Adventures… #54: Windows to the world
Why we need a different kind of aperture, and some of football's hidden clues
Hello, and welcome along to another edition of Adventures…
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Ok. Let’s get into it...
Channel 4 had a problem. Their newest show was already on air, but the star presenter had gone AWOL. Calls unanswered. No one home. Deadlines looming.
Innovative programming and a willingness to go where others wouldn’t had enabled to Channel 4 to stand out from the UK’s other broadcasters. This new show continued that trend: it was cosmopolitan, fast-paced, and featured never-seen-before content. But it had a tiny budget. A big-name replacement presenter was out of the question.
The executives went back to the list of those they’d already rejected. Among them was a 26-year-old with almost no subject matter expertise, and absolutely zero broadcasting or journalism experience. However, he did have one thing going for him: speaking Italian.
A couple of weeks later, in September 1992, junior producer James Richardson found himself in Rome. He was the new face of ‘Gazzetta Football Italia’.
Richardson had his work cut out: Channel 4 had zero pedigree in football, there were no sets, barely any crew, and the show’s title was an ode to his short-lived predecessor.
With most of the money sucked up by licensing the highlights footage from the previous weekend’s Italian football matches, Richardson had no option but to film the rest of the show outside a few cafes. He’d sit with a cappuccino or gelato, translate the Italian sports newspapers, and serve up some dry witticisms before setting up the next match clip. And aside from a couple of quick skits around the city, that was pretty much it.
Against the odds, Gazzetta became a hit - and it was partly in thanks to that embarrassingly low budget. Viewers didn’t just get a first glimpse into the football of Italy - they also caught a glimpse of its culture. To hundreds of thousands of British teenagers and young adults, Gazzetta - complete with its bitesize dives into Italian life and Richardson’s deft Anglo-Italian wordsmithing - was the height of sophistication. It opened up a portal to something new.
Different Lenses
A couple of years later, Channel 4 repeated the trick with another savvy sports magazine show for Saturday mornings: NBA 24/7. Layering in music, film, and fashion, viewers were transported to Madison Square Garden and the streets of San Antonio; they got the scoop on the latest streetwear brands and fresh cuts of Queensbridge hiphop. The show even helped break artists like The Chemical Brothers.
Both Gazzetta and 24/7 were focused on sports - but they were also windows to the world.
Over the next 10 years, much of TV shifted to highly polished productions, before the explosion of YouTubers and their authentic at-home vibe.
Today, we’re about to go full circle.
The last year has helped us become more global, yet also more local. Our windows to the world have multiplied, but the apertures have narrowed. We can see into rooms we couldn’t before, but it’s difficult to get a sense of real perspective. Meanwhile, big broadcasters prefer to take us far, far away into completely different worlds.
What’s next?
I hope a different lens once again - telling stories that matter that the mainstream miss. Global and Local valued equally.
Two very different outlets headed in this same direction are Peter Santenello and Rest of World.
Santenello’s one-man show with a GoPro takes in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Ukraine; plus neighborhood scenes in NYC, Miami, and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Rest of World doesn’t have much in the way of resourcing issues when it dives into new technology emerging from Nigeria, Vietnam, or Brazil - it’s helmed by the daughter of Google billionaire Eric Schmidt. Yet both are seeking stories that matter in a world we’re constantly trying to make sense of.
Although the internet has enabled us to connect more than we could have previously ever imagined, we need these different kinds of portals to help us see what’s out there.
Whether it’s as profound as questioning our convictions on a culture, or as simple as being emboldened to try espresso for the first time - the windows to the world matter.
Thanks for reading, and as always I’d love to hear what which windows you’re looking through right now. Just hit reply.
Howard
01: Career Fuel
Why all-remote is for everyone (maybe): This post is a couple of years old, but feels timely to share as there’s a lot of conversation about what’s next for offices and teams. Gitlab (obviously) think all-remote is for everyone, but I’m having a hard time believing them. I like the argument for geography-agnostic opportunity, and their handbook is very well put together, but something about it feels a bit… well, clinical. Maybe I’m just a maladjusted scruff. I’d love to get your take on this (remote work, not me being a scruff).
