The Game Of Life

Here is an article I found in the Adbusters magazine I was reading last Saturday. I wrote it out on a notepad while on the train, because I wanted to give the magazine to my friend Bal. I then typed it up late at night, so there may be a couple of errors. The issue was called The Game Of Life, and was published in Jul/Aug 2005. Before getting to know Mitch Altman, and seeing him work his magic in Berlin, I wouldn't have believed the following was anything more than a well-written short story.

Last week I had an extended layover at the Los Angeles Airport. The waiting area was pretty sizable, yet because of the noise of two mounted TV sets, there was nowhere to escape the inane banter from the local Fox News station. No matter where people sat, the ended up staring at the screen. One middle-aged couple sitting nearby caught my attention. The man's shoulders were slumped as he stared at the dirty carpet in front of him. The woman's face was a grimace of blank agitation as she kept her eyes on the television. Every now and then the man would glance at her as if to say something, but seeing he didn't have her attention, he'd sigh and look back at the floor. Suddenly, I remembered the TV-B-Gone I'd received in the mail the day before I left home. Pointing it at the TV, I pushed the button and the screen went blank. Noticing the television was off, the man glanced at his wife and asked her a question. She stopped staring at the blank screen and turned toward him. He smiled and leaned his face closer to hers. Later, as I headed out the gate to my plane, I glanced back at the middle-aged couple I'd freed from TV. The man had his hand on his wife's knee and a playful smile on his face. She too was grinning, almost shyly, and I imagined that I could see how they had fallen in love in the first place.

- Lott Hill