First Gig

One way to kick off a new year and decade is to have an awesome show for your first gig and we pulled it off last night! The Tex Offenders got together this past summer and played a house party in August but hadn't played a club yet, then a couple of weeks ago Dennis got an email from the Red Eyed Fly saying they had a bunch of slots open and to just grab them. We jumped on the 10pm slot for last night and not only did we rock the house, but we brought in 28 people (most of any bands), made $80 and scored our next gig on a Thursday night (Feb 4) and if we can bring 30 to that show we'll get a weekend slot! It looks like we're taking off with a bang and hopefully the momentum will continue. Everyone that was there loved the show and the energy we had and that club has a great sound system so vocals could be heard for a change! Several people from work made it out there including Brett Weaver and his wife EK, Vickie Quintana and David Rodriguez, Jamie Gage, Grace Nicholas and their friend Nicki, Shane and Fositi and David Wylie. Rich and his wife, Roz and the bass player from Hunt's other band, the Obits, also made it and a co-worker of Dennis and her husband came as well. An ex bandmate of Hunt and Dennis, Justin, also showed. Steph watched the kids so that Lee could make it and Jena took all the photos. All in all it was an amazing evening under a full moon and I didn't get to sleep till 2 after going to Star Seeds with Shane and Fositi (and having a conversation with a crazy person) and now I'm completely pooped for New Year's Eve but I'll be heading over to the Humphries to see the decade from Hell out and the new one of Hope in.

Peace Man

It's time for another true peace movement. I was born just before the last big one and I'm 43 years old now...that's a super long time. Since the only thing I can control is myself (and I have enough fun trying to do that) I'm going to really work on being my own personal ambassador of peace. I will shun violence hopefully no matter what. I've been watching 'John Adams' again after Jena gave it to me on Blu-ray for Christmas and I just love the tone of Thomas Jefferson, how nothing seems to phase him and he's able to stay in control of his emotions. I want to be an example of peace and spread it's message whenever it's possible. In the land of apathy, cynicism, and outright hate, this is going to be tough, but I'll give it a try and see what I can do.

Preppers

Looks like there's a new word in the national lexicon, 'preppers'. These are what was once referred to as survivalists, but of course that has too many negative connotations, like gun or conspiracy nut, to call themselves that now. I just read an article in Newsweek about the phenomenon and this lady that started this about a year ago (right after Obama won the election and she lives in McCain's home state). I don't believe in coincidence yet not once in the article is Obama's win mentioned as a catalyst. Arizona is one of the least disaster prone areas of the country yet she claims she's doing this in case FEMA doesn't show up. Why doesn't she admit the real reason, that Obama scares her, or Beck told her a social civil war or political apocalypse was coming and she believes it? I've told my friends that if Palin wins election to President in 2012, I'm moving to another country, but if I was asked why I moved that would be my reason! Why is it that the ones with the guns and all the supplies also sound like the biggest pussies in the world? What the hell are they so afraid of? They're afraid of change, especially if it's away from some lifestyle they've become used to or actually like. They almost sound like a bunch of whiney civil liberties libs, but if you tried to compare them to that group they'd freak out. If an apocalyptic event started to happen, I'd want to be killed as quickly as possibly to not have to deal with it. To me, it's not about surviving anything (how many 'scares' have come up only to have nothing happen?) but making some sort of statement of their unhappiness with the way things have turned out.

