On Suckage (H/T GT)

Found myself at a logjam yesterday. Trying to make this week's quota of blog posts. 

Was thinking about penning a long diatribe about our confounding (that's kind) justice system which moves with all the efficiency of 1960's-style Soviet Politburo. But that's not really an appropriate comparison, because when the commissars wanted to exact justice (mostly on folks who disagreed with the state, many times people with Hebraic Seasonings) they just rounded them up and shipped them off to the shores of Lake Baikal.

They still do. 

Or simply find an apartment building with large windows.

I have often wondered how my journey with RoundSeventeen will end and decided it should be the same as how my journey on terra firma ends. Seated in my Herman Miller chair, spitting lava about the societal machinations that do nothing well, but suck.

And at this point I need to thank my friend George Tannenbaum who inspired today's topic when he eloquently cobbled together a thought piece about, and I'm paraphrasing here, "finding the things you suck and not doing them."

Perhaps it's a writer thing, more specifically a copywriter thing, but it turns out the thing that George sucked at was exactly the thing I sucked at: production. Not of ideas or even clauses, sentences or paragraphs, but of TV commercials.

It took me years to get semi-adequate at writing ads. But when I was thrown into a TV production in my early days at Chiat/Day, I found myself in the shoes of Sgt. Schultz (Hogan's Heroes for you readers under 60)...

I distinctly remember sitting in the old AV building at 340 Main Street in Venice, with the editor Brendan and my art director partner Mary Ann C., looking at the first cut of my very first spot for Nissan. As they chit chatted back and forth about exposure, color saturation, heads and tails, I remember thinking to myself, "Holy shit I'm in over my head."

And of course I was. I wish to god that I kept my mouth shut and let the people who knew what they were doing, do it without my ignorant input. But I probably didn't.

It took me YEARS, to finally acquaint myself with this new universe of TV production. And, like George, I still had an incurable impatience for long discussions about who should wear the blue sweater. Or whether the car should be angled at 3/4. Or 7/8th. And why the actor without the mustache was better than the one with. 

What's wrong with mustaches?

I was more interested in what was available at the craft service table. Mmmmm, cheetohs.

It wasn't until years later that I understood all these little details matter. And add up. And can often make the difference between good and great. OK, it's advertising, let's say the difference between good and gooder.

It's also when I learned that my lane was Outdoor Boards. Give me a template, a color background and a decent product shot, and I'll knock out a hundred funny headlines. As Cliff Einstein used to say, "I know funny, I come from funny."

Though today's post may not be the best evidence.