PB&J packed in a brown paper bag or a steaming bowl of soup served on a cold and snowy day, certain foods speak to comfort. These are meals that remind people of their childhoods and feed the soul. Chefs constantly looks for ways to reinvent these classic dishes at their restaurants, but they also create their own signature comfort foods that, often, are far more satisfying than a grilled cheese and bowl of tomato soup.

As evidenced by some of our ethnic restaurants around town, comfort food is universal and can be found in some unexpected places. Soup is the cure for whatever ails you, so why not branch out and try a pot of Vietnamese beef pho from Boca Raton’s 5-Spice Asian Market (1200 Yamato Road) or a Thai specialty called tom yum gai from Sushi Yama (7050 W. Palmetto Park Road) in west Boca. The presentation alone is as inviting as a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows after a day of making snow angels.

Another dish that is pure comfort to many is curry. The warm spices and hearty sauce, mixed with a heaping bowl of steamed rice, provides endless joy for the stomach. At House of Siam (25 N.E. Second Ave.) in Delray you can curl up with their panang curry. Plan on asking for extra rice, though. The sauce must be sopped up somehow.

No discussion about comfort food can be had without the mention of pizza. For authentic Italian, try Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza and order the roasted cauliflower pizza. The deep, nutty flavor of the vegetable will surprise the devout sausage and pepperoni lover.

Tucci’s (50 N.E. First Ave.) in Boca has a meatball pie with caramelized onions that constantly gets rave reviews? One more spot stands out is Scuola Vecchia (522 E. Atlantic Ave.) in Delray; the crust is extremely thin and crisp, making it feasible and acceptable to polish off an entire pie.

On the sweet side of things, Hedy Goldsmith at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink (130 N.E. 40th St.) in Miami is putting a gourmet spin on the classic Pop Tart, making them from scratch in flavors like passion fruit or banana and Nutella.

Since most comfort food started at home in kitchens all over the world, why not pay homage to mothers and grandmothers everywhere and bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies or mac and cheese right in your own oven. Experimenting with a few new ingredients will make these dishes the food your kids find comforting.

Hilary Hauser is contributing blogs to the “Dining” section of bocamag.com as part of a required externship at Le Cordon Bleu in Miami.

Ladies, Get Mad

2013-03-28T09:35:08+00:00

Our apologies for putting the gentlemen first just this one time, as we continue talking about delectable vintage glamour. But then, the show is called Mad Men and we find old world charm extremely irresistible. Mad Women deserve a show of their own, don’t they? Although Jane Maas, the original “mad woman” tells it like it is in her book a bracing, candid account on women in advertising in the ‘60s. We love gals who keep it real and look the part. Let’s get right to the trends since the new season of the show is almost here:

Trend highlights:

Apparel: Geometric prints; black and white stark monochromatic contrasts; cigarette pants (think vintage twist on the skinny pant). The fit is a very big deal when it comes to silhouettes—think about Joan’s hourglass silhouettes from the show. Other trends include shift dresses and shorter hemlines a la Megan-- perfect because summer is near! You are also going to see the bow dress a lot in this season.

[Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC]

Accessories: Stacked necklaces (especially pearls) or statement earrings and necklaces (matched), pointy pumps (we love that trend – nothing says I mean business in the boardroom than these!), oversized sunglasses (Hello, Jackie O!) and bags.

Makeup: Bold eyes complete with the flicked black eyeliner and nude lips, colorful eye shadow and bold matte lips. Love how Betty Draper pulls off the matte red!

The picks:

Bow to you:

We absolutely adore the bow on a dress or a blouse. It’s so feminine! It looks great even on accessories (belts, earrings and necklaces). We love the black and white bow number from J. Crew and the blouse from Piper Lime. As you already know, dots are a very big deal this season and the next as confirmed by Vogue Paris so why not combine the two trends?

The bold and the beautiful: Geometric prints add an element of drama during the day and also make a piece versatile. Team with a solid blazer in the day to tone it down, dress it up with accessories in the night. We love this Derek Lam concoction mixing colors and prints both:

Accentuate: Jewel toned, statement accessories are the it items on our list. We love these earrings from Banana Republic’s Mad Men collection: the line is a collaborated effort between the brand and the show’s costume designer Jamie Bryant.

We’re also in love with this rose Marc Jacobs necklace.

How can we keep shoes out of this conversation? We’ll come straight to the point—of pointy toes and toecaps. They’re all the rage and they’re here to stay. Especially, the mid-heeled ones, they are oh so Jackie O.

Get it made: Brighten your eye shadow palette ‘60s style and all eyes will be on you. Nars has a good variety of pastels and darks in their creamy, jumbo-sized pencils. Smoky eyes and nude lips were a big hit then and are relevant as ever. Sephora has a good simple how-to here. Bright eyes can complement bold lips, but if you’re doing smoky eyes and want to add the winged flick with the eyeliner, keep the lips simple. Matte was a big trend then and Bobbi Brown has the perfect red and we love the YSL fuchsia, it adds a finish line to the bombshell look!

Women have come a long way from then to the now. Cut to the present with Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In—being a woman in modern times compares to being a trapeze artist trying to balance it all. While we’re at it, who is to stop us from taking glamorous cues from the era gone by?

About Jo:

The Naked Truth, Vol. 52

2013-03-28T09:24:47+00:00

Angela, I got out of a turbulent relationship about two months ago. I discovered my boyfriend was cheating on me and was incredibly heartbroken about it. I'm feeling better and better each day. I go out with my friends, I have a new haircut, and I have a friend of a friend who mentioned he'd love to get dinner sometime. He's cute and seems nice. I certainly don't want to rush into anything, but is a date okay this early? Is there a time frame for these things? --Gillian

Gillian, you’ve taken the healthy approach by taking time before dating again. While you probably still have moments of sadness, as you said, it gets less and less with each passing day. Dating again is a normal part of your healing process. Not only is it ok to date, but I highly recommend that you do. As long as you don’t rush into anything serious prematurely and “rebound” relationship, you will be just fine. Good luck.

Dear Angela, I'm about to move to a brand new city where I know almost no one. I'm single and look forward to dating in this new territory. Where should I start? Is online dating my only option? --Homeward Bound

HB, it’s not your only option, but it is a great one. Also consider co-ed groups that center around sports.

There are kickball games or even things like a darts league that are fun and you’ll meet a ton of cool people. Sports not your thing? Then volunteer for a charity that you are passionate about or find social events for your age groups. You get the idea. Many of the online dating sites also sponsor events for singles. I would recommend going to a few of these as well. Most importantly, get out and meet as many people as possible. This is not the time to stay home alone.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Delray Affair Never Gets Old

2013-03-27T16:55:29+00:00

I remember back in the day at Boca magazine, we would always have a booth at all the art shows. In those days, Meet Me Downtown was at Mizner Park and we’d sell hundreds of subscriptions to the magazine in a weekend. (And we’d invariably be next to the guy selling wind chimes made out of old silverware.) At first the art shows were a little bit of a novelty but after a few years, I started hating them. People drifting by looking for anything free, the ubiquitous Peruvian flute-playing people, the psychedelic wind socks, wading bird yard sculptures made out of recycled tires.

So it’s a little weird that I love the Delray Affair so much. You would think it’s the last thing I’d want to do, between the guy selling BBQ rub, the Jack Rogers sandals knock-off folks, and those people who have a whole booth dedicated to creepy lifelike baby dolls. But I love it. I never miss it. And the next one is next weekend, April 5 through April 7, stretching from Swinton to the Intracoastal with more than 800 vendors, beer trucks, food, patchouli-scented candles and more.

So I am there. I even know my do-not-miss stops: the soap people, every jewelry booth, the guy with the lobster trap picture frames, the Man of Steam for a hot dog at the Rotary booth, Vince Canning Shoes, the lady with the little stained glass window thing-ys, Vic & Angelo’s for a meatball, and I can go on and on. Oh, I miss the glads and I’m heartsick they do not sell them anymore as all the farms are gone, but I can console myself with any number of other diversions.

And I will.

Come celebrate the winding down of the season and check out the 51^st Delray Affair. It is the granddaddy of all art shows, and the one still dearest to my heart—I’ll see you there!

The Green Goddess, Vol. 5

2013-03-27T12:35:22+00:00

I often hear people talk about how hard it is to maintain their healthy lifestyle during the holidays. Family gatherings never fail to bring out the richest and the most decadent foods. However, that’s only a part of the problem; the other part is that your family wants you to indulge. Moms, especially, take offense if their children don’t eat the food they spent hours preparing.

To avoid this calorie overload, I invite you to try some of my tips on how to handle such situations.

Make your new favorite healthy dish and share it with the family. If they push their food on you, you can do the same—and, as a bonus, you will introduce your family to healthy dishes.
When choosing your meal, fill up half of your plate with mixed-greens salad or the healthy dish that you brought, one quarter with cooked vegetables and one quarter with your favorite dish on the table. Use the same principal if you choose to go for seconds.
If you don’t have time to make something, then buy 3 mangos, 1 papaya, 1 pineapple, 3 apples and 1 pound of red grapes. Chop up the fruits in Mom’s kitchen and serve this fruit salad as a fat-free dessert.
When it comes to dessert, wait for an hour after the meal, if possible, before indulging your sweet tooth. Your best dessert bets include anything fruit-based, such as blueberry or apple pie (with as little of the crust as possible). Speaking of which, here is my favorite go-to dessert.

STRAWBERRY PIE

(Click here to watch Alina's video!)

CRUST

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup pecans

1 cup medjool dates, pits removed

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Place all ingredients into food processor and process until it resembles dough. Press mixture into 8- to 10-inch glass pie pan.

FILLING

6 cups strawberries

1 cup medjool dates pitted

2 tablespoons ground flax seeds

Place 3 cups of berries in food processor with dates and flax seeds and blend well. Add remaining 3 cups of berries to food processor and pulse to chop. Pour filling into crust.

About Alina Z.

Cinemark Palace Unveils Giant "XD" Movie Screen

2013-03-27T10:00:00+00:00

Remember when the word “extreme” used to describe things that were actually extreme? The “extreme sports” moniker made sense, because snowboarding, wingsuit flying and ascending dangerous ice slopes are not activities most docile homo sapiens would wish to engage in. But extreme go-karting? Extreme nutrition? Extreme couponing? Google suggested all of these options in its top picks based on a search for “extreme.” There’s even an extreme party decoration store in Miami.

At the risk of further delegitimizing a descriptor that’s already been bludgeoned into meaninglessness, Cinemark Theaters has unveiled “XD” screens, which stands for Extreme Digital, promising a larger and brighter image than other screens, complete with wraparound sound. The first XD auditorium in Boca Raton opened earlier this month at the Cinemark Palace (complementing XD screens already in place in the Davie and Boynton Beach Cinemark theaters) just a few weeks after Frank Theatres Cinebowl and Grille unveiled its own equivalent, Frank Digital Extreme, in its new Delray Beach location. When it has invaded the decidedly passive and un-extreme realm of moviegoing, it’s clear this term has jumped the shark, and I’m extremely tired of it.

That said, the actual experience of attending an XD movie at Cinemark is something to be celebrated. I’ve long decried digital projection as an inferior substitute to vanishing 35mm film, but it’s getting a lot better with advances like these.

I watched a movie yesterday in the Cinemark Palace’s Premiere Level XD screen, comfortably marooned in a reclining, oversized leather chair with its own mini table. The film in question was shot in a wider aspect ratio than the screen allowed, and the black bars on the top and bottom were not masked – but other than that, the image was crystal-clear and filmlike, and the sound was superlative; better yet, the Premiere Level perks all but eliminated ambient theater noises from other patrons. The wall-to-wall screen was impressively imposing, almost reaching IMAX-level expansion. Of course, expect to pay a little extra for the privileges; XD Premiere tickets run $19 for matinees and $23 for evening screenings.

Which is why you should do your homework before shelving out those hard-earned dollars for just any movie. It seems that only the biggest Hollywood blockbusters will receive the XD treatment, regardless of quality. I attended a screening of the jingoistic action film “Olympus Has Fallen,” about a siege on the White House by North Korean militants hostile toward the United States’ intervention in a fictional Korean Civil War. Following the requisite – and spectacularly rendered, I must admit – destruction of an iconic Washington, DC landmark, the action transfers to the president’s underground bunker, where his entire cabinet is being held hostage by the terrorists, whose demands may yield disasters consequences for the world as we know it.

The fact of North Korea’s recent nuclear saber-rattling gives “Olympus Has Fallen” a prophetic sheen, but it’s just about the only thing this movie gets right. During the lead-up to the 2008 election, I wrote an article for a Detroit paper on 10 of the most memorable fictional movie presidents; if I had to rewrite it today, Aaron Eckhart’s vanilla commander-in-chief in this movie would not make the cut. With his chiseled jaw and Mad Men physique, he’s more like a presidential action figure than a real-life leader; he always sounds like an actor playing the president, and never the Real McCoy. Morgan Freeman, an ex-fictional film president in 1998’s “Deep Impact,” is downsized here to the position of House Speaker, who is rushed into the role of acting president when Eckhart and his veep are captured.

It’s clear their relationship is driven by mutual respect and admiration, a laughably naïve arrangement considering today’s balkanized political landscape. In fact, all of the movie’s political figures are ideologically empty ciphers with no apparent party identification. There is no politics in a movie set almost entirely in the White House – just action-film bombast, grimacing wisecracks and a soaring score that oozes with the reverential majesty of the presidential office. Oh, how I miss “Lincoln.”

“Olympus Has Fallen” becomes little more than “Die Hard” in the Beltway, with the John McClane figure of subversive superman taken by Gerard Butler, as a former Secret Service agent who infiltrates the White House, a one-man army taking down a 40-person crew of terrorists. Then again, the entire script seems recycled from other movies; this is the kind of proudly mediocre drivel that exits the mind the moment after it enters, nothing more an agreeably violent entertainment for adolescents.

This also seems to be the case with “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” which opens today on the XD screen. Here’s hoping that once in a while, this beautiful new screening apparatus will house a movie for thinking people.

LUSH Comes to Wellington

2013-03-26T15:19:35+00:00

We have good news for our readers out in Wellington! Lush Cosmetics will open a new boutique in the Mall at Wellington Green on Thursday.

Lush recently opened a colorful shop in Town Center.

Allow us to recycle our words (as if they need saving) for this environmentally friendly shop:

The brand’s policy bands testing any products or ingredients on animals, and then goes one step further to say Lush will not engage with any suppliers that do.

According to Lush's website, this helps give “an economic incentive to suppliers and have convinced two companies to switch to cruelty free practices as a result.”

Lush uses as little packaging as possible. Bath Bombs, massage bars and solid shampoo bars don’t even have packing. For items that do, they use recycled (and recyclable), compost-compatible, and biodegradable materials.

The store’s carrier bags are made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and are compostable. Shipments are even packed in biodegradable plastic bags, recycled papers and eco-friendly packing tape.

This store is committed to making customers feel beautiful and saving the world! If you aren’t already a Lush lover, we suggest starting with a bath bomb. They are the perfect remedy to a long day.

Happy shopping!

The Fit Life

2013-03-26T10:38:18+00:00

A new study questions the need for yearly mammograms among women ages 50 to 74, suggesting having one of the imaging tests every two years might be just as beneficial. This, researchers at University of California San Francisco say, applies even to women who have dense breasts.

It’s a big study, taken from a database of 900,000 U.S. women. The result is surprising because, according to study author Dr. Karla Kerlikowske, increasing age and high breast density are among the strongest risk factors for the disease.

Still, the study concluded women ages 50 to 74 with dense breasts or history of hormone replacement who screen every two years with mammography have the same risk of advanced stage disease and fewer false positive findings than those undergoing annual screening mammography.

I asked local expert Kathy Schilling, M.D., medical director, Christine E. Lynn Women's Health and Wellness Institute, to help put these findings into a more personal perspective. She says the bottom line is early treatment saves lives, and most women want to find breast cancer early and address it. And, for especially women with dense breasts, mammography is not the only way to detect breast cancer in its early stages.

Here is the rest of her response:

Mammography is the only test that has been shown in rigorous scientific randomized controlled trials to actually save lives in women who develop breast cancer.

Critics of screening cite potential costs which include pain, radiation exposure, sense of false reassurance from a negative study and potential anxiety, which may result from over-diagnosis or over-treatment, as reasons not to include screening mammography in a women’s diagnostic regimen.

It is well known that women with high breast density may present with advanced disease due to limited sensitivity of mammography. However, rather than eliminating the screening, we have found at the Christine Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute that supplementing mammography with ultrasound, MRI or molecular breast imaging has resulted in detecting up to three times more cancer in these patients above that is found with mammography. These cancers are typically early, easily treated disease.

So, should we not recognize our limitations with mammography and offer additional screening, rather than throwing our hands up and saying less mammography is as good as more mammography in this population with a bad disease with a bad outcome?

Women need to understand their personal risk to include their mammographic breast density and devise a personalized surveillance plan to assure the diagnosis of breast cancer as early as possible. Early detection, although not perfect, has repeatedly demonstrated to reduce deaths from breast cancer and the risk of over-diagnosis is small compared with this tremendous benefit. Risk assessment is available for any woman at Christine Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute.

Good news from Delray Medical Center

Delray Medical Center has achieved the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure and Stroke Gold Plus Quality achievement awards for its excellence in the treatment of patients with heart failure and stroke. Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative, which provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines shown to improve care results, prevent future hospitalizations and prolong life.

In other Delray Medical Center news, Jason Call, an emergency room nurse there, has been honored with the DAISY award. Call was nominated by a patient and recognized for clinical excellence and compassionate patient care. The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses recognizes the outstanding deeds nurses perform every day. It was created by the DAISY Foundation, which was founded in memory of J. Patrick Barnes by his family members after they experienced firsthand the skills and compassionate caring of their son’s nurses.

Delray Medical Center is at 5352 Linton Blvd, Delray Beach. For more information, call 561-498-4440 or visit www.delraymedicalctr.com.

About Lisette:

Jazziz finally iz!

2013-03-26T10:17:51+00:00

They were still moving a few pieces of furniture around, but the much-anticipated Jazziz Nightlife opened last week in the space that was formerly Zed 451 (and eons before that, the Cartoon Museum). Jazziz Nightlife is the Next Big Thing for dynamic Jazziz magazine publisher and radiologist Michael Fagien, who had a jazz club at the Hard Rock in Broward County a few years ago. But this time Fagien thinks he may have hit the jackpot, with the upscale Mizner location—and its synergy with the Center for the Arts’ black box theater and amphitheater, where he also plans to book major music acts.

Last week the restaurant was not yet operational, but the idea was there: a way fun multi-faceted club with an 11,000-square foot restaurant space, including private dining, a stage, a cigar bar and lounge and a champagne celebration room. Singer/songwriter Gino Vannelli rocked the packed house on the two opening nights, and guitar legend Al Dimeola was there as well (pictured here with Michael and Zakiya Fagien and Gino Vanelli) Upcoming acts include Nicole Henry (April 3 and 4); Molly Ringwald (May 1 and 2); and Larry Carlton (May 29 and 30). Call 561/910-7721 or visit jazziz.com for a full schedule.

We are rooting for Michael Fagien and Jazziz; watch this space for updates!

Town Center to Add Trio of Eateries

2013-03-26T06:00:00+00:00

They’re not letting any arugula grow under their feet at Boca’s sprawling Town Center shopping mall, where upscale casual dining options will be expanding in the days and months to come.

Set to debut any day now are two new eateries from Miami-based Central Commissary restaurant group. Butcher & the Burger is jumping on the still furiously-trendy designer burger craze, starting with patties from naturally raised beef and pork to vegan lentil-brown rice, turkey and shrimp.

Of course, a burger’s just a meat disc unless you can customize it, and B&B lets you DIY your burger with a range of spices (from umami to curry-coconut-honey), buns, toppings and “extras” (from bacon to truffle aioli). There will also be assorted salads and sides, plus a small retail component.

Also pegged to debut in the very near future is the other Central Commissary concept, Dandelion. Not many details yet on that, except a Mediterranean theme and reported focus on humanely raised meats and “healthy, wholesome, home-made food.”

The third newbie may be the most exciting of them all, the first sibling of the terrific El Jefe Luchador in Deerfield Beach. Jefes Mike Saperstein and Evan David are also the folks behind the Rebel House just a few miles away in Boca, so you may be familiar with their brand of fun, inventive cookery.

El Jefe’s hip, Mexican neo-street food is the antithesis of the cook-by-number “Mexican” fare that can bore the taste buds right out of your mouth. If the Deerfield menu is any indication, look for tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas and more that you can customize with everything from mushrooms and fried yam to spicy chorizo, as well as such hip combos as crispy pork belly with ancho smoked tomato salsa and carnitas with kimchi slaw. Look for an August debut.

Really, it’s enough to make you want to go shopping.

What To Wear: Easter Brunch

2013-03-25T15:06:23+00:00

It’s so easy to get caught up in the whimsy of spring. The world and your wardrobe suddenly seem so colorful and light.

We love an excuse to wear cotton-candy colors and delicate eyelet detailing. If you are searching for the perfect dress for this weekend’s egg-finding festivities, look no further. Here are our favorite Easter dresses for 2013.

Juicy tangerine is definitely a popular color. This gorgeous Milly dress caught our attention with its sharp neckline and basket-woven detailing. We’d pair it with a bright pair of yellow heels.

Price: $325.00

Where: Bloomingdale’s at Town Center

Speaking of yellow, we love this lemon cap-sleeve dress. This simple, solid dress can be complemented with pretty pastel jewelry and a small clutch.

Price: $285.00

Where: Neiman Marcus at Town Center

It’s not Easter unless you are wearing Lilly Pulitzer! The Palm Beach brand screams spring 365 days a year. No yolk...we mean, joke...this “Delia” dress looks like a delicately painted Easter egg. You can’t see it from this angle, but there are the tiniest little accent bows on the side too.

Price: $188

Where: Lilly Pulitzer at Town Center

If you are looking for a dress in a cooler shade, consider this “Phoebe Couture” Kay Unger dress. We believe the pale jewel tone color and geometric pattern would complement a mimosa perfectly.

Price: $350.00

Where: Saks Fifth Avenue at Town Center

Easter grass is a the sweetest shade of green, and so is this Alice + Olivia dress. We’d pair this easy breezy dress with metallic flats and a swipe of Barbie pink lipstick.

Price: $198.00

Where: Saks Fifth Avenue at Town Center

Another Sunday-approved Lilly dress! Not only are we smitten with the color palette, but we also love the back! This little number also has pockets, which is perfect place to hide a handful of jelly beans.

Price: $188

Where: Lilly Pulitzer at Town Center

This dress caught us by surprise. Pink? Check. Ombre? Check. Leather? You got it. We’d love to rock this sweetly surprising ensemble with clunky nude heels and a black studded bag. Easter with attitude.

Price: $398.00

Where: Bloomingdale’s at Town Center

Another sherbet-colored dress for your consideration. We really love the color blocking and funky collar. Just make sure you lick the chocolate off your fingers before you put your hands in the pockets.

Price: $1,990.00

Where: Neiman Marcus at Town Center

Happy shopping!

The Week Ahead: March 26 to April 1

2013-03-25T15:06:10+00:00

Tuesday

Opening night of “Jekyll & Hyde” at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; starting at $25; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

Despite a four-year run on Broadway at the recent turn of the century, the New York premiere of this musical based on the two-faced scientist managed to lose money. It’s easy to imagine the desperation that set in when the producers hired David Hasselhoff to portray the titular characters. But the show has gained in esteem since, with a touring concert version and a major motion picture in the works. The Kravis tour, which runs through March 31, will run prior to the Broadway opening, giving us South Floridians the first scoop on what the esteemed New York critics will see later this year. Constantine Maroulis, of “American Idol” fame, will play Jekyll and Hyde, and Grammy nominee Deborah Cox will co-star.

Wednesday to Saturday

“Bare” at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, with additional 3 p.m. performance Saturday; $35; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

Following in the footsteps of youth-oriented rock musicals like “Rent” and “Spring Awakening” – and, probably, the fictitious new musical being produced on the current season of “Smash” – “Bare” is subtitled as a “pop opera” set in the cloistered world of a private Catholic boarding school, that perennial hotbed of repressed desire. In this case, the narrative focuses on the tragic love story between a pair of gay students, whose religion permits them from sharing their life together. But gay or straight, the musical explores universal feelings of angst that the young and once-young will find easy to identify with, and with more than 35 songs, it promises enough to satisfy any musical theater buff.

Thursday

Opening night of “Baby Whores and Other Political Commentaries” at ActivistArtistA Gallery, 422 W. Industrial Ave., Boynton Beach; 7 to 10 p.m.; free; 786/521-1199 or www.activistartista.com

The implication in the above painting is resoundingly clear and provocatively accurate: The Democrats and Republicans are both mere puppets of the pigs on Wall Street. Thomas Nast couldn’t have said it, or sketched it, any better, and it’s just one of many works, from more than seven artists, that will explore political, cultural and social issues, past and present, at this group show in the heart of the Boynton Beach Arts District. The controversial title “Baby Whores” comes from an installation called “The Evolution of Oppression” by local artist Virginia Erdie, which was censored and banned from her previous studio. Get ready for a thought-provoking evening. The exhibition runs through April 19.

Friday

Screenings of “Shun Li and the Poet” at Society of the Four Arts, 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 2:30, 5:15 and 8 p.m.; free for members or $5 nonmembers; 561/655-7227 or www.fourarts.org

To my knowledge, these one-day-only screenings mark the South Florida theatrical debut of the Italian culture-clash drama “Shun Li and the Poet,” a 2011 offering from the generous distributor Film Movement. It centers on a Chinese immigrant marooned in Italy, leaving her textile factory for a small-town existence on a Venetian lagoon, hoping to earn enough money in a small tavern to bring her Chinese son to her new country. She forms a delicate relationship with a grizzled Slavic fisherman known around town as “the poet,” though unforeseen violence threatens their bond. The lagoon location is like a character in and of itself.

Opening night of “Exit the King” at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; $70 ($55 non-opening night); 561/514-4042 or www.palmbeachdramaworks.org

Eugene Ionesco, the great Romanian playwright, has said that most of his plays originated in dreams, which can only explain their surrealist directions, laden with incomprehensible babble, onstage clutter and lapses in linearity. “Exit the King,” which is his third play in a cycle about a depressed everyman, is less dreamlike than its predecessors, and is practically classical in structure – i.e., easier to digest for audiences that might shy away from the term “avant-garde.” It’s about a solipsistic king, said to be over 400 years old, who refuses to acknowledge that he is finally dying and that his kingdom is crumbling with him. A sobering meditation on the acceptance of aging and death, “Exit the King” may not operate on the same absurdist plane as some other Ionesco plays, but it still looks to be one of the most adventurous productions of the theatrical season. It runs through April 28.

Spring Fling Nights at the Museum at South Florida Science Museum, 4801 Dreher Park North, West Palm Beach; 6 to 10 p.m.; free for members or $9 adults and $6 children for nonmembers; 561/832-1988 or www.sfsm.org

I, for one, am still struggling with the jet lag of having to jump my clock forward a few weeks ago – a minuscule sacrifice in the grand scheme of spring’s arrival, heralding one of the year’s most enjoyable seasons. Tonight, the South Florida Science Museum will stay open late to celebrate the occasion. Its “Spring Fling” festivities will feature a bee presentation by local apiarist Brendhan Horne, a crafting activity, a flower-planting and pot-decorating program, liquid nitrogen flower smashing, frog dissection (if you can do this, you’re braver than I was in high school) and stargazing in the observatory. Planetarium tickets, to see the show “Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure,” are included in the admission.

Maroon 5 at the BB&T Center, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise; 8 p.m.; $41.75 to $93.75; 954/835-8000 or www.thebbtcenter.com

Having scored hits with so many artists outside of their genre (like Cristina Aguilera, Wiz Khalifa and Gym Class Heroes), it sometimes take a tour like this one to remind everybody that Maroon 5 once was, and still are (when they want to be) a really good rock band. But with one Top 40 smash after another (“Payphone,” “Moves Like Jagger,” “One More Night”), Maroon 5 is now, as John Lennon once said of the Beatles, bigger than Jesus, and they can do whatever they want. Moreover, frontman Adam Levine’s star wattage has increased this year with a recent hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live,” in which he played everyone from Neil Diamond to Nev Schulman, of “Catfish” fame. The group’s set lists this tour have been chock-full of hits, and the opening acts are themselves worthy of the drive to Sunrise: hardworking Utah rockers Neon Trees and the electro-pop sensations Owl City.

Monday

The 37^th Annual Carbonell Awards at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m.; $25 to $35; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

As one of the dozen or so esteemed individuals to be a part of the Carbonells’ judging panel, I couldn’t be more excited to see which of our selections will take home the gold in the latest installment of South Florida’s answer to the Tonys. Theaters from the tri-county area will be awarded for their achievements in the 2012 calendar year, and as usual, South Florida’s unofficial north and south poles have dominated the nomination process, with the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s “The Music Man” and “Hello, Dolly!” (pictured) and GableStage’s “Ruined” favored to win many of the top awards in their categories. I also expect strong showings from Miami’s Zoetic Stage and from Palm Beach Dramaworks, whose year-end production of “A Delicate Balance” was a critics’ darling.

Statewide Travel Buzz

2013-03-25T09:50:07+00:00

• Easter means memorable dining with an equally memorable view at Mandarin Oriental, Miami (500 Brickell Key Drive, 305/913-8358 for reservations). From 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 31, the resort's standout culinary team will present Easter brunch at Cafe Sambal; cost is $85 for adults, $35 for children 6 to 12 (kids under 6 dine for free). Expect dishes ranging from salmon strudel with Champagne sauce and eggs Benedict to stations for made-to-order omelets, pancakes and waffles, sushi, seafood and salads, fresh fruit and an array of pastries. Word on the street is that the Easter Bunny will be making an appearance, as well.

• Acqualina Resort & Spa (17875 Collins Ave., 305/918-6777) in Sunny Isles Beach has announced a couple of exclusive spa packages good through April 30. Tip-Toe Into Spring includes a signature manicure and pedicure, as well as a 50-minute Spring Radiance Facial, at Acqualina Spa by ESPA—the 20,000-square-foot award-winning oceanfront retreat. The Tip-Toe treatment runs 2 hours and 40 minutes and goes for $250 (plus 20 percent gratuity). Men's Spring Into Action offers gentlemen guests the popular ESPA Age Rebel facial and ESPA classic manicure; the 1-hour, 40-minute treatments is $235 (including gratuity).

• Across the state on Anna Maria Island (12 miles south of Tampa), the Mainsail Beach Inn (101 66th St., Holmes Beach, 888/849-2642) is giving moms something to celebrate for the entire month of May. Guests reserving at least a three-night stay anytime from Sunday to Thursday are eligible to receive a $250 American Express gift card to use on Anna Maria’s popular Pine Avenue, dinner at the neighboring Beach Bistro or activities throughout the area. Rates start at $234 for a two-bedroom island suite at the boutique resort, opened in 2009, that features 12 two- and three-bedroom residences.

The Easter Feaster

2013-03-25T06:00:00+00:00

Bunny Day is this Sunday, and though the only rabbits you’ll likely be eating are chocolate ones, there are plenty of choices among local restaurants for your Easter feasting.

At Sundy House (106 S Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, 561/272-5678) there will be seatings every half-hour from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The $75 prix fixe brunch will feature a stomach-boggling array of goodies from omelet, carving and salad stations, along with a selection of cheeses, smoked salmon and fish, side dishes and desserts like banana bread pudding and brownie s’mores.

Also in Delray, Prime (110 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/865-5845) is dishing an extensive Easter buffet brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Priced at $39.95 for adults and $15 for kiddies, it will feature made-to-order omelets, french toast and waffles, poached salmon, crabcakes, prime rib carved to order, pastas, a sushi station and a show-stopping Belgian chocolate fountain.

Take advantage of Mark Militello’s expertise with 75 Main’s (270 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/243-7975) Easter a la carte menu, offered from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the downtown Delray eatery. Why eat the same ol’, same ol’ when you can dig into malted walnut waffle with butter-roasted pears and buttermilk fried chicken or challah french toast with berries and vanilla cream?

Easter with a tropical touch is the deal at Burt Rapoport’s waterfront Deck 84 (840 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/665-8484), where beginning at 11 a.m. you can feast on an a la carte menu of dishes ranging from a smoked salmon-goat cheese-chive scramble to chef Jon Greening’s “24 Hour” brioche french toast. And don’t forget the DIY Bloody Mary bar from noon to 3 p.m.

If you’re more in the mood for dinner, III Forks (4645 PGA Blvd., 561/630-3660) in Palm Beach Gardens will serve up three courses for $44.95 for adults and $15.95 for kids. First course choices include two salads and a soup, entrees include chateaubriand and garlic-oregano lamb chops, and among the desserts will be Texas pecan cake and the always-popular “Chocolate Lovers.”

Passion Pit to Play Lynn University

2013-03-22T17:17:18+00:00

The boys are back in town...and for a very special occasion.

On Saturday, March 23, Passion Pit will perform an intimate show in Boca Raton in celebration of Lynn University’s 50th anniversary.

The Boston synth-pop band is no stranger to South Florida. The talented quintet has commanded attention on the stages of Ultra Music Festival, the Jackie Gleason Fillmore Miami Beach, SunFest and, most recently, the ArtsPark Amphitheatre in Hollywood.

The band’s romantic inception is well-known in the music scene. While attending Emerson College in Massachusetts, lead singer Michael Angelakos created a Valentine’s Day mixtape for a then-girlfriend. His distinctly falsetto voice went viral, and soon Passion Pit’s first single “Sleepyhead” was lacing techy commercials.

Fast forward. In the past 12 months, Passion Pit released its sophomore album (which has been incredibly well received), performed on Saturday Night Live, headlined Madison Square Garden, and now appears to be Taco Bell’s favorite band.

We recently spoke to Passion Pit bassist Jeff Apruzzese. The humble and candid musician recalled his past South Florida shows, the band’s recent performance at Madison Square Garden, and shared how they are already preparing for a third album.

You have been touring recently, but Boca Raton doesn't seem to fall naturally into your schedule. Do you do these intimate, somewhat off-the-radar shows often?

A lot of times the college shows don’t necessarily align geographically with our schedules, so we will fly in and around to do them. They are really fun because I feel like we are playing somewhere in between a festival setting and more of our own shows. The universities may not necessarily be in a metropolitan city or a hub, so I think sometimes people come to the shows because there is nothing else to do. I feel like in that mix we are generally playing to a lot of people who aren’t our fans, and [we then have] the opportunity to play to new people.

New people must be harder and harder to find with your recent buzzed about performances.

I think we like being the underdog and having to prove ourselves.

I have seen you multiple times in concert, including Ultra Music Festival in 2009, your performance that same year at the Fillmore, and SunFest. Do you have any standout memories of performing in South Florida?

I remember SunFest was actually really good. Last time we played Ultra was a terrible disaster. We were coming from the U.K. and whoever was in charge of making sure that our gear got to the U.S., put it on a boat instead of an airplane. So it was like five weeks behind schedule. I think when we flew out of London we had to be in Florida three or four days later, so we had all this rented gear for all of our analogs and synthesizers...Some of it was even older than our stuff. The mp3 sampling machine that we used, that [normally] takes little SD cards, had a floppy disk drive on it. I remember it being such a scramble to make that work.

I also remember when we played the Fillmore, that was a blast. That was a really good tour, because we were with the Tokyo Police Club. I remember being in such close proximity to the beach. After soundcheck we all just left [and were] hanging out, swimming in the ocean, for like five hours. Of course I got a terrible sunburn and I had to deal with that while we were playing...It was worth it.

Over the next few weeks you'll be playing Lollapalooza Brazil, Sweetlife Festival and Coachella. What do you enjoy most about these giantic festivals?

It’s kind of like band camp. I think that’s the way that any band that has done extensive festival touring can relate to it. Most of the bands that I’m friends with, come from playing festivals, especially during the traveling festival scenarios. You are in these foreign territories, so you’re all backstage everyday. It’s natural for you to migrate and start hanging out.

It’s always fun to meet new friends and see bands that you kind of look up to, and being like, ‘Oh, they’re not so crazy. They’re just like us.’ And also catching up with old friends that you haven’t seen in awhile because when you’re both on tour all the time. It’s really hard to catch up with people when you’re never home.

Lets back up a bit. You are student at Berklee College of Music in Boston. You are friends with your bandmates, and are practicing and playing shows. You are signed to a label in 2008. What are your expectations at this point?

At first, I wouldn’t say much. I had just graduated college, I had spent all summer looking for a job, because I had so many student loans that I was drowning. I just remember my parents telling me, ‘When you graduate, you need to find a good job because [in] six months you have to start making payments.’

I finally got a job at the Apple store and I spent like two weeks training there. [Passion Pit] had only played seven shows or so before we signed to Frenchkiss. So we were playing this show in Martha’s Vineyard, with RJD2, and it was totally awesome. I was suppose to start my first day of work the next day, but everyone decided that we weren’t going to go back to Boston. We were going to stay another day hanging out at the beach. So I had to write the e-mail that said, ‘Well, I’m not coming to work on my first day so I guess I’m going to quit.’ I took that opportunity to try to see what would happen.

I feel like a lot of bands say this, but I know that we can say it truthfully and humbly, that we weren’t really expecting any of this. We weren’t really trying for any of this to happen. I think we are just trying to see how far we can actually get before someone tells us this is a joke, and that the dream scenario that we’ve been living in is over. Everyday is a blessing.

We feel so lucky to be able to do everything that we are doing. It’s been so fast paced for the last four or five years, from when this whole project started, sometimes we need to take a step back and see how much we’ve actually accomplished. Sometimes we don’t realize what we are actually doing.

You are doing so much though. In such a short time, you’ve gone from playing little Boston venues to SNL, SXSW, and Madison Square Garden. When did you have that feeling that you “made it?”

[It was] when we were playing Madison Square Garden.

Everyone in the band can attest to this. When we first started playing, we’d be in our crappy little practice space in Brighton, and [I’d say], ‘If this band ever plays Madison Square Garden, that’s it. I’m done. I’m quitting because there is no where else to go from there.’

Completely honest, I don’t think that we even perhaps realize the impact that this band is having. I mean that in a very sincere way. Aside from playing SNL and Madison Square Garden I don’t think that we fully understand what this band is doing right now. I think we kind of have our blinders on. We are just trying to keep going. I think we are always looking forward to the next thing and seeing what could happen.

You released your sophomore album "Gossamer" last year, and it is well loved by your fans. You mentioned keeping the momentum going. Are you already working on the third album?

It’s definitely something that we’ve been talking about. When we were touring on “Manners,” we were so new and so fresh to it all, that we were getting the crapped kicked out of us by touring.

We weren’t really thinking about anything else besides getting through the album campaign. We were so exhausted and we were playing so many shows. We were gone six, seven, eight weeks at a time, so that was stacking up against us.

Now we’ve been able to go out for three or four weeks at a time and then go home to regroup. The [third album] is something we keep talking about every time we are back out together.

The Passion Pit concert is open to the public; tickets are $25 for anyone with a current student ID (limit of two tickets per student and they are available only in person at the Lynn University Box Office); $50 for General Admission tickets (seating for Student and General Admission tickets is festival-style on the lawn); and $75 for Preferred Seating which includes padded chairs, access to a tented area, private restrooms and cash-only bar). To order tickets (other than student tickets), call the box office at 561- 237-9000 or go online at www.lynn.edu/tickets. The concert will be held rain or shine; all ticket sales are final.

[Photos by Cassie Morien]

Q&A: Author and Filmmaker Rebecca Miller

2013-03-22T11:00:00+00:00

The prolific author, director, artist and actor Rebecca Miller has contributed several important films to the independent cinema landscape, including the award-winning “Personal Velocity” and the star-studded “Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” which she adapted from her own book. But none of her stories are quite as ambitious as her rollicking new picaresque “Jacob’s Folly,” a complex novel that traverses space and time.

It starts with an image of a good-hearted volunteer fireman from Patchogue urinating in his lawn and continues, unpredictably, in 18^th century France and a modern orthodox Jewish community in Patchogue, interweaving three stories. Perspectives shift on a dime, but most of the action is viewed through the lens of a fly – the reincarnated soul of a once-penniless Jewish peddler, whose thoughts affect the lives of the modern-day Long Islanders. Funny, sensuous and occasionally tragic, with flurries of drama and violence, “Jacob’s Folly” is a bracingly original work of literature.

Miller will be in Palm Beach next Friday, March 29, as part of the Brazilian Court hotel’s ninth annual Author Breakfast Series, to discuss her work and read from the book. But in the meantime, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and wife of actor Daniel Day-Lewis shared some time with Boca Magazine to expound on this terrific novel.

As someone who has worked in both formats, how did you know this story would best be told as a novel and not as a film?

