Recollections Of Madness

It's been a few days now. Is that right? Three nights? Two? Four? Well, regardless, the Madness has passed. For now. The chains are off. The drugs have kicked in (or worn off - it's hard to tell), and things are back to Normal. But in another six months... Well, we'll worry about that later.

Yes, every sixth months or so, the Madness overtakes us, and we wander around Los Angeles County in packs, searching for meaning - or at least for clues. Blame Walt Disney. Blame David Wechter and Michael Nankin. Blame David Daskal. But don't blame us - we're helpless (and often hopeless) victims of Madness.

So what can i tell you? It started at Golf 'N' Stuff, down in... Norwalk, i think. Nothing is certain. Teams got the first clue a month ago, and that led us all to the mini-golf place. But first we met at John and Beth's apartment - around 9:45 p.m. At 10:08 we got a call from Central Command, asking us our guess as to the first location. Jeremy, our team leader, said Golf 'N' Stuff, which was right. We were told to hurry on down there, because we were going to be playing a round of mini-golf before getting the first clue - that meant, before midnight. So we packed everything into the car that Jeremy and Brian had rented - fully insured so we could kick the shit out of it if we wanted to, or needed to - and rushed down.

Brian backed the car into a spot right by the exit, so that we could race out of there as soon as we got the next clue. The car was full of beer, caffeine, maps, snacks and tiny flashlights. But before we got into the beer, there was a round of mini-golf to be played.

Kate gave us our tickets, and Cynthia escorted us in. She asked us if we wanted to do the easy or difficult course. I thought, Easy. So did Jeremy. Brian and John agreed. But then Beth shamed us all into choosing the difficult course. When was the last time i played mini-golf? I think it was maybe eight or nine years ago. With my parents. My hometown - Sterling, Mass. - got a mini-golf place around that time, and we tried it out. I'm pretty sure that was the last time i did it. Maybe that was fifteen years ago - i don't know - time is a tricky thing. But i did all right - my score for the course was 49. Par was 52. Not bad. I mean, my ball never left the course, though it did once get stuck in one of the holes. Beth's ball ended up in the river, but we managed to get it out after wrestling with an angry alligator.

When we were done, there was time for a drink while the other teams finished up. We had two coolers full of beer in the trunk of the car, so we hung out by the car until the call came in for the teams to gather. There was also the ceremonial fingernail-painting. Beth had glow-in-the-dark nail polish, and so it was applied so that we'd be able to see each other in the dark. Something like that.

Ryan, the Madness Coordinator for Round Five, went over the rules, and also mentioned that Kate had lost her wallet at one of the locations, so to keep an eye out for that. It sucks to lose a wallet, but if a wallet is ever going to be found, it's best to have fifty people scouring the areas with flashlights, and that's what was going to happen. Yup, ten teams this time - the most of any scavenger hunt so far - ten teams of five people each. Each team has a different color. We had gold this time. Last time we were purple, and the three times before that we were green. So our shirts are gold, and our clues are on gold paper. No fucking with another team's clues. That's one of the rules.

I've never read the rules. And i'm pretty sure no one on our team has ever read them. But they go over the rules at the beginning of each game anyway, and we sort of pay attention, so it's fine. One clue leads to the next location, where you find the next clue, and so on.

The teams with the five best golf scores got a five-minute head start on the other five teams. We had the third best golf score - after White Team and Green Team. So we got our clue and ran to the car.

Second clue (the first being the one that led us to Golf 'N' Stuff): "Now crank up track #1 and go to the last of its kind in LA County."

Each team got a mix CD. Track #1 was by At The Drive-In. So away we went. Our team was nicknamed Team Apathy. Instead of our names on the backs of our shirts we had words like "indifferent" and "whatever." Mine said, "impartial." But that didn't mean we were going to drive under 80 miles per hour the whole way. At the drive-in, we scattered. I took off down along the fence, but within seconds i heard shouting, and returned to the car.

Third clue: "What's up, Whitey? As the sun goes down over that six-mile fountain, you might find James Joyce and Michael Bolton playing chess while Beck eats a jelly-filled."

