I didn’t get in my ten rambling minutes this morning, so how about now?
I had the weirdest dream last night: I was sitting in a cardboard box, and by sheer force of will, I was able to make it race along the streets in my neighborhood.
I sped down my block, around the corner, and down three streets to The One With A Hill On It, where I saw my friend sitting on someone’s porch, with three other people (random dream extras from central casting, no doubt.) I waved at him, he waved back at me, and my box sped away. The next thing I knew, I was in Huntington Beach, and the box wouldn’t move any more. Then I woke up.
A different friend (I guess I should just fudge here, and say it was the same friend, but I’ve already typed all this out so I’ll leave it as is) of mine can be described thusly: if we’re having a party, and we invite him, more often than not he’ll tell us that he can’t make it. If we ask him to help us move, or paint, or install sod in the yard, or whatever, he’ll drop whatever he’s doing and be at the door before we hang up the phone. If you have a friend like that, you’re lucky as hell. If you are a friend like that, you rule.
It was sunny, and in the mid-80s here today, a perfect day for getting the hell out of the house. I wrote all morning, then took a huge walk around my neighborhood, where I saw that a lot of my neighbors had the same idea as me. I came home, and with about 90 minutes to spend however I wanted before I got the kids from school, I watched Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket. Man, I really liked this movie, more than Royal Tenenbaums, almost as much as Rushmore. Owen Wilson is a better actor and writer than he gets credit for.
The 90s were a great decade for indie movies, weren’t they? Films like Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, plus Swingers, Pulp Fiction, Dazed and Confused, Party Girl, Office Space, The Day Trippers . . . I’m sure there are more, but these are a few that I can pick right off the top of my head. I remember that we used to joke that there were two kinds of films in the mid-90s: those with Erick Stoltz, and those without. (It was much funnier then, especially among movie geeks, as was its Parker Posey variant.) It was easy to feel inspired back then, because for every Godzilla, there were five Killing Zoes.
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The Day Trippers… excellent film. As for the cardboard box moving by sheer force of will, I love those sort of dreams…the kind that don’t necessarily make sense, but are magical irregardless.
Oh, yeah. Classic Iggy Pop. First heard Souixie & The Banshees cover on KROQ ages ago. Dug it. Then got the original Iggy version. Oh man. [Relatively] clean production vs. lush Souixie version, plus with all of Iggy’s sinister personality and lyrics coming through. Nice.
err. maybe “clean” wasn’t the best descriptor. Perhaps, “simple” would’ve been betta.
Oh, and “The Passenger” is the song title Wil referenced. [Sorry for my prior vagueness.]
My recurring variation of the “racing through the streets” dream is that all the streets, even the hilly ones, are covered with a few inches of water and everyone gets around in speedboats.
Much better than the one where I’m in a zombie-choked streets in a convertible.
Love Anderson, but disagree about “The Royal Ts”. There’s a depth to that movie that his others lack.
“Killing Zoe” rules. One of the first DVDs I bought:
*****************
Eric throws a lit cigarette at Claude which explodes into a mass of sparks. They laugh.
ERIC (to Claude)
That little shit monkey of yours, Darwin, pissed on my Billy Holiday albums. Next time he’s out the door.
You ever wonder where those extras come from? In those few lucid moments, I sometimes stare at them and I swear I don’t recognize them.
I always wonder if they’re the same extras from the grocery store, or if just maybe they’re really original creations.
You know I am so perceptive I’ve noticed that many of your blog entry titles are STOLEN from popular songs.
The cardboard cars are the strangest thing. I’ve been dreaming about those since I was about 16 – at first they were boxes, then when I started driving a ‘sports car’, they became flat sheets of cardboard that I steered by sheer will, with a hand under each front corner. Would often cart my friends or family members around in these cardboard cars during dreams.
I’ve never had a reason to comment on a post before, although I’ve been reading for some time. But I’ve never known anyone to have that sort of dream, the way I do.
I you ask me (which nobody did), Linklater is ten times the director that Tarantino is. Tarantino peaked with Reservoir Dogs, had a solid followup with Pulp Fiction, and he’s been jerking off ever since.
Linklater keeps doing solid work and you can plot his growth from film to film. (ignoring that whole Newton Boys mess) He’s going to be the one we’re still talking about in 20 years.
This has been “my mostly unrelated soapbox for $100”, Alex.
“We meet, again, Truh-bek!”
“I’ve gotta ask you… about the penis mightier…” – D. Hammond as Sean Connery playing Jeopardy is classic.
“No. That’s ‘The Pen is Mightier'”. W. Ferrell as Alex Trebek
“Gussy it up, however you want, Trebek. What matters is, does it work!”
Dazed And Confused: Best movie ever.
Office Space: Better than the Best Movie Ever. (fun fact: I worked in an office EXACTLY like that one. the company’s named was Intek, believe it or not)
Pulp Fiction: Sucked, sucked, UNBELIEVABLY sucked and it’s okay that I think that.
Erick Stoltz: Hot back then, even hotter now. Some Kind Of Wonderful is one of my favorite movies. I was so Watz only I didn’t get the guy in high school. I got him three years AFTER high school.
Glad you mentioned Swingers & Dazed & Confused. Love the special edition of Swingers. Has lots of great features. If you don’t own it, buy it ASAP. I was an office manager for the federal government for nearly 3 1/2 years & my older sister has been a legal secretary for some of the most prestigious law firms for nearly 20 years. So we can relate to Office Space all too well. Shit, we didn’t know whether to laugh or cry the 1st time we saw it.
My other favorite ’90’s indie films :
Whatever – about being a teenager, set in the ’80’s
Living in Oblivion – I love Steve Buscemi. Not afraid to poke fun at itself & the world of indie filmmaking
Last Supper – What happens when you’re a guest at dinner with a handful of liberals & you’re the only Republican? You’ll have to see it to find out.
Love the title of your post from the song “The Passenger.” Must confess I like the Siouxsie & the Banshees version better than Iggy’s.
Carnival of the Celebrities
Wil Wheaton has a strange dream.
And speaking of Steve Buschemi, “In the Soup” was also a great one…
I wish I could have heard the stream; I’m very interested in your opinions regarding gaming. But the stream was too grainy too understand. Hopefully, it’ll be on your mind during those ten minutes a day sometime soon. =)
Two Questions:
1) How often do you do the podcasts? I loved the last one describing the audition, and am looking forward to the next.
2) What is the next book about?
Don
p.s. Another podcast I like about auditions, acting and such is Tim Coyne’s http://hollywoodpodcast.libsyn.com/
I think He and Wil should do a show together. That would e cool!
Heh- heh- hello?
Other great indie film from the 90’s… Clerks.
I really like “The passenger” song. It brings back a very vivid memory of when my Dad was picking me up from school when I was younger and it was playing in his car and it was really sunny and he was tapping his hand off the dashboard along to the beat and singing the words. There was this other song that came on about a girl with brown eyes…hmmm. I can’t quite remember what it’s called but a man with a deep voice sang it.
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Oh my, a second post in the same hour? Jai must have waaaay too much time on his hands! Anyways, in my inevitable bout of ‘geekdom’ as I go about redesigning and sorting out this bloody wonderful blog of mine,…