Tag: Robert Redford

Stars and stunts

They stretched the truth to “show” it in better lights (as in Argo).

They twisted some arms, pushed the envelopes and burned both ends of the candle (one end is dream, the other memories).

They stepped into characters, sang the chorus and spoke the lines.

Light, sound, camera and …”action”.

Moving pictures. Marketing of dreams and merchandising of goods.

Set the theme and set the stage for next year and years to come.

This year is of no exception.

Except for newer versions and interpretation of old materials (Karenina, Lincoln and Hugo). Streisand finally sang Memories the way it meant to be from this vantage point when the composer himself had passed on. The last time it etched in our memory was that of  Robert Redford and herself in Black and White (Redford’s hair looked even blonde in Black and White).

Editors could afford growing hair. And soundtrack for foreign movies montage was still from Cinema Paradiso (our early moving-going experiences).

The Oscars. Hollywood annual Pilgrimage, with one billion followers, and millions of tickets and tapes sold. Stuff of dreams yet turned into hard cash.

Stars and stunts sell, even and especially in time of Sequester.

Sean and investigative genre

Last Sunday, if you watched 60 minutes, you would have learned about “Three Cups of Teas”.

I am sure the network legal council department did its due diligence before allowing the segment to air.

The reluctance to go after these stories struck a familiar chord: nobody would be interested, we don’t want to shake the bush, it would harm future genuine efforts etc….. In  a 35th anniversary of All the President’s Men piece, we learned that Robert Redford had gone ahead with his hunch.

“let history falls where it may” he said, but he was interested in a “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” type of collaboration (who else could play that better than Dustin Hoffman, having paired up with maverick Steve McQueen in Le Papillon).

That leads to the emergence and evolution of Sean Penn, from playing “bad boy” roles, to taking up the mantle as our generational conscience in Fair Game.

Sean Penn started out facing off Michael Jay Fox in Casualties of War playing villain, to his latest role as independent investigator of “yellow cake” (as compared to Watergate, his spouse-and-source got exposed immediately, not as Deep Throat which had laid low for decades).

For a moment there, in 1976, everyone on campus, especially the Journalism School, rushed around, and recreated a feel of a newsroom (the sound of manual typewriters and AP-wire churning out news lilke factory churning out Campbell soups). My dormmate, as an Editor of the Collegian and his friend, all bearded (Coppola’s look), would “run” with each story with all they had.

Deep Throat was shown on campus, sponsored by the Student Union (perhaps justified as an educational background to understand Watergate).

Then came Mary Hart (an educator) later co-starred with John Tesh in Entertainment Tonight.

She announced her retirement after 29 years of “giving us what we want” e.g. infomercial, infotainment, celebrities watch (as opposed to bird watch) which led to the tragic death of Princess Diana. In the wake of her son’s wedding, we shouldn’t forget how journalism has evolved, from  “just the facts mam”, to “just the dress mam” (we just want to see what Kate is wearing.)

We now have Twitter (reminds me of AP wire, except this time, triggered by pro-am movement) and Facebook. We can have information at our finger’s tip and on the go (google is improving with every search, self-evolving algorithm). Yet we stop being skeptic due to data deluge.

America needs to prove itself again that it won’t default on its promise or its debt. We can begin with the frontier spirit, circling the wagons. Where else, and when else can a few percent working in agriculture feed the rest , with surplus to export (roll over Malthus). It’s unprecedented in world history. And it’s also unprecedented in the eyes of the founding Fathers that their descendents would argue about how much debt they should incur. Ben Franklin (a penny saved a penny earned) would roll over just reading today’s headlines, well, except for the royal wedding plan. Talking about certain things which never change. In Fair Game, Sean gave a speech about never stop asking for “our future depends on it”. The Inauguration balls back in the 90’s played Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow”. I think they both urge us to stay alert, be critical in our thinking, but compassionate in our giving. That’s what the head and the heart are for.

Oil and Water

Oil price backed down as tsunami water gushed up to Japanese shores.

The two shall never mix.

Middle East rising. Pacific falling.

News of a thousand deaths abroad eclipsed news of petty thefts at home.

Statistically, street crime is down while cyber-crime up.

I admire Net Gen’s speed to mobilize relief efforts e.g. People Finder by Google,

Gaga’s wrist bands.

Celebrities should leverage their popularity, from being trend setters to thought leaders. Jet Li has been outspoken about one’s mission in life (has been sighted to give blood etc…), Angelina Jolie as UN Ambassador and Robert Redford pushed the Green button.

It turns out that while Oil and Water don’t mix, celebrities can take up a cause without damaging their brand. Charity actually can deepen their personal growth, give them more satisfaction as human being, and stretch their empathic fibers.

We are “born this way” i.e. to feel others’ burden.

I saw a photo of an old Japanese lady (the graying demographic) in front of her house-turn-rubble due to Earthquake, and I couldn’t continue with the evening news.

9/11 and Katrina added together.

Ocean view turned nightmares.

Beautiful water gushing in the wrong place.

CNN kept reporting that on that only road leading up North, they couldn’t spot military or emergency vehicles. Perhaps they cut down on first responders,

or they used choppers more than four-wheels.

Whatever the case, there is no play book when it comes to disaster-handling.

A nation can only go so far in emergency preparation.

Just like our personal act of locking our doors at night.

