Candy Perfume Girl

Ray of Light / Madonna









The arrogance of architects astounds me. That sentence has great alteration doesn’t it? But it’s true. Last night we engaged in the first two interviews. The first firm, the astounding one, was described by one member of the committee as a dog and pony show. I think they also had a few llamas.



They were quite a sight though, more people for the presentation than on the committee to evaluate them. Six people came for our measly project. The “lead” was a well tanned man, perfectly toned and clearly skilled at shaking hands and kissing babies. Clearly too, he was the “face.” He did not know the groovy cad program that was supposed to be a selling point. (He referred to another – the pony tail). He didn’t know libraries. (He referred to another – the blonde.) He didn’t know green design. (He referred to another – the engineer.) But he did smile well.


The blonde was the real brains. How often does one say that? He was a pale, Scandinavian looking male with one of those annoying tufty beards that appears parallel to one’s nose on the lower lip like a furry postage stamp. Very distracting. He too was way to suave, but at least knew what he was talking about. Or, at least knew the rhetoric of what he was talking about.


Clearly the presentation had been rehearsed as they had four easels with larger poster boards, each one to remove a board in sequence and switch off. The Engineer they kept in the back, trying not to have him talk, but he wanted to. The ponytail (described as project manager) also was not supposed to talk. His role was to run the laptop and the cad program, which The Face had no clue about.


Also along for the ride but not allowed to speak much (a good thing) was the old artist. He looked like a rumpled hammock. He wanted to give an art history lesson on the importance of symbols and decorative design. In the end, they let him ramble for 5 minutes and shut him down.


But the mastermind of the whole affair was a young woman identified as head of marketing. And head of marketing she was. Sitting in the back she conducted the presentation with hand singles and directions. It was an amazing thing to watch.


I’m very certain this firm could sell swamp land in Florida, the Brooklyn Bridge to a sailor and a jet plane to a little old lady. They do not have my vote.