February 25, 2014

February 25, 2014

Last full day in Los Angeles.  Need to pose for photos for my next book.  Need to decide what to bring.  Close the chapter in my life here, now that I have a life without a turntable or big screen TV.   Onward to life on Meguro Dori, and watching the cherry blossoms do their thing, and eventually like the others, become totally obsessed with photographing the moment the cherry colored flowers become ripe and… eventually fall on the pavement and die.

One thing I learned from life is that we can’t all sing like Enrico Caruso.  Yet, through my parents, I went to a school that was very much under the influence of Rudolf Steiner.  The Waldorf education allowed the student to creatively play instead of forcing one to learn or study.  Here I learn the human being consists of body, soul, and spirit. Therefore why not sing like Caruso!

But as a child when I opened my mouth, it came out what some say is noise.  As a student I just want to convey to the grown ups that noise is just unorganized sounds looking for a melody.   Over a period of years, the people around me disagree with that theory that I obtained from the Steiner school.   At this time, I chose to keep my mouth shut, and allow my creativity flow through the pen on paper.  As a kid I pretty much admired the works of Karl May, who wrote westerns that took place in the wild west, but in actually was a writer from Germany, and he never been to America.  Taking him on as a literary model, sort of made me the Eddie Constantine of literature.

One of the hardest things to do as a writer who doesn’t work for a living is to convince others that I am worthwhile something… maybe important.   One of my favorite films is “Billy Liar” starring Tom Courtenay.  He plays a northern soul who tells everyone that he’s going to London to make it big, but alas, he fails.  It is with this sense of failure that stays in my mind as I leave for Tokyo.  I need to finish a manuscript when I am over there, because basically I have nothing else to live for.   Right now I’m the cherry blossom that is on the verge of blooming, but if I don’t handle myself properly, I can easily become a dead flower on the ground.

February 6, 2014

February 6, 2014

Today I just finished reading Audrey Wollen’s 'Erotics 2’ and was totally charmed by the book. I bought it at the Los Angeles Book Fair, an event put together by Printer Matter. For me, the only purpose for going was to get Audrey’s book. I was wishing I would see her at the fair, and have her sign my copy of the book, but alas, I missed her.

I think I first met Audrey when she was five or six years old. Lun*na and I were invited numerous times over to Peter Wollen and Lesile Dick’s home in Beverly Glen for dinner, and often we were entertained by Audrey. At the time, she was a very smart child, who appeared to be curious about the world. Now I believe Audrey is somewhere in her very early 20’s and she still appears to carry the same curiosity that made her such a remarkable child. Reading her first book I was struck with its sexuality, yet I was totally intrigued by how she wrote about her life. Or is it her life? I really don’t know the connection between reality and fiction. Nor do I really care, I am more interested in how the tale is told than anything else. And she can tell a tale quite well. 

After reading her book, I took a walk around Silver Lake, where eventually I ended up at the Silver Lake reservoir. There was a small crowd of people there, honoring Ronald Reagan due that today is his official holiday in California and Wisconsin. It seemed appropriate to me that the weather is so chilly, and when I think of Ron, a cold chill comes upon me quite violently, that I find myself shaking. Through out my life I made an effort to ignore Reagan, in fact, I was in Japan when he made his famous speech to demolish the Berlin Wall.

As soon as I got back from the walking trip, I had a meeting with Pierre Brice, a French actor who is going to act as Apache chief Winnetou in a German co-production based on a novel by Karl May. I was contracted to write a script, and immediately I started to research Tom Mix, who used to live in the Silver Lake area. In fact, he had a ranch, down the hill from me, which is now Ralphs supermarket. I was thinking of taking an older Tom Mix film “The Son of the Golden West” and using its plot for the Winnetou film. So far Pierre played this character seven times, so right now, everyone involved in this production feels like this will be the final film in the series. 

Writing an adventure tale or a Western is not all that difficult for me. I think what gives me a hand is that I don’t know a thing about the real West. The West to me is very much the TV shows like “Rawhide, ” “Walt Disney’s Zorro, ” and my personal fave “Wild Wild West.” In my mind I often think that the British TV series “The Avengers” is very much a Western. I don’t see a huge difference between James West and John Steed. Both characters are dandies, and they never seem to get dirty, even though they have numerous fighting scenes throughout their shows, they come off quite clean and hair in place. I dare to hope that life works out that way as well.

The one thing I am very proud of is that while writing the script I somehow added the fact that Winnetou is reading Audrey’s little book. Only the fans will pick up on this. Later tonight I will go over to a local bar to watch the Manchester United Football team. I believe they play a match with the Red Star Belgrade.