From an upcoming zine about Disney World. Spaceship Earth was the slowest, most educational ride, narrated by Dame Judy Dench, and it was my favourite.
Before I Forget
I want to tell you all about the rest of my time in Florida, about Disney World, about Gainesville, about the workshop with John Porcellino, about all the things I learnt, about all the amazing and beautiful people I met, about all the anxious thoughts I had, and then the calmness in my heart, and then the anxiety again and then the sun setting in the Key West, and feeling like “yes!” and everything, but I dunno whether I can yet. I am working on some drawings and comics about all these things and will hopefully have some to show you soon.
Meanwhile, I am drawing more consistent “daily outift” drawings, reading more and more, generally trying to make better, more honest comics.
I’m also blogging/ re-blogging/ tumbling/ whatevs-the-kids-call-it over here: yawssincerely.tumblr.com
See ya soon.
MIAMI
The first few days I was in Miami I could not get Will Smith’s ‘Miami’ out of my head. I wouldn’t recommend it as a soundtrack while you are in Miami, as it tends to make the whole experience ridiculously decadent, rather than just decadent. Maybe because the words “Big Willie Style” were never far from my thoughts. Certain phrases would get stuck in my head, like “Miami: the bass, and the sunset low” and “South Beach, bringin’ the heat, ya’ll” and certainly they ring true: the sun was setting as I flew into Miami and upon leaving the airport about two SUVs and a Jeep hit the freeway with the loudest, lowest bass I have ever heard. But generally, Will Smith repeating “jig it up” puts a vibe on Miami that doesn’t necessarily belong there; I was seeing Miami through Will Smith’s lens, “Big Willie Style”, not “Little Leonie” style.
Miami “Little Leonie” style involves sleeping most of the day and going to Starbucks to use the internet, but here is my summary of Miami from the hours that I was awake and walking around:
Everything about Miami is decadent. The streets are wide, the bike seats are wide, the handle bars are even wider and no one wears a helmet, even on motorcycles. Everyone wears crocs, which is maybe an anomaly. The men wear white pants and often no shirts and the women generally show a lot of thigh and they wear thong bikinis on the beach and such is the decadence of Miami it took me awhile to be embarrassed about staring at their butts because I took it for granted that you just see more butts in a decadent setting. Most of the decadence is focused on South Beach. It is just like on TV or in movies, everyone is rollerblading and wearing very short shorts, but what they don’t tell you is that everyone is also on segways now. Also what TV and movies can’t really portray is how overwhelming all the art deco architecture is. I am not too inclined to froth over architecture, but the art deco buildings along South Beach, my goodness. You feel thirsty just looking at them. You look at them with your crotch or something. You just want to be drunk and in them already. But, like, in a really classy way. It really is overwhelming. I dunno whether the fact that every second building seems to be pumping Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ has anything to do with it, but maybe. Along Washington Ave and further in from South Beach you can actually hear the whir of tattoo needles from across the street. Everyone on their cell phones is speaking Spanish or saying “girl” a lot. People skateboard on the road a lot. Everyone just looks cool and relaxed and maybe a little sleazy.
I went to the World Erotic Art Museum. Which is exactly what it sounds like, but is also the private collection of a little old Jewish lady named Naomi Wilzig. It was mind boggling. Over 4000 pieces from really, really old, like Pompeii old, stuff to stuff from the eighties with captions like “three leopard-headed, chained women tend to their master, who is sitting near a puma” to rudey Rembrandts, to some Klimts, to a four-poster penis bed the details of which I won’t go into. As I said, mind boggling. My faves were the cartoony things (obvs), French caricatures from the early 1900s and a drawing of a vagina in a love heart signed by “Rene ‘98” who also signed it, “I AM THE BEST ARTIST”. It’s a weird thing walking around an erotic art museum by yourself. When someone would walk by me I would get all embarrassed, because there is naturally something embarrassing about your face being all like D: while looking at paintings of tiny women riding giant penises, but something deeper also, that isn’t embarrassing but just silly, that after approx. 4000 p in v variations, “erotic” just loses all its juice. I would call it the World Life-Affirming Sexuality Museum with a Sense of Humour, but that is just me. And maybe that’s what erotic means? I bet that is exactly what Madonna meant.
So that was Miami, pretty much. Here’s a picture of me, “most over-dressed at Miami Beach 2012” on a pretty overcast day, but it was really hot. Right now I am in Orlando. Will write again soon.
