Brave Heart
Anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq, has threatened to run for Congress against 11-termer, Nancy Pelosi–if the Speaker doesn’t try to impeach Bush & stop the war immediately. This woman has guts.
Anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq, has threatened to run for Congress against 11-termer, Nancy Pelosi–if the Speaker doesn’t try to impeach Bush & stop the war immediately. This woman has guts.
that’s Hollywood–it always has been. Beware of what you dream in the seductive, golden town.
The apparent double suicide of “It” couple, artist Jeremy Blake & writer/ filmmaker/ blogger, Theresa Duncan, is very sad & the odd, mysterious story has yet to fully unfold. It has all the trappings: beautiful, highly-achieved & highly-ambitious people; dashed Hollywood dreams; alleged Scientology tie-ins.
Until early this year, when the pair moved back to NY, they lived, like I, at Venice Beach.I didn’t know them-never heard of them–but apparently a longtime friend of mine, Glenn O’Brien, was their close friend. Blake & Duncan spent their last weekend at Glenn’s country house & he was asked by Jeremy Blake to make the final postmortem entry on Theresa Duncan’s blog. Blake followed his mate into death–days later.
I wonder what their suicide notes said? I wonder about so many things here…
I’ll stay tuned.
I rarely find a new movie that attracts me & there’s no new music I like. The last movie I really liked Team America: World Police…& that was released years ago.
2 of my favorite classic film masters, mid-century modernist Michelangelo Antonioni, & the legendary Ingmar Bergman, just died at great ages. These men were important artists who inspired & influenced so many.
After hearing of Antonioni’s death I was in the office of my Beverly Hills orthopod. Seated next to the reception window, I overheard the name of an iconic producer. Dino De Laurentis was there w/ his leggy blonde wife. In his late-eighties, De Laurentis is the very last of a dying breed. He produced giants like Fellini, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, as well as plenty of big commercial fare. Bravo, Dino. Entertainment is slices of verité now. The big Phil Spector murder trial of victim Lana Clarkson, here in LA, is televised. The best summer movie, I am eager to watch testimony today by action director Michael Bay & anything else they offer up. Prosecutor Alan Jackson & no-nonsense Judge Fidler are new stars!!!
I read an article in Time.com about a book, The End: Jim Morrison, by Sam Bernett. It’s coming out in France. It’s about the untimely demise of Jim Morrison & purportedly clears up what really happened. What do I think about this take on his death? Jim & Pam were both my friends. I was a teenager then and this still remains very sensitive material for me. I was seeing them, in Paris, until days before his death when I returned to LA. Goodbyes (for Jim Morrison) read it here. Immediately after his shocking death I was asked to write about our times there — as a memorial to Jim. My piece details of some of my times with Jim and Pam in Paris. They were good times — but obviously there was much more going on with them than what I was exposed to…
I never believed Jim Morrison died of a routine heart attack. In Paris they both told me (individually) many things. Among other things, Jim told me that he had an ongoing health issue that he’d been seeing a doctor about. He had a sheepish expression when he told me it had to do with his lungs and that he’d been coughing up blood. My final opinion has always been that something like the scenario laid out in this book is what could have happened. And that Pam Courson, whom I had felt cared deeply for Jim and seemingly had wanted only the best for him, unfortunately, may have ended up being the instigator of the whole situation that led to his death. He ALWAYS did what she said: he adored & trusted her so much! I don’t believe she ever planned for that to happen. But she was highly self involved and madly dancing on a precipice: THEIR relationship (i.e. Jim), was not her first concern. For him, new and dangerous things were going on for the first time, SHE told me. Perhaps naively, I thought they loved each other. One thing that Jim told me is that he had countless great plans for the future. Jim should have been strong — and not have gone along with her. WHAT A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY!
P.S. I never talked to Pam again — I chose not to after Jim’s death. As fate would have it I did see her, by coincidence, numerous times (albeit at a distance): she died in LA — in an apartment on N. Sycamore Ave., directly next door to the building where I was living at the time. One night an ambulance awakened me. Only later after reading the morning paper did I realize that the ambulance was carrying the body of Pamela Courson. She was DOA, 3 years after Jim. There was no mystery surrounding her death.
There is more… maybe later.
UPDATE: July 28, 2016. I recently read that Jim fell from the second (or third) story of the Chateau Marmont Hotel on the Sunset Strip. This was late 1970 apparently, not long before he left LA to join Pam in Europe. This certainly may have contributed to the health problems he discussed w/ me. But in Europe, he had become involved in a troublesome new indulgence that definitely could have killed him — and that was solely directed by Pam.
I was looking forward to the new show by comedienne, Chelsea Handler. I had enjoyed her E! show last year. The current offering, Chelsea Lately, again on E!, was a disappointment. Another one down the toilet. Hopefully things will smooth out with time.
UPDATE: CHELSEA’S SHOW HIT IT! WATCH IT ALL THE TIME. SHE’S HILARIOUS AND HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE CHUY? HER FEARLESSNESS IS “BORDERLINE AMAZING” IN THIS WORLD OF PC.
Speaking of that taboo topic, the best are TOTO from Japan! The Japanese have impressed me lately w/ their bathroom technology & engineering. I always said that Lexus was corny but I rode in a big sedan to Palm Springs yesterday. I liked it. It took the lightest touch to close the door & the ride was so smooth & comfortable. They are made in dust-free environments. The Japanese are so clean.
That takes me to the Kyoto Accords, which the US did not ratify, & beyond to a news story today that seemed hopeful. After successfully banning plastic bags in the Baltimore area–we know they take eons to degrade–they are trying to enact this policy statewide in Maryland. Wouldn’t it be great if this movement took root? A miraculous thing happened in Paris– they banned smoking in restaurants!!! I never thought that would happen.