As if Miami isn’t surreal enough, here comes a first-of-its-kind exhibit featuring the largest privately owned collections of the work by the father of surrealism, Salvador Dalí.
“Dalí Miami,” featuring more than 200 pieces including original paintings and sculptures, opens tonight with a VIP party and runs through Sunday at the Moore Building, 4040 N.E. Second Ave. It promises to be a museum quality collection of works that span Dalí’s long, storied career.
The collection is said to include some of the most significant works under private ownership, outside of the museums in Dalí’s native Spain. According to DaliMiami.com, the exhibit “will provide viewers with an unparalleled exposure to this master on a scale unavailable outside of the major museums of the world.”
The Mai-Kai: History, Mystery & Adventure By Hurricane Hayward and Tim “Swanky” Glazner, February 2012
The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, now in its 56th year, is widely acclaimed as perhaps the last perfectly preserved mid-century Polynesian restaurant with its incredible vintage decor, acclaimed cocktails, authentic South Seas stage show, vast Asian-inspired menu and an ambience that makes you feel like you’ve been transported back in time.
One of the oldest Mai-Kai postcards, a rendering by architect Charles McKirahan. (From SwankPad.org)
But not many are aware of The Mai-Kai’s direct links to Tiki’s forefather, from the concept to the cocktails to the decor.
In 1933, a small tropical and nautical themed bar in Hollywood, Calif., called Don the Beachcomber was one of many thousands that opened the day after Prohibition ended. Who would have imagined that former rum-runner Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt, who later changed his name to Donn Beach, had invented a new genre of mixology and a bar/restaurant concept that would be copied across the globe for decades to come.
Of course, we’re talking about the classic Tiki bar and its exotic tropical drinks. At the dawn of the cocktail era, Donn Beach was the undisputed king of tropical mixology. In an era of drinks with two or three ingredients, his secret recipes included up to a dozen, including two or three rums, resulting in drinks the world had never seen before.
The Hukilau is the largest Polynesian Pop festival on the U.S. East Coast. It will be held April 19-22 in Fort Lauderdale at several beachside hotels plus the legendary Mai-Kai restaurant.
Guitar slinger Eddie Angel will be making his third appearance at The Hukilau in the past four years, but for the third time he’ll have a different band in tow. Having earlier performed with Los Straitjackets and The Neanderthals, the Nashville-based Angel returns with a new, out-of-this-world crew.
The Martian Denny Orchestra blends surf, spy and space sounds is quickly becoming an underground sensation in Music City. As expected from a Nashville group, the band’s members are some of the best in the business. Joining Angel are: guitarist Bob Irwin, owner of record label Sundazed Music and member of New York’s Pluto Walkers; bassist Dave Roe, who has played with everyone from Johnny Cash to John Mellencamp; multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke (steel guitar, saxophone, flute, etc.), who has showed off his versatility with NRBQ, Toby Keith and others; and drummer Jimmy Lester, formerly of Los Straitjackets and currently with roots rocker Webb Wilder.
More music and a very special guest speaker have been added to the lineup for the 11th annual Hukilau, the massive Polynesian Pop party scheduled for April 19-22 in Fort Lauderdale. Organizers just confirmed the addition of exotica band Exotik-a-GoGo and influential author Sven Kirsten.
Exotik-a-GoGo
Exotik-a-GoGo, hailing from the not-so-tropical locale of Minneapolis, is scheduled to perform on Friday and Saturday nights. Combining jazz instrumentation with jungle rhythms and tropical birdcalls mixed with vibraphone, the group promises the pseudo experience of being transported to an exotic island destination.
The band cites influences such as mid-century exotica pioneers Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Yma Sumac. You can catch them live every Friday and Saturday at Midwest Tiki hotspot Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge in Minneapolis.
Making a rare appearance at Hukilau will be one of the pioneers credited with kick-starting the Tiki revival, California-based and German-born Sven Kirsten, author of the Book of Tiki (2003) and Tiki Modern (2007). Kirsten will host a special presentation, “The Golden Age of Tiki Archeology: Unpublished Images from the Sven Kirsten Archive.” It’s sure to include a multimedia showing of great photos and discoveries that have never been seen before.
2012 Miami Rum Renaissance Festival: Monday, April 16, through Sunday, April 22, at the Deauville Beach Resort, Miami Beach. For more information, go to RumRenaissance.com.
It’s funny to see the reaction when people find out that The Hukilau, the 11th annual Tiki and rum-soaked weekender in Fort Lauderdale, has been moved to the same week as the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival. “Whatever will we do?” Why, drink more rum, of course.
Last year, there was a good six-week buffer zone, so our livers had time to recover. This year, however, it’s a full-on rum onslaught. On April 19-21 (Thursday through Saturday), rum will flow liberally at The Hukilau’s beachside host hotels, and during nightly parties at The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale. Rum cocktail authority Jeff “Beachbum” Berry will highlight The Hukilau’s tropical-themed symposiums with his latest history lesson on the Zombie.
Meanwhile, less than 30 miles away on South Beach, the largest gathering of rum experts in the world will take over the ritzy Deauville (where the Beatles once played for Ed Sullivan) with VIP parties, competitions and “grand tasting” events. Rum Renaissance Festival organizers promise a bigger and better event this year with almost twice the square footage in the main exhibit hall, and many more rum brands from around the world.
The South Florida music scene will lose another outlet for live performances in 2012 when The Monterey Club closes its doors on South Federal Highway near Fort Lauderdale International Airport.
The club’s plans to expand into the adjacent space vacated by the the Orange County Choppers motorcycle shop fell through when the owners were unable to secure financing to acquire a full liquor license. The existing club is a warm and cozy space, but no where near large enough to present the caliber of bands and live events that the owners aspire to.
Over the two years The Monterey was open, it featured such national touring bands as Wayne Hancock, the Nekromantix and Guttermouth but was held back by the club’s small size and isolated location. And its limitation on serving only beer and wine did not provide the necessary operating revenue to make any major enhancements.
A full slate of shows are scheduled for the next two weeks, culminating with a farewell bash on New Year’s Eve featuring Darling Sweets, Los Bastardos Magnificos, The Wholetones and Everymen. Check the official Web site and Facebook pages for the updated calendar of events. Bands interested in performing one last show at The Monterey can e-mail [email protected] or [email protected].
Are you already getting tired of those boring office Christmas parties? Ring in the holiday season with those wild and crazy DJs from Exotica A-Go-Go at another one of their raucous late-night soirees this Saturday at Fort Lauderdale’s world famous Mai-Kai.
Put on your dancing shoes, grab a Barrel O’ Rum and and a pupu platter and prepare to get funky at a very special Huladay Party from 9 p.m. until the wee hours in The Molokai bar. DJs Sensitive Side, James Brown’s Sweat and Mikey “Radio-Active” Ramirez will be spinning a wide assortment of hip-shakin’ soul, garage, punk, R&B, surf and much more.
Santa will drop by with holiday giveaways and likely take advantage of the half-price happy hour drink specials from 10 p.m. until midnight. There’s no cover charge or minimum.
Of course, these are the same guys behind the recent Zombie A-Go-Go at The Mai-Kai in October. See photos and a recap of that bash courtesy of Broward New Times.
It’s a good sign that the blossoming interest in mixology and cocktail culture is reaching mass appeal when exhibits pop up at acclaimed art galleries. One such gallery, the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, is taking a highbrow approach to an intoxicating topic with a fine art exhibit that premieres tomorrow (Dec. 15) and runs through March 11.
Summer Cocktail Party with English Butler, 1961. Watercolor, gouache, ink on paper by Larry Salk.
Titled simply Cocktail Culture, it’s one of the first multi-disciplinary exhibitions to explore the social rituals of the cocktail hour through the lens of fashion and design. It features more than 150 objects, including attire, accessories, ads, decorative arts, illustrations, photography and more from the 1920s to the present.
The show is like a travelogue through decades of cocktail history, from the 1920s jazz age to today. Each decade features a different cocktail (the Flapper, the Prohibition, etc.), plus period clothing, objects and accessories. Also included are advertising illustrations and movie clips.
Organizers of the largest annual celebration of Tiki culture on the East Coast went straight to the event’s loyal following when it came time to plan the 2012 event. The result? An earlier date and other exciting changes that have just been announced on the event’s totally redesigned website, TheHukilau.com.
The Hukilau, which spent the past five years in early June, now moves to April 19-22 as the result of a poll of its Facebook fans. The earlier date promises milder weather and more separation from the other major summer events.
Activities will again be centered around two beachside hotels plus the legendary Mai-Kai restaurant, which is celebrating its 55th anniversary this month. But months of feedback from Hukilau fans resulted in several changes: More events at The Mai-Kai, a more budget-friendly hotel, and a more laid-back schedule with time to enjoy the company of friends and South Florida’s abundant beaches and beauty.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is The Hukilau’s commitment to high-caliber entertainment and educational symposiums. Among the 2012 highlights are: Nashville surf/spy/space supergroup The Martian Denny Orchestra; a symposium on the mysterious Zombie cocktail by influential mixologist and author Jeff “Beachbum” Berry; a hands-on symposium by tattoo artist and historian Paul Roe; and several performances by acclaimed burlesque star Angie Pontani.
Here’s an overview of this magical Polynesian weekend in America’s Vacationland:
For art fans, the annual Art Basel Miami Beach can be ridiculously overwhelming. Running from Thursday, Dec. 1, through Sunday, Dec. 4, the 10th edition of the “most prestigious art show in the Americas” features more than 260 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa showcasing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Art Basel Miami Beach is a sister event to Art Basel in Switzerland, founded in 1970 and called “the Olympics of the art world.” Miami Beach organizers have boasted that their event has eclipsed the original Art Basel in size and popularity, attracting more than 40,000 attendees a year.
Running concurrently with Art Basel is Design Miami, an international design show that also has a sister event in Switzerland. It’s a marketplace for collectible design, where the world’s top galleries gather to present museum-quality exhibitions of 20th and 21st century furniture, lighting and art. It attracts some of the top figures from the worlds of design, architecture, art and fashion.
