The amazing things one learns: I grabbed a quick lunch with an alumnae of Hammock Publishing who works at the very impressive San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She was nice enough to show me around the Matthew Barney ‘exhibit’ that opens officially tomorrow. I plead ignorance: my knowledge of currently hip conceptual artists is in the “I live under a rock” category, so Matthew Barney wasn’t on my radar screen. I won’t try to describe his work, although my guide for the day did a most amazing job of explaining it. One of the things he’s famous for is jumping on a trampoline and drawing pictures at the apex of his jump. Another thing he’s famous for is being the partner of the singer Bjork who, herself, is somewhat of a conceptual artist.

During the tour, I learned a new word: Ambergris.

My friendly guide (by the way, she says “hi” to several of you who know who I’m talking about) had to go back to work so I wandered through the rest of the museum on my own. My favorite discovery (again, I’m under a rock on these things) was an exhibit of some of the work by San Francisco graphic artist, Rex Ray. I only mention that because by some strange coincidence, my assistant booked me in the Hotel Rex while I’m here. Go figure.

Technorati Tags: brandrex

What Mark Cuban said: ““Despite all ‘he is the best, he is the worst’ commentary from people, none of it matters in the least bit.”

As I’ve said on this weblog many, many times, if you judge Mark Cuban by what you see on TV, hear on sports talk radio or read in the newspaper — and don’t read his blog — you’ll never understand him. He uses the medium of blogging (and in his case, it’s an extra-large, not a medium) in a way that displays how radically a new form of business communication platform blogging can be: raw, unfiltered, instantaneous. Can you imagine if every CEO used a blog to so unambiguously (with no safety net or help from the PR department or clearance from legal) explain his-or-her actions, motivations, emotions? Obviously, Cuban’s private ownership of his companies allows him some freedoms that a CEO of a public company does not have. However, in Cuban’s case, he’s paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (granted, in his case, chump change) in NBA fines for things he’s said on his blog, so it’s not like he can say whatever he wants without recrimination.

Reading Cuban’s blog (rather than, say, watching him on the sidelines of an NBA game) helps one separate the media character Mark Cuban from the real person. The same passion is there and the same gee-whiz, can you believe I get to do this stuff, is present. However, on his blog, a more introspective and intriguing real-live person emerges. Because of his consistent and savvy use of his weblog as his personal “of-record” platform, he’s created one place where anyone can turn to get “his side” of the story.

His blog — referring once more to the NBA fines — has probably made it the most “expensive” business weblog ever maintained. However, the value it provides him: to cut through crap and react to misinformation instantaneously, to defend himself and connect-the-dots of his business decisions…is priceless.

Technorati Tags: blogging, businessblogging, markcuban

Observation: It takes about ten hours to go door-to-door between two downtown hotels in cities on opposite coasts — if you’re lucky. I was lucky yesterday afternoon. Also, based on my first experience, Jetblue is worthy of all the hype it receives. Those little TV screens with 37 or so cable channels can tame the beast. Bloggercon IV starts tonight with a dinner. Don’t know how much blogging I’ll be doing, but I’ll likely be doing plenty of linking.

Technorati Tags: bloggercon, bloggerconIV