Eurocinema @ Plunge at the Gansevoort

Art Basel Schedule: Tuesday Night

What's on the event agenda for tonight?
Art Miami opens tonight for VIP's. Magrit Mondavi is hosting a wine dinner at the Soho House. Then there's the MOCA/Vanity Fair party, of course. Andre Balazs is unveils a shmancy new boat designed by Marc Newson at the Standard pool deck (expected guests: Thomas Krens, Ryan McGinness) . The Townhouse rooftop hosts a cocktail party for Trey Speegle. The official Art Basel opening party hunkers down at the W South Beach. There's a Pulse VIP preview party with the New World Symphony. Emmanuel Perrotin hosts an opening of Daniel Arsham's new show (didn't he shutter his gallery?). The Marquis building downtown is graced by performance artist Pamela Masik. And the MOCA Shakers get busy at Bardot after the museum's opening tonight.
-photo via C-Monster's Flickr

Basel Kickoff: Bubbles and BBQ @ The Soho House

It used to be that Basel kicked off Tuesday with the MOCA/Vanity Fair party and the usual Calvin Klein/Chuck Close/bald-headed cross-dressing twins sightings. But this year things got all Monday night on us with Design Miami's Veuve Clicquot beach barbecue at the Soho House.
I promised myself I wouldn't start Basel week with a hangover but, alas, like all good Basel parties, the booze was easy to procure, the food, not so much. But the champagne was abundant, crisp and refreshing. The party wasn't really on the beach, but rather at the Soho House's tiki bar, a space built for an intimate gathering of 30 that then accommodated oh, about 200 mostly-French speaking arty types.
Typical ensemble: crayola-red pants, leather moccasins (no socks), pastel sweater tied around the shoulders. Also, a few extras from an episode of Schprockets.
The grub: delicious mini hamburgers that were too few and far between, spicy lamb skewers, truffle pizzas, chips and salsa.
Sightings: Marc Jacobs having dinner at Cecconi's.

-photo via WorldRedEye

Le Baron Miami @ The Florida Room

This year the French nightclub lands at the Florida Room. Expect plenty of socialites, collectors and assorted riff-raff acting naughty and doing karaoke until 4am. Also, expect a strict door policy. But something tells me if you're wearing something like this you should be fine.

I Love Sundays @ The Design Disctrict

Art Basel To Do Lists

I'm still putting together my Art Basel must-see and must-drink/play list (hint: lots of champagne and ping pong, and maybe a boat ride with Andre Balazs, god that hotelier is handsome) but it's good to take a gander at the rec's from fellow mavens.

Art Fag City has a map and itinerary for you.

HyperAllergic has five intriguing projects.

The New Times has an exhaustive list of events and their blog, Cultist, has loads of Basel-y goodness here.

Duncan Quinn's Basel Party

For this year’s four-night bacchanalia UK designer Duncan Quinn is taking a page out of the Daniel Craig handbook by transforming his Design District store into a Casino Royale wonderland. Expect a black tie staff serving gin cocktails, a gambling pit and a screening room streaming Michael Caine movies. Also, you can stock up on limited-edition ties and slim-fitting polos.
December 1-4, 11am – 7pm, 4040 NE 2nd Ave,786-972-5021.

MOCA/Vanity Fair Party, November 30

Blue Velvet Makes So Much Sense Now

Plenty of silliness makes its way to our city every year for Art Basel (cue Dita Von Teese straddling a giant lipstick that bucked like a mechanical bull above the Delano pool in 2006), but this temporary installation put together by Isabella Rosselini is a special kind of crazy. It's called Seduce Me and it's a series of five short videos written, directed and starring the Blue Velvet icon in which she explores the seduction rituals of seahorses, dolphins and ducks.
And in honor of artistic exploration why don't we take one minute and fifty-nine seconds to have our minds blown with Isabella's depiction of the mating habits of bedbugs.


December 1-5, 12-6p, $7, at The Wolfsonian 1001 Washington Ave,
305-531-1001.

Soho Beach House

Ah, the British.

So polite. So understated. So buttoned-up. So at odds with the Miami we know and love.

Or not. It remains to be seen how much our sun-kissed city will take to its latest European import, the London-based Soho House, dubbed Soho Beach House for its prime oceanfront spot. But since its October debut the hip clubhouse has been the place to bask in the glow of the city’s assorted VIP’s, media mavens, coiffed publicists and scruffy artists.

This is the third American outpost of the exclusive club (in addition to the famed New York and LA branches), and it’s a stunner. The house comprises a hotel, spa, two restaurants, a rooftop bar and a smaller tiki bar by the beach. It’s all housed in the deco confines of the former Sovereign Hotel, a historic building one block south of the Fontainebleau behemoth.
There are subtle Bristish touches-all the toiletries in the rooms are Cowshed Spa products offered in generous full-size bottles. They are labeled with phrases like "knackered cow" (a tension-releasing blend of lavender and eucalyptus) and "bullocks bracing body wash" made with petitgrain and grapefruit. I have no idea what petitgrain is but I certainly wanted to slather it all over my body. It's the James Bond of body washes.

There are only 50 rooms to the hotel – tiny by Miami standards and no contest for its neighbor’s thousand-room campus. But the idea here is to curate the crowd, to make sure it’s a small, eclectic group that sunbathes by the pool, sips ciapirnhas on the roofdeck and dines on lobster spaghetti in the courtyard restaurant. The design has a sexy Old Havana look to it – faded upholstery, geometric-patterned rugs, mosaic tiled floors, rustic tables, glamorous chandeliers. There’s lots of leather, mid century pieces, studded stools, brass fixtures.

White, minimalist Miami is out. Quaint, British-Caribbean grandeur is in. The Soho Beach House is a bit like Miami meets Stratford-upon-Avon, except that Soho House founder Nick Jones, not Shakespeare, is the presiding genius. And it is indeed genius, convincing locals to pony up around $1800 for an annual membership to hobnob with the folks they already know, and those they want to know.