The Digest. 12.05.07.

Celso in Miami. Photo by C-Monster.

Reporting live from Art Basel, the art industry’s way of selling culture to all those newly-minted hedge fund managers.

• Get ready to shred: Basel trying to get all edgy-like with Concrete Waves, a 70-foot half pipe ramp for (invited-only) skaters.
• Oh, there’s art at Basel, too. See a slideshow here.
• And I Quote: “…with his brown eyes, full lips and smoothly shaven head, [Basel director Samuel] Keller is what one friend calls ‘the most famous baldy in the world.‘” What a load of hooey. This is the most famous baldy in the world. (By the way, anyone else find T Magazine’s website as annoying as I do?)
• The Day in Obvious Stories: The obligatory omigod-God-Basel-is-so-big story. Followed closely by the obligatory holy-shit-there’s-so-many-damn-fairs story.
• From the Department of Who Knew? Miami, the Capital of Latin America, is big on Caribbean artists.
• Miami restaurants you can maybe get into.
• CultureGrrl will be working on her tan.
• Um, that Banksy show at Vanina Holasek in NY? Not Banksy.
• Gap founder unveils design plans for his museum in S.F. The verdict? Well, it looks museum-y.
• In the wake of the Christoph Büchel fracas: Mass MOCA is now back to having shows, with Anselm Kiefer now on view.
• But is it as cool as Zhang Huan’s meat suit? Pinar Yolacan shoots women in dresses made with extras he picks up at the butcher.
• Make your own LED menorah.
• Murakami exhibit setting records in L.A., especially with first time visitors, who think they’re at Disneyland.
• In France, American Apparel ads have more titty.
• Rem Koolhaas working on Manhattan “mid-rise,” so called, no doubt, so that it doesn’t scare any of the local community boards.
• Video of the Day: The White Truffle Shuffle.
• In London: Photographer Peter Hujar at ICA and Open Studio, a street art group show.
• In Paris: Toy Comix at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
• In L.A.: Snow Angels at Thinkspace.
• In New York: Modernist Czech photography at the Guggenheim.
• In Seattle: Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery first-year anniversary.
• In San Francisco: UglyCon at Giant Robot.
• In Tokyo: Yoichi Yokoyama at the Mori Art Museum.
• Thank you, Juxtapoz, for the love.
• In honor of Basel: Your moment of partying.