| vagabondsurf.com It's about life - not "lifestyle" |
| MEMORIAL DAY 2003 AS MUCH ABOUT SURFING AS ANYTHING ELSE |
| Two good things greeted me this morning, Memorial Day of 2003. One was sunshine, which has been in short supply, and coupled with 57 degree ocean water temps is getting rather depressing. The other was an essay appearing in the editorial section of the Los Angeles Times. The essay was by Frank Pierson, a well-known film director and currently the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - the people who give you the Oscars (R). The essay was an excerpt from a speech that he had given to the graduating class of the USC film school, and as such concerns the current state of film, but the stunning parallels to the world of surfing and any other commercial niche is undeniable. Pierson followed the film business from small companies as they eventually went large, went public, and started merger cycles. The businesses went from being owned, operated, and run by individuals to being operated by bureaucrats with MBAs. Here is an excerpt: "As the huge debt created by mergers was added to the rising costs of making little...blockbusters, the risks of making a film forced the businessmen to be risk-averse, to play to the least critical audience: teenage boys with disposable income. The problem is how to keep this "average" moviegoer, male, 16-25, high school education at best, doesn't read books, gets his news from the 11 o'clock news if he bothers at all, never heard of Mussolini and thinks Korea is another part of downtown L.A. This pimply, ovresexed slob with the attention span of a chicken, how do we keep him awake and interested while staying awake and interested ourselves? It's not just Hollywood. What has happened here has happened to us all because the focus of international business has shifted from production to distribution. Whoever controls distribution shapes what is produced - to what will fit under the seat or in the overhead compartment. Today, agribusinesses have researchers trying to produce cube-shaped tomatoes that will be easier to pack in boxes (and that probably will taste like the boxes). Watch the odd, the old, the personal, the traditional, the idiosyncratic, the family-made or the regional disappear from the supermarket shelves that are rented by the foot to international companies that then stock them with their own water and sugar products." - Frank Pierson Is the 6'2" thruster, or the 9' longobard, the square tomato of surfing today? Is there a reason you can't find surf trunks without a 30" inseam in 95% of surf shops? Memorial Day 2003. There are a lot of people and things to remember in our hearts today. |
| Copyright (C) 2003. All rights reserved. Quoted material is (C) Frank Pierson and the Los Angeles Times. Read a newspapaer once in a while. ***** |