Across a series of short chapters on “suits,” “stars,” “scribes”, and “filmmak-
ers”, Who Killed? laments the influence of globalisation on Hollywood
filmmaking. Studios no longer are “seedbeds of popular culture” but are
“mere appendages of vast multinational corporations grinding out ‘content’
for their global distribution mills”, channelling “new product and ideas into
theme-park rides, music, toys, videos, video game emporiums, and all the
other ancillary goodies that enhance the revenue streams of their corporate
parents.”37

Bart contrasts the late 1990s context as seen from his position as editor of Va-
riety to his moment as a participant in New Hollywood filmmaking in the
early 1970s when he worked as a studio executive for Paramount, Lorimar,
MGM/UA, and briefly as an independent producer. During this time Bart was
involved with the production of such films as Coppola’s The Godfather, Hal
Ashby’s Harold and Maude and Being There, Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby,
Ted Kotcheff’s Fun with Dick and Jane, Franklin Schaffner’s Islands in the
Stream. As an example of how economic-aesthetic decisions were arrived at
in the New Hollywood era, Bart recalls his involvement in green-lighting Har-
old and Maude, saying that it was discussed by a handful of executives who
admitted they had no idea what it was about but felt they couldn’t lose badly
on a film that was costing $1. 2 million, and so approved it. The film went on to

turn “a handsome profit” and to have longevity as a cult object. The cult sta-

tus of this film would later inspire Douglas Coupland’s “Harolding in West

Vancouver” chapter in his Polaroids From the Dead.39

As opposed to this form of decision-making, Bart says the contemporary
situation is one in which “scores of executives” debate such things as: “will the
movie play well in Europe and Asia? How strong is the video and DVD after-
market? Will the subject matter attract marketing partners like McDonald’s?
Will there be tie-ins for toys and other merchandising opportunities? Could
the story line inspire a theme-park ride? Could the narrative be captured in a
brief TV commercial? Will the star be willing to travel to openings around the
world? If the budget is north of $60 million, is co-financing money available?

11/01/2011 – Just started reading this. Reading Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Kierkegaard ‘Either/Or’ for the ‘Creature Feature’ screenplays. Already read ‘Fear and Trembling’. Wondering if I should read Kant.

Just reading the intro

guessing when Hegel said he couldn’t speculate on the future and said any thought that doesn’t take into account the totality of existence is his wanting the world to … stand still, be whole, conserve.. a tism…

based on what I know of his beliefs on art and his dislike of romantic irony

& Sam Perry

She was preoccupied with the weather.
It was a day like other days. And the time felt thick, like the weight that must be there to fell the leaves was visible, to her. Not easy to treat the world with such care when the pace of days and moments hastens the eye away from events, like…

“Our one month anniversary.”

“I know, I remember. What did you want to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Anything is fine. Just spend some time together. It’s still nice out.”

School’s over. The days are ready for changes, schedules emptied and dilated to embrace slowing down but, the end of their high school career. Moving on as well. Fall, winter, the future. Who wants to understand?

He wants her to understand. Him, doubtless.

She needs someone strong, and he will always be there. The journeys they go on together are indecipherable to the ages. The real reason she sticks around is to find out the meaning of his words, but his phrases know no endings.

Solar fever. The real meaning of pagan holy days. The sunlight going. The weakening, or strengthening, the bonds, the binding. The unreasonableness of keeping faith when things are falling apart.

She understands there is something he looks for in me, she thinks. Something I never had.

Is he looking for excuses? Am I looking for trouble again?

Where is my reason for staying?

“My parents will be out of town for about a week, soon. We can hang out like the whole time if you can get out of the house.”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”

“This torch that I’ve found has gotta be drowned, or it just might explode.”

- ‘One For My Baby’, Frank Sinatra

I gotta little story I think you oughta know, I told the bartender. It was the kind of joke I make. Which is to say, a non-joke. A reference, to something perhaps, perhaps I hope, only I might recognize.

She brought me my drink. I am not a drinker, but when you’re in a bar, you feel silly not drinking. Just like parents at the circus whose kid wants the $12 glow sticks.

I wonder if expectation is the true…

Nevermind. I’d rather not digress. I was lamenting my situation and just wanted the bartender to hang on to my words. More. To hang on me. Just lean over the bar and drape herself over me. My girlfriend, over in the booth, I explained, forgot out one month anniversary. I’m just too much of a dork, she tells me. It’s not that big of a deal. I know, I said. But here I am explaining that to you, and, you can see why if I can talk about the illegitimacy of my feeling to a complete stranger, then clearly there is something there. I mean, I just…

Nevermind.
“What is this I’m drinking?”

“Coke.”

“Coke and what?”

“And ice.”

“So, I told you to surprise me, and you just give me soda?”

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure you were 21. Are you?”

“Yeah, I just don’t like to drink.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, anyway.” I turned away from her, spinning toward the open end of the bar. Most of our group was in one of the booths at the far wall, which wasn’t all that far. Sometimes some soda on the rocks will clear your head right up.

“Thanks for listening.” I told the bartender.

amorphous - “Is that so” response,
THE RESPONSE ORIGINALLY THAT LED TO THE BELIEF IN
WEREWOLVES AND VAMPIRES
As written about the book ‘THE OCCULT’ by Colin Wilson…
Is now THE RESPONSE TO THE MYTH OF WEREWOLVES AND VAMPIRES…
Look up the talk about the wolfmen,
And how they did it to mask their wild instincts, how they
believed they turned into wolves,
And how it could have been a psychological defense for
feeling such animal desires and not being able to mask it in
society,
And, Wilson says, maybe they actually did Lycanthropize a
little,
With the Faculty X, acting, with subconscious power, to
change them physically.

NATHAN EVANS

THE THEOLOGY OF HORROR MOVIES Or should that be the teleology of horror movies? Because the main action in the horror genre is survival. So you are constantly pre-eminently up against death. If you survive you’re a saint. You know the rules. You’ve seen Scream. But that’s not my point. I’m not talking about how the action in horror movies in inimitable, I’m talking about how horror movies are life. My father always mentions one of the keys to horror movies is isolation. You have to set up the fact that the characters aren’t going anywhere. Cut the phone lines. Give them a mountain range surrounding them. Make the edge of town a no man’s land. Submitted for your approval: a case study in loneliness.

We’ll see how far it gets you when you can’t get very far.

Like a petri dish, in observation. We’d like to hold you just over Halloween night for observation, Dr. Loomis.

Close the beaches. This was no boating accident.

So of course there will be genres of character. The cowboy type, bring ‘em on, all together or one at a time? I prefer a straight fight! The dramatic. The comic relief. The pathetic.

The stretch of the genre is into the mind.

The genre, as category, can also blind.

Science – fiction.

Sci-fi.

Scy-Fy.

I personally can’t stand the blood.

THE REST OF THE TWO GROUPS

Around the bar – The Batcave.

Outside town, near the camping grounds

Dopplegangers

They realize they’re both heading to the camp grounds, and will probably (maybe) run into each other again.