April 25, 2024
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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
I want to like it, but it’s awkward, never quite making 100% apples-to-apples comparisons. Were I a determined rightie blogger, I could easily find weasel-room in there.
Trite
Maybe it’s because I’m from an industrial state, but I’ve been aghast at the concept that either Romney or any of his rich pals are “makers”. You don’t even need to bring Marx into the argument to admit that the people who work with their hands, the people who build, assemble, and create are the makers, while the parasites who live off the value added by this labor are the real takers.
What, exactly, has Romney “made”? Oh, there is that one company he helped to create that, like the Mafia, exists only by skimming profits off of companies that are actually making and selling products. How is that not “taking”? How is that not the definition of parasitic behavior? And when profits are hard to find, Bain takes the workers’ pensions, takes their benefits, takes their pay raises and eventually their jobs if they can’t hand over a big enough check to their corporate overlords.
If you’re having a hard time wrapping your head around the concept, just watch A BUG’S LIFE, a parable about the 99% rising up against the parasitic 1%.
And that is why Romney was never going to be president from the get go.
Has there ever been a more incompetent candidate/campaign, running against such a competent campaign? I doubt it considering Obama will end up being outspent two and a half to one.
Etguild,
Good question you dont have to go that far back, Kerry – Edwards vs Bush – Chenney.
Kerry wasn’t very competent, but he almost won nonetheless. McCain and Dole were both pretty bad, as was Gore (though he practically defines the term “almost won”)
I’ve been saying this for a year now but the Romney campaign is the most inept in modern American political history. One of the big reasons that is that he’s beholden to talk radio and their ideology is collectively insane. A majority of Americans do not want Rush Limbaugh calling the shots. But the liberal media has allowed Romney to get away with the most outrageous lies and hypocrisies. America will not.
The thing with Mitt is that he might have been a good candidate had he been able to run as the moderate conservative that he actually is. But because of the dominance of the far right, he’s skewed and screwed himself out of a much better campaign.
That is the sad irony that Romney as Mass governor would have been much more formidable opponent to Obama. But then you’re trying to create a new mitt Romney that doesn’t pander nonstop.
Not so ironically, the far right that now dominates The Republican Party is a steaming cesspool of hateful abusers and the stench will need to clear before the Party can compete legitimately again. I don’t know what the House will be lost this election cycle, but if not, look for it to be lost in 2014.
And then, centrists can rise again.
What we really need is a Democrat/Republic merger and a new party or two that legitimately compete… actually have different ideas. The Tea Party should be a party. I respect their right to be idiots and to run for office on that basis. But the main parties now? Only a few social issues really separate them… aside from the fanatics who would be happy to destroy the country to save the country.
What needs to happen immediately probably won’t: the immediate dismissal of the FOX/AM media axis as a source for GOP political posturing and pandering. If you can stand to watch, FOX News is having a psychic meltdown of “truly epic proportions” to quote Mr. Han.