Then and now

"calling 1-8-7 on a motherfucking carp"

The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully

The Rogue Film School will not teach anything technical related to film-making. For this purpose, please enroll at your local film school.

Eight Fragments for Jim Carroll

I

Unlike your average published poet, Jim Carroll was a high-school basketball star in New York City in the 60s. It's how he got a scolarship to a posh Catholic school (there are such things apparently) and how he was, as mentioned in The Basketball Diaries, excited to be playing in a national all-star game because Lewie Alcindor from the neighborhood would also be playing. He certainly would have been a starter in college had he not had other plans. Like heroin.

II

Carroll makes one of the best arguments for drug education. In The Basketball Diaries he mentions thinking that pot was addictive while heroin was not. He did say no to drugs, just the wrong one.

III

His first rock album, Catholic Boy, is one of the greatest punk rock records ever released. Half of the songs are awesome (People Who Died, Catholic Boy, It's Too Late, Nothing is True and Three Sisters) and the rest are okay. I love how in the title track he lists how he has had all the sacraments including EXTREME UNCTION, because he's that much of a badass. The album is so perfect that there was no place to go but down. While he recorded another three discs, none is considered to be nearly as good.

IV

People Who Died has poetic lyrics in the best sense, not in the bullshit poetry-slam sense. This makes it really fun to sing. For instance take this couplet:

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan

The repeated Gs and Rs in the first line and the repeated Ts in the second line provide the rhythm, while rotten and Manhattan are actually perfectly rhymed if you say them as Carroll does without the annoying vowels between the Ts and Ns. It also tells you a lot about the particular situation once you figure out that gimmicks means heroin paraphernalia.

V

Good as Catholic Boy is, The Basketball Diaries is really Carroll's biggest accomplishment. The diary was written while he was still in high school and published when he was 30 in 1978. It is an endlessly re-readable book, mostly because it's really a collection of dozens of perfectly-crafted anecdotes. His follow-up diary, Forced Entries about living in Manhattan in the early 70s is also a great read.

VI

The Basketball Diaries was optioned for film repeatedly from its release to its actual production in 1995. I suspect he made way more money from all the film options than from anything else he ever did.

VII

The movie fails for two reasons: it was predictably turned into an anti-drug message and almost every single character has a bigger presence than star Leonardo DiCaprio. It's hard to suspend disbelief when the guy who's a hoop star/published poet/junkie is about 5' 5", looks about 12 and comes across as a wimp. Among the people who come across better than DiCaprio in this movie are Lorraine Bracco (Melfi, sure), Bruno Kirby (a character actor), Ernie Hudson (another one), Mark Wahlberg (weird, but it was the first hint that he wasn't totally useless), Juliette Lewis (what?!) and Jim Carroll himself (his cameo is pretty awesome actually.)

VIII

There is a good argument to be made that Jim Carroll was the last of the American popular poets (Jewel doesn't count.) As far as poetry goes, this is his best known piece.

Videos Canadians consider cool

On our recent trip to Montreal (which, admittedly, as as much "Canada" as San Francisco is "America"), we stopped in at MAC, the Musée d'Art Contemporain, to check out their exhibit of music videos. Here are the three most interesting.

Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton: Our Hell.



Kaiser Chiefs: Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning). Lovely use of the single shot. And the guy sitting by the Columbus Circle fountain is pointedly reading Viz. Sadly, Big Record doesn't like embedding, so you'll have to watch it here.

And the winner for nerdiest, Grip: zZz is Playing:


There's also a nine-minute making-of piece, so you can see how it's done (Levon, I'm looking in your direction).

26 Reds and a Bottle of Wine

You can add Jim Carroll to the list of People Who Died. I think it's safe to say we won't see a better hoopster/diarist/poet/rocker in our lifetime.

Too Soon?

Hmm...

Bad cop

New stills are up from Werner Herzog's remake Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. While Abel Ferrara is said to be "very angry" about this film (Abel Ferrara vs. Werner Herzog: Smackdown!), and it's saddled with a title that's bound to confuse gamers looking for the next Grand Theft Auto installment, this remake offers "Paycheck" Cage potential redemption from his recent string of playing losers where he is either a freak who knows the future or a freak who knows the future.

"I see your tits in my future"

Let's hope Herzog fights the urge to reprise Harvey Keitel's full frontal. We can do without the Cage take on that.

Seanbaby est dans la maison

This experiment may shock you.
Your favorite song might be
genetically linked directly or
indirectly to “Sussudio.”
We’re all about to see how
thin a line we’re all walking
between enjoying catchy music
and having a family of dicks
hibernating in our mouths.

Luxuriante, chef de brillants, les cheveux en bonne santé

Our new Pantene Pro-V2 line is
ideal for vigorously working
that special someone's member without
the soreness
and discomfort
caused by other shampoos,"
spokeswoman Karen Radcliffe said.

"And I hardly even need to mention
the inherent difficulties
of using exfoliating body scrubs

with oatmeal," Jablonski added.

"I even bought the
extra
soft
companion
chamois,"
Sandford said. "Jerking
[boyfriend] Doug [O'Brien]
off every

single

morning

using L'Oréal conditioner used to be
such a chore.
But with this new Pantene,

Doug's back
to sleep
and I'm off
to class
and looking great in no time.

[Orig]

À la recherche du muffin perdu

Overheard, transcribed, and turned into poetry:

10 seconds
In the microwave and they’re just wonderful.
But they’ve been gone from the machine
for like two weeks.
I mean they’re SO good. And now
They’re not in there.
I don’t know why they’re not in there.

But they’re so good.
Not too rich, not too dry.
Just great.
I think they’re called
Like
McKinleoo’s brand
Or something.

There’s lots of other stuff in the vending machine,
But not those muffins.
They were in the left side, I think.
I don’t know why they’re not in there anymore.
Is it because we changed
To new machines? I really loved them.

Had them all the time.
10 seconds in the microwave.