A triple header from the desk of me: Writing hasn’t come easily this year, but I sense the groove returning. Here are 3 short riffs from the past week that flowed out of me surprisingly smoothly: the story behind runway; making average into great; and staying flexible
02: Entrepreneurial Endeavours
Ari Emanuel takes on the world: A (very) long-read profile of the bombastic co-CEO of Endeavor, including a morsel on how his psychiatrist was the tipping point to starting a new company. My highly reductive one-line summary: the game is now in IP more than talent. (thanks to Tom W for putting this on my radar)
Underrated assets: In line with this month’s football theme, perenially-modest Brentford got promoted to the English Premier League last week. The key to their success? Data and gambling expert Matthew Benham - also owner of another minnow turned major player: Danish club FC Midtjylland. And N’Golo Kante, the engine powering Chelsea’s Champions League win, was plucked from the French third division based on analysis of certain attributes that others didn’t value. Moneyball in action.
The Gift Economy: I’ve been hovering around this concept for a while. Here’s Rob Hardy’s bit on why he’s shifted all his work to be gift-based. Look out for some gifts in next month’s edition of Adventures...
03: From last time...
Last month’s dispatch took a look at depression and anxiety. It broke the Adventures… record for the most ever replies, and also the most ever unsubscribes. Ouch.
However, last month’s bit also highlighted the joy of play and being childlike. Liz Gilbert talks about this in her lovely book ‘Big Magic’:
“After the Australian writer, poet and critic Clive James encountered an enormous failure (a play he wrote for the London stage was criticized harshly, ruined his family financially and cost him some close friends), he fell into a dark state of depression for a long time.
Finally, his young daughters interrupted his grieving process and asked their father to make their shabby old secondhand bicycles look nicer. He reluctantly took on this project, painted the bicycles and added little stars. He painted hundreds of colorful stars and when the bicycles were finished the girls were thrilled. Other kids in the neighborhood also wanted their bicycles painted that way and James spent several weeks painting tiny stars on every kid’s bicycle in the area.
As he was painting the bicycles something inside him was healing and when the last bicycle was finished he felt so good he thought ‘I shall write about this one day’.
In that moment he was free.”
It turns out the heart of this is a concept called Combinatory Play. Some guy called Einstein called Combinatory Play “the essential feature in productive thought”. That’ll do me.
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Corrections & Apologies
Last month’s Jukebox had the wrong Grace Jones album link. Before a livid Grace shows up at my front door, here’s the correct version - deep and dubby
There are no Opportunities for Adventure in this month’s edition. I did have a bunch of them, but they felt a bit trite. Next time…
04: Culture
Generation Z on their post-covid future: This is well worth checking out. 50 young Europeans share their hopes and fears for a post-pandemic world. Spoiler alert: most of them aren’t too positive about it, and the mental health crisis is real.
We need more public space for teen girls: They’re too big, too loud, and too old for playgrounds; too young, too loud, too broke for restaurants, bars and stores. This Bloomberg bit goes behind the scenes of a new design movement.
05: Jukebox
A selection of music from the Front (now), the Middle (the forgotten recent past), and the Back (way back in the time)
Front: Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On” - 50th anniversary visual album
Yeah, ok, it’s technically not new. But it’s wonderful.
Middle: Foals - Total Life Forever
This album came to mind as I was walking through a sunny Brooklyn the day after NYC’s Covid restrictions lifted. Total Life Forever, indeed.
Back: Roy Ayers vibes battle at Ronnie Scott’s, London
Here’s one of my favorite ever bits on YouTube (yes, a huge claim): Roy Ayers with his percussionist Dwight Gassaway back in 1988. This is packed with stagecraft, skill, tension, joy… and well, vibes.
06: Footnotes
Other things I’ve been up to this month:
Transferring this newsletter off Substack to my own site; next month’s edition should come to you in wonderful technicolour from the Howard Gray mainframe
Interviewing new hires, and testing out some new techniques along the way
Wrangling with sharing my thoughts via YouTube. Resistance in play once more
Dropping out of an education program. At least I’m both ironic and consistent
Watching Barry Jenkins’ excellent new show ‘The Underground Railroad’
Receiving a handmade bear in the mail. Long arms, pale body, slight paunch. Yup, it’s a spitting image. Thanks Mum - he’s wonderful.