Bright lights, dark room

I am currently watching Dennis Hopper playing a neo-nazi on an old Twilight Zone episode. Very strange.

I heard this hypnotic old song from Speak and Spell the other night. (I have it on vinyl and therefore have not heard it in eons, since I have nothing to play it on.) Now I can't stop hearing: I.. take.. pictures... photographic... pictures... in my head, over and over, as well as the words of today's blog post title. Bright Lights. Dark Room.

Sharing the dreaded earworm!

Depeche Mode - Photographic



Although I usually agree with Eminem that "don't nobody listen to techno"--I always made exceptions for Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk. I also confess to an enduring love of Dirty Vegas's "Days go by"--something I would not ordinarily admit if I were not watching an ancient Twilight Zone episode.

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

... and my favorite movie Mardi Gras comes courtesy of Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Toni Basil and Karen Black... who I guess really did take acid at the Mardi Gras and decide to put it all in the movie.

Hey, why not?

Note: Peter (and Jane) Fonda's mother committed suicide when they were young, and that appears to be what he is talking about, whilst sitting in the lap of the Blessed Mother statue: "Why did you leave like that?" (approx 4:47 to the end of the segment.) Although you don't need to know that to enjoy the movie, it suddenly becomes a very intense scene if you do know. (Karen Black seems to be having the worst trip of the four of them, and several of her remarks are fairly harrowing, as well.)

My favorite movie acid trip! Probably because it's genuine, and I think you can easily differentiate this one from all the fakers.

Don't eat too much King Cake! We will be discussing penance and Ash Wednesday tomorrow, but today, you can indulge.

Warning, nudity, possibly NSFW.


Mardi Gras - Easy Rider (1969)

A devastating blow to our antiquated systems

The recent election may seem strange, you say. What can possibly be happening to human beings? Well, Jack Nicholson had the answer DECADES AGO, and explained it all... but were we listening? No.

I say, we all listen AGAIN, because it all makes (as that antique-store proprietor on the old Friday The 13th TV series was always saying) A Terrible Sense.

Apparently, they made a lot of this dialogue up on the spot. Dennis Hopper "directed" Easy Rider, so to speak, and the "script" was officially credited to Peter Fonda, Hopper and Terry Southern. I credit Fonda for bringing "Wow!" into the adult lexicon; before this time, "Wow!" was mostly reserved for children and comic books. Fonda's famous stoned "Wow!"s made the quiet utterance of "Wow!" cool--and we haven't shed this verbal habit since.

We now know that in real life, the situation (in the movie) was likely reversed, and it was Jack that probably showed Peter Fonda how to smoke weed.

Proposition 19, Rest in Peace.

~*~

"If they're so smart, why don't they just reveal themselves and get it over with?"

"Why don't they reveal themselves to us? Because if they did reveal themselves it would cause a general panic."

I'd say they revealed themselves, at long last, yesterday.

~*~

Jack Nicholson explains things - excerpt from Easy Rider (1969)

Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

I mean, what are they gonna say, man, when he's gone, huh? When he dies, when IT dies, man; cause when IT dies, HE dies. What are they gonna say about him? What, are they gonna say, he was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom? Bullshit, man!

Am I gonna be the one to set them straight? Look at me: wrong!!!

--From Apocalypse Now, script credited to John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Herr, based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness... but if you know anything about the making of the movie (which was a whole movie unto itself!), you know that (unsurprisingly) Dennis made up lots of what he said, since he had trouble sticking to the script (so he didn't).

I don't know if he was a kind man, or a wise man. I know that he did have wisdom and he did have plans.

~*~



In this informative segment, Dennis explains why you can't go out into space with fractions:



Goodbye dearest Dennis.

I felt like I knew you... and so many others just like you.