My weekend's adventures

I was wrong. I'm big enough to admit that. I was wrong. It seems that Miami is not devoid of culture at all. Its just devoid of great theatre. Oh fine... even that may not be true but I digress.

First was the book fair. An amazing huge event with speakers and authors filling every hour of a week of events. It was amazing. This past weekend was Art Basel. Its a contemporary art show that is a spinoff of the original in Switzerland. Supposedly its the largest contemporary art show in the US. The show itself was at the convention center and had an entrance fee of $35 so I went to one of the free parts. There were related events all over the place. This one was called Art Position and it was on South Beach. They had up and coming artist show in containers. Huge shipping containers like you would see on a freight train. Each artist had a container that they could do with what they wanted. Some were carpeted, some industrial... some were plain weird. My favorite was one which looked like it had been sliced with spaces in between the slices. cool. What rules? Its all in how you interpret them! I figured out how to put a photo or two on here... see the containers above?

the sliced container is to the right.

Then there was this funky thing on a stage area. I read somewhere that it was supposed to represent sound waves. Cool. It was made of styrofoam.

Okay, so while I was at South Beach I thought I would take a stroll on the beach. It was bout 5 or 5:30 and it was just beautiful. Miami has some seriously amazing sky. No matter east or west... morning or evening... the sky is just beautiful. Beautiful clouds, amazing color. I couldn't resist a few snapshots. I'm not gloating. I'm sharing. Although I can't complain about having my toes in the ocean while its freezing up north.

okay so somewhere along the day I went to Espanola Street and Lincoln Road and wandered those streets. Both are filled with restaurants galore and shops thrown in for shopping in between bouts of eating. I came upon a flower vendor with beautiful flowers. I saw one that really caught my eye. Its called Gangling Heliconia. It sort of looks like a bird of paradise that grows downward.

While shopping on Espanola, a store owner told me about an open house over on Collins Avenue that was open in honor of Art Basel. It was closed when I first went over, but on my way home after the beach, I was driving down Collins -- which is the very heart of South Beach -- and the door to the house was open. I scooted in for a quick peak. While I have to admit I just understand or relate to most contemporary art, this house was drop dead gorgeous. I'm sure the art was nice too.

Here's the front of the house. Its nestled between a hotel and who knows what. But you'd never know what's behind that gate from the front! Here's the courtyard you seen when you come through the entrance gate. Billiard room is first door on right. Living room is first door on right.

The first door on the left is the living room. I opened that door and saw a most amazing thing. a truly beautiful spiral staircase. I think it was mahogany. double wide. Nice.

I was a little awed by this house and being there alone.. no other spectators had wandered in.. so I didn't go upstairs. Back out side I wandered along the courtyard and came upon a beautiful pool or pond on my right. Wow. Following further along was a magnificent open living area. At the very end was the bedroom "building." wow. it was an amazing place just tucked into the chaos of Collins Avenue. There's plenty of ostentatiousness in South Beach, but this was a beautiful place. How kind of them to share it with me. Oh and the art looked good too.