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while delayed at the airport, DJ and i got busy showing the fine people of orange county a little dance move called THE SHORT WING.
spread the vibe.
ps:
music comes courtesy of ratatat + notorious b.i.g. thanks guys.
i picked up ‘the night of the gun,’ a memoir written by current new york times columnist and former cokehead/alcoholic david carr, and expected it to read like most accounts of substance abuse i’ve thumbed through in the past (and let me assure you i have thumbed through my fair share). and i got what i expected. sort of.
if you’re looking for a well-researched (carr backs up his story with interviews, articles, and official records in an effort not to repeat the oprah-enraging mistakes of this decade’s most famous memoir fabricator) and sometimes disturbing account of the perils of shooting, snorting, and freebasing cocaine — as well as the redemptive power of recovery — you’ll get it. but, as i was happy to discover, ‘the night of the gun’ is much more than that. in addition to grim details of carr’s days as an abusive, maniacal drug addict and inspirational tales of single parenting and getting clean (i admittedly teared up a few times), the reader gets something more unique and ultimately more resonant: a nuanced look into the subjective and largely unreliable nature of our own memories.
as the book progresses, carr (and the reader alongside him) discovers that some firmly-believed truths about his past are, in fact, untrue, that some of his most vivid memories are, in fact, inaccurate. what carr himself once regarded as certain is repeatedly cast into doubt by friends, family, and other, more sober witnesses. how could this be?
carr reminds the reader that memory is not a reiteration, but rather a reconstruction of the past, one that serves to corroborate our own myths. oftentimes, what we don’t remember is just as telling as what we do.
while carr’s story (former junkie makes good, raises twin daughters on his own, gets a job at one of the most prestigious publications in the world) is compelling, it is the way in which he investigates and uncovers the truth that makes ‘the night of the gun’ such a worthwhile and intriguing read.
the first half of the book is good; the second half is great. so don’t wimp out at page 200.
——
LINKS
‘the night of the gun’ official website
–check here for a dope multimedia companion to the book
‘the night of the gun’ in NYTimes magazine
–interesting feature on david carr and ‘the night of the gun’
i know i’m about eight years late on this one, but last night i watched donnie darko for the very first time. i get scared by freaky movies, but my roommates convinced me that i should check out this particular cult classic. i can’t say that the image of frank the metal-faced bunny helped lull me to sleep at 6 am, but at least i didn’t have nightmares about grandma death AKA i stuck all my fingers in a socket AKA the fifth member of poison. seriously, i don’t know if i’ve EVER seen an old lady with such incredibly teased tresses.
the highlight of the movie was when i spotted a young version of that girl from high school musical (her name turns out to be ashley tisdale, although i keep wanting to call her ashley TINsdale for unknown reasons). she plays one of the kids at a school assembly. my roommates thought i was wrong but then i verified my identification on imdb. note to the world: I AM GOOD AT RECOGNIZING ACTORS BEFORE THEY GROW UP, DYE THEIR HAIR BLONDE, AND UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPT TO BECOME POP STARS.
aaanyhow, after a brief perusal of donnie darko internet resources, i found some interesting meditations on the nature of the manipulated dead, tangent universes, and living receivers. BUT, i gotta say that i think the movie was really just about a crazy dude. crazy people create elaborate worlds that seemingly explain their crazy behavior. you guys ever see a beautiful mind? homeboy draws a million different connections between unrelated documents, newspaper clippings, photos, etc. and believes with every ounce of his being that those connections actually mean something. a beautiful mind is different from donnie darko, however, in that the viewer is situated OUTSIDE of the dude’s schizophrenia.
it seems to me that donnie darko is a movie engineered to make viewers feel what it’s like to be schizophrenic themselves.
BAM.
on that note, below is a link to ‘CRAZYtown,’ one of the cuts from my mixtape, MASHed Potatoes. right click to download.
on the first day of the new year, most people make some seeerrious resolutions. lose ten pounds, get a gym membership and actually use it, stop buying so many pairs of nike dunks, etc.
because it can be pretty demoralizing to watch yourself NOT achieve your goals, i decided to help everybody out by adding a new resolution to the pile: JOIN THE K.FLAY EMAIL LIST! you’ll get access to exclusive updates, videos, tracks, and more. all you have to do is enter your email address and the magic begins.
CLICK HERE to join and be merry in 2010.
here are some pics (courtesy of our friend amanda stevens) from the mc lars show at the house of blues in anaheim. i had to wear a stick-on badge with a picture of MOUSE EARS ON IT to enter the facility. that’s how serious it got.
don’t hate the player.
little known fact about yours truly: i used to work in a french restaurant making DELECTABLE DESSERTS. this was also around the time i started rapping, and i can distinctly remember coming up with rhymes in my head as i whisked large amounts of crepe batter and burned my thumbs taking creme brulee out of the oven (you gotta cook that shit in a water bath, my friendz).
anyhow, over the holidays, i like to cook dessert for my family. this time around, i made individually-sized flourless chocolate cakes with chocolate ganache and a lil bit of vanilla bean ice cream. check the photo above for the fruits of my stirring, chopping, whipping, and baking.
YUM.
