Here's lookin'

My faith in the movie-going audience has been restored. Well, at least in a small movie-going audience on the "island" of San Diego-adjacent Coronado.

As you may know, I've just returned from my annual week at the Hotel Del Coronado. By the time you read this, my tan will be fading, I'll have remembered there's no room service or housekeeping at home and my VISA card will be dead from exhaustion.

But I will have gotten to see one of the great films of all time on the big screen.

Every year we have certain things we like to do in Coronado. And this year, we had the opportunity to see a brand new print of Casablanca with a sold out audience at the recently refurbished Village Theater.

There's a series of films called Mayor's Choice, and this past Thursday his choice was Casablanca. It was showing in the biggest of the three theaters at the Village. Of course, "biggest" is a relative term - the Village Theater in Westwood seats 1,341 people. The main theater at the Village in Coronado seats 185.

Still, the line for the 8:30PM showing of Casablanca started forming about 7PM. We took the ten-minute walk from our hotel and got there about 7:30. We heard lots of good natured comments in line like, "You mean this isn't in 3D?" To which I replied, "Don't worry - at least it's in color."

Seventy years later, it's still a thrilling experience to watch Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The acting is classic golden age, and the script's razor-sharp humor, intelligence and intrigue is all very much intact and relevant.

And not to sound too "Hey you kids get off my lawn!", but I'm just going to come right out and say it: it was a great, great pleasure to expose my kids to a film without a character wearing a mask, a cape or a metal suit. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

A film for movie lovers, playing in a theater filled with movie history. A few more nights like this on the island, and it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

If you're interested, here's a quick history of the Village Theater:

I get Misty

I like shopping at Bristol Farms. After all, why pay discount prices at regular markets when you can pay three times as much at Bristol. Besides, you never know who you'll run into. Like the time four years ago when I ran into Misty May-Treanor.

Come to find out, Misty is a neighbor of mine who lives just a few blocks away. On the family's annual trip to the Hotel Del Coronado in 2008, we'd spent most of the evenings watching Misty and her volleyball partner Kerri Walsh in Beijing, spiking and acing their way to Olympic gold.

Watching her then, it never occurred to me that she shops at the market just like regular people.

I had the good fortune of chatting with her at the checkout counter. I told her how much we'd enjoyed watching her win while we were on vacation, and asked her what it was like in Beijing. She was extremely approachable, genuinely giving of her time. And, dare I say it, downright chatty. She was telling me about how she had to get ready for an appearance on "Ellen" later on that afternoon.

I was asking her about her medal, and because she had it with her for her talk show appearance, much to my surprise she popped the question to me: she asked if I wanted to see it.

The medal itself is heavier than you think, and even more impressive in person. I told Misty I knew she was tired of being asked, but if she wouldn't mind could I take a picture of her with it. Her answer is above.

The other thing is Misty drives the same car as mine (or she did at the time), only in a different color. We're kindred Lexus spirits.

I said goodbye and thanked her for her time.

We're not on vacation yet, but you can bet we'll still be watching her and Kerri go for the gold in London this year.

It's what neighbors do for each other.

Quittin' time

Since I started in the business, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people trying to get out. More than ever, people are dreaming of a way - screenplay, starting a business, moving away and the ever popular winning lotto. They all have one of two never-truer-than-now rallying cries: “The business isn’t what it used to be.” or “It’s not fun anymore.”

Despite the fact both are true, fewer people actually leave than would like to.

The reason’s simple: it’s the pure joy of creating work. The collaboration working with a partner who sees the execution of an idea exactly the way you do. The unparalleled fun of shepherding an idea through the agency. The unadulterated joy of doing work that can at times be both artistic and effective, and at the end of the day is always appreciated by clients, account people and the public alike.

Nah, I’m just messing with you. It’s the money.

I was talking with an art director friend of mine at lunch today about our day rates, and the fact the work we do isn’t exactly breaking rocks. Then we talked about people who do real jobs, like police, firemen, nurses, teachers, military personnel. It’s awfully unfair we get paid what we do, and they get paid so little for doing real work that actually impacts lives on a daily basis.

Yet it is what it is. Supply and demand. Free market. Yada yada yada.

Of course, inequity in job salaries is nothing new. On Facebook, people love showing their righteous indignation by asking why CEO’s of a corporation should make more than people on its assembly line. Here’s the answer: it takes a different set of skills to run a company than it does to work on the line. It’s not hard to figure out.

In a perfect world, it’d be great if things were more equitable. And we’ve tried through legislation to even the playing field. But good intentions can backfire. For example, raising the minimum wage. Each time the minimum wage goes up, mostly unskilled labor enjoys a hike in pay. Don’t get me wrong: I think more money is always a good thing no matter what your position. Unless you’re one of the employees laid off as a result of it

If a small business owner has to increase pay for three of his minimum wage employees, his costs go up - he has to cover them somehow. The choices are few: raise consumer prices, which always leads to fewer consumers, or let one of his three employees go so he can give the other two the minimum wage hike.

Of course now, the other two will be earning it since they’ll be doing the work of three people.

I suppose the idea of mandatory minimum wage increases is easier for people to accept than performance based ones, using criteria like merit and value to the company as guidelines. It sounds so quaint even as I type it.

But I digress. Where was I?

Oh, right, I was getting out of advertising.

Just as soon as I can afford it.

Crazy control

Just when I said I didn't feel strongly enough about anything to post for awhile, this happens.

I didn't hear about the shootings at the midnight show of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado until this morning. My first thought was about the horror and sadness the victims and their families have been exposed to in this tragedy.

