12/03: Coffee Is For Closers Only
Category: General
Posted by: Tocqueville
These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, but you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you would be throwing them away. They're for closers.
David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross remains one of the greatest triumphs of the American stage. A theatrical success, the play was later immortalized on the big screen in 1992. The film showcased outstanding performances by some of the greatest actors of their generation: Al Pacino (as Ricky Roma), Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon (as Shelley "The Machine" Levene), Alan Arka, and Jonathan Pryce. But perhaps the most memorable performance was offered by Alec Baldwin, whose character travels "from Downtown" to the regional sales office of Mitch & Murray on a "mission of mercy" to announce a new sales contest:
We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? [Holds up prize] Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is . . . you're fired.
If you have never seen it, you can watch this unforgettable scene here.
David Mamet, the genius behind these words, spent most of his life immersed in the trendy subculture of "the Arts." By default, he took the liberal view of politics, of life, and of human nature for many decades. But he has recently recanted:
"As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart. These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. This is, to me, the synthesis of this worldview with which I now found myself disenchanted: that everything is always wrong."
"But in my life, a brief review revealed, everything was not always wrong, and neither was nor is always wrong in the community in which I live, or in my country. Further, it was not always wrong in previous communities in which I lived, and among the various and mobile classes of which I was at various times a part."
"And, I wondered, how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always wrong at the same time that I thought that people were basically good at heart? Which was it? I began to question what I actually thought and found that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama."
Mamet also has some very sensible things to say about the Constitution, which "rather than suggesting that all behave in a godlike manner, recognizes that, to the contrary, people are swine and will take any opportunity to subvert any agreement in order to pursue what they consider to be their proper interests."
I can't wait to see how his new-found philosophy influences his future work.
Welcome home, David Mamet.
David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross remains one of the greatest triumphs of the American stage. A theatrical success, the play was later immortalized on the big screen in 1992. The film showcased outstanding performances by some of the greatest actors of their generation: Al Pacino (as Ricky Roma), Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon (as Shelley "The Machine" Levene), Alan Arka, and Jonathan Pryce. But perhaps the most memorable performance was offered by Alec Baldwin, whose character travels "from Downtown" to the regional sales office of Mitch & Murray on a "mission of mercy" to announce a new sales contest:
We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? [Holds up prize] Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is . . . you're fired.
If you have never seen it, you can watch this unforgettable scene here.
David Mamet, the genius behind these words, spent most of his life immersed in the trendy subculture of "the Arts." By default, he took the liberal view of politics, of life, and of human nature for many decades. But he has recently recanted:
"As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart. These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. This is, to me, the synthesis of this worldview with which I now found myself disenchanted: that everything is always wrong."
"But in my life, a brief review revealed, everything was not always wrong, and neither was nor is always wrong in the community in which I live, or in my country. Further, it was not always wrong in previous communities in which I lived, and among the various and mobile classes of which I was at various times a part."
"And, I wondered, how could I have spent decades thinking that I thought everything was always wrong at the same time that I thought that people were basically good at heart? Which was it? I began to question what I actually thought and found that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama."
Mamet also has some very sensible things to say about the Constitution, which "rather than suggesting that all behave in a godlike manner, recognizes that, to the contrary, people are swine and will take any opportunity to subvert any agreement in order to pursue what they consider to be their proper interests."
I can't wait to see how his new-found philosophy influences his future work.
Welcome home, David Mamet.
A Waco Farmer wrote: