Nudity, Tiki, and Graffiti
Dec. 17th, 2024 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfWednesday:
We had a pretty low key breakfast at a place called The Front Porch that was attached to some fancy hotel on the northern end (right where it ends) of the Ocean Drive strip. Then we went on a little adventure to a beach called Haulover Beach that is a clothing optional beach. I was thinking it was up in North Beach, but it's just across a bridge off the island and it might actually not even technically be Miami Beach anymore. Anyway, once again this was something I was a little nervous about. We'd done a nude beach in St. Martin once before but I was very nervous then. Anyway, the directions were kinda bad because they just mentioned parking in the "first" parking lot for Haulover Beach (the nude portion isn't the whole thing) but it doesn't indicate which direction it thinks you're coming from so we try the first one we come across and that is apparently wrong. We're confused and driving around back and forth a couple times and then, when I was actually just trying to turn around again and go somewhere else, we realize we've found the correct parking lot. The first parking lot coming from the OPPOSITE direction (I guess that should have been obvious, but this lot seemed like it was for some corporate park at first). Anyway, we make our way and get naked and then get in the water. We mostly stayed in the water, but actually walking about in the open I wasn't so nervous. The people there were pretty normal and chill. The water was a lot nicer than down on South Beach. It was clean and there were no advertisements sullying the view at all! It was a real nice and peaceful swim. It did rain a little bit but we were already wet! After that we went back down to our hotel to change and get ready for a dinner adventure. This was the one day of going way up north and we went to a place in Fort Lauderdale. Getting there was pretty hectic. We gave ourselves a whole bunch of padding (like twice the time it "should" have taken) and still we were barely there in time. Did I already mention how hellacious traffic is in the Miami area? Also, all the lights take very very long time to change (that doesn't matter here, we were on the interstate going up...but interstates and regular streets in the area are all hellacious). We finally get there to Mai-Kai, a polynesian restaurant with the whole floor show thing and everything. Some of the food was really good and some was a little mediocre (like, my scallops weren't great (I mean, they were scallops so yes they were good and edible and all, but you know, compared to the potential) but Mary Beth's rack of lamb was excellent...and dessert was really good...also drinks were really good, the fruit punch was excellent). Then I guess the draw is the floor show. They do the whole polynesian revue with music and dancing (hula and etc.). There were three female dances and two male dancers (and then a band of four musicians). It was pretty surreal and totally had the surreal retro thing going on. That's why Mary Beth picked it, for that weird experience that you almost can't get anymore, with the reservation that it might be all kinds of bad, but even though it's fraught exoticist territory, it was definitely not as bad as it could have been. It was kinda cheesy yeah, but it was fun. I'll admit the dance with the fire was pretty cool.
Thursday:
This was the first really big day on the actual mainland Miami. We went to the Wynwood neighborhood which is pretty gentrified. We did a few museums. The first was called Wynwood Walls. It's this warehouse area that was all bought up and fenced in and they get graffiti artists to come in and do murals. It's an area that had real graffiti tagging but now it's pretty emblematic of the gentrification. There were a few decent murals but mostly the art style isn't my kind of thing. And I think it's pretty telling that almost all of the artists are brought in from foreign countries (mostly Europe, a few Asia). I mean, that's ostensibly cool and all, but it feels like it's pretty much ignoring the actual culture that created these "walls" in the first place. Not that I know shit about it or anything. Then we went to this other museum that was right next to it called Museum of Graffiti. It was more of a museum museum with stuff about the history and also exhibits featuring tag work (where the artists are actually doing the illegal graffiti thing). So in a way what seemed like it was riding on the coattails of the Walls, was more of the real deal. They had a package deal with the nearby Art of Hip Hop gallery. That had an exhibit of work by Cey Adams, who went from being a graffiti artist in NYC in the day to doing album art for Public Enemy and stuff. It was pretty cool, his work isn't my favorite style but it was interesting. What else? There's also a Salt and Straw in Wynwood so we had more ice cream. We then went and did some more museums. Well, I'll get to that the next time I post, probably tomorrow...
