MikePadgett.com

Miami South Beach

— Down on Ocean Drive, with streamline moderne, twenty thousand Jewish retirees and Gloria Estefan.”

J and I returned last week from our winter holiday in the United States.

Here’s the first instalment of photos, all of which were taken during the first few days of our trip at Miami Beach in Florida.

I’ll be releasing the remaining four instalments in the next few days, so watch this space! As I’m sure you’re waiting with bated breath, I suggest you subscribe to my RSS feed.

In the meantime, heeeeeeeeere’s Miami!

The rise and fall and rise of SoBe

South Beach is as different from downtown Miami as Art Deco is from International Modern. And as the decadence of Deco segued into the sobriety of postwar America, the colours faded and the paint flaked off. Crime and neglect occupied the empty buildings and took over the hot streets.

So it’s deliciously ironic that Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, having first convinced us that criminal activity could be countered by the effective deployment of pastels and footwear with no socks, then helped to initiate SoBe’s corporate-sponsored rehabilitation.

From its humble origins as a coconut farm, SoBe is home today to illustrious fashion designers and the biggest concentration of media sluts this side of Los Angeles.

Streamline Moderne

Streamline Moderne is a primarily North American style deriving from late Art Deco. In terms of architectural locations, few exemplify it like South Beach. Like other prevalent strands of Deco, Streamline can be found employed in numerous applications of spatial design – products, vehicles, machines, buildings. Common themes include smooth lines, broad planes and nautical elements.

On Scarface

Brian De Palma’s 1983 epic of excess describes the life and times of Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Al Pacino) who methodically ascends to the dizzy heights of the SoBe drug trade.

So when the bloody dénouement arrives, Tony can’t enjoy the moral of the story because there’s a mountain of coke in the way. And anyway he ends up dead. Of course he does: this is De Palma at his nihilistic best.

Anyway, rewind to Tony’s formative years on the streets of South Beach, when he’s still saddled with cartoonish Hawaiian shirts and that sullen lip curl that passes for spoken English. He drives down a very grubby looking Ocean Drive with his crooked cabrones and stops opposite the Sunray Motel and Apartments. Cue the famous chainsaw scene.