Basketball

Basketball Court (Photo credit: xcode)

I went to the local park with one of my younger friends - a tyke still in middle school - to engage in a session of basketball wherein he'd teach me the tricks of the trade he's considered a professional at. Despite his best efforts, I didn't learn much - at least not about basketball itself.

I did learn about the incredible social ritual known as just going to the park and playing basketball with complete strangers. I spend so much time thinking about the right way to approach people, what to say to them, how to carry yourself, what excuses you can come up with - and here was my friend and tutoring pupil, defying all of my preconceived notions about "casual encounters" by simply coming up to complete strangers of any age and soliciting their time, physical effort and desire to engage in a simple game involving a rubber sphere.

It was mind-blowing! To think that as we grow up, social interactions became so much more methodical and potentially awkward to the point that many feel they're not even worth it anymore! But it's nice to see that more practical human beings like my basketball pro pupil are keeping things as real as can be.

Basketball

Loose Cannon

Man Asleep on Bench (Photo credit: derajfast)

I'm the kind of person that throws caution to the wind in instances where the opposite is the case. Not to an extreme - I haven't been accomplice to a murder or serious theft or anything; but rather, I've behaved quite complacently in situations that would otherwise rattle my sense of normalcy.

When one of my friends wanted to go out to a late night event with no way of getting back home, I figured we could just take the public bus in the morning and get back that way. When I wanted to do the same a few months later, and the same circumstances were in place, I did exactly the same thing and ended up sleeping on a bench most of the evening.

When I had a job interview way down south and no ride or bus over there, I traveled aboard my 80s touring bicycle down the busway, suit and tie and all. When a less than noble evening affair with my male friend and two attractive females reached a boiling point, I went for it, void of any hesitation.

Sleep on a bench (Photo credit: Matti Mattila)

Sometimes I reflect on this atittude that I have towards new, potentially dangerous, potentially immoral experiences - yet all perfectly legal - and I think to myself whether I'm a loose cannon or not. At least one acquaintance has told me I'm freaking crazy, but I like to think of such an outlook on life not as crazy, but as a way to arrive at the main prerequisite of my future career - journalism.

Because you see, open-mindedness is synonymous with the craft. I figure, if reporters in the industry have to witness and talk about truly disturbing things like hard-working employees getting laid off, innocent people being murdered, and corrupt political regimes ruining the lives of many - I should be able to handle sleeping on a bench in the middle of the night.

Loose Cannon

Middle School "Confessions"

In light of my misplacing my autobiography - hopefully that situation is soon remedied - here are some tidbits of my elementary/middle school experience.

1. I had a run in with my elementary school principal in the fifth grade because a third grader (I think) mistook my "I'm putting you on the list" reprimand for a more serious one than it really was. Actually, I was a safety patrol and had been ordered to write down the names of kids who behaved badly in my sector. 
2. I used to walk to school every now and then, a mile long trek from my house near Downtown Miami to the Little Havana neighborhood. My mom wouldn't let me ride my bicycle to school; in retrospect, though, that would've been much practical
3. I had a girlfriend the entirety of eighth grade, the same year that the administration thought it necessary to install security cameras in the stairwells - our preferred make out spot. Nothing ever occurred in those stairwells since, for me at least. 
4. The last day of eight grade, juice boxes were being used as weapons, to some extent, in the second floor hallway after lunchtime. Some ne'er do well started the "juice fight" by squirting punch at someone. Minutes later, the tiled floor was littered with sticky sucrose. 
5. The only reason I joined the Art Club for a few months during my eighth grade year was to appease my girlfriend, who loved art. Needless to say, I didn't really progress much in the way of my artistic capabilities. 
6. I trace the beginnings of my relationship with journalism and TV Production to the seventh grade, where I developed and was given the permission to broadcast my own five-minute variety show, featuring the weather report, offbeat news, interviews and musical talent. To this day, I'm surprised why I never recorded any of the shows, and why I never fathomed how incredible of an opportunity that was given my age. 
7. I used to think staying after school was No Man's Land - hence, I cherished doing so whenever I got the chance. 

Yeah, nothing too crazy. 

Middle School "Confessions"

Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton

James Lipton at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've gotten the chance, as of late, to watch some episodes of Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio", an interview show that has been on the air for years, profiling big name actors and directors and comedians from Julia Roberts to Meryl Streep, to Steven Spielberg to Dave Chappelle.

The show is hosted by James Lipton, an American writer  composer, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. The show has an interesting history, beginning as a seminar given masters students at the University and blooming into an internationally syndicated show broadcast in over a hundred countries.

But what appeals to me, as an aspiring journalist with a developing knack for, and certainly a desire to, speak to and meet people and learn about as many human life stories as I can, is the show's and Lipton's style. The show uses a deliberately slow, natural pace; you feel like you're watching a conversation fruiting on your television screen as opposed to a "cut-for-time" television interview. It's relaxed, introspective and often emotional.

That's why no episode spans shorter than 30 minutes time.

James Lipton with guest Angelina Jolie. The majority of the show is held as a one-on-one interview. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the kind of thing I'd like to do in the future with my professional career. Be they broadcast on TV, Internet, radio; be they not broadcast at all, these are the kind of conversations I want to have with people, whether famous, unknown or in-between.

Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton