Post Sleepless Night 2009

My Sleepless Night experience was great fun. I felt like I was on a treasure hunt for art and entertainment: navigating from one corner of Miami Beach to the next while taking in the sights and sounds of flashing neon lights, honking cars, live music and the ocean's crashing waves.

Some of the night's events impressed more than others. Particularly, a series of short films that were shown at the Byron Carlyle Theater. Most of the films were ten to 30 minutes long and were foreign, originating from countries like France and the Canary Islands. Before the films started, I was greeted by this charming creature:






Another favorite for the evening was a rock n' roll photograhy exhibit in the Betsy Hotel, which featured portraits of some of my favorite musicians, such as Miles Davis and the Clash.







I also visited the Bass Museum. It had three different exhibits and one of them displayed a diamond studded motorcycle with three small T.V. screens. The t.v.s showed different bands playing salsa music. It was quite a sight. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed. Outside of the museum, there was a wonderful performance by a troupe of dancers that sashayed to the sounds of a piano and a woman doing a spoken word piece.











At some point in the evening, I made my way to the Miami Beach Convention Center for an experimental sound and light performance called Siren. It was held in a huge empty space with all the lights turned off. In the center of the room, there were 20 rods that had red light attached to their tips. The rods moved in circular motions and made music. The interesting thing about the show was that the music altered depending where you stood or sat in the room. It sounded different with each step you took.







Right after Siren, I headed to the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens and saw some really cool Asiatic looking sculptures.





There were, however, a couple of disappointing moments in the evening. I was really excited to see a show called Bounce Theory and it turned out to be mediocre. It was a performance of dancers and acrobats but neither the dancing or acrobatics were impressive. Also, one venue advertised free Patron and Cafe Bustelo but were sold out by 2 a.m.

All in all though, I had a great time that lasted until 5:30 a.m., truly making it a sleepless night.