Artopia

Last Thursday, I went toThe Miami New Times Artopia event in the Wynwood Arts District. Sometimes I am wary of these types of events because I feel like they can be cheesy, but this one was actually pretty cool.

As you walked in, there was a large, outdoor space with sponsors, music, models and a bar full of free alcohol. There were a few places you could sit and chill with friends before walking into the building, where the art was displayed.

We walked in, and to our left were several models, some of the vintage swimsuit variety, and some in the designer wear. There was also a pool. This was an interesting, somewhat hazardous setup, evidenced by the fact that this guy, dressed exactly like Kanye West (sorry, but that adds sort of a douchey aura to him already) walked in, spotted the models and totally started walking towards them, and falling straight into the pool. That was possibly the greatest thing I saw all night.









As you walked past the pool, you see the trailor park set-up, which I wasn't so sure about:




I get it, it's white-trash-class, or whatever. But in retrospect, it was just a funny sort of thing, and not really any sort of statement to me.

Local artist Lebo was also there, doing a live paint and showing art:




I know he isn't as "indie" or whatever as most things you see in Wynwood, but I still really like Lebo's style, and I am glad to see a local artist making it big here.

The New Times also arranged for tasty food, interesting performers and cigar rollers:



The guy in the blue was awesome. He kept getting in people's faces, which didn't seem to faze anyone. Probably because of the massive amounts of free alcohol.

This event, like Iron Fork, was a fun one. They are good venues to meet up with friends, hang out and wander around. The music was good, the art and fashion were intersting and the flow of the venue worked. And it was a night in Wynwood with a totally different scene than the art walk.

Miami New Times Iron Fork

To calm my rattled election nerves, I have decided to post about one of my favorite things, food.

Specifically the Miami New TImes Iron Fork event. Originally scheduled for September, the event was postponed due to one of our fizzled-out tropical storms, and was rescheduled for the 30th.

Iron Fork took place at the Science Museum, which was pretty cool since I have never been. All I knew about the museum was that it has a giant dinosaur/monster standing outside the entrance, and it's across from Vizcaya.


entrance to the museum

The Iron Fork was a sold-out event. It's sponsors included several different types of restaurants, handing out food, wine and liquor sponsors, and a culinary competition, which was packed, as several local celebrity chefs were in attendance, including Chef Allen.

It was so packed that all we could make out of the competition was the smell and blurred action on monitors:


Since we couldn't see, we wandered around to several wine and food sponsors. This was one of my favorite things (hey, I'm into simplicity!):

Dark chocolate covered strawberries... doesn't get any better than that!

By wandering the event, we also saw alot of the science museum, and right now they have an awesome exhibit about Latin music.



Since I grew up on blues and 70s music instead of Cyndi Lauper and NKOTB, I was pleased to see a giant picture of Santana.

All-in-all the event was fun. We went as a girls-night-out event, and got to try a bunch of food and wine along with checking out all the exhibits. I think perhaps we were having a little too much fun for some people, but life is too short to be pretentious when you have good food, fun friends and an interesting venue, right? At least I think so... and we weren't stumbling around drunk, or flitting around in skanky Halloween costumes at least.