Sadness and Chic at Miami AIDS Benefit

Amid the cocktails, glitter and G-strings, many at Sunday night's annual White Party in Miami acknowledged the real reason they were there: to raise money for people with AIDS.

Vincent Contrastino of Fort Lauderdale took time out from the loud festivities at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens to look quietly at the 1,000 black rocks, each inscribed in white with the name of someone who died of AIDS, set in a circle around a hand-written poem. "I'm 45 years old, and everyone I grew up with is dead," said Contrastino, himself HIV-positive.

The rocks were originally part of "Storm," a multi-media exhibit by artist Rosemarie Chiarlone and poet Susan Weiner. When they exhibited "Storm" at the Green Door Gallery in Miami, Chiarlone and Weiner -- a pathologist who works with AIDS patients at North Shore Hospital -- provided bins of black river rocks and white pens so visitors could personalize the art as a memorial to those who died of AIDS. After the exhibit closed, the artists gave the rocks to Care Resource, Miami-Dade County's leading AIDS service agency, which displayed them at Sunday's 17th annual White Party.

Single tickets to the event were $150 and, for the first time in years, the internationally known circuit party for gay men fell several hundred short of selling out its 3,500 tickets, said Eric Sanders, Care Resource's development manager. He, and others, blamed the shaky post-Sept. 11 economy. Saskia Font, who owns the Lincoln Road clothing shop FunkySexy, said the whole mood of this year's bash seemed different, and that even the costumes were more subdued. "Before, it was a big party, and everyone was trying to outdo each other. This year, it was a big cause and . . . everyone had trouble paying for their tickets. . . . After everything that's happened, people are more calmed down and down to earth."

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