It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Spongebob and his friends are just goofy cartoon characters, please do not read any further into it
Some regulars around here believe the government has a right to decide what people can and can’t do in private. And who can and can’t get married. Pathetic.
Great title to your blog post, Dave! The recent attention and increased interest on who is and who isn’t gay (and which characters and movies) is simply the age old game we’ve all been playing for years going public and out in the open. Has there really ever been a time when people weren’t wondering about it and asking those questions? I sure don’t think so. It’s just that no one talked about it except in private and with hushed tones. Perhaps the new open tone of the conversation is a sign that we’re all getting more comfortable with the idea.
Reminds me of Kinsey, which I finally saw last night. Outstanding movie. Makes me think of the scene were he’s interviewing the gay man who was branded. Kinsey tells the man that someday people’s attitudes towards homosexuals will change. Obviously the man does not believe him. How sad that he wasn’t wrong.
All this obsession is obfuscating the bigger issue: that gender isn’t as black and white as we’d like to think. It’s probably more like a vast spectrum, and we’ll have to learn to stop forcing people into simple categories.
Even Lennie the shark isn’t necessarily “gay,” he just doesn’t fit into the traditional paradigms of macho sharkdom, just as there are men who might not like sports or drink cosmopolitans instead of bud lights and still be straight.
The reason SBSP has a high voice and is somewhat flighty and obsessive isn’t because he’s gay — it’s because he is a small child in adult drag.
They can’t marry. But at least they can grow old together as queens.
Oh, like how most regular straight folks morph into one another, and the guy gets girly, and the woman gets butch? Queen or reversal of genders. The gay folks win. HA HA.
Thrilling to think that “cutting edge” gayness is now the province of cartoon sharks and anthromorphized household sponges.
Same-sexuality is not some obscure “lifestyle” shrouded in mystery requiring a master’s degree in symbolism to divine.
It’s right there in front of you. Where it’s always been.
You just didn’t want to notice. Or at least you pretended you didn’t.