Thursday, October 8, 2020

We're all becoming Art Directors


Despite Precedent Shitbibbon's call to arms, commanding us not to let Covid dominate our lives. There's a very good chance it will. For some time to come. 

In the long term, who knows when we will return to large venue items like concerts, football games and multiplex movie theaters. Those might be quaint reminders of a past no longer possible because our Dear Leader dropped the Covid meat in the dirt and allowed the virus to spread from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon.

Selfishly, this is the silver lining in the cloud, as I have never been a fan of being a fan at any large scale event and tossing myself into the mosh pit of unwashed humanity.

We may not be returning to restaurants, for indoor dining anytime soon, either. 

Again, this is a blessing. I can't tell you how many times I allowed my wife and daughters to select a restaurant of their choice, only to show up to a crowded lobby and wait times over an hour. I don't want to wait an hour for ANYTHING.

DAUGHTERS: "It'll be worth it, this place got 5 stars on yelp and the dumplings are magical."

ME: "If the dumplings were magical I'd be eating them by now."

In the short term, Covid is having a much more immediate and some would say positive effect. It's turning us all into Art Directors and sharpening our environmental aesthetic awareness.

Think about it. We used to get dressed up for work. Now we dress our rooms up for a full day of Zoom calls.

We know our co-workers are studying our bedrooms, our dens, our live in kitchens. And we know this because we are studying theirs.

And so every morning starts with the fluffing of the pillows, clearing the hubris of our daily lives, and throwing it all into a corner, where the unopened Sunday NY times from May23rd, sits with my cold Peloton shoes and the dog bed that should have been replaced in 2018.

Having spent a lifetime working with Art Directors, I like to think a little of their prowess has rubbed off. I have a passing sense of negative space, composition and color awareness. What little skills I have have been sharpened with my continuing use of Apple Preview (a poor man's Photoshop) and my continuing manufacturing of Trump memes.

Having a rudimentary sense of art direction is not a bad thing.

It's just not something I'll ever get paid for.



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