Failure Is An Option

By Marc Porter Zasada

It’s nearing midnight in Hollywood, and the Urban Man has joined his fellow Angelenos on a sacred pilgrimmage. I’ve come with a rowdy club of twenty-somethings to stand outside the Sunset Five, in a long and happy line to see “The Citizen Kane of Bad Movies.”

I mean, of course, The Room, that delicious cult epic of bad writing, bad acting, and bad direction; the film produced by, written by, directed by, and starring the staggeringly untalented Tommy Wiseau.

This is the work sent by God to assure mankind that “failure is an option”–and really, could there be anything more important to communicate to His ever-suffering children?

The night is cold, but the mall is lit with the clean fluorescence of successful commerce—the Starbucks and Trader Joes that dominate our lives.  The crowd would prefer to be more rowdy: more stoned or more drunk or more foolish.  But our own failures are insufficient: we need Tommy to clown before us.

Perfect Nonsense

By Marc Porter Zasada

(An Urban Man classic post. First appeared on KCRW.com)

Like most people, the Urban Man often says, “if only life were more like media.” If only the women were reliably beautiful or wise, the men muscled or avuncular. If only we offered one another heartfelt looks at the tail ends of dramatic days, and never had to tie our shoes after moments of true love.

Today, as I sit working on a laptop at a favorite hotel bar here in L.A., I look up from time to time to watch yet another production crew shooting out by the pool.

Just One Little Thought – An Urban Man Video

The Urban Man has been trying all day to have just one little thought of his own. Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGHLTo81k2U.

Produced by Terra Abroms, Directed by Rupert Green, Edited by Ed Abroms, Crew: Nye Green, Sofi Porter Zasada, Pacie Porter Zasada, Leo Porter Zasada. (c) 2010 Marc Porter Zasada and Upper Story Arts.

The Well-Ordered Estate

By Marc Porter Zasada
(An Urban Man Classic – First Appeared on KCRW)

Like most Americans, I like to believe that capitalism operates with a kind of heavenly logic: that it ultimately makes sense for the whole society, and that the people at the top are not robber barons, but the guarantors of social order. I want to feel that their relentless efforts create not just prosperity, but a logical mansion in which we can all dwell at peace.

Maybe Beethoven Knew

By Marc Porter Zasada

Like many in the present age, I now do much of my work from a bedroom at the back of my home. Often, it’s just me and my small electric window on the world, staring at one another long into the dwindling afternoon.

You might think this a peaceable scene, but of course it’s not. Not only am I engaged, IM-to-IM and flame-to-flame, with colleagues and clients on four continents, but I am by digital extension part of every conflict and tragedy

Hollywood Epistemology

By Marc Porter Zasada
(An Urban Man Classic Post)

People complain that we in the media expect too much of actors. That we ask them deep philosophical questions and want them to reveal great truths when they’re masters of nothing but illusion. Why should we care what they think about life and the universe? Shouldn’t we be interviewing, like, actual wise people?

The Endless Avoid

By Marc Porter Zasada

(An Urban Man Classic Post)

Here in L.A., we are all experts at avoiding people.  In fact, a lot of folks move here because they don’t really like people, and they can easily hole up in a small tract house with their big TV and cocoon-like car. If you telecommute, you don’t even have to see people in the office. Go to a midnight club, and you can get all sweaty without actually touching a single sweaty other.