Thought: When they invite people to be apart of this process, they should invite them to spend the first three days in Costa Mesa at their headquarters. Those first days should be about engaging the "cast members" in a dialogue about what it takes to be apart of this production: what the aims of the company are, what the series is used for, how the cameras and footage are captured and processed, and so on. I feel like this would bring the "roadtrippers" into the group more, and give them a greater sense of agency in the creation of the trip; make them a fellow artist, instead of just a canvas or piece of pastel, in the hands of others.
In NYC (Brooklyn Heights, specifically): we met a sweet man by the name of George Davis. We had arrived late in the evening, and were searching for a laundromat. Mr. Davis stumbled into our conversation, while exiting from the CVS, and asked us what our plight was. He replied, "Well the only laundromat I know is in my house, that is I have my own machine." After a slight pause, he continued with, "would you all like to come up and use it?" Stunned by this act of humanity, we all sat silent for a brief moment, and then unanimously responded, "YES!".
George had a lovely apartment which smelled of moth balls and menthol. He had a burgandy velvet wrap around couch, which made the large wooden floors and white walls, seem like they were all old friends. Their were old books and pictures scattered across a built in book shelf. He lead us to the laundry machine, and set us up with detergent. He set the timer on, showed us the remote control for the tv, handed us coronas, and told us to not bother him for the next hour, he would be out when the buzzer went off (He said it in a sarcastic tone, which really said, "Welcome to my home, I enjoy you here, and godspeed.").
George popped back in an hour, and he had switched to his night time attire: shorts and old white t-shirt. It was sucha beautiful little gesture of love and compassion. We asked George if we could return in the morning to talk with him before he went off to work. We took down his favorite type of bagel and his coffee preference.
Next morning, though we had two other interviews lined up, we arose extra early, and headed to Montague Bagels and got George his poppy seed bagel, untoasted with butter, and his coffee with milk (not half & half), and two Sweet & Low's. We went to his apartment on Henry Street, road the elevator up to the 5th floor with the attendant. Once in his apartment, and after the morning formalities, we sat down in his livingroom. We had brought our little hadn held camera, and left the spectacle back in the RV. George told us that he was 78, had lived in that apartment for over thirty years, and that he still worked five days a week on Wall Street as a Stock Broker. He reads two newspapers a day (The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, though he never reads the Sunday version of the former, as it is, "Too heavy"). He told us about his three daughters, and his house out at the beach, which goes to every weekend. He talked about his routines, and his friends who are 15 years younger than him, and they in turn keep him young. He said he let us into his house, because we seemed like good presentable young people, and then he dropped, with a slight smile, "I honestly think that I got more out of this than you all did". His eye seemed to glow with a wisdom that knew that at his age it was the connection to perhaps the unknown, the youthful, the random which would make that morning stroll to work a little brisker, a little different, and he delighted in it.
Thus far, this experience has been the most monumental in my mind and heart. I feel inspired to be old and still have the heart and confidence to embrace the unknown.
New York also gave us a great candid interview with Nat Pynter of Charity Water: an English Major turned Engineer at 28, now 39 and loving life. He was so articulate and present. I loved the conversation.
I got a chance to hang out with good ole Shimmy Boyle a few times. We had a great evening sipping Jameson on the Rocks, and rambling the zoo that is Brooklyn. Subways, reflections and realizations, street art and people watching, danced about my psyche.
Sweet lips and under the table hand grabs with the wild mystery of the night--life is something of a song, when you chose to sing along.
One man behind the camera, has increasingly become a human being, while the other, still struggles to let life live and exist without twisting its will to meet the prefabricated notions in his mind. I promise you, that the good fight will and should be fought with vigor and truth.
Pictures:
No comments:
Post a Comment