Love the use of Zoetropes for the video. Well done.


Lyrics..

Check the locks and leave the keys
Mouldy bath masked with Febreeze
Something's dead behind the refrigerator
Some poor fuck will deal with it later

I’ve spent the last ten weeks
Squeezing out the sponge of friendships, plugging leaks
I've talked until there's no more to say
I’m going away
I'm leaving LA
I'm leaving LA

And the tourists say
"Please give me the directions to the Hollywood sign
I always dreamt of coming here to see the Hollywood sign"
But on their way back down we'll ask
"Did you have a good time?"
They'll say "it's just some fuckin' letters on a hill"

I wander through the Bronson Caves
One more OK coffee at the Oaks Gourmet
I'll watch the players at the UCB
Trying to improvise their way out of ennui

Walking trails in the creeping dark
Up to the observatory in Griffith Park
There’s too much light for stars anyway
I’m getting out of this place
I'm leaving LA
I’m leaving LA

And the studio executives who never made a thing
Blaming other for their failures, taking credit for their wins
Wiping the blood of dumb artists from their chins
Singing, "kid you oughtn't take it personally"

On Hollywood and Vine a dime-store Spider-Man
Shouting at a stoned Emma Stone, dressed à la La La Land
And in the distance, in both its glorious dimensions
The sign projects its shadow on the hill

Rushing by machine-gunned cops at LAX
Malfunctioning departure board says we're boarding next
Belt off, shoes off, jacket off, hat
Don't need the attitude, but I quite enjoy the subsequent pat-down
And I’m sat down
As the A380 engine roars
Pushed backwards as this tube of monkeys rumbles forwards

I'm looking forward to another twenty hours on a plane
Nothing but shit films and my brain
I've been going slowly insane
I've seen your sport and I don't wanna play
I'm getting out of this place
I'm getting out of this place
I'm leaving LA

And the actors at Gratitude drinking undrinkable juice
And the agents taking ten percent in their sneakers and suits
And the writers in their Teslas trying to punch up Act One
Driving home on the 101 in the relentless fucking sun
And the needy and the greedy and the hopeless and horny
And the deals done on treadmills at ten to six in the morning
And the Captain's on the PA saying "look for the sign!"
But I find it's just some fuckin' letters on a hill
Just some really ugly letters
On a pretty ugly hill

I'm leaving LA
I'm leaving 'ell

A few things:

A) You should read this article about American cheese:

https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/07/whats-really-in-american-cheese.html

It's not gourmet, but it gets a bad rap -- it's easily the best type of cheese for a certain type of cheeseburger.

B) Louis Lunch broils their burgers in a custom upright broiler they've been using since day one. Their burgers definitely aren't steamed.

C) Pressing burgers during cooking is a no-no, but pressing the beef onto the griddle before it starts cooking creates a magical layer of crust on the beef that you can't get through any other method.

I grew up with grilled burgers. A tiny bit of BBQ sauce, mixed with a small amount of diced onions, and lots of black pepper, is gourmet to me.

This deep fried shit seems like just that, though interesting.

American Cheese, isn't. (Cheese, that is).

Pressing your burgers while cooking seems like amateur bullshit that only came about to produce hamburgers faster.

He says that "jacks lunch" in Middletown CT originated the steamed burger, but today "Louis Lunch" at 261 Crown St. in New Haven CT claims to have "Invented the Hamburger" altogether, (and they steam their burgers) so YMMV.

I also prefer to eat my burgers without condiments, because when they're actually cooked well it has the best method for bringing out the flavor of the meat. I couldn't imagine the flavor of a steamed burger being such, but I still hope to try it some day.

In recent memory, perhaps ever, Yarde Tavern in South Hadley MA makes the best burger I've had, to date.

Reference = My family owns a ranch, and I grew up with cattle, so red meat was the diet throughout my youth, and have a lot to say on the subject.

I want to make the equivalent of this for my field: Developers on the Couch eating Pizza. We could order only gourmet, locally sourced pizza and gawk over my mint condition classic game collection.

Doesn't have the same ring though.

Your video, A Gourmet Weed Dinner At Hunter S. Thompson's House, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

I'll tell ya the ending:

Food trucks become a national craze and the cost of tacos rises from a dollar and some change to 12 bucks a pop; sliders for 10 dollars (EACH). Welcome to GOURMET FOOD TRUCK HELL. It's forever. We'll never return to the days of food trucks selling cheap food for cheap prices.

But, then again, I never had a bone marrow and Gorgonzola burrito before...

(And that's why you're fat and living paycheck to paycheck.)

Bad town to be homeless in-Homelessness for me would find me at the first week without a roof in a city with a relatively mild, year-round climate with a resident population more amenable to the cause. San Francisco comes to mind immediately. Plenty of loopy, sympathetic-to-the-cause people with your choice of rooftops and squats to sleep in. Oh, and free gourmet coffee and restaurant food, and plenty of drugs

Been homeless....it ain't fun but it doesn't have to be miserable either. Get the hell outta Chicago, Ron.

