if you like miami so much maybe you should marry it

art basel is going on right now and i'll admit, i've been lazy and the only thing i've read the past week were the instructions on big brain academy, but i've caught up somewhat. fyi: art basel is a week long gallery show in miami's new museum of contemporary art, but like miami itself, it's pretty beat and no one in their right mind would voluntarily go there unless they really like tanning and hair gel. new york times wrote a kind of sad article on it, depicting how the gajillion artists involved display in booths not unlike those in a craft fair and comment that
"the art is heavily scripted, raucously colorful and monstrously proportioned. Parties and people-watching crowd the field of vision"...."Statement-making works are otherwise scarce. A few halfhearted gibes at the market, like the fake A.T.M. by Elmgreen and Dragset, are quickly absorbed into the briskly commercial atmosphere. Merlin Carpenter’s slapdash text painting “Die Collector Scum” sold the first day." it gives the vibe, also, that the only people buying are art-nouveau-riche, but i think the comment on merlin carpenter half ass painting i just put down shows that pretty well.
on one hand the artists who's work is selling are making out like bandits since the majority of attendants are better versed in spotting the richard prince for vuitton nurse outfits than any of the nurse paintings, even if they had a lit up sign and a free martini bar affixed on top of them. on the other, for the artists that aren't doing so well, the excess of the whole debacle glosses their work into the booth next to theirs and next to theirs making it unidentifiable and really just wasting their time. i mean, i'm not saying everyone who professes to be an arrrteeesteeee should really put effort forth and pursue that (i think you can follow and conjure my references), but even i am not so cruel to put a young, possibly naive, person into a situation where someone could easily throw candy colored liquor up on or crash into their work all while potentially destroying their ideas of their works worth and giving them a harsh introduction to the art world. over-all the whole situation feels like some bizarre real life pretending to be real life reality show in a microcosm where-in the known winners win despite their flaws and no matter how good your work is you are presently a nobody and nobody cares about nobody. however, the whole deal being in miami (have i let you know i have nothing but contempt for miami? because i do. i hate it. big time) should set off red-flags in anyone trying to be serious about anything. though, deerhoof and iggypop played and terrence koh was there so now he can buy a spare pair of balenciaga gold leggings or maybe the new latex robot outfits for spring 08? j/k i love t.koh