Toilet Brushes & Self Deprecation
About creative support, counter-intuitive narratives and grandmas.
Hello! Today:
Shaping our stories is not only an individual endeavour but a collective need.
Have you thought of visiting Oslo?
Glimpses of character, family inheritances and T20 Cricket in the USA.
1.
Shaping Storytelling
Why do people go to art school or film school? To help their creative insides find a way- a way in, a way out, a way somewhere- to make, to share, to express, to entertain, to question, to shape, to state? Maybe some, maybe all of these.
And why do we, as societies and nations, have institutions to help foster young creative voices? So we can ensure that we will always, always have creative souls amidst us to make, to share, to express, to entertain, to question, to shape, to state.
How nations contemplate this from institutional, societal, family & individual aspects can be telling. Whether in the support to foster creativity, or in the people’s appetite to take up creative paths. It might be a truism, but the approach is crucial in creating, telling, preserving and sharing our stories, and hence our legacies. In some places and in some times, this can be viewed as a luxury; focus on growing art can be seen as a privilege (an indulgence, even) of a wealthy society. There is both truth and merit to that, but neither unequivocal. That is one of the many complexities in seeing how our own societies or education can be.
For what its worth, I have always believed that a deep belief in the power of art & creativity should own a central place in our world. In an age where technology promises and threatens so much around human endeavour, our essential human creativity and storytelling becomes more valuable than ever, and developing it, more important than ever.
“I think it feels like we are a poorer country if we don’t support arts”
Read, in this broader context, about Denmark. Specifically, the Danish documentary landscape and how it has become a powerhouse (which is interesting in itself), but also providing a window into the vision and belief system around storytelling, that is behind this growth. Including, yes, The National Film School that costs nothing and even pays its students.
Says Sigrid Dyekær, producer of the Oscar-nominated The Cave and Emmy-winner The Territory.
We all grew up with this element of storytelling, which is so extremely important in our culture. Maybe because we’re so small that we think nobody would care about the Danes, nobody would care about what we produce or do, but if we create a story around it, then maybe people would be more interested in what we have to offer.
I definitely think we have this creative soul, all of us.
* Those working to build a culture around documentaries around Denmark.
* A little more about the system in Denmark.
2.
Would You Go There?
Travel is likely one of the more ubiquitous joys and aspirations of people across cultures, and also the most disparate. What it means to us can be highly personal, yet of course tribes have been defined. Advertising for tourism often- not always- tends to talk to wide audiences, aiming for high footfall, frequently via a ‘something for everyone’ approach. The showcased diversity of offerings is based in the destination’s own variety- natural, cultural or man-made (or made-up!).
But what if ‘many’ and ‘much’ was not the point? What if masses of inbound tourist groups was not the main ambition? And what if droll, self deprecating humour draped in mundanity was found appealing?
Watch this Friday Find.
I have no idea if these questions were contemplated (or consciously ignored!) when Visit Oslo made their latest TVC, but it certainly seems to speak to many of them. It eschews the ‘Do More! Do Best! Do Big!’ approach that so many destinations seem to like (and which, surely, works for many).
Its also pretty amusing, but in a very particular sort of way.
It speaks to a larger contrast in an age where there is, seemingly, a rise of those looking for the slow, the normal, the disconnected, the authentic. Not authentic meaning Tiktok-authentic, but serendipitous authentic, unplanned authentic, natural authentic. (That might sound like a diss, it is not).
I can see how some will view this as boring, unappealing and mundane. They will argue that those qualities are transposed to the destination itself, making them as un-enamoured by it as is Halfdan, the protagonist and Oslo local (“I temporarily live here”).
I think, Visit Oslo will be happy for those folks to think thusly and not be tempted. There is, it appears, a very specific confidence in both defining and connecting with the target audience.
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Vaguely relatedly, the Fed and Switzerland also tried a bit of reverse psychology some years back, with Robert deNiro calling Switzerland “too perfect”.
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And this from Sweden in 2022, more dry humour leveraging- arguably- the bigger brand names (from Ikea) to promote its home country.
3.
Say What?
The inimitable Anthony Bourdain:
There are two kinds of people in this world. There are people who like the relentless futility, heat, pressure, the madness, the insanity of restaurant kitchens & then there is everybody else- you know, normal people. If you are a chef, what do you look for in an employee? Personnel selection is everything. I can teach you to cook in my restaurant. I will teach you how to cut the damn onion. I will teach you how to make my food. I can teach cooking.
I cannot teach character. That’s what I am looking for first. The ability to be an adult; a grown up, to show up on time with a good attitude, to endure.
— from Leadership Lessons from the Kitchen by Anthony Bourdain.
That last line is so, so necessary for… well for all kinds of goodness in all kinds of areas, from work to life to the stage to the sports field to that obscure webinar you signed up for last week and were pleased on how professionally it turned out.
4.
Peanut Masala
(where I share some stories or tidbits I find interesting)
The Thai film “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” has done brilliantly well in its home country, but also found success in the region, becoming the highest grossing Thai film in The Phillippines, Malaysia, Singapore & Vietnam. Have a look at the gentle trailer and carry your tissues to the screening.
Samir Chaudry reckons Spotify should buy Hot Ones, the long running hit spicy-challenge talk show that BuzzFeed is looking to sell. I think that’s a very interesting call, much though I would like my Spotify to remain ‘just’ my Spotify.
The International Cricket Council is (rightly) chuffed with the USA leg of the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup. As the sport looks to make inroads in the US of A, the group stage was co-hosted by the country and saw 190,000 attendees in stadia; but also, US-based visitors to ICC platforms were up 370% from the entire previous edition in 2022, with 52% of those being new fans.
☕️ After an unintentionally European thread to the stories today, off for my brew!