ben’s been in Miami designing a show for the first half of this month, and given that 1) The Sparrow is one of my very favorite plays, and 2) its opening coincided with my birthday, i decided to make a quick trip out last weekend. a red-eye followed by late-morning nap, two late nights out drinking with the cast, time in the sun, sand and ocean, a city-wide transit shut down requiring an unexpected hike, fancy dinner out, and a dawn flight home meant that we were beyond exhausted by the time we got home. but it was a lovely weekend. the opening went well, and the critics and arts community in Miami were genuinely really excited about the House Theatre and their particular style of performance. and Ben’s lighting was beautiful. the next day we swam in the ocean (no one told me how fabulous the sand and water are at South Beach! even better than the beaches in Thailand*), played ultimate frisbee in the park, then went out for birthday dinner. i took this photo at dawn the morning we left, from the balcony of Ben’s 31st floor apartment.

visiting Miami: lovely. but i couldn’t imagine living there. everything felt…plastic. the women looked plastic, the 50-story apartment building was climate-controlled like it was a clean room, no one walked ANYWHERE (as evidenced by drivers’ obvious confusion when we would try to cross a street by foot). the buildings were tall and shiny and modern. nothing felt old.

we did manage to stumble across the ONLY hipster bar in all of Miami. it doesn’t have a name** so i can’t tell you where to go (in case you find yourself in need of a hipster bar in downtown Miami). i knew we were getting close when, while walking there from the theatre, a guy rode by on one of those two-story frankenbikes. inside it was no different from a dozen places in Wicker Park, but it stood out in that hipster culture and fashion seemed to be otherwise completely missing from Miami. elsewhere, the women were heavily made up, they wore fuck-me heels*** and tight dresses and carried little dogs in bags. even the men oozed sex appeal (if that’s your sort of thing). so against that canvas, a few hipsters in skinny jeans drinking PBR was…unusual. athletic, hippy berkeley women in sensible shoes and uncombed ponytails: in short supply.

* thailand post, or at the very least, photos, is still in the works, i swear.
**literally, no name: in place of a sign above the storefront, there was a lit-up blank white rectangle.
***listen, if i could walk across the room, let alone a restaurant, in fuck-me heels, you better believe i’d wear them now and then, too.