Miami Basel Diary

Tuesday 12/3

1. I am very pleased with my plane outfit, ripped tights, short shorts, thigh highs and boots. They take us to the basement TSA check, I’ve been down here before, the other passengers are confused for a second, in my head I’m like “don’t worry guys I’ve been down here before. It’ll be quick.”

2. When I take my shoes off to go through the TSA machine I applaud the terrorist.

3. I am traveling with my long time bestie Whitney. She has curated a reading/performance for her magazine The Whitney Review for NADA programming the following day. We go to our hotel only to find the reason it is so cheap is because there are no front desk humans. We change in the stairwell of the hotel and get on the phone with a customer service rep who is probably underpaid. We finally run into people who work there while trying to break into our room earlier than our check in time and get to leave our bags in a supply closet till we can check in.

4. We scarf down breakfast at Cafe Bon Jour and head to the ICA.

5. Whitney does a run through for an art net article she’s writing on the ICA Miami’s expansion. I walk around vaguely listening to the convo. I look at the art. I wonder if I like it. I’m in a new phase of my life where I’m learning to trust myself and think about what I like and dislike and not be so self conscious about it.

6. On the first floor there is a sculpture installation by an artist named John Miller? The mannequins look like they are all dressed in early 2000 mall clothes and staged like a band. Ok sure ya. I like this.

7. The work up at the ICA Miami is good. Good for them, bright colors, and a plethora of interesting artists. I liked Keiicgi Tanaami’s show the best. RIP!

8. Whitney and I travel down the street to Dale Zine, we are like “can anyone pick up a NYMag and send us pictures of us in it?” we don’t really know where to get one and they didn’t have any in the airports yet.

9. Dale Zine, a bookstore. The inside is gorg. Whitney takes pics of her column, I meander the books. I could spend a fortune here. I bought some gifts for other people, some bumper stickers, and two magazines. FLIKOZINE by Fernando Palenzuela @FLIKO_PAINTS and NITE TIME by Arturo R Borges @nitetimeart. I’ve been very into the history of DND recently and the FLIKOZINE details the artist's trip to a gaming convention. NITETIME excites me because the illustration feels beautiful but insane. The credits page reads “Dedicated to My MOON & RAIN LOVE MY GIRLzz!!! You Can Do Anything! MAGIC” and that really sold me. I’m trying to get back into having a studio practice and these magazines felt like a conduit.

10. I want to buy Jerry Hsu’s The Beautiful Flower is the World but I’m on a budget.

11. We go back to the hotel and shower and gossip about our lives until sunset and then it is back over the bridge from South Beach to the Design District for the ICA opening and other things. It takes an hour. This becomes a theme. I wonder if they will have snacks at the ICA, I text a friend “I hope they have snacks at the ICA!!!” he says “don’t count on it”

12. We meet up with Drew. Drew likes Ding Shilun’s paintings.

13. Back at the ICA where we were mere hours before and I get to really look at Lucy Bull’s paintings a second time. I like them. They are the type of paintings I feel like maybe I’m not allowed to like, or I wouldn’t let myself, but I do, the longer I look at them they are filled with so much light and grace. I trust myself. I like it.

    

14. There are no snacks at the ICA, only drinks and a MAC cosmetics situation where people are getting their makeup done? Ok slay brand partnerships?

15. Marguerite Humeau’s show \*sk\*/ey- on the third floor dawns white carpet.

16. Ok so then we go to the Cartier party? I’m hoping they have some food. We get in and its wall to wall carpet. Carpet seems to be big this year in Miami.

17. We walk through like seven rooms of installations detailing how these three rings they have are made? It feels like a maze but at the end there is finger food to be had.

18. The Cartier Party has beef tartar, tomato bonbons, cheese truffle pastries, and some cornucopia ceviche situation. The waiters feed us, they know we are starving, they return to us again and again, the three hungry fools. We love the three rings, we love the waiters, we love the little snacks.

