Today I watched a BBC documentary on world’s most expensive paintings. Near the top of the list was Picasso’s ‘Le Rêve’ which was owned at the time by casino magnate Steve Wynn. To introduce him to the public BBC had shown Wynn standing on the edge of the roof of his hotel in Las Vegas ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKnaypXbuQg ).
That clip made a lot of noise on the internet with people discussing whether this was Steve himself and whether he used safety harness.
I have a lot of similar pictures of myself (for example, on this one I am standing on the hanging rock in Yosemite http://reverent.org/Pictures/glacier_point_staying.jpg ).
None of them caused any resonance on the internet. Perhaps people can accuse me of boasting and say that it is really nothing. This may well be. But in such case Wynn’s performance is also nothing. Can’t be otherwise. Then we conclude that the internet resonance was caused by Wynn doing nothing special.
Now since the owner of Picasso’s painting got famous for nothing special the same could be true of the painting itself. Indeed in another thread we have discussed how people can’t tell masterpieces of modern art from my doodles ( http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=705883 ). So there is nothing special of modern art masterpieces.
However there still may be something special about Wynn’s stunt. The thing that it was done by someone who appreciates modern art.
Wynn has been going blind for years (and may have been nearly blind at the time of the stunt). That might have increased the skepticism about whether he himself was standing in the dangerous position.
silenus - don’t even try. It’s not worth engaging. I don’t know why I posted the first time other than to share my trivia bit about the elbow through the painting.
Yes. However one day, while doing some boring computer programming, as a diversion, I drew a picture in Microsoft Word and sent it to a friend in Belgium. He replied that his co-workers asked whether it is Picasso or Matisse.
And if they have seen a picture of another modern art lover (for example, noble lord Saatchi) on the roof they would not be skeptical?
The footage of Jack Nicholson’s “skydive” was definitely filmed in vertical wind tunnel.
How do you know?
The art which one can’t tell from a work of a bored scientist. And his heroic stunt on the roof was really nothing special. Perhaps, his money is also not an evidence of genius?
No, his money is very much evidence of his genius. Steve Wynn invented the megaresort when he opened the Mirage. He refined it when he opened Bellagio. He perfected it when he opened Wynn/Encore.
Wordman - It wasn’t anything special. The wife and he are old friends.
Nah, even I can’t tell that big a whopper. What really happened was the wife and I were having dinner at Sinatra at Encore, which is one of our favorite restaurants. Steve’s too, and he happened to be dining there on the patio while we were there. Only 10 feet or so away (and shielded by a large pane of glass and quite a few flunkies.) Even with the Boss in the place, the service and food were still exemplary. After he and his party left, the manager came by our table, found out we eat there every anniversary, and presented us with a CD of Sinatra songs selected by Wynn and given to “his special guests.” So the “Official Story” is we had dinner with Steve and he gave us a present for our anniversary.
This is going to go the way of “Juvenile delinquent taught at a university”, isn’t it? Lots of confused fumbling from the OP until it either peters to a halt or gets locked. It’s as if the OP is trying to scientifically prove with geometric logic that… what? Black and white are actually grey?
Which is why I said “don’t engage” - totally not worth it. Contradiction is not an argument, and repeated lecturing is not a discussion. silenus - cool. Gotta love good Sinatra!!
If he were indeed a daredevil he would not need any safety straps.
Now please explain using you immaculate logic why my doing the same thing without any safety straps is somehow blacker?
Another example of fumbling was demonstrated by Wynn himself
when he accused Obama in doing only redistribution of wealth and not creating anything. Who is accusing? What is he doing in his casinos other then wealth redistribution?
Rather than writing the paragraphs it would take to explain it, I recommend you do the “search on threads started by” function. That should help you get the picture.
But many people had called him a daredevil and it turned out that he hid a safety strap under his suite. A natural suspicion is that he might have hid something under his suite while playing the role of a genius as well. What did he invent? A word? There haven’t been big resorts before?
So this is how you learned that he is a nice guy:
?
I don’t see how one could make an inference of the character of the person on such occasion.
