Notes from Jackson Street
1. I love seeing European couples - with maps spread out and cameras dangling from their necks - argue over which direction to take, and which San Francisco landmark they need to visit next. It always amazes me how much contempt comes from simple decisions like, which way to go, or what should we do next?
I've realized that there are two types of partners: one you want to vacation with, and one you don't. For example, one of my ex-girlfriends is a pleasure to be around, a person who acknowledges when something nice is done for her, even if it's a little thing that's easy to take for granted. Everything is fun. We go weeks together and never get on each others' nerves. Another can be so miserable that she makes even a taxi ride, or a quick bite to eat, or a decision on where to sit at a concert, unbearable. At the end of the day, who would you rather spend time with?
2. Getting espresso this morning, there were two couples, probably in their late-sixties, early-seventies, clearly tourists, and the women were drinking wine and the men Heineken's, at 10:00 am, and it was, well, nice. That's how you vacation, in my opinion, taking each second to celebrate the day. Not that I advocate boozing this early (not that I oppose it, really, either), but when you're living it up, when you're on borrowed time, why the hell not?
3. The Warriors got beat by the better team (with a better coach), so I can't really be upset, but their behavior last night was lame. Stephen Jackson is a helluva player, but I wouldn't bring him back next year if I were the GM. I mean, at a certain point, it's time to just shut up and play, and that scene last night, where he got a stupid flagrant-one, for no reason other than he was frustrated at missing so many shots, then kept talking and got a technical a few seconds later, was just idiotic, even if the Jazz missed all three free throws. The Warriors made bad decisions in the open court and then whined when their passes were intercepted, whereas the Jazz just dug in and turned the other cheek when the Warriors took the inevitable cheap shots at the end. It's the mark of a good team - a disciplined team - not to lose focus, even in the midst of adversity, even when things get emotional. That's why the Jazz advanced.
4. Watched Spike Lee's When the Levee Broke last night, and all I can say is, wow. I thought it would be this stereotypical, biased attack on GW, just how incompetent his whole administration is, and there are those elements mixed in, but more than that, it really was just a collection of powerful, moving stories, and it's amazing - despite watching all the footage back when it first happened - what the people of New Orleans had to endure, and yet, their spirit is what I keep coming back to, how they suffered and then how they persevered. Sure, it's easy to arm-chair quarterback everything and say, hey look, they were warned, they were told to evacuate and didn't, but it's more complex than that - I mean some people don't have cars or the finances to just pack everything and leave, especially if they've reacted to other alarms previously, ones that turned out false.
Regardless of one's feelings, to see elderly grandmothers in wheelchairs just decaying on bridges or at the SuperDome, without water, without medical attention, without oxygen masks, just breaks your heart. One guy lost his own mother, had to leave her along the side of the road, in 100 degree heat, to rot, and when he tried to return a few days later, our own National Guard pulled their guns and ordered him to get on the bus. I couldn't even imagine what this guy had to deal with, and as he was recounting his tale, I got choked up.
Spike Lee often lets his own biases get the better of him, and what ends up happening is, he creates a really interesting premise and then turns it into a didactic, heavy-handed political exercise that dilutes the narrative (well, except for Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X). Even Clockers was a pretty solid movie, except that Spike got on his soapbox about half-way through and started preaching about the effects of rap music and video games, and it was a turn-off, to happen in the middle of a compelling drama, even if fundamentally his opinions have some merit.
And yet, this documentary was a powerful film, an authentic historical document, and I have a lot more respect for him after having seen it. (As a side note I went to Border's last week and saw Spike for a few moments signing autographs. I wanted to yell out "Mooooooookie" but didn't have the balls, especially in front of such a large crowd.)
5. Today I worked on an invitation for our Terry O'Neill show (check out that shot of Terence Stamp and Jean Shrimpton!). All I can say is, this guy took some brilliant photographs, and it was quite hard to choose which images to use, so I ended up making a mock-up with all of them assembled in this tight grid, a very precise collage, and stayed until 7:30 pm because I was so stoked on the project.
Man, how lucky am I to actually enjoy the stuff I'm doing. It's not always this cool, but still, I get paid to create, and I really have no room to complain. I know some people who have been doing the same monotonous job for decades.
Not me. Once things get stale, it's time to move on.
6. This guy was on my high-school basketball team.
I've realized that there are two types of partners: one you want to vacation with, and one you don't. For example, one of my ex-girlfriends is a pleasure to be around, a person who acknowledges when something nice is done for her, even if it's a little thing that's easy to take for granted. Everything is fun. We go weeks together and never get on each others' nerves. Another can be so miserable that she makes even a taxi ride, or a quick bite to eat, or a decision on where to sit at a concert, unbearable. At the end of the day, who would you rather spend time with?
2. Getting espresso this morning, there were two couples, probably in their late-sixties, early-seventies, clearly tourists, and the women were drinking wine and the men Heineken's, at 10:00 am, and it was, well, nice. That's how you vacation, in my opinion, taking each second to celebrate the day. Not that I advocate boozing this early (not that I oppose it, really, either), but when you're living it up, when you're on borrowed time, why the hell not?
3. The Warriors got beat by the better team (with a better coach), so I can't really be upset, but their behavior last night was lame. Stephen Jackson is a helluva player, but I wouldn't bring him back next year if I were the GM. I mean, at a certain point, it's time to just shut up and play, and that scene last night, where he got a stupid flagrant-one, for no reason other than he was frustrated at missing so many shots, then kept talking and got a technical a few seconds later, was just idiotic, even if the Jazz missed all three free throws. The Warriors made bad decisions in the open court and then whined when their passes were intercepted, whereas the Jazz just dug in and turned the other cheek when the Warriors took the inevitable cheap shots at the end. It's the mark of a good team - a disciplined team - not to lose focus, even in the midst of adversity, even when things get emotional. That's why the Jazz advanced.
4. Watched Spike Lee's When the Levee Broke last night, and all I can say is, wow. I thought it would be this stereotypical, biased attack on GW, just how incompetent his whole administration is, and there are those elements mixed in, but more than that, it really was just a collection of powerful, moving stories, and it's amazing - despite watching all the footage back when it first happened - what the people of New Orleans had to endure, and yet, their spirit is what I keep coming back to, how they suffered and then how they persevered. Sure, it's easy to arm-chair quarterback everything and say, hey look, they were warned, they were told to evacuate and didn't, but it's more complex than that - I mean some people don't have cars or the finances to just pack everything and leave, especially if they've reacted to other alarms previously, ones that turned out false.
Regardless of one's feelings, to see elderly grandmothers in wheelchairs just decaying on bridges or at the SuperDome, without water, without medical attention, without oxygen masks, just breaks your heart. One guy lost his own mother, had to leave her along the side of the road, in 100 degree heat, to rot, and when he tried to return a few days later, our own National Guard pulled their guns and ordered him to get on the bus. I couldn't even imagine what this guy had to deal with, and as he was recounting his tale, I got choked up.
Spike Lee often lets his own biases get the better of him, and what ends up happening is, he creates a really interesting premise and then turns it into a didactic, heavy-handed political exercise that dilutes the narrative (well, except for Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X). Even Clockers was a pretty solid movie, except that Spike got on his soapbox about half-way through and started preaching about the effects of rap music and video games, and it was a turn-off, to happen in the middle of a compelling drama, even if fundamentally his opinions have some merit.
And yet, this documentary was a powerful film, an authentic historical document, and I have a lot more respect for him after having seen it. (As a side note I went to Border's last week and saw Spike for a few moments signing autographs. I wanted to yell out "Mooooooookie" but didn't have the balls, especially in front of such a large crowd.)
5. Today I worked on an invitation for our Terry O'Neill show (check out that shot of Terence Stamp and Jean Shrimpton!). All I can say is, this guy took some brilliant photographs, and it was quite hard to choose which images to use, so I ended up making a mock-up with all of them assembled in this tight grid, a very precise collage, and stayed until 7:30 pm because I was so stoked on the project.
Man, how lucky am I to actually enjoy the stuff I'm doing. It's not always this cool, but still, I get paid to create, and I really have no room to complain. I know some people who have been doing the same monotonous job for decades.
Not me. Once things get stale, it's time to move on.
6. This guy was on my high-school basketball team.
posted by Rob Simons at 10:11 AM
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