If I was asked the ideal situation in which to give a public lecture, I still wouldn’t have come up with anything nearly as fun as the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art’s Mixed Taste lecture series. I lectured on drinking water and Scott Kinnamon lectured on Miles Davis. Then, during the Q & A, the audience came up with questions that tied the two subjects together. The whole premise of the program is based on the idea of metaphor, that unrelated subjects can illuminate one another. During dinner, afterwards, I found out that the late poet, Jake Adam York, whose work I admire tremendously, helped found the series eleven years ago. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that a brilliant poet would be behind such a brilliant event.

Here are some photos:

The Holiday Event Center just before the doors opened. Tickets were sold out!

The house band, Oko Tygra, wrote a song about drinking water during the lecture and played it at the intermission.

Scott Kinnamon called Miles Davis “the avatar for cultural malaise.”

Before chlorination, beer and wine were often safer to drink than water!