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
Treme is a really, really good show.
Treme’s the best Netflix disc that’s been sitting on my dresser for the last five weeks (I really need to start watching that show….)
it’s not the large things that
send a man to the
madhouse. death he’s ready for, or
murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood…
no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies
that send a man to the
madhouse…
not the death of his love
but a shoelace that snaps
with no time left …
Louie CK does a bit calked something like “everythings awesome and no ones happy”.
Sums up that treme quote pretty well.
Get a laptop, mang.
(In addition to the desktop, that is. That’s how I roll.)
I have a laptop, Kris.
Like I said, not handicapped. Just not optimized.
It’s like having a fan in LA today and no AC.
What kind of laptop do you have then? A Macbook Pro can edit a feature length film – what are you doing?
I must confess season one of Treme was good but never really gelled for me, but since about ep 3 of season 2, right about the time I was going to quit the show, it’s been firing on all cylinders and makes me like that first season better.
Still, isn’t it kind of dumb to make a show that you have to watch 13 hours of material before you start to get it?
I’m having the opposite problem with “The Walking Dead”, which I just started watching on DVD. Most shows would have put off a certain event and milked it for the entirety of the first season, but here they present it at the beginning of the third episode? Rather odd, rather “What a coincidence!”, but I’m only up to episode 4 and I figure they wrapped that storyline up so quickly for a reason.
I feel like a lot of newer television because it’s becoming more serialized and less episodic is now more along the lines of a novel where it continues to build and fragment and expand, and doesn’t neccessarily come entirely together until pretty late in the game. I think it’s neat that TV can now have that kind of freedom and scope, and that these shows are now successful enough to stay on.
I haven’t watched “Treme” yet beyond the first two episodes of season one, but with “Walking Dead” I felt the show was much more about mood and tone than plot. I love the way the show is paced, but I’m hoping the next season (which I’m very excited for) goes deeper with the cast of characters, and that they have larger emotional arcs overtime. The first season, which I loved, felt almost like a mini-series in how self contained and quick it was. But I might be wrong about that when the second season rolls around. I’m not reading the comic books, and just watching it fresh.
While watching “Zombieland” yesterday, I remembered Simon Pegg’s protest (“Zombies don’t run!”) and came to the realization that the fast-moving creatures in this movie and in “28 Days Later” simply aren’t zombies because, for one thing, they aren’t dead.
They were infected with “mad human disease” in ZL and the “rage virus” in “28 Days”, giving both a mind-destroying fever that leaves them drippy and decaying but since they’re not dead yet they have pep to spare. Romero’s shambling critters, however, do fit within the classic definition of “an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means”, which explains why the disembodied parts of these embalmed husks can still move and fight: Magic.
Considering I’m a scientific-kinda guy who likes realism, I have to admit the fast-moving buggers are the more realistic of the two.