going fetal

2.14.05
5:14 am
Tonight I have:
Read Avengers comics.
Slept for a full half hour on the job, endangering an unknown number of people.
Woke refreshed and hungry.
Stared for a full twenty minutes at nothing in particular.
Wrote the voiceover for a short documentary about Christo and his “Gates” project.
Told the security guy I was going to the bathroom then went across the street to get Combos from my apartment and a tuna salad sandwich from the deli.
Read my Christo piece to Phil and Will and discussed Phil’s advent in New York and Will’s love of Magic Missiles.
Ate the aforementioned food.
Watched Shaun of the Dead for the first time in a while, listening to the second of two commentaries, the cast commentary. I was unimpressed.
Watched Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas for the first time in months. This time with the author commentary track. Here are my notes:

First off, I wish it had just been Hunter S. Thompson, but sadly they put the producer and some other idiots in the room with him in order to “keep him on topic”, which translates to “keep hi from setting the place on fire”. Among other things, Thompson screams, howls, shrieks, hisses, cackles, insults random people, calls Terry Gilliam a fag, makes threatening phone calls to both Johnny Depp (whose answering machine message is the “Know Your Dope Fiend” speech from the D.A.’s convention) and Benicio Del Toro (whose number I can figure out if I record the bit of the commentary where the producer reads Thompson the number- they played it backwards in order to confuse listeners, but for those who know about a certain duo whose information I got from their voter registration cards, you’ll know it takes more than backwards masking to dissuade me from anything) and eating radishes. Thompson refers to Depp as Colonel Depp, Timothy Leary as a “sold out fraud and a vicious asshole who was a stoolie for the FBI” and making the movie as a “hound dog passing a peach pit.” He admits to watching the movie at least once a month. He repeats the phrase “press any key” about a dozen times during the hour and a half the movie runs for; whether this is a reference to the DVD player he is watching the movie on or some strange mantra I am uncertain. I can only assume it’s the latter. He also admits to Gilliam kissing him, but not in “a heavy handed way”, which I believe is another way of saying they shared strictly “hetero” kisses.
His parting wisdom to the youth of today: “Stop playing video games, stop jerking off and read the Book of Revelations.”
Overall an excellent commentary, marred only by people trying to interfere with Thompson’s natural, unbridled genius. After I finish writing this, I will probably check out the second disc of the Fear DVD, and then maybe I will indulge in some music.
I would like to end with a quote from the book that has continued to define me ever since I first heard it a few years ago…maybe even more so today…

“There he goes…one of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die.”