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Matinee: 'How to Cross the Street' Share This on LinkedIn   Tweet This   Forward This

19 November 2022

Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?

So we're pleased to present the 475th in our series of Saturday matinees today: How to Cross the Street at the NYC Marathon.

In this 3:57 video directed by and starring Jeff Seal, the comedian interviews a number of people at the recent New York City Marathon who simply wanted to get across the street. The street on which the marathon was taking place.

That's funny in itself.

But what we liked about this may not be immediately apparent. It's video with no angle on still photography. So what were we thinking?

Well that's just it. It made us think.

So often we hear smaller minds whine that every photograph has already been made. What's the point of getting up in the morning?

This clip shows you what the point is.

Every angle of the NYC Marathon may have been covered by everybody with a camera in the vicinity. But only one guy wondered about the people trying to cross the street.

The interviews are brilliant. The tension builds. And just when we are getting tired of the tension, he crosses the street to get the post-game interview and deliver a little surprise. Hilarious.

The whole thing reminds us of the days when we were covering trade shows.

The narrative was already crafted by the PR department of each company exhibiting. And that was helpful as a starting point even if a lot of "influencers" never seemed to take it any further.

Fortunately we never understood what the PR people were saying so we wandered the aisles to find stories of innovation and practical value. That did not always endear us to the people who paid the bills but it did interest our readers.

We had no ambition to become "an influencer." We were, in a word, too curious to play that game.

Curiosity may have killed the cat but without it, we've found, you never get across the street.


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