19. I didn’t want to try the ceviche one but the waiter said “I know you’ll like this one just try it” and he stood there while I put it in my mouth and chewed, and he was right I did like it, which is unusual because I have a deep aversion to seafood which may stem from a past life because even six hours of hypnotism could not get me to eat fish.

20. The snacks push our hunger over the edge, we walk to a Tacombi. They are about to close and wont let us in, but Whitney, our hero, sneaks in and orders us take out.

21. We scarf down tacos outside on some steps.

22. An old man seemingly complains about Basel to his friend shouting “gay gay gay gay gay!” We laugh.

23. We end the night at a bar and club in South Beach, Medium Cool, where Chanel Beads is playing. We keep saying anal beads anal beads chanal beads. Apparently he is a band and also a DJ? He played like four Azealia Banks songs and then some deconstructed train techno which I enjoyed. But towards the end of the night his band played and it confused me because I forgot someone could be a DJ and be a band. Then I was like ok so we are at a club and this band is playing? The music was indie pop. Ok Basel. Did this venue have carpet also? I can’t remember.

24. I ran into my friend Shelley who had an opening at The Rubell Museum. She looked super cute in red tights and a leather skirt.

25. Drew, Shelley, and I go to smoke cigarettes. I text Whitney “outside smoking”.

26. We all leave to our respective hotels from there.

Wednesday 12/4

1. Whitney is writing a piece, I wake up and make us coffee.

2. We still do not have good photos of us in NY Mag.

3. We want to meet Drew for breakfast but there really is no time.

4. Whitney finishes the piece and we head back to Cafe Bonjour for breakfast.

5. The barista at Cafe BonJour asks if he can write us something. We say yes.

6. We eat our acai bowls and on a receipt the man has written the following

   

   

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7. I feel like it is a nod from the universe because how did he know we were going to a reading!!!!!?

8. We head to the reading we are doing at NADA.

9. Whitney makes a reel for instagram on where to go at the fair to see the performance.

10. The event was titled A Climate of Grief: A Reading by The Whitney Review. Alison Sirico is the curator who reached out to Whitney to do the event and it feels very full circle world moment that Alison. Macy, Eartheater, Whitney, and I are all brought together again in this moment because it feels like we all went to Bushwick a la 2016 together.

11. Before I go on I get a call from Ben, the only person I really wanted to hear from and who always says the perfect thing before I perform.

12. I tell him this is the most calm and confident I have ever felt performing this play.

13. He reminds me art is a practice not perfection.

14. The line up was me, doing my play, Hole Play published by Wonder Press.

15. Drew Zeiba read the immediate detailed moments leading up to and following his father’s death.

16. Eartheater read her songs as poems and then some more poems.

17. Macy Rodman read a short script, a short story, and a poem. I laughed my ass off.

18. Ok everyone rocked. The curation was perfect (TY Whitney!). It felt like the perfect blend of absurdity, grief, poetry, and humor.

19. An old friend of mine attended and remarked on my use of the erotic and absurdity to discuss climate change and I felt seen.

20. My nerves had three sayings being played in my head over and over. “Never Kill yourself” “You will always be famous” and “nothing in the chamber twinks take note”

21. Performers take note; it always feels better to perform post shit than with something in the chamber.

22. Drew and I walked back and forth from the bathroom often (our nerves) and I asked him about his feelings about the current state of contemporary art. It is rhetorical though because the whole vibe of Basel just feels like “What do you think about the current state of the contemporary art world?” you know? And there doesn’t feel like a good answer.

23. Wait, I just thought of one…. Lots of irony, and figurative paintings….

24. My favorite thing I saw at NADA were some aluminum castings of figs on a shelf by artist Wilfred Almendra. Nature morte aux figures 2023

    

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25. I think castings are the most poetic form of sculpture.

26. Then I directed everyone (Whitney, Drew and myself) to a German restaurant that was closed so we ate at an Italian restaurant that was empty.

27. On the way, Whitney and I detailed how we met. We met in Miami.

28. HALT is an important thing to remember when you are traveling like this. Go go go go. Sometimes the mood can get a little fussy so I have to remember, Hungry Angry Lonely Tired.

29. Then we headed to some fashion parties.

30. The Maison Margiela store had wall to wall white carpet.

31. I feel a tad underdressed and the bathroom door is very heavy and hard to lock.

32. When I go to pee and take selfies, a woman nearly breaks down the door trying to get in. Big theme at this party, I guess there is only one bathroom? While I was in line I was witness to people fighting about bathroom line order, and also trying to break down the door. I think to myself, please guys we are at the Maison Margiela store with wall to wall carpet, let’s have some class. But no, the woman forces her way into the bathroom while I am finishing up. A tall slender woman in an elegant yellow dress and I think to myself “get a hold of yourself woman! You’re too beautiful to be acting this desperate to pee at the Maison Margiela store Basel week party”. And I can see in her face she is quite embarrassed. She says “sorry I just really have to go”.... What champagne will have you doing I guess? Clawing like a dog on the bathroom door, whimpering, shaking, all to piss….

33. Next we walked over to Fendi and we’re not let in. Sad. I think of pulling out my knife. HALT. Whitney calls her boyfriend and Drew and I swing on a swing installation at the mall in the design district.

34. Drew and I discuss the United Health CEO shooting and read tweets about if he is hot or not and how we could know that if his face is covered.

35. The swings are set up very anti-community. We face away from each other.

    

36. We are under a trellis of lavender hibiscus flowers.

37. The next thing to attend is the J Balvin Design Magazine Miami party.

38. I can't stop saying J Balvin Design Magazine Miami Party over and over in my head.

39. Once a day I pick the two scabs located in each of my respective inner ears. It is the most satisfying part of my day and I am always surprised to be picking at dried blood and not dried ear wax even though I do it everyday.

40. I hope the scabs never leave.

41. I tell myself to stop picking the scabs.

42. Taylor and her husband meet up with us on the swings.

43. I have decided I do not need to go to the J Balvin Design Magazine Miami party and call a car home.

44. Something happens to me after I perform. All my energy leaves my body and I have to sleep or else. The crash hits me here.

45. I talk to a friend for a while before crashing and say all sorts of annoying things before going to bed. Again HALT. But why wont my crush say he misses me? Only God knows!

Thursday 12/5

1. Whitney and I have been talking about that Dean Kissick piece that everyones been talking about.

2. I showed her the article Ajay Kurian wrote in Cultured as a response to it. He is my old professor.

3. She reads it to me in bed. I make us coffee. I love Whitney.

4. Finally someone sends us a good scan of the NY Mag pics and we post them. And we post them again. It’s interesting to see myself like that and I try not to think about it too much and I wonder if it’s a grid post or a story post. I stick to stories.

5. We decided to go get Cuban diner food and head to Enriqueta’s.

6. I order eggs, beans and rice, sweet plantains, bacon, a passionfruit smoothie and a colada. I am restored in spirit. Never kill yourself. Latinas you will always be famous.

7. On our way back to the hotel we see a hunky Santa jogging a baseball, a basketball, and a football.

8. We check out, drop our bags at a friend’s house and head to the beach.

9. Whitney and I are taking an acting class and have been assigned a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire. I’m Blanche and she’s Stella.

10. We nap on the beach.

11. We get ready to go out.

12. Tonight there are three parties we must attend.

13. We hit the party at PAMM first, and I’m like ok latinaaaaasssss.

14. Latinas.

15. The curation is good at the PAMM and we both eat two chicken empanadas.

16. I noticed this trash can, covered in cloth, not a smidge of plastic garbage bag showing. This is a trashcan I have seen multiple times at Basel events and I’m like ok fancy fancy trash can who is to be desecrated by our lacroix cans because the event is sponsored by lacroix. She is all dressed up and she is swallowing up the green sauce cups that come with the empanadas

    

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17. Drew and Taylor meet up with us and we head to the EDGELORD party.

18. Apparently the EDGELORD party is Harmony Korine’s party? It’s the coolest venue we’ve been to on this trip, a latin club, and the energy here is fun because it’s skaters and the beautiful women they attract. Young energy.

19. Taylor and I go looking for cigarettes and these sweet girls lend us some. We talk about acting classes.

20. We head back in and dance some and then I see someone I have been dreading to see for the past six years and it’s a moment I’ve always wondered how it would play out and it playing out like this.

21. I see him, he doesn’t see me, and then it’s time to go to the next party.

22. Sad though, because the music here is very good. But Drew and I remember that skaters are hard to talk with.

23. We all head to the Pin Up Magazine party and discuss anemia, and protein.

24. The final party of the night and it’s super cute.

25. Eartheater DJS and I met a painter named Tiffany who hopes to sell all her paintings this weekend. I hope so for her too.

26. Whitney and I dance.

27. Drew, Taylor, Whitney, and I dance

    

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28. An old friend of ours is in Miami and we are like “Are you at the Pin Up party?!” and he’s like “Yeah about to be there!”

29. There are two old European men on ecstasy and we all think they are gay lovers but turns out they are straight.

30. Drew asks me what I am thinking about and when I look down at my arm I see the very bad burns I got from cooking steak alone on Thanksgiving and above those burns are three wrist bands from the many parties I’ve gone to tonight and I just think the whole vision of my arm is really funny. Like these wrist bands from parties I was at but also was never really at and these big painful burns that I have refrained from posting on insta because I don’t want the vegans to think they got a win.

31. I almost had a sip of alcohol. I spit it out. I chew some gum. Yikes!

32. Then Whitney and I caught up with our old friend.

33. Our flight boards at 6:30 am. We wonder if we should hit Twist, we’ve been here a few nights now and still no Twist.

34. I vote to get our bags, wash our faces and head to the airport.

35. When I have to take my tiny hoodie off in the TSA security line I think to myself “Good for them (the terrorists) they won this one big time!” I think it’s nice to acknowledge the culture of inconvenience they have created at American airports TBH. I think this disgusting country should be brought to its knees and if it just so happens to take the form of some small act of degradation to get on a plane so be it. I look forward to their next project.

36. We pass out waiting to board and because I have fallen asleep with my head face down on an arm rest I have a red mark on my head. The woman across from me says “I was wondering if you were comfortable and if that would leave a mark and it did.”

37. I thank her for the information. On the plane her annoying ass son sits in front of me and laughs the most psychotic laugh I have ever heard.

38. I fall asleep immediately but the last thing I hear is “Ladies and gentlemen we have to fix the plane before we take off” and apparently it takes them two hours? They fix the plane while we are on it?

39. I wake up with an hour left on the flight and watch from my seat the annoying laughing man in front of me watch the end of Elf starring Will Ferrell and I start to cry when Zoey Deschanel’s character has to sing to spread Christmas cheer and save Santa.

40. HALT!

41. My hand sanitizer exploded in my bag.

42. While Whitney and I walk towards baggage claim she’s like “it smells like alcohol” and I’m like “yeah my hand sanitizer exploded” but then I’m like “Just kidding I relapsed on the plane!” but we both know I am joking and she’s like “one more good punch before we end the trip” and I'm like yeah I love making Whitney laugh with my little jokes.

43. I did not relapse on the plane.

44. The night before I left for this trip I had a dream. I was on a cruise with a French girl and my mom. The French girl was bragging about giving a veteran a hand job and making a bag and I was like ok girl that's cool, but maybe not in front of my mom, but don’t worry I’m in the biz too so we can talk about it later. Then the French girl was like, “You are my grandma whore. You are an old whore”.

45. When I got back from Miami I slept 16 hours and had a dream I had a pet bird. It looked like this

    

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