Beth and John got this right away, because they'd been to this doughnut shop before, and they have a friend who plays chess there. So we spent no time at all trying to figure this clue out. The place is at the corner of Sunset and Fountain (as the clue hints at) - across the street from Ackbar. The stuff about James Joyce and Michael Bolton - well, they're mentioned in the lyrics of a song by Beck that's about that area. Beth figured the clue would be taped under one of the tables in the courtyard. So while Brian parked the car, the other four of us split up - Beth and i going to the courtyard, Jeremy and John searching outside. The next clue was outside. And we were in first place. Nine other clues were still there. As Beth and i ran out, some guy was playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on guitar. As i passed him, i said, "Now play 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road.'"

Fourth clue: "I never met a man I didn't like. / I want to say that I have no problem with people knowing that I'm in a relationship with a man right now. I have not been in a relationship with a woman for almost 10 years."

The first line was by Will Rogers. But there are a lot of Will Rogers locations in Los Angeles County, so while that narrowed it down, it didn't tell us precisely where to go. The second bit is a quote from George Michael. Right away we knew it was that special bathroom in Will Rogers Park. Anytime i work at Fox Studios, i pass that park, so i knew right where it was. There was no quick way of getting there, so we took Fountain all the way to La Cienega, then cut down that to Santa Monica, then turned up Beverly - to avoid most of the traffic on both Santa Monica and Sunset. The clue was on the wall just outside the men's bathroom. And we were still in first place.

Fifth clue: "34.128307, -118.228514 Don't do something stupid like stopping in the middle of the freeway."

We pulled over near the park (but not so close that another team would see us), and used Google Earth to figure out the coordinates. You know that song "The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie? It starts off, "Why are there so many songs about rainbows?" Well, how many songs about rainbows can you name? There's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Judy Garland, "She's A Rainbow" by The Rolling Stones, "She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow" by Cream. And that's all i can think of off the top of my head. Anyway, that song keeps popping into my noggin, especially since Halloween when i saw an odd rendition of it performed on a stage in Santa Monica. Anyway, back to the Madness...

That clue led us to the Highland Park area. No quick way to get there either. The GPS or something said to take Sunset all the way to Highland, but that made no sense. What we should have done is take Coldwater over. But by the time we realized that, we were already on Sunset, so we took Laurel Canyon over to the 101, to 134, to 5 South, to 2 North, and got off at Verdugo. I am familiar with this area, because that's the exact route i took to The Peak Show Studio Compound back when that band threw the best house parties ever (seriously, there has never been anything like those nights, and there most likely never will be again). But instead of turning right onto York to get to The Peak Show house, we took a left, and that led us to a footbridge that goes over the highway. Beth found the clue, and away we went. We were now in second place. Or maybe third? Were we ever in third? I'm not sure. But we were definitely no longer in first place.

We pulled over into a parking lot to read the next clue.

Sixth clue: "The 2nd largest country in the world is only the 36th most populated. 2010 * A = ____ - B = ____/F = ____ * 2 = ____ - 1020 = ___/D = ____ *E = ___ +17= _____ - 4000 = ____ - C = _____.
A = Clue # that lead you to Tang's
B = Year Midnight Madness was released in Theaters
C = Number of tracks on the official LA Madness V Mix CD
D = Number of days in this month of November
E = Final page number in your official LA County Street Atlas
F = Standard number of players on a Scavenger Madness Team
CORN SEEDS AND GAS
CEASED GRANDSONS
SEND DRAGON CASES"

Someone shouted out "Canada," so i said, "La Canada." And we did the math, but it led us to a page that didn't exist. And John figured out the anagram in like three seconds, and away we went. We grabbed the clue at the park, and were still in second place (behind the Orange Team).

Seventh clue: "Ssh! You're headed for a nice, quiet neighborhood! But don't worry... this ain't a creepy crawl mission. In fact, the original house doesn't even exist anymore! Trent took the door when he left, but you just need to find the wall near the telephone pole that Tex climbed in '69."

The second i saw "creepy crawl," i knew it was the Tate house. "Head back to Beverly Hills," i said. I couldn't remember the address offhand, and it occurred to me it could be the other house as well, except that i don't think Tex Watson climbed a pole outside that second house. I guess no one else on our team had read or seen Helter Skelter, and actually i had just watched Live Freaky! Die Freaky! in which the Manson murders are re-enacted by puppets.

We took 134 to 101 to Coldwater Canyon, and took that over the hill back to Beverly Hills, and actually turned right at the park - passing the George Michael toilet again. The Orange Team passed us going the other way, so we knew they'd already found the clue. But we had some trouble finding the house, which doesn't exist. Apparently there are two Cielo Drives. We stopped at the first one, and started searching around. There was, in fact, a telephone pole near a wall, and i briefly ended up on someone's property, but quickly realized Ryan wouldn't hide the clues there. (David might, but Ryan wouldn't.) So we continued up the hill - me and John. Jeremy and Brian went back to the car, and then drove past us up the hill. But they missed the turn to the actual spot.

If you got a Delorian and traveled back in time to when you were six years old and then buggered yourself, could that be considered child abuse? Or just self-abuse?

Lon was parked on the side of the road, so i knew we were in the right spot. At that point, John was up ahead - why didn't he talk to Lon? I don't know. Beth was behind me. So, figuring that the road to my left was actually a driveway, i started running up it. But it was a road, and i ran out of energy pretty quickly. Up ahead was a car and five people. At first i took them to be one of the other teams, but it was some of the folks from the other house up there - i guess there had been a party. "Where is the Tate house?" i asked them. "Right at the end," the guy said. So i ran down there, grabbed the clue, and started back. As i passed those folks again, the guy asked, "Are you on a scavenger hunt?" "Yes," i said. "I knew it," a woman shouted happily. "If anyone else comes your way, tell them they've gone the wrong way and send them back down the hill," i said. But they refused to do that. As we were heading down the hill, we saw Grey Team searching by the gate and wall where we first searched.

Eighth Clue: "Between The Mermaid and The Sea Sprite," (And there was a crossword puzzle.)

Brian very quickly realized that The Mermaid and The Sea Sprite were both motels down in Hermosa Beach, so that's where we headed. On the way we tried to solve the crossword puzzle. John, i think, suggested that maybe where words intersected, those letters would spell out the exact location of the next clue. It seemed logical. After we solved three or four of the crossword clues, Brian said he thought that all the puzzle was doing was leading us to Hermosa Beach, which is where we were going anyway, and that we didn't need to finish the puzzle. He was sort of right, though some of the puzzle clues did mention the statue where the clues were hidden. But we never did finish the puzzle, and we found the clue anyway. Brian found that one, if i recall correctly. And when he grabbed it, he ripped it, so two or three pieces of the clue were left behind, and he had to run back to retrieve them. We then taped the page back together to read the ninth clue.

Ninth Clue: "Calabaza (ka.la.ba.sa.) f. pumpkin, squash; goard; an ignorant person.
Find the place where the virgins and Hindus meet."

Immediately we knew we were going to Calabasas, so we started driving north again. And there is a Hindu temple on Las Virgenes. Ryan and i had driven right by there a month or two ago, when we were working on a low-budget production called Gemini Rising, so i knew which exit to take and so on. We found the clue immediately, and got back in the car. We were still in second place.

Tenth Clue: "Have a bite with the Mayor of the Sunset Strip in his own booth."

John right away was thinking a Denny's in Hollywood, so we headed in that direction. He said The Mayor of the Sunset Strip was Rodney something. And i was like, of course, Rodney Bingenheimer. He was Davy Jones' stand-in on The Monkees television series. Anyone who knows me at all knows i'm a huge fan of The Monkees. And i once met Rodney at a screening of Head. Anyway, Brian or John figured out that he has a special booth at Canter's, so that's where we went.

When we got there, most of the Orange Team was on the sidewalk outside the place. We had caught up to them. They didn't seem in any hurry to go in, so Beth and i headed for the door. That seemed to spur Orange Team on inside as well. I went straight to an employee and asked which booth was Rodney's. She pointed it out to me, so Beth and i went to it and looked underneath the table. But there were no clues. Beth suggested we call Ryan - thinking that maybe this was like that place in Long Beach last time where you had to call in and after forty-five minutes someone would hand us the next clue. I had to take a pee, so i went upstairs to the loo.

When i came back down, i learned it was all over. Ryan and Kate were waiting in the other room of Canter's, and Orange Team went to that room first. So we came in second. It had never been that close before. Team Apathy decided to go back outside and have a few beers while we waited for the other teams to arrive. The next to arrive was Grey Team, and soon after them came Purple Team. Then there was another long wait before Green Team arrived. And then still another long wait before the other teams came. And by then the sun was up, and many people were asleep.

After Red Team and Blue Team arrived, Ryan called in the other three teams. We had to be out of Canter's by 9:30 or something. We had arrived just before 5:30 a.m. By the time we left it was 8:30 a.m. But we left with trophies. And fortunately for us, we had all parked over at John and Beth's place, which wasn't too far from Canter's. I was home by 9:30 a.m. Another night of Madness was over.

