Show of hands. Who's surprised that the first time an artist in the U.S. was convicted criminally on obscenity charges, it was in the State of Florida? No one? Exactly.

Mike Diana was initially approached by cops at 18, fingered as a suspect in the Gainesville murders because of his suggestive underground comic books. DNA tests proved his innocence, but the po-po still insisted on riding his ass into court for his gory but artful and amusing works Boiled Angel #7 and Boiled Angel #ATE.

Diana is back in the Sunshine State, speaking at Miami Art Museum tomorrow about his evolution as an artist and his legal strifes. He also has a show up at Bas Fisher Invitational with those whose works he's influenced. We wrote a full article on the man for Miami New Times, but wanted to expand upon his musical experiences growing up in this weird part of the earth.

See also:
- Mike Diana Returns to the State That Convicted Him of Obscenity

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Brent T. Williams

Experimental tuba: Two words you don't see side-by-side very often.

The big bulky brass instrument conjures up images of lockstep marching bands, or smoky New Orleans jazz joints, but never anything remotely new or avant-garde.

Set all you preconceived notions about the tuba aside, and get ready for Boca Raton born and bred musician Bill Muter to blow your mind with the beast of brass. Seriously, Muter emits sounds out of the tuba that are simply perplexing. Bending, molding, and shifting the notes of the lowest pitched brass and producing head-scratching noises that resemble guitar strums, keyboard bleeps, didgeridoo fizzes, and more.

He also tips and taps on the oversized horn at the same time, recreating the pitter-patter of drums. The real showstopper is when Mutter starts beatboxing out of the thing, a little boom boom biff hip-hop throwback emitted out a symphonic instrument leaves the crowd like putty in Muter's hands.

See also:
- A Practical Approach: At Only 27, Bill Muter Writes the Book on Playing the Tuba

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Digital Cypher

Following a whirlwind of events in the early Spring, the creative collective of Black Locust Society has gone back into hiding underground. However, that doesn't mean its members have stopped working on keeping the Fort Lauderdale creative scene alive.

For the last two months, local artist and seasoned screen printer Lowell Donofrio, a.k.a. Jinx Remover, has moved into the space next to Laser Wolf, transforming it for his first solo show, Let's Get Weird.

Although the doors have been locked tight on what secrets he's got brewing behind the doors, he took a quick break from his hard work to answer a few questions before tonight's opening party. He shared a little about where his namesake came from, how he got started in screen printing, and what he's been listening to during the creative process.

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Lisa Martin-Owens

Organizer Janette Valentine in the middle with two of last year's participants.

This Saturday, burlesque performers, mixed-media artists, local bands, and vendors gather at Fort Lauderdale's the Bubble for the forth annual art show, The Trouble with Girls: All Female Art Revue. This show is entirely ladies only. That's right, boys, no sausages here, unless they're actually made of pork.

Artist Kelcie McQuaid will be participating for the fourth year in a row. "I'm putting up about 15 paintings," says McQuaid. "The show is about supporting females and their visions. For me personally, it's a great way to network with other creative women, and find an opportunity to collaborate."

So what does the Trouble with Girls mean to Kelcie McQuaid? "It's a "way for girls to shake their fists at the world and say, 'we're not going anywhere!'"

See also
- The Real "Trouble With Girls" Brings Art by Ladies and Music by Dooms de Pop to the Bubble
- PHOTOS: The Real Trouble with Girls 2012

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As you probably read earlier this week on County Grind (and if you didn't, shame on you!), C&I Studios Twilight Notes, and All Together Now presented a multidisciplinary cultural event called Dialect this past Saturday night. And given that it was part of Fort Lauderdale's FAT Village art walk, you might think, "Who cares; art is art." However, Dialect was anything but typical. What follows are five reasons the event was truly somethin' different.

See also
- Slideshow: Fat Village Art Walk and Dialect at C&I
- Adam Foster Delivers Body Paint, Star Wars, and DJs at C&I Studios With Dialect Art Walk

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At every show or concert, there is a clicking camera that counts. It's that one that those onstage should take notice of over the scores of bopping iPhones in the crowd. Photographer and New Times freelancer Monica McGivern's lens is that special one. It captures life as it's happening and reveals something about that time and place that others couldn't.

The Michigan-bred, yoga-trained McGivern has found her home in Palm Beach Gardens. Though she's a regular face in the Broward and Palm Beach county cultural landscape, she more recently started shooting events in Miami, getting to know a whole new group of active scene-starters.

"Inspired by the light," she says, "literally flowing through the Imagesound office I had been hired by the business to photograph," and in order "to grow both professionally and personally," she launched a new project called Solo in Miami. McGivern sat down with various folks who, she states, "helped introduce an aspect of the 'Magic City's' magic" to her. Conceptualized shoots with 21 people and still counting have resulted in her first solo exhibition. In photographing these people, she's documented a growing arts community in Miami.

What follow are her pics for the top 10 most memorable mostly Miami-musician shows she's shot in Broward or Palm Beach counties. Enjoy the eye candy.

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Better than: Anything that's ever happened at your house.

Lots of people have art in their homes. Many of them have art outside of them too. But few have murals like the one Shane Watt painted on the back of Andie Sweetswirl's house in Fort Lauderdale.

After two months of planning, drawing and painting, Sweetswirl, a longtime booker, DJ, and show promoter in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, turned the mural's unveiling into "Myland: A Mural Exhibition" and invited South Florida into her home. Literally.

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From the Delta to the bayou, the blues touch the hearts, souls, and ears of the love-struck, down-and-out, and the everyday soul-searcher. It connects all people through its emotional expression of the human condition.
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Big Cat Rescue, Tampa, FL

See also
- Valentine's Day 2013 in Fort Lauderdale, Broward: Restaurant Deals for Your Sweetheart
- Pollo Tropical's Valentine's Day Deal Offers Cheap Dinner for Two
- 3800 Ocean Offering Up Swanky Valentine's Day Dinner Packages

Thursday, February 14

Xtreme Valentine Xperience: Feel the Love!
3 to 10 p.m. Xtreme Indoor Karting, 5300 Powerline Road in Fort Lauderdale. ;$49 per couple. Call 954-491-6265, or visit xtremeindoorkarting.com.

This year, do not succumb to the Hallmark doldrums; vroom, vroom, vroom your way into your Valentine's heart at "Xtreme Valentine Xperience: Feel the Love!" Couples will receive two eight-minute sessions across Xtreme's half-mile-long asphalt track, two cocktails (served at the finish line, of course), two loaded arcade game cards, and two rounds of minigolf at Xtreme's 18-hole minigolf course. - Alex Rendon

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