Loose Cannons , Old Wood and WI-FI
Ken Gigliotti , staff photographer, agnostic speller , boat rocking & loose cannon retires after 35 years at the Winnipeg Free Press .
Injuries , many surgeries , chronic pain have caught up preventing me from going on . The last two years, the worst time of my life .
I have given all I have , I have nothing more to give .Ok, ok don't be sooo happy a person is leaving.
In the end it is all about the passing of parking spots and spare parts and holiday lists . I have also benefited .
Kenny G ,not to be confused with Wayne Glowacki but I always took it as compliment .
I came into the Winnipeg Free Press super newsroom in 1979 .It was a lively large and gritty place , a very few reporters still had flasks in the desks , the days of the spirited editors were not quite over . The Wild West newsroom was still in fashion .
A reporter and I had to physically stop a news editor from punching out another reporter in that newsroom . In those days HR meant a Hard Right to the chin.
The trends established over the last three decades are irreversible .Paraphrasing the words of an incorrigible digital entrepreneur , things will just go on until a digital tipping point is reached , the business will “pivot” then flourish.
News is valuable and anti fragile. The worse it get the more people want it.This does not change .
This future will be like rushing out of a fire , you take your family , a few pictures , maybe a wallet and just leave everything else.
Everything , technological , this business has always changed .From 1979 on we experienced , B&W ,to colour , film to digital , still to video. Now there is a push to multi media and personal brand.
When I started ...oh geez... Back in the dayyyy,
The newsroom was so big we had two softball teams.
Circulation was only a third more than today . This was before the deal. Two papers nearly equal in size with different views of reality locked horns in a battle to the DEATH . It was very scary .
So what's new. The newspaper business has been in a life and death battle since the invention of radio.
Water flowed in the darkroom , cigarette smoke the filled newsroom ,rattling bones ,bad hair , crumpled suits and blue jeans , laughter , swearing , scanner chatter, noise and action ,low wages, rotary phones ringing , piles of old papers ,a word processor for a computer ,film cameras ,black soot around ceiling air vents , flesh coloured walls ,What colour did he just say ? It's flesh , oh. Dangling lit cigarettes hung precariously on full ashtrays , but almost never a fire .Marion L smiling like a cheshire cat . Frank T spinning ,rocketing takeoff up the spiral staircase rifling to the composing room and cork screwing back down again , A lively exciting aggressive place any day of the week , day and night.One of the best places to be .
A night rim editor Bob M. chased a guy down a back alley in the dark after he stole the WFP Code of Ethics off the wall of the fourth floor reception . Bob got the prize back . It was our flag. It can never be like that again .
It was mostly macho sh/t but it was contagious .There were two definite realities ,one above the banner and another below. Surprisingly little hype but lots of torque (in post production) , and there were specialists for that. There was so much noise . Reporters scratched their heads after reading their own stories in the paper. And law suits.
The real life and death fight was going on in street boxes. There was daily battle for hearts and minds as the Wpg Tribune was spending its way to a deadly game of head-on circulation chicken .People actually bought both papers to see those unpredictable responses in print.
WE always seem to seek body parts , today it is eyes .We really seek quarters , always have .
The Free Press matched punch for punch . If they had 10 pages of sports we would have 12 .Free Classified , helicopters for the flood, no problem.
Bushels of money just pitched into the fire . There would only be one winner.
It was a car wreak everyday with a junk , debris and smoke along the fiery trail of broken and burning parts .
Law suits were a badge of honour .(until it went too far) Fights in the press room , no one ever wanted to know the name of a circulation manager , thousands of kid carriers to manage , it was bedlam .
Those were good days to be young . T.
There was the great age gap , one generation was completely taking over from another .Things could be swervy and reckless with an anything goes approach.
John Sullivan showed this kid from Thunder Bay the power of a big city newspaper .We fallowed a local politician into a nursing home during an election campaign stop. He had a story that would close the place down .
I got pictures , sneaking into a restricted areas photographing safety concerns . My heart nearly stopped when healthcare aid walked in . I had cupboard doors open , taking pictures , the person walked in , saw me , then left , I thought that maybe I was invisible .The story broke on the next day, (FEB.7 1980) the place closed down and eventually BULLDOZED . It was a big and scary story with a happy ending .
On July 17 1981 Andy Blicq and I spent 16 hours on the fishing boat Lady Roberta fallowing swimmer Kevin Lilley's 16 hour double crossing of Lake Winnipeg .Lilley had trained in a pool , the rolling waves were giving him problems in the early going . Severe back pain was setting in on the swimmer . His coach was telling me he would have to stop the attempt .
