( Above: the picture that hangs on Michael Jordans basement wall in the hallway leading to his poker room and home theater & became one of my inspirations for Rustedblue)
Where do ideas come from?
What is inspiration?
Are there signs for us to follow?
How do we become great Men?
In the summer of 2009...I was hitting a rough patch in my life...I had been having a hard time finding employment when I picked up a job with a small metal and wood fabrication shop in a bad neighborhood in West Chicago... The days were long in that place...Sweaty in the City summer heat...Chicago summers can be lazy hot like that...and violent...Chicago is a violent American City...with a high crime rate...and ghettos...That's the part the don't advertise on TV...you see snapshots from the Lake...The "Magnificent Mile" the parks...and nice "Neighborhoods"
The Park they don't show is Humboldt.....a once majestic park with Lagoons and pavilions on Chicago's Northwest side....built flanked with beautiful grey stone buildings in the late 1800's became overrun with Latin Kings, Disciples, Young Lords, in the puerto rican influx of the 1960's...
The shop I worked in employed such people...and they were good crafts people and amazing artists, but mean...mean as you can get....they were surviving ...working ...having kids...running drugs and prostitutes in one of the toughest neighborhoods in America...
I was not only a fabricator in the shop, but also and installer on the crew...due in part to my ability to deal with clients as a professional...to speak with designers and homeowners alike...and make them feel comfortable with us being there. I was a very depressed Man in those days....I was desperate for change...desperate to get out of that shop...to work with not only my hands...but my mind as well....To be a leader...in community...in life...but as I learned...there are no road maps for this sort of thing.....HOWEVER, THERE ARE SIGNS.... and if we look close enough...they will show us the way...
Among many high profile clients...we took a job fabricating and installing stainless steel handrails at 1 Museum Drive in Highland Park, IL.... often times when working for clients like this your not told in advance from the contractor who it is your working for....as was the case with this Job...
As we arrived at the site, the gates on the front of the Driveway were adorned with large numbers "2" and "3".... it became apparent that we were entering the inner sanctum of Legend himself....Michael Jordan.
The job itself lasted only a few weeks....but the entire time i was there I couldn't help be fueled by the presence of greatness...There is just a vibe at this place....Walls lined with Famous pieces of Art...and pictures of Mike in his glory....The winning shot at Carolina...Posting up against Magic...draining a 3 over Bird......and then there was MARS...
At the end of a lonely hallway in the basement of the house hung a picture of Mike palming Spike Lees head...and lifting him up by it....A picture that became a famous Nike Ad in the late 80's....Here I was...in Micheal Jordans Basement...and for a moment i was taken back to the bedroom of my youth were the same picture I was starring at I had hung once before...and in my minds eye....My life flashed back to those days...those happier days...were I didnt feel stuck....didnt feel caged in a metal shop....didnt feel like a failure...
I thought for a while the rest of that day about these two Men....Their legacy...and greatness....and their Brands.....The two brands that had more impact on popular culture in the late 80's and early 90's...than all other brands combined...What made them special? Was it God given...or did the work at it? Did they ever doubt themselves? Did they ever feel like I did....trapped in the greatness of others... or simply alone? How did they find it inside themselves....To believe in their work and calling? Did they see signs?
For weeks later I went about my work...we finished the job and I forgot about the picture...and the questions that it brought to mind.... That was until....THE SIGNS COULD NOT BE DENIED
It was early July in 2009...I had promised my mother I would take her to see Michael Jackson's house in Gary, IN...just ten minutes from where I grew up...Mike had just passed...and we felt it proper to pay our respects or at least feel part of the outpouring. As we approached the house we noticed some commotion toward the backyard....a number of small tents were scattered about the place, one filled with antique toys, another a spread of catered food.
AND then...there was my Sign....
Spike Lee is a small statured man...he was busy filming when i pushed my mother in her wheelchair up toward the barricade...I couldn't help but think about what Malcolm Gladwell would say about this...Just three weeks before I had this moment with a poster in Michael Jordans basement...and now Spike looked over at my mother and I and tipped his head toward us as the crew cut for lunch....In the boyhood backyard of the King of POP....
It felt as if a torch was being passed...and the weight of the moment hung in the air like a zepplin.
2 years have passed:
I now have my own production company...Rustedblue
Rusted for the places Im from...a steelworker family...i call home an industrial wasteland on the southern rim of the great lake Michigan...it is a rusted place...and the people are made of tin...tough and rusted in time.
Blue...because of the melancholy of the survivors in this place...with great respect to my own bouts with depression...and to the toughness of the people who battle unemployment...and feel that they cant survive in a rough economy...in ghettos filled with crime....but also who posses a great deal of soul...And Soul is smooth...confident....Soul is Blue....
Rustedblue mission: Tell uncompromising stories of uncommon people from common places who rise above to change their world!
In addition...I teach drama to at risk students in the toughest neighborhoods in the Chicago metro area....Something Mike always said he would do...Help kids in Gary, East Chicago,Hammond, IN... {MJ's hometown} raise above there situation using the arts as a mechanism for change and inspiration...I like to think often that Mike might be smiling down on me...He might remember me easing on down the road in a grade school talent show... That I might be doing what he was unable to do...At least that thought inspires me to continue my work.
So where do ideas come from?
I still don't know...but I'm blessed...and I know that....and you better believe I have faith in signs...and don't take a thought for granted...because thoughts ...ideas....and Love can change the world...
With a little help from Spike...( applying to NYU for my MFA in Film this summer) perhaps we can put this rusted place on the map... I would ask Mike Jack for a letter of rec... I wonder if you can just trust the signs?
Much respect and Love on your journey!
TLB
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