This is the wrongest batch of wrong in the history of wrong. A sandwich with natural peanut butter might be perfectly tasty, but if you want a classic PB&J sandwich, it's gotta be Jif or Skippy or Peter Pan or one of the store-bought kinds. PB&J is classic comfort food -- it and "gourmet" should not be in the same sentence.

But then I guess I should expect this kind of nonsense from a co-owner of a place that has the balls to serve nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and to charge five bucks (or more!) per sandwich. Five bucks! For a sandwich that literally takes less than a minute to prepare, and that has about 25 cents worth of ingredients (if that).

"Mmmm! Goddamn, Jimmie! This is some serious gourmet shit!"

Refreshingly honest, bizarre for a mob like McD's but the process actually makes sense... = \

There was never any doubt that one is slapped together quickly and the other is 'styled' (mastercrafted, whatever you want to call it), but tbh, it's McDonalds, it's not like you're going for a gourmet experience...

>> ^shagen454:

That is an interesting piece of info I did not know about. I never really understood why they went with Lynch for Dune, either. Not that that was a bad idea, I know a lot of people complain about Lynch's adaptation but I liked it a lot. I bet Jodorowsky's version would have been absolutely insane and even less on point with the Dune novel. I can only imagine all of the shit Jodorowsky could shove into that.
wiki: "he planned to cast the surrealist artist Salvador Dali as the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who requested a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming.[23] The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's own son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd, Magma, Henry Cow and Karlheinz Stockhausen"
Damn, man has some fine taste in music. And yep, looks like it would have been insane.
>> ^poolcleaner:
>> EDIT: oh yeah, it's all there on IMDB but I won't spoil it for anyone.

That's because Dan O'Bannon recruited Giger for the alien creature design after working with him on Jodorowsky's failed attempt to make Dune.



Weird times. The days of hiring directors like Lynch to take over a science fiction epic are over. It didn't work and it's not what people want to see.

If Jodorowsky had made Dune, it would have given a handful of people hard ons and Rocky Horror would have fallen to the way side as the midnight movie standard. All in all, I think there'd be less trannys and Hedwig and the Angry Inch would never have been made.

Frank Herbert, Dan O'Bannon, Jodorowsky, Dali, Welles, and Pink Floyd all under one roof? The entire movie would have been one big water of life spice orgy. Pregnant women viewing the movie would've given birth to abominations possessed by Orson Welles.

That is an interesting piece of info I did not know about. I never really understood why they went with Lynch for Dune, either. Not that that was a bad idea, I know a lot of people complain about Lynch's adaptation but I liked it a lot. I bet Jodorowsky's version would have been absolutely insane and even less on point with the Dune novel. I can only imagine all of the shit Jodorowsky could shove into that.

wiki: "he planned to cast the surrealist artist Salvador Dali as the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who requested a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming.[23] The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's own son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd, Magma, Henry Cow and Karlheinz Stockhausen"

Damn, man has some fine taste in music. And yep, looks like it would have been insane.

>> ^poolcleaner:

>> EDIT: oh yeah, it's all there on IMDB but I won't spoil it for anyone.

That's because Dan O'Bannon recruited Giger for the alien creature design after working with him on Jodorowsky's failed attempt to make Dune.

>> ^AdrianBlack:

The Vikings chanting "meat meat meat" is the best part.


Nayhh, Grillosaurus.

I think a lot of Shyamalan's problems are that he's focused on a different aspect of the movie than most people are.

Let's look at Signs. That was really the first one, I think, that generated widespread disdain. Signs, IMO, was a good story but a bad movie.

Most people talking about Signs would focus on how stupid it is that aliens would invade a planet that's "infested" with water, if you will, when they themselves are water soluble. They would also talk about how unbelievable the aliens were on screen. The "twist" at the end was also way more predictable than 6th Sense and Unbreakable. I'm not saying these aren't valid criticisms; they absolutely detract from the movie as a whole (and ultimately ruined it for me).

But the underlying story about faith, doubt, destiny, self-worth and discovery is wonderful. This is where I think Shyamalan really shines -- in telling stories about characters who learn/discover things about themselves. This is also what I suspect he is focusing on, sometimes to the point of tunnel-vision. He ends up serving a gourmet meal on a cracked plate and a lot of people spend so much time staring at the crack that they forget to taste the food.

I loved The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable is my favorite film specifically because of the underlying story of destiny and self-discovery. It also happens that I really enjoy both the subtle and not-subtle comic book references, so the surface story appeals to me as well. Signs was a misstep but The Village was a move back in the right direction. Lady in the Water was more like Signs; a good beneath a crappy veneer.

