[Frameworks] Patricia R. Zimmermann

[John Knecht]

Thanks for this story.

John Knecht

On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 8:51 PM Scott MacDonald <smacdona at hamilton.edu>
wrote:

> *David, what a great story!*
>
> *Thanks for the details--the song et al.*
>
> *I'm forwarding your post to Herskowitz, who I saw today at the burial
> ceremony for Patty.*
>
> *Scott*
>
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 2:39 PM Dave Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Patty had the desk next to mine in the TA bullpen on the 6th floor of
>> Vilas Hall at UW-Madison ComArts 1978-1981. She recruited me into the TA
>> union (TAA), and she, I, and Richard Herskowitz were all comrades during
>> the 1980 TAA strike. She approached the strike with typical energy and
>> creativity. She got T-shirts printed up with a detourned version of a
>> common UW design featuring Bucky Badger – but holding a TAA picket sign.
>> Then she created these alternative lyrics to the college fight song "On
>> Wisconsin" (etched forever in my memory):
>> Off Wisconsin, Off Wisconsin
>> Shut this factory down
>> Tell old Irving Shain that he
>> Can't push TA's around
>> What the U calls education
>> Really is a crime
>> Strike now and
>> Fight Fight Fight
>> We'll win this time.
>>
>> From the get go, I considered her one of those rare individuals who are
>> like an elemental force of nature. I shall share just one paradigmatic
>> anecdote:
>>
>> There were 7 or 8 of us in that office, and there was one phone for the
>> whole room near the door. Patty didn't spend much time at her desk, but the
>> majority of the times that phone rang, it was someone trying to contact
>> her. I began to feel a little bit like her secretary. One day as I was
>> alone in the room, I answered the phone, and an accented voice said,
>> "Isz Pat-ti there?"
>> I replied, as I had so often before. "No, sorry.".
>> "Oh, shhiit" said the voice.
>> "Can I take a message?" I asked.
>> "Yes, Tell her Werner Herzog called."
>> "Uh... [beat] *The* Werner Herzog??"
>> "Yes."
>> "Uh [beat] I like your films." (Yeah, that was the best I could come up
>> with in the moment.)
>> "Thank You, Good bye."
>> Later that day, I came back to the office after holding class, and Patty
>> was there at her desk. in my most faux casual 'no big deal' tone, I said,
>> "Oh, Patty, Werner Herzog called for you." And she replied just as casually
>> without even looking up from what she was doing, "Oh yeah? What did he
>> want?"
>> At which point I think I uttered something like a scream...
>>
>> She was, in every way, irreplaceable. But her work, and her personal
>> example to everyone who knew her, will not soon be forgotten. RIP, indeed,
>> dear Patricia.
>> --
>> Frameworks mailing list
>> Frameworks at film-gallery.org
>> https://mail.film-gallery.org/mailman/listinfo/frameworks_film-gallery.org
>>
> --
> Frameworks mailing list
> Frameworks at film-gallery.org
> https://mail.film-gallery.org/mailman/listinfo/frameworks_film-gallery.org
>


-- 
John Knecht, Russell Colgate Distinguished
 University Professor of Art and Art History
 and Film and Media Studies. Emeritus.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://film-gallery.org/pipermail/frameworks_film-gallery.org/attachments/20230825/5e3e0e3b/attachment.htm>