From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V11 #283 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Wednesday, December 6 2006 Volume 11 : Number 283 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [AVALON] Brian Eno dodges the questions [Chandla911@aol.com] [AVALON] Re: Highway No 1 Revisited [MarlanaK@webtv.net (M.M.K.)] [AVALON] RE:annual Glasgow meet [Diane whateley ] To leave the list, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon-digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 05:02:56 EST From: Chandla911@aol.com Subject: [AVALON] Brian Eno dodges the questions Last night (Dec 4) at London's ICA was a very interesting evening, but not exactly as billed. Brian Eno was indeed in conversation with Steven Johnson, US academic and author of the newly published "The Ghost Map: A Street, an Epidemic and the Two Men Who Battled to Save Victorian London". And the opening 20 mins or so were indeed about cholera epidemics in the capital 150 years ago and how they might influence our future dealings with cholera around the globe, this part a monologue by Johnson. Then Brian Eno, who listened attentively and even took notes, moved the discussion forward to raise and discuss recent statistics that, for the first time, more than 50% of the world's population now live in cities and that we now have more people (2.5bn) living without clean water than ever before in history. He, of course, mentioned his oft-quoted statistic that the water problem could be solved by spending a fifth of the cost of the Bush/Blair invasion of Iraq, although he now claims this would be only around one fifteenth of that cost. He name-dropped more books than one man should decently have the time to read in a lifetime and a recent list in a magazine of all the cities in China that have populations of more than 1 million. Eno said that he was amazed to see "over 300 names of major cities that I'd never heard of". Johnson joked "But you knew the other 700? Impressive!" And, before we knew it, Eno had moved on again to discuss his new favourite hobby horse, that of Second Life. For those who don't yet know, this is the facility online for people to reinvent themselves (Bowie is doubtless a lead player) and live a second, third or fourth life (a glorified version of the Sims) and mount experimental models of how life might be in the future and see if other players buy into it or whether it falls and fails without endangering whole populations (other than the virtual ones). He quoted a recent example where a player was buying up real estate in infinitely thin stretches of land next to land where richer players have bought and developed property with beautiful scenic views of virtual sunsets. On these infinitely thin stretches of land, he then built infinitely tall skyscrapers and daubed on the wall anti-Bush slogans (could this player have been Brian Eno?, one was forced to ask) and impose extortionate prices on the neighbours who wanted to do away with the skyscrapers. Actually, one member of the audience was forced to ask what did high-falluting virtual world games for the metropolitan elite have to do with the subject of the evening: namely, how we deal with cholera in the first world and developing world countries? This query elicited applause from one lady in the audience and many more must have felt like following suit. Brian Eno defended the swerve in topic by protesting that Second Life boasts an evenly distributed gender split, that older players spend more time on the games than younger players and that there is no elitism involved. But he dodged the supplementary question about cholera and socio-economics and then went on to the next person with arm aloft. Later, another member of the audience asked a complex question (which could have used sub-titles) of Eno and a simple question about the new book of author Steven Johnson. The latter leapt in and offered Eno thinking time while he answered the more straight-forward question. When he had finished, Eno said "On the basis that you have now already had one question answered, we ought to move on to someone who hasn't". As baldly as that. Ahem. In true Dimbleby style, he then moved to the "...Lady at the back. Oh sorry, you're a man. I just saw the hair and presumed...don't worry, that happened to me a lot when I was younger, it doesn't happen anymore". At the end of the 90 minutes allocated, Eno (always a man with somewhere else he needs to be, people to see) called a halt. But he said Johnson would gladly sign copies of the new book and "if anyone wishes to buy either of two copies of my latest release '77 Million Paintings' stocked by the ICA , I'd be happy to sign those, too". Brian Eno did of course sign other artefacts, but was loathe to get caught up in any post-event discussion, such was his hurry to leave, until he reached the foyer and, in a moment eerily reminiscent of the summer event at the Royal Academy (and Bernd will know what I mean), he met two middle-aged ladies who giggled girlishly and looked down at him (one forgets just how short Eno is) with wide-eyed awe and admiration. Eno decided to stay a while. Not a great evening for democracy, successful product placement or even straight answering of questions, but not without incident or entertainment. PS Brian wore black, but for his black and white dogtooth check zip-up woollen jacket ;-) Best wishes Richard Mills n/p Undiscovered - James Morrison ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 08:58:01 -0600 From: MarlanaK@webtv.net (M.M.K.) Subject: [AVALON] Re: Highway No 1 Revisited As we all have pondered the when & what yr. for Bryan's new album. Sceptics here wondering the choice of Dylan for inspiration. Take notice of this---Music Legend Bob Dylan is now the oldest person to launch an album in the #1 spot, with his "Modern Times" selling 192,000 copies in its FIRST WEEK. The 65 yr. old troubadour last topped the charts with "Desire" in 1976, 2 yrs. after he released the classic song," Forever Young".----Way to go!!! Now its proven Dylan can still make the music & people listen & not only listen but buy.Can't argue with success. Some wonder the choice for Bryan to cover Dylan , a no brainer. He will sale a lot of copies if he does. Always, Marlana ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 09:52:50 -0800 (PST) From: Diane whateley Subject: [AVALON] RE:annual Glasgow meet Apologies for the late posting... Better late than never! It is that time again where we discuss, analyse and genuflect at the feet of our master maestro! Not really! However if you want to be 'up all night' at 'the spot where the beat's really hot' then go elswhere as we shall be 'talk, talk talking ourselves (not quite!) to death'. Good company with like minded cognoscenti- come along to the Tron Theatre cafe/bar around 8pm, Friday 29th December... be there or be....! Cheers, Diane ____________________________________________________________________________________ Cheap talk? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates. http://voice.yahoo.com ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V11 #283 ***************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest