The Beautiful Clip

Jul 10, 2026

I’m unsure where exactly to start. This is about a beautiful video. The godforsaken art of the clip. My brain. Art. Love. Order. Process. Reference. Life. Paul Newman. But maybe not knowing where to start is what this is all about. Some chicken or the egg type nonsense…if you feel my poetic breath down the back of your neck. How about you just start by watching the clip below. I’ll see you back here in just a second…Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere…

This was taken from Ethan Hawke’s documentary, The Last Movie Stars. It chronicled the careers and marriage of actors Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. It did so by taking the discovered transcripts of interviews Newman, Woodward, and friends recorded for a memoir that was never supposed to be written. Before his passing, Newman destroyed the actual recordings, fearing it was far too self-obsessed. Uninteresting. As only Paul Newman would believe the life of Paul Newman was not of endless fascination. Yet the transcripts were found and given to Ethan Hawke, who called up his friends, including George Clooney, to recite Newman’s own accounts over zoom during the COVID-19 Worldwide Global Pandemic. And then Hawke recruited indie rock falsetto god Hamilton Leithauser to provide some tasty acoustic licks for it all. Finally, Hawke layered the recordings and licks over clips from the vast, half-century spanning film library of Newman and Woodward. The result is was a story of two artists, grappling with marriage, fame, loss and a rapidly changing country. Most importantly, how it all bled into their work on screen. It also, somehow, resulted in my clip above. A clip that, in context, floored me. A clip that out of context, I hope at least slightly floored you.

It’s a clip of many other clips. A clip from the 1969 movie Winning, over an audio clip from George Clooney’s recordings of the transcripts of a destroyed Paul Newman recording. Then add a live recorded clip from the Carlyle Hotel of Hamilton Leithauser covering Panda Bear’s Dolphin. All of these ingredients have no order. No business knowing each other. No rhyme or reason for amassing into something I find absolutely beautiful. But goddamn, tell me each of these players didn’t absolutely take it to the lane and finish with contact.

That’s what it’s all about. Why we must live to clip another day. There is no rhyme or reason, no linear equation to the creation or amalgamation of the clips…the art…or the summation of moments that stick with us. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward made a movie in 1969. Then lived almost 40 more years of a life together. Recorded tapes for a memoir. Burned said tapes for this memoir. Hamilton Leitherhauser covered an electronic track in 2019 with an acoustic guitar. George Clooney recited these recollections in 2021. Then known creative shaman Ethan Hawke colored between the fucken lines in 2022. All so I, The Pioneer, could clip it down for this newsletter. Nobody knew the part they were playing. They couldn’t foresee the end result of their output. None of us ever really can.

The beautiful clip reminds me of this. We are all just a small part in how the sausage gets made. I’m not exactly sure what the sausage is in this circumstance. But I do know in art, life, newsletter and everything in between - we gotta just keep the trains moving. Putting it all out there. Taking a bicycle kick to the dome like that English defender at The Azteca. No half-assin. Whatever it is. Whoever that’s for. Staying honest. Recollecting. Reflecting. Moving downfield however we can. We owe it to whatever that may result in. If the idea of results ever even existed. Just like Newman said, there are no absolutes. No finalities. It’s all relative. We just never know what’s around the corner or who will clip it next.

Guy made a dank balsamic. I’d take his word for it.

Pioneer Newsletter is back. See you next Friday.