Raghu writes:
On the rare occasions when I hear the name Kris Kristofferson, I think of the teen hip hop duo Kris Kross, best known (only known?) for the terrible song “Jump,” which I remember because it interrupted videos I would have rather been watching on ~1990 MTV. Anything that makes me think of Kris Kross should not be encouraged.
I have nothing to say about Kris Kristofferson, probably because he wasn’t widely played on early 1990s MTV.
That’s the kind of tortured reasoning we like to see on this here blog.
From the other direction, here’s Ethan:
If we don’t pick him, we risk Kris landing a helicopter on the lawn and insisting on giving a talk anyway.
That’s a compelling argument, but we’re not going to give in to extortion. So X it is.
Today’s matchup
Fourth-seeded children’s author vs. an unseeded cool person. These two people offer opposite pleasures. Survival in the harsh countryside or life in the city. Storytelling or drawing. Three names or one. Church vs. slate.
I’m afraid if we choose Laura Ingalls Wilder, we will get Melissa Gilbert in her place. In fact, I would be less suspicious of impersonation if I see Melissa at the lectern than if I see the real Laura. That’s the effect TV has on us fifty-somethings. On the other hand, Banksy is famously elusive, so it could be me giving the seminar and no one would ever know.
I’m not coming.
This is a tough one, since either of these would be great.
Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop” movie, by the way, is excellent, the (probably) true story of a man who videotapes street artists (including Banksy) at work and then shamelessly promotes himself as an artist. My description isn’t very good, but it’s hard to describe. Wikipedia: “Banksy said: ‘I spent a year […] watching footage of sweaty vandals falling off ladders'” Think of all the bonus footage we could see at the seminar!
A bit surreal, yes, but not as surreal as the first book in the Little House on the Prairie series, in which the author plays with a freshly extracted pig bladder, blown up as a balloon. To a (vegetarian) kid in Southern California, this was as odd as Asimov. I read more of the books, possibly all of them — I remember the first several being excellent. What strange tales from a far-off culture would we get at the seminar?
i picture banksy going sort of a souped up dmitri martin, which sounds appealing. also, i can never shake that television version of life on the prairie, i feel like even as a 9 year old it bored me to tears.
Banksy 100%
As a Graffiti Artist for 20 years now (I’m 33) he has always fascinated me. Graffiti/Street Art is a MASSIVE ego game and to see someone so Global, so famous, such a celebrity just be so completely disinterested in the main aspect of it all is just bewildering. I guarantee his story, his day to day life, things he’s seen and done and what he’s been influenced by has got to be incredibly riveting.