The script is everything. A show or a movie floats or sinks on the strength of the script, or lack thereof.
In India there is a saying. A bad cook adds extra chili powder to everything. Mindless plot twists, and mindless use of sex and violence are often used as that extra chili powder.
There are countless movies about people falling in love. But the theme of deepening of love in an existing relationship is not much explored. How do you go deeper after you have been married 15 years? Such themes are not much explored.
Law enforcement is another perennial topic and rightly so. But law enforcement does not only struggle with those that might cross the law. Law enforcement struggles with itself, it struggles with diversity issues.
Why only law enforcement? What about commandment enforcement? The complex organizational structure of something like the Catholic Church is not any less fascinating than that of a large police department or intelligence agency.
And the four constantly intersect: human love, divine love, law enforcement, commandment enforcement.
Diversity is not just about sprinkling a few different kinds of faces on to the screen. Culture is a body of knowledge. Gender is its own culture. And gender, as we know by now, is not binary, but a spectrum, not just in society but also inside individuals. Inside every man there is a woman.
Technology changes the basic assumptions. Digitization is a huge force. For one it creates numerous fragmented markets of different sizes. Costs can go down.
Story telling is as old as humanity. Movies might be a new art form. But not story telling. Art speaks to society. Society speaks to art. Movies as an art medium are uniquely positioned to help humanity make progress on race and gender issues. I am talking social science fiction.
A better actor can better respond to the script but an actor can not rise above the script.
In the post 9/11 era intelligence agencies from different countries with fundamentally different languages and cultures have tried to collaborate. But pre 9/11 the two major intelligence agencies in this very country acted like they were in different countries.
Cultural diversity is not just skin pigments. Were that so it would be so much easier. Diversity is primarily sociology. You can have everyone speak English and try to cover it up, but it does not go that way.
This is now the era of global movie making where you confront diversity head on. You actually immerse into the different cultures in their natural settings across continents. Stereotyping falls flat. Intellectual laziness falls flat. The texture of diversity is real.
God has decided to come into mainstream movies and music, big time.
Last Tuesday I showed up for an Aborn event near Union Square. I almost missed it. I thought it was on Wednesday. Lucky for me I logged into Facebook and there was a reminder or two. So I showed up.
I like to stick to following presidential level politics. Local races do not excite me to the same extent. But I had been noticing for months all my Obama 08 friends seem to be excited about this one guy: Richard Aborn. But I stayed away. District Attorney is not even Mayor. That was getting too local for me. But I wanted to check the guy out for the sake of my friends. So I showed up. Once at the bar I realized I had been to the same venue for a few other events by a few other organizations.
I was looking forward to seeing some friends - Faina showed up - and get a feel for Aborn. Also events like this draw interesting people, people you want to connect with. You end up in interesting conversations.
I showed up curious. I left excited. This is a local race, but this guy's election has national implications. You can be a white male like Aborn is and be working for equality for blacks. You can be a male and be taking stands against sexism. That is not odd at all. That is progressi
This is a guy who has prosecuted violent crimes for a living. He is not some soft on crime clown. This is a tough on crime guy who wants to make sense. Racism does not make sense.
From having met him only one evening, I am telling you, this guy is impressive, he is promising. Also from what I have been hearing, he is going to win tomorrow. I would not be surprised if he ends up in some federal position in about four years. You will be glad you got to know him and vote for him today.
It was an amazing evening. I went in. Jeff Kurzon - the first time I met Jeff Kurzon was near a Mahatma Gandhi statue - was greeting people as they streamed in. Kurzon's beard was gone. I made a blade gesture to my beard to tease. Last I had seen him was at the Bill Thompson event at Bombay Palace, and he was sporting a beard then. Good to know Jeff is now officially an Aborn staffer. By the time he helps push Aborn to victory, he will be a ripe cadidate for another high flying private sector lawyerly job, granted that is what he wants. Jeff used to work for the same law firm the Obamas worked for in their youth, its New York office. That was so impressive to me when I first found out. I have seen a halo around his head since.
Jeff introduced me to someone from "Brooklyn," and I am thinking this guy still thinks I am in Brooklyn. The NYPD drove me out of Brooklyn!
