Last December, I escaped the art fairs in Miami early to spend several days camping and kayaking in the Ten Thousand Islands on assignment for Florida Travel + Life, where I serve as a semi-regular contributor. It was pretty awe-inspiring . By day, we explored the mangrove isles that make up much of the southwestern Florida coast. At night, we camped on small beaches, carbo-loaded and admired the stars. It was the perfect antidote to the overload of shiny baubles I’d just gorged on at the art fairs. I’m also pretty dang proud I managed to survive the physical demands of the trip (blogging doesn’t do much in the way of developing stamina), but I’m also pretty excited about the story that came out of it. I’ve been spending the last few years making regular Everglades pilgrimages and I’ve developed a real affection for it. It kind of bums me out that the many Miami types who live right on top of it rarely show it much appreciation.
You can find my story on this journey in the April 2010 edition of Florida Travel + Life (available at Barnes & Noble) or you can cheat and read the PDF version here. Though if you could support the mag — which helps support me, I’d be deeply appreciative.
If you’re interested in doing something similar, I would like to heartily recommend the wonderful folks at Everglades Area Tours, who not only organize some mighty fine kayaking excursions (there are day-trips in case you don’t do camping), but are super cool folks to boot. And if for some reason, you spend any time at all in South Florida (be it for art fairs or because you like to get butt facials), consider Michael Grunwald’s The Swamp required reading. No ifs, ands or buts.
Piss on this: Clark Sorensen’s over-the-top urinals. (Photos by Sebastian Puig.)
On a recent visit to San Francisco’s once nitty gritty Mission district, we paid a visit to the studio of Clark Sorensen, a ceramicist known for his outrageous glazed and high-fired floral urinals. Interestingly, Sorensen was raised as a Mormon in Utah (and once proselytized for the Latter Day Saints in France) but found himself as a pinko leftist queer in San Francisco where he came to his senses, and he has recently let his politics creep into his work. In addition to producing some highly unusual urinals (ever tinkle on a cala lilly?), he also has a series titled Down the Drain: The Legacy of George W. Bush — a fitting urinary tribute to those eight lousy years. There’s no telling what his next series will be devoted to, but may we kindly suggest the addition of hysteria-monger and kooky gold shiller Glenn Beck.
A bile-colored chandelier just brings the whole Phillipe Starck-designed spa together. (All photos by San Suzie.)
If the city of Miami gave a prize for the hotel that most embodies the anything-goes glamor of the December art fairs minus the pretentiousness of artistic content, the winner would surely be the new Viceroy on Brickell Avenue. The brainchild of Miami-based developer Jorge M. Perez of the Related Group, the Viceroy offers Fall-of-Rome narchitectural splendor realized by the design triumvirate of Miami-based Arquitectonica (exteriors), interiors maven Phillipe Starck (spa) and design wunderplaymateKelly Wearstler (hotel).
Located on the lower 15 floors of the center of three soaring and mostly unsold condo towers, the hotel’s art-inspired grandiloquence begs the question of whether buying pricey originals makes any sense in trying economic times when design-based knock-offs can appear just as ostentatious. Fortunately, guests will have ample time for such contemplation while getting “non-surgical facelifts” at the marble-clad, chandelier-encrusted, 28,000 square-foot spa — a studiously tranquil environment permeated by the pungent scent of excess.
This poster is a collaboration between the supertalented wearygunfighter & C-Monster.net. Interested in owning a copy? Visit the OMNI Board of Tourism booth inside the marketplace at Scope Miami. Proceeds go to support The Omni Bot, a non-profit organization supporting business development in underprivileged neighborhoods. Cost: a mere $5. (Plus: Omni’s having a pop-up party on Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 8 p.m. (with beer!) Get the deets here.)
Giveaway Extravaganza: Leave a comment below and you could win your very own Miami: Where Art Sweats poster — the official poster of the C-Mon Basel Frazzle.
