Perfectly Imperfect Podcast With John Strong

I refer to my Hollywood experience as moving up to the Majors from the Minors and not being allowed to bat.  Yes, we know you’re capable.  We know you’re able.  We know you’re damn good and will humbly admit you deserve a fair shot.  BUT we aren’t going to facilitate that opportunity unless you play by our rules.  I had a professor/acting department chair tell me I would not make it in Hollywood because, “I wasn’t willing to play the game.”  This accompanied a conversation about how it would be in the best interest of all involved if I went along with letting them (the school) take advantage of me/my work.  That’s playing the game.  Being black, being a minority is one continuous freaking game.  You’re playing even when you’re not playing.  You’re jumping through hoops, shucking and jiving all with hopes of getting ahead.  All whilst knowing your fate lies not in your abilities but whether or not you’re accepted.  In layman’s terms there are levels to this shit.  And you don’t move from one level to the next

In a perfect world you work hard and you get rewarded for that work.  The cream rises to the top.  People want nothing more than to see you shine.  The universe, GOD wants to grant the desires of your heart.  In a perfect world...but this world ain’t perfect.  Executed hard work, grit and determination only mean something if afforded an opportunity, hopefully you won’t squander it.  It doesn’t mean that opportunity is destined.  Geniuses like the character Will sadly have a better chance of dying in a bar fight than being discovered by a professor at MIT.  Good Will Hunting is as well scripted film I’ve ever viewed/read.  Everything that can go right does.  The guy, who has been robbed of a lifetime of good breaks, gets them and our faith in humanity is restored.  Yes!  And that’s what we go to the movies for to be transported out of reality.  But after the end credits roll it’s back to reality.   And odds are Will would still be pushing that mop.  And his friends would be totally okay with that.

I sat in class for two semesters and listened to the man who wrote Colors talk about writing Colors.  To date I have never watched the film in its entirety.  But one hood tale that did spark my interest was Dangerous Minds.  Dangerous Minds had a lot of commonalities with Colors.  They were both filmed in Los Angeles California.  Both had black/brown hoodlums, violence and Hip-Hop soundtracks.  But there was one thing that didn’t quite sit right about the film.  One missing element it needed for me to truly buy into this visceral reality.  It wasn’t honest.  One scene embedded itself in my brain, the infamous knife scene.  Michelle Pfeiffer’s character an ex-military teacher had to show these unreachable kids that she was “down”.  Let them know she had a certain skill set.  Let it be known that she could 187 a motherfucker if need be.  One super slow knife trick later…she was in?  Yes, a teenaged John called bullshit on that one.  As would be the case years later when The Blind Side swept through the country

I verbally outlined beats for the first act of a screenplay to my graduate class.  My professor ingested this information; he mulled it over and responded with a nod, “Yeah, I can dig it.”  He could dig it?  This wasn’t the late 1960’s nor mid ‘70s.  I wasn’t sporting bell bottoms, or a manicured fro with a black power fist hair pick.  There were no psychedelic guitar licks in the background driving this narrative forward.  It was freaking 2009 and the first black president was in office.  And he, my professor, he could dig it?  He was picking up what I was laying down.  This man had been a part of the Hollywood system, and had made a good living.  The very Hollywood system that still celebrates The Birth of A Nation as a classic.  A system that had served up tales of ignorance and indignation via subservient lampooning, cooning, caricatures for decades.  That system.  Thank God I grew up in the ‘80s when times were a changing.  And the images that I saw growing up on the big screen…actually looked like me. 

Conform: to be obedient or compliant – usually used with to conform to another’s wishes.  Luke Jackson was exalted for his ability to endure, fight; persevere against all odds.  He embodied what/who others aspired to be.  But the moment he needed inspiration, the support of those who looked to him, they turned on him.  This story, this sentiment I know oh too well.  I have known many a cheerleader in life willing to root from the sideline with no intent of ever contributing.  Just along for the ride, watching the show.  At the end of the day all you have is you.  And sometimes nothing is a real cool hand.

The red pill in the film The Matrix represents the unknown, the uncertainty of not knowing ones future.  In order to make this piece of pop culture relevant today let’s draw similarities to social media.  The invention of the ringtone marked a new way of monetizing the cellphone.  It established a template for tracking consumer trends.  The introduction of YouTube ushered in a new platform of both viewing and distributing content further extending the reach of advertisers.  The world was lubricated, primed and ready for the smartphone and O it didn’t disappoint.  To date billions of dollars have been made off the information gathered and sold via social media websites and apps.  Non-skilled, uneducated everyday people have become financial piggy banks and corporations have partnered with them due to their influence.  People spend every quaking moment attached to their phones, tablets, and laptops being told what they should care about/pay attention to.  Thought, thinking is a thing of the past.  All people ha

Self-appointed fitness gurus; life coaches, philosophers are the new “public figures.”  Masses flock aimlessly to the microwaved insta-lives they display online.  The answers to all life’s woes are now accessible via an app.  Happiness is no longer an idea but a tangible thing that can be manifested and displayed via a post.  We are living in the age of lost and found.  Losing yourself and finding yourself in someone else is commonplace.  Copy and pasting someone else’s image, ideals, downloading their personality is the new self-discovery.  Why?  Because no one wants to sit in solitary and analyze why we hate ourselves.  It’s so much easier, simpler; to be convinced otherwise…we love ourselves.  We are living our best lives.  And if that’s not good enough find someone you’d like to be and just become them. “If change is something you want, and change is something you’re going to put forth the effort to make happen…you just do it.” – John Strong

Perspective.  When I was 20 or so I asked a younger cousin of mine if she considered herself/family to be poor. She ingested the question momentarily and responded with, “We don’t have everything but we got something.  So no we’re not poor.”  Perspective.  The idea of poverty that existed in her mind no doubt was that of extreme destitution.  You know tattered clothing, emaciated, malnourished like the 80’s infomercials featuring African kids.  She was around the age (13) I was when I began to examine social and economic roles in society.  Around the age young Charlie was in the film Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.  The difference between her perception and that of Charlie and I -- we’d seen the glass ceiling.  We knew that we were far closer to the bottom than the top.  And as far as the world was concerned we didn’t even exist.  Some people accept this as their truth and they live in it.  While others refuse to accept this, refute it, and set out to change their cards.  “Living with giving up has to

Life is loud.  Life is so loud in fact that most people can’t handle silence.  The silence of what is.  You can live your whole life looking neither forward nor backward, protected by the moment.  But some of us don’t have that security blanket.  Our blinders have been removed.  And once removed you begin to see things as they are.  Isolation has propelled many a great man/woman into their destiny.  Conquering isolation “The Wilderness” defined Jesus, just as Andy Dufrain’s character in the Shawshank Redemption is defined by his ability to endure.  We would all love to have 12 devoted Disciples; a friend like Red to walk this road with, narrate our journey.  But we don’t live within the pages of a book or screenplay.  And if you want to get there, you just may have to accept that you’ve got to walk alone.  “When you hit rock bottom moments of happiness don’t exist.”  - John Strong

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”- Forest Gump This quote pretty much sums up the character that ushered it into pop culture, a forgettable, ordinary person who lived an extraordinary life.  People love the notion of triumph against all odds on the big screen.  But what of the guy/girl that lived next door, sat next to you in class, the former coworker that makes good.  Gets the dream job, meets the right person…lives happily ever after.  Are they a testament to how beautiful life can be, or a constant reminder of your shortcomings?  Like The Count of Monte Cristo I had been the underdog, overlooked, taken advantage of most my life.  But something shifted when I decided my best was good enough and carried myself accordingly -- other people followed suit and overnight I became a “somebody.”  My problem now wasn’t being seen, but having people seek the answers to their life’s questions in me.  Envy, jealousy, and spite in some form or another infiltrated virtually ever re

I was a child when I saw The Color Purple for the first time.  I watched it until I knew the motivation behind the dialogue, and the subtle suggestions in things unsaid.  This wasn’t a Walt Disney Production; it didn’t have a thing in common with my Nickelodeon or TGIF shows but I loved it.  I watched it over and over again.  It felt realer than real to me.  Not a figment of someone else’s imagination but something I’d lived, something I’d experienced…because it was.  The film The Color Purple examined dysfunction in rural South Georgia in the 1930’s and we had come so far as a people, that I grew up in the very same dysfunction in the 1980’s.  My young mind had already begun to connect the dots; and I could not look away because I was watching the past, the present, and the future of me if stayed the course.  My mother was Celie.  My father Mister and the supporting cast coexisted in my papier-mâché world.  My life was the color purple.  “You’ve got’s to fight Celie.” “I don’t know how to fight.” – The Color

The Goonies is the best 80’s kid’s movie, period.  One kid’s grit, determination, unwillingness to give in transported a group of friends on the journey of a lifetime.  This journey defines what it means to believe (to this day).  This kid, this character Mikey was the ultimate leader.  Growing up everyone in my community had dreams, everyone wanted to be a “somebody,” do something big.  But not everyone had the willingness, the resilience to strike out in search of their own treasure.  I credit big picture thinking with fueling me to this point.  If I do (x) and you do (y) what will the results be?  My adolescent mind understood consequences, and the finality of bad decisions and I’m alive to tell these stories because I chose to lead not follow. “As a child everything that happens to you is either the absolute best thing, or it’s the absolute worst thing.Kids don’t have so so days.” – John Strong

The 80’s classic film Stand By Me provides the cinematic backdrop for an in-depth look at the concept of friendship.  Question posed…how does the ideal friend differ over time as we age, mature, and our wants/needs become more prominent?  Does who we surround ourselves with reflect how we view ourselves?  I share two childhood experiences I credit with cementing my view on the topic of friendship, and offer unbridled commentary on the friend versus associate debate. “Me watching how the outside world worked made me know that it was possible, made me know that my world could be like that even though that wasn’t the environment I was in.”  - John Strong

My name is John Strong and I'm that guy.  That guy whose existence reflects the harsh reality of what is, and the ever-present idealism of what could be.  I'm a true Pisces, the yin and yang sign.  The comedy/tragedy mask depicted with both a smile and frown.  Yeah, that's me John.  The funniest, friendliest, most charismatic guy to ever grace a room.  While simultaneously being a fearlessly disciplined, rebellious, taskmaster poised to combat injustice, right a wrong at a moment’s notice.  I am a creative.  A Renaissance man, who chose the pen as his predominant passion.  A philosopher/intellectual who leaned on his own understanding and formulated a unique outlook on this thing called life.  I am the flawed hero, the tormented soul, the tortured protagonist.  I have lived a life that could have only been scripted by the great screenwriter in the sky.   Yes, my life has indeed been a movie.  And I love movies.  So, it only makes sense that I talk about it here on the Perfectly Imperfect Podcast.