/end Basel.

My thoughts on Basel (Basel encompassing all of the satellite fairs and ancillary things to do...) as a whole this year?

It jumped the Shark, as everything does once the mouth-breathing hoardes from Kendall discover it (See, ArtWalk).

The art was fine. But there were only a few things that had me standing in front of them, wishing I had tens of thousands of dollars of disposable income.

Aqua, which was one of my favorite art fairs last year, was TERRIBLE this year - it was held in the Aqua Hotel, which was a godawful venue for the display galleries; to be fair, I was pretty burned out by the time I saw it, but I didn't really like the setup and I didn't really like the art.

On the whole, the best large exhibit I saw (besides Basel) was Pulse. But even Pulse didn't have much that made me quiver with art-envy.

Also, this year, everyone I talked to was sort of on the same wavelength - Basel lacked the electricity of years past. Thursday night was the one night that really crackled with that "Baseltime!" feeling. I went to Party on the Plaza, Rocket Projects, tried to go to Rainbow City, but the line was too long and we had to go to Wynwood Kitchen Bar and Grill at Wynwood Walls for dinner... Otherwise, the consensus between lots of my friends is that we were all going through the motions this year, without much enthusiasm. I think that's because some big mainstays (at least for me...) disappeared this year - Max Fish from last year was a great time, and the Gen Art Vanguard Party was always sort of a nice anchor. As Gen Art is defunct, and Max Fish wasn't installed this year... there wasn't as much focus for me.

Also, we're getting older, and I can't do Basel like I could five years ago (the difference between 25 and 30 is sort of amazing.) I'm tired. And the hangovers are worse and last longer.

Also, there wasn't as much free booze, and the lines for it were long.

But I really think what it is for people my age, is that we're so desperate to absorb every last drop of culture we can during the five-day Art-Orgy, that the binge stops being enjoyable around Thursday -- and there are three more days to go after that.

So, in sum, I saw a lot, I did an adequate amount (less than last year) and I had a decent time. I'm glad I got out, and I daresay this was the week when the most attractive people descended upon Miami. But then again, I like guys with beards and glasses. So, the nerdy eye-candy was out in full force. But... eh. I think Basel reached its Zenith in '07, '08 and '09. And although more and more stuff is popping up, while in years past it was possible to do a lot of Basel, now it's simply hopeless to even get to most of it...

Basel - I'm glad it's over for another year.