I read an interview with Woody Allen in the NY Times this morning and it made me feel pretty old. (Just for the record I am nearly twenty years younger than Woody, but, nevertheless, he was an important part of my youth.) I went through high school, college and my Twenties religiously devoted to his movies. I knew many of the lines by heart. They were the philosophy of my life. (“I love the rain…it washes memories off the sidewalk of life.” “Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat... college.”) In college, I was so known for my love of Woody that someone hung his poster on my door with an invitation to run away with him. Woody was my muse, my friend and could always make me laugh (at myself, at him, at life). As I entered my Thirties, Woody became less funny and less interesting. His movies became darker and the revelation of his “grossly inappropriate” relationship with his companion’s daughter in 1992 really sealed the deal. We had gone our separate ways.
Reading about Woody today also made me feel kind of young… Last year, my 22-year-old son discovered Woody Allen. He is a real film buff and he loves to pass on his “discoveries” to his friends and to his family. He watched every Woody Allen movie ever made and he loved most of them. He liked some of the darker ones more than the early slapstick (which are still my favorites), but we watched quite a few of them together. I didn’t like “Vicky Christina Barcelona” and he didn’t love “Play It Again Sam.” We didn’t always laugh (or cry) at the same things, but we enjoyed them together.
-Robin Albing
Founder, Albing International Marketing
At AIM, we call this kind of shared experience between Boomer parents and Millennial offspring “PING PONG-ing.” One generation’s cast offs, re-discovered by the younger generation and re-introduced back to original discoverer. Do you have any “ping pong” experiences you’d like to share with us?
