By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

In South Beach where it’s perpetually New Year’s Eve,  you will find an onslaught of places to pop your bottles in the ice and get “snizzled and sizzled” as the clock strikes 12 and you usher in 2011, albeit at 1000% mark-up.  We trust that you have been eating your Wheaties, taking your vitamins and have stashed away some cash to blow on the big night, so we are providing you with a short list of parties that may actually be worth said cash.  After all, is two months’ salary too much to spend on the most fun night you won’t remember? Happy New Year!  Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Top by the Bay – KOOZA
The raising of the Blue-and-Yellow Grand Chapiteau (Big Top) and the set up of the Cirque du Soleil Village at Miami’s Bicentennial Park can only mean that Cirque du Soleil’s critically acclaimed production KOOZA is in town!
KOOZA is an attempt to return to ‘the origins’ of circus performing by combining clowning and high tension acrobatics while exploring the themes of fear, identity, recognition and power through a variety of amazing acts showcasing the soul of circus tradition.

KOOZA is the story of a character called the Innocent who takes you along on his journey through the world of KOOZA while he meets characters like the Trickster, the King, the Pickpocket, the Obnoxious Tourist and his Bad Dog.  A word of caution about the Pickpocket, if you happen to be the lucky audience member who is taken on stage for a “demonstration” with the pickpocket, well let’s just say….hold on to your hat Read the rest of this entry »

By:  Mary Jo Almeida -Shore

As many of us complete our 12- step Art Basel recovery program, and begin to stress about New Year’s week (which, in the spirit of “If it’s worth doing it’s worth overdoing,”- lasts about a week), we know what you’re thinking…Art Basel- isn’t that LONG over?! Well to answer, “You didn’t really think we’d be able to cover all the fabulocity Basel has to offer in just one week, did you?” After all, it is the world’s biggest art show!  So here are just a few more great events we didn’t get to last week- for sheer lack of space and strength. Read the rest of this entry »

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

Those with an unrequited, inexplicable obsession with all things social, artistic, fashionable and fabulous got our annual fix last week during Art Basel 2010, where for seven straight days we were over stimulated from the rooster’s crow to the coyote’s howl-and are just slightly the worse for wear this week. At what other time of the year does the bar line at any given event seem transported from the Tower of Babel? Or does one’s daily conversation involve such derivatives of the word “Basel” as: Baseling, Baselites, Basel brain, Basel Tov, Basel hangover or Baselitis? And when else are you just as likely to bump into Academy Award winners, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon as funny men, Steve Martin and Ben Stiller; social fixtures, Andre Balazs, Daphne Guinness, Nicky Hilton; designers, Calvin Klein, Christian Louboutin; music moguls, Russell Simmons and the Estefans, or singer, Pharrell Williams; swoon-worthy beautiful people, Gerard Butler, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell; sports figures, Alex Rodriguez and Serena Williams; art collectors Johnny Pigozzi, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Muhairi, or artistic genius Julian Schnabel, in mismatched clothing as if he’d just gone on a shopping spree at Goodwill? Far from exhaustive, here’s the short list of some of the Basel events that put the “ART” in P-ART-Y. Read the rest of this entry »

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

maryjoshore@aol.com

Art Basel, the art world’s “Carnaval” disguised as an international art show (or vice versa) has arrived, with hundreds of events vying for space on our social calendar.  And while the actual showcase technically runs from December 2-5 (what we like to call the “100 hour day”) the requisite art celebrations and inebriation have been going strong since last weekend.   It seems there’s no end in sight- testing our endurance, social scheduling, and livers more and more each year (please let us know if any progress has been made with human cloning, oh, and add us to the transplant list.)

The world’s largest and most important art show gets bigger every year, especially since in addition to Art Basel itself, Vanguard, Scope, Verge, Pulse, Art Miami, Aqua, Design Miami and over 70 other satellite fairs have set up camp all over town.  Then there are pop-up shops and spas, such as Citrine by the Stones at Soho Beach House and the indulgent La Mer spa South of Fifth and new not-to-be missed restaurants, such as the Royal at the Raleigh, from John DeLucie, who owns NYC hotspots, The Lion and Waverly Inn, (we hear a reservation is harder to come by than snow on South Beach, but give it a shot!)  Also “popping up” for this week only is Paris nightclub transplant, Le Baron, which once again takes over the Florida Room.  Keeping the parties going late into the night are celebrity DJs such as Paul Oakenfold and Behrouz and Danny Tenaglia who will be spinning at WALL throughout the weekend and Kaskade at Arkadia. Read the rest of this entry »

Gingi Beltran and Alicia Cervera at Wolfsonian Quince

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore

Wolfsonian Quinces

Nothing marks a coming of age like a good old fashioned Cuban Quinces.  On Friday, November 12, the Wolfsonian Visionaries celebrated the museum’s milestone with a fantastic Quinceañera-themed party at the Fontainebleau- the most glamorous and fun Quinces we’ve ever attended, and by all accounts, one of the best parties of the year.  From top to bottom, the elegant event was sensational, featuring gorgeous décor; an A-list crowd, who dressed to the nines for the occasion; fantastic food and “put on your red shoes and dance!” music by Grammy-nominated Conjunto Progreso led by Johnny Aguiló, who performed one of a kind traditional Cuban Son music and DJ Jody McDonald, a twenty year veteran of the turntables, who played all of our Old School favorites:  (think roller skating circa 1980- in fact several guests “pretend skated” on the dance floor.) The chic crowd of 320 all but ignored the decadent dessert bar-as the music was too good to fully enjoy sitting down and broke curfew by dancing way past any respectable hour of guests typically found at Quinceañera celebrations.  Read the rest of this entry »