April Blues

Well, not so much.

I'm trying to remain more positive. Re-direct my thinking, ya know? So when those all too often negative feelings come to the surface I stop them, shift focus, focus on the positive in life.

Some old lady rear ended my oh so choice 2001 metallic red Mustang GT. Tore my back end all up.

It's in the body shop now. I'm driving around in a friggin' PT Cruiser. From GT to PT in one damn fell swoop. The irony of it all.

Though I kinda like a the PT. Though when driving it it is akin to sitting on an upright toliet. Hmmmmm.

Curiouser and curiouser. A line from Alice in Wonderland. A story I've always loved. Great, twisted imagery. I also dug the Dark Wonderland video game American McGee's Alice.

Heard it was gonna be made into a movie. Cronenberg was said to direct.

Ciao.

Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson died recently. By his own hand. A bullet to the head.

Hunter went out with a bang.

My first reaction was one of sadness. The other was one of thinking what an idiot.

He had fans who loved him all over the world. He was a libertarian and counterculture hero. We needed his strange take on the world especially in this grim day and age.

Was he depressed about the outcome of the last United States presidential race? The thought of ending your life over a political race is asinine. Or was it mainly medical problems? I think he was in seriously poor health. What he needed to do was lay of the cigs, booze, exercise a bit more, he loved swimming I heard, and get his life back on track.

Fast living can't go on forever. Look at Keith Richards. He got a handle on his hard living. And he looks pretty great for his age. Weathered, sure. But fit.

I got into Hunter after buying the DVD of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas. And then a short time later he offs himself. The swine! Abbie Hoffman ended his own life too. The fool.

I will miss Hunter though.

I even took a recent Hunter S. Thompson inspired trip to Las Vegas. I drove in my candy apple red 2001 Mustang GT from L.A. and checked into the Luxor hours later. Stopped in the town of Baker for lunch too.

I gambled, saw a show, cruised the strip, ordered up huge amounts of room service, guzzled bottles of champagne, and drank Chivas on the rocks, the Good Doctor's drink of choice! Pure Horatio Algier. I even picked up a copy of Algier's book Ragged Dick. Yes, that's the name! Hunter mentioned it in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas many times.

I won't remember the old Thompson. I'll remember the beautiful badass of the 70's. Living his own twisted version of the American dream.

I think Algier's books inspired him as a young lad growing up in the great state of Kentucky. I should do a movie adaptation of Ragged Dick. A PG movie. It'd be a great edgy title for the film. Ragged Dick hardly meant the same thing then as it does now.

I think Hunter was just too extreme a personality to not go out in some violent, insane way.

Hunter S. Thompson came to this Earth to find the American Dream and in his own psychotic way found it.

Farewell.

Good Doctor, we hardly knew ye.

Pure gonzo journalism...

Reshoots Fin!

Yes, yes, yes-iddy yes.

So we got the reshoots for the film done. Finally. Four days of filming. We went back to the same Los Angeles art deco building we shot at originally.

I rented out a smaller loft on the same floor. We also managed to add some more steadicam scenes in the gorgeously decorated hallway.

Only on the last day did we get threatened by management to be thrown out. If we had been thrown out a day earlier we would have been utterly fucked.

I also managed to reshoot some of the doorway stuff in the original loft we used the first time. The new occupant took two hundred for the use of her front door for an hour or two. I got the impression she was flirting with me a bit when we talked afterwards. Hmmmm.

We added some much needed emotion to the film. Made it more cinematic. Dynamic. Funnier.

Damn good to have it done. Damn good.

And so it goes...

The Last Man On Earth

I sometimes wish I was the last man on Earth.

I do.

I wake up at times and wish the world was like something out of 28 Days Later.

Without the zombies.

No more people. All of 'em just gone. And a big wide world to roam around in alone.

Like something out of the film The Omega Man.

Or The Quiet Earth.

I wish for that a lot.

But in truth I wouldn't want ALL people to be gone. I'd be happy with exactly one million people left on the Earth. Scattered at random on every continent.

Then things like. Work, goals, miscellaneous b.s. that is apart of life. Wouldn't matter.

Of course you'd have to take care of your teeth since finding a dentist would be tricky. And if you got injured you'd be hard pressed to find a doctor.

You wouldn't have to worry about body issues so much. Weight. You could let your hair grow long. Even walk around without clothes anywhere. You wouldn't have to worry about being competitive.

You wouldn't have to worry about having a life, having a relationship, worry about getting sex on a regular basis. Or the things you will never have. It wouldn't matter.

Wouldn't matter...