C-MONSTER.net

Welcome to Miami: This year, I couldn’t make it to Art Basel. But I can still channel its spirit. Party like it’s the end of the world, you crazy muthas. Because it is. (Photo by C-M.)

• Andrew Sullivan: Why I Blog.
• The Basel Frazzle: Fun facts about how our crap-ass economy and Art Basel intersect. Plus, news flash: the art at this year’s Basel is a lot less blingy. More on the whole mess here.
• I want, I need, I have to have…Takashi Murakami’s flower outfit from Art Basel.
• A profile of Miami gallerist-about-town, Fred Snitzer. Best quote: “My dad wept the day I went off to art school.”
• Eli Broad says that his offer to L.A.’s MOCA comes with no strings attached. Okay trustees…any day now. More on the museum’s (lack of) health.
• Lehman Bros. (what’s left of it) to divest itself of its $8 million art collection.
• The Official Museum of Bad Art.
• Francesco Vezzoli to do a spoof perfume ad with Natalie Portman. Like, that’s so 1980s SNL.
• Coffee art. (Link courtesy of Big Papi G.)
• NPR reports on Sol Lewitt’s Mass MOCA wall drawings.
• Captured on Film: The legacy of the murder of civil rights activist James Chaney.
• Thinking about Obama’s arts and humanities appointments.
• A forest on wheels.
• Retired subway cars as artist studios in London. Digging that Insa one at bottom. (Thanks, Deirdre!)
• Today’s Graff: Saner in Mexico City.
• Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne is a guest DJ on L.A.’s KCRW, and he is funk-i-fied: Dr. John and Prince appear on his play list.
• But will there be a centerfold? Brad Pitt on the January cover of Architectural Digest.
• Give yourself a lower back ache: The step-by-step on building various types of Eames shell chairs. (The music on this is priceless.)
• California Modern 1950. Love the television sunken into the coffee table. (Thanks, Yvonne!)
• Paddy Johnson on Frank Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario in Frieze Magazine.
• Skatedeck stairs.
• Your moment of Prop 8, the Musical.