Saturday, October 31, 2009

Cows, Flags, Run-DMC, Cannon Films

"Whiskey is now tested by the distance a man can walk after tasting it. The new liQuor called Tangle Leg is said to be made of diluted alcohol, nitric acid, pepper, and tobacco, and will upset a man at a distance of 400 yards."
--- Sir Richard Burton, The City of the Saints

I'm working on a movie in Dallas, and like all the movies I've worked on here, we're shooting in an abandoned ranch-house. So there are a lot of cows randomly wandering around while we're shooting and I can't stop looking at them. They have hypnotic powers. I find myself staring into their eyes, and attempting to contemplate their unfathomable souls. I think I understand why the Hindus like them. They are the zen masters of the barnyard.



Before I left Seattle I noticed that there are a lot of crosswalks which have these buckets of orange flags on either side. These are for people to pick up and use to alert cars that they are crossing the street. These Seattle people truly have no shame. Safety first!















There is this stencil-graffiti near my parents' house in Dallas that I have always really liked. I don't even like graffiti; I think it's the gayest poseur shit ever invented for white people to do. However, this one has always appealed to me. Really I just like it so much because I'm amazed that it has been there, undisturbed, for something like 20 years at least. Every time I come to Dallas I go by and make sure they haven't torn down that wall or that some little fuck-face hasn't tagged some scribbly bullshit over it. It is the bedrock of my life, and I'm pretty sure I'll die the day they tear down the wall.























Lifeforce
--- I've been trying to watch a lot of the Cannon Group films. They were a production company started by these Israeli Jews named Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. They were basically responsible for every over-the-top awesome bad action movie of the 70's and 80's, including a movie called Over the Top which is a movie written by Sylvester Stallone about competitive arm-wrestling. Lifeforce is about space-vampires and the first third or so of the movie is a naked lady.

Over The Top --- Rather boring movie considering how excited I was to see it again. ( I saw it in the theater in 1987.) Sly Stallone plays a truck driving competitive arm-wrestler who is trying to reconnect with his son. He has a special arm-wrestling move called OVER THE TOP.

Cobra --- Oh yeah. Stallone wrote this too. I think he has the intellect and interests of an eight year old boy. He gives himself all of these dumb looking weapons and guns that look made up and like something a 15 year old nerd would draw. Dude has to track down a murder-cult(cool.)


Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus