Old School Square launches its season with free activities, one of the titans of the podcast world records live in West Palm Beach, and Savor Cinema screens one of the longest films in history. Plus, Adam Ant, Latin American art and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Adam Ant
Where: Fillmore, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $36.50-$48.50
Contact: 305/673-7300, livenation.com
English New Waver Adam Ant is the rock world’s irascible dandy, a cheeky impresario of fashion and fornication who thrived during the MTV ‘80s. In his videos, which are still classics and can be easily exhumed via YouTube, Ant pantomimed a swashbuckler, cavorted with mechanical mice, skewered Victorian sexual mores and danced in front of moving furniture. Not for nothing did MTV viewers award him the title of the Sexiest Man in America. After largely disappearing from the touring and recording spotlights for more than 15 years, Adam re-emerged in the 2010s with renewed vigor, and he hasn’t stopped since. For this year’s tour, for the first time ever, he’ll be playing every song on his landmark 1982 debut Friend or Foe, including its breakout hit “Goody Two Shoes,” along with fan favorites from throughout his oeuvre.
THURSDAY
What: Adam Carolla Live Podcast
Where: Palm Beach Improv, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., Suite 250
When: Oct. 3, 8 p.m.
Cost: $30-$40
Contact: 561/833-1812, palmbeachimprov.com
The latest data indicate that there are more than 700,000 podcasts on the Internet offering a collective 29 million episodes for your listening pleasure. Most, it’s fair to say, are labors of love for their unpaid creators. Adam Carolla, who has a net worth of $16 million, is an exception. Exiled from his longtime radio career in 2009 when his station in Los Angeles switched formats, Carolla re-launched “The Adam Carolla Show” as a podcast three days later. By 2011, it had secured the Guinness World Record for the Most Downloaded Podcast Ever, with a seriously astonishing 59.5 million unique downloads. Carolla’s podcast plays on a similar cult of personality that drove listeners to his inventive call-in show “Loveline” a decade ago. The nasally voiced, libertarian shock jock is routinely provocative, and his skill at chatting about both nothing and everything with celebrities, comics and thought leaders has few peers. It remains to be seen who will join him at this live podcast recording at the Improv.
FRIDAY
What: Opening day of “The Body Says, I Am a Fiesta: The Figure in Latin American Art”
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
Borrowing its title from a series of maxims by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, the Norton’s new exhibition is a showcase of vital and often under-represented Latin American art from the museum’s permanent collection. The broad swath of artists included—from Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco to Cuban artist Ana Mendieta to Brazil’s Vik Muniz and Colombia’s Fernando Botero—all communicate issues of body awareness in their work. This became the overarching theme for curator Rachel Gustafson, who centered on work that explored the societal and symbolic implications of the body in modern Latin American cultures. Expect this idea to resonate across mediums including painting, photography, sculpture and works on paper. “The Body Says, I Am a Fiesta” runs through March 1, 2020.
What: Season Launch Party
Where: Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
When: 6 to 10 p.m.
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/243-7922, oldschoolsquare.org
Ready or not, “Season” is here, and Old School Square is celebrating with a campus-wide slate of free activities—with the exception of the Crest Theatre, which is undergoing renovation. On the outdoor Pavilion Stage, Forever Tina will provide the soulful kickoff to the venue’s Free Friday Concert Series, performing the music of Tina Turner to a sure-to-be-packed lawn. The Cornell Museum will open its doors at no charge for attendees to ponder “Sinking Tides,” a climate change-themed exhibition in its Spotlight Gallery; this is also the final weekend to see the main exhibition “Seven Solos,” which closes Saturday. The Creative Arts School will open to the community in the Fieldhouse, where visitors can meet instructors, view live art demos and participate in an interactive art project. If that’s not enough, the event coincides with First Friday Art Walk, so you can continue imbibing art at galleries throughout downtown.
What: Opening day of “La Flor Part 1”
Where: Savor Cinema, 503 S.E. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale
When: 6 p.m.
Cost: $9-$12
Contact: 954/525-3456, fliff.com
You might want to bring your own seat cushion for this one. “La Flor,” which translates to “The Flower,” is the longest film in the history or Argentine cinema, running a binge-worthy 14 hours sprawled across four parts. Part 1 alone, which opens this weekend, runs three hours and 23 minutes. Lest you assume “La Flor” is some Andy Warhol experiment in cinematic paint-drying, let director Mariano Llinas put you at ease: He opens Part 1 with a preview of his high-concept project, which features six self-contained episodes starring the same four versatile actresses. These parts within the whole each explore a different genre, from a supernatural B-movie to a medical drama about a potion for eternal life to a spy narrative to a detective story to a remake of a Jean Renoir classic. Unlike most epically long films, “La Flor” is, at its heart, a comedy. If you like what you see, come back the next day (Saturday) for Part 2.
What: Opening night of “An Evening With John Wayne Gacy Jr.”
Where: The Foundry at Wilton Theater Factory, 2306 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors
When: 9 p.m.
Cost: $25
Contact: https://www.goldstar.com/venues/wilton-manors-fl/wilton-theater-factory-the-foundry-tickets
The timing for this world-premiere play couldn’t be better, in a morbid sense of the word. Sheila Warren, currently in prison and awaiting a verdict as the suspect in the famous “Killer Clown of Wellington” murder in 1990, has been making news again, after an account of the crime was covered in last season’s Felonious Florida podcast. But the idea of murderous clowns arguably owes its origins to John Wayne Gacy, the Illinois serial killer who led a dichotomous life you cannot make up: birthday party clown by day, killer of teenage boys and young men by night. Writer/performer Ronnie Larsen’s solo show is an uncompromising look at its subject as he awaits execution on Death Row, the audience becoming voyeurs to some of his most gruesome memories and re-enactments. Rare among theatrical productions, “An Evening With John Wayne Gacy Jr.” is restricted to audience members 18 and older. It runs through Nov. 3.
