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
It’s the curse of getting old, but watching your heroes drop like flies every few months is sobering.
3 Ramones. Doug Adams. Lux Interior. Grant McClenan. Alex Chilton. Now Pekar, even though he did live a long…um…unhappy life. But he was truly heroic.
American Splendor was one of my films of the decade. But gonna pull out some books in his honor. He always made me feel better about my life through his travails, as well as a sense of empathy through his writing.
Bummer. Rest In Happiness, Harv.
That breaks my heart. The man was a hero of mine. Gives me a reason to watch American Splendor again.
Hopefully there is another side of this thing and hopefully over there, he finds some happiness and has a really awesome baritone.
old, young, or whatever… for some reason I cried when I heard this.
I am only 22, and Pekar’s work has had a profound influence on me. It is always sad, even when it seems that they made it so far.
Hope everyone is well.
RIP George Steinbrenner – I never really liked him, but cannot deny that he was a big part of a my childhood in New York.
Even if I really never really believed he did what was best for baseball, he definitely did what was best for the Yankees, and he was featured in some pretty funny Seinfeld episodes. I will still NEVER root for the Yankees, but I am sure he will be missed.
Sorry, I respected Pekar and of course he will be missed.
But I was not sure if there would be a blog about Steinbrenner and his passing just feels BIG to me, not sure why. I grew up a die hard Met’s fan and in the ’80’s and beyond, the guy’s influence just pervaded New York and eventually all of baseball.