Two front page stories in the Wall Street Journal this weekend really caught my eye. First, there was the story of how Alex Rodriguez is on the Verge of resigning with the Yankees for more money than ever in history by taking his agent
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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 ’bout A-Rod appearing in Starbucks’ commercials?…
not sure i agree with the wsj’s statement that ‘now, for the first time it’s rolling that brand out on national tv’…..starbucks has been running tv ads for it’s packaged goods (‘frappacino’ and the incredibly addictive ‘sureshot’) for a couple of years and, by association, the stores have benefited…… sooooooooo, i don’t really think any ground is being broken here….it actually seems like it might be a ploy to charge franchise owners (ARE THERE franchise owners?) more money…..that’s just a cynical speculation but might be worth looking into……
perfect, all we need are starbucks commercials. having them on every street corner isn’t enough for them? over-priced and awful tasting coffee has captured the “imagination” of its customers?? their customers have no imagination — they’re drones, thats why they go and waste their money there. Find a local coffee shop and support that instead. I’m angry tonight. i apologize for this rant folks.
I love the people who hate Starbucks. It’s a coffee shop. Coffee. What do you want it to do, end the war on terror?
I would love it if they just made a good cup of coffee. 🙂
I hope you just don’t get regular coffee at Starbucks. That stuff is bad. At least the “free coffee” days are. On the very, very rare occasion that I make it to Starbucks, I like a venti quad caramel macchiato, which is very good.
brack – it’s a BAD cup of overpriced coffee, to answer your question. nothing about terror. just about coffee. 4 bucks for shit. a jug of nescafe that costs 7 bucks from costco tastes better.
It’s coffee. Coffee is supposed to be special? Really? Nevertheless; Heat really did think out the box on this one. It’s a brand new world with old dudes and dudettes, that refuse to see it that way. Once they wake up. It should get interesting. Until then… wakka wakka wakka.
“You always know when white people are moving back into the neighborhood, because they open up a Starbucks, and no brother is stupid enough to pay four bucks for a cup of coffee.”–Steven Williams on LINC’S (a great show cancelled too soon)
One could argue that Starfucks gets ad time incessantly seeing how it’s the corporate coffee of choice in TV and film.
And it actually is a little more than coffee. Look upon it as a metaphor for the continued homogenization of a rapidly dying culture of conformity. So there.