My second thought was that my son had gone to a midnight show last night, and thank God it didn't happen here. Of course the sad truth about that thought is it can happen anywhere. Unfortunately, crazy doesn't pay much attention to state borders or jurisdictions.

It knows how to travel when it needs to.

I won't try and make sense of it - there'll be pundits galore all over cable news tonight doing that.

I do know it wasn't the movie's fault. Warner Bros. has cancelled the Paris premiere, and pulled some of the advertising for the film indefinitely. Two things I believe they shouldn't have done.

For all the talk there's going to be about gun control, for me, here's the bottom line: more gun control laws wouldn't have helped. Colorado, like most states, already has a number of them on the books. But when crazy wants a gun, crazy gets a gun. You can argue a background check and waiting period might've prevented this, but crazy is also skilled at not looking crazy when it needs to. Ever see the neighbor interviews?

"He was always such a nice guy." "He was quiet but friendly." "He used to wave and smile when I saw him."

He bought the guns in his possession legally - in compliance with all the gun laws - from local gun shops. He purchased the ammunition legally off the internet. You simply cannot close all the loopholes.

For my pals against the death penalty, this is why you're wrong. He may plead crazy, but he was lucid enough to put on bullet-proof armor and buy tear gas first. There's no reason for this monster to be walking the earth. Hopefully it won't be years before the courts come to this obvious conclusion.

And while I'm on the subject, I think there should be a special category of execution for crimes as horrendous as this. In the same way that labeling something a "hate crime" makes one murder subject to a harsher penalty than the other, I think by creating a separate category of crime we could execute these abominations in the way they deserve to go.

And it isn't peacefully with an I.V. line in their arm.

All I keep thinking about, besides the victims, is the parents. As if there aren't enough reminders in the day you can't protect your children from everything evil in the world.

In the aftermath, all we can do is hug our kids, let them go to the movies and teach them that even though bad things happen, life goes on. Teach them fearful is not a way to live. That's what crazy wants. Don't give it to him.

And for as long as you can, hold the people in Colorado affected by this tragedy in your hearts, thoughts and prayers.

They're going to need it.

UPDATE: TDKR director Christopher Nolan's statement on the shooting:

"Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of "The Dark Knight Rises", I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families."

For now

Not that anyone's noticed - and really, if you have then you're concentrating on the wrong things in life - but I haven't posted anything here in a couple weeks.

The reason, surprisingly enough, isn't laziness. Or lack of time. It's much simpler than that.

I haven't felt strongly enough about anything to go on a tear about it. Not that there haven't been things to feel strongly about - I'm just not feelin' it.

Plus, being the freelancer I am, the time off from the responsibility of coming up with something every day is very liberating. Doing nothing gives me more time to do nothing. What can I say? It's a skill.

So in the meantime, if you want to fill the empty void in your soul and spend some quality time with another clever, insightful, extremely well-written blog, please to enjoy my pal Rich Siegel's musings over at Round Seventeen. For a while now, Rich and I have had a friendly competition to see who could put up more blog posts in a year. Despite an early lead at the beginning of the year, I knew I was nowhere near as prolific as he is. It's official Rich (as if it wasn't before) - you win.

This isn't goodbye. It's just "I don't feel like doing it." for now.

I'll be back eventually. Probably after I'm rested, refreshed and tanned from our annual trip to the Hotel Del Coronado.

So mark your calendars for the end of August, and have yourself a fine what's left of summer.

Don't forget to write. I won't.

Telling right from wrong

There's a way of judging work many creatives share. Let me explain it in the simplest way I know how: if the account people don't like it, it must be good.

This may seem like a contrarian way to evaluate work, but more often than not it's more accurate than the Hadron Collider (timely reference: you're welcome). And it's been especially on the money with my most recent gig.

Working in the glamorous world of direct (which my pal Janice so succinctly calls "a legacy of garbage"), my partner and I developed several emails and direct mail pieces for the client. When we presented to the deciders at the agency, the ones they absolutely hated were the ones we loved. To their credit, they presented them to the client, although I believe just as straw dogs to sell against.

You know how this story ends.

The client loved the ones we did. And now the account people are tripping over themselves saying how great they were, and implying they were their choices the whole time.

If you're doing work that doesn't scare or make anyone nervous, no matter what media form it takes, it's not worth doing.

It'll always be an uphill battle. But if you can get it in front of the client, more often than not they'll help you win it.

Sub sandwich

Meanwhile, in today's news, Iran claims their missiles can strike 35 U.S. bases within minutes should Iran come under attack.

Yeah yeah. Sure sure.

Once again Iran's leadership is banging the drum loudly for their own people's benefit so they'll support the military buildup. And since the missiles can hit targets 900 miles away, and Israel's border is only 600, this kind of rhetoric plays well to the anti-semetic, effigy-burning, American flag-stomping crowds.

But what Iran's military knows all too well, even if they're conveniently forgetting to mention it to their people, is that U.S. nuclear submarines, like the Ohio-class sub shown here, surround Iran on all sides. See, their 900-mile range missile I mentioned is their most advanced. One of our regular ones has a range of 2,000 miles.

You do the math (hint: the math is we don't have to be anywhere near them to take them out seconds after they've made the piss-poor decision to launch).

I know, all this doomsday talk makes me nervous too. It's obvious the people of Iran are just as much at the mercy of bad decisions their leaders make as we are. I'd never want to test out the "our missiles are better than your missiles" theory. Ever.

But, having said that, if I'm being honest with myself (and you know how I hate doing that), I have to admit considering the recklessness, lies and irrationality Iran exhibits on an almost daily basis, I take comfort in the fact the U.S. has something besides homes underwater.