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
How much are you being paid for this lil’ advert?
🙂
It took me a good ten seconds to realize the iPod wasn’t in the box.
Me too, I thought ‘what’s the big deal, it’s the size of a deck of cards’.
All I can say is that I bought one of these shuffles about 3 weeks ago and have not even turned my 60G video Ipod on since. Not to blow the obvious horn here, but I love the shuffle more then all of other ipods. I don’t need a screen and since I am a guy who listens to whole albums or live shows all the way through, all I have to do is load up this thing and am good to go for a couple of days. Also, I have only recharged the damn thing three times since I got it. the battery life is redonc and, yes, the size and look of the thing is neat. Perfect for working out (I run at least 4 miles a day, 7 days a week).
Oh yeah, caught Altman’s last film just a few minutes ago. the scene where Lohan asks Garrison if this is really his last show and he replies “Every show’s the last show.” really summed up the Alt for me. Between this and watching McCabe last night for the zillionth time, I’ve paid my respects.
The iPod is in the box… the silver thing is the entire iPod.
I have yet to get the concept of the shuffle. Who would want to spend that much money for an MP3 player that you can’t see and control what song is being played? Unless this has changed, I’ll stick to my big 20gig “clunker” that actually allows me to have some bit of control.
No… even if it has changed, I’ll stick to my old one; cool be damned.
Me, I have both a regular iPod and a shuffle. The shuffle is perfect for exercise– small, light, and unlike its big brother, it has no moving parts inside. That makes a big difference in durability when you want to take it jogging.
Thank you, DP, but we got it…the ten seconds Blackcloud referred to.
What?
I bought a new shuffle from the Apple Store online for my wife for the holidays. For an extra $5 I got the holiday packaging. The whole presentation is just amazing. It comes in a little white box with a red ribbon and a card that is slightly smaller than the packaging. You open the box and the iPod pacakging just explodes at you. And the device itself has a real solid feel. Great product, even better branding and marketing.
My wife uses her current shuffle for running and when she is in the house cooking or doing chores. It only holds a few hundred songs. If you take a few minutes to create playlists in iTunes you can fill it with whatever you want. And since you know what is on it, do you really care if you can look at the song title and band name. Duh, you put into the playlist in the first place.
This is a home run product because it is sexy and the price point is right. If you don’t own an MP3 player you get an iPod cheaply (give someone a non-iPod MP3 player and you know that when they open it there is a moment of “but it isn’t an iPod”). If you do own an iPod it is easy to buy as a second MP3 player. Where the parallel with movie marketing falls short is that the price point is out of control of the studio or the exhibitor.
Very cool… I have a nice 60 Gig IPOD but it might be fun getting one of these since most of the time I listen to my music in shuffle mode anyway.
I’ll stick to my 80GB model. Only 50 GB of space left.
And I thought I was so cool when I was a kid being able to listen to a single cassette holding about ten songs on a Sony Walkman that was probably at least ten times the size of this thing.
I bought my teenaged son one of the 30GB iPod models with the video capability for Christmas last year. An impressive piece of technology that people his age take almost entirely for granted.
I have a 20gig iPod with 3.5gig left. eep.
I use my 20gb for listening to audiobooks on my commute, and then switch it to either play or shuffle my playlist while at work, so I don’t think it’d be useful for my purposes, but I take your meaning about being a good “intro” ipod.
I still think it’s one small display screen away from being really great though, as even having programmed my playlist, I’d never remember what order the songs were in when I was trying to find a specific song.
This isn’t probably the right place, but since you talked about movie marketing, I thought I’d toss it out.
I’m a Mac user. I love my IPod…but I’m over 40 (hell, I’m 11 years over 40.) Is it just me, or does the whole concept of Movies/Games/anything you have to use your eyes..hell at the gym I can’t tell what songs are next) on IPods make no sense for sustained growth? Who can see it? I hate wearing my reading glasses that long…..
Since I just read in the NYT something I’ve long suspected (sales growth for music is only expanding with one age group..AARP..baby boomers), I think it’s worth considering…….
or maybe not……?