I'm Tired, Too

Bill Cosby, "I'm 83 and Tired."

I'm 83. Except for brief period in the 50's when I was doing my National
Service, I've worked hard since I was 17. Except for some some serious
health challenges, I put in 50-hour weeks, and didn't call in sick in nearly
40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my
income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, it looks as
though retirement was a bad idea, and I'm tired. Very tired. 

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who
don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take
the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy
to earn it. 

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I
can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and
daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight
offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't
"believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning
teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the
genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and
Shari'a law tells them to. 

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques
and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia , New Zealand ,
UK, America and Canada , while no one from these countries are allowed to
fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other
Arab country to teach love and tolerance.. 

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global
warming, which no one is allowed to debate.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help
support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ
rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses
or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it off? 

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all
parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful
mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting
caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor. 

I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and
actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination
or big-whatever for their problems. 

I'm also tired and fed up with seeing young men and women in their teens and
early 20's be-deck them selves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making
themselves un-employable and claiming money from the Government. 

Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 83.. Because, mostly, I'm not
going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for
my granddaughter and their children. Thank God I'm on the way out and not
on the way in. 

There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us
sends it on!

This is your chance to make a difference.

" I'm 83 and I'm tired. If you don't agree you are part of the problem!

Klosterman on White

Saw Royce White on Real Sports this past weekend and didn't think much of it. Houston took a risk drafting him and it didn't pay off. The arc of this article on mental illness with Chuck Klosterman is pretty interesting. And I think there's some truth behind it which is scary. (Saw the article originally posted on publicmusings.blogspot.com)

 According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 26 percent of Americans over the age of 18 suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year. I ask White if he thinks that stat carries over into the NBA. This was the subsequent interaction (make sure you read all the way to the end, when the conversation shifts unexpectedly):

Do you believe 26 percent of the league is dealing with a mental illness, or does mental illness prompt those dealing with it to self-select themselves out of the pool? Are you the rare exception who got drafted?

The amount of NBA players with mental health disorders is way over 26 percent. My suggestion would be to ask David Stern how many players in the league he thinks have a marijuana problem. Whatever number he gives you, that's the number with mental illness. A chemical imbalance is a mental illness.

So, wait … if somebody has a drinking problem, is that —

That's a mental illness. A gambling addiction is a mental illness. Addiction is a mental illness.

Well, then what's the lowest level of mental illness? What is the least problematic behavior that still suggests a mental illness?

The reality is that you can't black-and-white it, no matter how much you want to. You have to be OK with it being gray. There is no end or beginning. It's more individualistic. If someone tears a ligament, there is a grade for its severity. But there's no grade with mental illness. It all has to do with the person and their environment and how they are affected by that environment.

OK, I get that. But you classify a gambling addiction as a mental illness. Gambling is incredibly common among hypercompetitive people. The NBA is filled with hypercompetitive people. So wouldn't this mean that —

Here's an even tougher thing that we're just starting to uncover: How many people don't have a mental illness? But that's what we don't want to talk about.

Why wouldn't we want to talk about that?

Because that would mean the majority is mentally ill, and that we should base all our policies around the idea of supporting the mentally ill. Because they're the majority of people. But if we keep thinking of them as a minority, we can say, "You stay over there and deal with your problems over there."

OK, just so I get this right: You're arguing that most Americans have a mental illness.

Exactly. That's definitely correct.

But — if that's true — wouldn't that mean "mental illness" is just a normative condition? That it's just how people are?

That doesn't make it normal. This is based on science. If there was a flu epidemic, and 60 percent of the country had the flu, it wouldn't make it normal … the problem is growing, and it's growing because there's a subtle war — in America, and in the world — between business and health. It's no secret that 2 percent of the human population controls all the wealth and the resources, and the other 98 percent struggle their whole life to try and attain it. Right? And what ends up happening is that the 2 percent leave the 98 percent to struggle and struggle and struggle, and they eventually build up these stresses and conditions.

So … this is about late capitalism?

