I'd Like To Be On Jay Kogen's Podcast

Next Week, I promise - Why Sting won't give me my money back from that terrible Dodger Stadium show and other terrible things he's done.

I was in Washington D.C. a couple weeks ago, on a panel with a former Ambassador to Mexico, among others, talking about the role of art, specifically film, but overall, the role of art in the world we live in. Is it important? Do we need it? This question gets asked often. When you look around at some data like how many people are getting degrees in the Arts, or how much money is invested in the arts, it seems like it’s less of a priority now than it has been in the past. Versions of this conversation have a few different points of view. Is it important. I’ll show you a couple to start. I’ve heard versions where someone said something like this  –

“Well, if we were back in the days of the caveman, we’d have no use to society. I’d have no use, for sure. I’m near-sighted and I have no survival skills. I’d be the first one killed by a tiger I didn’t see in the bushes. All I do is write scripts/dance/paint/sing.

Followed by this sort of counter argument –

Ah-ha! But someone came back from a hunt, having killed a tiger and told everyone about it, and then someone went into a cave and painted the story of that hunt. The historian. The artist. The storyteller. Every society needs those artists! In fact, we wouldn’t even know the history of this particular tribe that made this cave painting if someone wasn’t an artist. Ah-ha! Also, people defending art use the “Ah-Ha” a lot. It really helps make a point.

So I’m on this panel with the former ambassador and I said this when I was asked about the place of art in the world we live in right now. This was a couple weeks before the election we just had. Here’s what I said –

“Art lets us have arguments without swords. That’s how important it is.”

I really believe that. A TV Series like M*A*S*H, set in the Korean War but debuting on TV when we were still fighting the Vietnam War, let us talk about what was going on without always having to draw sides and choose pistols to point at each other after twenty paces.

You could argue with each other about whether dolphins should be fished for a food source, or you make a movie called, “The Cove,” and you let people see how it works and then let that be the arguement.

I also think it holds true for things that aren’t based around the central political or social issues of the times. I remember seeing the movie “Diner,” way back when, and letting that movie teach me a lot about how to be a good friend to someone.

So much of what we are called upon to engage in these days demands we take a side, have a hot take, defend our position. And it seems to have the potential to escalate so fast now into physical conflict. How many times in your recent life have you had a question about something that seemed very innocuous – “Hi, I got this flyer about a production shooting on our block and I wanted to ask a couple questions.” To be met with an immediate escalation, “We’re only authorized to pay you three hundred bucks, okay?” Man, I wasn’t asking about payment, but thanks. I Just wanted to know more details about when to move our cars and what type of vehicle would be in front of our house. I feel like this happens more and more with all kinds of things. I was at a gas station last week and the pump stopped after two bucks of gas, for no reason. I went inside and the guy said, “You pumped someone else’s gas!” Before I could explain that I had used my credit card, and punched my PIN in, I got interrupted. “I assure you it wasn’t your card. It was someone who gave the wrong pump number! That was their gas!” I tried one more time, and when I was met with yet another escalation, “You did not. Stop saying that.” I looked over at the only other worker behind the counter, and she said, “I think he did use his card and it did charge him.” I was so frustrated by this point that I met his frustration with my own when the guy who was obviously assuming I was trying to ‘pull one over’ on him said, “Fine. You can go use that pump now and put your card back in.” I chose to leave, go to another gas station and start all over. A huge waste of time for everyone involved. What’s my point? My point is we square off too much now, me included. But when I think of making art, and art I love, I think it lets us see it and talk about it without always having to square off against each other.

What else is happening….hmmmm…. drawing a blank…. Something big… oh yeah. Election. How’d that go?

Here’s what I think, as a writer and a teacher and a human. Time to make some art.

