Instead, the guest was Oklahoma City Ed, the plain-spoken Midwesterner who studied illustration at Walt Disneys Chouinard Art Institute and celebrates true originals like Clark Byers, Georgias "Barnyard Rembrandt," a sign painter who "never passed up a good roof." Ruscha wasnt actually wearing coveralls -- he was in sneakers, dark pants and shirt and a pea-green cotton jacket -- but he may as well have been for all his homespun subtlety. For instance, he explained the genesis of his esthetic by showing a slide of the round, black gearshift of a 1950 Ford. "I liked the shape and the function," he said, "and it merged into my art."

As for Peter Jennings, the ABC anchor on hand to conduct the interview with Ruscha, he is a stalwart Artwalk supporter, bless his heart, but he shows how hopelessly clueless middlebrow America is about contemporary art (if the art bug is something you catch, these people have been thoroughly inoculated). We got queries about Ruschas interest in nonfiction (something by John McPhee on geology), in jazz (something about Ornette Coleman at the Disney Center) and about the origins of the term "Pop art" (coined by critic Lawrence Alloway in response to works by Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, and popularized on the West Coast by Walter Hopps "New Painting of Common Objects" exhibition at the Pasadena Art Institute in 1962).

Art collector and former Paine Webber chief Donald Marron joined Ruscha and Jennings on the stage, and was able to contribute a little bit of savvy. He told an anecdote about Ruschas blue-and-yellow 1963 word painting Oof, which is currently on view on the fourth floor of the new Museum of Modern Art (Ruscha hadnt yet made it to the new museum), joking that MoMA curator Kynaston McShine had to hold forth for 10 minutes on the apparently simple painting to get the museum acquisition committee to agree to the purchase. No word on the price, of course.

Ruscha had come prepared with his own slides, however, which saved the day. "I have my grievances," he said at one point, noting that he didnt approve of the recent U.S. currency redesign. Showing side-by-side images of Andrew Jackson on the old and the new $10 bill, Ruscha praised the cranky visage in the original intaglio but said that the new digital version looks like a guy waiting in line at Starbucks. Similarly, the picture of Lincoln on the original $5 bill is "the one I know, warts and all," while the new Lincoln "looks like he could be president of the National Rifle Association."

Ruscha has been selected to represent the U.S. at the 2005 Venice Biennale, and Jennings asked him if he had started on the show yet. "Ill be working up to the last minute -- what time is it?" he joked. Then he said that the installation would "probably be something about my doubts about the progress of history or something like that." Hmm, sounds like it might be political.

One highlight at the Artwalk live art auction at Sothebys two days later on Nov. 22 was the bidding battle for a small (20 x 16 in.) but witty acrylic painting on linen by Ruscha from 2004 titled Hot and Cold and showing fuzzy silhouettes of two old-fashioned water taps, with a blue stripe coming from one and a red stripe from the other. The work, which carried a $70,000 presale estimate, sold for $100,000 to Museum of Modern Art trustee Agnes Gund after a spirited duel with art advisor Simon Watson, who was on the phone to an unnamed client.

Artwalk typically raises about $500,000 for charity. According to Coalition for the Homeless executive director Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, New York City currently has 38,000 homeless people, 16,000 of them women and children.

Also up is an untitled installation by Banks Violette, the artists first solo museum exhibition, opening at the museum proper on May 27, 2005 and remaining on view through September. The work includes a sculptural component evoking "a Minimalist representation of a ruined skeleton of a church" as well as a musical component composed by Black Metal musician Snorre Ruch. Both exhibitions are organized by Whitney curator Shamim M. Momin.

Artecity has already begun its sponsorship activities, and is underwriting the video lounge at Art Basel Miami Beach, Dec. 2-5, 2004. The development, which eventually will number 180 residential units, includes the Governor Hotel (the largest original Art Deco hotel in Miami Beach), two new towers designed by the Arquitectonica firm and the historic Park Plaza Apartments. Prices start in the $200,000 range, with finished units planning to come online beginning in early 2006. For more info, see www.artecitymiami.com