Definitely. Definitely.

It is not that Royce White thinks he has a unique problem. It's more that Royce White believes society has made everyone slightly insane. And this helps and hurts his argument at the same time.

The Sopranos -- Pine Barrens

Christopher: Russians? They're not all bad. 
Paulie 'Walnuts': How 'bout the Cuban Missile Crisis? Cocksuckers flew four nuclear missiles into Cuba, pointed them right at us. 
Christopher: That was real? I saw that movie, I thought it was bullshit. 

Kerouac's Map : 1947- 48

Jack Kerouac drew this map tracing his travels during 1947-48 that would become the first part of his novel On the Road.

Soderberghian

An extensive interview with Steven Soderbergh.

Two Highlights:

What do you think people mean when they call a film Soderberghian?
I have no idea. But never use that word to describe your movie in a pitch meeting because it won’t get made.

Really? You just made a $7 million film about strippers — Magic Mike — that has earned something like $167 million worldwide.
So pitch the movie as Magic Mike. Otherwise, if you’re using my name, you could mean The Good German.

Before shooting began on Magic Mike, Matthew McConaughey says he sent you two e-mails full of painstaking details about his character. The first e-mail was nine pages, the second was ten. Your responses were “Sure” and “Go for it.” Is that true?
Matthew understood the part so well and had such good ideas that I had no desire to box him in. So I just said yes to everything, which turned out to be the right way to go. I think the only note I gave him, when I first pitched him the part on the phone, was that his character believed in UFOs.

The Moviegoers Episode 11

DJANGO! DJANGO! and a little bit on Amour and good airplane movies in this episode.

Django, have you always been alone?
Django, have you never loved again?
Love will live on, oh oh oh...
Life must go on, oh oh oh...
For you cannot spend your life regretting.

Django, you must face another day.
Django, now your love has gone away.
Once you loved her, whoa-oh...
Now you've lost her, whoa-oh-oh-oh...
But you've lost her for-ever, Django.

Brett Easton Ellis's Real Art Form

A companion piece of sorts to the Lindsay Lohan/Paul Schrader article a few weeks back.

This profile left me with a depressed feel. Los Angeles as a dark underbelly of loneliness much like Mulholland Drive.

Day 23

Drizzling on a Wednesday night. Album: Chet Baker, Blues for A Reason.

Holy Cow!

On Twitter, Pearl Jam just sent out this photo with the caption "Looking Good!" #Stay Tuned.

Kobe on QT, Pumping Gas, & Dog Shit

Kobe loved Django Unchained. Tarantino should've cast the Black Mamba as Django instead of that hack Jamie Foxx. And he hates dog crap. (Note to self : the Black Mamba can endorse Phil Davis's platform for the Mayor of Santa Monica.)

A few choice excerpts from the interview:

When was the last time you pumped your own gas? 

Yesterday. I do all of life’s daily tasks. The other day my wife and I stopped at 7-Eleven and I pulled up to the pump and I started to pump some gas. She went inside to buy something and was waiting in line. The guy in front of her sees me outside but doesn’t see her. He says, “Man, there’s Kobe Bryant pumping his own gas.” My wife says to the guy, “He wipes his own ass, too.”

What do you do when you can’t sleep? 

Sometimes I take an Ambien. But if my mind is racing, I may get up and do something. The other night I was in my hotel room and couldn’t sleep, so I got up and went across the street to see "Django [Unchained]." 

What did you think? 

It was genius. Absolutely incredible. Everything by Quentin Tarantino usually is, but this took it to another level. It’s the way he tells a story and the kind of characters he creates. It was crazy violent, but the story is so strong and that’s what you remember. 

I know you’re a big Robert Rodriguez fan. He’s from the same maverick filmmaking school as Tarantino. Would you want to work with Tarantino? 

That would be incredible. Can you imagine one of my commercials with him? 

What’s your biggest pet peeve? 