And also –

We Belong To Each Other

I noticed a lot of folks working very hard to get their candidate elected. And if you know me at all, you know that one of my many weaknesses is feeling not included. I could write for hours and hours about that. About how in the 1990s there was this very early internet newsgroup thing called The Stump that some of the people I knew in Hollywood were on. And when I asked about it, I was told that it was a private thing and essentially, I wasn’t really the kind of person they were looking to have join it. Shout out to Jay Kogan and many others for not including me there. I tell you that to give you a sense of the size of one of the chips on my shoulder. Given that, what I noticed during the campaigns were a lot of, “Did you hear about the 30,000 black men zoom? Or the Latina zoom? The Latino zoom? The White men zoom? These were, I guess, zoom calls to try and get a campaign jump started that had hardly any ramp left before election day and to galvanize support. And I’d see little clips of these calls on social media or someone would text them to me. And in some of them, there was this feeling of, “We’re the most important group.” I saw similar remarks and videos after the election, starting to point fingers at certain groups for not showing up. And depending on the graph included on those posts, Latino Men either voted 68 percent for TRUMP, or they voted 45 percent for TRUMP, with the numbers 54, 58 and 56 also being quoted. Whatever the number, it is usually posted along with a, “Latino Men better apologize,” kind of message. The actual number was 45 percent. Fitting right? Trump was PRES 45 and he’s going to be PRES 47. But still, the majority of this particular group voted for NOT Donald Trump. And yet, this group must apologize. Okay. But as someone in my family said, “If I didn’t like the positions of a candidate, and they did nothing to convince me other than say, ‘the other candidate is a monster, hold your nose and vote this way,’ then do I need to also apologize to Francis Ford Coppola for making him look bad because I didn’t like ‘Megalopolis?’” We have some very smart people in my family.

Now Peter, “Megalopolis” doesn’t compare to the “End of Democracy,” does it? But what if it did? What if the stakes were, if we all didn’t love “Megalopolis,” and go see it, all movie theaters would shut down and all movie going would be over? Do I have to like it then?  

At this point, I’m going to tell you who I voted for. It is my business and yet I want to because I want to be fair about the things I’m writing and I want you to know how I’m looking at this. I voted for Claudia De La Cruz. The Peace and Freedom candidate. In California, a state that I already knew that Harris would win. I’m also watching some people yell at other people – again online – people that voted third party and saying things to them like “Unfriend me now and forever if you did this.”

We Belong To Each Other

Where does that leave us? I really believe that sentiment. “We Belong To Each Other.” I say it all the time in my head and sometimes out loud. And I’m very sorry that a lot of people are feeling so much pain right now. I certainly don’t want to be the locus of anyone’s pain. I promise. But I think any party that wants to figure out why they lost an election should take a few big breaths and look at what you might need to do better. Not how we let you down, whichever group you mean when you say “we.” I really hope we can see each other and meet each other and be with each other and instead squaring off with swords about how we let you down, or how we aren’t friends, ask questions like, “What would it take to get your attention? What are the important things to you?” I really would love to do that.

More about that phrase. We Belong To Each Other. I heard it from Father Boyle of Homeboy Industries. But not exactly. He said it this way, “I think Mother Theresa diagnosed the ills of the world correctly when she said, ‘We’ve forgotten that we belong to each other.’ How can we stand against that? How can we obliterate once and for all the illusion that we are separate. End the idea that there are some lives that matter less than other lives.”

I’ll let you think about this and if you want to ask me questions or comment, please do. I guess this is the kind of stuff that they really really didn’t need on The Stump.

I’m gonna leave you today with this. It’s a rerun, I’ve posted this before a few times. I don’t love reruns. I’d rather work on new stuff. Rather look forward to the next thing.

Today’s writing was done while listening to, “Know Your Rights,” by The Clash, drinking a Cartel Cold Brew right out of the can it came in, and eating pumpkin yogurt right out of its plastic tub. Spooned into my mouth with a real, shiny, metal spoon. Because I’m not completely uncivilized. And I only have one thing to rinse and put in the dishwasher, don’t I?

If this at all makes you think about things, or consider things, then please share it with one other person. That’s how we build an army. By word of mouth. Or a government enforced draft requiring all males register once they turn 19. Your choice.