Armistice Day, Not Veterans Day

Tomorrow, November 11th, is Armistice Day. A lot of people have forgotten this, and that's due to the government changing the name to Veterans Day. The word "armistice" means a stopping of war by mutual agreement - that is, a peace. A "veteran" is someone who served in the military. Obviously, these are two very different things.

Armistice Day is the anniversary of the day in which peace was declared between the Allies and the Central Powers at the end of World War I in 1918. (You might remember this being mentioned in school - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month - ring any bells?) That's what the day celebrates - an end to war. And isn't that something worth celebrating?

By changing the name to Veterans Day, it changes the entire attitude. Rather than celebrating peace, the day now celebrates those who fight in wars (or rather, those who have fought in wars). By changing the name, it's like we're giving up on peace, and considering it as an unattainable goal. There will be never be peace, but there will always be people who fight in wars, so let's celebrate them. By calling the day Veterans Day, you're acknowledging that. After all, World War I was the Great War, the war to end all wars. And clearly it didn't do that. So let's give up on the idea of peace, and instead celebrate those who engage in war. It's seriously messed up.

By the way, most of the rest of the world still calls it Armistice Day (or Remembrance Day). It's only the United States that does stupid shit like change the name. So tomorrow, wish people a happy Armistice Day.

27 Dresses

I watched a terrible film tonight called 27 Dresses. The acting is fine. The directing is fine. The lighting is fine. But the script is absolute garbage. It's the sort of thing that reinforces the idea that women are silly creatures that should be kept gagged in tiny cages (and certainly not allowed to write anything).

I followed it up with an excellent movie called Burn After Reading. So now all is well in my universe. Thank you, Joel and Ethan Coen.

Ways In Which "Kick-Ass" Sucks

1. First of all, the guy wears glasses, but when he's dressed as Kick-Ass he takes them off. He does not put in contact lenses. And this is not Superman. He actually needs the glasses. So how is he able to see, for example, when he flies the jet pack and shoots at the bad guys through the windows near the end?

2. Does anyone believe for a second that the teenage girl works at a needle-exchange program? And even if she does volunteer there, it would be on a Saturday afternoon with a lot of adult supervision, and she'd be filing forms or something. There is no way she'd be there alone at night. No fucking way.

3. The tone of this film is all over the place. Is it a fun, silly comic book movie? Is it a teen comedy? Is it a mob movie? Is it a serious family drama? Is it an over-the-top action film? It seems like five different editors were given various sections to edit, and each of them was told the film was a different genre. Or maybe five different directors.

4. How did Nicholas Cage begin to pay for all of his weapons? Remember, he was in jail for five years, and before that he worked as a police officer. Sure, in the film, we see them steal money from drug dealers. But what about before that - how did he pay for his costume and everything to start with? But that also brings up another issue - those drug dealers looked like small-time lowlifes, but apparently they had millions of dollars in their apartment.

5. What's the deal with the teenage girl assuming that the boy is gay just because two thugs beat him up? Did that make sense to anyone? Does every gay person get attacked by thugs? Is that how you know someone is gay? I fucking hate this movie.

6. So when did Nicholas Cage develop his skill as a comic book artist? While working on the police force? Or during his five years in prison? And when his old police partner shows up at his house and sees his work, it's in an actual comic book form, all professionally put together and everything. So did Nicholas Cage hire a company to actually produce his work? And wouldn't that perhaps give away his plan to kill all of those people, since that's what the comic book is about?

7. The writer had troubles with math. At the beginning we see Kick-Ass, and there is voice over that leads us to six months earlier, when it all started. But then in that voice-over which takes place six months earlier, he says, "Over the next 18 months." Okay, so that takes us a year beyond our point of entry. A year into the future. Dumb-fuck writer.

8. The voice over at the beginning is from the guy and he says he's not a jock, he's not a nerd, he's not this, he's not that. Basically it's saying he has no identity. And then in the film he takes on the fake identity of a super hero. But the film never addresses that issue, of a teen finding and molding his own identity. If the film had decided to stick with its more serious tone, it could have explored this issue and it might have been an interesting film.

9. This movie has absolutely no idea what its target audience is. You would think it's aimed at 12 and 13 year old boys. But it's rated R. So those kids can't see it. So then you have to assume it's aimed at adults. But if it's aimed at adults, then why have all the stupid shit that the kids will identify with?

