I note the passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who once played my friend Lester Bangs in the movie
Almost Famous, apparently of drugs
. Lester, of course, died of an accidental overdose in 1982. So I've read other music journalists who say they became music journalists because of the advice from Lester Bangs as delivered by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yeah, I guess.
I've seen the needle
And the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's
Like a settin' sun.
— Neil Young
Since he and Julianne Moore did a antigun cartoon for Snowplow Bloomberg... I can feel, but i cat quite reach...
ReplyDeleteAs my mother would have said:
ReplyDelete"Good for them".
Life Member
Just can't quite identify with people who use injected drugs. Can't much identify with any drug users, but for Pete's sake, how exactly does one rationalize one's way into using heroin??? It's like these people must be saying to themselves, "Self, I hear that heroin is real good. Feels great. Yeah, it's good, I got to try that stuff. Now let's see, where do I stab this needle into myself?" or maybe "I was over at my best friend's place and he was shooting up with heroin, and I was thinking that it looked so glamorous and like it was so much fun! The way that he sticks that needle into his vein and draws back some of that neat-looking blood, and all that. Who wouldn't want to try that?"
ReplyDeleteBunch of freaking moh-Rons. As Robbie Robertson, Gene Simmons, Randy Bachman, and many others have proven, you can be a big star and not be a waste-case drug loser.
More info on Randy Bachman and the rewards of avoiding the drug-crazed path to failure (Randy's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and he's an absolute walking encyclopedia of music knowledge, although MB is no slouch in the music knowledge realm, either. Also, Randy's wife is a real sweetheart.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theuncool.com/journalism/rs178-bachman-turner-overdrive/
I have known junkies with their needles and their rationalizations. Among them were my Mother and Father, whom I loved so very dearly and whom in the end I was unable to save. It is my greatest failure, and one that will weigh on me every day for the rest of my life. One always ask one's self if there was there some path I should have taken, some words I might have said that would have made a difference. But there was only the needle and the damage done. And the fear that somewhere in my DNA are written the seeds of my own destruction.
ReplyDeletemb
I admired PSH for years, his talent was limitless. Let's all take a step back, who cares if he made an anti gun commercial. My prayers to his wife and 3 children
ReplyDelete