2000's

Ah, the end of a decade is only 4 days away. I have NEVER been so ready for a decade to end. Most of the decades I've been alive have had both ups and downs but overall were pretty balanced between them so that I was only wishing for certain years to come to a close more quickly than others. This time around, with the lows far outweighing the highs, I'm ready for the whole fucking thing to be gone. Hell, no one even knows what to call the last ten years...the 'O's? The Otts? The WTF's? Because I follow events and the news (I just can't help it) my life and my mood tend to get tied in with what's going on out there, and I've pretty much hated just about everything about this decade when it came to politics especially. Sure, Obama won and that was probably the biggest plus event, but he's hardly been able to do anything in his first year and this is with a majority in Congress! But most of the decade was covered by the Bush years which I think will go down as one of the worst presidencies ever recorded in these here United States. People can argue all they want, but what irks me the most is that we've had bad presidents in the past, and they seemed to have to pay for idiocies, but this guy and especially the guy with the hand up his ass seemed to not only have gotten away with it all, but the media is still listening to Darth Vader still for some reason! Nixon resigned in disgrace, though he did get a big fat pardon from Ford. What worries me more is the precedent being set. Palin quit her fucking job as governor of Alaska and yet the media still keeps referring to her as 'possible 2012 candidate Sarah Palin'...would someone please explain to me why she would even be qualified after not only help McCain lose an election bid but then quit her job to go make money on books? I don't get it but the media is NOT all liberal like the right likes to say when the media says something it doesn't want to hear. There's also a very powerful right component to the media and they've learned from advertising that if you say something enough people start to believe it. Getting back to my original comment, I love the 70's, the 80's were okay and the 90's were pretty sweet but this decade has been one big pile of feces. This also goes for my personal life. I moved to Austin technically in the 90's so I can't even say that happened this decade. I got a big house and have made the most money ever but in the end I've got nothing to show for that really. This decade was a big experiment socially and I think in the end it failed if I want to be honest. As with any such times, I think I learned a lot of lessons and for the next while I should focus on those lessons and assimilate them into how I want to live my life going forward. Luckily friends that I made in the awesome 90's stuck around and made it through with me. I'm hoping with all hope that the 00's were the bottom of the barrel and things will only go up from here.

Apocalypse

'2012', 'The Road', 'The Book of Eli'...all apocalypse movies that are coming out within a few months of each other, and they're money makers as well. Why are we wanting the world to end so much? Is it all the end of days literature that the Christian right has been putting out for awhile now? Is it the bad economy and people are wanting something to happen that will put an end to it? Are our lives so bankrupt and seem so worthless in general that we want a societal suicide? It's hard to say if it's any of these or none of them. Beck the Asshole keeps talking about meltdown for our country (how patriotic is that?) and he has a lot of followers but it's not all teabaggers and religious nuts going to these movies. What's even more interesting when you look at the economic collapse reasoning, when the Great Depression happened, an economic slump that still makes this one look like nothing, the popular movies were escapist musicals and what not, not end of the world tomes. And of course with the whole 2012 scare, this is just the latest in a long line of end of the world 'scares' or scenarios dating back to at least the end of the first millennium before the year 1000 AD. Also economics isn't the only answer when looking at end of the world scares. Look at the Y2K scare at the end of the 90's. The economy was totally booming at the time. This one seemed to have more to do with the change to a new millennium and nothing more. Change is inevitable and always occurs no matter how afraid people in general are of it. They like what they know and change means different circumstances no matter if it means to a better life. You'll even hear people complain about winning the lottery and the changes it has brought their life, or someone that becomes a celebrity, yet so many strive to win the lottery or become famous. Change even happens when it illogically shouldn't. Look at 2000. The economy once again was booming, we had a surplus for the first time in decades, things seemed to really be going the right direction, yet Bush STILL 'won' (it shouldn't even have been that close by this philosophy) and the country took a different path. My final question on this subject is why does it have to be destructive change that's predicted? The Mayans said when their calendar ended it would be the start of a new age but they didn't say it would be a change to complete annihilation or a time of despair and destruction, yet that's how it's been interpreted by Hollywood and many books on the market today. Destruction is more exciting and people pay attention to it instead of to a new Age of Aquarius where people get along and all the divisions going on today are forgotten. Once again, people like what they know, and if they've known division, racism, cynicism, they want to keep knowing it. I mean shit, if you look at how divided we've become over the past 20 years, maybe the apocalypse is already here and the real change would be for us to get past this period in our history. Maybe that's the promise 2012 brings. I know that I will be hoping for that.

