Wallpeople Miami 2013: An Outdoor Pop-Up Gallery That Wants Your Art

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Courtesy of wallpeople.org
Wallpeople participating in Barcelona
Make it, tape it, and gather for a universal celebration of creative expression. That's what Wallpeople wants you to do.

On Saturday, June 1st, artists in 40 cities across the world will simultaneously turn the walls of their city streets into outdoor pop-up galleries. And yes, that includes Miami.

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How I Scammed the Disney World Wheelchair Line System

Categories: Culture

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via wdwnews.com
In 1993, when I was 11 years old, my family went to Disney World. We piled into our station wagon -- my mother and father in front, my little sister and I in the back -- and set out from our home in rural Pennsylvania, driving two full days until we reached the town that Mickey built. By the time we arrived at our resort, the anticipation was unbearable. But it was the afternoon, and not worth paying full ticket price for a half day of rides. So instead, we went to the pool at our resort.

The first thing I did was run to the deep end and jump in, toes pointed, trying to touch the bottom. The pool wasn't as deep as I'd hoped, and I crushed my foot against the rough concrete. I came up, choking and wailing; hours later, my big toe was more swollen than I'd ever seen on anybody. I couldn't walk on it at all. I was certain it was broken.

So the next day, we marched ourselves up to the guest services desk at Magic Kingdom, and requested a wheelchair for me. That was when I learned the tantalizing truth about Disney World's special disabled lines: Anybody can use them. And anybody -- not just "rich Manhattan moms" who can afford disabled guides -- can scam the system.

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"Precipice/PostModem": A Virtual Art Playground at Locust Projects

Categories: Art, Culture

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Briana Saati
Jillian Mayer
A ticker tape walkway, swing sets in the sky, and mounds of chewed bubblegum. They were just a few of the pieces on display at Locust Projects for the opening reception of Jillian Mayer's "Precipice/PostModem" exhibit this past weekend.

"'PostModem' started last summer as a musical project. PostModem is a meta-pop band that only sings about the Internet and Internet related conspiracy theories," Mayer said. The exhibit builds on the concept, which became a 13-minute, experimental short film #PostModem made up of 10 mini videos. It was a collaboration between Mayer and Lucas Leyva, founder of the Borscht Film Festival, that went on to premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2013. The exhibit playfully tackles issues of human dependence on technology.

"We constantly turn to our screens to help us understand things and our hard-drives to store our information. I suppose this relationship will only intensify with time," Mayer said.

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Five Reasons Miami Is a Better City Than Chicago

Categories: Culture

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Wright Way Photography / Flickr CC
Let's be straight up. Chicago is a cool city. We actually have a lot in common. We both fired Ozzie Guillen; we both have serious problems with crime; our political corruption is legendary. Hell, Miami got love for the 312.

Just not while the Bulls are trying (and failing) to knock the Heat out of the playoffs.

Under any other circumstances, Chicago, we'd tell you how much we respect your Wrigley Field and your Oprah and your giant metal blob at Millennium Park. But not today. People in the Windy City are real, but in honor of tonight's game four and the pending end of the Bulls' season -- and quite frankly, because we truly believe Miami is a better city, in so many ways -- here are seven reasons why.

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Mother's Day 2013: The Ten Best Pop Culture Moms of the Year

Categories: Culture

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Mother's Day is a holiday to reflect on the true meaning of motherhood, to be thankful for the courage and sacrifice it takes to bring a child into the world, and to celebrate the special bond found only between a mom and her kids.

Also, it's a pretty great day for judging celebrities.

So as you and your mother struggle awkwardly though yet another Mother's Day brunch -- you do have reservations, don't you? -- try this topic on for size: the best mothers in pop culture this year. Here are our picks to get you started.

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Sex and Alcohol Study Proves Miami is the Happiest Place on Earth

Categories: Culture

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Liliana Mora
They look pretty happy, no?
Step off, religious fanatics. Contrary to popular opinion -- at least that of our nation's more god-fearing citizens -- having lots of sex and drinking lots of booze aren't just desperate expressions of the empty place in your soul where God's love should be. They make you happy.

Don't take our word for it. Just ask science.

A University of Canterbury psychology study has ranked the top ten activities that give human beings happiness. And guess what's at the top? Drinkin' and doin' it. That pretty much means that Miami -- long established as one of the world's party capitals -- is the happiest place on earth.

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Real, Live Penguins Flock to Aventura Mall

Categories: Culture

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Everyone's favorite little tuxedoed seabirds are on the march again, and this time they're headed straight for the sunny shores of South Florida. Well, Aventura Mall to be exact.

These flipper-footed swimmers will make an appearance as part of Sea World's Epic Voyage campaign, promoting its newest attraction: Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin.

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Richard Blanco, Thurston Moore, and O, Miami Prove Miami Is a Family (Or at Least a Gang)

Categories: Culture, Festivals

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Inaugural poet Richard Blanco got the crowd's eyes all damp with his descriptions of a childhood family visit to Marco Island. Thurston Moore dedicated his poems -- the ones through which he dragged us, limp with love and starstruck -- to the lady who gave birth to him, his mom, who was in the audience. Parks and Recreation staff writer Megan Amram read some intricate verses about her twin brother, born just minutes before she was herself hatched.

It seemed from the readings that O, Miami's finale last night at the New World Symphony focused on two things: family and Miami. The dedications made this big city feel small and tight, like we all understand each other, like we all have the same tattoos, eat the same food, share the same cousins.

The very short Julian Yuri Rodriguez film that screened told a complete visual and emotional tale, in what felt like seconds, of a what-might-actually-be gang, inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool." We, (real cool) Miami, are a gang. Hating, loving, protecting, daring, and growing together. A community, a family. And, in a romantic way, O, Miami has proven to be a month-long poem, with events as the words, dedicated to this weird, hot place.

See also:
- Parks and Recreation 's Megan Amram on O, Miami and "Classic Butterface" Emily Dickinson
- Richard Blanco on Beyonce, Gloria Estefan, and Life After the Inauguration

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Dr. Robert Gallo, AIDS Research Pioneer: "South Florida Has a Problem"

Categories: Culture

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Courtesy Dewitt Stetten, Jr., Museum of Medical Research, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Robert Gallo
Depending on whose statistics one goes by, either Miami-Dade or Broward County has the highest rate of new HIV infections in the entire country. Palm Beach County is not that far behind by any metric.

"Yes, they still talk about San Francisco, but we've got a problem on the east coast," says Dr. Robert Gallo, founder of the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore. "The I-95 corridor is like the roads in Africa for truck drivers and heterosexual sex."

Gallo co-discovered HIV as the cause of AIDS and will be Grand Marshal of this Sunday's 25th Anniversary AIDS Walk Miami. He is careful to stress that "this is not a gay man's disease. That wasn't the problem in Africa. If there were no gay sex on Earth, we would still be talking about HIV."


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South Florida Photographer Monica McGivern Puts a Face on Miami

Categories: Art, Culture
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Monica McGivern
Self-portrait 
Bath salt cannibals, EDM-fueled Ultra Music Festival tree humpers, mami and papi chulos -- everyone and their mother has an opinion about what kind of people make up Miami. But Miami women don't all draw their eyebrows on with Sharpie, not all dudes act like Pitbull, and just because we're one of the party capitals of the world, doesn't mean we don't have more to offer in terms of culture.

Dispelling these ridiculous generalizations of South Florida natives, award-winning photographer and mixed-media artist Monica McGivern is out to document some of the amazing individuals that drive our city.

In her first Miami solo show, McGivern in conjunction with commercial music and media curators Imagesound Americas, will unveil her "Miami Portrait Project." On Saturday, April 27, never before seen photographs, multimedia works, and interactive "motionography" art installation will feature an assortment of artists, musicians, and media personalities who have inspired McGivern, and who she feels are responsible for enriching Wynwood's distinct aesthetic.

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