I never saw it as a film. I saw it as something I had to explore as a book. There was no way I could explore it as a film, at least initially, and I don’t know if I ever will, to be honest. I still don’t see it as a film.

I think it would make an ambitious movie. It seems like it’s written cinematically at times. The cross-cutting between generations could be interesting, as could point-of-view shots from the perspective of a fly.

It would be. My thing in the end is, I don’t think I could have found it if I hadn’t found it in prose. But also, apart from the fact that I just wanted it to live as a book for a while, I also felt that in order to fit it into a two-hour format, I would have to cut a lot of the story, and I just don’t know if I’m willing to do that. There’s always a miniseries format – the longer format is more interesting to me. Although I tend to shy away from that, because I like people to see things in one sitting.

You mentioned in the acknowledgements that this book “metamorphosed” over the years. In what way?

I started with just the image of Leslie Senzatimore having a pee on his front lawn, and I had an intuition that there was a third dimension, a creature looking down on him, in a way. And I didn’t know what the creature was. Then Masha started to develop, and at first, she was not Jewish. She was from Connecticut. It was a completely different background that she had. And then, when I realized she was Jewish, I started doing a lot of research, and the whole thing started to transform. So really, I was feeling my way through the dark, and then illuminating first one corner and then another corner, and gradually I was illuminating the story.

I learned a lot about Jewish rituals reading this book. Were the worlds of Orthodox Judaism, either modern or historical, new to you when you embarked on this project?

Definitely. I feel like I learned almost as much about the observant Jews in my own country and my own time as I did about Jews in 18^th century France. I feel that we live together side by side but do not know that much about each other.

This could have something to do with my own beliefs, but your depiction of this extreme kind of religion feels like a cult – like something that must be escaped if one is to gain intellectual enlightenment or real-world knowledge and success.

I personally don’t think that’s how it’s portrayed. I can only say what my point of view was, which was that I saw a lot of beauty in it, but that there are certain things that just don’t fit in that way of life. One of the things that doesn’t fit is what Masha wants to do, which is to have that life where she’s performing and singing and working on Fridays. It just doesn’t fit. But that isn’t to say that the women in the community aren’t powerful, funny, accomplished people. Because they are. I did not find the women to be somehow enslaved or inferior in any way in the family structure.

There are plenty of things that bothered me about the religion and culture – women prohibited from singing, from touching another man’s hand who isn’t a family member, forcing them to always leave a door open. But you’re right – the sense of love comes through, and so does the idea that family is paramount.

It’s a balanced view, and I tried not to judge it, and just to present it as I found it. And of course, I was alienated from the things you talk about, and didn’t understand them in some visceral way. But I came out of it understanding that, in a way, for them, the rules are easy because they’re learned so young.

What led you to the subject of reincarnation? Is it something you believe in, personally?

I don’t know if I believe in it. I know that I ended up feeling like I did by the time I was finished with my book! What led me to it was that when I was researching the contemporary Judaism element of it, I read a lot of books and articles, and one book was written by a woman who had many children and was living in Canada. In one of the comedic articles, she mentioned that her daughter was being followed around by a fly all day. And in it, she says that maybe it was a soul doing penance. And I thought, wait a minute – is there reincarnation in Judaism? Nobody told me about that. I checked, and in fact, gilgul is the return of souls, as humans and as animals, doing penance. That’s when I realized that my little creature staring down at Leslie Senzatimore having a pee was going to be this fly.

Once I had my triangle, everything started to take off, and I realized he was a fly from 18^th century France and an observant Jew. That’s what drew me to reincarnation – it was an amazing synchronicity, which is that I needed him and he appeared. Also, it’s a fantasia in a way, so the more locked into a real cosmology it can be and a real system of belief, the safer I was in my wild narrative.

I wonder if you ever had noir fiction in mind when you were writing this book. The character of Leslie sort of reminded of the corrupted noir patsy who is lured into this moral morass by a femme fatale, in this case Masha. Is this character dynamic something that was on your mind?

Yes. Originally, the book was a completely different book, and in fact was a very similar story to that, dealing with that classic structure. And once the book became a much more fantastical and open story and opened up so much historically, there’s still the kernel of that basic premise. Originally, it was the idea of this man who is destroyed by a woman. And once Masha became a Jew, etc., there was always this basic element to the storyline.

Leslie feels like quite a tragic character to me. He and his wife, Deirdra, seem to be living one of those lives of quiet desperation.

Yes, I guess in some ways, there is an element of desperation to their lives. But they’re also admirable people. And sometimes admirable people have to suffer a lot for their goodness, especially Leslie. That’s why I feel he finally gets the break that he really deserves, because he just has to ask for help and say uncle.

Lastly, what have these past few months of award season been like; you and Daniel certainly been through it before. Is it possible to stay above the fray and not be so affected by the awards buzz?

We just try to enjoy the whole thing as much as possible. I wasn’t able to go to everything because I have the kids here. But I really wanted him to enjoy it. Sometimes you forget to enjoy it, because it does get really exhausting.

Miller will speak and be interviewed at 8:45 a.m. March 29 at The Brazilian Court, 301 Australian Ave., Palm Beach. Tickets are $100, and include breakfast, valet parking and a copy of Miller’s novel. To make a reservation, call 561/366-4301.

James Beard Finalists Named

2013-03-22T06:00:00+00:00

Regrets, Clay Conley. But congratulations to Jeff McInnis and Hedy Goldsmith for making to the finals in the Best Chef South and Outstanding Pastry Chef categories of 2013 James Beard Foundation awards.

Both finalists’ respective Miami restaurants, Yardbird and Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, have earned consistent national acclaim as some of South Florida’s best, not that Conley’s Palm Beach eatery, Buccan, isn’t on the same level. So maybe next year.

Beard award winners will be announced on Monday, May 6.

Curing a Culinary Challenge

2013-03-21T15:32:48+00:00

The rising cost of meat has forced chefs from coast to coast to find an appetizing remedy for their more carnivorous customers. The cure, it turns out, is in the cure.

Chefs are invigorating their menus with an assortment of cured and smoked meats, turning rare cuts into links, creating house-made blood sausages and featuring all sorts of organic artisan products. The love of all things meat has paid dividends for local chefs; no matter the cuisine, restaurants around town are showing off their meaty specialties.

Sybarite Pig (20642 State Road 7; 561/883-3200) in west Boca has a small menu, but each specialty meat featured is made in-house. The duck links with burnt miso and house-made kimchi is a great plate as well as the porchetta with freshly made brioche. So many meats, so little time.

Carpe Diem by Cafe de France (110 E. Atlantic Ave.; 561/455-2140) in Delray features a meat platter with pâté forestier, French rosette and coppa, just to name three. Served with cornichon and mustards, this dish has a little something for everyone.

Also in Delray, Tryst (4 E. Atlantic Ave.; 561/921-0201) offers diners a salumi platter that changes periodically, but it’s always served with fig jam and crostini. The roasted bone-marrow dish, presented inside a whole bone, is primitive and sophisticated at the same time.

Seen on more menus these days is foie gras, and Brulé Bistro (200 N.E. Second Ave.; 561/274-2046) in Delray adds a fried quail egg to the dish—a riff on bacon and eggs yet much more decadent.

These dishes are so uniquely satisfying you won’t miss the quintessential bun and bacon. But if that cheeseburger is what you’re craving, it still holds its rightful spot on the bar menu. Just don’t be surprised if that garden variety patty is now carefully constructed with lamb and a crispy slice of pancetta.

Hilary Hauser is contributing blogs to the “Dining” section of bocamag.com as part of a required externship at Le Cordon Bleu in Miami.

Dress like a Mad Man

2013-03-21T10:43:35+00:00

[Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC]

It’s time to wake up and smell the scotch as Mad Men’s sixth season kicks in this April. Get ready for a fresh twist on the sizzling sensuality of the ‘60s. As you know, plot contents are a volatile mix of mano a mano moves between ad guys paralleled with an undercurrent of their intriguing personal lives. This, while they’re perfectly dressed and coiffed. So in a bout to inspire you to channel your own inner Draper, we decided to curate some of our fave style nuggets from the show. (Ladies, we’ll have your trends featured next week, we promise).

Trend highlights:

The ‘60s highlighted a “mod” trend that touted fitted shirts, suits with narrow lapels and drainpipe pants. Banana Republic has a whole line dedicated to the show and the look. The white shirt seemed to be a staple in past seasons (that might be a Madison Avenue trait), never the less the ‘60s were big on color, prints, plaid and polka dots, so we recommend introducing a pop of color in every ensemble. You’ll see flashes of all these trends in different situations in the show—business, business-casual, casual and our favorite: pleasure.

The picks:

1. Jackets and suits: As the general trend goes, boardroom attire has definitely loosened up over the years but you can never go wrong with a jacket. And don’t be afraid of plaid. Remember Pete Campbell’s sports jacket he donned for Draper’s surprise party?

Notice the red tie? Color works well, especially when you sport standard hues for suits as it always adds balance. If the jacket or coat gets too much for you, a well-fitted plaid shirt can also save the day.

Fitted suits with different lapel styles and three-piece suits make for a popular sartorial trend highlighted in the series. When it comes for formal wear for the beau, our favorite is Hugo Boss - their silhouettes have that sexy old world charm. The blue Boss suit below has classic French pockets and notched lapels we would put our money on. We also love Thomas Pink and Etro for sports coats. Express does fitted silhouettes very well too.

2. Pocket squares: In seasons past, the three main characters Don Draper, Roger Sterling and Pete Campbell have worn pocket squares differently: horizontal, pointed and multi-pointed.

Nordstrom has a good selection by Michael Kors, Brooks Brothers, Robert Talbott and Psycho Bunny while Bergdorf Goodman has the classics.

3. Polka dot ties: Hugo Boss, Express and Neiman Marcus offer a wide milieu of bold colors and patterned ties. We’re totally betting on the dots, though. Stripes are nice and always around, but dots are classic and at the same time challenge the status quo in a way (and we’re all about that).

4. Good old cufflinks: One point to note is that even though color was a big deal then, Mad Men in that era tried to be understated and yet made powerful statements because of accessories like cuff links. Attention to detail added to their grooming eloquence adding to their charm. Cuff links and monogrammed accessories ruled the day back then.

We love these embossed and semi-precious Burberry cufflinks and BOSS Black cufflinks available at Saks.

We also chanced upon these unique Mad Men cufflinks, a bit too loud for our taste, but they would make a cool gift for an over the top “mad” fan:

While the plot thickens, play dress up and impress your significant other ‘60s style, we guarantee that it will totally be worth the madness.

About Jo:

The Naked Truth, Vol. 51

2013-03-21T09:44:52+00:00

Angela, I am looking to propose to my girlfriend and I don’t want to do something too cheesy. I want to be romantic and do something she would never expect. Of course I’m asking my friends, but I figured a woman’s advice couldn’t hurt. --Ring Bearer

Dear RB,

The best proposal is one YOU create yourself. I know you were looking to me and your friends for this amazing idea that she’ll never forget, but trust me, she will never forget your proposal. I’m a fan of simple, private, romantic, nostalgic…think of how your relationship has progressed and recreate a special night you’ve already experienced. Good memories revisited are always memorable and special. Good luck!

P.S. Have Champagne on hand to celebrate after she accepts!!

Dear Angela, I’m a terrible cook, and my boyfriend keeps asking me to make him dinner. Like ALL the time. I “faked” it once by ordering food and throwing out the evidence before he came over and he thinks I am a culinary queen. Now he has been even more persistent! Do I come clean or keep skirting the issue? --Take Out

Dear Take Out Queen,

Stop pretending you’re Rachel Ray! Maybe I’m wrong, but I know plenty of men, and I’ve never heard one utter, “She couldn’t cook so I had to dump her.” He will probably find it cute and endearing that you did the take out switcharoo before, but that’s a hard gig to keep up, and eventually he will catch on. Better to tell him now. Lies, even little white ones, don’t belong in a relationship.

As for your culinary prowess, there is help. Whole Foods and Publix both host cooking classes and there are also private lessons available if you prefer to hone your skills solo. But if you are convinced that cooking is just not for you, don’t worry. I haven’t cooked a meal in years and I’ve never had anyone tell me that’s a deal breaker.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Helping the American Red Cross

2013-03-20T19:11:32+00:00

The American Red Cross works diligently everyday to help communities and individuals coping with disaster. The organization’s reach ranges from assisting those affected by natural catastrophes to helping train citizens in CPR and first aid skills.

Heroes for the American Red Cross is an annual campaign designed to help raise essential funds for this life-saving organization. Tomorrow night you can support the Red Cross through an evening of food and entertainment.

The charity event will take place Thursday, March 21, from 7 to 10 p.m., at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Mizner Park. Attendees will enjoy a cocktail reception and delicious dinner stations, as well as silent and live auctions.

According to the American Red Cross, $2.50 provides one comfort kit (containing deodorant, a toothbrush and toothpaste, wash cloth, shampoo, lotion, comb, razor, shaving cream and more) for a disaster client.

Ten dollars provides a hot meal. Fifteen dollars covers the cost to care for a first responder for a day. That same amount also helps provide training for a Disaster Action Team member. Twenty dollars supplies a clean-up kit for a family (which includes a mop, broom, pail, scrub brush, disinfectant and other cleaning supplies). Fifty dollars can supply parents with diapers, wipes and soy formula for an infant. One thousand dollars can provide food and shelter to 20 individuals for one day.

Every dollar helps provide the necessary essentials for those in need.

Interested in helping? Tickets can be purchased $150 ($75 if you are under the age of 30).

For more information, please contact Jennifer Durrant at 561/650-9105 or jennifer.durrant@redcross.org.

Prom Tips and Trends

2013-03-20T18:00:00+00:00

“Project Runway” Season 9 contestant Amanda Perna recently visited Bloomingdale’s in Boca Raton to help young women select their perfect prom dress.

Perna currently manages her own line of beautiful apparel, The House of Perna, and works as a freelance stylist on events, editorial photo shoots and runway shows. She even shares her expert style advice on ehow.com.

We had an opportunity to chat with Perna to find out what to wear out to one of the biggest nights of high school.

What are your top tips for young women preparing for prom?

I think the most important thing is to put together a look that makes you feel beautiful. So often girls think about what everyone else thinks, but the real trick is that if you love what you have on, then you will feel confident and look amazing no matter what you are wearing.

The other trick to make sure you don’t look exactly like everyone else is to accessorize in a way that is unique to you. Think outside of the box a bit, and put together accessories that make a statement about you.

Another important tip is to remember to have fun. Have fun shopping, and getting ready. I find a lot of girls get overwhelmed and get upset during the process of prepping for prom. For [many], it is one of the only times in your life you can have fun with your friends, dress up in gowns, and take tons of pictures. Make it a night you will remember and just enjoy every minute of the process.

What are a few of the popular trends this season for prom attire?

One trend that I am personally excited about is metallic dresses. A lot of brands are offering amazing sequin and metallic gowns which make it so easy because you don’t have to accessorize very much.

Emerald green is Pantone's official color of the year, so a lot of brands are offering green dresses. I personally am drawn towards the pastel colored dresses that are in stores this prom season. Pastel is a good option for girls who want to look glamourous and like they are attending a red carpet event instead of a prom.

What I think is particularly exciting are the bold, vibrant printed dresses. Prints make a bold statement, and are especially relevant in South Florida.

I have been seeing a variety of options in terms of length, which I think is great. When I went to prom, most girls wore long dresses, but I think it is nice in Florida to have the option to wear a shorter dress. My personal favorite though are the high low-hemmed dresses. I think it is a great way to have the best of both worlds...the freedom to move about a you would in a short dress, but the elegance of a long gown.

Sweetheart necklines are always an elegant choice, but for girls who prefer a bit more coverage and support, dresses with an illusion neckline are great. It allows you to look a bit more sophisticated and still look age appropriate.

What accessories do you think pair well with these trends?

I think metallic shoes are a great option this prom season. Depending on the color of the dress, I also love a beautiful nude pump. These look great with dresses that have bold prints or are pastels.

For shorter dresses, I think it is important to wear a shoe that makes a statement. I love shoes that are strappy and open toe with shorter dresses. For a high-low hem dress, I think a pretty pump (open or closed toe) is your best bet.

My personal favorite way to style a dress is with a color that compliments the dress, and isn’t so matchy-matchy. So for example if you are wearing a blue dress, to wear a yellow shoe. The key is making sure the tones in the two colors do not conflict.

For purses, I always recommend a small evening bag that has a strap. It can be a wristlet or an elegant shoulder bag with a very thin strap. This way you don’t have to spend the entire night holding your bag, you can wear it and not have to pay too much attention to it.
I once again love a complimentary colored bag- it makes a bold statement. Another great option, is if you have a solid dress, carry a printed bag. This is another way to introduce metallics to your look as well.

Meet Perna this Saturday from 1-3 p.m. For more details, please call 561/394-2000.

The Grass is Greener

2013-03-20T15:50:04+00:00

Don Lambert’s newly opened installation at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood is called Lawn Jobs, but it might as well be named 50 Shades of Green.

His primary material is artificial grass, which can apparently be summoned in countless green hues and molded, as Lambert has done, into abstract shapes. Most of Lambert’s formations harbor dangerous implications: One looks like a hatchet, another a firearm aiming at, or pointed from, an outstretched arm. A triptych leaning against a wall could resemble three pieces of pie, but to my eyes, it conjures the universal symbol for radioactive material. Meanwhile, three mossy boulders, excavated from the gallery’s grounds and dragged punishingly into place in the center of the room, seem to be communicating with the faux grass sculptures, like an underwhelming Stonehenge.

What is Lambert trying to tell us through the subtle menace of his kitschy medium? If these geometric hazards were discovered as crop circles, they would give any ufologist pause – what are the extraterrestrials warning us about?

I think his aim is simpler and more cutting. The dangers he suggests are rooted in a satire of the perfectly manicured and sprinkled Middle American lawn, to which plenty of suburban families have tended as their own work of art. As I strolled through the capacious main gallery – the installation comprises just nine objects – I thought of the credit sequence in “Blue Velvet,” where David Lynch’s camera tracked across flawless lawns and the playful families enjoying them … before revealing a severed ear in the grass. The message hidden in Lambert’s vision, if there is one, may be as simple as this: Be careful out there.

Located in the next gallery over, Brandon Opalka’s “Janigans” serves up its satire in louder, more schizophrenic doses. It’s also a site-specific installation, but unlike Lambert’s wide-open spaces, it’s busier than Grand Central at rush hour.

On a cork board, next to a sign that says “Janigans Art Bar,” hangs a myriad of random objects, fragments of a hoarder’s inventory glued together with elbow grease and TLC: yearbook pictures, puzzling drawings, a small photo collage of half-naked women, a flattened package of frying oil, an ugly slab of carpet. All of this gathers above a paint-splattered workbench, under which is a cluster of discarded athletic jerseys.

And that’s only the introduction to the gallery. Walk through it, and you’ll find that Opalka’s manic approximation of a sports bar is a veritable kaleidoscope of neon tubing, lurid red tinting, towers of bottles and innumerable wall decorations, including a tattered American flag, a bicycle helmet and faded snapshots of sports stars. The copious shamrocks and green ribbons reveal that “Janigans” must be an Irish pub, though the DVDs playing on the three televisions are less specific: NFL bloopers, a fishing documentary, “Die Hard.”

It looks like an imaginative setting from a zonked-out Terry Gilliam film, but in fact, Opalka based his concept on Flanigan’s, the South Florida restaurant chain. It could just as easily skewer places like Applebee’s, TGI Fridays, Cracker Barrel or any other middlebrow eatery with a focus-group-tested illusion of chaos on its walls. “Janigans” is a sly commentary on these chains’ ordered confusion, which are intended to provide character but which only stress uniformity.

I love this installation because it sends up sports bars with a subversive, anarchic glee and I, for one, would love to enjoy a meal in his apocalyptic pub.

The exhibitions run through April 14. The Art and Culture Center is at 1650 Harrison St., Hollywood. Admission is $7 adults and $4 students, seniors and children. Call 954-921-3274 or visit artandculturecenter.org.

The Fit Life

2013-03-20T14:49:24+00:00

In 20-some years of health reporting, I keep seeing and hearing about evidence of a strong mind-body connection. A new study about lifelong exercise holding a key to cognitive wellbeing is just another example.

So, we can talk about how exercise improves the health of our hearts, lungs, quality of life—virtually, every aspect of our physical being. But we can also look to exercise to improve our minds, including our ability to think, reason and remember.

Researchers at King's College London, UK, studied a database of levels of exercise between ages of 11 and 50 in more than 9,000 people. Those same people had been tested for cognitive performance, including memory, verbal fluency and thinking through tasks. The study found those who exercised weekly as children and into adulthood performed better on tests of memory, learning, attention and reasoning at the age of 50 than those who exercised two to three times per month or less.

Just some food for thought.

West Boynton home to new hospital

Bethesda Hospital West is a new (opened last January), world-class, not-for-profit, community hospital located at the northeast corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and US-441. As part of Bethesda Health, Bethesda Hospital West offers a 24-hour emergency department, with a dedicated pediatric emergency room; 70-bed all-private rooms; a critical care/intensive care unit; four operating and two endoscopy suites; the full range of imaging services, including mammography, MRI and cardiac stress testing; infusion services; and more.

For more, visit www.BethesdaWest.org.

Mark your calendars!

Bethesda Hospital West is holding a community open house.

When: Saturday, April 13, 2013

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Where: Bethesda Hospital West, at 9655 W. Boynton Beach Boulevard, Boynton Beach, 33472 (Located on the northeast corner of Boynton Beach Boulevard and US-441.)

What’s happening: Learn about Bethesda’s new programs and services, participate in health screenings and demonstrations and enjoy free refreshments. There will be fun activities for the whole family including Bethesda’s Teddy Bear Hospital, face painting and more!

Free health screenings include: blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, heart risk assessment, sleep apnea,

How much: Admission is free.

For more information call (561) 737-7733, ext. 84405 or visit www.BethesdaWest.org.

About Lisette:

A Grand Bacchanal Coming Sunday

2013-03-19T06:00:00+00:00

Old Bacchus would be right at home in Boca this Sunday (March 24), when from noon to 3 p.m. the Grand Tasting of the 11^th annual Boca Bacchanal takes place at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre.

Benefitting the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum, the bash will feature delectables from some 30 local restaurants, plus 140 wines, artisan suds in a new beer garden and all manner of specialty food products.

Among the participating restaurants will be 75 Main, Chops Lobster Bar, Max’s Grille, Rebel House and Rosso. Adult refreshments will be provided by the likes of Butte Creek Brewing Co. Napa Smith Brewery and Sapporo (for the brew crew) and Champagne Charles Heidsieck, J. Lohr Vineyards, Merryvale Vineyards and St. Francis (for all you cork dorks).

Tickets cost $75 in advance and $90 at the gate, and can be obtained here.

The Week Ahead: March 19 to 25

2013-03-18T16:44:43+00:00

Tuesday

Renee Fleming at Society of the Four Arts, 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 3 p.m.; free for members, $15 for nonmembers to watch live telecast; 561/655-7227 or www.fourarts.org

There is apparently nothing Renee Fleming cannot sing. The soprano vocalist’s repertoire ranges from Mozart to Arcade Fire to jazz and opera; she is fluent in three languages and has performed operas in six of them. A natural comedian as well as an uncannily talented singer, Fleming has appeared on “Sesame Street” and “A Prairie Home Companion.” Her impressive list of albums is as long as a wine list at a gourmet restaurant, and most of them are just as vintage, ensuring that she’ll have plenty to draw from at this exclusive lecture.

Wednesday

Leonard Cohen at James L. Knight Center, 400 S.E. Second Ave., Miami; 8 p.m.; 305/416-5970 or www.jlkc.com

When Leonard Cohen played the BankAtlantic Center in 2009, I’m sure I’m not alone in assuming that it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the legendary poet and musician in concert. After all, at 75, Cohen wasn’t getting any younger, and touring is known for the wear and tear it places on the body. Surprisingly, though, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is back on the road, gracing South Florida once again with his presence in support of “Old Ideas,” his first release of new material in eight years. Expect another marathon set list similar, in length, to his epic, three-encore set at the BankAtlantic; his recent concerts have ran to 28 songs, with classics like “So Long, Marianne” and “Famous Blue Raincoat” sharing space with newer tracks like “Darkness” and “Going Home.”

Wednesday to Sunday

Twilight Bike Festival in Downtown Delray Beach; various start times and entry fees; 561/869-4916 or www.delraybeachtwilight.com

This second annual event may be the closest thing Palm Beach County has to the Running of the Bulls: a veritable stampede of hundreds of cyclists overtaking downtown Delray Beach, burning tar at speeds of 40 miles per hour, with hundreds of onlookers cheering them on. Aimed at professionals and amateurs alike and described by its promoters as “Mardi Gras meets the Tour de France,” the event surrounds its weekend races with a bevy of health and lifestyle events to comprise an entire festival of activity. There are live deejays, bike tricks, food and drink gatherings at area restaurants, free children’s activities, safety demonstrations and even stationary bike races, for the spinning crowd. Visit the festival’s website for complete details.

Friday to Sunday

Boca Bacchanal at various Boca Raton venues; 6 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday; $75 to $325; 561/395-6766 ext. 101 or www.bocabacchanal.com

Have you ever looked into the history of the term “bacchanal?” You’ll find some pretty wild parties, originally held in celebration of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus. Paintings of “bacchanalia” by artists such as Rubens and Leveque depict orgies of fleshy bodies in all sorts of postures you can’t show on television. In the past century, the word has taken on a kinder, gentler context, including benign references in “A Christmas Story” and the 2011 “Wizard of Oz” musical. And in the case of Boca Raton’s own Bacchus celebration, the Boca Bacchanal, it’s become one of the year’s most anticipated and sophisticated social events – the most fun foodies and wine buffs can have with their clothes on. This year, for the first time, the event’s organizers have switched up the lineup so that the Bacchus Bash, traditionally held on Saturday, will be presented Friday at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. The private dinners will be hosted Saturday, and the most popular and budget-friendly event, the Grand Tasting, will fill the Mizner Park Amphitheater on Sunday as usual.

Saturday and Sunday

“Romeo and Juliet” at Olympic Heights Performing Arts Theater, 20101 Lyons Road, Boca Raton; 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; $10 to $35; 561/995-0709 or www.bocaballet.org

Arguably the Shakespeare play most audiences know best – I believe its plot is recited to fetuses when they’re still in the womb – this story of star-crossed lovers has been recast in everything from “West Side Story” to “High School Musical.” Bolstered by a score from Sergey Prokofiev, the story has also had a lasting impact as a pas de deux ballet, and this weekend, Boca Ballet Theatre’s co-artistic director, Dan Guin, will be the latest choreographer to add his own contribution to the narrative’s rich ballet history. The American Ballet Theatre’s Sarah Smith, who launched her career with Boca Ballet Theatre at age 11, will portray Juliet, while Simon Bell, a principal dancer with the Houston Ballet, will play Romeo.

Saturday

Grand Opening Event at Delray Marketplace, 9025 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; free; delraymarket.com

The hottest news to hit Delray Beach since Old School Square’s name change, the all-new Delray Marketplace has finally made West Delray a desirable dining and cultural destination. I’ve already espoused the pleasures of Frank Theaters CineBowl and Grille, which opened in February along with many of the Marketplace’s shops and restaurants. But today’s Grand Opening celebration signals that the 254,000-square-foot complex is ready for prime time. Titled “Le Cirque Delray,” the daylong festival will feature family-friendly, circus-themed activities such as strolling entertainment and live music in the venue’s 200-seat amphitheater, along with tenant samplings of what the retailers and eateries have to offer.

Passion Pit at Lynn University, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton; 8 p.m.; $25 students, $50 general admission; 561/237-9000 or www.lynn.edu

Passion Pit has a habit of playing unusual South Florida venues, forgoing amphitheaters and mid-size clubs for spaces that don’t do normally house pop-music acts: Last fall the band played a typically energetic set at Young Circle in Hollywood, and tonight they’ll rock the soccer field at Lynn. This concert caps a particularly fertile period in the skyrocketing career of this acclaimed synth-pop group: Last year’s sophomore album “Gossamer” debuted at No. 4 at the Billboard 200, and it wasn’t long before they performed on “Saturday Night Live,” a rite of passage for any established band. Selling out Madison Square Garden in the midst of a snowstorm last month cemented what has been a banner season. Next year, perhaps they’ll find a South Florida hospital or retirement home to light up and sell out.

Sunday

Rachel Maddow at University of Miami Field House, 1245 Dauer Drive, Coral Gables; 4 p.m.; ticket included with $15 purchase of Maddow’s book; 305/442-4408 or www.booksandbooks.com

Something always told me that when Rachel Maddow would spend weeks in Afghanistan, hosting her MSNBC show from one of the most volatile regions on Earth, she wasn’t doing it for the buffet breakfasts at the Kabul Serena Hotel. More so than her colleagues in the liberal press, Maddow has always been intensely focused on the United States military and the wars it engages, and her passion for the subject, buttressed by her overseas reporting, resulted in her first book, the 2012 best-seller “Drift.” A witty and wonky study of the United States’ apparent taste for perpetual war, and the way our conflicts have been continually outsourced since Vietnam, “Drift” has earned praise across the political spectrum, even from ideological opposites like Roger Ailes of Fox News. This afternoon’s event, sponsored by Books & Books, will feature a conversation between Maddow and UM president Donna E. Shalala; those who purchase a copy of “Drift,” now in paperback, at Books & Books will receive a voucher for the program.

Sundy House, 75 Main Unveil New Menus

2013-03-18T06:00:00+00:00

A pair of celebrity chefs are raising the culinary bar in Delray with the release of new menus at two very different restaurants.

At the impossibly lovely and romantic Sundy House (106 S. Swinton Ave., 561/272-5678), exec chef (and former Top Chef contestant) Lindsay Autry has rolled out a menu that nods at always-popular Mediterranean flavors as well as those of the currently trendy South. Among the notable additions are crisp-fried branzino with grapefruit charmoula, roasted bone marrow with barbecued short rib and pickled shallots, grilled octopus with charred avocado and Spanish chorizo, and sweetbreads with braised veal cheek and Swank Farms heirloom beans.

Not to be outdone on the dessert side, pastry chef Sarah Sipe is dishing up some new sweet treats too. Like grilled corn pound cake with blackberries and candied almonds, milk chocolate and peanut butter devil’s food cake with banana ice cream and peanut brittle, even an artisan cheese plate (Yay!).

At hip, niteclubby 75 Main (270 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/243-7975), renowned SoFla chef-restaurateur Mark Militello has completed his menu makeover, and the touch of the man who’s as responsible as anyone for South Florida becoming a culinary destination is all over it.

The menu is divided into three sections: Share, Taste and Eat, i.e., sharing plates, appetizers and entrees. So under Share we get dishes like shisito peppers with Sea Hive cheese (rubbed with honey and sea salt), miso and toasted sesame; Tastes like sweet corn polenta with roasted mushrooms, truffle essence and shaved cheese; and entrees like black grouper with crabmeat and artichokes in saffron broth and diver scallops with lentil salad and pancetta chips.

If you want to read a little more about Mark’s new menu at 75 Main, check out the latest issue of the magazine. I wrote the review before the makeover was complete but you could instantly tell by taste and execution that someone with some serious chops was running things in the kitchen.

Audra McDonald Brings the House Down

2013-03-17T14:44:28+00:00

Last night, at her closing performance at the Festival of the Arts, Audra McDonald told a rapt audience about her youngest critic. It was her then 3-year-old daughter, who McDonald says delivered this quip, cleverer beyond her years: “Mommy, your singing makes my ears cry.”

Hundreds of ears left happy and wanting more at the Mizner Park Amphitheater last night after a dynamic concert of moving ballads, jaunty numbers and humorous anecdotes from the five-time Tony winner’s life and work. She shared some of the stories behind the tunes she chose – one of them dates serendipitously to an encounter with a street karaoke performer in Cambridge, and another she discovered as background music in Woody Allen’s “Radio Days” – engaging us every time.

What was most distinctive about McDonald’s concert was the lack of familiar songs, a decision that could torpedo a less magnetic performer. She didn’t even play any hits from “Porgy & Bess” and “Ragtime,” for which she won awards. Her selections instead ran an obscure but compelling gamut from vintage movie musicals to newer Broadway cult hits, conveying their songwriters’ messages with such passion and kineticism that it’s hard to believe she didn’t star in the original productions.

Moreover, these renditions made us want to discover these musicals ourselves and hear the songs in their original contexts. Two standing ovations concluded the show, which, to my eyes, was under-attended … but it capped off what many would agree is the best Festival of the Arts yet. Here was her set list:

When Did I Fall in Love (from “Fiorello”)
The Stars and the Moon (Jason Robert Brown)
My Buddy (standard)
I Double Dare You (Louis Armstrong)
Moonshine Lullaby (from “Annie Get Your Gun”)
Moments in the Woods (from “Into the Woods”)
First You Dream (from “Steel Pier”)
Migratory V (from “Myths and Hymns”)
I Could Have Danced All Night (from “My Fair Lady”)
Whose Little Angry Man (from “Raisin”)
Can’t Stop Talking About Him (from “Let’s Dance”)
Craigslistlieder No. 7 (Gabe Kahane)
Go Back Home (from “The Scottsboro Boys”)
I’ll Be Here (from “Ordinary Days”)
Make Someone Happy (from “Do Re Mi”)
Some Days (Steve Marzulo, based on James Baldwin poem

Encore:

17. Over the Rainbow (“The Wizard of Oz”)

Jules Feiffer's Life in Panels

2013-03-15T14:21:58+00:00

Speaking for more than an hour at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach yesterday, Jules Feiffer presented a lecture that was, appropriately, animated.

The legendary cartoonist, illustrator, playwright and screenwriter, whose credits include “The Phantom Tollbooth,” “Carnal Knowledge” and countless Village Voice political cartoons, accompanied his lecture with an exhaustive PowerPoint presentation of slides that projected his best work for all to see. It was a way of getting at the man through the fruits of his labor – to understand his personality through the pointed, caustic relationships that emerged from his simply drawn, text-heavy panels about aging, relationships and anxieties.

And as his cartoons evolved with the political times, he became a trenchant commentator targeting all sides of the ideological spectrum; looking at his observations about Kissinger, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Clinton, it’s amazing how many of them apply today on subjects such as war, hypocrisy and political cowardice.

Here are a few of the highlights from this wonderful afternoon.

On the classic cartoonist mentality:

“These cartoonists would do this sort of work and never think of it as art – they’d never see themselves as artists, and didn’t want to be artists. They wanted to hang out with the alcoholic newspapermen. They thought making art was for pansies, and they were real men.”

On the joy of cartoons:

“They used the Sunday pages basically to play. This was a form of a play, and as a kid, the playfulness of comics, the adventure quality of the comics, the sense that unlike real life, which was mired in having to get up in the morning and do what your mother told you and deal with the quiet disapproval of your father and get to school, freedom had to be stolen from here or there, and for me it was stolen by learning from these guys."

On the cartooning trade:

“What I did is what other cartoonists did if they were big in comic books – I stole. What’s interesting is that when kids start out and start to draw and paint, they have a freshness. They have an originality. They have something that is their own essence. And when you go to school, like first and second grades, you see really exciting stuff on the wall. And as they get older, the stuff gets less exciting, because they start getting influenced. They were influenced by the kids around them, they start stealing from others, they’re told by teachers how to do it, and eventually would-be artists become non-artists and lose interest because the stuff becomes uninspiring. That’s a trajectory that happens all the time.”

On getting his first job:

“When I was in my early teens, I needed a job, and I looked up Will Eisner, my hero, in the phone book, and there he was. I went down to his office and knocked on the door. He was sitting right there, at his desk, drawing ‘The Spirit.’ And like all cartoonists doing their own work, he loved interruptions. He happily offered to see my work, and he happily offered to give his opinion of my work, which was to say that I basically had no talent at all. But I was used to rejections and bad news; I was a kid from the Bronx. I knew how to handle it. I knew I couldn’t tell him how good I was after he told me how bad I was. So I switched the subject to him and to his work. And he understood after about 30 seconds that I knew his entire career from the very beginning. I knew stuff that nobody else knew. I could talk in detail about things he did five, six, seven years ago. And so by the end of my monologue, he had no choice but to hire me.

“As a groupie, I started working with Eisner and was incapable of doing the simplest things in the office. The level of my ambition was only matched by the extraordinary level of my incompetence. The more things they gave me to try, the more things I failed at over and over again. But I loved working in the shop around these other cartoonists who were infinitely more proficient than I. I loved the talk. I loved the atmosphere, and finally I was so sure of myself that I ventured to say to Eisner one day that the stories he was writing in the mid-1940s were not nearly as good as what he wrote in ’40 and ’41, and why wasn’t he as good a writer as he used to be?

“I didn’t mean this as an insult. I thought it was a craft conversation. And I had no idea this was a ‘going to get my fired’ quote. What a schmuck I was. But to my wonder and his infinite credit, instead of yelling at me or putting me down, he said, ‘You think you can do better? Why don’t you write one?’ So I wrote one. And I was the writer on ‘The Spirit’ from that point on.”

On Henry Kissinger:

“Kissinger was one of the greatest gifts to satiric art, because he was such an original and yet he was so out of our tradition. He was both arrogant and wanted to make it in Hollywood.”

On his start in playwriting:

“While I was doing the cartoons, I started, in the mid’60s, some 35years before I gave up the cartoons, to write plays, because there things happening out there that six or eight panels in a comic strip couldn’t explain, and I had views on them and feelings about them. So I started to use theater as a way of talking about them.”

On the making of “Carnal Knowledge:”

“When [director] Mike Nichols had suggested [Jack] Nicholson for the lead, I said, ‘He’s not the character. I don’t see why you want him.’ And Mike said, ‘Trust me. He’s going to be the most important actor since Brando.’ And I did, and he was.”

On the making of “Popeye” (for which he wrote the screenplay):

One of the most impressive things about the movie was its incredible set, done by the brilliant designer Wolf Kroeger. At night, when I thought everything was falling apart and I was depressed, I would walk through this set and reel over and over again on what a cartoonist can do, really by accident, to create their own universe. When you’re feeling bad and things aren’t going right in your life, you can walk around your own creations and feel better because this is what you imagined.

On making movies vs. plays:

If you’re a playwright, you write a first draft, and you show it to the people you’re working with, on the basis of which you do revisions and the second draft, which makes it better. And then you go to work with a director and you keep making it better and better. My experience in film has been, you write the first draft, and then it goes to the powers that be and they gave you notes, and it’s worse. Then they give you more notes, and it comes out even worse, because in movies, it’s never about making it better. It’s all about control. It’s about being in charge and showing your power. None of it is really about the work.”

Where to Toast on St. Paddy's Day

2013-03-15T06:00:00+00:00

Green beer, Guinness, corned beef and cabbage, and general revelry ... sounds like St. Patrick’s Day to me. Here are a few places where you can get your inner Irish on.

Not surprisingly, St. Paddy’s Day is a pretty big deal at the newly renovated, re-concepted and renamed Slainte Irish Pub + Kitchen (1500 Gateway Blvd., 561/742-4190). The Boynton Beach eatery begins its holiday celebration on Friday, March 16, with a sixth anniversary bash. There will be free birthday cake during lunch, complimentary bar bites during happy hour, $5 Irish beers from 4 p.m. until close, live entertainment and assorted giveaways.

On Saturday there’s the sixth annual St. Baldrick’s Day party and fundraiser for kids fighting cancer. There’s an Irish breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m., head shaving to support the fight against cancer from 2 to 9 p.m., plus kiddie and big kid activities. Then Sunday comes the big bash—from 3 p.m. until close with food and drink specials, live music from several different local bands, a Guinness beer truck and more. As if that isn’t enough ...

At Deck 84 (840 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/665-8484) they’ll be throwing a party after the Delray Beach Parade on Saturday, March 16. Look for drink specials like the Little Leprechaun (Irishman whiskey and Fireball whiskey liqueur) and Irish Crunch (Irishman Irish cream and Fireball), as well as traditional Irish fare like corned beef hash, corned beef and cabbage, and Guinness beer cheese soup. Live music starts at 1 p.m.

Party the night away at Il Bacio (29 SE 2^nd Ave., 561/865-7785). The Delray niteclub-lounge-restaurant kicks off the festivities at 3 p.m., with $4 beers, Bailey’s and Jamisons until 7 p.m. The kitchen will be dishing up Angus burgers, barbecued chicken, meatball sammies and shortribs with polenta. Live music and a DJ until 2 a.m.

And over at the Little House (480 E. Ocean Ave., 561/420-0573) you can celebrate the day in your PJs. Literally. Chrissie Benoit’s cute, tiny Boynton Beach restaurant is hosting their usual Sunday brunch, fortified by a pajama contest. Show up in your best sleepwear (and we don’t mean birthday suit), dig into green eggs and ham, swill down Bloody Marys from the bottomless BM bar and see if you’re the winner. If you are, you’ll get free brunch for two every weekend in April. No four-leaf clovers necessary.

The Danger Zones

2013-03-14T12:36:57+00:00

In a candid and often alarming assessment of the international security environment earlier this week at Festival of the Arts, Gen. George Casey forecasted at least another decade of “protracted confrontation among states, non-states and individual actors who are increasingly willing to use violence” to accomplish political and ideological goals.

“We’re still at war with a global, extremist network,” said Casey, who served his country for more than 40 years. “I believe it’s a long-term ideological struggle that will play out in duration more like the Cold War rather than any conventional war.”

The retired four-star general—the 36th chief of staff of the U.S. Army (2007 to 2011) and former senior coalition commander in Iraq—spoke for more than an hour at the Cultural Arts Center, addressing some of the major threats to our national security.

Among them:

Regional instability: “While we’ve had some success against al-Qaida and weakened it with the killing of Osama bin Laden, it’s not dead by any stretch of the imagination. This is an ideological struggle between moderate and extremist Islam. And it’s a struggle that we need to see joined. We are not going to defeat Islamic extremism by ourselves. The battle is going to have to be won within Islam.

“I believe that the struggle that’s going on in places like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Iraq ... this is the defining struggle of the next decade. ... And it’s very frustrating for us because it’s not like the Cold War, where we could go out and win it. We can only support these countries and help them win. It’s going to take a long time, lots of resources and lots of patience.”

Weapons of mass destruction: “The reason that stability in these countries is so important is because of the nexus between instability, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction—and I believe that is the greatest risk facing us right now. ... Add to that mix rouge states like North Korea and Iran that not only sponsor proliferation of weapons of mass destruction but are also state sponsors of terror, and that adds to an already volatile mix.

“There are about 1,000 terrorist groups around the world today. We know they’re out there actively seeking weapons of mass destruction, primarily biological and chemical—and, to some extent, nuclear. Getting one of these devices and successfully employing it is hard, otherwise they would have done it already. I’ve been saying for the past few years that I expect to see a [WMD] attack on us. It hasn’t happened, and that’s a good thing. But, for me, it’s only a matter of time.”

Cyber terrorism: “I treat this like a weapon of mass destruction because it’s been significantly effective. ... There are more than 75 million pieces of malware [malicious software] already on the Internet; a new piece enters the Internet every 2.2 seconds. It’s no wonder that between 2010 and 2011, cyber attacks went up by almost 50 percent.

“I believe this threat is real and prescient. The threshold has been crossed; [cyber tools can impact] infrastructure. Cyber tools can be used to destroy electrical generators and shut down our electrical system. ... When former secretary of defense Leon Panetta talked about a cyber attack as the next Pearl Harbor, that really got my antennae up.”

Economic crisis: “For defense, there is $15 billion more in cuts coming next year and the year after for a total of 10 years. This protracted and arbitrary cutting of the defense budget, for me, is a recipe for a hollow force. ... With the first sequestration cut, we’ve taken a step toward a hollow [military force]. It’s troubling to me because this is not what we usually do, which is to draw down after wars. We’re drawing down while we’re involved in a long-term ideological struggle against global extremism. This military that’s being cut back is going to be needed, in some form or another, in the next year or two.”

The Naked Truth, Vol. 50

2013-03-14T09:24:16+00:00

Hi Angela, my boyfriend never says my name when we are having sex. Not once. Not ever. Should I be concerned? I feel like that’s fishy. --My name is Jennifer

Dear What’s her face, As long as he’s not saying someone else’s name, I see no reason why this is a big deal. You’d have to give me a lot more evidence to suggest he’s stepping out on you.

Everyone’s bedroom style is different. As a couple, you get to explore what works, what doesn’t, and what really turns each of you on. If hearing your own name whispered softly in your ear when you are in the throws of passion is incredibly sexy for you, then ask him to say your name. It’s no different than asking him to touch you a certain way.

If you are in a sexual relationship with someone, you should be comfortable talking about your wants and needs in and out of the bedroom.

Just ask him to say your name, Jennifer.

Angela, my co-worker recently got engaged to her boyfriend of two years. I am trying to be happy for her, but I’ve been hinting to my guy for four years that I’d love to start my life with him. I just feel jealous and sulky. How can I be happy for her? How can I get my guy to commit? --R.L.

Ms. Sour Grapes,

Jealousy is the tackiest of outfits.

Your co-worker’s happiness is not contingent upon your own. Wish her congratulations, then smile and nod as she obsessively recounts what a difficult decision she had choosing between burgundy or navy for her J. Crew bridesmaids dresses. She’s excited, as she should be. Don’t take that away from her by being a Debbie Downer.

As for your own guy, have you discussed marriage? Four years in a committed and exclusive relationship is enough time to know if you are ready to take the next step. Without turning it into a threat, it is acceptable to give your guy a time limit and put him on notice. Let him know that [insert timeframe- no less than 6 months but no more than twelve] you would like to be engaged or you will move on with your life without him. But don’t be like the boy who cried wolf. If you give an ultimatum, you have to be willing to follow through if he doesn’t comply.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Delray Election Results? No One Loses

2013-03-14T08:59:44+00:00

I always love it when the winners of a hotly contested election go all soft and self righteous and conciliatory, entreating everyone to “come together,” asking for “unity.” (This was all over facebook this week as well as the Delray web site forums.) Meanwhile, the people in the losing camp are not feeling that kumbaya as much as wondering if they owe any money, what lies ahead for the future, where did they fall short.

As for the recent Delray election, I have to say there were winners and losers but the heartening aspect in my humble observation was how many really solid people were running for office. If you look to towns to the north and the south of Delray you just don’t get that kind of field. No one wants to be bothered or you get the same old ineffective die-hards (you know who you are.) Delray’s election had its nasty moments, but at least it seemed to have people who were engaged and who cared and who loved Delray Beach. There was sense of community even in this.

So now what do all of us do about voter turn out? To me, all the warring camps and behind-the-scenes operatives are not nearly as disturbing as the fact that no one in South Florida goes to the polls; the caring seems to fizzle out on the voter levels. What does it take to engage people?

Let’s see if the new leadership can do it. Or if it is even possible these days.

In the meantime, thank goodness it’s over and let’s all hoist a beer at the parade on Saturday. That’s one day on which we can all be the same—Irish.

Michael Sandel Gets Us Talking

2013-03-14T08:19:29+00:00

What would you do if you were the driver of a trolley gone out of control and barreling right toward five workers in its path? You could take a sidetrack where there was only one worker working and spare the lives of the five. Would you do that? Was the Supreme Court correct in allowing disabled golfer Casey Martin to use a golf cart? Should the best flautist get the best flute? These and other questions formed the basis of a riveting lecture by Harvard University professor and author of “Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do?” at the Festival of the Arts Wednesday night. Michael Sandel challenged the audience to examine the moral and ethical assumptions underlying these issues (in addition to other hotly debated political and social issues) in a way that was interactive, engaging, playful and thought-provoking.

It was an evening that showed exactly why Sandel’s popular course, "Justice," has enrolled more than 15,000 students, and it was the kind of experience that made you want to go back to school this instant—if you could be in his course. Did this affable ethicist give any definitive answers to the moral quandaries he posed? Not exactly. But his exercise with audience concluded with his suggestion that the way toward a more functional civic life would be to directly grapple with the big moral questions behind the issues that divide us. “This would not necessarily lead to agreement,” he says, “ but elevate the terms of a civic life and engender more respect” in the process.

In short, he said to be good citizens means we also need to sometimes be philosophers.

What a great lecture from a great man--and another home run by the people who bring us the Festival of the Arts.

Coming up this weekend:

TONIGHT

March 14, 7:30 p.m.

Concert: Cameron Carpenter, organ; Constantine Kitsopoulos, conductor & Festival Music Director; Boca Raton Symphonia

Amphitheater

FRIDAY

March 15, 7:30 p.m.

Concert: Valentina Lisitsa, piano; Peter Oundjian, conductor; New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy

Amphitheater

SATURDAY

Saturday, March 16^, 7:30 p.m.

Audra McDonald in Concert

Amphitheater

For information, call 561/368-8445 ; for tickets, call 866/571-ARTS (866/571-2787)

Spice Up Your Cocktail

2013-03-14T06:00:00+00:00

Chefs aren’t the only epicurean experts who know their way around the kitchen. Bartenders also are turning to the pantry and spice rack for inspiration—a growing trend that, in some quarters, is pushing the Cosmopolitan to the back burner. Look no further than bar menus in and around town, where featured cocktail recipes often include a mix of herbs and spices.

At Sweetwater Bar & Grill (1507 S. Federal Highway, 561/509-9277) in Boynton Beach, the cocktail menu rivals most restaurant menus when it comes to creativity. Try the Lonsdale with botanical gin, local honey, basil and lemon; or the Death & Taxes with pine liqueur, elderflower and rooibos tea-infused gin. Each sip leaves you wondering how so many flavors made it into one glass.

Mojitos, traditionally made with muddled mint, remain a popular herbaceous cocktail, and local mixologists are raising the bar with added ingredients. Dada (52 N. Swinton Ave., 561/330-3232) in Delray has one of the most extensive Mojito menus around, with offerings from raspberry to ginger to melon. The sugar cane stir is an added bonus.

Also in Delray, Cabana el Rey (105 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/274-9090) features a passion fruit Caipirinha that’s as packed with mint and basil as a good pesto. Tanzy (301 Plaza Real, 561/922-6699) at Mizner Park has its own version of the Mojito with its Pestatos. The blend of basil, mint and coriander (sans the alcohol, of course) is nearly as healthy as a salad.

The herbaceous drink trend doesn’t have to stop at the local bar. Adding flavored bitters and a splash of soda at home to an aperitif wine such as Lillet is simple yet sophisticated. Or, freshen up that Cosmo with a sprig of thyme; the flavors will awaken, much like adding fresh basil to your favorite jar of marinara.

Cheers.

Hilary Hauser is contributing blogs to the “Dining” section of bocamag.com as part of a required externship at Le Cordon Bleu in Miami.

Festival of the Arts Q&A: Cameron Carpenter

2013-03-13T14:23:30+00:00

Not many classical musicians have their own fashion portfolios. But on the website of Cameron Carpenter, the groundbreaking young organist who makes his highly anticipated Boca Raton debut Thursday at the Festival of the Arts, he has an entire gallery of glamour shots: Hair in a pompadour, dressed in a three-piece suit, an ensemble made of black leather, a glittering Liberace getup. We see him straightening a bowtie, posing near a pile of rubbish and sprawled on a divan. He obviously works out, and, indeed, his personal trainer tours with him.

At other times donning a CBGB shirt, and quick to quote William S. Burroughs, Carpenter resembles not a studious graduate of Juilliard who has plied his trade on an instrument most associated with church music so much as a rebellious glam rocker turned male model.

So it’s no surprise he’s been shaking up the classical music establishment, both in his flamboyant performance apparel and his embrace of digital pipe organs, which he believes are democratizing a bulky instrument from its moribund traditions. The controversies he’s engendered have no doubt contributed to his fame, leading to coverage on CNN, the New York Times, The New Yorker and other prestigious publications. But his image and provocative musings belie his wizardry on the pipe organ. He is, in the end, a virtuoso whose mastery of his instrument speaks for itself.

He took a few minutes to speak with Boca Raton prior to his performance tomorrow.

Tell us a little bit about the program, and working with the Boca Symphonia.

The program is a challenge to our perceptions about what the organ, and the organist, can and should be. It’s music by revolutionaries – by which I mean Samuel Barber and Camille Saint-Saens, and some solo works, which I’ll play, but upon which I haven’t decided yet. It’s a challenge to get to work with a band of esteemed musicians that I’ve never met, and to have the chance to come together to produce magic under pressure.

How did you become attracted to the organ? And when did you know that this what you wanted – or needed – to do with your life?

The organ was first an overwhelming force for me visually, when I saw as a tiny child a highly evocative encyclopedia entry showing an organist playing in a movie palace. My later first contact with an organ at age 4 was almost sinister in its power and I was forever ruined to serious dedication to anything else.

With its common association with ecclesiastical and sacred music, do you think the pipe organ is generally not being used to its full sonic potential?

Much more worthy of our attention in and out of church – in my case, particularly out – is the subject of the digital organ, where actual musical revolution is flourishing.

As to sacred music, it’s only possible to answer this if we agree that the pipe organ’s potential is prima facie limited by its physical immobility, and by its inability to become the centerpiece of an ongoing relationship with its user in any meaningful way (since every organ is completely different). One would think such an inflexible entity would be well-suited to assisting in the maintenance of the churchly status quo, though (perhaps ironically) most churches which fancy themselves “contemporary” – i.e., increasingly conscious of the relationship between God and the dollars of the young – are keen to throw out the organ in the attempt to get hip. All of which proves only one thing: that even in the cheap theatre of church, with its hocus-pocus and its ecclesiastical hobgoblinery, even there, the pipe organ still has a hard time justifying itself.

How do you like the label of “the most controversial organist in the world?” Did you expect to garner a label like that?

Music and art, and the doing of them, are unequivocally worth fighting about, and therefore controversy is inevitable and very much to be used and enjoyed if possible.

As is often the case, people easily offended usually have a need to be, and it might be argued that they enjoy it, too. The level of controversy I’ve thus far generated, hard as that level is to quantify, is likely less than that which awaits the launch of my international touring organ project in 2014.

Why are personal presentation, and apparel, so important to your performances?

They are important because persona is important; and onstage, they are important because feeling comfortable in one’s own skin is conducive to good performance. Clothes don’t exactly make the performance; but in the words of the Romans – vestus virum Reddit – they do make the man, and it’s the man (or woman, or etc.) who makes the performance.

I’ve also spoken with Amadeus Leopold, with whom you share a bill at this festival, and with whom you share some similarities in shaking up the classical music establishment. He considers himself a pop artist who plays classical music, not a member of the classical music community, and wants his records to be filed under the pop section. Do you feel the same way?

I should be so lucky as to share a concert, not only a bill, with him. If I had to classify him, I would call him a performance artist of the highest caliber, someone deeply linked to the tradition of Laurie Anderson, perhaps also of the Cockettes, Joan Jonas, etc. But – and on this I can’t be more emphatic – I’d rather revel in his existence as an unclassifiable artist and the brave rebelliousness of that than to agree with his own self-defeating self-classification. It’s both cheap and unsubstantiated to call him a “pop artist who plays classical music”; cheap because it’s glossing-over of the much greater subtlety of his work, and unsubstantiated because by now we know what, in 2013, a pop artist does and doesn’t do. Pop artists by definition don’t play classical music. What they do is to sing – specifically, they sing lyrics conveyed by attached musical information that is secondary in importance to the message of the lyrics. It is this literality of lyrics and the spoken (or sung) word which is the prerequisite to all popular music, and this the violin – like the organ – need not convey. By this I mean no damnation of popular music – the issue here is quantitative, not qualitative.

Of course, my hope to claim Amadeus a fellow soldier in the destruction and rebirth of classical music is selfishly showing.

From some interviews you’ve given, you seem very well read. What are some of your favorite books?

Goodnight Moon was always a favorite. Also, the complete works of Nabokov and Susan Sontag in constant gradual re-reading, nothing by Ayn Rand, and the good old King James (skimmed only as lightly as needed to grasp the literary and mythical context for works of greater worth).

Carpenter and the Boca Raton Symphonia perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 14 at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Tickets cost $15 to $75. Call 561/368-8445 or visit festivaloftheartsboca.org.

Pampering the Pet Set

2013-03-13T11:59:51+00:00

Nothing warms your heart more than walking into your space after a long day and your pet greeting you with a cascade of hugs and kisses. What’s better still is that you have your own little tag-a-long shopping buddy! Talk about friends with benefits.

This is what got us writing about Chewy Chic, the go-to pet boutique for everything from nutritional treats, accessories, apparel, spa somethings to photography.

Chewy Chic launched last month in Boca Raton. Owner, Maria Diz has always been in the creative business. She formerly owned a children’s party planning set up and moved on to founding Chewy Chic. Mother of four, Diz leveraged business savvy from her previous venture and wisely twisted the empty nest transition into a thriving business idea. An estimated $53 billion was spent on pets last year because a whopping 62% of American households own a pet.

That’s why Diz’s idea is worth a mention. Taking the concept further, Diz has a photo studio in the store and will also offer spa services shortly. Accessories are right on trend with seasonal colors, lavender being this season’s favorite. The boutique is sprawled over as an open layout and has a cozy living room feel to it. The merchandise caters to a broad variety of canine friends—right from cute bows to masculine I-mean-business collars. Chewy Chic carries lines from Ruff Ruff Couture, Puppia, Susan Lanci, RuffLuv and more.

Maintaining a good synergy with themed baskets and photo shoots, Diz has an interesting lineup of topical promotions for the year ahead. With an economy as volatile as ours, betting on a small business seems to be the best idea in these times. Especially when it involves our furry BFFs.

About Jo:

The Green Goddess, Vol. 4

2013-03-13T06:00:00+00:00

St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend, an automatic day of celebration for those of us who enjoy going green, right? Let’s just say, it can be—especially if you avoid diving headfirst into that river of green beer. In truth, Irish fare has its share of health benefits. Here are some tips and tricks for making the most of your St. Paddy’s celebration.

Potatoes: Spuds have been getting a bad rep lately, but, actually, they can be good for you. Potatoes are filled with bloat-reducing potassium, antioxidants, fiber, iron, zinc and energy-boosting carbs; a medium-sized offering has about 160 calories and boasts 4 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. Word to the wise: Skip the big-calorie offenders like sour cream, butter and cheese; this is what contributes to weight gain and lethargy. Instead, sprinkle your potato with some metabolism-boosting hot sauce—and enjoy it with a side of green veggies.

Cabbage: Low in calories and high in fiber (only 22 calories per cup), this Irish staple can help satisfy your hunger for hours. Best of all, cabbage is a part of the famous cruciferous vegetables that help protect the body from cancer. When I’m at an Irish pub, and there are no good vegetarian dishes, I always order a side of cabbage, one baked potato and a green salad.

Guinness: Research has shown that dark beer like Guinness is packed with antioxidants. Just remember that it still has liver-suppressing alcohol, so limit your drink to one glass, which is about 125 calories.

Go Green in Boca: One of my favorite Irish pubs in Boca is The Dubliner at Mizner Park (435 Plaza Real, 561/620-2540). If you truly want to go green this St. Paddy’s Day, try the spinach and kale salad, artichoke salad or the vegetarian shepherd’s pie. The Dubliner also has good side-dish options, from roasted vegetables, sautéed spinach and vegetarian beans.

The east and west Boca locations of Holloway’s Irish Pub (504 Via de Palmas, 561/361-8445; 6909 S.W. 18th St., 561/620-2318) offer grilled veggie wraps with zucchini, squash, roasted peppers, red onions and sun-dried tomato spread. For a healthy St. Paddy’s option in Delray, try the house salad, cabbage and baked potato at Tim Finnegan’s Irish Pub (2885 S. Federal Highway, 561/330-3153).

About Alina Z.

The Bacchanal Is Almost Here!!!

2013-03-12T17:15:36+00:00

The Festival of the Arts is only midway through and we are already looking forward to the Next Big Thing: the 2013 Boca Bacchanal. The 11th annual food and wine festival has never missed a beat since its inception. The chefs and vintners are first rate, the vintners’ dinners are practically bucket list evenings, and the Grand Tasting is as well done as any food event of its kind I have ever experienced.

Part of this is due to the innate good taste of the people who throw this party, but we’re also lucky to have beautiful venues in which to experience the events, from the elegant Resort to stunning private homes, to the intimate but lovely green at the Mizner Park Amphitheater.

Here are the things you need to know in order to go--and go you must:

The Bacchus Bash, Friday March 22 at 6:00 p.m.

The Bacchus Bash is an elegant tasting at the Resort on Friday night featuring wines and signature dishes you can try that have been prepared by the celebrated chefs and vintners. Diversions include entertainment, demonstrations, silent and live auctions, and more.

$225, includes valet parking

The Vintner Dinners, Saturday, March 23 at six private sumptuous residences at 7:00 p.m. (almost sold out—call soon!)

These private dinners hosted by local residents and featuring visiting chefs and vintner pairings are as memorable as they are exquisite.

Tickets: $325

The Grand Tasting, Sunday afternoon, March 24, 12:00 noon

This alfresco tasting on the tented green at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre features wonderful food from 25 outstanding local chefs and restaurants including: Bogart’s Bar & Grille, City Oyster, The Capital Grille, Red the Steakhouse, Legal Sea Foods, Trulucks, The Olive Taste and Texas De Brazil, an exceptional presentation of 140 featured wines, as well as a new Beer Garden with more than 25 craft beers and herbs and foods in “The Marketplace.”

Tickets: $75 in advance and $90 at the gate

So make you plans now and we’ll see you there! All proceeds from the Bacchanal benefit the Heritage Education and Historic Preservation Programs of the Boca Raton Historical Society. Call 561/395-6766, ext. 101 or visit bocabacchanal.com for more information.

Featured Chefs

Eric DiStefano, Geronimo, Santa Fe, NM

Peng Looi, August Moon Chinese Bistro and Asiatique, Louisville, KY

Paula DaSilva, 1500º -Eden Roc Resort, Miami Beach, FL

Chris Ponte, Cafe Ponte, Clearwater, FL

Piero Premoli, Pricci, Atlanta, GA

Christopher Prosperi, Metro Bis, Simsbury, CT

Michelle Weaver, Charleston Grill, Charleston, SC

Featured Vintners

Count Patrick d’Aulan, Alta Vista Winery, Argentina

Luciano Castiello, Castello Banfi and Vigne Regali, Tuscany, Italy

Thierry Roset, Champagne Charles Heidsieck, Reims, France

Cynthia Lohr, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, San Jose, CA

René Schlatter, Merryvale Vineyards, Napa Valley, CA

Christopher W. Silva, St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, Sonoma Valley, CA

Sponsor Partners: Republic National Distributing Company, The Boca Raton Resort & Club, Boca Raton magazine, Cendyn, Comerica Bank, JM Lexus, Crown Wine & Spirits, The Buzz Agency, Champagne Taittinger, Saratoga Water, City of Boca Raton, Palm Beach County Cultural Council and the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council.

Promotional Partners: Atlas Party Rental, livingfla.com, Sun-Sentinel, Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce

Zorba's Taverna Debuts in Delray

2013-03-12T06:00:00+00:00

It’s a family affair (plus one) at Zorba’s Taverna (4801 Linton Blvd., 561/381-7411), the artsy new Greek restaurant newly opened at the corner of Linton Boulevard and Military Trail in West Delray.

The father and son chef team of Taso and Bobby Orfanos and Big Apple lawyer-turned-restaurateur Bill Maxakoulis have put together a menu of familiar Greek dishes, served up in a crisp-looking, white and blue-accented space notable for the white marble table tops and large murals of Zorba the Greek and the island of Santorini by local artist Henry J. There also an outdoor patio and live music on Friday and Saturday nights.

Both Orfanos Senior and Junior have some real culinary chops, with Senior a 30-year vet of the New York dining scene and, most recently, top toque and Mykonos in Boca, and Junior formerly exec chef at Taverna Opa in West Palm and consultant to Todd English’s (now defunct) pair of Wild Olives eateries.

You won’t miss out on any Greek culinary classics here, from starters of taramosalata, spanakopita and dolmas to entrees like moussaka, roasted leg of lamb and a variety of kebobs and desserts like rice pudding and a trio takes on the baklava theme. Opa!

The Week Ahead: March 12 to 18

2013-03-11T18:17:11+00:00

Wednesday

Michael Sandel at Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7 p.m.; $30 to $50; 561/368-8445 or www.festivaloftheartsboca.org

Finish this sentence: Morality and capitalism go together like … peas in a pod? Or like oil and water? If the freewheeling, casino-esque, Too Big to Fail culture that led to the 2008 economic recession is any indication, then morality jumped the capitalist train a long time ago. Best-selling author and Harvard professor Michael Sandel has been tracing this split for the past three decades, resulting in his most recent book “What Money Can’t Buy,” a study of America’s switch from, as he puts it, having a market economy to being a market society. In Sandel’s book, it’s an issue that touches all corners of modern life, from education and the environment to health, war and immigration. Expect Sandel to cover much of this material and more at tonight’s lively lecture at the Festival of the Arts Boca, which is titled “What Do We Owe One Another as Citizens?”

Thursday

Jules Feiffer at Delray Beach Center for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 2 p.m.; $25 to $40; 561/243-7922 or delraycenterforthearts.org

“Why don’t you leave me? For god’s sake, I’d almost marry you if you’d leave me.” This classic epigram was spoken by Jack Nicholson in “Carnal Knowledge,” but it was written by Jules Feiffer, a witty polymath who also penned scabrous, socially conscious and enduring films for Robert Altman and Alan Arkin. His talents have extended to novels, plays and editorial cartoons, most famously for the Village Voice. A Pulitzer, Polk, Obie and Oscar winner, he remains a voice of social outrage, and he’ll share stories from his five-decade career as part of the Crest Theatre’s 2013 lecture series.

Opening night of “The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League” at Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach; 6 p.m.; $12 adults, $5 students; 561/832-5196 or www.norton.org

The period of 1936 to 1951 was a tumultuous one in United States history, encompassing the Great Depression, World War II and the beginnings of the Red Scare. The Photo League, a co-op of amateur and professional photographers, was around to capture America’s profound changes, operating in the epicenter of the action: New York City. The League’s members journeyed across the five boroughs and beyond, searching for faces, stories and causes, always fighting for social justice while shooting the unfettered truth. This exhibition, jointly curated by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Jewish Museum in New York City, presents 150 vintage photographs. It opens tonight as part of the museum’s Art After Dark festivities, and it runs through June 16.

Friday

Opening night of “Lungs” at Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach; 7:30 p.m.; $35 to $40; 561/450-6357 or www.artsgarage.org

“Lungs” is a play rife with millennial anxieties. Penned in 2011 by young British playwright Duncan Macmillan, it captures a Generation Y couple’s debate about to whether to bring a child into a world that seems on the brink of global disaster and political unrest—where starvation, poverty, economic insecurity and anxiety over carbon footprints are deep-rooted considerations to furthering bloodlines. As a piece of theater, “Lungs” is paired down to its essence: a bare, unadorned stage with few lighting cues, no costume changes and characters named “M” and “W” for man and woman. It runs through April 12.

Friday and Saturday

St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Party on downtown Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday; free; 561/279-0907 or www.festivalmanagementgroup.com/st-patty

For more than four decades, the Delray Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been one of the county’s best annual events, winning awards from this magazine among others. But 45 years ago, there was no parade: There was just one man, named Maury Powers, who decided to start, literally, a one-man parade, strolling down Atlantic Avenue in his top hat and shillelagh, to the amusement of pedestrians. This weekend’s event will honor Power’s efforts, which have spawned a two-day affair with an expected attendance of more than 150,000. The festivities begin Friday with a traditional Celtic celebration of Irish dancing, live music, bagpipes, beer and corned beef. Then, beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, the Delray Beach Center for the Arts will open its doors to live music, a full liquor bar, food and vendors, and the parade proper will commence at 2 p.m. along the Avenue.

Friday to Sunday

“Salome” at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; starting at $20; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

This one-act opera by Richard Strauss, based on Oscar Wilde’s biblically inspired play about Salome, Herod and the severed head of John the Baptist, shocked theatergoers with its dramatic power, eroticism and necrophilic implications when it premiered in 1905. Audiences revolted, lead actresses refused to perform the notorious “Dance of the Seven Veils,” and conductors watched their creations tastefully neutered. Needless to say, our morals have loosened since then, and “Salome” has become a popular selection for the operatic repertoire. Internationally renowned soprano Erika Sunnegårdh will star in this Palm Beach Opera production.

Saturday

Audra McDonald at Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $15 to $90; 561/368-8445 or www.festivaloftheartsboca.org

It’s not often we have a five-time Tony Award winner in our midst to sing a few songs for us. In fact, I’m not sure that’s ever happened here in Palm Beach County; the only stage performers to accrue such an honor have been Julie Harris, Angela Lansbury and Audra McDonald, and the latter will bring her lovely soprano voice and tremendous versatility to the closing night of Festival of the Arts Boca. McDonald is most known for her five-year stint as an obstetrician on ABC’s “Private Practice,” but the concert hall is the best way to experience the diversity that has led to her to win Broadway’s top honors in shows like “Porgy and Bess,” “Carousel,” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” For tonight’s concert, McDonald will lend to her golden voice to a celebration of musical theater favorites from Broadway classics to material from shows as recent as 2011.

Saturday and Sunday

8^th Annual Jazz in the Gardens at Sun Life Stadium, 2269 N.W. 199^th St., Miami Gardens; 4 p.m. each day; $57 to $340; 305/934-3370 or www.jazzinthegardens.com

More than 45,000 jazz lovers turned out for the festival last year, and this year’s lineup for annual North Miami jazz fest looks to be just as impressive. Continuing to expand its definition of jazz to include hip-hop and R&B artists, the festival will feature music from Babyface, a crossover musician and producer who has worked with everyone from Whitney Houston to Eric Clapton to Kanye West; Fantasia, an “American Idol” alum and eight-time Grammy nominee; Ne-Yo, one of the great R&B talents of the last decade, known for his silky-smooth vocals; Monica, a singer, actress and entrepreneur who has sold more than 10 million albums; and Earth, Wind and Fire, the classic pop group whose music bridged the gaps of soul, disco, R&B, funk, jazz and rock. Charlie Wilson, New Edition, Najee, Rachelle Ferrell and Mary Mary round out the bill.

His Turn to Shine

2013-03-11T17:34:15+00:00

When it comes to the creations on his winter menu at Malcolm’s in Palm Beach, Michael Wurster admits that history is in the making—of the cuisine, that is. Specifically, his own history with culinary heavyweights from coast to coast.

Over the years, in addition to a stint at (then) Le Cirque 2000 in New York City, the graduate of the Culinary Institute of America has worked with the likes of Thomas Keller at the famed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., and Alain Ducasse at his eponymous restaurant (which closed in 2007) at the Essex House in the Big Apple.

“These are the chefs that influenced me the most because they changed the way I approach food and technique in the kitchen,” says the native New Yorker. “From Le Cirque, I’m testing the ingredients, showing them off but not disguising them. A lot of the tongue-and-cheek approach, I take from Keller. [And] I see the classic influences from Ducasse.

What guests at the beachfront restaurant inside The Omphoy Ocean Resort (2842 S. Ocean Blvd., 561/540-6440, omphoy.com) are seeing is a charismatic chef making his own name with inventive, flavorful dishes plated to aesthetic perfection. A recent visit to Malcolm’s revealed Wurster’s vivid imagination—and prodigious talent—on full display, with an emphasis on simple, seasonal ingredients.

Entrées included butter poached Maine lobster with coral orzo pasta, black truffle and pea shoots; Scottish salmon with watercress, coriander, almonds and crushed peas; yam ravioli with pine nut and sage granola, and pomegranate; and 48-hour beef short ribs with celery root puree, onions braised in red wine and cauliflower couscous.

“This is forward, modern American cuisine,” says Wurster, who arrived at Malcolm’s last year after a three-year stretch at ICON New York. “We approach classic ideas with more modern approaches to how we change the ingredients.”

Wurster complements the winter menu with a daily classic—from chicken pot pie on Mondays to bouillabaisse (think monkfish, shrimp and mussels) on Fridays. His diver scallops, meanwhile, qualify as an instant classic. Wurster was kind enough to share with Boca Raton the secret of this seafood success.

Diver Scallops

With leeks, baby onions, pancetta, Marcona almonds and brown butter powder

Notes on the dish: Marcona almonds are from Spain and more rounded and plump than the California variety that we are used to. They also have a softer and somewhat wet texture, similar to a macadamia nut and are sweeter than domestic almonds. … The initial idea for this dish was scallops and bacon. The combination of the onions with both the bacon and the scallops is meant to complement both as individuals and as a whole. Both the almonds and the brown butter add a nutty ﬂavor and texture to the ﬁnished dish.

Ingredients

4 diver sea scallops

2 quarts leeks, sliced thin

1 /4 pound butter

Onions

1 quart white pearl onions, peeled

1/ 2 cup blended oil

2 tablespoons thyme leaves

Scallion, white bottoms

2 tablespoons butter

1 /4 cup chicken stock

Pancetta

2 pounds pancetta, sliced thin

Almonds

1 cup Marcona almonds

2 tablespoons clarified butter

Brown Butter Powder

1 cup butter

12 tablespoons milk powder

Preparation

Pearl onions: In large bowl toss onions with oil and thyme leaves, season with salt & pepper, transfer to a sheet tray lined with aluminum foil. Spread onions on tray and roast in convection oven at 375 degrees until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer and hold for finish.

Scallions: In pot of salted water, quick blanch scallions for a minute and drain. Do not shock in ice water. In a pot, heat stock and stir in butter to emulsify. Add blanched scallions to the beurre fondue and cook slowly until scallions are tender. Drain and reserve for finish.

Melted leeks: In a rondoue, melt butter and add rinsed leeks. Cook over low heat to braise leeks, stirring often until very soft. Season with salt and pepper; hold for finish.

Pancetta: Slice pancetta thin; lay out slices on sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Top with another piece of parchment and another sheet tray and cook in oven at 375 degrees until crisp, about 20 minutes. Let cool and then chop fine for finishing.

Almonds: Heat clarified butter and toast almonds until slightly browned and a nutty aroma. Drain fat on towel and hold for finish.

Brown butter powder: Melt butter in pot and slightly brown before stirring in milk powder. Remove from heat to incorporate. Return to very low heat and cook slightly stirring entire time to avoid scorching the solids. Transfer to chinois to let excess liquid drain to cool. Transfer to sheet pan lined with parchment and break up solids with a whisk to fine powder.

To finish: In very hot pan with layer of oil, sear scallops on both sides to brown evenly to order. Heat pancetta with almonds and onions in pan to order. Heat leeks in pan with a little more butter over low heat to order.

The Office Unveils New Menu

2013-03-11T06:00:00+00:00

With David Manero out of the picture and John Rosatti firmly in control, downtown Delray’s The Office (201 E. Atlantic Ave., 561/276-3600) is getting a little multiculti with its new menu.

Among the new additions are corvine ceviche with sweet potato chips, tempura-fried sea bass tacos with whipped avocado, togarashi-spiked sushi-grade tuna sandwich (with avocado and pickled ginger), and barbecued Chinese chicken wings (with green papaya-daikon slaw.

Newbies on the cocktail side include the Coconut Cloud (Svedka vanilla vodka, Malibu rum, coconut milk, pineapple juice and mint) and the Papaya Cosmopolitan (Absolut vodka, lime juice, papaya puree, agave nectar and cranberry juice).

But if you’re a fan of The Office’s upscale comfort food, don’t despair. The Angus burger, fried green tomatoes with shrimp, pulled pork sammie and country fried chicken are all still on the menu. After all, this multiculti business only goes so far. . .

Kodo at Festival of the Arts

2013-03-10T14:15:53+00:00

Saturday night I went to see Japan's nationally-treasured Taiko drum group Kodo as part of the 2013 Festival of the Arts (and as part of Kodo's One Earth Tour). It really is difficult to describe the kind of talent and athleticism it takes to perform their art, but let it be said that they brought the thunder.

Taiko is known for it's oversized drums, originally created in ancient Japan to drive away evil spirits. These giant drums, combined with traditional drums of all sizes, flutes and choral singing, makes Kodo the world-class touring group they are. The group brought the audience to their feet several times that night.

For more about Kodo, go to www.kodo.or.jp

For more about the Festival, go to festivaloftheartsboca.org

Q&A with Shannon Miller: Olympic Gold Medalist, Cancer Survivor, Mom

2013-03-08T13:24:40+00:00

The most decorated gymnast in American history, Shannon Miller, holds seven Olympic medals, 59 international medals, and 49 national medals. More than half are gold.

She dominated the sport throughout the '90s, and is the only American to win two consecutive World All-Around titles. She is also the only athlete to have her name listed in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame twice, for both her team and individual efforts.

After retiring from the Olympics, Miller earned undergraduate degrees in marketing and entrepreneurship, and her law degree while attending Boston College. She became an advocate for health and fitness for women and children, and founded Shannon Miller Lifestyle to support that passion.

She is an ovarian cancer survivor, author, radio talk show host, sports commentator, wife and mother. (Her second child is due this summer.) On Tuesday, March 12, she will serve as the keynote speaker at YMCA of South Palm Beach County’s 11th Annual Prayer Breakfast.

We were humbled to speak with this accomplished woman, and ask her about her gymnastic career, her battle with cancer, her family and what she would still like to attempt in her already successful life.

When you were just 12 years old, you placed third at the 1989 Olympic Festival. When did you know that you wanted to pursue a career as an athlete?

For me, it wasn’t something I knew I wanted to do right away. I had never really watched gymnastics on television. I didn’t know about famous olympians, like Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comăneci. I was too busy jumping on my parents' furniture. I wasn’t one of those kids who at 5 years old said, “I want to be an Olympic gold medalist."

Really it wasn’t until the age of around 12, when I became part of a national team. I got to wear that red, white and blue uniform, and go out and represent my country on the international stage, and I found out real quickly that it was such an honor. It meant so much more than just competing for myself or even for my gym club. I wanted to do that as much as possible and on the biggest stage possible, and of course for gymnasts that’s the Olympic games. So it was really around age 12 that that dream began.

In 2000, you withdrew from Olympic Trials in Sydney, Australia after an injury. What factors impacted your decision to stop competing at that time?

I had come out of retirement that January in 2000, after three years off, so it was one of those times in my life where I thought, if I’m going to go for it, I need to go for it now, so that in a year I don’t look back and wonder, “Gosh, what if I would have tried?’ I just never wanted to think, “What if?” So I went full out, as much as I could. I injured my knee at an event prior to the trials and was able to come back strong enough to compete the first day of trials. And then re-injured it during the competition...[but] everything checked out fine with the physician off the floor.

I’ll put it this way, for an athlete, you know when you are injured and can push through. As a top athlete you have to know when it’s safe and when it’s not safe to just keep pushing through. My knee was giving out on me, and that’s not a safe position to be in when you are doing double flips and twists. It was really a safety concern as far as this was not something I needed to risk my life over.

I made it as far as I could. If they decided to select me for the team at that point, I felt like I would be able to get ready in time, but if not, it just wasn’t meant to be.

You have such an accomplished athletic resume. Is there something you are most proud of in your gymnastic career?

As far as my gymnastics career, that’s a really difficult question. I want to say the golds at the Olympic games in 1996, of course. That was obviously a huge moment with both team and individual golds. To be able to cap off my career with that was incredible. But then I also think of that first international competition that I won in Italy and that’s really what turned the tides for me and really allowed me to go home and say, “Yes, I know this is what I need to do. I’ve tasted it and I love it and this is what I have to continue doing.” So there are these other moments that maybe not everyone else is aware of, but I know for me they were big turning points in my career.

After retiring from the Olympics you earned your undergraduate and law degrees. You founded your company, Shannon Miller Lifestyle. You speak across the country about childhood obesity. Is there anything you are still hoping to accomplish?

I think I will always have goals. Right now, the focus is on my second child. And then as far as my company and my work, just to be creating as many avenues for women as possible to make their health a priority. That’s my goal and my mission with the company.

With my foundation, I want to make sure every child has an opportunity to find out how physical fitness can be fun and have the opportunity to participate.

There are a lot of goals, some small, some big. I’m one of those types that I will never be without a goal...I want to learn to play tennis!

In January 2011 you were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. You underwent chemotherapy and are now cancer free. What did you learn from that experience? Do you still worry about your health? Do you feel that you approach life differently now?

I think it’s a little bit of both. I think many survivors will tell you that, or anyone who has been through a major illness or accident. Part of it is, “Oh my goodness, I realize I’m not as invincible as I thought I was. What if it happens again?” It kind of opens your mind up to the realization that anything could happen at anytime. And that’s kind of a little bit of a negative thought, and so I kind of to counter that [with] “Yeah, so you better to live life to the fullest, each and every day.”

I feel like I have a better balance now in my life. I always tried to maintain a pretty good balance, but now it’s just a lot more clear cut for me as far as enjoying all I do every single day and every single moment.

You published a free e-book, "Competing With Cancer," on your experience surviving cancer. Why was it important for you to write this novel and make it easily accessible to everyone?

It was kind of a labor of love. It was therapeutic. I wrote it after I finished chemotherapy and I felt like there were so many people that had helped me to get through my treatment and focus on the future and the possibilities and life ahead. I wanted to, in some small way, do the same thing for others. I felt like I could possibly lend a voice to the many folks going through these issues, whether they are going through it themselves, or they have a family member or loved one going through it. I called it "Competing With Cancer." It’s how I used the lessons through the Olympics, through sports, to help me battle the toughest battle I’ve ever faced.