10. Has anyone ever been to a comic book store that also has a restaurant in it? Comic book store owners are seriously paranoid about the condition of the comics. There is no way they'd want food anywhere near the comics.

11. The CG flat-out sucks. How about that ridiculous shot of Nicholas Cage on fire? Did a child draw those flames in? I think so.

12. Sorry, but I don't want to see a mob boss punching an 11-year-old girl in the face. I just don't.

13. There is that stupid scene where one person (in this case a child) runs down a hall and manages to kill like a dozen or more professional killers without getting even a scratch (though they're all shooting at her).

14. How old is Hit Girl anyway? At some point in the movie someone says she looks like she's eleven. That seems about right. But at the end she's going to high school. So is she fourteen? She doesn't look it.

Okay, this is all just off the top of my head. There is a lot more wrong with this stupid film, but i need to get on with my day.

A Bargain

Dear God, i will totally begin worshiping you if you send $400 my way. Actually, i will extend that offer to everyone. Four hundred bucks. I will worship you. Seriously. And you can tell people at work (or wherever you are), "Hey, there is a guy in Los Angeles that worships me." How many people can say that? (Well, that will depend on how many people send me $400.) And if you send me $400 and God doesn't, then you'll be one up on God. Now that's got to be worth $400.

Radio

The radio is being so kind to me tonight. Marty Sexton, Richard Thompson and now Greg Brown. Ah, 88.5, you're the best.

This weekend has been filled with good music. The Brian Kinler Band did an amazing show at Vitello's friday night. And then saturday The Evangenitals did a really cool set at an art gallery. A real sweet version of "Que Queg" was one of the highlights.

My Mom

My mom still says she's putting on her face when she means she's applying makeup, and she's putting her eyes in when she's putting in her contact lenses. Yes, she sure has some strange ideas about law enforcement.

Anita & The Yanks

St. Patrick's Day is one of the two holidays that i love (the other of course being Halloween). Tonight was great. I got turned on to a new band: Anita & The Yanks. They're wonderful. After their first set i went up to Anita and told her that their version of "Fairytale In New York" was the best i'd ever heard. (And who expected to hear that song on St. Patty's Day?) And i asked her to play "Seven Drunken Nights." She asked me to sing a bit of it to her to remind her of it, so i did. And she said it's a great song, but that they don't know it. But then guess what? Toward the end of the second set, she said they'd play it, and the owner of the pub got up to sing lead on it. It was great. Sure, it was only six nights. And sure, we had to prompt him on certain nights (a pipe, a head). But it was wonderful. And then they ended their second set with a great "Fields Of Athenry" with a bit of Yes thrown in for good measure. (Oh, and earlier they had actually done a kick-ass version of "Baba O'Reilly." Seriously.) Great band. I can't wait to see them again. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone.

Car Corpse And Cops

Whenever i'm walking home late at night every car i pass seems to have someone seated in the passenger's seat. I always think it's a corpse, left there carelessly by a hurried relative.

Also, i cross streets whenever it's safe to do so because i'm from Massachusetts. Here people actually wait for the light that tells them to cross. I can never get used to that. I hope i'm never stopped by a cop for something so tame. But i remember the advice my mom gave me years ago. Whenever a cop bothers you, just rub yourself against a nearby bush because cops hunt by sense of smell. My mom has a lot of interesting ideas about law enforcement.

I Accept CDs and DVDs, But Will Have To Check My Address Before You Send Them

If anyone has a CD or movie he or she would like me to review, send me an email. I'm always happy to get turned onto new music or films.

I feel like pointing out at this time that i am not certain of anything. Not even my own address, though i've lived in this apartment for something like ten years. I needed to send my address to someone in order to receive some CDs, and i felt a need to check it first. I had a letter that was recently sent to me, and i looked at the address on it. I figured, well, this letter reached me so the address must be correct. Is this normal?

I also have this issue whenever i send stuff to my parents. And that's an address that was mine for the first eighteen years of my life. Why am i uncertain of it? The thing is, i never get it wrong. It's just that it never looks right.

Still, i am able to state my opinions on the merits of any album or film. So there's that.

Reviewing Good CDs and Bad Films

I was finally able to publish my article after cutting out another 164 words. Ouch. Oh well, it had to be 1,000 words, no more.