Since then his movies have been fairly ordinary, uninteresting, routine Hollywood affairs. I haven't seen any of them.

More than anything, I think it's become popular to dislike him and his movies. Nobody had a bad thing to say about Sixth Sense until Signs came out and all the sudden everyone claimed to have never liked any of his films.

I wish he would go back to doing what he is really good at but also fix the distractions. Serve us our meals on plates that are worthy of the food they're carrying.

Yes, LA is really fucked up. So is California in general. And so are my apocryphal firefighters and policemen.

The average pay for firefighters you linked me to doesn't account for benefits and pension, does it? That's just base salary. So, if the average pay for firefighters is just under $44k, then that's pretty much their taxable income because I cannot image what possible expenses they'd deduct, because they have zero financial risk being an employee. And I'd imagine his benefits alone would equal around $15k to $20k. And then of course their pension which is available when they retire at 55.

That's a pretty good deal. And they get women fawning over them and the vox populi calling them heros. Then there's the guy in the private sector, who's painted to look selfish and evil. People like me. But we don't have unions to protect us, give us great pensions and benefits, and we actually create jobs. I created two last year myself. That aside, the real problems with LA and CA are the unions. They were one thing when they protected proletariats from the bourgeoisie in Charles Dickens' England, but they're something entirely different today, especially when allowed to collude with government and legislators.

I grew up in a milltown in the South. You can't get more working class than that. I'm almost 40 and I'm still paying off my college loans, so suffice it to say no one helped me out. Being happy? I know what makes me happy. The same things you mentioned: not having to worry about rent, not having to worry about food, etc. But without getting too personal here, I can safely say some of that worries me right now because of what I owe to the taxman. And probably nine to eight years back I was in a really, really bad place, yet the taxman cometh. I tried to cash a honkey check, but apparently those don't exist. I guess being white only goes so far contrary to modern lib rhetoric.

What I find interesting is if someone like me bitches that the tax is too high, which it is, then some of you complain I'm selfish and refusing to pay my fair share. But isn't it you, the statists who believe in stealing my money to give to others, that are actually being selfish by laying the tax burden so heavy on the middle class? Specifically income tax.

In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
Okay, so LA has a problem. It's not a nationwide epidemic, the average pay for firefighters simply isn't that high. Members of congress get paid $174,000 a year, the President gets paid $400,000/yr. You probably shouldn't be paying the average firefighter more than a House freshman, and the Fire Chief more than the President.

As for your architect, I'm not surprised by that at all. If you want to tell that as a story about taxes, you're probably going to have to at least provide an example of how the math works out so that you make less owning your own business than working for someone else solely because of taxes. I bet it's mostly due to the fact that there's not really a big market for a mom & pop architect out there even in good times, and especially given the state of the real estate market right now. Running your own business isn't easy, and it's certainly not the way to get yourself a stable source of take home income in a depressed economy.

I'm of two minds about your last paragraph. Someday I think I'm going to write some big blog posts about my life, and how it shaped my political outlook. For now, I'll just say I did ultimately have a privileged life compared to most, but not by as much as you seem to assume. I'm no trust fund baby -- and I went to school with enough of those to know the difference. I have a shitload more in common with the poor working class people in the neighborhood I grew up in than I do with the trust fund set I went to school with.

The trust fund set generally felt like accumulation of wealth and status was the primary route to happiness. The more working class people in my neighborhood saw money as more of a means to an end. Happiness for them was being able to not have to worry about whether they could afford groceries, or worry about their car breaking down, or having to borrow to make rent/mortgage payments, or medicine for sick kids. They didn't really care about having the nicest clothes, a nice car, gourmet foods, or who had membership to the more prestigious country club. Those were things my rich friends talked about constantly.

I grew up constantly switching between class experiences. Over time it made me see pretty clearly that money isn't the key to real happiness. I saw lots of unhappy rich people, and lots of happy poor people. Their outlook on life had more to do with things other than money.

Anyways, it sounds like you think you're engaged in a class struggle to try to help the lower classes get a leg up on the rich. If so, great, you and I are on the same side then.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Dude, is it so hard to believe a public employee makes $12,000 a month? That's only $144,000 a year, not $1.4 million. It's possible. Especially since so many groups are unionized in this state.

[snip]

My CPA also told me a story of an architect who got tired of struggling as a small business and having to pay so much in taxes, so he quit the private sector to make more money working for the city. You wanna call BS on my apocryphal architect?

And I do care about the taxes I have to pay. I envy you that you don't. You must've had a great life as a lawyer's son. Always having more than you owe. I wish we all could come from there so we could also take the same sanctimonious positions you do. Only people of privilege seem to say things like, "money isn't everything." As if they scowl at the rest of us for wanting better for ourselves. Now excuse me while I go back to that mom of yours I was fucking when I told you this story.