It's about those baby steps, putting one foot in front of the other each day, and not being afraid to break down every once in a while. But making sure after you do that you get back up and keep going. I also wanted to combine it with tricks and tips that I had learned that maybe not everyone has access to. I have been dealing with makeup artists and that sort of thing, because of my job on television and whatnot. I was able to get these tips on makeup and skincare, and what to do when you do lose all of your hair and with that how you kind of lose your identity. Women are kind of looking for a way to feel comfortable. For some women they are absolutely fine, they don’t mind going out totally bald and with no makeup. The problem for other women is we are not comfortable with it, so how can we best become comfortable in our own skin during this time in our life?

You are expecting your second child this summer. Congratulations! How are you feeling? Do you know the gender?

We don’t know yet, but hopefully soon. We are really excited and I’ve been doing well. I think I was pretty sick for the first four months, I'm fine now. We are excited.

When was the happiest time in your life?

Oh goodness. I feel like I try to be happy in all parts of my life and just enjoy them. I don’t know if I could answer that because I was very happy in gymnastics. Not that every day was a piece of cake, but I loved training and competing.

I really enjoyed my education, college and law school. Yeah, it was tough. They were often rough days, but I enjoyed the thrill of it and the challenge of it.

I love being a mom. I love being a wife and a mom, and I’m really happy. I think I just have the personality where I really enjoy life and enjoy whatever’s next around the corner.

Shannon Miller will speak at the Boca Restort on Tuesday, March 12. For tickets and more information, please click here.

The Fit Life

2013-03-08T10:01:22+00:00

Do you really need that MRI for your back? How about those antibiotics to treat a sinus infection? Women, is that annual routine Pap test really going to help you or can you go every other year with the same benefits?

A new website, www.ChoosingWisely.org, helps you and your doctor determine whether commonly prescribed tests, procedures and medications are necessary. I’m impressed with this “movement” to put information in consumers’ hands because the advice is medically sound (by physicians’ groups). Even though it’s a national news story, it has very local implications. We’re all facing rising out-of-pocket medical costs, and we don’t want unnecessary care.

You’ll be surprised how much medical care is unnecessary—even harmful.

Here’s the scoop: So far, more than 130 tests and procedures to question have been released as part of the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign. Each medical specialty society participating in Choosing Wisely identified five specific tests or procedures that are commonly done in their profession, but whose use should be questioned. And the lists keep coming in as more and more societies come onboard with Choosing Wisely.

These are just some of the tests, procedure and medications you should talk with your doctor about before you agree to go forward:

• Don’t perform routine annual Pap tests in women 30 – 65 years of age. In average-risk women, routine annual Pap tests (cervical cytology screenings) offer no advantage over screenings performed at three-year intervals.
(source; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)

• Don’t automatically use CT scans to evaluate children’s minor head injuries. Approximately 50 percent of children who visit hospital emergency departments with head injuries are given a CT scan. CT scanning is associated with radiation exposure that may escalate future cancer risk. The recommendation calls for clinical observation prior to making a decision about needing a CT. (American Academy of Pediatrics)

• Avoid doing stress tests using echocardiographic images to assess cardiovascular risk in persons who have no symptoms and a low risk of having coronary disease. The recommendation states that there is very little information on the benefit of using stress echocardiography in asymptomatic individuals for the purposes of cardiovascular risk assessment, as a stand-alone test or in addition to conventional risk factors. (American Society of Echocardiography)

• When prescribing medication for most people age 65 and older with type 2 diabetes, avoid attempting to achieve tight glycemic control. The recommendation states that there is no evidence that using medicine to tightly control blood sugar in older diabetics is beneficial. In fact, using medications to strictly achieve low blood sugar levels is associated with harms, including higher mortality rates. (American Geriatrics Society)

• Don’t perform EEGs (electroencephalography) on patients with recurrent headaches. Recurrent headache is the most common pain problem, affecting up to 20 percent of people. The recommendation states that EEG has no advantage over clinical evaluation in diagnosing headache, does not improve outcomes, and increases costs.
(American Academy of Neurology)

• Don’t routinely treat acid reflux in infants with acid suppression therapy. Anti-reflux therapy, which is commonly prescribed in adults, has no demonstrated effect in reducing the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in infants, and there is emerging evidence that it may in fact be harmful in certain situations.
(Society of Hospital Medicine)

For more, check out www.ChoosingWisely.org.

Pedals up!

We’re only weeks away from the March 22 through 24 Delray Beach Twilight Festival, when Delray Beach’s Downtown Atlantic Avenue is the backdrop for sprint-style professional and amateur cycling races. Be among the spectators to line the streets along this one-kilometer course, as cyclists whiz around, competing at fast speeds for prize money. 

Amateur cyclists looking for a less competitive experience (I’m one), still have time to sign up for various events during the weekend, including a 62- or 37-mile ride along A1A that Sunday. To sign up or find out more, go to http://delraybeachtwilight.com/.

Attention Triathlon-ers…

Long-time local triathletes might remember Steve Tebon. He founded Exclusive Sports Marketing, which for years put on South Florida triathlons. Tebon is back in promoting triathlon and has a big race coming up June 1. It’s The Motivation Man in Downtown West Palm Beach, Florida. The swim-bike-run event is in two distances: half iron and Olympic courses.
To find out more, go to http://www.motivationman.com/.

Good news on the quick

Boca Raton Regional Hospital recently celebrated the groundbreaking of its new $42 million Marcus Neuroscience Institute. Located on the hospital’s main campus, at 800 Meadows Road, Boca Raton, the 56,000-square-foot facility will serve as a new, state-of-the-art nexus of care for neurologic and neurosurgical patients. The Marcus Neuroscience Institute will be completed in spring 2014. For more information, visit http://www.brrh.com/neuroscience.aspx.

Festival of the Arts Q&A: Patricia Engel

2013-03-08T09:00:00+00:00

Hopeless, depression, death, failure and regret are common themes running through Vida, a superlative collection of short stories from award-winning Miami-based writer and educator Patricia Engel. But Vida is not a downbeat slog – far from it. It’s a vibrant page-turner, full of life even when its subjects are losing theirs, and containing much humor (“How do you kill an Argentino? Make him stand on his ego and jump,” she writes in “Desaliento”) and vivid analogies (the Twin Towers “collapse like a deflated carnival castle” in “Refuge,” and in “Dia,” the title character “looks like life ran him over”).

Following one omnipresent narrator, Sabina, whose background mirrors Engel’s own, across nine stories from her formative youth through young adulthood, Engel crafts a portrait of a vulnerable soul who still believes in love, even when life experiences have battered one romantic relationship after another. The term “the voice of a generation” has become a cliché, but the sharply self-critical, brutally honest and utterly believable Sabina seems to inhabit this perspective, though she would surely reject it.

Engel’s debut novel, It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris, will be released in August by Grove Press. But first, Engel will discuss her life and work at Festival of the Arts Boca this Sunday.

What will be the subject of your talk at the Festival?

I think it’s going to be a combination of things, talking about the writing life, the book itself, and a combination of a reading and a Q&A.

You and Sabina seem to share a very similar background. Are you her?

No. It’s a work of fiction. The similarities end there. Everything any person thinks or feels about the world has to do with what they’ve been exposed to, but in order to craft a story or a book, you have to give yourself permission to let the characters inhabit their own lives and dictate what their needs are. The roots of the book are in things that are important to me, but the characters themselves are entirely fictional and of their own design.

What is the impetus behind having this same character run through all of the stories?

I wanted a character that people could grow attached to, whether it was because they were fond of her or just because they felt they knew her and even disapproved of her life, and I felt the way that a person could come to understand another person is through observing them over an extended period of time. That’s why you get to see her from childhood up until she’s in her 30s. And I wanted people to really be able to witness the evolution of any individual, just as you would be able to witness the evolution of a close friend or a family member.

The story “Vida” is about a young woman sold into sex slavery. Where did the story behind her character come from?

It’s not an uncommon story, unfortunately. Even in rural areas, you come across stories of exploitation, of people in vulnerable positions, all the time. So I’d say her origins were in countless stories that I’d been told, or heard, or witnessed myself, and from there, the character of Vida was born. I’d say that she’s not based on one specific person, but rather many.

So many of your characters die or are dying in the course of your stories; is death something that you think about a lot?

Death is a part of everybody’s life; we’re all going to die. I’m always surprised by how people really want to avoid that fact and just shy away from the whole experience of illness and supporting someone else through illness. I would say you’re a very lucky person if you’ve managed to go through life without losing somebody. For me, it’s not something I seek to write about consciously. I think it’s quite natural, and to avoid it would be something artificial.

In “Madre Patria,” I found that one of themes is how disconnected Hispanic Americans are from the homeland of their parents and grandparents. They’ve become Americanized to the extent where their grandparents’ country is sort of like any other foreign place. Do you feel that is a problem among Hispanics in this country?

I don’t see it that way. I never felt estranged from Colombia. Or I’d have to say that if I felt estranged in Colombia, I felt equally estranged in my own country in the United States. So instead of feeling excluded, it’s about finding a place in two countries, and sometimes it takes time to arrive at that point. But it not only speaks to how one can never really know the country or the past that their parents have left behind; sometimes you don’t even know the lives they occupy here, within your own home. It’s not just about country – it’s about the secret lives we all have within ourselves.

Engel will speak at 4 p.m. March 10 at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center. Tickets are $25 to $40 and will include a Q&A with the author. Call 561/368-8445 or visit festivaloftheartsboca.org.

The Festival of Arts Starts Off With A Bang

2013-03-08T07:27:35+00:00

The 2013 festival of the Arts was off to a rousing start last night with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band bringing people to their feet in the amphitheater at Mizner Park. No weepy strings here, no highbrow crook-your-pinkie symphonia—nope, this was the real deal and we loved it.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band derives its name from Preservation Hall, the venerable music venue in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe. The band has traveled worldwide spreading its mission to nurture and perpetuate the art form of New Orleans Jazz. Last night it rocked the park with some jazz favorites, including the New Orleans signature, “St. James Infirmary Blues” and its anthem, “When The Saints Go Marching In” as well as a nostalgic rendition of Satchmo’s “Hello Dolly.” The performers were slick and soulful and were joined by a bluesy Nicole Henry who brought down the house with a jazzy rendition of gospel fave, “I’ll Fly Away.”

This was a slight departure from the perception this Festival has garnered for a roster of more classical performers and we think it’s a step in the right direction. It was the best opening night so far and we are psyched about all the other surprises in store this week. Tickets are still available for most performers and we say run--do not walk--to any or all of them—there is nothing like great art in your own backyard.

Check out festivaloftheartsboca.org

Coming up this weekend:

TONIGHT (FRIDAY)

Kodo, 7:30 p.m.

Exploring the limitless possibilities of the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko, Kodo is forging new directions for a vibrant living art form.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Amadeus Leopold, 7:30 p.m.

In the two short years following his groundbreaking Carnegie Hall debut, the avant-pop classical violinist Amadeus Leopold, formerly known as Hahn-Bin, has become a revolutionary force in music with his “dazzling, genuinely provocative takes on classical music as performance art” (The New York Times)

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Patricia Engel, 4 p.m.

Author Patricia Engel’s debut, Vida, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Fiction Award, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and Paterson Fiction Award, winner of the International Latino Book Award, Florida Book Award, and Independent Publisher Book Award, and longlisted for The Story Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

SUNDAY NIGHT

The Peking Acrobats, 7:00 p.m.

The Peking Acrobats^® will perform daring maneuvers atop a precarious pagoda of chairs; they are experts at trick-cycling, precision tumbling, somersaulting, and gymnastics. They push the envelope of human possibility with astonishing juggling dexterity and incredible balancing feats, showcasing tremendous skill and ability.

Top Marks for City Cellar

2013-03-08T06:00:00+00:00

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the folks at City Cellar (700 S. Rosemary Ave., 561/366-0071), the long-time CityPlace standby that’s thrived (and continues to thrive) when so many other eateries at the West Palm shopping-residential complex have failed.

I was there last weekend having dinner after seeing the ridiculous new Die Hard movie, and though it was still pretty early the place was absolutely packed—inside, outside and at the bar. And the staff—both back and front of the house—never missed a beat.

We had some excellent martinis at the bar waiting for a table to come open, then an equally commendable meal that began with a lighter but still potent take on the classic Caesar salad, a flavorful and perfectly medium-rare hanger steak with crisp, greaseless truffle-Parmesan frites, remarkably well-made gnocchi with chicken and spinach in an unctuous tomato-vodka cream sauce, and a fat wedge of killer banana cream pie.

No reinventing the culinary wheel here, but each dish was properly executed with quality ingredients and delivered in an impressively timely manner, especially given the constant crush of diners. It was a big city performance by a crew of professionals.

Also impressive were City Cellar’s separate cheese menu, something you see in SoFla restaurants about as often as snowfall in July, and a wine selection (including by-the-glass) that should make most other restaurant wine managers want to impale themselves on their corkscrews.

It’s easy for a restaurant that quietly keeps turning out consistently good food to get lost in the shuffle of what’s hot and new so consider this some recognition that has probably long been deserved.

Let's Get Small

2013-03-07T10:38:25+00:00

It sounds like a broken record, but it couldn’t be truer: America overeats. The battle to reverse that trend typically begins at home. However, many fine-dining establishments in and around Boca Raton are doing their part to set a healthier example.

It’s part of a nationwide push by chefs to showcase diminutive dishes—and more of them—instead of pouring all of their creativity into heartier and heavier entrées. Depending on the restaurant, these items are filed under menu headings ranging from tapas to appetizers. But don’t confuse these gourmet offerings with fried cheese sticks and chicken wings.

Chefs around town are proving that big flavor can come in small portions.

• At Park Tavern (32 S.E. Second Ave.) in Delray, the kitchen delivers a substantial small-plate selection that includes mussels in a fennel broth with crostini. The Tavern team also has rotating dishes that feature at least two smaller plates. Try the pork cheek pierogi with crispy oyster mushrooms and herb sour cream.

• The Office (201 E. Atlantic Ave.) scores with its fish nachos with avocado cream and jicama slaw, as well as Spanish toast with manchego and serrano ham.

• Don’t miss the beef carpaccio appetizer or the Calabrese-style octopus at Mario’s Osteria (1400 Glades Road), a long-standing Boca hot spot.

• For true Spanish and Italian tapas, test the waters at Delray’s Ceviche (116 N.E. Sixth Ave.) for signature ceviches or boquerones with roasted eggplant. Boca’s Vino (114 N.E. Second St.) offers a fresh selection of dishes like jumbo prawns or escarole and beans.

Small plates are a great way to help reduce an ever-expanding waistline; the opportunity to try a little of this and a little of that reduces the possibility of overeating, in part because you’re not left grazing. But as talented chefs in the area are proving, size and flavor are not directly proportional.

Hilary Hauser will be contributing blogs to the “Dining” section of bocamag.com as part of a required externship at Le Cordon Bleu in Miami.

Get Your Green On

2013-03-07T10:35:12+00:00

Between the upcoming dazzling Savor the Avenue and Boca Raton’s Boca Bacchanal and its Festival of the Arts (which starts this week), no one is talking about what may be the most fun party day of the year: the Delray St. Patty’s Day Parade. Sponsored this year by Park Tavern, the 45th Annual Delray Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on Saturday March 16 at 2 p.m. Unless you count the night before at the Pavilion at Center for the Arts, which will feature a “Celtic celebration.” Not to mention the hours before the parade on the lawn at Center for The Arts Saturday morning starting at 11 a.m., which will have food and bars and a general warm-up to the main event.

As was true last year, hundreds of firefighters from across the country and Canada will descend on Delray for the parade, along with bagpipe bands and floats, marching bands‑‑the works. You will see dogs dyed green, crazy hats, lots of Mardi gras beads, unicycles, maybe even the Sweet Potato Queens or the Sail Inn rocking school bus. You will undoubtedly see the mighty Man Of Steam, my personal favorite parade entry. In short, this is Florida’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parade, which you would expect from the Most Fun Small Town in America. This year the parade will honor its founding father, Maury Power, as it should. Here’s the story, as summarized on the event web site (even though we know this by heart we never get tired of the tale):

“As legend would have it, 45 years ago, and spending his first St. Patrick’s Day in South Florida, Maury Power (whose family started Powers Lounge, now gone but not forgotten) lamented the lack of any local celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. With just a little encouragement from his pals and a bit of Irish whiskey, he took up the challenge to have an impromptu parade right then and there. Maury left for a few minutes, only to return with his top hat and shillelagh (some accounts have him carrying a pig) and began a solitary stroll up the middle of Atlantic Avenue (much to the delight of his drinking buddies and chuckling passersby). When questioned as to just what he thought he was doing, parading up the middle of the Avenue, his proud response was, “I’m having a parade!” Hundreds of thousands of people have attended the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Delray over the years, and it all started by one man’s decision!”

So in between all the glitz and glam and wine tastings and precious dining “by the bite” of other events over the next few weeks, don’t forget to get your green on and come downtown for the springtime parade of all parades. We’ll see you there in the same spot we always stake out: the hallowed ground by the tracks that used to front the venerable Powers’ Lounge.

You can’t watch the parade without a toast to Maury Powers first.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 49

2013-03-07T09:50:51+00:00

Hi Angela! I am single in South Florida and am considering going speed dating. One, because it look so insanely silly in movies, and two, because I think it would be a nice way to meet new potential suitors. Do you have any advice on how to tackle these super short dates? --Time Bomb

Hi Tim Bomb,
Your positive attitude going in is great. Dating is a numbers game. The more exposure you get to potential suitors, the more likely one of them will possess the attributes you are looking for in a mate. Here are five tips for making sure your speeding dating adventure a success.

Pre-game. Before the actual speed dating begins, there is usually a 30-45minute timeframe for all the daters to arrive and have a drink. Be on time and mingle. Many new speed daters think the rule is that you are only “dating” when you sit down for the actual event. Not true. In fact, it’s better to start scouting the crowd for those that catch your attention beforehand. Strike up a conversation and continue it during your speed date.

Be Prepared. A speed date shouldn’t sound like an interview, but you also don’t want to stare at each other for five minutes with nothing to talk about. Come prepared with a few questions that will be conversation starters.

Eye Contact. You’ll be meeting multiple people throughout the night. How do you differentiate yourself from the crowd? Eye contact- whether across the room or when you meet face to face is key to an emotional connection with anyone. If you find someone interesting, don’t let natural tendencies take over and shyly look away. Make them notice you.

Remember the Name. This is an important rule of speed dating. You will need to record which people you’d like to get to know further. If you don’t remember their name, how will you write them on your date card?

Be respectful. Ok, so the person most likely to be voted “Not My Type” just sat down at your table. It’s ok. It’s five minutes, not an entire evening. You’ve spent longer than five minutes talking to the girl at the drive thru! Don’t make them feel as if you’d rather be anywhere but looking at them. You can do this. Did I mention, it’s only FIVE minutes?

Speed dating is about first impression. Go into this letting your instincts lead. If you feel any connections, explore them further to see if you have the attraction is more than skin deep.

Good luck and keep me posted on how it turned out for you!

Angela, a friend of mine recently untangled herself from a long and emotional relationship, like two months ago or so. We’ve been friends for a few years and I’ve always had feelings for her, but was never able to say anything because she’s been in this relationship. I’m thrilled that I have a chance. How long should I wait before asking her out? --Brent

Brent,

Surprisingly, I’m romantic when it comes to other’s pursuits. I want to tell you to go to her house right now with a boom box raised over your head and play “your song.” (I grew up on John Cusack movies. What do you expect?) I want her to run out and tell you she’s finally realized after all these years of being with the wrong person, YOU are the man for her. I want to see you ride off into the sunset together…

Yeah, that’s not going to work.

We have two hurdles to overcome. Friend Zone and Rebound Guy. She’s already friend zoned you. In order for her to see you as boyfriend material, create a little competition and don’t be as available as you have been. As in, when she calls and begins to tell you how hard this breakup has been, politely tell her you are running into a dinner “with a friend” and can’t talk now, but will call her back. (Don’t call her back.) Yes, this means, you may have to go on a few dates with women other than your love interest. Why would you do that? You want her to see you in a different light than just the guy with a great shoulder made for crying on.

Once we’ve gotten you out of the Friend Zone, and she’s looking at you differently, this is when you have to proceed with caution. Is she ready? After two months, probably not. As hard as it might be, you best route to her heart is to hang back and let her crash and burn with a couple of rebound guys before that moment when you show up with the boom box under her window. (I’m determined to fulfill that Cusack fantasy.)

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Boating & Beach Bash Coming Up

2013-03-06T10:02:58+00:00

Somehow it’s March already and that means Festival of the Arts, Boca Bacchanal and a very, very special event we wrote about in this month’s magazine—the Boating & Beach Bash for People with Disabilities. This daylong event allows a lot of people who don’t get out much to enjoy a barbecue, boat rides, live entertainment, therapy ponies and service dogs, exhibits and more‑‑and it’s all free. Started by Boca resident and PR guru Jay Van Vechten, who is disabled himself now due to a bad fall some years ago, it is a day many disabled people and their caregivers simply do not ever get to have—and it is drawing more and more people every year. This is the gift of lighthearted fun and freedom and beauty, and we think it’s an event that shines a real light on our community. Jay is still taking donations (did we mention this is free, entirely dependent on donations and NOT sponsored by the city?) so if you want to put your money where your heart is, call the Bash office at 561/715-2622 or mail a check to Boating Beach Bash, P.O. Box 99, Boca Raton, 33429.

Here are the event particulars:

When: Saturday, March 16, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Spanish River Park, A1A, Boca Raton

Who it celebrates: Kids, adults and VIP Purple Heart recipients with physical and/or intellectual challenges

Check it out: BoatingBeachBash.com or on Facebook at Boating & Beach Bash for People with Disabilities

Movie Review: "The Gatekeepers"

2013-03-06T10:00:00+00:00

If you’re like me, you’ll have an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach for most of “The Gatekeepers,” a new documentary, opening Friday in South Florida, about Israel’s national security agency, Shin Bet. What you may feel, particularly if you’re even slightly well-versed in 20^th century Israeli politics, is the physical embodiment of perpetually encroaching dread; the possibility, and frequent certainty, of bombings, uprisings and retaliations hiding in every nook and cranny of the only democracy in the most volatile region on Earth. In other words, you’ll feel a bit like Israel itself.

“The Gatekeepers” is the antithesis of a breezy entertainment, the opposite of an audience pleaser. It’s virtually humorless, and its outlook for the future of the Middle East is uncompromisingly bleak, its experts too knowledgeable for their pessimism to be countered. If “Zero Dark Thirty” painted a ruthless intelligence quest with a satisfying payoff, “The Gatekeepers” series of interviews with the upper echelon of its own CIA presents no such catharsis, instead viewing the future through jaundiced eyes, where the nation they represent is no closer to peace with its Arab neighbors than it was in 1967.

But “The Gatekeepers” is also the epitome of an essential film, one that all Americans should see, and which should be required viewing at every military base, intelligence bureau and university in the country. Because, while it’s hard-to-watch and realistically gripping, it’s also exhaustively educational. Director Dror Moreh received heretofore unprecedented access to six of the former heads of Shin Bet, as they reflect on the biggest terrorist attacks and intelligence threats to Israel over the past 35 years. There is extensive time, buoyed by occasionally gruesome stock footage, devoted to events such as the 300 bus hijacking, the PLO, the first and second intifadas, the Oslo Peace Accords and the revolt from Israel’s religious orthodoxy that followed, the assassination of Itzhak Rabin, and the Shin-Bet’s own premeditated attacks on Hamas leaders. “The Gatekeepers” presents a vital history lesson of the United States’ strongest ally through the prism of six men and one organization, and it does so fluidly and brilliantly.

Moreh can be a tough interrogator, asking all the right questions and the proper follow-ups and challenging his subjects when appropriate. Their candidness, in response, is striking. Some grow defensive and uncomfortable, others accept responsibility for the organization’s missteps (including one awful example of collateral damage to innocent Palestineans). But all are respectful and wise, helping Moreh – and the film’s viewers – to comprehend the complex moral calculus that goes into the work they do.

Watching “The Gatekeepers” is a reminder that while our current debate about the use of American military drones is a new one, the questions it raises about the possibility of indiscriminate killing are not unique to it. And in this film, the Shin Bet leaders offer clear-eyed insight – if not the elusive binary solution we could hope for – to help steady our own wobbly moral compass.

“The Gatekeepers” opens Friday at Regal Shadowood and Muvico Palace in Boca Raton, Regal Delray Beach, and the Coral Gables Art Cinema.

Hurry Up! Savor The Avenue Filling Up Fast!

2013-03-05T16:54:17+00:00

The longest table in Florida is almost full! If you haven’t made your plans yet for Savor The Avenue on March 28, it’s time to pick up the phone and make a reservation! Most of the participating restaurants are already sold out—but the following still have a few seats. Call the restaurant directly to make your reservations and prepare to be delighted at South Florida’s most distinctive outdoor dining event‑‑Savor the Avenue—a five-block long dining table down the middle of Atlantic Avenue! Bon Apetit!

- Tryst, 561/921-0201

- Union, 561/330-4236

- 32 East, 561/276-7868

- Sundy House, 561/272-5678

- The Office, 561/276-3600

Welcome to the Club (Level)

2013-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

Membership has its privileges at the new Club Level inside Broward Center for the Performing Arts. A new feature for the 2013 season—the center’s 22nd—the Club Level comprises an exclusive lounge as well as select seating on the mezzanine level of the Au-Rene Theater.

The experience begins with complimentary valet parking (quite the plus in this busy part of town) and then continues with an open bar and hot and cold hors d’ouevres, starting an hour before the performance and available throughout. The stylish lounge opens directly onto the Club Level section of the mezzanine, where patrons can access their extra-roomy seats without fighting the crowd. All seats are within a center section, guaranteeing direct views of the stage. Other features of the lounge include flat-screen TVs, viewing windows, attentive service, and dessert and coffee up to 45 minutes after the show.

The Club Level debuted this season as the first phase of an upcoming renewal and expansion plan. The center’s Carmen Ackerman says that the experience was created along the lines of other exclusive club levels at sports venues around the country. She says that the Broward Center was the first performing arts center in the country to offer such an amenity.

Overall, the experience hearkens back to a time when attending a show was a luxurious affair, with guests mingling and drinking champagne in a comfortable, convivial atmosphere. Patrons certainly dress the part; at a recent event, guests wore everything from feather boas to mink stoles to elaborate up-dos. It’s a welcome return to a nearly bygone era.

The Club Level will be open for all Au-Rene Theater performances. Individual tickets and series subscriptions are available. (Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954/640-CLUB, browardcenter.org)

Mas Max, a Fresh Sequel…

2013-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

I told you last week that Dennis Max and Fred Stampone had sold their interest in Boca’s The Mexican to their remaining partner over the usual “philosophical differences. Now here’s the second part of the story.

While The Mexican will be going its own way, Max and Stampone are in the process of launching a much bigger project, a series of upscale “fast casual” eateries to be called Max’s Fresh. Think the now-trendy fresh-local-sustainable-organic ethos wedded to a slightly spiffier version of Chipotle or Panera Bread. Locally caught seafood, free-range chicken, hormone-free meats, lots of fresh (and local and organic as much as possible) veggies will all play a big role in chef-partner Patrick Broadhead’s menu. The idea is for diners to pick a protein as a salad, sandwich or entrée and fill out their choice with fresh sides, then finish with an assortment of house-made desserts.

The space itself will conjure up images of “California cool,” Max said, a modern but not stark look complete with recycled wood and an open grill where food will be prepared to order in front of customers.

If all that sounds pretty cool to you, don’t hold your breath waiting for a Max’s Fresh to come to your neighborhood. The first Fresh will debut in Miami before the end of the year, with locations in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and other major Eastern cities planned for the future.

As for anything local, Max said he “hasn’t totally counted out” PBC, but that the concept demands a dense-enough daytime population to generate the lunch business expected to generate almost half the restaurants’ revenue.

But wait, there’s more.

Max is also working on a restaurant project in. . . wait for it. . . downtown Delray. I can’t say more about it now, except that it will be rather gastropubby in a prime location. So one more reason to check back here in the days and weeks ahead.

Promotions in the Park

2013-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

Festival of the Arts kicks off this Thursday in Mizner Park but ticket holders won’t just be treated to shows by fabulous musicians, writers and performers. This year a flash of your ticket stub (at participating retailers) will earn you discounts and special offers.

Starting Wed., March 6, and ending Sunday, March 17, all ticket holders will experience the “VIP” treatment with the following deals:

Participating retailers

Artipelle – 10% off your purchase

Stepping Out – 10% off your purchase

Plattinni – 10% off your purchase

Visual Eyes – 10% off your purchase (Cannot be combined with another offer or insurance)

Maggio & Rossetto – 15% off your purchase

Love My Puppy – 25% off your purchase of $100 or more

EdgeLook – 10% off your purchase

Francesca’s Collections – 20% off your purchase of $100 or more

Lauren Adams Décor – 35% off your purchase

Spruce Home and Garden – 10% off your purchase

Love Me Fashion – 20% off your purchase

Spice and Tea Exchange – 15% off your purchase excluding accessories

Sugar Plum Fairy – 20% off your purchase

Sur la Table – 10% off your purchase

And get hungry, because these restaurants are also offering discounts (and free wine!):

The Dubliner – 10% off your check

Kapow Noodle Bar – 10% off your check

Truluck's Seafood Steak and Crab House – 10% off your check

Max’s Grille – Free bottle of house wine with purchase of 2 entrees (Offer valid from 5pm-6pm ONLY)

Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt – 10% off your purchase

Villagio – 15% off your check

JAZZIZ Nightlife – Free Glass of Wine or Champagne (Up to a $10 value)

Also worth mentioning, Mizner will provide free valet parking ($5 value) with any combination of merchant or restaurant receipts totaling $50 or more along with a valid Festival ticket for that day/evening.

Clearly, we are going to be spending a lot of time in Mizner Park...

We hope to see you there! Happy shopping!

Your Guide to 2013's Festival of the Arts Boca

2013-03-04T09:00:00+00:00

At first, it didn't seem like this year's Festival of the Arts Boca lineup boasted the star power of previous years. But whatever luster the event seemingly lacked shines through on closer inspection. The more you dive into the festival -- which begins on Thursday at the Mizner Park Amphitheater -- the more you discover that it's arguably the organizers' edgiest accumulation of talent ever assembled. Here's a look at the schedule, whose mix of controversial young talent and Asian concert-hall staples constitutes more than initially meets the eye. To purchase tickets, call 561/368-8445 or visit festivaloftheartsboca.org

March 7, 2013: The Preservation Hall Jazz Band kicks off the festival on an upbeat note, performing the timeless blend of Dixieland and traditional New Orleans jazz that it has been playing for the past 50 years.

March 8: Hailing from Japan’s Sado Island, the taiko drummers in Kodo have brought their country’s percussive rhythms to international audiences for more than 30 years. In addition to the flagship drums, the group dances, sings and performs on traditional Japanese instruments.

March 9 (afternoon): Armenian-American writer David Ignatius is one of our national political treasures, having garnered numerous industry awards for his news coverage, foreign correspondence and columns. He's also an accomplished novelist whose books are imbued with an insider's knowledge of Beltway politics and the news business; one of them, "Body of Lies," was adapted into a successful Hollywood thriller.

March 9 (evening): Conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, the festival’s music director, welcomes the Boca Raton Symphonia as well as provocative violinist Amadeus Leopold, a 25-year-old Korean-American phenom with the gender-bending looks of a Tim Burton protagonist and a style that merges classical music with performance art. This is my most anticipated event at the festival.

March 10 (afternoon): Hispanic-American writer Patricia Engel turned countless heads with the publication of her 2010 short-story collection “Vida,” which communicated her recurring narrator’s search for identity as a daughter of the Colombian diaspora. The book has won numerous accolades, and one reviewer compared reading it to admiring pop art by Lichtenstein. Check out bocamag.com on Friday for an interview with Engel.

March 10 (evening): Defying gravity since 1986, China’s Peking Acrobats are internationally renowned for their fusion of traditional instrumentation, special effects and feats of gymnastic wonder. Their productions showcase somersaulting, contortionism, balancing skills, juggling dexterity and other jaw-dropping carnival benchmarks.

March 11: With a beard as impressive as his prose is powerful, Thomas Keneally is one of Australia’s cultural treasures. A literary lion and a walking historical encyclopedia, the onetime Catholic deacon has penned 32 novels and 17 nonfiction tomes, including Schindler’s Ark, the story of Oskar Schindler that inspired an Academy Award-winning film adaptation by Steven Spielberg.

March 12: Arguably the biggest political newsmaker in the Festival lineup this year, retired General George W. Casey Jr. was the senior coalition commander in the Iraq War from 2004 to 2007, trying to save his country's face and rebuild a battered nation amid a deeply unpopular conflict. Undaunted, he later graduated to Army Chief of Staff, where his improvements were manifold. Serving under presidents Bush and Obama, he led an organization of more than one million people and helped streamline the army into a more agile defense force.

March 13: In what promises to engender the headiest discussion at the festival, Harvard professor extraordinaire Michael Sandel will discuss his political philosophy of communitarianism. He is best known for his college course “Justice,” one of the most highly attended courses at Harvard for the past two decades, and whose discussion-oriented format was broadcast by the BBC in 2011.

March 14: Virtuoso organist Cameron Carpenter has drawn praise and controversy in equal measure, both for his extraordinary, Grammy-nominated renditions of difficult etudes and for his endorsement of virtual/digital pipe organs. Describing his sexuality as “radically inclusive,” Cameron is also known for his flamboyant performance attire. He will perform with the Boca Symphonia under Kitsopoulos’ conduction.

March 15: Miami’s nationally recognized New World Symphony will perform alongside a returning favorite from last year’s festival: Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa. Known for her composer-specific “projects” celebrating the music of Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Beethoven, Lisitsa launched her career on social media, and her videos now have more than 49 million hits on YouTube.

March 16: Probably the biggest-name draw at the 2013 festival, Audra McDonald has one of the best voices of her generation and remains one of the brightest stars on Broadway and the opera circuit. As comfortable crooning hymns as she is Songbook favorites and contemporary musical numbers, McDonald has won five Tony Awards and two Grammys, in addition to starring on four seasons of ABC’s medical drama “Private Practice.”

James Beard Semifinalists Named

2013-03-04T06:00:00+00:00

Congrats to Clay Conley for making it to the semifinals of the James Beard Foundation 2013 Best Chef: South awards.

Conley, in case you haven’t gotten your snout out of a Big Mac for the past couple-three years, only has two of the best restaurants in Palm Beach County (side by side, no less): Buccan and Imoto. He’s the only chef from our little corner of paradise to make the Beard semis this year, though he does have two competitors from Miami: Jeff McInnis of the terrific Yardbird Southern Table & Bar and Jose Mendin of the highly regarded Pubbelly.

Not exactly local but still in the running is Scott Hunnel, chef at the opulent Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort in Lake Buena Vista, one of the few remaining outposts of impeccable formal service, which also earned it a semi spot in the Outstanding Service category.

The only other local chef to get a Beard nod this year is Hedy Goldsmith of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in Miami’s Design District, who made the Outstanding Pastry Chef semis.

A couple other people/places that caught my eye. . . John Besh’s superlative New Orleans restaurant, August, where I had my first taste of succulent Mangalitsa pork (from Dave Matthews’ pigs—it’s a great story), is up for Outstanding Restaurant of 2013. Also up are a trio of restaurants I’ve been lucky enough to pig out at: Foreign Cinema in San Francisco, Terra in the Napa Valley and Vincent on Camelback in Phoenix.

So many restaurants, so little time. . .

The Fit Life

2013-03-01T09:43:05+00:00

There are lots of runs and walks coming up. Think hydration if you’re planning to compete. We’ve had hot weather this winter, and you might find yourself sweating through your next outdoor event.

According to health advice by the Mayo Clinic, preventing dehydration starts the day before strenuous exercise.

“Producing lots of clear, dilute urine is a good indication that you're well hydrated. Before exercising, drink 1 to 3 cups (0.24 to 0.70 liters) of water. During the activity, replenish fluids at regular intervals, and continue drinking water or other fluids after you're finished,” according to MayoClinic.com. “Keep in mind that drinking too much not only can cause bloating and discomfort, but may lead to a potentially fatal condition in which your blood sodium becomes too low (hyponatremia). This occurs when you drink more fluids than you lose through sweating.”

Now that you’re hydrated, get out and exercise for a cause!

Lace up Sunday, March 3, for the 5K (3.2 mile) Walk Now for Autism Speaks.

Starts: 7:30 a.m.
Where: Meyer Amphitheatre, 105 Evernia St. (between Evernia and Datura streets), West Palm Beach, 33401
Cost: Registration is $25 before the race and $35 day of the event.
What do you get? The first 500 runners receive a commemorative t-shirt.
Cause: Autism research and awareness
More information: Contact palmbeach@autismspeaks.org, call Jacquie Nicholson at 561/254-1957, or visit http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1039560.

The Sunrise to Run 5K run or walk and 1 mile run takes place Saturday, March 16.

Starts: 7:30 a.m. walk/run. 8:30 a.m. for the one miler.
Where: Pond Apple Pavilion, South County Regional Park, 11435 Park Access Road, Boca Raton, 33498
Cost for the 5K: $25 through 3/11; $30 after 3/11 & race day. $10 for the one mile run.
What do you get? T-shirts, finishers’ medals
Cause: Benefits Sunrise Park Elementary School
More information: Call the Runner’s Edge at 561/361-1950 or visit http://runnersedgefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/sunrisetorun5kF.pdf.

Good news on the quick

Local hospital recognized:
Boca Raton Regional Hospital (at 800 Meadows Road, Boca Raton, 33486) has earned Healthgrades’ “America’s 50 Best Hospitals” honor for the third consecutive year. According to a recent hospital press release, the Healthgrades distinction is based on outstanding patient outcomes (which include complication and death rates) across 27 medical procedures and diagnoses. Healthgrades is an online consumer information resource on hospitals and physicians.

Local researcher secures funds for memory research:
Ron Davis, neuroscience chair at The Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus in Jupiter, has been selected to receive a prestigious $3.5 million Jacob K. Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award for his work on the complex biology of memory formation and the disorders that disrupt it. The new study will focus on an area of memory formation that has remained relatively mysterious—the role that active forgetting plays in learning and memory, according to a Scripps’ press release.

Comedy-fueled fundraiser raises big bucks:
The 4th Annual Night of Laugher raised $21,000 for stomach cancer research. The Ft. Lauderdale-based Can’t Stomach Cancer foundation held its fundraiser at The Improv Comedy Club at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in February, drawing more than 370 supporters for a good laugh and cause. For more information about Can’t Stomach Cancer, visit www.CantStomachCancer.org or call 954/475.1200.

No Mas Max at The Mexican

2013-02-28T15:52:16+00:00

Less than three months after it opened in Boca’s Royal Palm Place, partners Dennis Max and Fred Stampone have sold their interest in The Mexican to the remaining partner, Mitch Kaminski, and are no longer involved with the restaurant.

“At the end of the day it was not a good marriage,” Max said of the partnership. “We had completely different philosophies.”

What that means is that Max’s vision of the restaurant—serving “the highest quality, fresh and authentic Mexican street food focusing on local, sustainable ingredients,” according to the pre-opening press release—wasn’t shared by Kaminski and other unnamed investors.

What that means for The Mexican is quite likely less distinctive fare, more in line with that served at the bazillion other Mexican joints in the area, and a greater emphasis on the bar. Max said the menu has already been changed and recipes have been altered.

What this doesn’t mean is that Max is letting any cilantro grow under his feet. He’s working on a new project—two of them, actually—which I’ll tell you about in a coming blog post.

For now, though, it’s too bad Max’s Mexican experiment ended so soon, not that I’m really surprised. Mexican cuisine (Chinese too, for that matter) is still seen in most of this country as cheap, indifferently prepared filler; asking people to pay more for more-expensive, higher-quality ingredients is a tough sell when they can get a taco for a couple of bucks at their local Mexican chain restaurant.

One day someone may be able to make a go of it. . . probably when pigs playing bagpipes start making enchiladas. Sigh.

The Power of Pickling

2013-02-28T14:10:27+00:00

Those frightening jars of bright red pickled beets and, even worse, eggs, that lurked in the pantry and basement at Grandma’s house looked anything but appetizing. But it turns out that Grandma was just ahead of her time.

As evidenced by the fare at several local restaurants, 2013 is shaping up to be the year for pickling. Chefs from coast to coast are pickling just about anything they can get their hands on. Take fatty meats, which tend to include cheaper cuts of beef and pork. These cheaper cuts are even more popular now with the price of meat on the rise. Since these cuts are typically prepared in a rich manner, chefs balance out the fattiness with acids. Pickled ingredients cleanse the palate and give a burst of flavor. This also lets the diner finish every last morsel without feeling sluggish.

Local chefs are all over this trend. At Rebel House in Boca (297 East Palmetto Park Road), the kitchen is pickling everything from tomatoes to mustard seeds. Try the shrimp taco “El Jefe Luchador” with pickled jicama slaw and chipotle aioli—or the lamb Denver ribs with house kimchee, a Korean pickled cabbage, with peanuts and barbecue.

Another restaurant up on the trend is Boca’s Kapow Noodle Bar (431 Plaza Real at Mizner Park). A number of its dishes are topped with house made kimchee slaw or pickled cucumbers. A couple favorites are the maitake mushroom buns and the bulgogi beef street tacos.

Even the area’s top fine-dining establishments are pickling. Café Boulud in Palm Beach (301 Australian Ave.) pickles its heirloom radish and carrots, cornichon and enoki mushrooms, which accompany winter green salads and pâtés.

Not only is this sourness penetrating the food world, but it’s also working its way into the wonderful world of cocktails. Craft brewers are diving headfirst into sour brews and taking a break from the more bitter IPAs. Look for Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Wild, New Holland Blue Sunday Sour and, a local favorite, Cigar City Sea Bass.

Pickling at home may sound daunting, but all you need is some sugar, vinegar, peppercorns and some lonely vegetables or fruit, and you’re onto something. Just stay away from the eggs. That memory can stay in Grandma’s pantry.

Hilary Hauser will be contributing blogs to the “Dining” section of bocamag.com as part of a required externship at Le Cordon Bleu in Miami.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 48

2013-02-28T09:58:50+00:00

Angela, for us newly single ladies, do you have a pick-me-up list of reasons why it's great to be independent? —Alone, Not Lonely

Hello Ms. Independent!

This is a great opportunity for you to uncover the real you. It’s never the goal as an independent woman to develop a “man-hater” attitude. Quite the contrary! We love men, but learning how to stand alone is a powerful accomplishment for a woman. Here are five great reasons to relish your status of the moment:

• It’s OK to be a little selfish. Want to spend an afternoon at the spa? Have a long phone conversation with a girlfriend? Drink milk right from the carton? You can. There are no ramifications for putting yourself and your needs first.

• Confidence is a nice side effect of independence. Being comfortable having dinner alone at the bar or taking a solo vacation takes guts. It also catapults your self-confidence through the roof. Being comfortable in your own skin is the absolute sexiest trait you can possess.

• You get the whole bed to yourself. And the good pillow. Not to mention, there’s never an argument over who gets what side of the bed.

• Decision-making skills are refined. When you are independent, you learn not to second-guess your judgment. You call the shots, and you make them more accurately.

• Independent women don’t compromise integrity for a sense of false security. When you do couple with someone, your partner never questions your motives for the relationship.

Keep working your independent spirit, now and forever.

Dear Angela, I read your column week to week and you honestly give some good tips. Just out of curiosity, what is some of the worst dating advice someone has given you, or you’ve overheard? —Spring

Spring: Advice is always subjective. Something that works in one situation may not apply in another. However, I can tell you some of the dating advice that I think completely misses the mark in all situations.

Always Bad Advice:

• Date his/her friends to make your ex jealous.

Not only do you NOT date your friends’ exes, you don’t date your ex’s friend. It doesn’t make them jealous. It makes them hate you, and when they hate you, there is little room for reconciliation.

• Wait three days to call her (or three days to answer his text).

What?!? Life moves in nanoseconds. While a little lag time to keep them guessing definitely works, anything more than 24-36 hours, and it’s pretty clear the interest level is not there. Case in point: I recently was seeing someone and I thought things were going well. When he dropped off the face of the earth for five days, I knew it was kaput before those magic “It’s not you, it’s me” words were uttered.

• Have sex right away to reel him in/hold out to keep him on the chase.

Neither of these opposing schools of thought are a one-size-fits-all solution. The timing of when you do, who you do, and how you do is incredibly personal. The right answer varies depending on the circumstances. If you are an adult taking responsibility for your body, and act without guilt or regret, then you should follow your own instincts about when to have or not to have sex.

• Pick a fight early on to see how he reacts to conflict.

Dumbest advice ever. Why anyone would want to preemptively contrive conflict when none exists is foolish. Relationships take work without manufacturing more drama.

But the worst dating advice I’ve ever been given personally is when (and it happens often) I hear, “Ok, I know you think you like THAT type of man, but you should date [insert every possible physical type that doesn’t appeal to me]. He’s hot.”

Just because it’s someone else’s fantasy doesn’t mean it’s mine. Attraction is subjective to individual coding that we can’t always explain in words, but we certainly feel. What I feel may be unorthodox to you, but it works for me.

As Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” Touché.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Add your two cents about Delray Beach

2013-02-28T08:37:07+00:00

Everyone has his or her favorite parts of a job—and one of mine is when we publish our “25 Things We Love about Delray” article. That’s when a hand-picked group of people in the know gather at an undisclosed location, I bring in lunch and then the fun begins. We start talking about the good, the bad and the ugly in Delray over the past year. No one has an agenda; there are myriad points of view; nothing leaves the room; everything is fair game.

I have been doing these kinds of group meetings from the day I started in the magazine business 30 some years ago. You could call them editorial focus groups, but I have never used that term. It’s just people who care and are engaged, who don’t mind speaking out and coming together to help present a snapshot of where we are now, this year, as a city.

When I did these in Jacksonville, people were always trying to determine what Jacksonville was, and there was a lot of self-deprecation. When I do them in Boca, there is a lot of frustration with the lack of common ground in the community. But here, in Delray, all you hear is pride, passion and more than a little disbelief at how far the town has come in the last 20 years.

Oh sure, Delray is small town, and there are nasty little factions constantly squaring off against each other. There is jealousy and backbiting and silly behind-the-scenes maneuvering. But there is mostly a sense of ownership in the city that I find rare in my experience. People care, they brag about Delray, they point to its triumphs and plans and bright ideas, from new businesses to happy hours to redevelopment.

Our article comes out in the May-June issue of Delray Beach magazine and we are still collecting data. What’s on your mind? What are the best new things that happened in Delray this year? What’s your favorite new restaurant? Event? Political figure? What trends do you love or hate? Weigh in and be part of the story.

I’d love to hear from you.

Web Extras: March/April 2013

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You read our latest issue--- now check out our exclusive web extras!

How Does It Feel?

Check out a bonus vignette from our feature—and a blast from the past.

http://www.bocamag.com/blog/2013/02/01/how-does-it-feel/

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Trader Vic’s Mai Tai

Enjoy the original Polynesian cocktail, courtesy of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry.

http://bocamag.com/blog/2013/02/01/web-extras-trader-vics-mai-tai/

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Spring Fashion

Check out our behind the scenes video of our spring fashion editorial!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ZtWa2ojM&feature=player_embedded

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Music Hot Spots

In our March-April issue, we spotlighted five local institutions at the forefront of Palm Beach County’s classical musical culture.Here are four more!

http://bocamag.com/blog/2013/02/01/musically-inclined/

The Green Goddess, Vol. 3

2013-02-27T09:05:34+00:00

As much as even the healthiest eaters pay attention to their cuisine, there’s sometimes no escaping the evils that lurk in various foods. At restaurants, for example, nonorganic products can include pesticides and dastardly toxins. Weight gain, low energy, unclear skin and illnesses are among the unpleasant side effects of toxins in our body.

It’s possible, however, to give your digestive system a vacation. With a simple detox, your body can rid itself of harmful toxins; the benefits include greater energy, weight loss, deeper sleep and reduced stress. In many ways, it’s like taking your body to the dry cleaners—it helps you look and feel great!

There are many ways to achieve these results, from participating in a 100-percent organic juice cleanse to doing a raw-food detox. If you are new to the world of cleanses, I suggest a combination of the two for a fabulous detox challenge. The best part is that it’s doable anywhere and doesn’t take extra time. In fact, this cleanse will put time back into your schedule. Here’s our suggested seven-day plan:

DAYS 1-2: Buy your favorite organic fruits and raw vegetables and eat them for every meal (and snacks) during the first two days. You can have as many servings as you’d like, but don’t overeat. A typical day on this cleanse for me would be a whole honeydew for breakfast, four mangos for lunch, grapefruits and papaya for snacks and an apple cobbler for dinner (see recipe is below). Because raw organic foods are full of digestive enzymes and vitamins, your body doesn’t have to do much work to process them. As a result, you will feel more energized.

DAYS 3-5: Buy a three-day 100-percent organic juice cleanse. One of my favorite companies is onjuice.com, based here in Boca. A great part of this cleanse is that the juices are delivered right to your door; it’s the ultimate fast food for a person on the go. (Mention this blog to receive $25 off a three-day juice cleanse.)

DAYS 6-7: Repeat the first 2 days of eating your favorite fruits and vegetables.

Trust me, your body will thank you!

APPLE COBBLER RECIPE

5 to 6 organic apples
4 dates
2 teaspoons ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
1/2 cup raisins
6 tablespoons chopped walnuts (one per serving)
6 teaspoons coconut shreds (one per serving)

Mix 3 apples with dates, flax seeds, salt, cinnamon and vanilla in the food processor until blended well. Chop 3 apples and add to mixture. Add raisins. Place into dessert dish, sprinkle with cinnamon, walnuts and coconut. Enjoy!

About Alina Z.

Alina Z., aka “The Green Goddess,” is a certified holistic health coach, detox specialist and raw-food instructor at Whole Foods in Boca who lends her expertise to individual clients as well as the likes of Boca-based DeliverLean. Prior to moving to Florida, Alina hosted her own TV show in Maryland—“Entertaining A to Z”—for people who didn’t have time to cook but wanted to eat healthy. Follow Alina on Facebook (facebook.com/fabulousfoodAZ) or Twitter (@FabulousFood)—and catch the Green Goddess every other Wednesday at bocamag.com.

Theater Review: "A Raisin in the Sun" at Palm Beach Dramaworks

2013-02-27T06:00:00+00:00

It would be easy, in a lesser production of “A Raisin in the Sun,” for a role like Mama to feel like a stock character – the house’s little old lady with the biggest influence, the matriarch stuck in her old ways, resistant to change and presiding with a stern hand over the two generations with which she shares her busy domicile. Black or white, 1959 or 2012, it’s a familiar character.

But in the magnificent hands of Pat Bowie in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ current revival, the performance feels like one we’ve never seen before, so alive to the nuances, the history of travesties she’s endured, her noble dignity and the fear she can exude in her authority. For Mama, an entire lifetime flashes before our eyes, not just a few scenes, and the compassion Bowie creates, from Lorraine Hansberry’s words, can break hearts and shape lives, in three startling dimensions.

And so it goes with the entirety of this absolutely impeccable cast under the bracingly naturalistic direction of Seret Scott – when the characters wake up in the morning in the opening scene, you can almost feel the sleep in their eyes, and when Mama’s son Walter Lee (Ethan Henry) staggers home drunk, you can practically smell the alcohol on his breath. Walter Lee is the play’s showiest role, the man in the house with big dreams and a small income, bitter at having to chauffer rich white folks, drowning in resentment, hypocrisy and cheap beer, clinging to a desperate dream to open a liquor store with shady funds and extract his family from its ghetto.

At first, Henry seems to be playing louder and faster than the rest of this ensemble, but you realize that that’s the kind of guy Walter Lee is, thinking at 45 revolutions per minute while the rest of the world moves at 33. Henry plays the raging id very well, full of intensity and clearly deep in thought even when his main job onstage is to sulk, crestfallen, into a chair, like Willy Loman.

We also get a subtle performance full of nice surprises from Joniece Abbott Pratt as Beneatha, Walter’s progressive sister, who shuns religion, rejects assimilation and embraces her African heritage, and from Shirine Babb, as Walter’s wife Ruth, long suffering and perpetually keeping together a house on the verge of crumbling. In smaller supporting roles, Marckenson Charles, Jordan Tisdale and Dave Hyland also leave indelible impressions.

At the risk of sounding like a philistine, I found Hansberry’s etched-in-marble source material to be a bit long at two hours and 40 minutes; there are places where a dramaturg might suggest a trim, where similar themes and dualities had already been expressed earlier in the play. But there’s no questioning the elegance and universality of her vision, in a play that touches on gender, class and upbringing as much as racial identity in late 1950s Chicago, in a manner that never feels didactic.

If there is one misstep in Dramaworks’ laudable production, it’s Paul Tate DePoo III’s set design, which is simply too pretty to be a roach-infested project. The kitchen is tiny, but the overall layout is more spacious than cramped, and the lack of dirt and even the quality of the furniture belies the family’s desire to escape.

“A Raisin in the Sun” runs through March 9 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Tickets are $55. Call 561/514-4042 or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.

David Yurman’s Grand Opening

2013-02-26T15:37:48+00:00

Are you looking to add a little sparkle to your Tuesday evening?

The brand new David Yurman boutique is open in Town Center mall, and tonight they are hosting a special in-store shopping event.

Palm Beach Polo player Nic Roldan will host the event tonight, where a portion of proceeds will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Guests can enjoy refreshing cocktails and scrumptious appetizers. You will also be able to view Yurman’s latest dazzling collections.

The party begins at 6:30 p.m. tonight and will go until 8:30.

David Yurman is known for their gorgeous jewelry collections for men and women, timepieces, fragrances and eyewear.

Hedonist Porker Comes to West Boca

2013-02-26T06:00:00+00:00

Well, actually, it’s Sybarite Pig (20642 State Rd. 7, 561/883-3200), a wicked-cool, brew-centric “gastropub” with a name that just can’t help but make me smile.

It’s the brainchild of Daniel Naumko, a chef, suds-head and musician who took over the old Wicked Awesome Snackbar in a nondescript strip mall and turned it into a joint with the kind of hip, urban feel that’s in pretty short supply out in the furthest reaches of West Boca.

Naumko makes his own sausage, pickles and kimchi, infusing the small but sexy menu with lots of big, bold flavors at decidedly non-Boca moderate prices. The meat-centric menu offers most dishes in sandwich or “meat board” forms, and will likely send vegetarians fleeing with their hair on fire.

The rest of us, though, can enjoy chowing down on dishes like Moroccan-style merguez sausage on a pretzel bun with toasted cumin labne, tomato and feta; the classic Italian porchetta on brioche with lemon, capers, greens and mustard; Korean-style short ribs with smoked salt; and roasted bone marrow with shallot jelly and frisee-watercress salad. And for dessert, how about a bacon chocolate stout cookie?

The Pig is as much about the brew as the pork, with a handful of draft beers supplemented by a much larger selection of bottles, all emphasizing quirky, lesser-known, more exotic beers. In other words, don’t expect to find Sam Adams here. On the other hand, there’s lots of stuff at the Pig to make you say, “Oink!”

The Weeks Ahead: Feb. 26 to March 11

2013-02-25T10:00:00+00:00

Readers: I will be in Thailand for the next two weeks, and am expecting to re-emerge bleary-eyed in South Florida on March 10, with a travel story for this magazine on the horizon. In the meantime, this special Week Ahead covers the next two weeks of A&E happenings, and I’ll still be posting additional arts blogs during my absence.

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Eric Whitacre at Society of the Four Arts, 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 3 p.m.; free for members; $15 nonmembers; 561/655-7227 or www.fourarts.org

Eric Whitacre initially wanted to become a rock star, and he still has the look of one. Instead, the intense, blond-haired Nevadan studied choral music, graduating from Juilliard and winning a 2012 Grammy for his best-selling “Light & Gold” album. At this exclusive lecture, he will discuss his “Virtual Choir” project, which involves joining together thousands of voices from around the world in an online choir. So far, this democratic project has received more than 3 million hits on the Web.

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Brunch in Boca with Hal Linden at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Drive, Boca Raton; 10 a.m.; free, but reservations required; 800/211-1502 or www.jnf.org

Hal Linden is a triple threat: An actor, singer and dancer who launched his career as a Big Band musician in the ‘50s, won a Best Actor Tony award for his role in Broadway’s “The Rothschilds,” and eventually went on to immeasurable fame as the star of the TV sitcom “Barney Miller,” where he played the titular, long-suffering police chief in New York City. In 2011, the septuagenarian Linden made news for finally releasing his first album of pop and jazz standards, appropriately titled “It’s Never Too Late.” The actor is also an observant Jew and a national spokesman for the Jewish National Fund, which is presenting this brunch and guest lecture. This will be Linden’s second annual appearance with the fund, and the program promises to be completely different from last year’s.

Friday, March 1 to Sunday, March 10

Miami International Film Festival at various Miami movie theaters; various show times and prices; 305/237-3456 or www.miamifilmfestival.com

In honor of its 30th anniversary, the Miami International Film Festival will look to the past as well as the future by honoring Sweden’s Lasse Hallstrom, whose art-house classic “My Life as a Dog” premiered at the Miami Film Festival in 1984 and established his international reputation. This time, he’ll be presenting “The Hypnotist” (pictured), a promising crime drama. The festival also will pay tribute to Spanish director Fernando Trueba, who will make his 10th appearance at the MIFF. The 10-day event also features a symposium on the Chinese film industry, a Culinary Cinema series and a rare retro screening, in 35mm, of Robert Bresson’s all-time masterpiece “Au Hasard Balthazar.”

Saturday, March 2

Tribute to pandit Ravi Shankar at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 6 p.m.; $25 to $45; 954/462-0222 or www.browardcenter.org

Arguably the most famous sitar player of all-time – and a collaborator of the Beatles during the band’s weird years – pandit Ravi Shankar died last year at age 92. He deserves the credit for bringing an obscure Indian stringed instrument to worldwide popularity, and at this concert sponsored by the Association of Performing Arts of India, two modern masters of Indian music will pay tribute to him. Sitarist Kartik Seshradi, a disciple of Shankar, has performed with Philip Glass and graced the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center; he’ll be joined onstage by Alam Khan, who will perform on the sarode, a fretless lute. Khan has received praise from the likes of Shankar, Carlos Santana and the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, so expect the very best.

Saturday, March 2 to Saturday, March 9

Kultur Festival at Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; various show times and prices; 800/564-9539 or www.fauevents.com

In its fifth year, the ever-expanding Kultur Festival celebrates Jewish culture across eight days of concerts, films, author presentations, comedy programs and more. “Second Avenue Jazz ’n’ Jive” (March 3) will showcase the Klezmer Company Orchestra performing new arrangements alongside the Ebony Chorale of the Palm Beaches; radio personality Marty Bookspan will speak about his friendships with Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland (March 5); and author Thane Rosenbaum will read excerpts from his best-selling philosophical novel The Golems of Gotham with live musical accompaniment (March 9), among other events.

Wednesday, March 6

“Sip & Savor” at Total Wine and More, 11221 Legacy Ave., Palm Beach Gardens; 6 to 8 p.m.; $25 advance, $30 at door; 561/837-8066 or www.sunfest.com

We’re all still waiting patiently – and some of us not so patiently – for SunFest to make its dang lineup announcement for its annual music festival, now only about a month away. Until then, you can help support and promote the festival, while enjoying a worldly evening of wine, at this special tasting in Palm Beach Gardens. The SunFest-sponsored event features an impeccable array of international wine divided into five categories: American wines (from Oregon, Washington and California), Italian wines, French wines, “adventurous” wines (from Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand) and other European wines (from Spain, Portugal, Germany and Austria). There also will prize giveaways and hors d’oeuvres from Sandy James Catering.

Friday, March 8

Opening night of “Brothers Beckett” at Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 7:30 p.m.; $35; 305/949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

Local playwright David Michael Sirois recently described his play “Brothers Beckett” to me thusly: “It’s about two Peter Pans in a codependent sibling relationship who affectively destroy each other’s other relationships.” Sounds serious, and its themes are, but this cogent description doesn’t get to the play’s relatable wit and humor, sure to be performed wondrously. “Brothers Beckett” enjoyed a world premiere in 2010 at Miami Lakes’ Alliance Theatre Lab; ever since seeing that production, Scott Shiller, vice president at the Arsht Center, had been hoping to bring it to his own audience, a dream that has finally become a reality for both institutions. Sirois and Gabe Hammad play the titular Brothers Beckett, young adults whose stunted, bunk-bed cohabitation is threatened when their love lives pull them apart. Mark Della Ventura reprises his Carbonell-nominated breakthrough part as the Becketts’ best friend. I don’t say this all the time, but this show is definitely worth a drive from Palm Beach County. It runs through March 24.

Monday, March 11

Roger McGuinn at Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter; 7:30 p.m.; $35; 561/575-2223 or www.jupitertheatre.org

As the frontman and lead guitarist for The Byrds, Roger McGuinn has left an indelible mark on American folk rock – and other genres, too. The Byrds album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” virtually invented country rock, and McGuinn’s innovative guitar playing borrowed liberally from psychedelic rock’s unpredictability and John Coltrane’s free-jazz sensibilities. It’s been more than 20 years since McGuinn has enjoyed much commercial success as a solo artist, but with such a killer back catalog, who needs radio hits? These days he’s a spry 70-year-old whose live performances including humor, storytelling and all the Byrds hits fans will show up to expect: “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Eight Miles High” and many others.

Magic Moments

2013-02-25T09:41:41+00:00

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote “The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte),” he hoped the opera would entertain the lower-class audience on the outskirts of Vienna with its humor and adventure. However, when it debuted in 1791, the work was declared a masterpiece thanks to its lovable characters and ingenious musical structure.

The opera maintains its popularity to this day, as proven by this weekend’s performance by Florida Grand Opera at Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. A live orchestra, intricate costumes and transcendent voices proved a powerful combination, moving the crowd alternately from laughter to tears to thunderous applause.

Admittedly, the plot leaves a little to be desired. The story is a dream—or is it?—of a young man, Tamino, who falls in love with the daughter (Pamina) of the Queen of the Night and must rescue her from a cult of priests. A silly bird-hunter (Papageno)
accompanies Tamino on his quest, providing plenty of slapstick comedy. While “The Magic Flute” is believed to be an argument for Enlightenment philosophy and contains Masonic themes (Mozart and the author of the libretto, Emanuel Schikaneder, were lodge brothers), it would be pretty hard to follow without the projected English and Spanish subtitles above the stage.

However, the company puts a fresh spin on the production with modern touches sprinkled throughout. When magic bells put a group of guards into a trance, they start dancing—and doing 21st-century dance moves like The Dougie. Tamino wears jeans on his quest while the three boys of the choir don overalls and Chuck Taylor sneakers. And when a (seeming) old hag tries to seduce Papageno, he shouts, “Mrs. Robinson!” Making changes to a classic work can be pretty controversial, and it seemed that patrons were divided about the merit of these tweaks.

The Queen of the Night, a scheming mother who puts the plot into motion, is an extremely challenging role that calls for a coloratura soprano, a singer whose voice is marked by “elaborate embellishment”—in short, a lyrical acrobat with the ability to hit impossibly high notes. Jeanette Vecchione, in her FGO debut, does the role justice, stunning the crowd to awed silence in her second aria, “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (Hell’s vengeance boils in my heart),” which hits a rare “high F6.” Her pitch is so perfect that she sounds Auto-Tuned—and that moment alone makes “The Magic Flute” well worth the price of admission.

Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954/640-CLUB, browardcenter.org

Six Degrees of BaconFest

2013-02-25T09:15:04+00:00

On Saturday evening almost 3,000 South Floridians gathered at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek to savor all things bacon.

Hosted by chef Todd Fisher from Discovery’s Destination America show “United States of Bacon,” the sweet and savory event featured bacon-based food from 20 local restaurants. Chefs faced off to make the best porky dishes in three categories—appetizer, entrée and dessert. There were silly carnival games, a “hog” bike show, and live performances by the Dan Band and the Bacon Brothers Band.

Before the sizzling sold-out show, we had an opportunity to chat with Kevin and Michael Bacon. In their spare time (wait, what spare time?), the famous brothers write, record and tour with their six-piece band. Since forming in 1995, the Bacon boys have released six albums.

So how’d they get involved with this annual pig-toasting extravaganza?

“Well, we changed our name last year, and we figured that would be the best way to get into it,” Michael joked. “And it worked!”

At the event, fans and Bacon lovers were able to hear a sampling of harmonious, original songs from all six of the band’s albums. The brothers, who are nine years apart, said they enjoy performing together.

“[The best part is] just getting to hang,” Kevin said. “To know when you look across the stage that someone’s got your back.”

Although both men are in separate successful careers (Kevin is an award-winning actor, and Michael is a decorated film-score composer and musician), the Bacons explained their band is not just a recreational outlet.

“I spend a lot of time worrying about the Billboard charts,” Michael said. “It’s like anything you start doing. It’s fun at first and then it’s a business, and you get on a track of figuring out where you want to go. [We are] thankful and grateful for how far we’ve gone with it over these years, but I always have my eye on something gleaming on the horizon.”

We couldn’t resist asking about Kevin’s current gleaming endeavors. Bacon currently stars on the successful FOX television series, “The Following,” where he plays a former FBI agent tackling a web of serial killers. The popular series has drawn a lot of controversy for its violent and terrifying subject matter.

“I’m really happy about the show,” Kevin said. “I always had a sense that the show would probably be controversial and that’s OK because at least people are talking about it.”

As a twist, we interviewed the brothers about each other, and they happily participated.

BRM: Michael, what is Kevin’s favorite color?

Michael: Red?...Oh, black!

Kevin: It’s purple!

BRM: What’s Kevin’s favorite movie?

Michael: All of his own movies! All 6,000 of them ... Those are his favorites.

BRM: What’s his biggest fear?

Michael: Being late.

BRM: What is the love of his life?

Michael: A little blonde named Kyra Sedgwick.

BRM: How does he like his bacon prepared?

Michael: Crispy? Crispy.

BRM: What is his most embarrassing moment on stage?

Michael: One time he was getting a little out of hand and he banged his head against a microphone and a fan in the crowd said, ‘Kevin, you’re bleeding!’ He had blood trickling down his forehead. It was pretty funny.

BRM: Okay Kevin, your turn. What is your brother’s favorite color?

Kevin: Green?

BRM: What is Michael’s favorite movie?

Kevin: Privileged.

Michael: Well done!

BRM: What is his biggest fear?

Kevin: I don’t know, I don’t know if he has any fears. He’s fearless.

BRM: What is the love of his life?

Kevin: Betsy Mcguire.

BRM: How does he like his bacon prepared?

Kevin: I would say crispy.

BRM: What is his most embarrassing moment on stage?

Kevin: You know, I was thinking about that one. There have been maybe a couple of times where the lyrics have eluded him. ... One time we were playing the Poconos and he said, ‘We love the Catskills!’ (Laughs.) Wrong mountain range.

DORSiA Debuts in Boca

2013-02-25T06:00:00+00:00

A “modern Continental restaurant” might seem like one of those oxy-type morons—you know, “marijuana initiative,” “military intelligence”—but don’t tell that to former New York restaurateur Chris Lanza, whose recently opened Boca Raton eatery is promising just that.

Lanza’s local venture is DORSiA (5837 N. Federal Hwy., 561/961-4156), whose modest façade belies a dining room-bar that channels the comfortable elegance of those classic Continental restaurants you probably remember as a kid. (Think white tablecloths, big chandeliers, comfy leather barstools and long banquettes.)

The menu of contemporary takes on Continental dishes hardly breaks any new culinary ground, but it does offer the satisfaction of the familiar tweaked just enough to make it interesting again. There’s grilled calamari with lemon-basil dressing; sweet potato gnocchi with brown butter, walnuts and sage; veal scallopine with artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes; and salmon with a smoked salmon-horseradish crust and beurre blanc.

Prices are reasonable too, with most apps under $12 and most entrees coming in under $25. No oxymoron there.

Emb(race) at FAU

2013-02-22T14:16:00+00:00

If you were looking to break a sweat this Sunday, lace up your sneakers, skip the gym, and head to Florida Atlantic University for the third annual Emb(race) walk/run event.

This special event offers a 5K, 10K and one-mile family walk and is open to people of all ages and abilities.

Emb(race) is hosted by Stand Among Friends, a Boca-based nonprofit that provides educational services and business resources to those with physical and cognitive disabilities. We had the pleasure of interviewing the founder of Stand Among Friends recently for our publication’s Hometown Hero section.

Last year, the race (where everyone really does win) drew almost 1,000 entrants. Whether you run, walk, stroll or roll, everyone is welcomed.

The event will also feature kids’ games, live music, yummy bites, prizes and awards.

The event begins at 7:30 a.m. To register or for more information, please visit www.standamongfriends.org.

Fashion Design Exhibition Makes an "IMPACT"

2013-02-22T10:00:00+00:00

Sometimes my job puts me in positions that are vastly outside of my comfort zone. Covering a fashion exhibition is one of the times. I’ve heard of Ralph Lauren and Tom Ford, sure, but my knowledge of fashion could not fit Barbie’s thimble. When my wife watches “Project Runway,” I zone out.

And yet, these shows have become, well … fashionable at the top art institutions around the world, so it was inevitable that our own museum would present one sooner rather than later. In this case, the show is titled “IMPACT: 50 Years of the CFDA,” and it features dozens of outfits, dressed on faceless mannequins, created by the Council of Fashion Designers of America over its half-century of existence. The CFDA is the top trade organization in the field, and even fashion laymen like myself will recognize the names of a sizable chunk of the designers on display, each of whom are represented with just one archetypal work: Diane von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger, Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors and so on.

There is no overriding theme – the exhibition’s raison d’etre is variety, to offer a vast cross-section of innovative, gorgeous and at times controversial fashion designs that touch every spectrum of the industry. Thus, you’re treated to everything from the mirth and whimsy of Betsey Johnson’s cherry print dress to Donna Karan’s elegant, black, monotone example of “daywear” that, to my eyes, looks like something one of Bruce Wayne’s love interests would wear to a black-tie charity gala, but what do I know?

Like most recent shows at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, “IMPACT” is tech-savvy, with iPads sprouting from stands bolted to the floor, providing the only background information on the designers (I didn’t see any wall text; the gowns speak for themselves). The work is divided into several categorical clusters along both sides of the main gallery: “Inspired by Exoticism,” “Evening Wear,” “Sculptural,” “Daywear,” “Menswear” and “Emerging Designers,” with the standout section, “Resplendent Gowns” sandwiched between them, in the center, behind a red carpet. This is where you can view a billowing red dress from Zac Posen, a sexy and modern butterfly dress from Marchesa and a black, rippling knockout from Vera Wang. But I was more taken with the “Sculptural” category, which includes an elegant silver-and-black kimono from Josie Natori and a matching kilt-and-scarf combination from B.H. Wragge circa 1950.

Of the more experimental entries, I was impressed with Oleg Cassini’s motley dress, where strings of pearls divide shimmering tableaux of alphabet letters and geometric shapes. Geoffrey Beene’s dress is the kind that is destined to feel forever postmodern, suggesting a ‘70s science fiction writer’s image of the futuristic space woman. And Alexander Wang manages to make hoodies fashionable, with his knit sweater material bleeding into a bold black leather design.

On the other hand, someone will have to explain the appeal of Tom Ford to me. His selection here is a clingy, drapey, unflattering sepia-colored thing that looks like it’s melting off its mannequin. Likewise, Tommy Hilfiger’s example of outback chic did nothing for me. but they both pale in comparison to Thom Brown’s vulgar suit made of chicken feathers, which looks more appropriate for a KFC mascot than an evening on the town.

It dawned on me that perhaps my knowledge of fashion (or even my love of animals) has limited my appreciation for such designs, which might very well be the case. But also, these kinds of reactions justify this exhibition’s place in an art museum; their very divisiveness, and the multiple opinions they engender in museumgoers, provide an answer to that age-old question: “Yes, but it is art?” I don’t know much about fashion, but I know a little bit about art, and this is it.

“IMPACT: 50 Years of the CFDA” runs through April 21 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Tickets are $15 adults, $12 seniors and $8 students. For information, call 561/392-2500 or visit bocamuseum.org.

Small Bites: Chef's Edition

2013-02-22T06:00:00+00:00

Local chefs are packing their knives and coming or going. At Sundy House in Delray, celeb exec chef Lindsay Autry has been joined by new pastry chef Sarah Sipe. Sipe has cooked in and around SoFla for the past 10 years, including stints with Autry at Michelle Bernstein’s Michy’s in Miami and the Omphoy Resort in Palm Beach.

Also on the move is Max’s Harvest chef Chris Miracolo, who’s moving on to become top toque at the restaurant in the Fort Lauderdale Beach Hilton. Max Group exec chef Patrick Broadhead will take over the reins. Also leaving is PGA National Resort chef Gordon Maybury, who’s signing on as to run the kitchen of the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

There’s a New Deal at Boston’s on the Beach (40 S. Ocean Blvd., 561/278-3364). It’s the recently instituted “Appy Hour” menu, a weekday roster of cheap bites and sips from 4 to 7 p.m. Look for peel ‘n’ eat shrimp, wings, crabcakes, steamers and more, priced from $4 to $8. Oh, and half-priced draft and domestic beers, wine and well drinks. Cheers.

You Can Succeed

2013-02-22T03:39:33+00:00

The second annual “You Can Succeed” women's conference is being held today (yes, today) at the Lake Terrace in Boca Raton.

The event is open to all business owners and entrepreneurs, and will be covering topics such as branding, sales and marketing.

Author and entrepreneur Gigi Stetler will speak at the event, sitting on a panel of millionaires who are sharing their stories of how they overcame obstacles to reach their success.

“It's about networking, following strong positive people, attending an event like this to meet positive thinking people in a small group,” Stetler said. “That gives you more of that one-on-one feeling.”

"You Can Succeed" helps small business owners launch their ideas with the help of supportive experts.

For more information, visit please visit www.youcansucceedevent.com.

The Bam Man Hits Delray

2013-02-21T16:39:12+00:00

No one can get me out of my bed with the Palm Beach Post and the New York Times on a Sunday morning for anything less than a buy-one-get-one-pair-of-shoes-free sale at Macy’s--and probably not then. Sunday is for pajamas until 11 a.m. and coffee and watching the light change on the palm fronds outside the bedroom window while you pretend read the national news section but are really itching to get to the The New York Times “Vows” column. However, on a recent Sunday I was persuaded to actually get out of bed, don civilian clothes, get behind the wheel of a car and run down to 50 Ocean for brunch and a viewing of Emeril in Delray. Seems the CVB and the Visit Florida kids (this is getting to be a dangerously fruitful combination, if you ask me) finagled celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse to do regional cooking spots throughout Florida on his show “Emeril’s Florida” on the cooking channel and our own 32 East and 50 Ocean were two of them!

There are 17 episodes in the season and we are on the 7^th episode, which airs several times; the first was last Sunday.

So we all gathered in the Hemingway Lounge at 50 Ocean with Bloody Marys in hand and there he was, the man himself, tasting 50 Ocean’s Chef Blake Malatesta’s expertly wrought seafood delight, while we watched the whitecaps on a deep blue ocean outside the window. Chef Blake grew up in a big family in Louisiana so the connection was natural. He’s worked in kitchens throughout Provence, London, Italy and now we have him pan-searing swordfish caught right here for Mr. Bam Man himself. And, although the restaurant was certainly the star, I cannot stress enough what that ocean looked like that morning, that dark winter blue, boats way off on the horizon, the sea grapes and palms rustling outside. This is why you live here, I thought to myself, as I dug into my 50 Ocean Omelet with its baby spinach and goat cheese and pancetta—this may be a real reason to get out of bed on a Sunday morning.

The Emeril connection is just one more sign that the rest of the world is discovering what those of us who live here already know: Delray Beach is not only the most fun small town in America; it’s a very delicious place to live.

Red Hot Heels

2013-02-21T15:04:02+00:00

Tomorrow night grab your hottest, highest and reddest heels and head to Town Center mall for the third annual Red Stiletto Stroll.

This red-all-over event includes a cocktail reception, delicious appetizers (from restaurants like Bistro N, California Pizza Kitchen, The Capital Grille and Pummarola), raffle prizes, and of course the famous “Shoe Shoe Train” fashion show presented by Neiman Marcus.

Most importantly, this fabulous event for feet helps raise awareness for women’s heart health. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, heart disease is still the leading cause of death for women. Proceeds from this garnet gathering benefit the Jean and David Blechman Center for Specialty Care and Preventative Cardiology at the Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

What’s not to love?

Attendees are encouraged to wear their most fiery footwear on the red carpet, as celebrity judges (including our own Angela Lutin!) select the “sauciest” pair of heels. There are prizes to be won, ladies! Paint those nails!

Tickets are $30 for general admission and $50 for reserved seating. There is also a brand new “Girls’ Night Out” package for four ($180), which includes VIP seating and a commemorative martini glass.

For more information please contact Sandra Longo at 561/955-3249 or slongo@brrh.com.

We will be there tomorrow taking pictures of all the festivities! Please follow us on Facebook and on Instagram (@bocamag) to see all the fun!

Report: Stadium Naming "Unusual"

2013-02-21T10:47:24+00:00

Reporter Ira Boudway of Bloomberg Businessweek weighs in on the recent announcement by Florida Atlantic University involving naming rights to its stadium. The GEO Group, a for-profit prison in Boca, purchased the rights for $6 million.

Check out the story:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-20/this-stadium-is-now-named-after-a-prison-company

The Naked Truth, Vol. 47

2013-02-21T09:29:48+00:00

Angela, I have started seeing a great woman with two adorable kids-- ages 4 and 7. I don't have any children of my own and haven't dated someone seriously with kids. I'll do my best not to spoil them, but are there any tips I should know? --Scott P.

Scott, the best advice I can give you is to take it slowly. Children are very impressionable. Going through a divorce, no matter how amicable the terms, will have affected them. You want your relationship with Mom to grow on it’s own. If you get too attached to the kids early on or vice versa, it may skew the real feelings of the relationship and either of you may move forward even if the situation isn’t fitting just for the sake of the kids.

If you follow my advice by taking things slowly and find you do want to grow your relationship with this woman, know her children will always be part of her life. In fact, until they reach adulthood, they will be the priority. That’s always a big challenge when getting involved with anyone with children. You have to be prepared to take the back seat sometimes. Interacting with the kids is the easy part. Just be a friend.

I am always upfront with anyone I date, letting him know my son and I are a package deal. Single moms can be cautious in romance until they know a potential love interest is accepting of the circumstances. I applaud you for embracing your situation and the entire package!

Angela, I need your help. My husband and I just moved in together after tying the knot! I am madly in love with him and a very happy wife, but I feel like we are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to living together. I almost feel like we are both walking on eggshells, whether we are talking about cooking dinner or juggling laundry. I want us both to feel comfortable in our new home!
--Homebody

Dear Homebody,

Adjusting to the first year of marriage is difficult for anyone. Since you and your husband didn’t cohabitate previously, not only are you adjusting to being a wife, you are adjusting to sharing your personal space with someone else. That can be hard! We all love our independence.

What you are describing is merely a logistical challenge. You are going through the dance of who is responsible for what in the realm of your domain. When you both are in a relaxed state, sit down and talk about expectations. Write out your house rules as a family. Perhaps you like to do the laundry but hate the dishes whereas your husband finds loading the dishwasher an easy chore.

Address all of these things and negotiate who will be in charge of every household responsibility- from bill paying to grocery shopping. Although it seems very business-like, it will save you many arguments and frustration in the future by putting a plan in place now.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Angela Lutin is Essentially Angela. Blogger, Advice Columnist and Dating Guru for the social media age—decoding modern love one tweet, text, and like at a time. Angela’s weekly dating advice column, The Naked Truth, appears exclusively in Boca Raton Magazine. Her work appears regularly on the Huffington Post, and she has been a guest contributor to Shape Magazine, GalTime.com, Think Magazine, Blindfold Magazine, and more. She can been seen on MTV’s Made and Bravo’s hit show, Millionaire Matchmaker in early 2013. Crafting personal dating makeovers for her clients, Angela also maintains a private practice, which turns the romantically challenged into the relationship-inclined. Follow Angela on Facebook, facebook.com/EssentiallyAngela or Twitter, @essentiallyang.

The Designer Series: Anthony Luciano

2013-02-20T06:44:46+00:00

With the temperature dipping into the 20s on a cold Manhattan morning, the only thought that warmed us were the brights that will be featured in Anthony Luciano’s spring collection. We had a chance to interview the designer in action in his very own chic atelier in the fashion district. The couture handbag designer will be in Neiman Marcus Boca Raton on February 21 and 22 to present his colorful bouquet of handmade luxury bags in fuchsia, yellow and turquoise—all the it colors of the season.

But don’t let the couture part fool you. Luciano has a very understated craftsman-like demeanor, thanks to his Italian artistic heritage (his mother was a seamstress and father a carpenter). Born and raised in New York, he studied apparel design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). After short spells of costume designing and pattern making, working with a small accessories company ignited his passion to design one-of-a-kind handbags. Luciano launched his namesake label in 2000 and was immediately sought after by Stanley Korshak, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. There has been no looking back since.

Chanel had the fleur de lis as her signature in accessories. Which flower is used for your signature motif?

Anthony Luciano: The Mountain Lily. It exposes you to a beautiful fragrance. I interpret that scent in many colors.

What’s the story behind a penny that comes with every one of your handbags?

It’s in line with the Italian tradition of giving some money in a wallet or a handbag. So that’s a penny for prosperity, good luck.

What is your style advice for 2013?

Focus on accessories, specifically handbags. Express your individuality by adding an unusual handbag to you collection—it is a representation of your style sense.

What is the central idea of your new collection?

It’s all about color. I am focusing on Pink, Orange, Yellow and Turquoise with some splashes of black and white. I’ve taken out the matron styling, introduced younger shapes with embellishments, laser cut leather and inlay work. It’s all about details. There’s also a tremendous interest in exotic skins like ostrich, however, I also have embossed prints for the customer who doesn’t want to use real skin.

What’s the story behind the vintage frames?

I have always been attracted to vintage in general. They [the frames] have a great story behind them—who was carrying them and how... We source them from all over the world and sometimes customers bring their own frames and we design a bag around them so they become a wonderful keepsake.

What’s the next big thing for your label?

More is more. We’re known for our detailed work. Beautiful detail separates us from the other designers. The essence of my label is handcrafted individuality so I want to expand my label to the web and have a bigger audience that can order custom made bags.

About Jo:

Jyoti “Jo” Peswani is a fashion maven. As a Chanel-obsessed, published fashion and lifestyle journalist, she definitely has a nose for everyday style. In addition to being an award-winning copy girl, Jo runs her own marketing and writing consultancy, The Idea Is {In}. Jo currently curates her inspirations, observations and ideas on her recently launched blog www.theideaisin.com/blog. She’s a strong advocate of living (and dressing) creatively and takes great pleasure in denying the existence of “the box.”

Bob Newhart to Headline Boca's Concours d'Elegance

2013-02-20T01:00:00+00:00

There are car shows, and then there are car shows.

Now in its seventh year, Boca Raton’s Concours d’Elegance is an automobile show par excellance. French for “concourse of elegance,” events like it have long showcased the best and brightest modes of transportation on the market, dating back to the horse-drawn carriages of the French aristocracy. Popular modern concourses have spring up in Pebble Beach, Amelia Island and midtown Manhattan, and for the past seven years, Boca’s Concours, hosted at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, has built up a glittering reputation to match its domestic and international peers.

The annual affair will take place Friday through Sunday (Feb. 22-24) at the Resort, with proceeds benefiting Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County; last year’s even raised more than $1 million for the organization. The event will highlight such time-tested brands as Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Lamborghini, which celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year. There will be an Automobile and Automobilia Auction, hosted by Bonhams, on Saturday, and an exhibition of cars and motorcycles on Sunday that spans all eras. New to the Concours this year is an Automobile Art Show, on display for all three days and providing the opportunity to meet the car-centric artists in person. More than 30 top South Florida restaurants will provide nosh at the Concours d’Gourmet Pavilion.

But the main attraction is often the headlining comedy entertainer, who performs a stand-up set at Saturday night’s Gala Dinner and Auction. This year, it will be none other than Bob Newhart, the 83-year-old workhorse who remains as funny and inspirational as ever: Last August, after a certain film director’s unforgettable address at the Republican National Convention, he tweeted, “Heard that Clint Eastwood was channeling me at the RNC. My lawyers and I are drafting our lawsuit...”

Newhart has been incredibly gifted at creating highly visual sketches with his mind and words only, through a number of folksy, original characters, spoken in the comedian’s trademark stutter. To help you prepare for this weekend’s performance, here is a compilation of some of Newhart’s greatest hits, starting with a commentary on typical bus driver techniques, from 1995:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5TTA4f7Q3E

Here is one of his oldest clips, from 1965, on “The Jack Paar Show:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvx0Duqy3N8

Here is Newhart roasting colleague Don Rickles in 1973, with whom he will tour later this year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuOaGqnv87w

Here is his classic cameo on a 2001 episode of the sketch series “madTV:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw

Here’s a classic clip from “Newhart,” in which Bob interviews the owner of “the world’s smallest horse.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU3IPSAys8s

Tickets to the Concours d’Elegance are $100 for the Friday night Hangar Party, $500 for Saturday night’s Gala Dinner and Auction with Bob Newhart, and $50 general admission or $100 VIP admission for Sunday’s events. Call 954/537-1010 or visit www.bocacde.com.

The Week Ahead: Feb. 19 to 25

2013-02-19T18:41:43+00:00

Tuesday

Israeli double feature at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 7:30 p.m.; $11.50 per film; 786/385-9689 or www.gablescinema.com

A few days ago, the Coral Gables Art Cinema opened “Yossi,” a romantic dramedy about a young, gay Israeli man. The film stands on its own, but it’s important to know that it’s a sequel, and tonight only, the cinema will screen its predecessor, 2002’s “Yossi and Jagger,” in its 35mm format. That film charts the controversial love affair between Yossi, a commander during the Israeli-Lebanon conflict, and his second-in-command officer, whom many call “Jagger” for his similarities to the Rolling Stones’ frontman. The new film “Yossi,” which screens immediately following “Yossi and Jagger,” picks up the title character’s story a number of years later, when he’s a closeted gay surgeon in Tel Aviv and reminiscing about his army days. The cinema will serve special snacks, such as hummus, pita chips and baklava, for the occasion.

Thursday

Mike Judge double feature at Cineluxe 6, 850 Ives Dairy Road, North Miami; 7:30; $12; 305/249-2345 or www.cineluxetheaters.com

Back in the early ‘90s, who knew that the creator of “Beavis & Butt-head” would evolve into such a deft chronicler of American social mores – in the form of live-action movies, no less? Tonight, this small cinema in North Miami will screen two of Mike Judge’s cult classics in 35mm, beginning with “Office Space,” his deadpan satire of office drudgery. It will be followed, most significantly, by Judge’s 2006 controversial sci-fi comedy “Idiocracy,” a scathingly funny commentary on the United States’ cultural and intellectual decline whose distributor, Fox, famously limited its theatrical release to seven cities. This screening marks its long-awaited theatrical debut in South Florida. Tickets need to be purchased in advance at this website: http://www.tugg.com/events/2823

Friday and Saturday

Drew Carey and Friends at Palm Beach Improv, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m. Friday and 7 and 9:45 p.m. Saturday; $30 with a two-drink minimum; 561/833-1812 or www.palmbeachimprov.com

Drew Carey has one of the most open, amiable faces in modern comedy, and he’s used it to gain mass appeal in a number of disparate professions, from sitcom star to television host to computer-game character. A former Marine, bank teller and Denny’s restaurant waiter, Carey is a talented improvist who brought his quick-witted skills to ABC’s “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and “The Drew Carey Show,” which surely provided a shot in the arm for Cleveland’s tourism industry. Carey will perform just three sets in this limited engagement; he rarely plays club dates, and, to paraphrase his current hosting gig, the $30 price is right.

Friday to Sunday

South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami Beach, various locations, event times and admission costs; 877/762-3933 or www.sobefest.com

Arguably the most important food event in the Southeastern United States, the SoBe Wine and Food Festival returns for another unimpeachably impressive lineup of culinary luminaries the world over, all converging on our little coastal paradise in Miami-Dade County (let’s hope, for their sake and ours, that the weather won’t be as cold as it has been the past few days). The events are too innumerable to mention, with festivities beginning at 11 a.m. some days and running until midnight, with appearances from Martha Stewart, Christophe Navarre, Jeremy Sewell, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse and many others. A couple of our most anticipated events: Anthony Bourdain will host a screening of the acclaimed documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” at 5:30 p.m. Friday, followed by a sushi and sake tasting; and Guy Fieri will host a closing-night jam with Ziggy Marley at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Miami City Ballet’s Program III at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday; starting at $20; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

It’s been a challenging past year for Miami City Ballet, which has gone from national television coverage and a sold-out tour of Paris last year to the announcement of a $1.5 million budget deficit and the forced early retirement of artistic director Edward Villella. Thankfully, that hasn’t impacted the company’s innovative creative work. Program III will feature “Symphonic Dances,” a new piece by Alexei Ratmansky, one of the world’s most sought-after choreographers. The award-winning phenom, who premiered the piece at an MCB gala earlier this year, based it on the Rachmaninoff composition of the same name. In a recent interview, he told audiences to expect his trademark fusing of narrative and abstract dance styles in a dynamic piece that addresses love, war and death.

Saturday

FeBREWary Fest with All-American Rejects at Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $10 advance, $20 at door; 888/512-7469 or www.mizneramphitheater.com

There may be no band name more inappropriate than All-American Rejects, the Oklahoma-bred alternative-rock quartet whose rejection letters are scant and who has been happily accepted by throngs of audiences in their teens and ‘20s. The certified hit-makers enjoyed a platinum album right off the bat with their self-titled debut in 2003 and have only rocketed further since, selling more than 10 millions albums worldwide. The band will headline this special festival in Mizner Park, at an agreeably discounted admission price. Vicci Martinez, a finalist on NBC’s “The Voice” in 2011, will open the show. This festival pairs brews with great tunes (hence the name), and for $30, attendees can purchase VIP tickets from Biergarten.

“Meet the Orchestra” at Roberts Theater at Saint Andrews School, 3900 Jog Road, Boca Raton; 10:30 a.m.; free, but reservations required; 866/687-4201 or www.bocasymphonia.org

As part of its monthly outreach to community children and their parents, the Boca Raton Symphonia has been opening its orchestra’s process to the public, which has the opportunity, this morning, to attend a dress rehearsal, meet the conductor and musicians at intermission and watch instrument demonstrations. One of the best parts about this program is the “instrument petting zoo,” where children may get acquainted with professional instruments and receive instructions on how to play them. For budding musicians, this is a lot more exciting than any traditional petting zoo; and while the French horn is loud, it doesn’t bite.

BaconFest Florida at Seminole Casino, 5550 N.W. 40^th St., Coconut Creek; 6 p.m.; 954/935-2636 or www.ticketmaster.com

Any actor – sometimes it seems like all of them – can pick up an instrument and call himself a musician, and people will watch. But few can boast the musical pedigree of Kevin Bacon, who, along with his brother Michael, has been performing in the soulful country-rock group The Bacon Brothers for the past 17 years. The group will headline this festival, which will appeal to more than one kind of Bacon fan – the food, as well as the talented actor/musician, will be celebrated with specialty bacon-infused offerings from 20 South Florida restaurants, including Bru’s Room, Kapow!, Caffe Luna Rosa and Lime. There also will be a chef throw-down competition and a performance from the comedy group The Dan Band, all of it hosted by Todd Fisher of TV’s “The United States of Bacon.”

On the Menu at Burt & Max's

2013-02-19T06:00:00+00:00

Burt & Max’s (9089 W. Atlantic Ave., 561/638-6380), Burt Rapoport and Dennis Max’s first new restaurant collaboration in decades, opened last week in the giant Delray Marketplace at West Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road.

The menu isn’t posted on the restaurant’s website or Facebook page yet, but I happen to have a copy here, so if you’re wondering what there is to eat at B&M’s, well, wonder no longer.

Particularly notable on the lunch menu is the “10 for 10” section, 10 dishes for $10 including soft drink, iced tea or coffee. Among the selections: crispy calamari salad, six-inch margherita pizza and salad, roasted mushroom omelet and pair of fish tacos. There also several small plates, from jumbo shrimp lettuce wraps to wood-roasted chicken wings, as well as pizzas from the wood-burning oven, composed salads, burgers and sammies.

The dinner menu reprises the small plates, burgers and pizzas, and adds entrée-sized dishes like cedar plank-roasted salmon, Southern fried chicken and waffles, braised beef short ribs and, brought over from Max’s Grille, the bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Small plates range in price from $4 to $16 and large plates from $14 to $39 (for a 28-day, dry-aged New York strip).

But wait, there’s brunch too. Again, the small plates, pizzas and burgers make an appearance, joined by brunchy type fare like eggs Benedict, “fully loaded” Belgian waffle and smoked salmon platter. And check out the build-your-own Blood Mary bar.

Whole Foods Coming to WPB

2013-02-18T06:00:00+00:00

If you live in central Palm Beach County and are tired of making the drive to Boca Raton or Palm Beach Gardens or Wellington to get your Whole Foods fix, take heart.

The upscale grocery chain has just announced that it’s going to open a store in West Palm Beach in the Palm Beach Outlet mall, which will replace worn-out and (in the process of being) torn-down Palm Beach Mall at I-95 and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.

No details except that the new market should come in at about 42,000 square feet, a bit smaller than the 50,000-square-foot Wellington market. As for a debut date, it's tentatively set for late 2014, and as far as I’m concerned, it can’t get here fast enough.

FAU Hosts Two Days of Lincoln Experts

2013-02-15T18:05:58+00:00

Last summer, Abraham Lincoln was slaying vampires at multiplexes, and he’s currently entering his third month in movie theaters nationwide in Stephen Spielberg’s Oscar contender “Lincoln.” Since the beginning of 2012, at least a dozen books have been written about Lincoln, including a best-seller from Bill O’Reilly.

Honest Abe is, as they say, trending on Twitter these days, but you can argue that interest in the 16^th president has never really waned. According to Clemson University professor Vernon Burton, who has written his own tome, “The Age of Lincoln,” he is the most written-about American in our history, behind only William Shakespeare and Jesus Christ worldwide.

For two days next week, on Feb. 20 and 21, Florida Atlantic University will devote the two days of its annual Larkin Symposium on the American Presidency to Abraham Lincoln and his legacy, in honor of the Civil War’s 150^th anniversary. Seven experts from national and international universities will address an audience hungry for history and politics, headlined by keynote speaker and Pulitzer Prize winner Mark E. Neely at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 20.

I spoke with Burton, who will speak about Lincoln at 9 a.m. Feb. 21, and briefly with Neely, who shared some of their insights prior to next week’s big event.

What will be the subject of your address next week?

Neely: The writ of habeas corpus is “The Great Writ of Liberty” to most of us. It insures that judges can look into the reasons for the arrests of persons held in prisons by the government. But was that really the use of this vaunted legal bulwark during the Civil War? I am going to show the surprising result of looking at the use of the writ in 50 cases in the North during the war and, I trust, arrive at a better understanding of President Lincoln’s famous suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

The discussion will take us to the lowest saloons in New York City and into the homes of bigamists. We will see a magician on tour. Most important, we will deal with the problem of “infant soldiers”—a special problem in Lincoln’s day.

With so much having been published about Abraham Lincoln, are there still gaps in his biography – mysteries to be explored?

Burton: Yes. One of thing things that’s very important to understand is that history is an interpretation. We work from the evidence we have. Lincoln is a larger-than-life, almost mythical figure in American history who has, by being shot on Good Friday, taken on a savior-like atmosphere. And he did save the nation. I believe scholars and the general public write into Lincoln either how we want to be or sometimes the projections of our fears. He takes on a special meaning of what it means to be a better American, and there are debates that will continue for a long time as we become more sensitive to issues.

There’s a group that argues that Lincoln was gay, or that was a depressive. I argue that he was the greatest theologian in the 19h century. That’s the kind of figure Lincoln has become; we read into him to justify ourselves.

How have the Republican and Democratic parties shifted in their ideologies since the time of Lincoln’s presidency?

Burton: The party of Lincoln had been a great party. It was formed as a coalition in a lot of ways. He was a Republican who came out of the John Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Alexander Hamilton wing. He was invited to speak to the Jeffersonian Club, and he wrote this wonderful letter that said, “This reminds me of these two fellows in Springfield who got in a fight.” They had been drunk and had on these huge long coats. He says, “Thank goodness they were drunk, so nobody got hurt, but they exchanged coats in the middle of their fight.” In terms of what’s happened more recently, it’s exactly true today in the American south. The parties have reversed completely on issues of racial progress and justice. It has done so deliberately, going back to the 1948 Dixiecrat movement, and then picked up with Goldwater and his appeal to the South, and the Civil Rights Act.

If today’s media apparatus had been around during Lincoln’s time, would things have been any different?

Burton: I think we would have gotten rid of slavery earlier. I asked my students about what’s called the First and Second Reconstructions. The Second Reconstruction is typically a term historians have used for the civil rights movement. Because of the media even then, when suddenly pictures appeared on TV of water hoses on children, and the beatings and the brutality, it brought home the civil rights movement to the north.

Similarly, after the Civil War, hardly anybody in the north wanted to end slavery. It was a “southern problem,” they called it. When they got into the south and saw the conditions, a lot of them became abolitionists. With all the problems of the 24-hour cycle of media service, by bringing it home, it could have made a great difference.

What do you think of Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Lincoln in the current movie?

Neely: I am a political and constitutional historian. Any film that makes debates in Congress over a constitutional amendment appear entertaining and interesting is definitely all right by me. Of course, I have been telling my students they are interesting and entertaining for years and years.

As an expert on this especially fractious period in American history, how do you react when today’s pundits and politicians say things like, “We’ve never been this divided in our history”?

Burton: This kind of division today is almost nothing. Lincoln was called the Illinois Gorilla, the black president. Today you have Joe Wilson yelling “you lie” during a presidential address, but in the 1800s you had congressman Brooks beating Charles Sumner almost to death on the Senate floor. We’ve made some progress.

Tickets for the two-day symposium are $35. Call the box office at 800/564-9539 or visit fauevents.com.

Leave it to the Expert

2013-02-15T13:38:49+00:00

The expert: Carol Morgan has been running a private matchmaking business for some 25 years. The first match she ever made was for her father, who was 66 and widowed after 46 years of marriage to Carol’s mother. She ran a personal ad in the Sun-Sentinel and dozens of people responded. Her father would soon find a new partner—and Morgan, when word spread of her success, soon had a new profession. Today, her client base numbers in the hundreds.

The fee: Price upon request; call 561/306-3131 or visit carolmorgan.com for more information.

The service: Morgan meets potential clients at her home in Boca Raton and puts them in the “hot seat” (a section of her beautiful white couch) for an in-depth discussion about their life, background, likes, dislikes, hobbies and more. She takes that information and looks for a possible match within her pool of clients. “It’s rare that at least one or two matches don’t come to mind immediately,” she says. “If I feel I can’t match within the pool, I’ll recruit for members while I’m out at social functions.”

The match: Morgan calls with a possible match, and if the client is interested, names and numbers are exchanged. The gentleman always makes the first phone call, keeping the courting process very traditional.

The aftermath: Morgan waits to hear feedback after the date from both clients, which she says is critical. “I learn a lot about the clients that way,” Morgan says. “The women generally call within the hour; the men, within a week.”

The future: Morgan has enjoyed so much success with her mostly middle-aged clients that she has decided to begin matching young adults in their 20s and early 30s. “I get so many e-mails from younger people, and they have nowhere to go,” she says. “Young people are looking for real relationships, and that’s what matchmaking is all about. Real relationships. Committed, soul-mate relationships.”

Courtship Tips

1) Men have to be traditional. They have to open doors—and women should wait to see if they’re going to.

2) It never hurts for men to show up with a small, little bouquet of flowers.

3) Men: Don’t talk about another woman on a date.

4) If you have a definite feeling at the end of the first date that you want to go out again, say so. If not, don’t say, “I’ll call you.” That’s the coward’s way out. Say, “I had a pleasant evening. I’m not quite sure the chemistry is right, but it was so nice to have met you and spend some time getting to know you.” Women will appreciate that.

5) Don’t be afraid to look your best.

6) A smile goes a long way, especially when someone is nervous.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 46

2013-02-15T11:18:10+00:00

Angela, I found out last week that my boyfriend has been cheating on me with (at least) two married women. I say that like I’m ordering lunch or something, but I am so horribly devastated and depressed that I am barely keeping myself together. I am so heartbroken. I thought our relationship was perfect, and instead it was an overwhelming web of lies. I didn’t know better, but it was the happiest time in my life. I know I am wise to be away from him, but I am so worried for my future. How will I ever trust someone again? Will I ever be able to be that happy again? --CM

CM, I’m sorry for your heartache. Breakups are gut wrenching, but when they come unexpectedly and are attached to such betrayal as yours was, the natural inclination is to crawl in a ball and find a nice dark corner to rock back and forth in.

It’s going to suck…for a good long while. There is no magic formula or steps you can take to make the pain go away any faster. In fact, the only thing that cures this kind of devastation is time.

Trust will be tricky for you in the future and that’s not a terrible thing. Women can be too trusting in our relationships. There WILL be someone else, and you WILL be happy again.

Don’t focus on anything else right now except being good to yourself. As you go through the grieving process (and you are grieving) this is a time to look inward and gain some insight about who you are and what you want out of life and a relationship.

I know it does not feel like it now, but you will find your way out of this sadness and be better for it. Sometimes good things have to fall apart so better things can fall together.

Better things will fall together for you.

Angela, my younger sister does not date. She’s 30 years old and dated a little bit in high school, maybe her first year of college, and then seemed to swear off all romance. She’s beautiful, vivacious and brilliant. I don’t think she’s gay, but I don’t know how to bring it up. I talk about my relationships trying to inspire her to open up, but she never does. Help!! --Related

Related, your sister doesn’t need your dating advice. In fact, she’s doing just fine. Her reasons for not dating could be endless, but one thing is for certain- she’s not concerned enough about it to ask for your help.

I know your heart is in the right place, but understand that not everyone wants the same life. This is a particularly hard pill to swallow when that person is a sibling or close friend. What makes you happy may not do it for your sister. Let her continue to be the amazing woman you describe. She can be that with or without a relationship.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Angela Lutin is Essentially Angela. Blogger, Advice Columnist and Dating Guru for the social media age—decoding modern love one tweet, text, and like at a time. Angela’s weekly dating advice column, The Naked Truth, appears exclusively in Boca Raton Magazine. Her work appears regularly on the Huffington Post, and she has been a guest contributor to Shape Magazine, GalTime.com, Think Magazine, Blindfold Magazine, and more. She can been seen on MTV’s Made and Bravo’s hit show, Millionaire Matchmaker in early 2013. Crafting personal dating makeovers for her clients, Angela also maintains a private practice, which turns the romantically challenged into the relationship-inclined. Follow Angela on Facebook, facebook.com/EssentiallyAngela or Twitter, @essentiallyang.

Coming Soon: Quick Hits, Little Bits

2013-02-15T06:00:00+00:00

There’s never a dull moment in the local restaurant business, and to prove it, here’s a list of eateries that will soon be setting up shop in our little corner of paradise.

Several places are coming to CityPlace to go along with the soon-to-open big dogs of Brio Tuscan Grille (opening Feb. 21) and Revolutions Bowling, Bar & Grille. Among them: the Brass Tap, a 300-beer brew palace from the Tampa-based chain; Tequila Cowboy Bar & Grill, a casual American café with live entertainment; and Copper Blues Rock Pub & Kitchen, a pub-grubby eatery with live music.

Also on tap are a pair of chain eateries: Buca di Beppo in the Boynton Beach Mall and a new Lindburgers for Wellington. Coming to Delray in the not-too-distant future, just west of I-95 on West Atlantic, is Saltwater Brewery.

Recently opened on Hypoluxo Road in Lake Worth is Stefano’s Pizzeria & Grill, a casual Italian café; on South J Street the newbie is Coastars Coffee Bar. I’ll be back with details on some of these places, and a few others, just as soon as they become available.

Sex & Scandal in the White House

2013-02-14T16:47:36+00:00

In his latest book, Affairs of State, historian Robert Watson educates and titillates with documented tales of “love, sex and scandal” by U.S. presidents from 1789 through 1900. But as a standing-room crowd discovered during a recent presentation at West Boca library, the director of American Studies at Lynn University also has done his homework when it comes to modern masters of presidential peccadilloes.

Watson delighted the more than 100 people in attendance with stories of Thomas Jefferson’s involvement with Monticello slave Sally Hemings and Abraham Lincoln’s little-known encounter with a prostitute—as well as sordid details from the prodigious body of work assembled by John Kennedy.

“We know that there were two young women, quote-unquote secretaries, with White House code names ‘Fiddle’ and ‘Faddle,’” Watson told the audience. “They [regularly] came to the White House for ‘lunch,’ had a threesome with the president, and then Kennedy would go back to work. ...

“... During the Cuban missile crisis, a young secretary comes walking in with the latest telegraph. Kennedy turns to his aides and says, ‘Find me her name.’ Then he says to the people in the room, ‘Gentlemen, we may yet avoid war here today.’ What’s he thinking about in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis?”

Watson, who spent parts of the past decade researching the book, calls Affairs of State among his favorite of the 30-plus works he’s published. The popular professor and local TV political commentator spoke with Boca Raton about sex and the presidency.

What does history teach us about the ability to lead—and an inability to remain faithful? Does one impact the other?

We’ve had presidents like Millard Fillmore, happily married and faithful, but who were rotten presidents. We’ve had men like Woodrow Wilson, unfaithful, who were pretty good presidents. And all points in between. So I'm not sure we can lump one in with the other.

I don’t know that political leaders are any better or worse than the rest of us. I’d like to think they’re better; I try to hold my political leaders to a higher ethical standard. And I do think we should raise the bar. I’m willing to forgive the local baker more than I am a political leader.

The higher up you go on the ladder, there’s more room to fall. There’s also more opportunities for misbehavior. [Politicians] like Bill Clinton have a constant need for affirmation—and an adoring legion of sycophants. I’m uncomfortable when people just want to say hello. I can’t imagine walking into a room and having women put their hotel keys in my pocket. But that’s part of what comes with leadership—power. And high political power is the greatest enticement. These people are rock stars.

Have your feelings changed about certain presidents because of what you now know about their personal lives?

I was shocked that Woodrow Wilson had affairs. Wilson was a professor, very straight-laced and cerebral; he was not a back-slapper. So he was one of the last people that I expected to have affairs.

Also, I was appalled at just how reckless Kennedy was. We all know about Kennedy; it’s part of pop culture. But I didn’t know the extent. Multiple women every day, threesomes. I mean, the man was sleeping with the mistress of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana—how reckless is that? Kennedy would stop at a hotel on the way to an event to be with prostitutes. He wouldn’t let the Secret Service clear the room; he’d just walk in, and there would be two women, waiting for him.

The night of his inaugural—Jan. 20, 1961—JFK is with Angie Dickinson. Jackie is tired, she goes back early, and JFK takes Angie to the top-floor penthouse. The night of the inaugural? From respect for the office to respect for your wife to the dangerous situations he put himself in, the man was a beast.

Is the TMZ atmosphere we live in impacting pursuit of the presidency by talented people who just don’t want to deal with such invasiveness?

We all have something in our past that could be misconstrued or taken out of context. And we’ve all said and done things we’d like to have back. Our best and brightest may not be running because of this. When anyone runs for public office now, they have to think, “What’s my worst dirty laundry? And how do I feel about that being on the evening news?” Does someone want to put his family through that?

[Still], as Henry Kissinger once said, power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

I once spoke with the former finance chair for Gary Hart. He told me that when Hart was running for president [in 1987], he reverted to being a teenager. Women were coming out of the woodwork, and Hart was just losing his mind.

Once, he said, there was a fundraiser for Hart to meet some top Democratic donors at a swanky hotel in New York. Hart walks into the room with the flight attendant—she's in full uniform—from the incoming flight. The finance chair says, “My god, these people are ready to take out their checkbooks. What are you doing?” Hart, he said, saw nothing wrong with it.

Everybody was telling him how great he was, and how he was going to be the next president—and it got to him.

Last Minute Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

2013-02-14T11:29:40+00:00

Still searching for the perfect gift for your sweetheart today? Not much time and a limited budget? Here are five meaningful Valentine’s Day ideas I gave WXFL Fox 29’s viewers this morning that are easy to create and certainly won’t break your bank.

1. Make a playlist of "your" songs and burn a CD. She'll love listening to them in the car over the next few weeks and you can also play as background music that evening.

2. Handwritten note. We spend lots of time emailing and texting, but when was the last time you actually wrote your words out for someone you love?

Forgo the greeting card and tell him how you really feel. Pick out beautiful stationary and put your feelings down on paper. He'll enjoy reading them over and over again.

3. A trail of rose petals and candles. There's a reason why it works in the movies. Every woman dreams of coming home to a trail of rose petals with a candle lit bedroom. Simple. Elegant. Perfect.

4. No box of chocolates. Store bought chocolates are cliché. Give him something he really enjoys. Put together a box of his favorites things- maybe he loves Twizzlers or even something as simple as single cupcake in his favorite flavor. Let him know you've paid attention and know what he really likes.

5. Dinner at home. There is nothing sexier than a man that takes over the kitchen. We don't need to spend tonight in a crowded restaurant. Pick up a few groceries and a bottle of wine and entertain her at home.

And lastly, do something really special that extends your thoughtfulness well beyond Valentine’s Day. Write out 10 sticky notes and hide them in places he/she won't find immediately. (Think medicine cabinet, sock drawer, desk, & nightstand). Write about things from your history together- what she wore on the first day or the setting for your first kiss. Having your partner randomly find memories of your love will give them Valentine's Day 365 days a year.

Sexy Fitness Tips

2013-02-14T10:33:16+00:00

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Sara Sloan, founder of Sloan Fitness and Personal Training in Delray Beach, offers this exhilarating couples' workout:

   •   Wall sit against your partner’s back, which works the quads, hamstrings and glutes (gluteus maximus).
   •   Weighted ball toss with a squat, which works the legs, arms and abs. This exercise builds strength, while incorporating cardio.
   •   Push-up facing partner, with a high-five.
   •   Leg throw-downs for abs. Here’s how: your partner stands at your shoulders and throws your legs down while you resist force.

Sloan says you and your valentine will give your heart and muscles a workout, as well as burn calories, build intimacy and encourage trust.

Another opportunity for a good heart workout…

One Beat CPR is sponsoring the 4th Annual Tour de Broward benefitting the Pediatric Cardiac Center at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. During the February 24 event, participants will ride, run or walk with family and friends, while enjoying live entertainment, heart-healthy activities and refreshments. 

Cyclists can participate in a 50k (kilometer) or 100k ride; runners can sign up for a timed 5k; and families can do the 3K walk/run together. The event also features a Power of Play Kid Zone, where children get the chance to participate in sports-related activities, interactive games and more.

To date, Tour de Broward has raised more than $500,000. The charity’s mission is to save lives and provide critical care for cardiac patients. Proceeds from Tour de Broward will be used to purchase state of the art medical equipment and provide emergency assistance to families. 

Tour de Broward will take place at Miramar Regional Park, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday, February 24th. Tickets range from $10 to $40, and participants can register online at http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1042874. For more information on the organization visit http://www.tourdebroward.com.

Learn about your heart and more in next few weeks...

West Boca Medical Center announced these free lectures. To register for them, call 866-904-9262.

Orthopedic surgeon Manish Gupta will talk about “Joint Preservation: Hips, Knees and Shoulders - What you Need to Know,” Friday, February 22 at noon. The lecture will be at the Glades Road Branch Library, 20701 95th Avenue South, Boca Raton, 33434.

Internist Arnold Needleman will talk about heart health Wednesday, February 27 at noon, also at the Glades Road Branch Library.

Health Here and Now

2013-02-14T10:03:51+00:00

Purium Health products founder and author of the Green Foods Bible, David Sandoval was in town last month to talk with doctors about his 10-day Transformation Challenge. The challenge, he says, breaks food addiction, results in weight loss and skin tightening, without starving the body’s needs for nutrients.

We spoke with Sandoval, who is based in Los Angeles, and is known for his work with some well-known names in television. Here’s what he had to say:

Boca Mag: What is the 10-day Transformation Challenge?

Sandoval: For years and years, I’ve been working on perfecting the super low-calorie, super high-nutrient diet, using all organic foods, super foods...There are no isolated chemicals, things like that.

Boca Mag: Define a “super low-calorie diet.”

Sandoval: It’s under 1,000 calories; oftentimes, 500 calories [daily].

Boca Mag: How does someone live on so little?

Sandoval: I lived for more than a year on 200 calories a day, on a type of eating called Breatharianism. You have to live in a sunny environment to do it. You have to drink a lot of water. I lived on 40 ounces of wheat grass a day for more than a year. About once a week, I’d have half a banana or something to keep the motility of my intestinal tract.

Boca Mag: What did you achieve?

Sandoval: Knowledge. I wanted to find out just how many calories the human body needs to survive, and what I found out was it has almost nothing to do with calories. It has to do with nutrients. So, I began to study super high-nutrient, super low-calorie foods, and found out that they were the key to our survival.

Boca Mag: What is the problem with the foods we have?

Sandoval: The problem is that we consume foods that actually inhibit our bodies from absorbing nutrients. It’s not that the nutrients aren’t in the food we’re eating. Let me give you an example...The most important thing in a blueberry is the color. So, that pigment has a receptor site...in our brain, heart, joints, ligaments, that is antiinflammatory. But, what happens if we have red dye number 2, or 4 or 6, or other fake pigments? Well, they actually go to that receptor site, but they can’t pass the door and clog the gate. So, when you do eat blueberries, [they can’t work].

Boca Mag: Tell me more about the Challenge.

Sandoval: You’re going to survive on some amazing super foods. [You take] a protein, called Master Amino Acid Pattern. In 22 minutes, it’s predigested. It’s a perfect combination of non-soy, vegan protein, and it’s combined in such a way that it will not go through your kidneys. It goes directly through lymph fluid to your muscles. It’s used in hospitals to stop a disease called muscle wasting. [With this protein] you force your body into an anabolic state...and you force your body to burn the fat.

We’ve had people lose 300 pounds and have tighter skin at the end than it was in the beginning. So, the master aminos do a lot of things: tightening the skin matrix, returning elasticity, and making sure you are anabolic instead of catabolic during this process.

[There’s a drink component to the Challenge.] We have total cellular satisfaction in the drink. The drink has something called activated barley...It’s the slowest burning carbohydrate, which turns into a gel and attaches to your intestines, for hours feeding energy, so it never becomes fat or sugar. The next [ingredient] is spirulina, which is the most nutrient dense green food on the planet. We use the outer shell of brown rice—only the soluble part—that’s extremely rich in B1, B2, B3, B6 and other energizing foods. Then, we add wheat grass. You drink three power shakes a day.

The third component is something that’s unusual. It’s a fruit juice--a tart cherry concentrate. There’s more ellagic acid in my tart cherry concentrate than in pomegranate juice and more of what makes blueberries so healthy than in blueberries. It also has melatonin, which helps you sleep really deep.

[The Challenge] totally satisfies all your body’s cellular needs for nutrients.

Boca Mag: What can people expect?

Sandoval: For three days your body wonders, 'Why am I not eating?' And it gets your body, sometimes, to panic mode. But by day four, your cells are [happy] because they realize they have everything they need.

It’s really an amazing experience. We used to do it for seven days. And people would extend it because they’d feel so good. So, we extended it to 14. But, what I found was that people reported that days seven through 10 were amazing, cathartic experiences. So, I had to push it to 10, because I was cutting them short at seven, asking too much at 14 and everybody told me the magical, spiritual thing happened between seven through 10.

Boca Mag: How many people have done it? How much does it cost?

Sandoval: Almost 10,000 people. It’s about $18 a day.

Boca Mag: Are you a doctor?

Sandoval: No. I’m a formulator, educator, phyto-chemist. I work with some of the top doctors; I’ve been touted by the National Cancer Institute. I design products for Cancer Treatment Centers. I’m great at teaching people to be well.

For more information about individual Purium Health products or the 10-day Transformational Challenge, call the Boca Raton Purium representative Laura Gillen at 772/215-3268, or go to her page on the website at mypurium.com/simplehealthwithLaura. Health Here and Now readers can get a $50 gift certificate toward their first orders. Be sure to ask about that.

Please note, this is for informational purposes, only. The program and products are options. Whether this program or the individual products are right for you is an individual decision. It’s best to get guidance about the pros and cons for your health and do research.

Boston Proper’s Grand Slam Sample Sale

2013-02-14T06:00:00+00:00

Okay readers and fellow shoppers, we have good news and we have bad news.

The good news of course is that Boston Proper is opening a brick and mortar store in Town Center mall and we can’t wait!

The bad news is that beautiful brand is relocating their warehouse out of state and will no longer be having sample sales.

Keep those eyes dry for the moment, because Boston Proper will be hosting a final, two-week, sample sale extravaganza starting February 18 and ending March 1.

The sample sale will include 18,000 units of inventory. That means stellar pieces (at a great price) for you, me, your sister, your coworker, your sister’s best friend, your best friend...everyone!

You are able to shop every day of the sale from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. (Except Sundays, that’s a day of rest and time to clean your closet.)

Please remember that Boston Proper only accepts cash or check. No cards please!

So long sample sales. Helllllooooo new Town Center store!

A Frank Addition to Delray's Cinema-Scape

2013-02-13T13:18:12+00:00

At 11 a.m. yesterday, the brand-new Frank Theatres CineBowl & Grille in the brand-new Delray Beach Marketplace did not look ready for its close-up. Countless workers in construction garb and Frank Theatres polo shirts scurried about the complex, with drills, ladders and vacuums, making adjustments to a concession booth, restaurant and bowling alley that looked half-furnished, and in some cases only partially built.

The place had that new cinema smell, or maybe it was just the cleaning solvent. Let’s call it the scent of progress. By 8:30 p.m. tonight (Feb. 13), the 70,000-square-foot multiplex/bowling alley/restaurant hybrid is slated to open to the public in a plum location just west of Florida’s Turnpike off Atlantic Avenue. Movies will begin showing at 10 p.m., some of them premiering earlier than competing theaters. As you’re reading this, chances are the round-the-clock workers are still putting their finishing touches to meet a seemingly impossible deadline.

But president and CEO Bruce Frank was calm, cool and collected as he led a private press tour beyond the blue tape and tarp-covered auditorium entrances, discussing what sets this particular cinema apart.

“This is a company that has always focused on being leaders – taking the risk, taking the opportunity to think outside the box, investing our capital,” he said. “It’s the only facility in the world that has not just movie theaters and bowling but an IMAX and a second format called FDX – Frank Digital Extreme. It encompasses one of Dolby’s newest digital products. They refer to it as the voice of God. The speakers are overhead as well as right, left, front and back.

“We’ll probably be the most popular place to be at for birthday parties.”

Frank should know these things by now; the Jupiter resident was born into the theater business, the latest in a three-generation cinema dynasty. His grandfather introduced the first theater for talkies on the East Coast, and his father would go on to open the first twin cinema in the United States and one of the earliest multiplexes in the country, New Jersey’s Towne 16 Cinema. Innovation is kinda what he does.

To that end, in addition to the aforementioned surround-sound auditorium with Dolby Atmos – and its 128 different audio streams – Frank proudly unveiled to us his newest cinematic novelty: a chair called The Tremor that will be tied to a movie’s soundtrack, vibrating whenever something blows up on screen or probably even when a character’s cell phone buzzes. It’ll be test-marketed here before you feel it anywhere else.

His 85” by 55” IMAX screen is even more impressive. The state-of-the-art IMAX 3D is incredibly invasive, with images fluttering so close you’ll want to recline your chair back. In shots where shrapnel hits the camera lens, you’ll feel like it’s hitting your own glasses. It should wow even disaffected millenials.

There are too many bells and whistles attached to this project to list them all, not limited to a 16-lane “boutique” bowling alley with concierge service and a massive projection screen that can display up to 32 television channels at one time; a 192-seat bar and grille; and a video arcade whose redemption prizes include iPads and digital cameras. (where does Frank think he is, Boca? Just kidding.)

Frank says that one-stop shopping is the name is the game – to have a venue where families can eat, bowl, party, drink and take in an immersive movie without moving their cars (speaking of which, the theater offers free valet service). Let’s hope it pays off. According to Frank, Regal Delray Beach 18 will be closing soon, to be replaced by an L.A. Fitness. His Cinebowl & Grille looks more than capable of picking up the slack – assuming it makes its own opening deadline.

Frank Theatres Cinebowl & Grille is at 9025 W. Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach. It opens to the public at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 13. For information, call 561/776-4747.

The Green Goddess, Vol. 2

2013-02-13T09:03:09+00:00

Whether it’s one final flute of Champagne or a bonus bite of chocolate, Valentine’s Day can lead to its share of overindulgences. But romance doesn’t have to come at a steep price, at least in terms of calories. Stay true to that New Year’s resolution and show your body some love on Feb. 14 with the following dining tips—and a fabulous chocolate dessert recipe.

1) Celebrate with a glass of Raspberry Lemon Italian sparkling water (available at any Whole Foods). Pour it into a Champagne glass and decorate it with a few fresh raspberries to make it even more festive. Water is crucial to our well-being, but many people forget to hydrate. By incorporating more fresh water into your diet, you will move your lymphatic system, decrease bloating and improve your skin.

2) As a starter, try a fresh spinach salad and accessorize it with strawberries and walnuts. Drizzle the salad with low-fat balsamic vinaigrette. Spinach is fabulous for your liver – your largest organ that is responsible for detoxing your entire body. Strawberries are full of fiber, which helps slow down the release of sugars; and walnuts supply your body with essential Omega-3 fatty acids that help reduce inflammation. How about that for a super salad?

3) If you are craving an alcoholic beverage, opt for a glass of red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon or a Pinot Noir, both of which are lower in calories than mixed drinks. Red wine is also known for resveratrol, a type of antioxidant that is heart-healthy in moderation. And don’t forget to have some food before you take your first sips!

4) For the main course create a waist-loving meal of side dishes. My favorites are grilled Portobello caps stuffed with red peppers and a little bit of vegan cheese; and baked golden sweet potato and roasted broccoli, asparagus or cauliflower. Because vegetables take less time to digest than animal proteins, they can help you avoid a food coma and leave you more energetic after the meal.

5) For dessert, try my chocolate mousse recipe—it’s decadent and heart-healthy at the same time. Unlike a traditional chocolate mousse that has high-fat dairy and cholesterol, this avocado-based wonder (don’t worry, you won’t taste their flavor here), is full of good fats, fiber and bloat-reducing potassium.

Chocolate Mousse

2 ripe avocados

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk or coconut water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Raspberries and coconut shavings

Preparation: Blend first 6 ingredients in a Vitamix (or other high-power blender) and enjoy! Garnish with raspberries and coconut shavings.

About Alina Z.

Alina Z., aka “The Green Goddess,” is a certified holistic health coach, detox specialist and raw-food chef who lends her expertise to individual clients as well as the likes of Boca-based DeliverLean. Prior to moving to Florida, Alina hosted her own TV show in Maryland—“Entertaining A to Z”—for people who didn’t have time to cook but wanted to eat healthy. Follow Alina on Facebook (facebook.com/fabulousfoodAZ) or Twitter (@FabulousFood)—and catch the Green Goddess every other Wednesday at bocamag.com.

Love Your Locks Tonight

2013-02-12T10:42:20+00:00

You deserve a lot of love this week...and so do your locks.

Boca Raton’s blowdry salon SoBlo is inviting women to a little pre-Valentine’s Day date.

Today, February 12, from 6 to 9 p.m., swing by SoBlo for a complimentary quickie styling and blow dry.

In addition to a little pampering, attendees can enjoy delicious bites by Candy’s Cake Pops and Too Jays. There will also be wine.

SoBlo stylist Stac Yagu and his highly trained team of hair masters will be on site to make you feel beautiful.

To attend, RSVP by calling 561/750-3500.

Your locks deserve a little extra love, so grab a few girlfriends and enjoy!

Slainte Expands Space, Menu

2013-02-12T06:00:00+00:00

They’re nipping, tucking and freshening up over at Slainte Irish Pub (1500 Gateway Blvd., 561/742-4190), the spacious Irish watering (and dining) hole in Boynton Beach’s sprawling Renaissance Commons retail-residential complex.

For one, they’ve changed the name to Slainte Irish Pub + Kitchen to emphasize the new and improved menu done by new top toque Christopher Palmer. Palmer, whose kitchen stints include Café Boulud, Taste Gastropub and menu development for the new Tap 42 in Fort Lauderdale, has added such gastropubby items as “green eggs and ham” (deviled eggs with basil pesto, Irish bacon, red peppes and celery), the “Hangover burger” (a patty with salami, provolone, sunnyside up egg and Dijon mustard) and “beer can BBQ back ribs,” which come with fries, slaw and blue cheese dip.

Also redone is the interior, which gets a modest facelift, plus more lounge and outdoor seating, and a redone stage for live music.

New promotions too, like a daily $9.9.5 Express Lunch that includes a free draft beer, $5 burgers and martinis on Monday nights, $2 sliders and domestic draft brewskis on Tuesdays, Ladies Eat Free Wednesdays (from 6 to 10 p.m. at the bar and lounge), and a daily Dublin Down happy hour with two-for-one drinks from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. to close.

The Week Ahead: Feb. 12 to 18

2013-02-11T17:07:33+00:00

Wednesday

Screening and discussion of “Coexist” at FAU’s Performing Arts Building, room 101, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 7 p.m.; free with suggested $10 donation; 561/297-2929 or www.fau.edu

If you’re fortunate enough to survive a genocide, it goes without saying that history should give you a pass from future torment for the rest of your life. Not so for many survivors of the horrific genocide in Rwanda in the early 1990s, whose perpetrators returned from jail in the 2000s only to resume life in the very villages where they practiced their sanctioned abuse. In his film “Coexist,” first-time director Adam Mazo meditates on the aftermath of the genocide as the Rwandans he studies struggle with the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation. This moving, 40-minute documentary will be introduced by Mazo himself, in a program sponsored by the Friends of the Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at FAU and the FAU Peace Studies Program.

Friday

“Cocktails and Culture” at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; $50; 561/995-0709 or www.bocamuseum.org

In about five weeks, on March 23 and 24, Boca Ballet Theatre will present its long-awaited production of “Romeo & Juliet” at Olympic Heights Performing Arts Theater. Those dates are set, but for the nonprofit ballet company to continue the great work it does to enrich Boca’s arts scene, it needs your help. Which is why events like this “Cocktails and Culture” fundraiser are so important. Hosted last year at Delray’s Sorensen Gallery, this year’s fundraiser will brighten the walls of the Boca Raton Museum of Art with dancers clad in Renaissance-flavored costumes and a live harpist to set the romantic mood – along with plenty of drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

Thomas John at Hilton Garden Inn, 8201 Congress Ave., Boca Raton; 7 p.m.; $30; 347/637-8592 or www.mediumthomas.com

“I’m not making this s**t up!,” psychic medium Thomas John exclaims after connecting to a client’s loved one with a specific detail at a public reading. Judging by his videos on the Web, the funny and charming psychic entertainer seems to have a deep connection to the spirit world, which began when his late grandfather visited him as a child, relaying family information that John would never have known otherwise. He cultivated his skills and today offers readings for groups and private individuals, with a special focus on celebrities – he’s read Jennifer Lopez, Courtney Cox and Donny Deutsch, among others, and he’s not averse to predicting the futures of other People magazine A-listers: He recently told a tabloid that Jennifer Aniston should expect a pregnancy this year, and that Brad Pitt may be unhappy in his marriage to Angelina Jolie.

Friday and Saturday

Baba Brinkman at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; $20; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

The aesthetic of fringe theater invades the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse for two separate performances by versatile rapper – and, apparently, educator – Baba Brinkman. The Canadian showman is known for distilling dense literature and scientific concepts through the language of hip-hop, and these two performances are classic Brinkman. On Friday, he’ll “remix” the “Canterbury Tales,” translating Chaucer’s high-school-lit staple with a mixture of physical theater, dramatic storytelling and virtuoso lyricism. On Feb. 16, he’ll take a similar approach to edify us about evolution.

Saturday

Chinese New Year Celebration at Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton; 7 p.m.; free; 561/544-8600 or http://www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us/mizneramphi/

The Chinese Association of Science, Education and Culture presents a hearty dose of the latter at this celebration of China’s Year of the Snake. The biggest draw is a performance from the Anhui Huangmeixi Opera Theater, a provincial opera troupe whose reach extends to Hong Kong and whose alumni have become national film and music stars. Much of the opera’s material focuses on China’s class divide between the rich and poor. Other events on tonight’s docket include a Lion and Dragon Dance, a classical music and dance show, and dance programs from local groups. The show begins at 7, but food booths will open at 5 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday

Cirque D’Amour at Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday; $45 to $65; 561/237-9000 or www.lynn.edu

Towers of zebra-colored dancers balancing impossibly on a single bicycle and masked performers seeming to disappear in a pool of faux liquid are just two of the spectacles fans have seen, and may expect to see it, at this circus/magic hybrid from China’s Zunyi Municipal Acrobatic Troupe. Employing traditional Chinese as well as Western acrobatic movements, the talented performers explore history and mythology through song, dance, humor and acrobatics, transforming themselves into fire gods, flower fairies, moon goddesses and baby dragons, among other fantastical creatures, in a show not to be missed.

“A Mozart Journey” at New World Center, 500 17^th St., Miami Beach; 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; $45 to $110 305/673-3300 or www.nws.edu

For two days, the state-of-the-art New World Center will become a Mozart-palooza as part of the venue’s “Musical Journey” series. The specific program has yet to be developed as of this writing but will include a full symphonic work on the concert hall’s main stage as well as performances in the Center’s four satellite stages. There will be works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and even solo pieces, intended to offer a full breadth and understanding of the composer’s works, complete with immersive video projection.

Sunday

“KeroWACKED” Music and Art Festival at ActivistArtistA Gallery, 410 W. Industrial Ave., Boynton Beach; noon to 10 p.m.; $10; 786/521-1199 or activistartista.com

Once the best-kept secret between Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, the Boynton Beach Arts District, spearheaded by Rolando Chang Barrero’s ActivistArtistA gallery, has been thriving on its much-deserved press attention and a growing word-of-mouth contingency of talent and spectators alike. An all-day, extra-special extension of its own monthly Thursday open-mics, the second annual “KeroWACKED” festival will feature a minimum of 12 bands and/or solo musicians – including The Von, Making Faces, Future Prezidents and Koffin Vanish – along with a special exhibition of recent works by artist Kim Fay and live art-making from bombshell tattooist Lea Vendetta, Barrero himself, Denny Reed, Michael Kupilas and others. There will also be a special dance performance, chalk painting, door prizes and even a belly-dancing workshop – and it’s all outdoors, so remember to bring sunscreen.

Treat Your Sweetie to a V-Day Dinner

2013-02-09T06:00:00+00:00

Want to take your SO out for a nice meal on one of the biggest dining days of the year (which, for the calendar-impaired, is Thursday, Feb. 14)? Here are a half-dozen local restaurants that will be more than happy to oblige.

One of the most romantic restaurants this side of Ulan Bator is Delray’s Sundy House (106 S. Swinton Ave., 561/272-5678). Recently arrived chef Lindsay Autry will be dishing a three-course menu for $89 per person, with wine pairings for an additional $40. Among the choices: heirloom tomato salad, lobster risotto, New York strip steak and ricotta gnocchi. The regular menu will also be offered.

Contemporary Continental restaurant Josef’s Table (5030 Champion Blvd., 561/353-2700) is also presenting a three-course feast, this one for $41.95 per person, along with the daily a la carte menu. Start with shrimp and crab cocktail, then chow down on beef Wellington and finish with chocolate soufflé for two. Also included is a bottle of Bouvet Excellence Brut Rosé.

At Boca’s stylish new Tanzy (301 Plaza Real, 561/922-6699) adjancent to the swanky iPic Theater, there’s a whole roster of a la carte specials for Valentine’s Day (and through Sunday, Feb. 17). Apps include lobster salad and eggplant rollatini, entrees are lobster and filet mignon surf ‘n’ turf, her-crusted prime rib and pan-seared Dover sole, and desserts are chocolate Chambord mousse or red velvet bread pudding.

My first choice for romantic dining, Café Boulud (301 Australian Ave., 561/655-6060) has chef Jim Leiken turning out an elegant V-Day meal for $105 per person. It starts off with an assortment of canapés, then comes Hudson Valley foie gras with “black truffle crumble,” followed by either a duo of beef or sautéed duck breast with huckleberry coulis. Dessert is mango-passionfruit mousse or milk chocolate mousse with coconut cremeux.

For something a little different and a lot less expensive, RA Sushi (11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave., Palm Beach Gardens, 561/342-5454) is offering lobster sushi and a specialty cocktail for all of $20. The sushi consists of crab, cucumber and fresh strawberries rolled in pink soy paper and surrounded by lobster salad and avocado. The “Berry Encucumbered Refresher” blends cucumber vodka with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, cucumber, strawberry, lime juice and soda.

One more non-traditional V-Day dinner will be dished up at Uncle Julio’s (449 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, 561/300-3530), where you and your honey can share the Plato de Amor, a love platter that includes two lobster tails, for bacon-wrapped jumbo shrimp, beef and chicken fajitas, rice, beans, veggies, guacamole, pico de gallo, cheese, sour cream and fresh-made flour tortillas. Cost is $59.99 and it will be available until Sunday, Feb. 17.

Theatre Review: "Doubt" at Maltz Jupiter Theatre

2013-02-08T18:03:01+00:00

This is a great time to see John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” again, as synchronicities in the news cycle have seemed to usher in its necessity. Just this week, Alex Gibney’s documentary about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” began airing on HBO, and this past Thursday, a lawsuit was filed against ex-priest Neil Doherty, alleging sexual abuse here in South Florida.

It seems that as long as there are protected priests and impressionable children, there will always be reason to see “Doubt.” Eight years after winning both a Pulitzer and the Tony Award for Best Play, “Doubt” is looking more and more like a canonized classic – a theatrical standard on par with the Tennessee Williams and David Mamet plays that crop up every season or so at regional theaters across the country. Most theatergoers, especially in South Florida, have seen the play in some incarnation; it’s already enjoyed runs at the Caldwell and Key West’s Waterfront Playhouse, not to mention a star-studded feature film.

“Doubt” is, by now, such a familiar masterpiece that seeing another version of it frees up critics and audiences to pay less scrutiny to Shanley’s wonderful script and instead zero in on the specificities of the production – to revel in the distinctive directorial and casting touches and the particulars of the design.

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s newly opened production offers plenty to chew on; it’s at least the best nonmusical production the theater has mounted since “12 Angry Men” in 2010 – a fact that is doubly satisfying given that the cast and director are all local to South Florida.

“Doubt,” as you may recall, is a self-described parable that addresses a multitude of issues – faith, race, gender, prejudice, domestic abuse – in a script that is as elegant as it is open to interpretation. The play’s central axis spins on the unresolved allegation that Father Flynn (Jim Ballard), who ministers in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, acted “inappropriately” with the school’s only African-American student. Based on a vague tip from an uncertain nun named Sister James (Julie Kleiner), the convent’s cold-blooded Mother Superior, Sister Aloysius (Maureen Anderman), leads an obsessive charge to discredit the priest without a shred of evidence. She’s clearly on a hunt to besmirch a man whose liberal leanings she disagrees with, but the suspicion forever remains that she might be right.

J. Barry Lewis, resident director at Palm Beach Dramaworks, directs what is, for all intents and purposes, a Dramaworks-style production on the Maltz stage, and his quirkiest touch is the humor he helps bring to the role of the priest. “Doubt” wouldn’t work if Father Flynn failed to charm us as he does his congregants, and Jim Ballard makes for exceptional casting. He brings a streetwise likeability and an accurate New York accent that I haven’t heard in any other version, and when he channels the rage of a wrongly oppressed man in Mother Superior’s office, it comes across as genuine. Of course, guilty child molesters are just as talented at turning on the charm and playacting innocence, and Ballard’s nebulous acting always keeps us guessing.

Julie Kleiner’s performance probably could have been dialed back in a few key moments; her enthusiastic embrace of Father Flynn’s defense of his case comes across as unusually naïve, even for a cloistered nun. Karen Stephens contributes another unassailable performance in the show’s smallest role, as the child’s mother. It’s OK that it isn’t the knockout performance Viola Davis gave in the film version; not every cameo needs to be a scene-stealer, and Stephens works wonderfully within the ensemble.

But the highest praise must be reserved for Anderman. The actress was seen most recently in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ production of “A Delicate Balance,” where I found her performance to be overly mannered and almost soap-opera-bound – and moreover, her enunciation was a problem in certain scenes, making her difficult to understand. My reaction couldn’t be more opposite here; this is a role in which mannered severity is essential, and she arguably does a better job at shaping her character’s ice-streaming veins and prison-warden mentality than Meryl Streep did in the motion picture. Anderman’s work is so polished as to look effortless, making us care deeply about a person who doesn’t exhibit an iota of actual change – of actual humanness – until the play’s final line. That she manages to inject so much dry wit into the proceedings is icing on the cake.

The action plays out in a single act on a beautifully fluid set design that transitions from office interior to courtyard to gymnasium and chapel with grace and three-dimensionality. Timothy Mackabee’s sets are boxed in, and the effect is like watching a square movie on a widescreen frame, masked by curtains on either side. This was a wise choice for a theater known for using all of its proscenium, creating the sense of a compressed chamber piece that works wonders for Shanley’s material.

Paul Black’s lovely lighting design is rife with chiaroscuro shards of sunlight blanketing the action, Anna Hillbery’s ecclesiastical garments cover their characters like coffin-black shrouds, and sound designer Marty Mets gets the small details just right, from a crow’s penetrating caw to the ambient noise of a basketball practice. Once again, even in a small-scale, economical show like “Doubt,” the Maltz continues to prove why it’s the leader of South Florida’s theatrical pack.

“Doubt” runs through Feb. 17 at Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Tickets cost $46-$58. Call 561/575-2223 or visit maltzjupitertheatre.org.

Boca’s “Frogman” Show

2013-02-08T16:06:36+00:00

If you are feeling froggy this weekend, hop on over to the Pavo Real Gallery at Town Center for the 11th annual Tim “Frogman” Cotterill show.

The enthusiastic and talented artist will be in Boca this weekend to highlight his exotic and friendly frogs.

“It’s a very special event,” Cotterill said. “It manages to draw in a lot of big collectors from all over America, and even Europe. People travel huge distances by plane and car to get to this annual event. It’s become a bit of a mecca for big collectors that collect my frogs and sculptures. It’s like a family reunion...Many of the people who come have been coming for years. It blows me away.”

During the three day event, Cotterill will be on site to meet with collectors and fans and sign autographs. Cotterill said he continues to return to Boca each year because of his successful working relationship with the gallery’s manager, Joan Quinones.

“Joan creates the perfect storm with the fabulous gallery that she has,” Cotterill said, noting Quinones’ personality and professionalism. “I’ve worked with Joan for almost 20 years now. She does an absolutely fantastic job.”

This week Cotterill will also unveil a limited edition frog called “Posh.”

“Posh is a little leaping frog,” he said. “It’s a small frog because of the economy. I try to design things for everybody’s pocket. [Posh] captures the energy and the joy of these wonderful creatures.”

And why bronze frogs? We had to ask.

“This project was started on a wave of positivity and joy, and just to sort of showcase these beautiful little creatures that have been around for 225 million years,” Cotterill said. “These are not [just any] frogs, these are Tim Cotterill frogs! I captured the whimsy and the energy and beauty, or tried to, of these little amphibians. Many of them are having a tough time right now because of the changing environments. But my frogs are going to be around forever.”

For more information, please visit: www.pavorealgallery.com/

Smashburger Does Beer Pairings

2013-02-08T06:00:00+00:00

Like love and marriage, Minneapolis and St. Paul, salt and pepper, and Bevis and Butthead, burgers and beer just naturally go together.

So if you take burgers that are a cut above the usual run of “fast casual” burger joints and pair them with beers that kick the suds out of those cheap, watery, mass-market brews, you’ve got. . . Well, you’ve got a limited time burger ‘n’ brew pairing at Smashburger, which has teamed up with Fort Lauderdale-based Holy Mackerel brewery to offer complementary pairings of eight different Smash sammies with an equal number of Holy Mack beers.

You can check ‘em out at our local Smash, which just opened at 1729 S. Federal Hwy. in Boynton Beach.

You want the rundown, here it is. . .

- AVOCADO CLUB BURGER + SPECIAL GOLDEN ALE
Fresh avocado, Applewood-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, ranch dressing and mayo on a multi-grain bun are a great match for Special Golden Ale. This beer washes down the creamy avocado’s flavor and ends with a crisp finish.

- CUCUMBER & GOAT CHEESE CHICKEN SANDWICH + MACK IN BLACK
Mack in Black Imperial Black Ale perfectly counterparts this grilled chicken sandwich of goat cheese, cucumbers, spinach, tomato, onion and balsamic vinaigrette on a multi-grain bun.

- SPICY BAJA BURGER + PANIC ATTACK
Fiery pepper jack cheese, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, onion, spicy chipotle mayo, fresh jalapeños and a spicy chipotle bun offer the perfect balance to Holy Mackerel’s Panic Attack. The spiciness of the burger can be cooled down by the honey-like sweetness of this ale.

-CRISPY BUFFALO CHICKEN SANDWICH + SPECIAL GOLDEN ALE
Frank’s® RedHot® Buffalo sauce, crumbled blue cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo on an egg bun find its match in this Special Golden Ale. With this ale’s subtle orange and lemon notes, this crispy chicken sandwich's spicy flavors are further highlighted.

-BBQ, BACON & CHEDDAR BURGER + PANIC ATTACK
Smoky and rich BBQ sauce, Applewood-smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, haystack onions and an egg bun serve as a harmonious backdrop to the eye popping flavor of this Trippel-and-Saison fused beer.

- CLASSIC BURGER + SPECIAL GOLDEN ALE
American cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, onion, pickles and our smash sauce on an egg bun is paired with the classic Special Golden Ale. The citrus notes of this golden ale only enhance the tart and tang of the popular Smash sauce.

- MIAMI BURGER + PANIC ATTACK
The richness of the grilled Spanish chorizo and frita potatoes is greatly enhanced by the big bold flavors of Panic Attack, a Belgian Style ale with a hint of spice that pairs well with the spicy chipotle mayo on this regional burger.

- MUSHROOM SWISS BURGER + MACK IN BLACK
Garlic sautéed mushrooms, mayo and aged swiss cheese on an egg bun combine perfectly with Mack in Black, an Imperial Black Ale. This bold, yet not too heavy beer, accompanies the burger with a great finish.

Louis Vuitton Opens in Aventura

2013-02-07T16:42:19+00:00

We often suggest grabbing your wallet before we break big shopping news, but in this case you may just want to go ahead and empty out that ol’ savings account.

Louis Vuitton has opened at Aventura Mall in Miami! Allow us to gush.

The luxury store is an experience, elevating your average shopping excursion into a whimsical, personalized event.

The experience begins before you’ve even thrown your car in park. The exterior of the mall is covered in the brand’s iconic flowers, which have been individually casted and hand set. The result looks like fabric has been draped around the building. The façade of this store is one of the first of its kind in North America…and it’s right in our own backyard.

Entering through the mall’s main interior? Don’t worry; you won’t be deprived of any beauty. Through gorgeous glass doors, you will find yourself standing in front of a giant video screen, portraying dancing blues and water colors. And framing either side of the entrance are two “paper cut” panels, featuring the work of artist Janaina Tschape. This themed, entrance art will periodically change, providing an opportunity to showcase other creative works that speak to the city and the culture.

Excited? Good, because you’ve barely crossed the threshold.

Head left after entering from the mall’s interior and you will find the men’s leather goods and accessories bar. (The spring line is sure to catch your eye, with florescent neon wallets and cardholders.)

Continuing on is the men’s footwear area, offering the brand’s entire range of foot apparel. Treat your feet to sneakers, tuxedo slippers, dress shoes, driving mocks and more. We were told that there are very few stores that offer this type of selection. The Miami Maison store is also the first the offer made-to-order shoes in North America.

In a private room (one of many), clients can choose between six shoe models, four types of soling, three different insteps, eight superior quality leathers (including alligator, ostrich and python), and from a range of colors to create their own unique style.

Further back you will find the men’s apparel area, offering Louis Vuitton’s full ready to wear line, ranging from fine suiting to casual attire.

In the center of the store’s ground floor is the LV travel destination area. Louis Vuitton was founded on creating extravagant trunks and travel accessories. Pick one, monogram it, and use it for all your worldly travels.

And now, ladies, the rest of this grand store belongs to you.

The back of the store is a gorgeous spread of women’s leather goods and accessories. It is a colorful explosion of belts, scarves, and wristlets. There is also a “bag bar” for women, complete with bar stools (really, really expensive bar stools) where you can order the purse perfect for you. There is a private monogramming area and consultation space as well, to give clients a break from the bustle of the mall.

Had you turned right at the entrance, you’d find the women’s high-end exotic bags, including the Sofia Coppola bags.

Now it’s time to head upstairs by ascending a three-radii grand staircase crafted from stainless steels, glass, teak, and a leather handrails. Leather handrails, people!

Upstairs you can shop Louis Vuitton’s fine jewelry and watch collections, including the new locket collection by the brand. There is another by-appointment space in this section as well.

Continue your stroll into the women’s footwear area, featuring scrumptious wedge sandals, ballerina flats, sexy heels, and even sneakers. Again, one of very few stores that gives you the whole spread. Classic black pumps? They have it. Spicy royal purple sandals? Oh, they have that too.

Glance across the room, and you will find LV’s ready-to-wear collection for women, which includes the most beautiful embroidered coat we have ever laid eyes on. The area is airy and feminine. We want to buy it all.

The last section to explore is the Haute Maroquinerie salon. (We just love saying the name.) This quiet area allows shoppers to create their own bag of their dreams. Choose from five iconic shapes, 26 colors, eight skin types and two sizes to make a completely unique purse. Each detail is your own. Oh, and if you are feeling overwhelmed by this decision making process, feel free to take a mental break on the private garden terrace.

That’s the wonderland of Louis Vuitton, and you don’t have to take our words for it. The store is open right now in Aventura. Go shop!

The Naked Truth: Valentine's Day Edition

2013-02-07T10:44:15+00:00

For this week’s edition of The Naked Truth, I decided to address the upcoming holiday on everyone’s mind, Valentine’s Day.

Ahh, love is in the air. This special day that comes once a year where we shower each other with roses, gifts, and greeting cards that say the words that we can’t quite articulate.

In an event-focused society that doesn’t even get the decorations down from one holiday before talking about the next, it’s not surprising that we would want to set aside one day out of the year just to say, “I love you.”

I’ve never really understood the logic behind it, though. Love is not like a birthday or anniversary where one celebrates the monumental occurrence and significance of the date. Love, in my opinion, doesn’t begin or end on any “one” day. Sure, there’s love at first sight, but even love at first sight grows and transforms into deeper emotions. And sure, there is the end of love, but as anyone who has ever ended a relationship will tell you, they didn’t just wake up one day and no longer feel emotions for one they no longer love ... it’s called falling out of love for a reason.

So if this love business isn’t confined to a particular set of rules or timeframe, then why do we feel it necessary to wrap it up in a nice little box and only celebrate it one day out of the year? What I’m suggesting is this: Valentine’s Day should be 365 days a year. Call me a romantic, but the next time I fall in love, I certainly know that I will appreciate, honor, and celebrate it every single day.

Sure loving someone comes with ups and downs, disagreements and sometimes even betrayal, but it also comes with the responsibility of working on and nurturing that love every single day. We all get remiss and neglect or forget to prioritize the love in our life, but I’m asking you on this Valentine’s Day to recommit to spending the next year making every day of your love count.

Celebrate the complexity and beauty of LOVE as you begin your Valentine’s Day celebrations, and toast to every day thereafter. Here’s to your future and your love. May it only grow stronger.

About Angela Lutin:

Angela Lutin is Essentially Angela. Blogger, Advice Columnist and Dating Guru for the social media age—decoding modern love one tweet, text, and like at a time. Angela’s weekly dating advice column, The Naked Truth, appears exclusively in Boca Raton Magazine. Her work appears regularly on the Huffington Post, and she has been a guest contributor to Shape Magazine, GalTime.com, Think Magazine, Blindfold Magazine, and more. She can been seen on MTV’s Made and Bravo’s hit show, Millionaire Matchmaker in early 2013. Crafting personal dating makeovers for her clients, Angela also maintains a private practice, which turns the romantically challenged into the relationship-inclined. Follow Angela on Facebook, facebook.com/EssentiallyAngela or Twitter, @essentiallyang.

The Arts Garage Needs YOU—NOW!!!!

2013-02-07T10:17:59+00:00

As far as South Florida downtowns go, Delray has been on the vanguard of doing things right. OK, so it helps that it has a real downtown that leads directly to the beach, but that’s beside the point. It is pedestrian-friendly (think on-street parking, a two-lane main street) it is to scale (no condo canyons), it knows what people want (festivals, free concerts, green market) and it isn’t afraid to take chances. It’s been paying off for the city for years now and nowhere is that more evident than in the success of the Arts Garage, which is bringing great arts and entertainment to Pineapple Grove‑‑and completely energizing the area.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that the all-knowing Delray Beach City Commission is considering two options at its upcoming meeting on February 12: either selling the Arts Garage space to a personal injury law firm or keeping it as is for the next 10 years, with an option to buy.

I am no city planner, but to me this is a no-brainer and I can’t believe it’s even on the table. The Arts Garage is the kind of success story most towns would die for—it brings viable nightlife and visibility to a downtown after dark; it offers a cultural venue that really works at a very low cost. People love it. It’s unique. And it’s valued: It has already been granted $80,000 in matching funds from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Alonya Ushe, director of the arts garage and its legion of supporters think moving it would be devastating for a venue that has become action central in Pineapple Grove. It would destroy the momentum that is rarely achieved in neighborhoods such as these. And look at the programming, the classic Cuban orchestra Orquesta Aragón straight from Havana, blues and jazz and drag queens, pianists like Jace Vek, award-winning theater. I mea, we do not need another evening with Tony Bennett or one more night of “Jersey Boys” or “Cats.” We need what the Arts Garage is bringing, and we need it to stay.

If you want to help keep the Arts Garage in its present location, sign the Change.org petition here and attend the petition rally next Tuesday February 12 at 5:30 p.m. at Delray Beach City Hall.

Your support will make a difference.

Valentine's Day Specials

2013-02-06T22:33:12+00:00

Leave it to South Florida’s high-end resorts to raise the bar on romance. Two of the area’s elite properties are offering Valentine’s Day specials for couples interested in everything from spa treatments to five-star dining.

Among the available options Feb. 14:

• Mandarin Oriental, Miami: The award-winning spa (500 Brickell Key Drive) is playing host to couples with a variety of pampering options. The Valentine’s Day Express package, priced at $200 per person, includes a Thai foot massage, scalp massage and shellac manicure (the first two offerings are available in tandem). The Couples Delight, priced at $720 for two, features two hours of treatment time in a VIP Couples Suite, Champagne and chocolate pralines—and even a book of love poems. On the dining front, the Mandarin’s Café Sambal, overlooking Biscayne Bay (pictured), has a four-course special ($80 per person) that includes lobster bisque with seafood mousse and avocado oil; braised Kobe short ribs with shitake mushroom risotto; and a decadent bento box dessert with dulce de leche cheesecake lollipops, frozen passion fruit truffle, raspberry-rose macaroon and chocolate-pearl mousse cake. Call 305/913-8358 for dining reservations; 305/913-8332 for spa reservations. Visit the resort's website for more info.

• The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach: Love isn’t the only thing in the air at the Ritz (100 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan), where the scent of culinary treasures is certain draw guests to restaurants Temple Orange and Angle for Valentine’s meals. At Temple Orange, the four-course experience ($85 per person) includes entrée options of sesame-crusted halibut or Creek Stone Farms grass-fed filet of beef. Meanwhile, Angle has its own four-course feast ($150 per person) that features everything from a Maine lobster/whiskey bisque appetizer to entrée selections of seared red snapper, seared diver scallops or slow-braised beef short ribs—and desserts ranging from flaming chocolate and strawberry crème brûlée to hazelnut chocolate fondue. Call 561/533-6000 for dinner reservations. Visit the resort's website for more info.

Annie Leibovitz' Unusual Reality

2013-02-06T12:00:00+00:00

If, like me, you’ve never seen a photograph of Tennessee Williams, the image you have in your mind of the great playwright is probably a far cry than the genuine article, as shot in 1974 by Annie Leibovitz. Williams is sitting in a rumply bed, a pudgy bespectacled guy clutching an even pudgier Boston terrier. It doesn’t scream literary lion so much as bowler.

The image is one of 40-plus framed photographs on display at the Norton Museum of Art’s long-awaited Annie Leibovitz exhibition, which opened in mid-January to tremendous numbers. In my visit, on a Tuesday afternoon, I’d never seen so many people in one Norton gallery, and for good reason. This is an exhibition that realizes the goal of every photographer – to make us see things differently. To challenge and subvert our perceptions. The Tennessee Williams shot undercuts the man’s mythic genius, revealing that he’s a flesh-and-blood man with a receding hairline, a paunch and and an overfed pooch.

Some of the best shots in “Annie Leibovitz” carry this sense of surprise and awe, revealing new facets of character through their placement in atypic settings, props and actions. The Polish writer Jerzy Kosinski is rebranded as an American cowboy, donning boots and spurs inside a stable. A young Leonardo DiCaprio looks both dashing and absurd cuddling a swan. And Al Sharpton is photographed with curlers in his hair during a visit to a local barbershop, an image that is both quintessentially Harlem and, for an orator of such bluster and bombast, utterly demystifying.

Other images speak to, not away from, their subjects’ pop-culture image, playing up our perceptions rather than subverting them. Brad Pitt is positioned on a red bedsheet in a luridly colorful full-body shot that buttresses his reputation as a lusty pinup for teenage girls; it looks like a fully clothed cheesecake shot. Lil’ Kim, meanwhile, is photographed wearing a mesh top that hides absolutely nothing, reflecting her persona as a woman of little modesty. Lucinda Williams looks intense and forlorn at the side of an open road, next to a truck with one door open, presumably broken down; the image is the very embodiment of her music. We see Christopher Walken and a shirtless Dennis Hopper, the cinema’s ambassadors of weirdness, looking quintessentially strange while sitting in a hotel room that normally couldn’t be more banal; not so with these two oddballs crazifying it. And my favorite photo in the exhibition shows David Byrne staring into the camera and wearing a bowtie and a suit made out of lettuce. If it was never used in the album art for any of his records, it should have been.

Other pieces seek, and succeed, to present a bit of commentary, about the people themselves or the world around them. And some of them are quite sad, in contrast to the absurdist humor of others. Minimalist artist Agnes Martin sits alone in a desolate hotel room, the very picture of aching loneliness. Veteran fife player Othar Turner was once a successful bluesman, now languishing in a post-blues world – a master musician wilting in a chair in a ramshackle interior. And two images of topless Vegas dancer Susan McNamara, taken from Leibovitz’s “Abstract: Portfolio” series, reveal the yin and yang of her personal and professional duality, showing side by side images of the prim, bespectacled woman off the job and the bare-all sex object onstage. It’s hard to believe we’re looking at the same person.

The Norton’s curatorial team did an excellent job mounting this show, creating fun connections between works. John Irving, in his spandex wrestling attire of yore, is positioned between those two renegades of New Journalism, Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson, to form a triptych of pioneering writers. And in the show’s introductory gallery, people in chairs frame one wall, including my favorite side-by-side image: One of Ruther Bader Ginsberg next to the other famous Ginsberg: Allen. Leibovitz captures the essence of both of these people, as she does everyone else in this wonderful show – a testament to her incredible ability to see what others can’t, or haven’t, no matter who is staring into her lens.

"Annie Leibovitz" is on display through June 9 at Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Tickets are $12 adults and $5 children.

Health Here and Now

2013-02-06T09:52:32+00:00

Boca Kickboxing has partnered with Intensity X3 to offer the first certified P90x fitness program in Boca Raton.

So, in addition to featuring classes and one-on-one sessions in kickboxing and the martial arts, the studio (at 8221 Glades Road, #13, Boca Raton) has a lineup of classes taught by experienced P90X instructors.

I recently asked the instructors and studio owners (the studios have separate owners but are in the same location) about these types of workouts and what they offer exercisers.

First, meet Allan Prince and Dash Kellner, P90X instructors at IntensityX3, as well as Chris Esposito, Boca Kickboxing’s owner and head kickboxing instructor.

Tell me about kickboxing.

Esposito: Kickboxing is a full-body workout that can burn up to 850 calories or more per class. The moves are safe and fun to do, which is why people stick with it for so long. It's never boring like running on a treadmill or Stairmaster.

Describe the P90X program.

Prince: P90X is an integrated program encompassing all areas of fitness. It is designed to revitalize the body, promote flexibility, increase strength, endurance and power. Both men and women participate in the high-intensity classes that rotate every three weeks to encourage constant adaptation. P90X revolutionized the in-home training regimen, and now IntenstyX3 is bringing it to you in a high-energy class format.

What’s special about the class format?

Prince: P90X was originally designed as an in-home program. Beachbody, the creator of P90X has since produced a certification program, allowing professionals to become skilled in the science and structure behind the program. Many people attempt to exercise at home, yet common distractions often interfere with this routine that in order to be effective, needs to be completed on a regular basis. With our energetic certified staff and state-of-the-art facility, we are able to utilize this proven fitness program to deliver results to each and every one of our members.

Tell me about your P90x instructors.

Prince: Dash Kellner is a Beachbody P90X Master Instructor that teaches the certification courses nationwide. He is currently one of only eight Master Instructors in the United States and the only Master Instructor in the entire state of Florida. Dash also has a bachelor’s degree in exercise science, is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and a Certified Personal Trainer, Corrective Exercise and Performance Enhancement Specialist with the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

[I am] a certified P90X instructor and Certified Personal Trainer from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), with designations in corrective exercise and performance enhancement. [I’ve also] completed continuing education with the Age Management Medical Group (AMMG) and worked alongside physicians as an exercise and lifestyle counselor in an exclusive preventative medical practice in Boca Raton.

What do classes cost?

Esposito: We start everyone on a three lesson trial program for $19.99, plus a free pair of boxing gloves. The total value for this is $95.

For more about IntensityX3 or Boca Kickboxing, visit 8221 Glades Rd. #13, Boca Raton, 33434. Call 954/588-5569 or go to www.intensityx3.com for Intensity X3, or www.BocaKB.com or 561/451-9999 for Boca Kickboxing.

Mark your calendars…

The Third Annual Walk for Life, Sunday, February 10, starting at 9 a.m., is dedicated to raising awareness for bone marrow and stem cell transplants.

Held at the Palm Beach Plaza on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus, the 5K event is given by Boca Raton-based Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, an internationally recognized bone marrow, blood stem cell, and umbilical cord blood registry. All proceeds raised from the walk will be used to add new donors to the registry, specifically ethnically diverse donors.

The event includes not only walking and running, but also food, music and a fun-filled kids' area. Advance registration is $25 for adults and $30 the day of the walk ($15 for students). For more information about the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation or about the event, go to www.giftoflife.org/walk4life or call 561.982.2900.

Also on February 10, Life Time Fitness, at 1499 Yamato Road, Boca Raton, is hosting an indoor triathlon.

Starting at 8 a.m., participants swim for 10 minutes, run for 20 and bike for 30 minutes. Total distances are then calculated to determine your standing among competitors. Cost is $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers. Use this link to register and contact the race director. Waves for the event go off every 20 minutes, starting at 7 a.m. Use this link to register and contact the race director: http://www.indoortri.com/page/show/699686-florida-indoor-triathlon. The main number for the Boca Raton health club is 561/208-5900.

Help Keep the Arts Garage in its Current Home

2013-02-05T14:35:37+00:00

(A scene from The Theatre at Arts Garage's "Exit, Pursued by a Bear")

You like the Arts Garage, right? The great jazz and blues musicians you wouldn’t see anywhere else, the offbeat theater, the drag shows and piano virtuosi, the laissez-faire policy on outside food and drinks? We at Boca Magazine certainly love this venue; we’ve been hyping it since it played its first concert in summer 2011.

If, like us, you love the Arts Garage and want to see it continue to thrive, its management needs your support. On Feb. 12, the Delray Beach City Commission will be deciding between two offers to purchase its current space, at 180 N.E. First Street. One offer would extend Arts Garage’s lease for another 10 years with an option to buy, and the dreaded second option would turn the location into office space, leaving this cultural and economic driver homeless.

You can help this nonprofit’s cause by making your voice heard. There’s a petition going around on change.org to keep the Arts Garage in its current location. As of this writing, it has 853 supporters, and we’d love to see it peak over one thousand by the time the city votes on its fate. So make your voice heard at the following site, and tell the city why you think the Arts Garage should stay:

http://www.change.org/petitions/keep-arts-garage-in-its-current-location?utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Mayo Debuts Hullaballoo Gastropub

2013-02-05T06:00:00+00:00

That there’s a hullabaloo on Clematis Street isn’t really news. That there’s a Hullabaloo on Clematis Street is.

Let me explain.

A regular old hullabaloo is defined by Mr. Dictionary as “a clamorous noise or disturbance.” The upper-case Hullabaloo (517 Clematis St., 561/833-1033) is a new, Italian-esque gastropub from nitelife-dining maven Rodney Mayo.

With former Gratify chef Fritz Cassel heading up the kitchen, Hullabaloo is making some tasty-sounding culinary noise, with dishes like flame-roasted marrow bones with orange marmalade, duck confit ravioli with lemon vinaigrette and roasted pork and porcini risotto. There’s also a roster of mixological cocktails named after famous musicians, from Billie Holliday to Janis Joplin to Tupac.

Inside, the exhibition kitchen is dominated by a wood-fired stove that dispenses everything from pizzas to chicken meatballs. The long, narrow dining room boasts brick walls, red-and-black leather banquettes and white marble tables. It’s not a large space, so when things get crankin’ on a busy weekend night, you can bet there’ll be one serious hullabaloo.

The Week Ahead: Feb. 5 to 11

2013-02-04T18:27:55+00:00

Tuesday

Opening day of “Pour” at FAU’s Schmidt Center Gallery, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton; 1 to 4 p.m.; 561/297-2661 or www.fau.edu/galleries

Anybody can just pour paint on a canvas and call it art, right? I suppose, but the art of acrylic paint-pouring has evolved over the past 60 or 70 years, from Jackson Pollock’s fitful abstract screeds on through numerous “My kid could paint that!” rebukes and toward its own artistic elegance, as expressed in the Color Field movement that flourished in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Recent exhibitions like “Step Into Liquid” and “High Times, Hard Times” have re-asserted the value of paint spillers, and this latest exhibition curated by local art luminaries is simply titled “Pour.” It features the work of nine artists spanning generations and recognition, from internationally renowned painters to emerging talent. It runs through March 23.

Wednesday

Jon Lovitz, Chris Kattan and Tim Meadows at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 8 p.m.; starting at $25; 561/832-7469 or www.kravis.org

Lovitz, Kattan and Meadows spent a collective 23 years as cast members on “Saturday Night Live,” ushering the series from its turbulent 1980s to its character-driven 1990s and its politically astute 2000s. They each created indelible characters, from Lovitz’s Master Thespian to Kattan’s Mr. Peepers and Meadows’ Ladies Man. All are also better in small doses, so this stand-up comedy triple-bill should be, to paraphrase another Lovitz character, just the ticket.

Thursday

Flavors of Boca at The Shops at Boca Center, 5150 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton; 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.; $45; 561/620-2553 or flavorsofboca.org

The latest annual dining sensation to tantalize the taste buds of South Florida foodies is Flavors of Boca, the Junior League of Boca Raton’s latest fundraiser, replacing its own Chocolate Decadence. The expected 800 attendees will have the opportunity to sample dishes from a who’s who of top Boca restaurants, including Tanzy, Brio, Abe & Louie’s, Morton’s the Steakhouse, Rocco’s Tacos and Nick’s New Haven Style Pizzeria. Those pining for Chocolate Decadence can satisfy their sweet teeth on offerings from Hoffman’s Chocolate, the Melting Pot and Tasti D-Lite. Proceeds benefit the charitable organizations sponsored by the Junior League.

Friday

The English Beat at Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m.; $20; 954/564-1074 or www.ticketmaster.com

Ska revival band the English Beat released just three full-length albums in the New Wave heyday of the early 1980s, but they’re all essential and influential documents combining the best of pop, soul, reggae and punk into a danceable stew. The band split up in 1983 but its cult status only increased, prompting a 21^st century reunion that continues in full swing. The English Beat’s original lineup is no longer together, and has in fact split into two bands, one of which tours the U.K. and one of which plays the U.S. Dave Wakeling fronts the U.S. version of English Beat, a generous band that tends to play South Florida on a yearly basis. The band’s excellent set lists include the English Beat’s greatest hits along with choice cuts from Wakeling’s post-Beat band, General Public, including “Save it for Later,” “Mirror in the Bathroom” and “Tenderness.”

Opening night of “Hate! An American Love Story” at Miami Theater Center, 9806 N.E. Second Ave., Miami; 8 p.m.; $20; 305/751-9550 or www.mtcmiami.org

Equality in love is the subject of “Hate!,” a world-premiere solo show written by, directed by and starring Christina Alexander, a New World School of the Arts graduate and an under-utilized actress in the Miami region. Alexander plays eight characters, male and female alike, who deliver 16 monologues over two acts, including a 15-year-old girl who is pregnant to a black teenager; a latent homosexual serving in the military during and after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; and a Southern white woman coming to terms with the fact that her sister is dating a black man. Prejudice and transformation are explored in a funny, moving and uplifting play that integrates multimedia and audience interaction, with the hope that Alexander’s words will spark a dialogue. It runs through Feb. 23.

Friday to Sunday

Delray Beach Garlic Festival at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach; 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday; $10 per day; 561/279-0907 or www.dbgarlicfest.com

Now in its 14th year, the Delray Beach Garlic Festival pleases foodies and music lovers alike, with national and local acts providing the soundtrack for two days of food, drinks and chef appearances that bow to a certain aromatic plant. The Garlic Chef Competition is always a main attraction, and additions this year include the Cloves and Vines Wine Garden and an expanded event space, with added seating. Hit-making pop-rockers Lifehouse (pictured) will headline the opening-night festivities, and Saturday’s concert will feature reggae-rockers Pepper. Tribute bands for the music of the Eagles and Billy Joel will round out Sunday’s musical festivities.

Saturday

Opening night of “La Sonnambula” at Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 7 p.m.; $25 to $254; 305/949-6722 or www.arshtcenter.org

Villages, inns and woods form the pastoral backdrop of this 19th-century bel canto opera by Vincenzo Bellini. The title translates to “The Sleepwalker,” and the somnambulist in question is Amina, a peasant girl whose nighttime wanderings prompt her village to believe that she’s being unfaithful to her lover. If only Ambien had been around in 1831. In this Florida Grand Opera production, top soprano Rachele Gilmore will portray Amina, a role once sung by Maria Callas. If you can’t catch it tonight, there will be additional performances at 8 p.m. Feb. 12 and 15 and 2 p.m. Feb. 17.

Monday

“Proposition 8” play reading at Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton; 7:30 p.m.; $10; 561/237-9000 or www.lynn.edu

California’s controversial Proposition 8 ballot initiative, which in 2008 overturned the right for same-sex couples to marry in a state that previously allowed it, has already seen its share of thought-provoking fiction in the form of “Prop 8: The Musical,” a brilliant three-minute YouTube satire with a star-studded cast and music by Marc Shaiman. This play reading represents local playwright Dan Clancy’s (pictured) latest contribution to Proposition 8 fiction, and it seems to take a more personal, interiorized approach to the hot-button issue of gay marriage. It focuses on a gay Los Angeles couple in a long-term relationship whose disinterest in marriage is challenged when a group of friends try to convince them to contest Proposition 8. Stuart Meltzer will direct a cast that includes Michael McKeever, Matthew Korinko, Larry Buzzeo and Clay Cartland.

Angela Lutin on “Millionaire Matchmaker”

2013-02-04T16:16:37+00:00

Angela Lutin, our witty and wise dating columnist, will appear on Bravo TV’s “Millionaire Matchmaker” tomorrow, February 5.

In the episode the tides turn on our fearless blogger, who instead of dishing out advice is coached on how to find love. The producers were sure to add a curveball as well, asking Lutin to bring along her ex-husband Greg to help her find her perfect match.

In the episode, Lutin is set up with three potential suitors out in Los Angeles and gets a little advice from Patti Stanger.

“Working with Bravo gave me the opportunity to put myself on the line and ultimately step outside of my comfort zone for a chance to find love,” Lutin said. “Sometimes even an expert needs an outsider's perspective and working with Patti forced me to take the harsh advice I so often give to others.”

Tune in tomorrow!

For more information, visit bravotv.com/the-millionaire-matchmaker.

It's Allianz Week in Boca

2013-02-04T14:49:28+00:00

Boca Raton has you covered from tee to green when it comes to the 2013 Allianz Championship, which kicked off today and runs through Feb. 10 at the Old Course at Broken Sound.

The field: More than 80 standouts on the Champions Tour are expected to battle for the $1.7 million purse at the seventh Boca-based installment of the Allianz. This year’s field includes defending champion Corey Pavin (pictured above), Nick Price, Mark Calcavecchia, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite and Boca resident (and 2010 champ) Bernhard Langer. This year's rookie class includes the popular Rocco Mediate, who matched Tiger Woods shot for shot at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines before falling in an 18-hole playoff.

Impact on Boca: According to tournament director Ryan Dillon, the 2012 event provided a $15 million economic boost to our community, including occupancy in 1,800 hotel rooms. In addition, Boca Raton received exposure on Golf Channel to the tune of 150 million households in 174 countries.

Tournament tickets: Admission is free all week long for those under age 17 and anyone 65 or older. For everyone else, admission is free through Thursday; 1-day grounds tickets during tournament play (Friday through Sunday) will be $20; and a weekend grounds pass (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) will be $50. Michelob Ultra is sponsoring a one-day Partners Club Pass for $75 that gives attendees access to its air-conditioned hospitality venue on the 18th fairway (with complimentary beer and wine). Tickets for the Saturday “Grapes on the Green” wine event (4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.) are $85. Net proceeds from the tournament benefit Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

Contact: Visit allianzchampionship.com for more info or call 561/241-4653.

2013 Allianz Schedule

Tuesday, Feb. 5

8 a.m.—Practice rounds; 10:30 a.m.—Breakfast/Q&A: Annika Sorenstam; 11:45 a.m.—Private clinic with Sorenstam; 1 p.m.—Executive Women’s Pro-Am; 6:30 p.m.—VIP draw party

Wednesday, Feb. 6

7:15 a.m.—Konica Minolta Business Solutions Pro-Am; 12:45 a.m.—Konica Minolta Business Solutions Pro-Am

Thursday, Feb. 7

7:15 a.m.—Championship Pro-Am; 12:45 p.m.—Championship Pro-Am

Friday, Feb. 8

9 a.m.—First round of Allianz

Saturday, Feb. 9

9 a.m.—Second round of Allianz

4 to 7:30 p.m.—Grapes on the Green (golf & wine event)

Sunday, Feb. 10

9 a.m.—Final round of Allianz

Heavenly Burgers Come to WPB

2013-02-04T06:00:00+00:00

Seven months after being forced out of the Palm Beach location it occupied for much of its 60 years in business, iconic local burger joint Hamburger Heaven (1 N. Clematis St., 561/655-5277) has opened across the Intracoastal in downtown West Palm Beach.

A dispute with the landlord prompted owner Cindy Rosa to shut down the restaurant last June after its lease expired. The new Hamburger Heaven is considerably bigger and sleeker than its previous incarnation, more than 4,000 square feet complete with lots of cozy booths, a dessert bar, the requisite breakfast and lunch (and soon to be dinner) counter, and, of course, killer water views.

The menu reprises all the original heavenly favorites, from sammies and burgers (natch) to omelets and assorted egg dishes to home-made milkshakes, cakes and pies. Prices are still saintly too.

Musically Inclined

2013-02-01T17:01:59+00:00

In our March-April issue, we spotlighted five local institutions at the forefront of Palm Beach County’s classical musical culture. But there are plenty of other venues making classical noise, and here are four of them, with an emphasis on their programming in March and April.

• The Kravis Center (701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach; 561/832-7469): The Regional Arts Concert Series brings more than a dozen orchestras and soloists to the area each season. Upcoming performances include the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra on March 19, the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn on March 20, and pianist Evgeny Kissin on April 16.

• The Society of the Four Arts (2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach; 561/655-7226): Some 15 concerts are staged annually at the Walter S. Gubelmann Auditorium. Don’t miss pianist Vladimir Feltsman (March 13) and the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin (March 20).

• The Flagler Museum (One Whitehall Way, Palm Beach; 561/655-2833): A few trios and quartets perform during season in its glorious, Gilded Age West Room. The 2013 series concludes with the Auryn Quartet on March 5.

• The Duncan Theatre (4200 Congress Ave., Lake Worth; 561/868-3350): The Classical Café series includes four intimate shows. Next up is the dynamic Euclid Quartet on March 13.

Web Extras: Trader Vic’s Mai Tai

2013-02-01T16:48:01+00:00

Considered the foremost expert on tiki mixology, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry is the author of several books, including Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log, Intoxica!, and Sippin’ Safari: In Search of the Great “Lost” Tropical Drink Recipes… And the People Behind Them. This is his take on Trader Vic’s classic 1944 mai tai recipe:

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 ounce Rhum Clément V.S.O.P. Martinique rum

1 ounce Appleton Estate Extra Dark Jamaican rum

1/2 ounce orange Curaçao

1/4 ounce orgeat syrup

1/4 ounce sugar syrup

Mix ingredients in shaker. Add at least 2 cups crushed ice. Shake well for around 10 seconds. Pour unstrained into a double old-fashioned glass. Sink spent lime shell in drink; garnish with mint sprig.

Theater Review: "Chapter Two" at The Plaza Theatre

2013-02-01T16:15:20+00:00

I have to admit a bias here: I don’t look forward to reviewing productions of Neil Simon plays.

I’m not in the age demographic that mostly appreciates Simon’s gentle, sentimental comedies; I won’t be for another couple of decades. His dialogue can sound musty and sitcommy, rudderless without a laugh track. Unless he’s writing a charmingly stylized farce like “Rumors,” the unnatural patter of his dialogue – the inserted gags every 20 seconds or so – keeps me at an emotional arms’ length. That’s what happens when actors become automatons to a writer’s wit.

All of this comic business will inevitably yield pleasant, consonant and most of all expected results. Simon’s populist storylines aim less to challenge and provoke than to send everyone home happy.

“Chapter Two,” the 1977 Simon dramedy now playing at the Plaza Theatre in Manalapan, has a bit more depth than others, if not more teeth. It’s based in part on Simon’s relationship with his second wife, Marsha Mason, and the difficulty he had in starting over after the premature death of his first spouse. Wayne LeGette plays George Schneider, the Simon stand-in, who is recently widowed and makes a nice living writing dime-store spy novels under a pretentious pseudonym. His garrulous brother Leo (Kenneth Kay) tries to set him up on dates, most of which fail miserably until Jennie Malone (Mia Matthews), a weary divorcee and actress, enters the picture. A reticent first meeting between George and Jennie blossoms into something like love at first sight, a hasty marriage and the emotional and psychological roadblocks the new spouses encounter in unpacking the grief George never fully dealt with. The resulting arguments, all of them in Act Two, are some of the cruelest and most cutting exchanges in Simon’s canon, a welcome respite from the ceaseless gag fest of Act One.

Even at a duration of roughly two and a half hours, Michael Leeds’ direction here comes across as hurried, especially in the early going, before the lovers meet. The scenes between George and Leo, and between Jennie and best friend Faye (Kim Cozort), move with a sense of overcaffeinated hyperspeed, as if Leeds subconsciously wanted to fast-forward through them and get to the good stuff. When plays are criticized for being talky, even though most of theater is all talk, it’s because they sound like this, and we don’t necessarily buy it.

The production improves when George and Jennie meet, and a bit of awkward silence goes a long way. And it continues improving, coasting on the infectious chemistry between LeGette and Matthews, who are as comfortable with cutesy repartee as they are mental knife-twisting; Simon’s script provides ample opportunities for both. Kay and Cozort are given a very funny scene together in Act Two, partly as a relief from the heaviness in the main storyline, and the fun they’re having – with Kay pantless and Cozort’s hair shooting up in an electric frizz – spills over into the audience. (Knowing that these two performers are married in real life only enhances the comedy).

Michael McClain’s dual living-room scenic design is handsomely adorned and well-propped, though parts of it look like they would collapse if you blew on them hard enough. His most clever touch is, instead of building autonomous sets for each main character’s abode, he built one set bisected in the center by an invisible line. Stage left is George’s empty-nest writer’s den, and stage right is Jennie’s clean, green, bright living space. The two distinct arrangements are imbued with the yin-and-yang personalities of their occupants, resulting in a solution that is both economical and artistic. More than anything else in this production, it’s this element that raises Simon’s well-worn words to another level.

“Chapter Two” is at the Plaza Theatre, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Miami, through Feb. 10. Tickets cost $45. Call 561/588-1820 or visit theplazatheatre.net.

Hometown Hero: Bonnie Newman

2013-02-01T14:54:57+00:00

Bonnie Newman, Garden Therapy, Boca Raton Garden Club

Boca resident Bonnie Newman has a green thumb and a heart of gold. The Boca Raton Garden Club member chairs the organization’s Garden Therapy program, a course for patients suffering from the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

The program, a series of classes offered exclusively through Florida Atlantic University’s Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center, is for participants with mild to moderate memory-loss symptoms.

Once a month, from November until April, Newman patiently encourages a small class of men and women to exercise their minds by creating beautiful floral arrangements over the course of an hour. The serene and confident leader, with the help of 21 other committee members, strives to teach and challenge her students.

“We encourage them and guide them through the steps, making it not so intimidating,” Newman says. “We like to stimulate memories...There is always something I try to trigger. We talk about things like the holidays, family and friends. It’s really a communication that’s done through flowers.”

Newman first experiments with the creative arrangements at home, personally selecting the vibrant flowers, lush greens and vases used in each class. She often incorporates pretty stones, ribbon, sand and other materials.

“Flowers make people happy, not just because of the colors,” Newman says. “It’s the touching, the texture...The [participants] are so proud, and they get a lot of feedback from their caregivers because they bring the [bouquets] home. It’s something they accomplish.”

Newman was first exposed to the effects of Alzheimer’s while caring for her late aunt. After her passing, Newman pledged to assist others and help raise awareness about the disease. Before moving to South Florida, she developed a garden therapy program for her hometown Cornwall Garden Club in New York. Newman was quickly nominated to lead the program here in Boca Raton.

“Most of the people are elderly, and that’s what you think of with Alzheimer’s,” Newman says. “But I have had people age 49 in my group; I’ve had several that are younger...These are people from all walks of life who get this disease—doctors, accountants, lawyers, teachers, garden club members...all different people, at all different ages...”

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our March/April issue.

On Her Own Terms

2013-02-01T14:41:52+00:00

A growing number of people in South Florida already know Susan Spencer-Wendel’s story, but that number is about to explode when her book, Until I Say Good-Bye, is published this spring in 23 languages, followed by a movie in the works. Both are based on her decision to live purposefully—and with joy—following a 2011 diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. I visited Susan and her husband, John, at her Lake Clarke Shores home in their backyard under the shade of a handsome chickee hut to see how she was progressing as her book was about to hit newsstands—and all the talk shows.

The question on my mind, like most people who will read her book, was this: How has she has been able to face the horror of ALS with no fear, and with a conscious choice to embrace every moment?

“It’s always been in my nature,” she says, speaking with difficulty. “That’s just the way I have always been. I have always made the right decisions.” She smiles, eyes twinkling. “This was the right decision.”

“She’s always done what she wants to do,” says John, by way of translation. “I don’t think it has changed her—it has revealed more of who she really is.”

She was super woman, after all. Spencer-Wendel was an award-winning (and great looking) courts reporter with a regular byline in the Palm Beach Post. She had three children (now ages 9, 11 and 15), a handsome husband, and the respect of her colleagues at the paper and throughout criminal justice circles. It was that woman who refused to believe anything was really wrong three years ago, when she noticed something freaky with her hand as she was getting ready for bed one night. She held it up to her husband, a hand that had gone sort of scrawny and pale, tendons and bones showing through.

That was in 2009.

“You have to see a doctor,” John said.

Next came the gradual weakening, a twitching of the tongue. Her husband, who had his own dark suspicions that it was ALS, had begun to cut up her food for her at dinnertime. There were visits to doctors, tests for obscure diseases and for a period, denial. Then thoughts of suicide as she began to piece together her symptoms. Finally, there was the official diagnosis that would bring her world crashing down: ALS.

Susan Spencer-Wendel was only 44.

Two years later, Spencer-Wendel reclines in an outdoor chair, tiny and light as a feather. Her body has wasted to stick-thin, but the blue eyes still sparkle, and the smile is dazzling. Despite the ravages of the disease, she is still very much the same woman who had an epiphany two years ago in a Burger King parking lot 20 minutes after getting the bad news.

“I had watched Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech of 1939 a number of times,” she writes early in the book. “The one where he declared himself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth, even after ‘catching a bad break.’ Even after being diagnosed with a disease that would rob him of his talent, and then his life ... And then it came to me too, alone, seated on a parking barrier outside Burger King. No, not a muzzy moment, but my life in focus, tack sharp.

“Forty-four years of perfect health. I had rarely had a head cold or tooth cavity. Forty-four years, and the sickest I had ever been was after I ate a bad chicken sandwich in South America. I had three easy pregnancies, each producing a rosy pudgy babe...I had known abiding love; traveled the world; married a great partner; worked at a job I adore...I was alive. I had a year. Maybe more, but I knew I had one more year at least of good health. I determined, right there in the Burger King parking lot, to spend it wisely ...to plant a garden of memories for my family to bloom in their futures...”

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our March/April issue.

Faces: Olivia de la Garza

2013-02-01T14:35:31+00:00

Olivia de la Garza, Singer, vocal coach

If and when they write the story of Olivia de la Garza’s career as a vocalist, it won’t have the down-on-her-luck early drama of Jewel, who lived out of her car before hitting it big. Or the destiny’s child quality of one of her idols, Frank Sinatra, who began singing for tips at age 8—standing on top of a bar in a New Jersey nightclub.

However, history will show that the Boca resident did it her way—the humble singer who valued craft over spotlight, who preferred classical and jazz to pop, who never thought to borrow a page from the Gaga-or-bust playbook.

“I love performing,” says the daughter of a Cuban father (Andy) and a Midwest mother (Pam, from Indiana), both of whom played trumpet. “I just don’t like the focus being all on me.”

In an era where “American Idol” and “The Voice” dangle the solo dream at auditions throughout the country, de la Garza is a musical anomaly. She has the chops to take center stage at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach, which she did last fall, performing “Songs of Love and Lust”—selections that ranged from “Cuando Me’n Vo” from Puccini’s “La Bohème” to an original five-song cycle composed by a friend from Florida Atlantic University with de la Garza’s prodigious voice in mind.

But she’s equally at home behind the scenes, working with students as a vocal coach at Bravo Academy in Boca. Or working toward her certification at Ocean’s Edge School of Worship in Fort Lauderdale, which, upon graduating this spring, could lead to a position as a music director or worship leader at a church.

“I know my future is in music; it’s just a matter of how,” says de la Garza, who turns 25 in April. “I’m not yet sure if that will mean as a worship leader or a classical performer. I’m just preparing myself the best I can...”

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our March/April issue.

Take 5: Philippe Entremont

2013-02-01T14:28:56+00:00

Philippe Entremont, Principal conductor, Boca Raton Symphonia

When Philippe Entremont spoke to Boca Raton recently, he kept his responses short and precise, not wasting a word. The legendary pianist and conductor, 78, had just suffered a debilitating bout of bronchitis and was still taking it easy. But you can bet it didn’t slow down his playing—his primary voice being those 88 black and white keys.

“What is good about music is that there is no language barrier,” he says. “It can be understood by everybody. It is the international language.”

Entremont is a fine spokesman for classical music’s internationalism, having performed on five continents, led orchestras in three nations and played at one Olympics—the 2008 games in Beijing, where he was one of 10 pianists who joined in the “the piano extravaganza of the century.”

Born in France to a pianist mother and a conductor father, Entremont grew up with orchestration in his blood, and he scored his first music prize at age 12. Enriching stints with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and New Orleans Symphony Orchestra eventually led him to Boca Raton, where he has been the principal conductor of the Boca Symphonia (561/376-3848, bocasymphonia.org) since 2010. This year alone, Entremont has conducted Rossini, Copland, Mozart and Beethoven, with help from star soloists from around the world. Next on his schedule is a March 24 program of Respighi’s “The Birds,” Mozart’s “Flute Concerto No. 1 in G Major” and Shchedrin’s “Carmen Suite” at the Roberts Theatre at Andrews Hall (Saint Andrew’s School, 3900 Jog Road, Boca).

You’ve had such a long and distinguished career. Others in your position might have retired by now. What motivates you to still do what you do?

For a musician, retirement doesn’t exist. I’m not thinking of it. That means instant death. It keeps me going and in good shape, and that’s it.

How has music education changed since you were young?

This is an endless story. Music education has to be done in schools. Big music schools are meant for professionals, as you know, but music is an art that has to be taught, like painting and theater.

What was it like performing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?

It was an extraordinary event. Classical music was very well-represented for the occasion. That was the only Olympics that I’ve ever attended, and it was wonderful. For me, the border doesn’t exist, that’s for sure. I have been everywhere except in North Korea and Cuba.

How does Boca Raton, and its classical music culture symphonies, compare with some of the major institutions you’ve worked with?

Boca Raton is a unique place; this is a very large community of people living very nearby, something like 2 million people. This is large, and there aren’t many orchestras left in the state. This is why we have to promote and to continue the orchestra.

Is there a particular composer or piece that you get the most joy out of conducting?

I never conduct anything I don’t like. I don’t see the point. Unfortunately, I like a lot of things. What is very important in my eyes is the quality of the orchestra. We have the best musicians around, and they make a very, very good orchestra. Boca Raton should be proud of that...

To read more, pick a copy of our March/April issue.

Paradise, Polynesian-Style

2013-02-01T14:22:44+00:00

It looks like a production of “South Pacific” run amok. Inside the Mai-Kai Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, sailors in white uniforms are spinning Betty Grable look-a-likes on the dance floor, while guys in loud Hawaiian aloha shirts and women in Polynesian-inspired dresses cavort over huge tropical rum drinks. Both sexes show off tattoos of palm trees, hula girls, and South Sea scenes on their arms and legs. Not the temporary kind, either; the real deal, cousins to the ones Sailor Jerry used to ink on Hotel Street in Honolulu back in the 1940s.

In a corner of the Molokai Bar, a lithe, blonde contortionist in a grass skirt and bikini top does a burlesque routine, arching her back until her golden locks are almost sweeping the floor, while a goatee-bearded bandleader with a beatnik air pounds out a jungle-tinged tune on the vibes.

Welcome to Hukilau. The event, held each spring in Fort Lauderdale (this year’s festivities run from June 6–9), is the largest annual gathering of “Polynesian pop” devotees on the East Coast.

“This is my favorite part,” says Christie White. “Looking at everyone that has spent their money and their time coming from all over the world to celebrate with us, and seeing them have a good time. That’s when I know I’ve done my part.” White, a buxom redhead who is, by turns, cheerful, demanding and doting—one gets the feeling she’d make a great Cub Scout den mother—is the co-founder and organizer of Hukilau, which launched in 2002.

Tonight, she’s wearing a vintage 1960s sleeveless print dress, the better to show off the tattoo on her upper right arm. “It’s my tribute to Eli Hedley,” White explains. “He carved the Moai tiki outside the Aku Aku Restaurant in Las Vegas, which is now gone. So I decided to get the whole Aku Aku sign, and that was done by an artist by the name of Hoffa.” From somewhere in the crowd, White hears her nickname, “Tiki Kiliki,” and she spins away.

For the uninitiated, Polynesian pop encompasses all facets of America’s 20th-century obsession with the South Pacific. It’s more than just aloha shirts, tattoos and dashboard hula girls—it’s also rum cocktails, backyard luaus, Martin Denny records and, of course, tikis, those ubiquitous carved representations of island gods. The fascination with the latter is such that popsters refer collectively to their various pursuits as tiki—or “tiki culture”—and to themselves as tikiphiles.

This near-religious fervor for paradise, Polynesian-style, might seem a bit odd, until one recalls how big a phenomenon tiki was the first time around...

To continue reading, pick up a copy of our March/April issue.

How Does It Feel?

2013-02-01T13:36:48+00:00

How Does It Feel: To Be Theresa LePore

Former Palm Beach County supervisor of elections, Creator, 2000 presidential butterfly ballot

I was at a luncheon, and some lady comes up to me. “Are you going to hit me,” I said, “or are you going to be nice to me?” We had a good conversation. Usually, I kind of hesitate when people [approach] me. I can’t always judge what their reaction is going to be.

I’ve gotten some really ugly, hateful mail. And death threats. [People have said that] I have the blood of thousands of men and women on my hands. That I put Bush in office, both terms. That 9/11 was my fault.

I lost so many friends over what happened [during the 2000 presidential election], and some people today still don’t speak to me when I see them. I think what upsets me the most is that I was on several task forces for balloting—and the idea was to make the ballot easier for the people to read.

A couple days after [the election], I remember going upstairs to the county attorney’s office. There’s a back elevator. When we came down and the elevator door opened, there were 60 or 70 of these SWAT guys, and all these flashbulbs were going off. The press had found me. People were screaming, “There she is! There she is!” They were calling me names and trying to grab at me. That was the first time I realized the enormity of what was happening.

I kind of lost it. One of the cops said, “Get it out. Dry your tears, and then get back out there.”

By Thursday [of that election week], some of my top people came to my office and said, “Did you drive?” Apparently, they had intercepted a threat. I didn’t drive my car for probably six or seven weeks after that. When I finally did, I had nails in all four of my tires. That’s one of the memories that’s burned in: riding home with a sheriff’s car in front of me and a sheriff’s car behind me.

I’m still very cautious when I go places. I’m always looking around. I never drive the same route twice; if I’m going to church, I’ll always go a different way. I always back into parking spaces because it’s easier to get out. I don’t go to a lot of big places unless I know it’s at a time when it’s not very busy. I joke that I have to tip well because everybody knows who I am. It’s never gone back to the way it was before that day.

Today, I’m involved with a lot of nonprofits, but I’m mostly in the background, helping with events and [serving on boards]. People used to ask me for [political] support or endorsements, but I always said no. I still have a stigma attached to me; I don’t want someone to lose an election because of that.

I’ve always been one to use everything as a learning experience. It’s just wasted energy thinking about all the negative stuff. If I did, I’d be curled up in a ball somewhere.

How Does It Feel: To Nearly Be Struck by Lightning

Deputy James DeFago III, Traffic division, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office

It was a straight week of rain, and it was crazy with lightning. Every several seconds, another flash. Another flash. Another flash.

It was raining so heavily that you couldn’t see several hundred feet down the road. I was still in my uniform and driving home after my shift, when I came to the intersection of Glades Road and 441. There was a crash. It was bad enough that I just didn’t call it in. I had to get out and check on the drivers. I reached for my raincoat, but [realized] it was back at my house drying out from the previous day. So I thought, “I’m on my way home. I’ll just get wet.”

I checked on the first driver, and she was injured. I went to the second vehicle, and [the woman] was standing outside her vehicle with an umbrella. She was not injured. I asked her if I could borrow the umbrella while she had a seat in the car. It was a red, white, green, blue and yellow umbrella—with a metal rod sticking out the top. I was walking back, calling fire rescue, and another deputy pulled up.

I don’t know what happened next. I don’t remember a flash. I don’t remember hearing anything. I was on all fours on the ground. It was enough to shut the lights off; I’d say I was unconscious for a second or two. It felt like the right side of my body was tingling, like when your arms or legs fall asleep.

Later, I found out that the actual strike was several hundred feet on the other side of the intersection. I guess the water and the umbrella I was holding transferred the electricity.

The other deputy, he heard it. He saw me on all fours and helped me up and threw me in the back of the police car. Hopefully, it will be the last time I’ll ever be in the back of a police car. The next day, I was released [from the hospital]. I didn’t miss one day of work, but that’s when the fun started.

I’m only 5-foot-4, so everyone jokes, “How could lightening strike the smallest object?” I have nicknames like Sparky and Power. Guys were buying me lottery tickets, saying I was lucky. And I really do feel lucky.

People struck by lightening directly do not live to talk about it.

[From the Boca Vaults/Jan. 2008 issue]

How Does It Feel: To Weigh 600 Pounds

Maximum Capacity, aka Michael Stanco, Division One Pro Wrestler

To wrestle the way I want to wrestle, I have to be between 450 and 500 pounds. But from an appearance and gimmick standpoint, I need to be at 600. So it kind of sucks both ways.

If I have an upcoming match, I go into diet mode. Typically, that means a carton of Egg Beaters, the equivalent of eight eggs, for breakfast; a Healthy Choice TV dinner for lunch; and a pound of chicken breast and about two cups of brown rice and some vegetables for dinner. When I’m not on a diet? Forget about it. I could eat 20,000 calories a day. I don’t have one of those gland problems. I’m fat because I eat.

It’s a struggle to do daily things. Walking to the bathroom, walking to my car, putting on socks—things most people wouldn’t give a second thought to. I have heart problems, water in my lungs. Bad blood return and edema in my legs. I’ve been in and out of the hospital six times in the past two years.

There are times when I’m sad or I had a bad day. You want to come home and just forget about it and have a meal. In that five to 10 minutes, you find an inner peace. Once you eat, you will feel guilty, but the guilt isn’t as bad as the depression was before you ate.

Very rarely, I’ll go out to eat—but it’s got to be with a close male friend. I won’t eat in front of a woman.

The average person would look at me as a failure—well, maybe not so much me because I’m a wrestler. But most people my size, they’re sideshows—the fat person who gets stuck in a house, and they have to knock out the walls to take them to a hospital. The average person wouldn’t know that we’re human beings. That we’re not stupid. That we’re not dirty. That we’re not failures. That we’re not a waste of life. That we have feelings.

If I could take a pill or snap my fingers like a genie and make a wish, I would be 350 pounds. But after you pass a certain weight, significant weight loss is almost impossible. If I can get to a weight where I can do what the average Joe can do—not have to worry about walking down to get the mail—I’d be happy at that weight. For me, that’s probably about 450 pounds.

Lynn University debate numbers are a BIG win

2013-01-31T13:14:28+00:00

The numbers are in, and just as we suspected, the Lynn University debate knocked it out of the park. Data were a provided by the university’s Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Assessment with Nielsen, the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Enigma Research Corporation and two media monitoring services. For all you naysayers out there, the people who thought this was a boondoggle for Boca (you know who you are), here are some of the key findings:

$13.1 million in immediate economic impact for the Palm Beach County economy, including $1.7 million in elevated spending by local residents, a 22 percent increase in bed taxes and more than $63 million in publicity value for Lynn and the community, including more than $50 million for the City of Boca Raton.
33,208 total news stories
59.2 million viewers, ranking only behind a Super Bowl and the Olympics in terms of viewership
99.9 million people who knew that the debate took place at Lynn or knew it took place in Boca Raton or Palm Beach County, according to a national telephone survey

And there is much more in the university study. The Little School Who Thought It Could did—and did it well.

The numbers speak for themselves.

The Naked Truth, Vol. 45

2013-01-31T06:00:00+00:00

Angela, I felt something wasn’t quite right in my relationship of a year, and gave in to my terrible old habit and went through my boyfriend’s phone for the first time. I found a lot of bad news and we are trying to talk through it. But here’s the weird part, I told my close girlfriends about the ordeal and all of them rolled their eyes. They say they go through their boyfriend’s phones on a weekly…sometimes daily basis! As upset as I am with my findings, I still feel guilty that I stooped that low and broke his trust. (Mine is broken.) Should I? Is creeping your significant other now just a part of daily life? --Heartbroken

Heartbroken, snooping is only a part of daily life in relationships that are filled with secrets and lies. It’s appalling to me that your girlfriends see this behavior as a normal part of a relationship. I would dare to guess they are doomed for failure or sleeping on a bed of lies, and let me tell you that will certainly make for restless nights.

Intuition does not fail us. When we feel a disconnect or something off in the relationship, chances are it is. No matter what is going on, however, I do not condone snooping.

If a situation gets to the point where you need to invade your partner’s privacy, your relationship is already in danger. I caution anyone to be so intent as to want every detail on anyone else’s life, especially the person you love. Once you open Pandora’s Box, the contents will never fit back inside.

I’m not saying you suffer on naively either. Address any concerns at the time you feel weird. We all know that “weird” feeling. It’s that moment when, out of the blue, you feel a little unsure of the relationship. Something might be off kilter or his behavior just doesn’t add up.

Solid, long-lasting relationships are built on a mountain of trust. It’s going to take work to repair yours. Recommit to, whether in this relationship or any other, remain honorable and respectful of your partner. That includes his privacy. Good luck.

Angela, sorry but I need to clarify from my old question. My very hairy boyfriend trims his abs and stomach and face and back, but it’s the land “down there” that needs the razor set on a different setting. --Nair Cares

I find it immensely interesting that Bigfoot shaves everything but the exact area of his body that will get him laid more often. That, Nair Care, is strange.

But I have a plan for you. Pick one of the follow to have your man as hairless as Ryan Lochte in no time:

•   Make an announcement that you will be going au naturale for the next six months because you thought it would be cute for your neither regions to match.
•   Book a couple’s Brazilian wax.
•   Casually mention in conversation that you read an article that stated shaving the pubic area made a man’s penis appear 15% larger.
•   All of the above.

In an honest and trusting relationship, partners should be able to talk about anything. There is nothing disrespectful about giving your man a little nudge to pay more attention to his grooming habits. When he responds accordingly, you need to make sure he’s rewarded. VERY well…and don’t forget to mention how much larger his penis appears.

Do you have a question for Angela? E-mail NakedTruth@bocamag.com!

About Angela Lutin:

Angela Lutin is Essentially Angela. Blogger, Advice Columnist and Dating Guru for the social media age—decoding modern love one tweet, text, and like at a time. Angela’s weekly dating advice column, The Naked Truth, appears exclusively in Boca Raton Magazine. Her work appears regularly on the Huffington Post, and she has been a guest contributor to Shape Magazine, GalTime.com, Think Magazine, Blindfold Magazine, and more. She can been seen on MTV’s Made and Bravo’s hit show, Millionaire Matchmaker in early 2013. Crafting personal dating makeovers for her clients, Angela also maintains a private practice, which turns the romantically challenged into the relationship-inclined. Follow Angela on Facebook, facebook.com/EssentiallyAngela or Twitter, @essentiallyang.

Saks Gives Back

2013-01-31T06:00:00+00:00

Sometimes it’s hard not to feel guilty about splurging on that new pair of stilettos, or that gorgeous tote bag, or that black, backless dress that was screaming your name. But this February, invite your conscience to hit the mall because Saks Fifth Avenue is giving back.

Throughout the month, Saks will donate five percent of all registered purchases made with a Saks Fifth Avenue credit card back to charity through their “Saks Loves Your Cause” initiative.

Saks across the United States will be participating in this event, including our own in Town Center.

A portion of your shopping purchase (made with your Saks credit card) can benefit the American Red Cross, the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County and Florence Fuller Child Development Centers.

You will be prompted to register for the charity of your choice, with just one simple step, at check out.

So this February, whether you are shopping for yourself (or your beau for Valentine’s Day) feel confident your purchase is worth it!

Stanley Tucci on Acting, Cooking, and ... Elephants?

2013-01-30T14:25:29+00:00

Something in me doubts that if, say, Tom Cruise or George Clooney were to sit down for a Q&A about their craft, they wouldn’t end up referencing Rainer Maria Rilke and Vittorio De Sica in the first 10 minutes. Endowed with a copious wealth of intellect, wit and insight, Stanley Tucci did just that in his enlightening talk yesterday afternoon to a packed auditorium at the Society of the Four Arts.

Rather than stepping up to a podium and giving a prepared speech, the great character actor suggested a more informal, conversational approach moderated by Ervin Duggan, president and CEO of the Society of the Four Arts. Both sat in chairs for the entirety of the talk. After summarizing Tucci’s impressive resume as a film, television and stage actor and restaurateur, Duggan asked a number of thoughtful questions on his beginnings as an actor, his thoughts on Italian-American stereotypes, his development of “Big Night” as writer, director and star, his relationship with Meryl Streep and the variations in acting for different media. Tucci was genial and humble, regularly undercutting his own accomplishments with self-deprecating asides – “only eight people saw ‘Big Night,’” for instance – and Duggan regularly corrected him for being too modest.

In the discussion of “Big Night,” Tucci mentioned that his inspiration for the film was to explore the relationship between art and commerce, and that the restaurant setting was a metaphor for the theater, with its separation of the dining room and the kitchen representing the front and back of the stage, and the fact that each night is both the same and different. The chef became a natural stand-in for the artist. This pretty much blew my mind, and it makes me want to revisit this wonderful little film.

Complaining about stereotypes, he said that at the beginning of his career, he had to turn down a bunch of clichéd mafioso roles, but that “when you lose your hair, you lose your ethnicity a little bit.” In discussing Streep, his costar in “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Julie & Julia,” he said that “I find it very hard to work with her, because I just want to watch her.”

The subject then turned to “The Tucci Cookbook,” which he released last year in hardcover. I was surprised to learn that it was basically a reissue of an out-of-print recipe book originally released to promote “Big Night” – and that the originals were fetching up to $3,000 online. “We retitled it to shamelessly capitalize on my fame,” he joked.

The time flew by leading up to the question-and-answer portion, which included some pointed and appropriate questions – and others far out of left field – from Four Arts members and guests. One woman expressed her appreciation for Tucci’s unsung gem “Undercover Blues,” in which Tucci says he played “the Sisyphus of petty crime.” Another patron asked him what he would cook a group of unexpected guests at his home, which prompted a humorous exchange. Others asked him about his thoughts on the gun control issue (a liberal Democrat, he seemed to support the president’s initiatives) and his ability to memorize large swaths of difficult medical jargon on shows like “E.R.” (“I’d write the script on patients’ bedsheets”).

A younger audience member asked both the weirdest and most unforgettable question of the afternoon: “If I gave you a pet elephant, where would you hide it?” This was, of course, met by quizzical stares; I assume she was taking someone up on a bet to ask such an inane question. Tucci managed a funny retort even when discussing the proverbial elephant in the room, remaining gracious all the way through.