Reboot Angle #1 > The Curator

This is part of my blog reboot process. For the origin of the thought of the motivation of the why and the why now, please click back here.

What to do?

This is one of the major questions in anyone's life, but I believe I've found an answer and I've been working on it for quite some time now.

Write.

This leads inevitably to another big question:

How to do it?

In blog terms, one possible way to write and reach an audience is to be a Curator. The way I see it, a Curator devises an ingenious concept, begins contributions of his own, and then often asks his audience to contribute to whatever the theme is that's been selected. The blog then serves as a growing themed museum filled with the creator's contributions and/or editorial choices of what's been sent in to him.

An example of this theme is PostSecret. In the words of it's creator Frank Warren, it's "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard." I was first turned on to PostSecret in book form, and it's compulsive reading- you really get the sense that these are actual weighty secrets that people have unburdened themselves of (in strikingly artistic-yet-simple ways) because of the anonymity provided.

Not a bad thing to have your blog published in book form either, I imagine. Some other examples of this format are 1000 Journals and Lost (no not that LOST, the book of lost and found pet flyers from around the world).

So, what are some possible angles in the Curator vein that would match up well with my skill- and interest-set? I first thought about this direction a few weeks ago when I was filling out one of those "25 Random Things" deals on Facebook. I wasn't that interested in listing a bunch of random stuff about me a la "I've been a loyal Crest user my whole life because I used to really believe that Cavity Creeps lived on my teeth" so I decided to create a "25 Random Things: Starf*ker Edition" and list some of my Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind.

Would they remember meeting me? Maybe not.

Here's the list:

1. I’ve talked on the phone with Jack Nicholson and Sean Connery.
2. I helped Liam Neeson prepare his “Best Picture” introduction for IL POSTINO in the weeks before the 1996 Oscars.
3. I’ve driven Alfonso Cuaron in a golf cart.
4. I’ve seen Harry Dean Stanton’s band play live.
5. Robert De Niro smiled and nodded his head at me when I walked past him wearing my “What’s up cuz?” baseball cap on the set of THE FAN.
6. I’ve taken a whiz next to Richard Farnsworth.
7. I’ve ridden an elevator with Maureen McCormick.
8. I’ve stood in line for drinks behind Brian Grazer- his hair looks even more ridiculous in person and he was unnecessarily rude to the bartender.
9. I’ve been on a conference call with George Romero.
10. I’ve introduced myself to Chevy Chase.
11. I’ve had James Marshall autograph my TWIN PEAKS memorabilia.
12. Christopher Walken drunkenly tried to pick up my then-girlfriend while at the same table I talked FIRE WALK WITH ME with... Harry Dean Stanton (different night from #4).
13. I’ve had lunch with George Lazenby.
14. Jennifer Beals stopped my friend and I on the street and asked us what time it was.
15. I saw Andre Agassi puke.
16. I’ve taken a meeting with Dave Thomas and discussed the possibility of STRANGE BREW 2.
17. I’ve been screamed at by Wendy Finerman.
18. Richard D. James has ridden right by me on a bicycle.
19. I’ve had lunch one table over from William Shatner. (can you feel me straining to reach 25?!?)
20. I talked about Lee Marvin with Donald E. Westlake.
21. I helped arrange a date between Michael Radford and Winona Ryder.
22. I’ve shaken hands with Tony Curtis.
23. I drank beers with Mark Borchardt and talked music with Mike Schank.
24. I’ve had my picture taken with Mike Brito.
25. I’ve gone to a nightclub with Mike Tyson.

Soon after I posted my list, a couple other friends wrote up their 25 starf*ker moments and I thought, "Hey, what if I created a site where people around the country could submit their lists of celebrity encounters?" For an hour or so, I was really excited about this idea. Then two distinct feelings set in and I abandoned ship. The first was "Imagine the lies people will submit and the lawsuits that will follow." The second was "Do I really want to contribute my time and effort to the already sickening* celebrity culture?"

* yes, I know I am complicit!

Still, it got me thinking. I've already way overshot my allotted hour here, but I want to do some actual productive brainstorming to see if there something lurking in the Curator vein for me.

Something about mixtapes and mixtape covers? I have a sneaking suspicion that's already been covered, but I would love to scan all the mixtapes I've made (and that have been made for me) and post them, and ask others to do the same. I don't know about you, but I used to spend quite a bit of time with scissors and glossy magazines to create something fun for the cover.

I've also toyed with collecting cliches, a la "All limo drivers smoke cigarettes."

How about a list of experiences that people have of that weird sensation of learning a new word and then suddenly seeing it everywhere? No wait, this is supposed to GROW the site, not shrink it....

How about short-form experiences of truisms that have proven not to be true, a la "The family that prays together stays together" or "Defense wins championships"?

Hmm, this is hard.

How about a list of the greatest excuses ever uttered and the fallout from uttering them?

Help me out- what could/should a fellow like me curate here at The Word Player?

Previously on LOST

Yesterday Facebook was buzzing with Inauguration Day chatter and commentary. These days, even the most exciting news gets old quickly, so I thought I'd make light of the big day with this post on a thread at a new friend's page.

ME

"now we can focus on the real issue- where did the island go on LOST?"

PERSON I DON'T KNOW
"huh? Ohhhhhhhh....I don't watch T.V. it'll rott your brain"

Don't you just love getting lectured by someone you've never met? I wanted to say something about how LOST, unlike most shows, actually stimulates lively conversation, encourages reading of the classics and exploration of history, etc. but I also didn't want to get into it with a stranger from San Francisco on someone else's page.

Later on down the thread, I did get a kick out of a follow-up post by the same person.

PERSON I DON'T KNOW

I do enjoy the forensic shows though:}

So which is it? "Kill Your television" people who still watch multiple cop shows are kinda like vegans who smoke cigarettes. Which one is it gonna be, because you can't be both and still ride the high horse!

Anyway.

I forgot about that brief exchange until this morning when I was thinking about LOST in the shower. Sorry if that's TMI, but the Season 5 Premiere is tonight.

Maybe my brain is showing signs of "rott" after all...

I was thinking about why the show still holds so much interest to me, and I think it goes beyond the usual razzle-dazzle of the much-discussed mysteries of the Island, the Numbers, the Dharma Initiative, the Hanso family, the Smoke Monster, the Donkey Wheel, etc.

It's about people.

Yes, I know how cheesy that sounds, but bear me out here. I have become a big believer in the importance of reaching a point in one's life where you can no longer point your finger at anyone else for your failings, and you only have to look in the mirror to see the source of your successes. That may be an idealistic state of mind, but it seems to me that even striving for it is extremely beneficial because of the burgeoning awareness gained that you can no sooner change your parents or your genes than you can change your past.

The Dharmacakra, symbolizing the path to enlightenment, is featured prominently on LOST.

But what you can change is the future. That is, unless, you continue to let the unchangeable past dictate who you are today.

Someone close to me has let the phrase "I've had a hard life" enter the conversation a few times lately. Now, it's not up to me to determine the veracity of that statement, and even if I could, those kinds of statements are all relative. But what I feel I can determine is how much the belief that one's life has been "hard" up to now hinders one's ability to create a less "hard" life from this point forward.

What I want to say is "That may be true, but a lot of people's lives have been hard. Would you rather have an excuse ("You've had a hard life") for your present state of unhappiness, or would you rather achieve happiness and use that same statement to signal how it used to be BEFORE YOU TOOK CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE and did what you had to do to make your hard life easier and more enjoyable?"

People win despite being dealt bad hands all the time, and the same is true for people dealt fabulous hands finding a way to lose anyway.

***LOST SPOILERS FROM SEASONS 1-4 AHEAD****

Our characters on LOST all have "daddy issues" that they are being forced, one way or another, to overcome. And isn't that a good thing? I don't recommend literally killing the father figure, as Ben Linus and Kate and Locke and Sawyer have, but isn't some sort of ceremonial dumping of those issues necessary for one to really flower as an adult?

Virtually all of the characters have endured struggles directly related to their socioeconomic status as well. The poorer have either compromised themselves by turning to crime (Sawyer, Kate, Eko) or to status-seeking (Jin, Desmond). The richer have felt it constricting (Sun, Jack), divisive (Boone, Shannon) or downright dangerous (Hurley, Charlie).

On the island, all material things are stripped away so that everyone is playing the same game with the same tools. To borrow the marketing tagline for this season, destiny has called every single one of them, and we will see who answers the call.

This sensation is the primary correlation with my own life and, I think it's fair to say, all of our lives. Destiny is calling every one of us, and we all have the tools inside of us to hear the call and to embark on a life that we make our own.

To me, life is the best possible combination of fate AND free will.

A quick look at the name "Dharma Initiative", the organization that I believe tried to harness the island's power to force people to evolve into a higher state of consciousness, is revealing:

dharma
noun
1 Hinduism: the principle of cosmic order.
• virtue, righteousness, and duty, esp. social and caste duty in accord with the cosmic order.

initiative
noun
1 the ability to assess and initiate things independently :
2 [in sing. ] the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do :

LOST is so compelling because I believe one of its major underlying themes is that no matter where one is from, every individual must take charge of their own lives in a virtuous way if collectively we are ever going to overcome the suffering of this world.

Well, that and the time travel and cool monsters and stuff.

A Shift in the Dream Landscape

In the last couple of weeks, something unusual has been happening in my dreams. I've been in control, and they've been remarkably anxiety free. Two of the major dream paradigms of my lifetime have been, essentially, turned on their heads.

The first is the horror movie dream. Since I was in junior high (and maybe even earlier), I've been haunted by the dream where a killer (usually Michael Myers from HALLOWEEN) stands silently in my room while I lie motionless in my bed. I know that if I make even the slightest motion, the killer will know I'm there and stab me to death. These static dreams go on for what feels like hours in my sleep, and I often wake up feeling exhausted by the strain of balancing absolute stillness with petrifying fear.

I haven't had this one as often in my 30s, but I felt a strong connection to it the other night when I dreamt I was producing a horror movie out of a cavernous office space with my old colleagues from Civilian Pictures. I felt absolutely in control and excited about finally producing my own feature. The film, which we were shooting in black and white, was a modern interpretation of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, and we'd assembled the creepiest looking army of blonde children. They were milling about the set, smiling when off camera and the embodiment of evil when the cameras were rolling (incidentally, feel free to analyze what making this particular movie in my dream has to say about my childless status- I have).

When I woke up I felt empowered and refreshed- now I was calling the shots on the horror in my life.

Who's in control now?

The second major recurring dream theme has been plaguing me steadily through my 20s and 30s. The details of this one change more often that the killer dream, but the essentials are that I've been skipping a college class all semester long, and now I have to return for a big test and face the music. A common wrinkle is that I haven't been to the class in so long that I've forgotten where it's held and/or I've forgotten where the building it's in is located on campus. I ransack my room looking for the list of classes I'm enrolled in that was issued at the beginning of the semester, but I can never find it. I basically wander around the UNC campus (which always looks pristinely beautiful) gnashing my teeth, beating myself up about waiting so long to address the issue and thinking "How did I think I would get away with not going to class all semester!" (Incidentally, I was a big believer in the "if you go to every class, you don't have to study nearly as hard" school of thought, so this dream pattern isn't even really related to any real-life experience that I'm conscious of.)

I wake up feeling exhausted and depressed by these dreams too, and always deeply disappointed in myself (which as you know is one of the least pleasant emotional states).

Last week I had a dream that turned this one upside-down too. I don't recall the details that well, but the gist of it was that I was now on the faculty at UNC. I sat up at the front of the class, serene and confident, and watched the young clueless students file into my class and then hang on my every word.

This one had an even more profound effect on me when I woke up- I could physically feel that a weight had been lifted, that a chain had been broken. Of course, it's too early to say that I won't be having either of the predecessor dreams any more, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the catalyst for this internal transition was joining Facebook about three weeks ago. I'd fought the notion of Facebook, thinking that it would a big time-waster and filled with uncomfortable small-talky reunions with people you no longer cared about and/or actively wanted to steer clear of. I joined primarily because it's constantly referred to as an outlet or destination for marketing strategies by the people I work with, and I felt like I could no longer pretend to nod my head knowingly about it.

By connecting to dozens and dozens of people who used to occupy a lot of my headspace but have since drifted away for one reason or another, and doing it all at once, I think my unconscious was forced to assess where my own life is now. More than that, I was forced to see something that I already knew but I suppose isn't all that apparent in one's own day-to-day continuum- I've grown up. I really am 37. I really have friends who have teenage children. I really am looking down the barrel at my 20th high school reunion. And so are a lot of other people... it's happening to everybody.

Thankfully, it seems, the producers of my dream life appear to be growing up too.