Shot of the day 357: Corporate Trimmings & Looking Up

Shot with iphone, click to enlarge.

Back at work, back in the office. As I race to make the mailroom deadline with some bills and holiday cards, I pass the 15 ft. tall Christmas Tree in the main lobby of the CEG building (Comcast Entertainment Group for the uninitiated) and find myself just...looking up. Im sure people passing me thought funny of the sight, but my feet were planted by the root of the Vertical Yule log and it reminded me of my very early childhood days (which for some reason are always narrated by Richard Dreyfuss. Strange), standing at the Lynch family tree in our living room in Port Jeff Station, action figures in hand. Every year, it was like a new Nakatomi Plaza had been erected and I had to navigate my Duke or Luke Skywalker through the many green floors, dodging bullets and lightbulbs. My imagination ran wild every year, my one eye closed as my other played "the camera", squinting to get lens flare from the lights and moving with Raimi-like ferocity as Snake Eyes or Han held on for dear life, dangling from a holiday ball. The various action set-pieces were like a McTirenan meets Michael Bay summer blockbuster sequence, usually lasting around an hour (the time between when homework was done and the 8pm shows were on TV) and always captivating.

So there I am, looking up at this huge honkin' christmas tree, the corporate symbol of the holiday solidarity amidst a year of takedowns, cutbacks, firings and mergings, thinking how I seemed to have been ducking, diving and clutching on many branches myself, just like those action figures...yet seem to have hang ups on "Oh man, I haven't made a feature this year" (even though I have two Im working on currently) which seems to be the only thing to give you any legitimacy in this town....
Music videos? Who cares.
Commercials? Nope.
Viral videos? Whatevs.
Online franchises? Pfftt.
Shorts? Get real.
Acting? Loser.
Overseeing coverage of major geek events? Come again?
New Script? Puhleeze.
Year long photo projects? No weight at all.

...But between that and all the HUGE life changes in my life (which, if you've been a "constant reader" will know ALL about), all of them branches in the year of my life, and I feel like I'm JUST hanging on, trying to make it to the star on top...or at least maintain some stable ground. It sucks that there is such a "race" mentality out here, but also, this year made me realize that the race is sometimes self-inflicted, that it's my own checkered flag I'm chasing, and that if I don't slow down, Ill miss every small victory I get every day, each branch acquiring a new ornament to gaze upon or cherish.

Yes, Im rambling a bit with my metaphor, but all these emotions and thoughts flooded through me as I stood here, under the loomingly large & trimmed tree, pontificating for a moment-before having one of those "breakthrough" ideas that just smack you in the ass like your first time in WeHo on a Saturday night-and then swinging off again onto another branch in my busy day.

Last days at the job before the holidays always seem to do this with me.

Joe