We had a pretty low key breakfast at a place called The Front Porch that was attached to some fancy hotel on the northern end (right where it ends) of the Ocean Drive strip. Then we went on a little adventure to a beach called Haulover Beach that is a clothing optional beach. I was thinking it was up in North Beach, but it's just across a bridge off the island and it might actually not even technically be Miami Beach anymore. Anyway, once again this was something I was a little nervous about. We'd done a nude beach in St. Martin once before but I was very nervous then. Anyway, the directions were kinda bad because they just mentioned parking in the "first" parking lot for Haulover Beach (the nude portion isn't the whole thing) but it doesn't indicate which direction it thinks you're coming from so we try the first one we come across and that is apparently wrong. We're confused and driving around back and forth a couple times and then, when I was actually just trying to turn around again and go somewhere else, we realize we've found the correct parking lot. The first parking lot coming from the OPPOSITE direction (I guess that should have been obvious, but this lot seemed like it was for some corporate park at first). Anyway, we make our way and get naked and then get in the water. We mostly stayed in the water, but actually walking about in the open I wasn't so nervous. The people there were pretty normal and chill. The water was a lot nicer than down on South Beach. It was clean and there were no advertisements sullying the view at all! It was a real nice and peaceful swim. It did rain a little bit but we were already wet! After that we went back down to our hotel to change and get ready for a dinner adventure. This was the one day of going way up north and we went to a place in Fort Lauderdale. Getting there was pretty hectic. We gave ourselves a whole bunch of padding (like twice the time it "should" have taken) and still we were barely there in time. Did I already mention how hellacious traffic is in the Miami area? Also, all the lights take very very long time to change (that doesn't matter here, we were on the interstate going up...but interstates and regular streets in the area are all hellacious). We finally get there to Mai-Kai, a polynesian restaurant with the whole floor show thing and everything. Some of the food was really good and some was a little mediocre (like, my scallops weren't great (I mean, they were scallops so yes they were good and edible and all, but you know, compared to the potential) but Mary Beth's rack of lamb was excellent...and dessert was really good...also drinks were really good, the fruit punch was excellent). Then I guess the draw is the floor show. They do the whole polynesian revue with music and dancing (hula and etc.). There were three female dances and two male dancers (and then a band of four musicians). It was pretty surreal and totally had the surreal retro thing going on. That's why Mary Beth picked it, for that weird experience that you almost can't get anymore, with the reservation that it might be all kinds of bad, but even though it's fraught exoticist territory, it was definitely not as bad as it could have been. It was kinda cheesy yeah, but it was fun. I'll admit the dance with the fire was pretty cool.
Thursday:
This was the first really big day on the actual mainland Miami. We went to the Wynwood neighborhood which is pretty gentrified. We did a few museums. The first was called Wynwood Walls. It's this warehouse area that was all bought up and fenced in and they get graffiti artists to come in and do murals. It's an area that had real graffiti tagging but now it's pretty emblematic of the gentrification. There were a few decent murals but mostly the art style isn't my kind of thing. And I think it's pretty telling that almost all of the artists are brought in from foreign countries (mostly Europe, a few Asia). I mean, that's ostensibly cool and all, but it feels like it's pretty much ignoring the actual culture that created these "walls" in the first place. Not that I know shit about it or anything. Then we went to this other museum that was right next to it called Museum of Graffiti. It was more of a museum museum with stuff about the history and also exhibits featuring tag work (where the artists are actually doing the illegal graffiti thing). So in a way what seemed like it was riding on the coattails of the Walls, was more of the real deal. They had a package deal with the nearby Art of Hip Hop gallery. That had an exhibit of work by Cey Adams, who went from being a graffiti artist in NYC in the day to doing album art for Public Enemy and stuff. It was pretty cool, his work isn't my favorite style but it was interesting. What else? There's also a Salt and Straw in Wynwood so we had more ice cream. We then went and did some more museums. Well, I'll get to that the next time I post, probably tomorrow...
