You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'Withnail and I'

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

  • April 24, 2012 3:52 am

An acquaintance of mine from high school, someone I reconnected with at our reunion this last summer, forwarded me an article from the British newspaper The Guardian entitled

“Top Five Regrets of the Dying.”

I was riveted.

My friends and I – most of us in the midst of raising families and in the middle of our careers – have been comparing notes on things like “meaningfulness,” “boredom,” “regret,” “legacy,” “enthusiasm,” “peace of mind,” etc.

Y’know, mid-life shit.

The natural buoyancy of youth is gone, the bemused contentment (at least that’s how I picture it) of old age isn’t here yet, but we still have lots of fight left in us.  We’re just trying to figure out what’s worth fighting for.

Mythbusters: Day Jobs

  • September 10, 2010 3:20 am

Most of my employees at the bars are twenty something hipsters taking one or two classes at a junior college somewhere, making ends meet and constantly bemoaning the fact that they just don’t have enough free time to do what they really want to do.  And what they really want to do usually involves making jewelry, being in a band, writing a poem or a memoir, or becoming a fashion designer or hair stylist.

Well: I’m here to burst their bubble!

And anyone else’s who thinks their day jobs are getting in the way of their dreams.  You see, I have been to the top of the free-time mountain, and I am happy to report it has absolutely no bearing on your creative life.

The Bliss List

  • September 3, 2010 3:08 am

The things that bring me a moment’s bliss have this in common: I lose myself, I forget myself, time evaporates.  It’s not that I don’t particularly like being myself, it’s that, hell, that’s where I’m stuck 24/7, and it’s nice to take a vacation every once in a while!

So, Five Random Things That Bring Me Bliss…

1. Laughing so hard my throat and stomach ache.   It’s what happens when, for example, I run into old high school friends and all we do is quote lines from movies (okay, mostly Withnail and I) to each other.   Literally, we can go half an hour without having a shred of real conversation.

Bande à part

  • February 24, 2010 2:02 am

I’ve often communed with outsiders – whether they’re white, black, Asian, gay, Jewish, etc., they are the black sheep, the double agent, the freak, the geek, the offender, the one who betrays the code of their tribe, doesn’t fit into a box but, can fall into multiple boxes if you dig deeper.  The common bond that I’ve enjoyed with these motley types is a familiarity with life on the outs aka rejection.  It becomes a badge of honor and if things come too easily, we get paranoid.  And if it’s not rejection, it’s resistance. Resistance stokes the flames in our belly, whets our appetite for a fight, and reassures us that we’re scrappy, spirited underdogs – not entitled, privileged fat cats.  Yes, the by-product of all this rejection includes various neuroses, a self-deprecating sense of humor, and an unabashed fascination with things that otherwise allegedly normal human beings would find obscene, esoteric, incomprehensible, etc.  But while life is unstable for outsiders, it is rarely banal, always interesting and often entertaining.

I demand to have some booze!

  • November 17, 2009 11:39 pm

withnail1

So screams ‘Withnail’ of WITHNAIL AND I – the beloved, hysterical, and bittersweet movie about friendship, youthful angst, and painful maturation aided by lots of alcohol, hijinks in the countryside, drugs and, elusive dreams and delusions of fame.  I went to see a screening tonight of WITHNAIL AND I at the Silent Movie Theater and was once again entertained by this cult gem of a movie.  And to top off the evening, the writer/director Bruce Robinson was present to do a good humored q and a.  Apart from WITHNAIL AND I, Bruce Robinson also wrote the script for my other favorite movie THE KILLING FIELDS.  The two films could not be more different yet both manage to capture a rich and truthful glimpse of male friendships.  After 17 years, Robinson has come out of the woodwork and has been in the midst of filming THE RUM DIARY, the adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel starring Johnny Depp.  I can’t believe it’s been so long for him and yet, when Robinson candidly expressed loving the work and artistic collaboration, but being less than enthusiastic about the politics and people – it’s definitely not hard to sympathize.