Transcript: When Will the Young Lions Finally Attack?

The African savanna has a lot in common with the industry, says Rob Longin

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for the Ankler.

This is the third and last installment of my summer vacation series. The first, a few weeks ago, was from a train station in France. Last week was a noisy Amsterdam cafe. And this week is from Botswana.

And although I really am in Botswana right now, what you’re hearing in the background is a recording I made this morning. See, I can turn it up or turn it down — which is a perfect emblem for show business — even if it’s real, you want to fix it. It’s sort of like when they water down the street during a night shoot. You don’t really have to do it, but it makes everything look better.

So, I’m in Botswana. Driving around and looking at animals, and discovering, as I did a few years ago the last time I went on a safari, that you can come to a wild African plain and see exotic and improbable animals engaged in a daily struggle against remorseless predators and immediately realize that it’s just show business, under a different sky.