IF he had more time

Oggy would do a lot of things differently.
he would do things right.
he wouldn't fuck up.
he'd be better.

but he doesn't have any more time.
he is old and doesn't have time
his time is gone.
it is too late.

Angel

Angel was a band that started back in the '70s. Mickey Jones was in the band. He played Bass guitar. They were like KISS except not very good.
Mickey Jones came by my house to look at the room I was leaving. There were rats in the house. fleas. dogs. Mickey wanted to move into the laundry area. sleep on newspaper. he had no car and was in trouble. he was living in a Korean ghetto. he said the owners beat him up. but he was helpless.
I didn't know what to say.
"Help, me Oggy. I need your help."
but I didn't help him. I turned my back on him. I wanted to help him, but he was beyond help.
His day had passed. If he had more time then he might have hope. but there was no more time for any of us.
He didn't get the room. couldn't afford it.
last I saw him he was hitchhiking up Wilshire. I pretended I didn't see him.
But I will remember him when he is gone.
Micky Jones.

you need skill to get lucky

an old man said this to me in vegas.
he was almost broke.
his stack was real low.
he didn't seem to mind giving his money away.
he just threw his money in and then laughed when it was taken from him.

He had three queens once and lost to four fours when this guy with a pair called him. A four came on the turn and then the river.

someone tried to make him feel better by saying, "Lucky draw."

"You need skill to get lucky," the old man responded as he dumped his ante into the next pot.

I heard he got shot over a bottle of whiskey in Harrahs. He died like a man.

good ideas

The plan was to take a bunch of soldiers and reinact D-day with them in stop action footage with a little camera. I knew I could do it. there would be hundreds of soldiers fighting. the germans would be on this beach and the americans would attack. the fighting would be bloody. many bodies would float in the ocean. useless, senseless death over this little piece of land. but it would have to be done. it would be black and white. silent. so as not to detract from the sadness of so many young men losing their lives. and the plastic ships would sink into the murky depths. I had never wanted to do something more in my whole life. But I needed the camera. and I needed the toy soldiers. And I needed someone to drive me to the ocean to do it all.

"You aren't doing anything like that," said my father. "You haven't done anything I asked you to do."
"But, please. I'm begging. I'll do it when I get home. THis is important. This is really important to humanity."
"But you aren't. You aren't important. You are nine years old and you don't do anything. You don't deserve anything."
"I promise."
"You don't deserve anything. Go upstairs and clean your room."
"But..."
"Go!"
So I went upstairs and sat down to cry. I listened to the radio. I looked at my baseball cards. My brother looked in and said, "You are such a loser. I hate you."
I knew then that I would never get the soldiers and I would never get the camera and life was useless. it wasn't any good. I was going to burn the house down. I got a pack of matches. I hid in my closet. I lit one match and put it under my book on how to fly a kite. The match went out. I went to get another match when I heard something out side. someone was crying. I went outside and found my cat had been hit by a car. He was still alive. He was crying.
"Look what you did," said my father.
"Look."
My brother got a flat shovel and smashed my cat in the head. I screamed.
"You don't do that. He's mine."
"He's dead."
but the cat wasn't dead. it was alive, but now with a mashed head. then he hit it again and it died. I cried.
"I hate you. This wouldn't have happened if we went to the beach. Snickers would still be alive. It's your fault."
My father hit me in the mouth.
"You talk to me like that again and I'll give you something to cry about. You just watch how fast you'll cry."

When I went to sleep that night I saw hundreds of toy soldiers fighting in the sand. They couldn't move their legs, but they fought on.

Rent review

Rent

By Oggy Bleacher

Everyone over the age of 40 should see Rent; everyone under the age of 40 will love Rent. The best homegrown musical since Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Rent hits Avenue ‘A’ running and never slows down. The 8 principal actors, 6 of whom played their role in the stage production of Rent, do not hold anything back. They let their emotions explode from every pore. Just when you think the fist-pumping, cart-wheeling, hip-hopping, urban-triumphing, we-are-young-and-free-and-in-crisis celebration has reached its crescendo, the cast takes it up another notch. This is a musical in the spirit of Grease (1978), The Producers (2005), and Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Chicago won 6 Oscars in 2002. Expect Rent to win Best Music, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and probably more. Dir. Chris Columbus and cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt nailed the visual aspect of Rent, crafting a rich and beautiful urban landscape, while the talented young cast sang their hearts out on the musical end.

