When we arrived to the Madison Avenue Gagosian fort at 6 PM on Thursday night, a group of randomly, determined shoppers ran into the wonderful temporary shop and started scooping up merchandise as if it was Black Friday at Best Buy. In the group of five girls, one screamed out “The race it ON!” while breathlessly holding on to six spot t-shirts. Ok, it’s ON! We stamped our card in three galleries on Thursday night and noticed few great things in the process. Here are our first stamp hometown memories: Yes, Damien Hirst made a super surprise cameo on 21st where we discussed our itinerary with him. The funniest moment however, came when two top buyers asked him to pose for a picture in front of their favorite piece. A clueless guard immediately tried to interject, standing up to the gallery’s policy. “It’s ok, he’s good. Trust me.” smiled a Gagosian worker. As of 7:40 PM, 304 brave souls registered for the challenge. But how many will endure? [caption id="attachment_13717" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="Us with Guido Callarelli and Richard Phillips (Photo - Andrew Toth / PatrickMcMullan.com)"][/caption] Richard Phillips and Josephine Meckseper came along to view the show on 24th street. Our buddy Richard was scouting the space as much as he was admiring the spots. He has a huge show coming up in the very same gallery this fall, though working without 160 assistants; he’ll focus on nothing but canvases for the next half a year. And we can't wait to see them. [caption id="attachment_13714" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="George Condo and Benjamin Provo"][/caption] George Condo also made a cameo on 24th Street. So did Fab 5 Freddy. Yes, really! At Madison it wasn’t so much about the opening craziness. It was about Russian speaking, Vertu holding art dealers who woke up half of billionaire Moscow and shopped while we all hunted for tees and $1 pins. It is a business after all.

Everything is sunnier and more surreal in Beverly Hills. Skies are clear, everyone is driving a Benz, and there’s a lot of action around North Camden Drive. And it’s not only because of Damien. Golden Globes are happening this weekend, and that translates to a lot of boozing, a lot of schmoozing, and a lot of sample trafficking. Our fourth stamp was achieved at the Beverly Hills Gagosian outpost and all this affirmative award show energy seems to be translating into sales. During our visit, at least three visitors went straight for the price lists. Even though some paintings seemed repetitive after New York’s astounding selection, there was plenty to shop for. How about a 252 x 252 inch Pivalic Acid from 2005 (pictured)? Or the early gem: the 1992’s Adrenalin? People in LA like dramatic titles. Speaking of dramatic, in honor of our finish line destination (that would be Hirst’s kingdom of London), we decided to attend the BAFTA’s annual award season tea party at Four Seasons. Basically what happens is a lot of fancy English food gets served (see below) while potential Oscar nominees shake a lot of strangers’ hands to get an extra vote or two here and there. Charlize Theron shaked so many British hands that she told us that she lost her voice. Even Meryl Streep was shaking hands and eating scones. So was Leonardo DiCaprio. Viola Davis came with a giant gold bag and then joined Octavia Spencer upstairs at Four Seasons to take home more ballet flats than you can imagine in the InStyle lounge. We didn’t catch Steve McQueen at the party, but all the kids from Modern Family were eating those cucumber sandwiches and shaking paws too (they don’t need Academy, do they?). Our favorite moment came when in the last moments of the party, Glenn Close pulled in front of Four Seasons in her own humble red sedan. She had no make-up and she sure wasn’t dressed for Beverly Hills. But she sure needed to shake some English hands.

Hong Kong is perhaps the most exotic stop on our journey, and yet this A.I like city is not as intimidating as it seems. You see, thanks to the most awesome elevated escalator pedestrian city on Earth, we managed to do everything on our priority list in less than 45 minutes this morning. That included a super bullet train from the airport that connected to Mandarin Oriental that in turn connected to Gagosian that’s also connected to every luxury mall imaginable including Lane Crawford. Then, we decided to do much more. But first back to Gagosian...Since White Cube isn’t opening until later this year (Jay Jopling is a wise man, 2012 is a year of the Water Dragon, which basically translates to a lot of cash!), Gagosian is still primarily the only big player in town aside from the Art Fair rush every May. The quiet, 7th floor Pedder Street location (across Vuitton’s biggest store on the planet) has been in business for less than a year and things look promising in Hong Kong (it won’t officially play by China’s rules until 2047!). Our favorite piece during the Asian leg of the tour was the square "Controlled Substance Key Painting" (1993-1994) complete with lovely typography and numerology. Though after New York’s spectacular, the shows are visibly smaller. It’s also worth noting that the billboard for Damien’s show is plastered outside of the Victoria Peak building, and it looks impressive. Our other highlights in a skyscraper town? All those tangerine plants all over town in preparation for the Chinese New Year. Seeing Jackie Chan’s posh golden gates outside of his 99 numbered mansion on the hills. Taking the tiny journey on the fisherman’s boat around the harbor. Eating Joël Robuchon’s snacks while being thousands of miles away from home. And yes, using Google! You can’t do that in Beijing, folks. KAWS recently told us that Hong Kong energized him in many ways and we can certainly see why.