Mortality

As another year comes to an end, and a decade for that matter, and as I visit family for the holidays, I think about mortality. My grandmother, the last grandparent, Lavonne Jacobs Ellsworth, has been diagnosed with breast cancer now. She's 93 years old and already has cataracts and can barely get around. She's refusing chemo for the cancer so she probably won't be around much longer. She lives in a run down neighborhood that was sparkling new back in 1955 when she moved my dad and the family there, but now it's just another run down area of Dallas. As I drove around the city even where I grew up in Garland, it just seemed so decrepit like some city in the NE and not the golden city I remember from childhood. Dallas was considered a black hole after Kennedy was assassinated there in '63, but by 1980 with the Sunbelt boom and a hit TV show, it was a sparkling oasis while the NE crumbled in recession and every other car in Dallas had Michigan plates and a U-haul trailer on the back. It was the place to be and now it looks just as dead as Grand Rapids or South Chicago. My cousins from Chicago came down for their dad's 70th birthday a few weeks back and they confirmed my thoughts of this. When your city has a S.W.A.T. show named after it then you know it's bad. On Christmas Eve at mom's we light candles for those that have passed on in the family. We started doing this after Memaw died in 2003 and the tradition continues. Today I found out that Jena's dad had a mild stroke and is in the hospital tonight but should be okay. I myself feel in the worst shape I think I've ever been. I've made a promise to myself that as the new year AND decade begin I'm really going to try and take care of myself but that remains to be seen. I showed mom 'Food, Inc.' last night and it reminded me of what I want to do about food and my diet. All this mortality stuff has me thinking about God again. Though I have my spiritual 'The Twelve' I still don't feel like I'm getting the spiritual boost that I need. And for someone that still feels guilty from time to time for a religion he doesn't believe in, maybe I should start looking into that same spirituality to use to make myself feel better about living. I accept death for what it is. I don't think I have the same fear of it as most people do. But I do need to look at the LIVING part of mortality. You must live first before you die and I still have a lot more of that to do.

Fight Club and 9/11

I don't know if anyone's thought of this before now (they probably have) but how similar events that happen in 'Fight Club' occur two years later on 9/11. Tyler even calls where they are 'ground zero' before the buildings implode. I'm pretty sure that whether is was Bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan or some element in our country that did it for real, they had to have been planning it way before the movie came out in the Fall of '99, BUT the book is older. Granted, there are big differences, like using planes, but hitting our financial district and just the act in general, sent us from a surplus just the year before to a recession! It wasn't as bad as it is now, but pretty bad. I wondered if maybe someone that read the book got the idea to set it up on our side, but lets say it was an anarchist that would have been excited at what happened around the same time the movie came out, the WTC riots in Seattle. I highly doubt they would want what occurred after 9/11, the crackdown on our country by our own government. I mean, watching 'Fight Club' is to also be reminded of how lax security was before 9/11. A lot of people hate this movie, but I l0ve it and my main reason is it's commentary on consumerism, not capitalism, consumerism. Advertisers getting us to work jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need...direct quote from the movie. That pretty much sums it up. The only things we need are some sort of shelter, water, food, and I'll even through love in there but definitely the first three in order to actually survive. The rest are ideas put into our head from birth of things that we WANT. Part of me wonders if instead of doing what Tyler does in this movie, go to a monastery and give up all possessions and cut it all off that way without any violence. I want to be able to turn off this hate machine, but with peace. Unfortunately I like a lot of Americans am such a violent person. I want to not care too much about things especially those that I cannot control. Surely there's a way. Music can only go so far. Writing can only go so far as can film. And leaders become kidnapped by money, power or both. I hope I live to the day if ever that peace can truly reign.