Now i'm listening to a Grateful Dead CD and writing a review of it. It would be great if i could actually make some sort of living by listening to great CDs and watching bad movies and writing about them all. It's odd, but i don't really enjoy writing about bad CDs or good movies. Though i have of course written some articles about good movies (such as The Royal Tenenbaums and The Hotel New Hampshire). But it's so much more fun to write about such nonsense as The Creeping Terror and D-War and Horror House On Highway 5.

I don't know if anyone is reading these posts, but if there are any requests, let me know. That is, if there are any bad movies you'd like me to review, i'm totally into that. Of course, i do need to start making money at this before i can start buying DVDs of bad movies, so maybe you should hold off on this. It's just an idea anyway.

I wish i could also review fur coats somehow. How can i get paid to try on furs? If anyone knows, pass on that information please. Thanks.

Suite 101 Won't Let Me Publish My Article

I'm trying to publish a review of the terrible film The Creeping Terror. I keep getting a message from Suite 101, saying my article is too long. This happened once before, with my review of Blood Angels. In that case, i just cut a few lines, and even though it was still longer than the recommended length, the article was published. This time it just keeps telling me the same thing: "Your article is very long - 1164 words. Please edit to focus it around a specific search phrase or consider breaking the article into 2 or more interlinked stand alone articles. The recommended length per article is 400 - 800 words."

The key word there is "recommended." It's recommended, not required. So fucking hell, publish the damn thing. I've already cut more than i wanted to.

Review Of "Cop Out"

Why? Why? Why? Why? Kevin Smith, seriously, why? Why? Why? Why? Bruce Willis, why? Why? What happened? Dear god, why? Kevin Smith, are you okay? Do you need some money? I don't have much, but you're welcome to crash on my couch. Oh, why why why why why why why why why?

Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" Is Actually Boring

Well, today i saw Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland." It's pretty disappointing. He took Alice and made her like twenty years old, so right away the sense of wonder that a child would have is gone. Also, in this story, she's been having a nightmare about Wonderland since she was a child - the same dream over and over. So when she gets to Wonderland, it's familiar to her. That too takes away from the sense of adventure and excitement. Also, she assumes it's a dream, so she's not afraid. She doesn't feel that she's in any danger, and so we don't fear for her either. Basically, nothing that happens there matters to her, and so none of it matters to us.

In an early scene, when she was a child, her father had told her that she can pinch herself to wake herself up. But when she tries that and it fails to work, she doesn't panic. Wouldn't that at least freak her out? Wouldn't she start to be scared? No, because she's still convinced that she's dreaming.

It's a shame, but this version of "Alice In Wonderland" is boring.

It does look cool, but there is almost too much to look at. Instead of Tim Burton picking a few things to make interesting, a few things for us to look at, a few things to dazzle Alice, he basically fills the screen with stuff. And so because there is so much, it all blends together, and nothing sticks out at all. It's like a cool painting that you want to look at for a few minutes and then move on. (Also, i saw it in 3D, so it was like a painting that jumped out at me, and when i was done with it, kept on jumping out.)

However, Helena Bonham Carter is really good as the Red Queen. She is totally enjoyable. And Johnny Depp is good as the Mad Hatter. And actually Mia Wasikowska is fine as Alice. None of the actors are to blame for this film not working. No, it's Tim Burton's fault. Tim Burton has made one excellent film, "Ed Wood." And he's made a few good films, such as "Edward Scissorhands." But this one, sadly, falls flat. How can someone make "Alice In Wonderland" boring? Well, take out the sense of wonder. And that's what Tim Burton did.

Listening to the Grateful Dead. A thirty-nine minute version of "The Other One" from 1972. I'll be posting a review of this recording on Suite 101, but for now i'm just enjoying it. I love Phil's bass line in this song, always have.

Tomorrow is the long drive to Hawthorne (where?) for a fitting for something they're calling "Manhattan." Of course there already was a film with that title - one of my favorite films of all time - so you can bet that title won't be the one attached to this movie when it's released. A confidentiality agreement prohibits me from revealing the real name of the film (wait, i haven't yet signed that agreement, so... No, i need the work).

But Hawthorne? The fitting is on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Ave. A long drive for a wardrobe fitting in a car with no stereo.

It's four in the morning, i've just created this page, and i'm already thinking of changing the name. How do i do this? The cord to my computer is making a high-pitched whining sound, and i'm exhausted. It's four in the morning. (How many songs can you think of that take place at four in the morning? Right now i can think of only two.) Anyway, here, it's done, created, so i'm off to bed. There is a giant furry coat on my bed. Thus the name. I guess the name stays. For now anyway.