Man, the last week has been hectic. I have several projects going on right now, but the one which has taken up most of my time was the Warhol lecture I mentioned the last time I got around to update this thing.

I held the lecture yesterday morning and by all accounts it was a big success. My job was to entertain approximately 130 high schools seniors for 2x45 minutes from 8:30 to 10:10 in the morning. Besides the kids there were several teachers (including my Dad) and the principal in attendance and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I've never spoken in front of that many people before (outside of concerts and plays), so I hadn't thought about the fact that it might be difficult to keep that many people interested for an extended period of time (especially that early in the day). Turns out it wasn't difficult at all, but all the teachers kept saying afterwards that it was impressive how attentive the kids had been, so I guess that's a sign things went well.

A lot of people feel uncomfortable about talking in front of big crowds, but I've never had that problem. I get nervous about loads of things and when I know I'm unprepared for an oral exam I do get a little sweaty. But usually I don't get really nervous before presentations and speeches. This time around I had prepared a Powerpoint presentation with about 40 slides and eight singlespaced pages with anecdotes and facts, so I had a ton of stuff to talk about, which is a confidence booster. The only problem was that I had no idea how much time it would take to get through my manuscript, so when it was time for the break I had only made it through the first two pages, which meant I had to drop a ton of stuff in the second half.

So in part two I skipped over a lot and when the video projector suddenly gave out I had to skip over even more stuff. But it came back on for the last ten minutes where I got to show off some Pop Art by other artists than Warhol and talk a little about the things the students should consider before choosing images for their own Neo Pop Art projects. I tried to emphasize the importance of choosing something relevant for their paintings instead of just picking out a random celebrity and painting him/her in four different colours. I wanted them to think about which statement they were trying to make and possibly even try to provoke or use humour.
They're having an exhibit in March, so I'll probably go see that to see which subjects are on the minds of teenagers today and how they have chosen to express these thoughts.

Somehow I also found time to go see The Twilight Singers at Voxhall Monday night and review it for Frekvens. The review is in Danish, but you don't need to speak our beautiful language to enjoy the cool pictures Jan took at the show.
It was a pretty good show although a couple of tracks from "Gentlemen" would have been a cool gesture. The "Blackberry Bell" record is really good and especially the amusingly titled Teenage Wristband is a good track.
There aren't a lot cool shows these days, but I'm definitely going to the next Label Night show this weekend, so that ought to be good and I'm looking forward to checking out the new indie club which opens the following weekend.

And in case you're wondering the new Eddie Izzard DVD is excellent and I'm liking the Ryan Adams "Rock and Roll" album a lot more than I thought I would.