Mostly for assurance. When hit with 8.9 magnitude that, according to an eye-witness ” buildings stray back and forth like trees in the wind”- people froze.

Video footage from the 2004 tsunami showed people ran away from gushing water. Japan was on the verge of building world’s tallest cell tower.

I am not sure this catastrophe will cause them to reevaluate earlier stress estimates.

In my earlier blog, I referred to the warmth of human comfort and bonding through crisis.

I hope nature-causing suffering be relieved in part by human relief efforts.

I hope world rally to rescue won’t turn too soon to compassion fatigue.

Strike when the iron is hot. But don’t burn it out.

And you don’t have to wait until you have fame to start sharing a piece of yourself. In “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” we find the Native American character offers his bunkmate some chewing gum.

(Jack turned mischievous when discovering that that supposedly deaf and dumb man could actually talk).

I understood now that while the taste lasts much longer than the gum, it’s the first step that counts. And the comfort of strangers often times warms the other-wise hardened heart. Soft healing power of shared empathy in random disaster. Oil and Water don’t mix, but can co-exist. As close as the elements are allowed to.

My list of Influencers

Despite their flaws (who doesn’t have one please cast the first stone), these are the people I look up to:

– President Carter with his commitment to build housing for the poor

– President Clinton out of that place called Hope

– Jim Elliot, the late great missionary who died for his cause

– Danny Devito who despite his “short-coming”, managed to secure a starring role in Taxi

– Nelson Mandela, there is no need to elaborate here

– Cheryl Crow for touring and making it as an artist in a predominantly male rockers club

– Norman Mailer for speaking out and writing up monumental pieces of literature

– Charlie Chaplin, who saw the inhumanity of the system, and in the process makes us laugh without a need for words

– Robert Redford who started Sundance Festival to encourage young film makers to step up to the plate

– Kevin Costner whose ambition has been unmatched, and he has lived out his role in Water World (not oily world)

– Hillary Clinton who personifies multitasking, self-reinventing and America itself

– Steve Jobs who got booted out of corporate America, but somehow, turned crisis into opportunity, the Yin into the Yan

– John Travolta, the comeback kid to become the star that he meant to be in Pulp Fiction and still counting

– George Harrison and Eric Clapton, to have their sweet guitar “gently weeps” for Bangladesh flood victims

– and most recently, senator Kennedy, who could have just kept quiet and sailed around the world for 40 years.

Each one of us take a play page from the many “sparks of divinity” without knowing it.

They inspire us, and show us new heights.

No, they are not naive. They know the costs and consequences of their action.

But they also know the opportunity cost of their inaction.

While  TIME and Forbes lists are updated annually,

Our pantheon of the gods need daily update.

Like our heroes, we are to use talent and technology for social change.

In the process, we better ourselves,.

Silicon Valley has come to you. It’s up to you to start meeting “gentle people” online.

No wonder TIME People of the Year a few years back was YOU. The burden is now on YOU.

Become my new influencers as I yours. We do need each other to make it through this world and leave behind a better one.

My SAAB story

OK, I took a picture standing next to the convertible SAAB I won, but I took the cash option ( for grad student loan).

Now, this brand, along with Pontiac and Saturn, will soon be relics of the past.

We have a lot of In’s/Out’s at the end of this decade: ABC new anchor, BoA new CEO…

It’s been a strange decade. “Overloading” is the word.

On top of Y2K, 9/11 and 06.08 Recession, I have some personal reshuffling, not to mention the deaths of my parents

and father-in-law.

All along, I knew Google would hit the jack pot and  Voice will be at near-zero pricing ( even when bundled with wireless).

I have been privileged with friends and colleagues online (thank you Social Networking sites).

We went through a lot together, some have gone with me through 5 companies.

And I don’t remember when I do away with watching Network news at 6:30PM.

Perhaps by 6:30, I have already got “informed” with pop-up news online, radio and cable news.

PBS format of the News Hour stays very consistent and this has been a blessing in disguise (amidst uncertainty and change).

I have worked out of home a lot during this decade, except for a few years of commuting to Santa Monica from Orange County, and a few months abroad.

I don’t understand people who not only make money with “the 4-hour work week”.

Naturally, this decade has seen:

– cutting the wire line phone

– doing away with the fax machine

– Skype becomes the new wire line (w/headset)

– driving smaller vehicles, if at all

– watching HDTV

– lost taste in ties (what color and pattern is in now? )

– hardly see “chain” e-mail regarding Microsoft handouts, or Nigerian fake uncle’s will

– Vista Operating System gone

I enjoy all the feedback loops, collaborative tools and open-source in this Brave New New World.

Next decade?

CD‘s will join the fate of cassette tapes, books belong to those archives, and students don’t carry hard back text (just E-reader and other gadgets).

More on-screen heroes will emerge from the East, to retire Jackie Chan ( a new Bruce Lee).

Boomers will volunteer to build a more conscious-raising society.

They have been witnesses to changes, from social to technological, from local to global.

That generation is worth listening to (who wouldn’t want to be critiqued by Robert Redford at Sundance when trying to make a film).

And perhaps, the most anticipated happening of the next decade is the Next Big Thing.  Maybe it will be out of Shanghai or Mumbai. Keep your mileage plus handy. You might need it for those long flights. But this time, no more lugging those hard-back books (Tom Clancy) or heavy lap tops. And, leave your tie home.