This world is a funny place. It comes with serendipity as standard equipment. Take yesterday.
I find a posting that leads me to an old Apple commercial that happens to tickle me and so I write a blurb about it and post it (see below). Less than a half hour later, I check my Facebook account and a pal has listed a quote from Jack Kerouac and it sounds awfully familiar. Lo and behold, it is the skeletal structure for the Apple spot that I had just posted, yet said spot gave no credit to the original author. Tsk, tsk, finger wag to the plagiarizing cretins who would steal from the Beat Master.
So, for the benefit of Mr. K., here is his quote. Read it, click on the Apple spot and have a simultaneous sense of familiarity and deja vu, goo goo g’joob (I’m channeling Lennon):
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
10 responses to “Covering the Tracks of Inspiration”
KewKew Kachoo is Simon and Garfunkel, goo goo gajoob is Lennon.
Thanks for your correction. Apparently my channeling was off channel. I will correct. Keep reading and correcting.
I enjoy the Lint Screen but you might have been misled by your Facebook pal.
Wikiquote says that the Apple ad is often misattributed to Kerouac. And by the way, I prefer the real Kerouac quote.
from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac
“Misattributed … Used in the Apple “Think Different” marketing campaign and sometimes attributed to Kerouac, perhaps because it evokes his famous quote from On the Road: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!””
Interesting. Why, I wonder, would the quote get edited down in the attribution to Jackie K.? Something’s not right here. This merits more research, more discussion. Anyone sleuths out there willing to help?
Sorry, Steven. I found the quote attributed to JK on a site called Good Reads (not sure if that carries more clout than Wikiquote, but check it out anyway): http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1742.Jack_Kerouac
Thanks for reading and checking accuracy. From time to time one will find inaccuracies on the intertubewebs.
BTW, if anyone knows someone at TBWA/Chiat or Apple and wishes to ask, I’m all for it. Lee Clow, Steve Jobs, are you reading?
This all could be a hoax, like putting a kid in a balloon and making him write Kerouac quotes.
Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
Have at it, pal.
Have at it, COMRADE AND POTENTIAL PARTNER IN THE DEBT-RIDDLED CAPITALIST REVOLUTION, Patrick. Jeesh. Where are your manners?
Sorry, you’re quite correct you capitalistic hog feasting at the trough of humanity!