Terry Levine | Noggin Advertising | Copywriter | Digital + Direct Writer | Blogging | Toronto | Canada

FINDING ANSEL KAPUSTA.

I visited my dad's zaida Ansel and bubbie Tillie Levine on Victoria Street, down the street from the Brown Derby, a dozen or so times as a child. In my mind's eye, I can still see the building's doors with the round windows and the long terrazzo-floored entrance. I can smell the old-people scent wafting down the empty hallway. Inside their unpretentious apartment, I remember Ansel's stubbly, bony face, white shirt and black trousers, the yarmulke perched on this bald pate. I can taste the plate of Manischewitz crackers tiny Tillie offered my brothers and me to munch on.

Ansel died in 1979 at the age of 97. I wish he had lived a little longer or that I had been born earlier. He had an amazing story to tell but no one, not any of his six children nor their own kids, nor this then 10 year-old great-grandson, ever got him to open up entirely before he passed away.

And in the 35 years since he died, only a scant few tantalizing but slippery morsels have bobbed about, like matzo balls in chicken soup.

Based on recent email chats comparing notes with a few of my cousins, we believe Ansel was born in Bereslov, Russia, now called Beryslav, Ukraine, in 1882. His last name was probably Kapusta, his father was Jacob and his mother's maiden name was Kublanov. In 1904 or 1905, either fearing pogroms or a Russian army draft or being arrested for counterfeiting, Ansel acquired the passport of someone named Levine and made his way alone across the ocean to Montreal. We don't know if he stole the papers from a dead soldier or whether he killed the man to get them. We don't even know if Ansel's name was really Ansel. Maybe "Ansel Levine" was simply the name printed on the documents that helped him escape, becoming his alias for the next 75 years of his life, as well as his family's name, in perpetuity.

Recently I was in touch with a genealogy researcher in Ukraine who may be able to uncover family records, more than a century old. I'll know shortly, I hope. But pogroms and revolutions and holocausts later, the pickins are slim.

Aristotle wrote: "All men by nature desire to know." Will my own desire matter? Will what more I discover, if anything, make a difference? I'll still be me, of course, no matter whether my ancestor was a killer, a counterfeiter, a Kapusta, or all the above. But I still need to know, I still want to learn what I can about a life and a world that, had a frightened 22 year-old not fled forever, might be mine today.

If I needed that quirk of fate to be further driven home, this and this happened last week. Even if I won't entirely ever know who Ansel Levine was, a century later, his decisions, courage and life inexorably impact mine.

 

 

 

MICHAEL SAM AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

Predictably, we heard two reactions this week to the coming out of college football player and NFL prospect Michael Sam.

The first was something like "good for him, congratulations, what a courageous move."

The second was "who cares, no one needs to know about his sexuality or personal life."

(There was a third reaction too, one that likely included words like "faggot" and "cocksucker" but thankfully we've reached the point where the people who spout that hate do so in the privacy of their own small minds.)

There's something to be said for both the first two reactions. Sam's move is courageous, particularly in light of continued homophobia in football. Imagine the reaction to Jackie Robinson when he played in all-white major league baseball for the first time.

And yes, it's true, none of us really needs to know about who Sam is attracted to. The bottom line should be: can this guy play football and can help his team win. That's all that should matter.

But we still live in a world where people are verbally and physically attacked, even killed, for being gay, every day -- in Russia, throughout the Middle East and Africa, and even in North America. Until that becomes exceedingly rare, gay role models will continue to be important.

I think, though, that there's another profound issue that gets overlooked by the white hot light of Sam's publicly acknowledged homosexuality. He could have waited until after he was selected by the NFL to avoid potentially damaging his promising and lucrative career. He could led a life in an open closet, gay to his friends and family but never acknowledging his sexuality to the rest of us, like many celebrities do. Or he could have stayed in the closet, as hundreds of other athletes have done in the past. But he made an earnest choice, to be the person he truly is, no matter the consequences.

I make my living as a writer, primarily an advertising copywriter. But I'm gay and passionately political about many issues. And so, in my blog writing, I've always tried to find a balance between "being professional" and writing about everything I care about, no matter the consequences. I've always known it was a calculated risk. I might turn off potential clients -- or even current ones -- who disagree with my point of view or who are offended in some way. But I decided long ago that I would rather be who I am, warts and all. If I was good enough at what I do, I hoped the rest wouldn't matter.

As far as I can tell, it hasn't hurt me one bit.

I'm sure I've unknowingly lost a prospective client here or there. But I suspect that my honesty and sincerity have mostly worked in my favour, not against me.

Some people will always hate or resent you -- whether you're black or gay or Jewish or a liberal. Some will always love you. But I believe the majority, even if they don't agree with you entirely, will actually respect you more for simply, apologetically, being who you are.

Like Oscar Wilde. Like Ellen DeGeneres and Ellen Page. Like Michael Sam.

 

QUOTES OF THE DAY: ON WRITING

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

-- W. Somerset Maugham

 

"Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, jugmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass."

-- David Ogilvy

 

"The first draft of everything is shit."

-- Ernest Hemingway

 

More here.

THE GAY TRANSLATOR : 140 WORDS ON 'DALLAS BUYERS CLUB'

Jean-Marc Vallée isn't gay but few directors seem more comfortable translating the gay experience to the rest of the world. His breakout film C.R.A.Z.Y. delivered a pitch-perfect story about a young gay man searching for acceptance from his family in the 1960s and 70s. In Dallas Buyers Club, Vallée honestly directs Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto as two hopeless souls with little in common except the HIV virus that's killing them both.