I was a poor swimmer , the only thing I learned at swimming lessons was “not to run around the pool” . I noticed Kevin was swimming with his head out of the water ,this was something I was told not to do. I guess I didn't want to get my hair wet. I told his coach about my observation , he corrected the problem and Kevin Lilley set a record that has never been broken.
Loose Cannon , Old Wood and WI-FI
Should be read while listening to Norwegian Wood in one ear and Quinn the Eskimo in the other. (Apple does not have a device for this:)Followers Conformity now a virtue.
The loose cannon crashed from gunwale to gunwale and fore to aft causing such pitching and rocking of that old pirate Man-o-War finally broke through the aging rigging.
That big loose cannon rolled into the sea nearly running over the admirals brand new boots. Laughing like crazy bastards ,members of the crew rushed to broken rail, ready to dive into sea.
The iron gun lay visible ,in the deep clear warm Caribbean over 20 fathoms deep. The crew stopped , looking into the emerald sea realizing it wasn't such a bad place .
Mermaids and stingrays circling the cannon like angels above the white sandy bottom .Not a bad place considering the storm clouds and battle that lay ahead .
The WFP Man-of- War , located at century old 300 Carleton St. in downtown Winnipeg. Constructed , compact , from the finest wood ,plaster and brick strung vertically , as tall as masts and sail . Clearly in the business of business .
Elegant , functional , comfortable ( a reporter was said to have lived in a stairwell )handcrafted , seemingly ageless marble .The ship's edges were worn smooth, the crew performed difficult tasks daily, sailing in rough water and stormy seas efficiently and effortlessly as it does today . The tall ship housed CP , The report on Farming and CKRC .The garage regularly replaced engines and kept a the large fleet of small vessels going . There was a deal with an joining rents-a-car company , if we needed a car we would get what was left on the lot for the lowest price . I have a picture of myself driving a Lincoln Town Car on assignment, sweet.
Every human vice in play .
Three Hundred had its own onsite company doctor , cabinet maker , and ancient painter who never stopped painting (till he died) .
She had a deep hull going down several floors of sub basement . An elderly elegant former boxer named Jimmy , always “ dressed to the nines” occupied a very cool open space office in the curved arch of front door window. An Olympic medal boxer a country circulation manager . He was just there , a tribute to greatness , every building should be so lucky .
Three Hundred , more real and more colour than a Demerol dream.
Thirteen fifty five Mountain Ave. a long , heavy wide , massive flat top architecture ,like an aircraft carrier with photographers and occasionally reporters ,small planes taking off into the wind , a delicate touch and go , repeated , extending and projecting it's power .Radiating outward and returning sending high energy short bursts of information in every direction. Educated , professional .
Situated in Inkster Industrial Park , the newest building , offset press , solid brick , built to last , functional , exceeding the highest standards and innovative for its time .It has been called a palace but inside has the festive feeling of a shopping mall . It is in truly in the business of selling.
She was perused by a sharp eyed grand armada, a peaceful ,youngish ,educated , world wide network of information vegans with wi-fi .They just wanted to be friends with no BS.
That likeable , blood thirsty ,old &wily wild bunch of carnivore pirates, headed fast in full sail into the deep , grey vastness . The course made directly into the sun in one direction , pursued by its flame red rays from the other .
“Forget that loose cannon” ,commanded the brave admiral, “the old gun was in a far better place. IF we should all find ourselves there after the smoke clears ,you will know you are in heaven .” ( kind of like the opening of Gladiator, the movie
The captain threw back the canvas revealing the brand new , the latest, a“Paladin pivot” perhaps with Ronin reporting .A sans newsroom , without infrastructure ,assignment meetings held in public places ,the Cafe ,Harvest ,under the Osborne Bell Tower , Dufferin and Powers , RRC , Starbucks , Millennium Library , Siloam Temple .
The emptiness trend , a moving trend is against the old newsroom model. It all sat in a wooden crates just waiting take the place of the lost cannon.
The cannons range , a hundred yards . The newest thing ,lightyears at light speed in every direction . “Things are going to be different now”, he said . The crew grabbed wrenches ,crow bars blocks and tackle and connected software interfaces as the wood and sail spirit ship moved further and further from the old iron gun.
With to new rules of engagement they would pick spots of their own choosing.
As a younger gun , he attended the Ryerson photography program and was only one of three high school graduates from 125 accepted. A total of 800 applied to the program . (two left on the most bizarre first day ,one called to apprenticeship in Hollywood by an uncle , the other's girlfriend was pregnant , he headed to parts unknown)
This iron gun was newly minted , first installed 35 years ago. His back fractured and repaired less than two years before . He arrived on the spring day crest of the 1979 Red River Flood . The new six column format was replacing an aging one hundred year old nine column page.
