Miami According to Brooklyn: Art Basel Wrap-Up

Last week, we introduced you to Crossfade's latest weekly guest columnist, Brooklyn, the day manager and occasional night-time gatekeeper at the Vagabond. To read a longer introduction about who he is, click here to check out last week's premiere installment of Miami According to Brooklyn.

To the person who left that long comment: The truth hurts. What I said must have hit home, obviously. But I want to talk about Art Basel. I went to a few parties and I had a really, really good time. The first night I went over to that gallery with the black-and-white stripes - O.H.W.O.W. Everybody there was really, really nice. I could see there were jackasses there too, but Raul, who works there is really nice, a sweetheart of a kid. They had some pretty cool stuff; those stacks of carved dollar bills were amazing.

But I would honestly have to say that among the favorite younger artists' stuff I saw were paintings by Alejandro Lopez at the new Puzzlement Gallery. The colors, everything was really amazing. I went back to see them a second time because I liked them so much. The only thing I'm upset I didn't get to see was the Shepard Fairey stuff, because that's one of my favorite artists.

Otherwise, working at the Vagabond Saturday night for Back Door Bamby was pretty fun. Marc Jacobs came and was wasted, which was pretty funny. He was with some guy and some Playboy model chick - she wasn't even that hot. She was nothing really to look at, to be totally honest.  I've been working the door on Saturdays again for the past three weeks because Carmel, the owner, conned me into it. I didn't miss it though; I'd rather be at home doing stuff with my girlfriend. But the one thing I do like about working at the front door is I get a chance to see some of my friends that I don't get to see that often, because I'm pretty busy all the time. When I'm not here I'm riding my bike, drinking coffee, seeing friends, and trying to spend as much time as I can with my girlfriend. I'm pretty boring like that.

But as far as the people who aggravated me during Basel - there were these fucking jackasses who all of a sudden thought they belonged here even though they were from out of town. But guess what dude, you're not a big fucking deal. I don't care. They were like, "But don't you know who I am?" And I'm like, "Obviously, look at my face dude, I don't fucking care who you are. Pay the fucking $10 to get in."

Everybody's such a baller in Miami, but they refuse to pay the $10 to get in because of their ego. Give me a fucking break. If you're going to go to a friend's party or something to support something a friend's doing, you should have no problem paying it and backing up your friend. A lot of those people are not into that. They're all about, "Oh I got into this party for free, I never pay here, oh, is Carmel here?" Eat a fucking dick! If you're such good friends with those people, then you should have no problem getting them on a fucking phone and saying, "Hey, I'm here, would you mind coming out to get me?"

That's pretty much the same thing as last week I was talking about. And a lot of those kids, they come in, and you can see they're wearing what they bought just for the fucking week. Give me a fucking break, be who you are. People will like you anyways, you don't have to put up this front.

Five Albums I'm Listening To This Week: 1) Brother's Keeper/Disembodied split, Oxymoron, 2) Hope Conspiracy, >Cold Blue, 3) Cro-Mags, Age of Quarrel, 4) Minor Threat, Complete Discography, 5) Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill

Brooklyn's Quote of the Week: Life is a funny thing. It does not matter how hard you try or how honest you are, people judge you by what you have or what you can do for them. And for this week's shout-out, I'll give love to my girlfriend, Michelle Morrow. I'm a big fucking cheeseball.

--By Brooklyn, as told to Arielle Castillo

(Photo by Justin Namon)