One of us typed two small pages about the short stories his father wrote before giving up on writing in his 20s. He has only skimmed the stories, afraid of what they might say about him: whether he is repeating his father, or whether he dreams about the work more than he does it. He reads his pages aloud, and they carry the episode. Asked what greatness means, he names Bruce Springsteen and Alec Soth, and then Steven Spielberg. The other thinks rankings belong to sprinters like Usain Bolt, whose greatness can be timed, and that the better question is what you actually like about a piece of work.
The night before, one of us saw Michael Mann's Collateral, in which Tom Cruise's hit man tells a cab driver his dream was only ever a down payment on a Lincoln Town Car away. We use the line for the gap between thinking and doing. One of us is content making videos in his basement and photographing old satellite dishes, but tired of worrying about money. A Tennessee Williams line from a museum trip comes up: you can be young without money, but not old without it. One of us argues for making time for the work, however little, and keeping it sacred. It ends with one of us resolving to write more, because on paper you can't skip the steps your head skips.
-Ai
Show Notes:
Collateral (2004) Trailer, Letterboxd Page
Making of Nebraska: CBS News Interview with Bruce Springsteen
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