Us vs. Them

Time to write about this because it's been spinning around my head a lot more lately. Of course, this is something I've been thinking about for a very long time and as this decade comes to a close, it's been a defining part of it. Why do we as a people or society have to be divided? I know there's always two sides to every coin: dark and light, good and evil, but 'black and white' has become much more defined as of late. There can be no middle ground, you're either with 'us' or with 'them'. It's almost as if we've all forgotten all the similarities between us in favor of the differences. We all will die one day. None of us truly knows what happens after we die (though we have heaven and hell which is kind of like us vs. them for the afterlife). The problem becomes even worse when one side becomes more powerful than the other and takes over the discussion. For conservatives and Republicans, this has been easy since they tend to agree with each other more and yell louder about their issues. For liberals and Democrats they try to listen to more sides of the issue but this causes more division and less cohesiveness which wouldn't be a problem accept that they are forced to compete with Republicans. What Republicans have done successfully is make the word 'liberal' seem like a bad thing, when it's just the opposite of them. How do you define light without dark or conservative without liberal? The media loves this division and instead of reporting the news like they used to, they place everything on these sides for us to battle over so they can have more interesting stories to report. For the rich, the division helps everyone keep their focus on each other and never at them. Lincoln himself said something along the lines of 'a house divided cannot stand' during a time when this country faced it's worst division ever, the Civil War. It almost seems like the media, the rich, the powerful would 'want' to see some sort of social war occur, though I'm not sure what they would really benefit from it in the end apart from a bunch of us killing each other off, removing competition, and one hell of a story. Just writing about this shows how I feel about 'them' and how easy it is to slip into a certain side. I've been thinking a lot about how a message could be sent out to everyone saying not to listen to the media, and in turn the rich corporations, but look around them at what they see day to day, see what happens around them, and don't immediately believe what they hear from a source that's not someone they already know. I truly hope that this starts to happen more as this new decade begins. Is that too much to ask?

Avatar

Holy smokes! Just saw 'Avatar' with dad. Okay, so the story isn't very solid, but still a LOT more there than 'Transformers2' but watching it was like literally traveling to another part of the universe! Like 'Lord of the Rings' did before, this is a new definition of CG that will be hard to beat at least for a while. The faces of the avatars looking like their respective humans was nothing short of miraculous! The story got a little preachy at times and I'm not sure how well this will go over in Cracker America with 'US' marines being the bad guys and getting their ass' kicked but just like it's been on earth the story of history has been conquer the less powerful, ESPECIALLY if they are sitting on top of something that's precious. Pandora reminded me of some of the artwork Roger Dean did for Yes' album covers in the 70's. Great stuff!

Live in Ft. Worth

I got to dad's this afternoon on a beautiful day with sunshine, some high clouds, and temps in the 60's. We had some food that we know is horrible for us at Long John's then he had rented 'Transformers 2' which we just watched. HOLY SHIT! What a long boring movie and it's supposed to be an action flick! What it really looked like was a super long Army commercial showing all the toys that the military industrial complex likes to use all our tax dollars to make. Michael Bay spent who knows how much money on this and it's now the biggest opening weekend movie...what the fuck? The only reason I saw it was because dad got it and I didn't have to pay anything to see it, but I could have just as easily taken a nap and I actually did fall asleep several times. I haven't done that during an action movie since 'Batman and Robin'. I really hope that some day the ruse pulled by morons like Bay and the idiocracy that pays money to see this shit will end...but I don't have a lot of faith in that right now.

War on Christmas

I'm so sick and tired of hearing about this so called 'War on Christmas'. I live in Austin, the most liberal part of Texas and I still hear people saying 'Merry Christmas' everywhere and no one has a problem with it. Most of my friends and some family aren't even Christians and they don't care if someone else says it or whatever. This is part of the bigger 'us vs. them' bullshit that the media likes to put out there. What's funny is the people that hate the media when it says something against 'their side' but they'll listen to the SAME FUCKING MEDIA about this kind of crap! That's the part I really don't get...that no one's figured out that the media WANTS to create sides so they can have something to report. Maybe, just maybe, one day we'll figure out who the real villain is and ignore them once and for all. Instead of listening to reports on stuff you never actually see or about people you've never met, go with what you do see day in and day out and the peolple you do meet and know. Form and opinion from that for yourself for a change. And now I'm off to go and open presents with my friends in what we call Yule but that is chock full of the Christmas spirit!!!

Cowboys beat Saints

Even though I live in Austin, the Dallas Cowboys are my team. The only real sport I like to watch is professional football and growing up in Dallas with my mom being the biggest Cowboys fan ever, it's easy to see why. Tonight they ended the unbeaten record of New Orleans IN N'arlens but the really cool part is that I just had this feeling all week that they were going to win despite all the losses recently. Now, if theyd' been playing in their brand new Uberstadium, I probably would have still thought they'd lose. Not to mention that every time Dallas played in the Super Bowl when it was in New Orleans, they won. They may not win another game this year and completely miss the playoffs, but maybe this win will shut some people up. It's amazing how many bad teams or even overhyped teams there are in the NFL yet most of the stories out there will be about Dallas after they lose. And it's not the team's fault if the media overhypes them. I know they aren't the team they were in the early 90's or the 70's, but I'll support them just the same because they're MY team.

Washington White Out

It looks like amidst blizzard like conditions in DC today, the Senate is finally ready to pass sweeping health coverage/insurance changes. Part of the white out besides two feet of swirling snow in some places is what's finally going to get passed. The House passed their version in November that had the public option still attached, but Lieberman (Droopy Dog) and surprisingly several Democrats kept putting up roadblocks to the public option, extending Medicare and abortion crapola from Nebraska. Now we have this watered down thing that's going to pass by Christmas Eve (maybe - anyone else wanna throw in a last minute monkey wrench?) that will hold insurance companies more accountable (hopefully) and extend coverage to 30 million, but it could have been so much more. Also, yesterday the Copenhagen Climate Summit finished with last minute negotions for a treaty including us and China BUT it was really a compromise with no deadlines or real emmissions cuts...so what's going on here? I voted for Obama and change a year ago and a majority of people wanted these things yet we're not seeing them go through. I partly blame the right of course and assholes like Beck, Limbaugh and Palin for making sure that their less then higher numbers are still heard more because of their loud open breathing mouths, but I also blame Obama and a bunch of Dems that can't even get shit straight among themselves. I read Ron Paul's 'End the Fed' a few months back and I must say, taking the even more independent path is starting to really look like the way to go. I read Obama's book, I bought into the belief of hope and a turnaround from the fucking nightmare that this decade has been, and I know that you can't get everything you want, but is it too hard to ask for health care for everyone? Is it too hard to listen to 99% of scientists and try to start cleaning up the mess our world has become? Is it too hard to NOT listen to a bunch of corporate bitches that are NOT scientists, or that have always had health coverage? Apparently so.

State Farm

Customer service, I've been doing it for twenty years now and I think I know the meaning of good and bad versions of it. I've been with State Farm for ten years now, since moving to the Austin area, and I personally only had one fender bender to report for myself (Jena had a couple of incidents but nothing major) and the bill was ALWAYS paid on time. I would think that this would classify me as a good or coveted customer especially in times like these. Apparently this is not the case with State Farm. With all the crazy shit that went on this year, Jena and I contacted them to get split up on our policy. They actually told us this was difficult for this and that reason (you would think they just had to click a few buttons and it would be done and it wasn't like this was some alien request) so we waited, but this summer we called back and said we needed to go ahead and get separate policies. They split us into two policies and Jena has had her own policy with the Dodge truck on it that she's been paying on since then with no problems. I on the other hand started having problems in October when my bill came with Jena's truck back on my policy. I got the bill on the weekend, so I called the office (no 800 number that you can call whenever!) and left a voice mail about it. I never got called the following Monday so I called and the person I talked to said she's already taken care of it! Was she going to call me and tell me that? She acted like she could give a rat's ass about the whole thing and didn't apologize once. She didn't even tell me what I really owed just for my car, I had to ask her. It was $102 so I paid that and figured we were finished. Then, in November I get my bill and there's Jena's truck again AND a warning that I was late because I didn't pay the entire payment the last time! I left a voice mail again, and this time I said if this didn't get resolved I'd be looking for a new insurer. Well, apparently this didn't mean shit to them because I never got a call back. I paid the $102 just in case so I at least covered my car. Since Jena had been paying with her policy they were in essence asking us to pay for the fucking truck twice! And not once did any research occur on their side or was the issue really resolved like that twit said it was. The proverbial 'straw' landed yesterday when I got my most recent bill from them and it was a CANCELLATION NOTICE due to non-payment!!! I left a pretty nasty voice mail, sent an email directly to the agent saying all this that had happened and that I wanted to be contacted BY PHONE on Monday. I also called Geico, whom I have renter's insurance with and who quickly took care of me after the robbery, and set up auto with them. When I hear from SF on Monday I'll make sure that there's no cancellations on the my record and everything is really fixed, then I'll drop the Geico bomb on them and let them know that I will be telling everyone I know about what happened and even try and get Jena to move away from them. The first rule of customer service is a happy customer will tell ten people about it but a pissed customer will tell ten times that.

Justice

For someone like me who doesn't trust the government or authority in general, I must say that I've had a situation where the system has worked and I have benefited from it's services! Last July my house was broken into and I had my PS3, 65 DVD's, digital camera and a suitcase stolen. I reported it to the police then Jena suggested using the spreadsheet I keep of my movies to create a list of the stolen ones and turn them in to nearby buy back places like Half Price Books. I did this then next day and just a day after that I got calls from both places saying someone had come in and tried to sell almost all the movies on my list! They asked for driver's license and this dodo gave it to them, with one place telling me the name and address of the guy and he lived right around the corner from me! I turned all this info into the police and about a month later they questioned this guy while he was in custody for parole violation of something else he'd done. He said that a friend of his did the break in and brought the stuff to him to sell, then sold the PS3 to another person and he gave them names of the robber the one who bought the PS3. They picked this clown up and he had 3 prior convictions for theft and had gone on probation for all three. I had renter's insurance and filed a claim. I lost $2200 in total and after the $1000 deductible, got $1200 from Traveler's, using it to buy back everything but having to put the rest on credit cards. Well a couple of weeks ago I got a call from the Travis County DA's office saying they'd taken this guy to court and eventually he got probation AGAIN, BUT he had to pay restitution and I got a call today saying I would be getting the other $1000 in payment in about a month! Granted, Jena and I's detective work really helped, but the system took him before a judge and worked with this asshole's defense lawyer to figure things out. Getting this money back will take me back to a point where it's like it never even happened and that's very good indeed.

Health Bill Strategy

Well, the Republicans don't have enough to filibuster the health plan in the Senate, but they've got a new strategy, go to every single Democrat that should be a Republican and get them to get something else dropped when it seems everyone is appeased. This way they can either just keep going on and on 'like' a filibuster OR the piece of legislation that's eventually passed is completely worthless. Of course, if the Democrats would actually all stand together for once like the Republicans do just about every time then the original bill might have been passed the way it was in the House. Oh, and don't get me started on 'Droopy Dog' Lieberman. What a publicity 'hound'. I can't believe this douche was almost Vice President. My friend said the other day maybe he got on the ticket to ensure that Gore ended up losing in the end. This wouldn't surprise me now seeing the way he is. I think it was more something akin to realizing for the next four to eight years the Republicans would be in charge so he shapeshifted on key. I used to pride myself on how the Dems didn't all automatically agree with each other like the Starship Trooper robots on the other side, but now I'm beginning to wonder because the current strategy should hardly be called one. I'm starting to feel itchy like during the Carter years all over again, and I like Carter.