I hate dog s---. I won’t go near it. So pissed when I step in it. I’ve got four dogs and I just don’t do dog doo. I’m a diva when it comes to that. Back in the day when I was in Italy, I used to order shoes from Nike all the time. I had to have all the fresh joints. I ordered the Elephant Print Jordans that were amazing. I went to the park to play and stepped in a huge pile of dog s---. You wouldn’t believe how mad I was. I was breaking off sticks to try to get it out of the crevices. I smacked them together and scraped the soles on the curb but couldn’t get it all out. Ever since that day I just can’t stand dog crap. 

Day 15 - Mattress Men

Finally grabbed a queen box frame and spring (already had a foam mattress waiting in my room for the last two months). A bit shady some could say. Saw a hand written sign in the alley outside the warehouse where I work advertising Queen mattress P-top set for $150. Called up and went to a makeshift office on Venice Blvd. Room filled with box springs and mattresses. "Going fast," said Xavier.
Figured they already ripped someone off to have these truckloads of surplus beds, so they wouldn't rip off the customers as well by not delivering paid for goods. Paid up and delivery happened an hour later.  Box spring in the bedroom. Success.

War on Drugs - Philadelphia 12.30.12

Bar band rock n'roll. It's the ties that bind...

Stern on Dunham

Haha! Howard Stern adding into the zeitgeist moment of Lena Dunham & Girls.

"Good for her. It's hard for little fat chicks to get anything going."

UPDATE: Stern apologizes.  (The show lost it when Artie went away. Haven't listened to it since.)

Day 13 - Funny or Die

Sunday morning freelance job shooting a 'Funny or Die' skit at St. Nick's on 3rd St. Ted Griffin directed, Oscar Nunez was the main comedic lead. Skit was a spoof on Argo. Nice people, easy day's work.
Patriots hold off Texans 38-28 to advance to AFC championship.
At night watched the Golden Globes at my place. Rotisserie chicken & salad, cherry pie a la mode on the menu.

Day 12

Record the Django episode of The Moviegoers in Silverlake. Then caught the epic game between Broncos/Ravens over in Echo Park. Ravens win in OT after Broncos give up a 70 yrd TD with 32 secs left in regulation. Worst defensive play I've ever seen -- horrendous mistake by two defensive backs.
At night, briefly hit up Hannah's pre-party in Koreatown.

Hunter S. Daily Schedule

Oh my.

A Hot Mess (aka Still in Love With Her)

Here is what happens when you cast Lindsay Lohan in your movie.

Some excerpts:
*Schrader goes over some ground rules; no trailers on set and one contractually obligated, four-way sex scene. Oh, another thing, Schrader adds: he will not try to sleep with her. This was probably a more relevant point in 1982, but no matter. Lohan stands up and says goodbye, telling everyone how excited she is to be working with them. She leaves the restaurant, followed by her mother and the mysterious man with the presents.

*Schrader is convinced he can manage Lohan. He thinks he has seen it all. Thirty years ago, he directed an alcoholic George C. Scott in “Hardcore.” One day, Scott wouldn’t come out of his trailer. He called Schrader into his booze-soaked sanctuary.

“You’re a great screenwriter but the world’s worst goddamned director,” Scott said. “Promise me you’ll never direct another movie, and I’ll come out.” Schrader dropped to his knees and promised. A few weeks later, Scott read in the trades that Schrader was going to direct “American Gigolo.” Next time he saw Schrader, he bellowed, “You’re a liar.”

*Meanwhile, Ellis, Pope and Schrader battled over the film’s final cut. Pope screened a rough cut of “The Canyons” for Steven Soderbergh. Intrigued, Soderbergh offered to do an edit of the movie if he was given the footage for 72 hours.

Schrader said no.

Oscars - Monday A.M. Quarterbacking

I didn't even no they were being announced today 'til I woke up and heard the news. Afghan Sam!  (Buzkashi Boys for short film)
Quick missing in action: Leo D. (or Sam Jackson) for Django, McConaughey for Magic Mike/Killer Joe, Jason Clarke for Zero Dark Thirty, Dennis Lavant for Holy Motors. Cinematography : The Master and On the Road. Makeup: Holy Motors. And no Bigelow for Zero Dark?