"I have seen you before!" I teased the person I was introduced to. Then Jeff introduced me to an author. His book was about to show up on Amazon.
My jaw dropped when Jeff took six months off work and went state hopping for Obama. He started in his native New Hampshire. He ended up as far as California. Then one day I spotted him in a corner at the Irish Rogue. I did not know he was going to be there. So I was visibly, excitedly surprised.
"You are back!"
Jeff Kurzon takes public service seriously. Like Aborn he has progressive white guy ideas on race, that touchy, touchy topic that many people don't know how to talk about.
Then one day Obama's sister showed up in New York while Jeff was in NH. I ended up one of her 10 friends on MyBO. Jeff emailed me saying he was jealous. Then Obama showed up in Harlem. Jeff rode in the car with the future president. They went downtown together. I emailed Jeff. I was jealous. But I was only half serious. The guy deserved the ride. He practically quit his fancy job for Obama. I am surprised he is not ambassador yet. Ugh, maybe after Obama's reelection.
And of course Jeff was on stage for the biggest rally in US presidential campaign history to date: that Washington Square Park rally. Oprah broke that record soon after, but it was a record while it lasted.
I bumped into Deanna Tilley before I bumped into Jeff Kurzon. The video at the top of this blog post comes from one of Deanna's Facebook status updates earlier today.
After having worked the room a little, I spotted this middle aged black woman in a corner. I had run out of people so I walked over to her and said hello. Ends up she is a grad school friend of Aborn's wife. She said she was a "housewife." My mass media trained mind was about to blurt the phrase "Desperate Housewife," but I resisted. Social media makes more sense on such topics.
Aborn showed up. The "housewife" kept nudging me to go say hello. I waited for an opening. Then I was standing in front of Richard Aborn. He was approachable.
I also moved here from the Midwest, I said teasingly. I once showed up for a county fair in Indiana, and I was the only nonwhite person at the fair. It is not like anyone bothers you, but you notice. Aborn is originally from Iowa. Iowa elected Obama. Then Iowa went ahead and legalized gay marriage, before California, before New York. So much for coastal progressivism.
I chatted with Aborn. I told him I was from Nepal. Told him I was a tech entrepreneur when he asked what I did. Then I told him I had read nothing about him to that point, and that I was there because all my Obama friends were so excited about him. Then his wife showed up, and he introduced. My wife, he said.
"I just met your friend Jackie!" I said. The wife got impressed.
Then something happened that really impressed me. A staffer looking woman approached Aborn. Eric will introduce you, she said.
"What do you want me to say?" Aborn asked her. I was touched. This guy was not short on words to speak, but the respect he showed for his staffer won me over. She briefed him. Later I got to talk to her. She was a consultant. I got her card: Jacqui Samuels, Samuels Consulting. Aborn approached us. This was after the speeches had been done, Eric Schneiderman had spoken, Bill Perkins had come and gone. He remembered me as the guy form Nepal. I was impressed. I was bragging to Jacqui I had more than 20,000 followers on Twitter. I offered to send out a few tweets for Aborn.
"Are they all from New York?" Aborn asked. It was like JFK and LBJ are watching a man land on the moon. And LBJ, ever the politician, goes: "If only he were a Negro!"
"No. All over the world. But many are from New York," I said.
Then it was one on one. This was my time with Richard Aborn. I told him now I was excited about him. I am all about tough on crime, I said, but the part that really got me is the one about your progressive ideas, I said. I don't know if I got too excited, or Aborn wanted to sit and chat with some chips, he reached out for chips and salsa at the nearby table.
In the aftermath the husband of someone Aborn sits on the Board of something or the other - interfaith dialogue something - and the wife walked over and the three of us had chips and salsa for a while.
The evening slowly wound down, and I walked away determined to blog and tweet for Aborn.
The guy got me excited.
At one point a George said he had seen my Jordan Thomas video. Jordan showed up. He said he had not seen that video to the end himself. The video is an hour, and it is "raw," like George said.
Towards the end I approached someone from having seen him at many political events.
"You run for office, right?" I said.
This was Brian Kavanagh, a member of the New York state assembly. He represents Union Square, Lower East Side. I guess I was in his district.
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