RIP Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

Article About His Death
Fishing With John: The Dennis Hopper Episode

For Allen G

If knowledge is power than I am building a bomb in the garage. I go out there after work and family dinner, faithfully tinkering with my city killer. In America, nobody notices, because the rich are busy pretending to be poor as if poverty were street credit in a game you feign not to win. The poor too though, are counterfeiting wealth, a cubic zirconium nightmare. They front knowing the ladder's rules but the real manual comes at the price of a silver spoon. Yes, flesh has always been currency but we are running out, and with inflation there is more silicon, more plastic, and we are going into debt. Silver spoons make for broken teeth.

I am looking for special deals on answers at James Dean's five and dime. I'm going to run off and join a circus, train swine to dance in dresses. It won't be hard, even a pig owns a dress these days. Everybody takes the train into the city, they pine, they ail on vinyl seats. Ever take the train into the city? Commute sweat smells like anxiety. It smells like sickly yellow and formaldehyde. Even a corpse hates the smell of formaldehyde. All the children on the subway are malformed and have demerits. But not the good kind that makes you look like a badass. The kind that means when you grow up, you'll still have issues and they wont be in style anymore.

Nobody in my generation wants to be present, preferring a state of perpetual adolescence. I advise youth to die before you get old. Who takes that advice? The bald eagle's young are cultural cannibals. Princely avifauna. Do you know about the vulture? It gorges itself until it is too heavy and then has to vomit to fly. Bulimia bird. They will reprocess dead punk, dead dance music; pretend that reassembly means transcendence.

The rain pelts these old streets, and the smell of wet asphalt perfuses everything, and everything is washed down the drain. At night, I crawl on my belly and siphon gas from car's tanks. Just to make it north to freedom, to see my love. This love is pure from faith, eyes closed echoing forward, entwined by the sound.

If knowledge is power than I am building a bomb in my garage.
Such a dirty bomb.

Errol Morris called it the greatest commercial of all time.

The Most Awesome and Epic Local Commercial Ever

Tom Waits and Jim Jarmusch

2 out of my 3 favorite guys



The third being a certain "last prophet of rock"

Soho-tos

Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Interning in Film and Television

1. The company does not own you.

2. Sometimes saying "no" is the right decision.

3. Common sense is your best friend.

4.Asking if you can observe someone's process shows a desire to learn.

5. Even if the people around you aren't using it, etiquette is key.

6. Be nice to the other interns, even though you are competing against them, in a few years you'll be getting each other work.

7. Don't be afraid to tell someone what you did, a task unnoticed is a task that never happened.

8. Remember that you are a free human being, not a slave. (Sounds stupid, but you will forget)

9. Even the most menial of tasks have the capacity to showcase your abilities if you do them well.

10. When in doubt, ears open, mouth shut.

11. If you see a serious mistake being made, don't be loud and obnoxious in pointing it out. Quietly take the person next up on the chain aside and tell them. This is called having tact. They may get the momentary glory, but guess who that person calls the next time they need someone. You.

12. You are the lowest on the food chain.

13. If someone gives you their two-cents, take it under advisement.

14. Don't "correct" anyone.

15. Charm is superficial. Deal with it.

16. Separate your "work self" from your "home self." It will help to keep you sane.

17. Someone is waiting to take your place, this is both good and bad.

18. People can tell when you're being fake.

19. Listen.

20. Never point out the inadequacies of superiors.

21. If someone is trying to mentor you, let them. Even if you have to pretend that ideas like "networking is important" are new to you.

Cross Cultural Hilarity

One of the things that I really enjoy about my internship is the fact that I've met alot of cool people who are interested in the same business that I am. Some of the interns are like me; post-graduates who are looking to break into the business. Others are college students looking for experience and credit towards their degrees. Some are local, and others are international. The group itself is diverse, and though everyone speaks english, sometimes there are some really great interactions. Out of all of us though Steve has the best misunderstandings. Let me be perfectly clear, the kid is great and his english is, by and large, flawless. However it just seems like he has the most hilarious misunderstandings.

My favorite was today:

Steve and I are headed to the subway, to go on an uptown errand

Steve gestures to the downtown subway entrance.

Steve: Come on, let's go down.

Me: No man, we'll have to use the underpass and it smells like hobo pee.

Steve: What's a hobo?

Me: Umm.. A hobo is...

Steve: No wait! I know. It's those little guys with big feet in Lord of the Rings right?

Me: ::laughing:: That's a hobbit.

Steve: Oh yeah...



More as it comes

LINKS!


The Feverbreakers!
Hungry Man Productions
Funky Pumpkin Productions

RAINCOATS - Fairytale in the Supermarket

*Further Tales From The Flunkie Pool*

"This stuff will kill you, but it's loaded with fun!" - The Cramps "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns"

...
Sometimes I'm blown away by the duality within myself that I ignored; and how in my spurning of it, how much of myself I lost.
…

I met Helen, and old friend of my aunt's on 23rd and 7th today. She started her own production company a couple decades ago and is now a damn successful producer. Sitting in the Starbucks waiting for her I have to admit that I was expecting someone a little more straight-laced than the woman who showed up. With a head of curly blonde hair and the kinetic energy of a coiled spring Helen seemed fun and far less stuck up than a lot of the other producers I'd met so far. We talked shop, I told her about what I wanted to do with my life, told her that I "couldn't not write" which is a mess of double negatives but just flows so well that I can't resist it.

At the end of our little pow-wow Helen had pretty much promised to call me in a few weeks when some more work came up, gave me a bunch of numbers out of her blackberry for casting people and said she might be able to hook up some freelance writing for me. All good things.

I may just make this crazy idea of mine work. I want to be like Jarmusch, Tarantino, and Lynch. (Not in personality, just in the whole "writer, director, producer" thing) I'm a control freak, I know that. But I've got to learn to be a charming one or I'm never gonna make it. I know all this stuff is just a game, and it's one where they don't tell you the rules. But I think that just maybe I'm beginning to figure it out.