That’s me! In my new pink hat, goggles, Christmas gift Moon Boots from Hub and wearing my Sundance Credentials
Well, now that I’m packed and headed back to DC (flying commercial: all of the Air Force jets were booked by Nancy Pelosi’s family. I know I tweeted that we were boarding Air Force Won, but we got bumped), I can divulge the real reason Raj and I were here.
We came to check out a Swiss multi-media film/art installation that claims to be able to fuse reality with fantasy: claiming that only “ten percent of what people see is through their eyes, and 90 percent is constructed by the brain.” I’m sure you can see the concern: we were assigned to investigate whether this Swiss collaborator had hacked into my systems and stolen by super-secret NASA installed mirror re-imaging programs.
After scrupulously examining every aspect of Pipilotti Rist’s film Pepperminta, as well as a companion film installed at the Festival’s New Frontier theatre/museum as a piece of immersion art (I’m not making any of this up), I’m pleased to report that she’s got nothing. Like everything else here, it’s just a slick scam.
And it’s a good thing: that leaves me free to work within that “90%” zone to clean things up for public view. We don’t need any more reality, now do we?
So, just because I was on official business, it didn’t stop me from squeezing in some fun here at Sundance. That’s a little trick I’ve learned from some of the political pros. Raj and I did see some movies films. I was surprised, most of them seem very critical of the hand that feeds them. Maybe that’s why they all look so anorexic.
We were very excited to go to the HOWL opening film about some B-list beat poet. The next day we made copies of some real poetry - Gerard Allen Van der Ginsberg’s (aka Vanderleun) American version of Howl: GROWL - and posted them at select venues and kiosks around town. (Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.) Most, but not all, were swiped by the next day.
Our poor little Sundancers didn’t quite know what to make of it. They really like counter-culture, as long as it’s not their culture being countered. Plus, I realized my mistake too late: my handouts said “Now READ GROWL.” This is Sundance: They don’t READ, they WATCH. Anything more than a paragraph long, and their brain synapses start shorting out. At least I tried to introduce them to real poetry. It’s not my fault that they all went to public school. Next year I’ll do it as a graphic novel. Oh, and I’ll need better ink. The copies left on the kiosks started to bleed all over the place by the next day. I told Raj we should have had the copies made at Staples.
Then, since I did so well on the surfboard while we were in Hawaii, I decided to take a snowboard lesson. Normally my pal Stein Erikson doesn’t allow snowboards at his Deer Valley ski resort, but as you can see, he made an exception for a special emissary from the White House:
That’s me, under the goggles (needed to prevent fogging up my lenses) with my new OMATIC snowboard, and Stein Eriksen.
Raj enjoyed hanging around in the nerd lounges and talking to film makers, but I just seemed to have a natural affinity for the snowboard, and spent as much time as I could on the slopes:
and even managed to catch a little air on my last day:
But now, my work is done here. I’m on my way home to resume my responsibilities for a different kind of snow job.
‘Bye Sundance. It was fun.
Oh, and I’ll fill you in on TOTUS’ new private sector project as soon as I can.
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