Did a performance for a DIA benefit last night. I was asked to do so nicely by Bob Hurwitz, head of Nonesuch.
I know what these black tie arts events can be like so I declined doing a musical performance — I'd feel demeaned as they slouched back, sipping the last of their wines, picking at their deserts and secretly chatting or networking with their tablemates.
So I offered that I do a short version of my PowerPoint talk. They only wanted about 20 minutes of entertainment, which was perfect, the first 20 minutes of the talk was the funny part that is essentially a jokey history and description of the software.
I was really nervous. I sat with Hurwitz a bit before I went on, I was dressed in a black suit and tie so as to both blend in with the art collectors, museum directors and corporate CEOs and to play the part of the "expert" during my talk.
I was also worried because a man on my right, an author, had never heard of PowerPoint. Maybe the CEOs had underlings to do their PowerPoint and the artists in the room would never have had any contact with it, as I didn't until a few years ago.
It went over really well. Got so many laughs sometimes I had to stop. Lauren Hutton, the former(?) model, heckled from a table near the front. I mostly ignored her — maybe she was drunk, or maybe excited about the subject.
I mentioned that I wasn't going to subject the art curators to slides of my own work, though I slipped one or two in there. Mostly the images were of PowerPoint stuff I'd downloaded from the web — lots of nutty uses and abuses of PowerPoint. I wrapped up with the PowerPoint piece Mike Fincke the astronaut sent me from the International Space Station — PowerPoint sent from outer space seemed a nice closing — it's universal, see?
Earlier, listening to some of the Bush Of Ghosts outtakes — I think there might be some cool stuff there worth including on the re-release, we'll see if Eno agrees.
An Italian town has cops in a Lamborghini (top speed 190 MPH!). Here are the cops. An attractive woman (Laura Ciano) and what appears to be her clownish batman — Vincenzo Bizzarro (real name!)
Sounds like a TV pilot to me. I can imagine some macho Italian driver running red lights, speeding along, then suddenly pulled over by Vincenzo as Laura leans over and asks to see his ID.
