What's in a name?

In 1950, Billy Wilder skewered Hollywood with his ode to getting dumped, personally and professionally, in Sunset Blvd. The film deals with the eccentricities of Norma Desmond, a silent film star who finds herself lost and forgotten in the era of talking films. Desmond, played by real life silent star Gloria Swanson, cuts at the inadequacies of film actresses who require the help of an audio element to convey ideas. “We didn’t need dialogue,” she says, “We had faces!” Your opinion is noted, Ms. Desmond. But you have it wrong. In an era of dazzling visual effects, computer graphics, pyrotechnic rock concerts, quick cutting, slick advertisements, and plastic surgery, it’s easy to forget that storytelling doesn’t require the eyes. In its most basic form, storytelling is, simply, speaking. It’s not a dying tradition -- eavesdrop in a bar and you hear traces of the art -- it has merely been knocked off its throne. And so we leave you to go on your merry way tonight, with simply a reminder: speak up, speak clearly, (but above all) speak.