The Tex Offenders Take Over the World

My band has finally landed it's first paying gig! Dennis emailed Hunt and I today saying they had some spots at Red Eyed Fly, a premier rock venue in Austin, and we chose December 30th at 10pm. He called them and they put us down for that night! Since then I've sent a ton of emails and invites out and gotten a lot of response. We played a party back in August but nothing since then and the buzz has been enormous so now the Buzz Dam is bursting! If we get 20 people there they'll look at putting us on a Thursday or Friday night the next time. I have a feeling as this turd of a decade comes to an end the next one has a lot of promise and can only go up! Dad just emailed me today also saying he has a normal date on Friday! WTF is going on?!

Ka-no-no Reeves

I was digging around just now and found out that Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon! I had no idea. Keanu's one of those actors that I normally wouldn't be able to stand because it 'seems' like he acts the exact same way in every movie he's in and it's not two 'dudes' from the surfer doofus of 'Bill and Ted'. And yet, he just happens to appear in three of my all time favorite movies - 'Bram Stoker's Dracula', 'The Matrix' and 'A Scanner Darkly'. Of course, his accent in 'Dracula' almost made me hate it...but he actually did pretty well in 'Scanner'.

Altered States

The month of December in my personal spiritual journey is ruled by Dionysus, the god of partying, so I've been listening to party music like 'Mama Told Me Not To Come', 'Spill The Wine', 'Got to Give It Up', 'Celebration' and 'What You Waiting For?' but the real meat is the movie choices that go along with this deity. For the wine god, I've chosen movies that involve partying on the good side and drugs on the bad side. Probably the ultimate movie in this list would be 'Boogie Nights' which I watched a couple of nights ago, but last night was 'Altered States' directed by Ken Russell and starting William Hurt and Blair Brown. Blair is currently on the TV show 'Fringe' which I love. She plays the FBI's contact with Massive Dynamic, but this movie came out 30 years ago when she was a fiery young red head. This was William Hurt's first movie starting a period of time where he was a box office star in the 80's. It's based on a book by Paddy Cheyefsky, who also wrote the amazing 'Network' a few years before. Unlike 'Network' which 30 years later still seems very relevent if not prophetic, this movie comes at the end of the 'druggie' 70's. When most people think of drugs they think of the 60's, but that's when they started. In the 70's drugs saturated the culture and spread across the country. The year this movie came out, Reagan was elected President and the drug era came to a screeching halt at least above ground. I was wondering what this movie would look like with today's technology to recreate all the trip scenes, but this movie wouldn't really have an audience now. It still has a lot of interesting concepts though they're probably better understood under the influence of something green. Some of the trip scenes are still pretty amazing and aren't too dated. Bob Balaban, who's been in the Chris Guest movies as well as 'Close Encounters' as the interpreter and a very famous scene in 'Midnight Cowboy' is Hurt's assistant and a very young John Larroquette has a small part as an X-ray technician. My favorite line is when Hurt's just come out of the self-deprivation tank and can't speak so they get X-rays of his neck and show them to the attending physician and he says 'This guy looks like a fucking gorilla'.

Midnight Writing

Well, I've decided to enter the Blogosphere. I figure if I've got this bug to write and don't want to just do my monthly journal and a few short stories that I never finish then I should give this a try. Since I've got my brain cells into all kinds of disparate topics I hope this will be interesting for others to read. I'll try and at least get something in here each day. If anything there's always something political that JFK's my brain at least once a day. I watch and go see a LOT of movies so I'll probably be doing critiques as well on here. I'm no Roger Ebert, but I think I've seen enough movies to have some sort of idea as to what I'm writing about...plus, I like to put things into a historical perspective so it will be a twist on the standard movie review. Since it's this late on a 'school' night I should probably hit the sack.