He was actually hired by Toronto Star designer Keith Branscombe who created the new face of the WFP's chain of papers that included the Globe & Mail . Branscombe busy with the daily details of the new format took only a few minutes to view the young photographers portfolio . His recommendation would have life long effects on this new hire.
The young shooter had only a collection of photographs ,a lucky long leather coat and a big dream . Seeing the appropriate amount of sorrow and sports and after giving a friendly smile of encouragement he was gone . In a big newsroom ,with new presses in the future , big pictures were a “new thing”.
No one would care the young photographer was a poor reader and could not spell till 35 years later . There was no shortage of good spellers back then.
Today spelling , a next to last uncrossed line in the sand , a clutching reflex , a power source and inspiration for a million emails .A single visible outward sign of passion and humour .That relentless humour gauntlet when trying to flee the space ,still a strong beating heart .
Rightly , Everyone a hero of their own story . Everyone mocked reporters who can't write , photographers who can't spell and copy editors that didn't write stories or photograph .
Laughter and joy meshed , wheels and cogs, moving in interlocking circles to the multi layered final product .Under one roof .The modern family.
Everyone a hero in their own story ,damned right ,a local inside news story in microcosm . Funny thing , there would be no them without us , nor us without them . This chain of jobs is an unequal mixed bag of specialized skills, today cut too fine.
He could not spell, but he and those like him could race toward places others would race away from , he could find a way through flood and fire , breath smoke , diesel exhaust , duck exploding debris ,evade and advance , seeing , violent death's pale calm face at any time , sit uncomfortably , twisted in a car in the freezing cold to send the great and the mundane to that warm comfortable place , bending time like Einstein could only theorize , always rushing , always juggling the last thing , this thing and the next thing , serving too many masters ,working in out dated chaotic systems . The answer , always “ on it ” .And then,racing off again.(Maybe a rambling run-on sentence to some but a complete thought reproduced , streaming heat and electric impulses radiating from one brain quadrant to another ,continuous rage and process , whole feelings and form to brain stem and action in a micro second )
And ,also his SpellCheck disillusioned, spirit broken with over use it , inexplicably began joining words anduncorrecting others after long deliberation with no explanation from the 2rd floor IT. Just another worn out thing that didn't work.
Everyone a hero in their own story. The only question back , will you publish these images ?With never a clear answer as it begins over and over again. One of the best jobs in Canada still .
“ Innovation without execution is hallucination.” says Walter Isaaccson on the CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Innovation, SEE THIS OR READ IT Nov. 30 2014 read the CNN FZ page Transcript or replay the show from iTunes. The show is all about innovation. Good ideas and most importantly collaboration . Everyone should see it , feel the optimism.
All that we were , will not fit into the next latest carry-on .
With enlightened managers everyone gets a chance to be great , if it ends, it ends with our boots on and standing.
Good fortune and glory fallowed .
Seeing his share ,We see our Share .
He had been to the funerals of the righteous and the unlucky , walked with the dammed who wore handcuffs , he photographed little kids sliding down hills , and shot the breeze with the mayor .
I’ve been to store openings , and gang shootings , endless news conferences , and sports practices and games . I’ve been to the WRONG PLACE just minutes after the WRONG TIME , and tried not to interfere with the trail of evidence .
I have witnessed unimaginable joy , and asked people to relive unspeakable sadness . There have been pictures that tear down and pictures that build up , pictures of people doing heroic things and some of my photographs have put people at risk.
Without taking a single picture , began a process that eventually led to the rescue of seven polar bears from a Mexican circus .
I drove and video recorded the same stormy , dangerous, dark Perimeter Hwy our readers take during the normal course of their commute. In my 35th year I created a video document that may save lives and lead to future lighting of these most dangerous roads in bad weather conditions. It got nearly 30,000 views .
I have done this all without breaking any speed or parking by-laws . Most photographers I know , would consider this .... a pretty good life . An interesting life because we brought our readers something they didn’t expect , or something they didn’t think they needed to know .
This cranky loose cannon gave everything it had , and he has no more to give . He tried to give good advice to baffled fast track new comers. They found the real life business of journalism confounding and just wanted to get to the good stuff and bypass the other stuff .The advice , you have to do the other stuff all the time , before you can do the great stuff every once and awhile . That may change .
It could only be about how it went
and about how it overcame ,
than about how it aged ,
physically broke and ended .
AND , It did go great .
I think I will miss the chance of danger and exploding sh/t and running righteously in the wrong direction the most .
Thanks for 35 years . ken gigliotti WFP staff photographer (ret.) 30
Topic: Loose Cannon Ken Gigliotti retires (Read 4217 times)