Walkabout! is Back!!!

Yep, cats and kittens, you read correctly. Walkabout!, that Miami.com-set drive-by walking tour of our swingin' town, is back.

We've got two new sponsors: 42 Below and Christy's Headwear. And we've got three new subjects: the Viceroy, the Epic and Conrad Miami.

In this episode, we hit the Conrad. I'd really dig it if you hit it too, especially this week. Because this Friday evening we're launching the first of the whole new slew.

Michael Jackson Was My First...

It's one of those nights I'll never forget. Mike and I had been dreaming about it for years, through all the play-acting and the lip-syncing and the record-buying and the cartoons. We would hope and we would pray: What if one day we could see the Jackson 5?

Read the rest of the story at Huffington Post.

No More Mr. Magic Fingers

The world lost another of its kookiest inventors on Friday, and motel beds all across America have shuddered to a halt.

Yes, John Joseph Houghtaling is dead. Houghtaling was the man behind the magnificent Magic Fingers. If you've not had the pleasure of his two-bit rumble, well, you're missing out on much of what it means to be comfortably stirred to sleep. In fact, you're missing out on a whole added twist in bed-riding altogether.

As Miami New Times so helpfully pointed out, Houghtaling invented the device in New Jersey before moving the business to Miami, where we welcome our oddballs with wide open arms. He retired to Fort Pierce, and that is where the gentleman died.

Gotta say it for his Magic Fingers though, they massaged the man into his '90s. And that's a lotta loose change!

Regina vs Moby (After a Sunset Rubdown)

Gotta hand it to NPR, they really do deliver the best in song.

Last week the station streamed the whole of Moby's Wait for Me; this week they're streaming Regina Spektor's Far, in its entirety. And two weeks ago they came through with a stream of Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer.

I won't venture to say which LP is better - each is delightful in its own way. But I will say that all three are as charmed and as whimsical as the talents behind them.

Dig!

Head Spins, Baby!

It's been six weeks since last I posted an onslaught of Head Spins, and just about a one full year since I started the Miami New Times column.

This week the paper's running its Best of, but that doesn't mean readers get a reprieve. Instead there's a Live from Mokai mix from DJ D-Up posted on Crossfade and this get-with of the last half dozen other Miami DJs who got props.

So, in order of rotation, please do dig DJs NVS Styles, Chris Graham, Keoki, Anthony Pisano and Jenni Foxx.

Your dizzy will thank you in the morning!

One Dream Rush

Amazing enough that Bacardi's 42 Below has just signed on to sponsor my Miami.com series Walkabout; now I find out that the New Zealand-born brand is behind One Dream Rush, an incredibly inspired short film festival where 42 directors were given 42 seconds to give you their dreamworld.

Talk about prestigious. As Filmmaker Magazine notes, 42 Below teamed with The Beijing Film Studio, where movies have been made for over four decades.

And according to The Inspiration Room (where you can catch the four-minute long trailer), the line-up of directors includes Kenneth Anger, David Lynch, Larry Clark and Harmony Korine.

I tell ya, very few times does a man get truly honored in life. To me, being tied-in with a brand like 42 Below on a site like Miami.com is one of those times.

Really.

Dangermouse. Sparklehorse. Lynch. Really.

Yeah, you read correctly Dangermouse has collided with Sparklehorse and David Lynch is lending it imagery.

The project's called Dark Night of the Soul and it will restore your faith in both sound and in vision.

Especially once you find out that Jason Lytle, Julian Casablancas, Frank Black, Iggy Pop, James Mercer, Nina Persson, Suzanne Vega and Vic Chesnutt are all involved as well.

NPR is exclusively streaming the whole glorious thing.