It's a testament to great acting and directing that, at the end of two hours, you still shed a tear for McConaughey's character Ron Woodroof -- an alcoholic, drug-addicted, homophobic, mysogynistic cowboy. Woodroof never stops being a pain in the ass. But as he embraces the humanity of those he once shunned, we can't help but embrace him too.

It's that ability to genuinely portray compassion, no matter our morality, political views, religion or sexual orientation, that makes Vallée such a great director. 

FIGHT, INNOVATE, REINVENT, OR DIE.

 

Last week I read that Abercrombie & Fitch could soon be dead. Sears is gasping its last breaths. So is Blackberry. What went wrong for these virtual institutions, once beloved -- and profitable?

They failed to innovate or reinvent themselves, or they tried too late. And they all assumed that consumers would keep buying what they were selling because consumers loved them once. So they kept offering the same again and again. They got lazy or afraid to change. And in doing so they were eclipsed by competitors who offered something better or, at least, fresher.

Or to say it like an economist might, via The New Yorker: "They're failing because they haven't adapted to an era of increased access and information."

This isn't a new story. It's been happening to empires now for nearly 10,000 years. To the Sumerians and the Egyptians, the Spanish, the British and, one day, it will happen to the United States.

If you don't fight to stay on top, you fall behind. If you don't innovate, you disappear. If you don't reinvent, you die.

We're seeing it in television. For years, the big 3 (then 4) US networks dominated with quality shows like All in The Family and Mary Tyler Moore. But through the 1980s and 90s, they got lazy and cheap to the point where it seems like all you can watch on ABC, NBC and CBS today are reality shows and seven versions of CSI. Smaller networks like HBO and AMC started spending more money and producing better shows and the once untouchable big networks have seen their marketshare shrink. Now a new innovative upstart, Netflix, is giving the entire TV ecosystem a run for its money by offering up fantastic programming like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, without commercials, whenever you want to watch it. And of course there's Apple's iTunes.

My career began in journalism at a small weekly newspaper. When an interesting opportunity presented itself for me in politics, I reinvented myself as a speech writer and political attaché, then continued on into advertising, reinventing myself again as a copywriter. The other journalist I worked with back then still works at the same small paper.

Even as an ad writer, my focus was initially in direct marketing but, as the internet exploded, soon that morphed into digital. And when social media appeared, I took an opportunity to write corporate blog posts for a big retailer. I had reinvented myself again. And now, whether a client needs website copy, a radio spot, a blog post or a brochure, I have the experience and ability to work on any of them. I'm not sitting around praying that clients ask me to write them DM letters because that's all I feel comfortable doing.

Success demands that you take calculated risks. You can't sit behind the counter waiting for clients to visit your store and buy your product because they did once or a dozen times. You have to give them a reason to come back, every time.

Fight. Innovate. Reinvent. Or get left behind.

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY: WHY PALESTINE AND ISRAEL MUST MAKE PEACE

"... the greatest single difficulty was to liberate ourselves from the past.... Serbia believes Kosovo is part of Serbia. Kosovo does not. Kosovo is 90% Albanian.... It is up to us to decide if we move forward or stick to the past." -- from a column by Roger Cohen of the New York Times

Serbians and Kosovars have found the path. As Cohen eloquently writes, "Israelis and Palestinians, take note."

Lots and lots of notes.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: OVERBLOWN RISK AND THE POWER OF DRAMA

"We travel through life with an incorrect risk map in our heads. Thus, we systematically overestimate the risks of being the victim of a plane crash, a car accident or a murder. And we underestimate the risk of dying from less spectacular means, such as diabetes or stomach cancer. The chances of bomb attacks are much rarer than we think, and the chances of suffering depression are much higher. We attach too much likelihood to spectacular, flashy or loud outcomes. Anything silent or invisible we downgrade in our minds.... We think dramatically, not quantitatively." -- Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly

If you doubt this, just turn on the news.

 

 

IT'S ALL GRK.

Millions, maybe billions, of dollars are spent every year by consumers on fancy books and diet plans in a quest to lose weight and get in shape -- even if, in our hearts, we all know the solution is simple: eat less and exercise more. That's really all there is to it.

If I could sell a book with those five words in it -- "eat less and exercise more" -- for $40 a pop, I would be rich and retired by now. But we refuse to accept that the solutions to so many problems are not complicated. That doesn't mean they're easy. They just require a little effort. (Global warming? Stop buying and burning the damn oil. Just stop. Problem solved.)

There's a new fast food joint that's opened up on Queen Street called It's All Grk. You might ask why someone would have risked opening up a Greek restaurant when Greek food seems so 1980s. I mean, today we have Thai and Vietnamese, Korean and three types of Japanese, Indian and Ethiopian, and infinite varieties of fused this and that. Why open greasy Greek?

Maybe because whoever opened this place must have studied what all those depressing, overpriced, bad quality Greek restaurants on The Danforth were doing and threw it all out the window. Gone is the grease. Gone are the frozen fries refried till there's no actual potato inside. Gone is the tough, dry, low grade meat. Gone are the sunbleached cheesy posters of Mykonos and Santorini.

Instead, the pork, chicken and burger meat is juicy and well seasoned. The fries are mouthwatering. The tzatziki is to die for. In short, it's the same menu as every Greek restaurant you've ever gone to but with a difference.

Which brings me back to our quest for miracle diets. It's All Grk is not a place to start losing weight, clearly. But it's definitely a place to satisfy your craving for souvlaki and gyros and fries bathed in heavenly tzatziki. And all the owners had to do to rock this place was make an effort to serve great quality food. How complicated was that?

Not one bit. Yet all those zombie holes-in-the-wall on The Danforth haven't figured it out yet -- or they refuse to. Too bad for them.