Day 7

Back at the warehouse at Movieclips/Zefr. Jogged in the early morning.

After the national championship watched a screener of Friends with Money. Oops, meant Friends with Kids. Second time I've made that mistake. It's with Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott, Maya Rudolph, Chris O'Dowd, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig. It was fine for DVD viewing. Certainly, more truthful and emotional than other films in the genre. White people.

Screener season in full effect. Films that weren't worth it to spend the time and/or money at the theater but accessible at home.

National Championship - Bama/N.D.

Easy money on Alabama. Notre Dame hadn't experienced anything like that this season. Nor in such a big, new setting. Bama plays games like this year after year. N.D. beat up the likes of Boston College, Michigan State, a last second victory over Pitt.
My only regret: didn't have enough money to properly wager on the game. Wish I had $500. Feels like I lost. Sports betting/gambler's logic.

N.Y. Post - Boozed-up Plane Passenger Duct Taped to His Seat to Stop Rampage

"There's a snake on my leg."

A Million First Dates: How Online Dating is Threatening Monogamy

Picked up the Jan/Feb issue of The Atlantic before taking off (my traditional flying magazine) to LAX. This article caught my eye and was the first one I read... Ahh, online dating... 

The thesis summed up in this one sentence, "Online dating is, at its core, a litany of alternatives."

An excerpt:

The positive aspects of online dating are clear: the Internet makes it easier for single people to meet other single people with whom they might be compatible, raising the bar for what they consider a good relationship. But what if online dating makes it too easy to meet someone new? What if it raises the bar for a good relationship too high? What if the prospect of finding an ever-more-compatible mate with the click of a mouse means a future of relationship instability, in which we keep chasing the elusive rabbit around the dating track?

Also, this guy Jacob is great. An inspirational figure.

Since Rachel left him, Jacob has met lots of women online. Some like going to basketball games and concerts with him. Others enjoy barhopping. Jacob’s favorite football team is the Green Bay Packers, and when I last spoke to him, he told me he’d had success using Packers fandom as a search criterion on OkCupid, another (free) dating site he’s been trying out.

Many of Jacob’s relationships become physical very early. At one point he’s seeing a paralegal and a lawyer who work at the same law firm, a naturopath, a pharmacist, and a chef. He slept with three of them on the first or second date. His relationships with the other two are headed toward physical intimacy.

He likes the pharmacist most. She’s a girlfriend prospect. The problem is that she wants to take things slow on the physical side. He worries that, with so many alternatives available, he won’t be willing to wait.

One night the paralegal confides in him: her prior relationships haven’t gone well, but Jacob gives her hope; all she needs in a relationship is honesty. And he thinks, Oh my God. He wants to be a nice guy, but he knows that sooner or later he’s going to start coming across as a serious asshole. While out with one woman, he has to silence text messages coming in from others. He needs to start paring down the number of women he’s seeing.

Best of 2012

1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. The Master
3. Magic Mike

Notables:
Django Unchained
Holy Motors
The Grey
Killer Joe
To Rome with Love

Day Four

Welcome back to L.A. And it feels good.

Day Three

Drove back to dreary Indianapolis.

Song:
Florence & the Machine, Dog Days are Over

Day Two

Drove to Highland Park. Grandpa passed away on New Year's Eve. And Dad slipped on the stairs at night on New Year's day.

Notable songs on the road:
Fixing a Hole, PT Gazell (heard while driving on I-65)
I'm Trying to Break Your Heart (Wilco cover), JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound (driving through downtown Chicago, of course)
Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding (parking at the funeral home)

Italian restaurant Hole in the Wall at night with Mom and Dad.
Grab one dollar Old Style's with Dan at a bar in the middle of nowhere named Griffs (?) Laura the Bartender bounces around, rest of the clientele possibly on crystal meth.

Day One

1113. A new start. Let's do this!