A stage production has musical limitations that don’t exist in Hollywood. The musical arrangements of Rent are excellent, taking advantage of talented Los Angeles studio resources. The songs themselves are clearly the work of someone who listened to more pop music than is ordinarily healthy. The songs are inspired and eclectic. These are all originals but don’t be surprised if you think, “I’ve heard that before.” The weakness in the soundtrack is that one person wrote all of the songs. This is generally unheard of in successful musicals because when one person writes all the music (and his name isn’t Mozart) then all the songs sound like the same person wrote them. When 8 characters sing vastly different songs, one person usually cannot compose diverse music in multiple voices. Rent is no exception.

Jonathan Larson was the creator of Rent. He wrote the book (script), music, and lyrics. Even for a flop, this is no small accomplishment. With the help of the The New York Theater Workshop he then brought it to life. Larson was 35 years old when he died, two weeks before the February 1996 NYTW premier, three months before Rent’s premier on Broadway. So not only did the music spring from a single well, but that well vanished before the very first public performance. Thus, the music never evolved, the lyrics still sound impulsive and the rhymes something off of a 9th grader’s notebook. Lyrics like, “Who do you think you are, barging in on me and my guitar?” aren’t exactly timeless. And how Larson justified the lyric, “Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow to blow off Auntie Em…La Boheme!” is a mystery. But the melodies are infections, and if you have ever translated Italian Opera (“No tablecloth, we can’t eat without a tablecloth?”) you know the melody is all that matters. Larson’s decision to make AIDS the prevailing illness was noble. 40 million people had AIDS in 2004. 3 million died of it that year. 6,000 people (15-24) are infected each day. No one can claim this crisis is “out of date”.

The few songs I have heard off of the original Broadway release sound like they were recorded in a church with a high school back-up band. A jangly piano is sometimes the only instrument accompaniment. It’s like a demo tape. The vocal/instrument balance is not bad, just amateurish. That is not the case with the film recordings. While the lyrics and structure of each song is basically the same, the arrangements, thanks to music producer Rob Cavallo and vocal conductor Tim Weil, have improved immensely. These are good, some great, pop/rock songs that tell the story of young, “alternative” men and women. Their story involves rebellion, drama, HIV, drugs, sex, creation, love, life, and death. You may not like every song on the soundtrack, but that hasn’t stopped Puccini’s La Boheme from being performed for over 100 years.

Rent is not flawless. But if it is the soap opera plot you find unappealing then blame Henri Murger, the French author who wrote “Scenes de la Vie Boheme” in 1846. Murger’s book was the basis of the Puccini opera “La Boheme” in 1896. In turn, “La Boheme” is the progenitor of Rent. You can be sure Larson pondered both works as he planned out his own modern day rock musical. Puccini’s theme from Musetta’s Waltz even returns as a loving tribute to Rent’s operatic roots. On the subject of faults, the relationship between “Yuppy scum” Benny (Taye Diggs) and “drug addict exotic dancer” Mimi (Rosario Dawson) is puzzling. What do these two see in each other? And why do real estate developers need permission from a bunch of squatters to renovate the place? This is New York City, not Amsterdam. HIV positive Roger (Adam Pascal) moves to New Mexico without hesitation though prescriptions and doctors and such would have to be changed. Another flaw: though drug addiction has ruined more than one character’s life, they don’t seem to regret a moment of their glorious vie boheme. Making mistakes is their right. Refusing to pay rent is en vogue. The lesson they pass on to the next generation is, “More wine, more beer! Live for today!” The consequences of this philosophy should be evident. The characters grieve, but apparently they don’t learn anything from their grief. We leave them in practically the same predicament in which we found them: jobless, broke, strung out, lustful, ever striving to fit in.

Looking at the production notes, Jonathan Larson is unquestionably the weakest link on paper. He had very few prior credits (music for a children’s book cassette and Sesame Street). It isn’t surprising that he wrote everything that became Rent; simply put, a professional collaborator probably wouldn’t see much promise in Larson. Sure, he was talented, but his two small plays were failures. His other works were never produced. So the chances that a waiter from White Plains, NY could create a hit Broadway musical from scratch while he ate shredded wheat in a cold loft with a bathtub in the kitchen were infinitesimal. But that is exactly what happened. Despite Rent’s floppy structure, the music is inspired and the themes are significant. Rent is still a winner.

Grade B

Rent

Opening 11/23

Cast: Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Rosario Dawson, Jesse Martin, Idina Menzel

Director: Chris Columbus

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 135 minutes

Release Company: Columbia Pictures

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/rent/index.html

Additional Rent info:

http://www.angelfire.com/in2/everythingisrent/jon.html

AIDS INFO:

http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm