Sunday, October 9, 2011

Model’s, Rockstar’s, Incredibly crazy goings on and me




So now I’m living in the infamous haunted house on Deronda Drive -- at the top of Beachwood Canyon with Peg, my homeboy "Pinch" - "Pinch" and JJ "The Rockstar" JJ was on the verge of DEATH when I met him -- so then I move into his house (literally) - So, JJ who had just quit a band called The RHCP  - yup The one and only "RED HOT'S" -- one of the most popular Rock, Funk bands of all time and yup -- JJ quits - I can truly say that John didn't give a flying fuck about money, fame, glory, power or any of it for that matter -- John didn't give a fuck about what anyone thought of him - I have no reason to embellish any of this & at this point I just don't give a fuck - My year in JJ's house of insanity and utter lunacy was sort almost too weird to even try to write out. I’m not saying I did not indulge quite heavily at times with JJ and without JJ but JJ lived in what he called the 4th dimension - a new level of time and space. He was and is one of the most talented painters I've ever seen or known and I'm not a laymen when it comes to art - JJ was doing an overabundance of illicit substances and that's putting it soooooooooo lightly and soooooooo pg-13 to say the least -- he begun to smoke and shoot Meth besides a healthy dose of Heroin on the DL and anything he could get his hands on but he did hide his use of "H" very well - he had to - because Peg's house rules were short, simple and straight to the point, "any drugs but NO "H" for or with or near JJ in that house. It was too crazy how he would and did somehow hide shooting up "H" from Peg somehow. JJ would sneak all over the manicured property - around the pool, the pool house, the bushes, trees as well as the garage in order to shoot his heroin.

 So I guess technically he was sticking to Peg’s law. JJ WOULD record songs into an 13 track or a 16 track recorder thing he had set up on the floor of the living room - he'd play his guitars and record songs all day, all night, for hours and hours, days and days, and sometimes even weeks at a time with zero sleep, sure he'd unplug every now and then for essentials but he was in another universe and if you ask my opinion - those very few people who are real artists of any kind - drugs or NO drugs are always in another universe - meaning they’re CRAZY - for real - if they didn't have millions of dollars - they’d be on the streets talking to themselves or in a psych ward or a sanitarium and that’s why they're so talented, Peg would refer to her and JJ as a couple - when the cold hard truth was even though Peg may have loved him, and even though JJ may have loved her - the FACT was that what JJ needed was someone to take care of him and PEG nailed the role - she got the gig hands down - she was his primary caretaker - nurse and mother - NOT his lover or his girlfriend, she would give him baths, feed him, dress him, help with his dentures, make him pancakes or whatever he could somehow try to keep down - she would drive him to appointments, concerts, band practice with "Thelonius Monster" & "Fishbone".

Any sex or intimacy was out the door - JJ was straight up NOT capable of performing in the sex department due to the drugs and his physical condition anyway - PLUS sex is by far the LAST thing on any true HEROIN ADDICTS mind. I came to forge a true friendship with JJ as time went on in that INSANE HOUSE of ours and I will give him props on allot of different fronts - he was and is an absolute genius with regard to being a TRUE artist in just about every respect. One of the best guitar players that has ever lived, painter, writer - basically anything he put his mind to creatively was utterly beautiful.

OK, so now it’s been two or three weeks and I just wrapped the J-Lo movie somehow - GOD only knows how under my living conditions at this point and now I'm working on another big HOLLYWOOD movie and I'm trying so hard to put the deaths of my Father & Grandfather out of my mind - I pushed them away as far away as possible - I pushed my own grieving process out away and anywhere in between - accept for where it should have been - JJ and I had allot in common in that respect because he was doing the same thing with the death of his best friend and soul brother "River Phoenix" it was the only way I could deal and it and it was obviously the only way JJ could cope.

Then we get word that one of my best friends in NYC has passed away from a heroin O.D. - everyone living in that BEACHWOOD house new this friend of mine - his name was "Davide" dead at 23 years old - On his way to becoming one of the most prolific photographers that ever lived and when Davide died - that was the hump that broke the camel’s back - at least for me it was.

The three most important men in my life were now dead - it was surreal - I have no words that can describe where my head went at that point - my shell was starting to become impenetrable - I was starting to feel 100% straight-up bullet proof - I did not want to feel anything with or for anyone - and it would head me into a dark place and that’s when Peg and me started something up other then friendship.

So, it begins to get more and more weird in the house and it would progressively become more and more BIZARRE. And keep in mind - that I’m the only person in the house who went to work every day, I was just trying to keep my head above water, while living inside a maze of iniquity. JJ and I become closer and closer and I was about to start having an affair with “PEG” while he was just a few rooms away and or a hallway. NOT GOOD...

People hook up all the time but when you hook up with a girl and you just happen to be living with her and her "boyfriend" and her boyfriend is now one of you're friends, you've just begun to go down a delicate staircase - a spiral staircase where you don't have any idea where the stairs are leading - basically the only thing you know is that wherever that figurative staircase your on is leading you...

TO BE CONTINUED:

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Monday, October 3, 2011

The six degrees of separation story / novella - part 1.



On October 30, 1993, River Phoenix was performing at the Viper Room with his band “Aleka's Attic” along with “Flea” of “The Red Hot Chilli Peppers”...

The Viper Room was and still is an infamous late night Hollywood “STAPLE”. Everyone pretty much knows what happened that night with regard to River Phoenix. I never met or hung out with River but I would come to learn and know EXACTLY what happened to River Phoenix on that ominous night - It would all happen four years later - in a house at the top of Beachwood Canyon...

A house that was once owned by “James Dean” and YES we were all doing serious drugs. And in retrospect their isn’t a doubt in my mind that house was haunted in one hell of an unnerving way.

CUT TO:

4 YEARS LATER:

I was living in a pretty nice condo in Silverlake - the landlord was crazy and my friend from NYC had just moved in with me and my house-mate, his name was PINCH and he was sleeping in the living room and the 2 bedrooms were occupied by myself and Kung-Pow - Kung-Pow and I met on the set of an independent film and for the most part; he was cool. He then got me a gig on another independent film as the Assistant Director for an actor named Adam Goldberg - if the name sounds familiar it’s because Adam’s been in allot of movies and TV shows but for some reason the only thing people really remember him from was for the role he played in “DAZED & CONFUSED” - he was the quintessential neurotic, intellectual JEW who got his ass kicked in at the keg party by Nicky Katt. He also played the Jew in “Saving Private Ryan” - the funny thing is in real life - Adam’s sort of the furthest thing from that, he’s got a bunch of tatoos and he’s the complete opposite of what we’ve all seen of him play. Anyway he wrote a feature and gets Giovanni Ribisi, Nicky Katt, Clea Lewis, Cole Hauser and himself as actors, he produces and directs 177 pages of the most pseudo-contrived black and white “Swingers” meets “Touch of Evil”. And yes, Kung-Pow got me on board and it most definitely opened allot of doors for me with people and connections - even though in true Hollywood fashion @ the 11th hour I quit - because I got another gig on a major Hollywood motion picture that paid 15 times more then Adam’s film - so I split and worked with Jennifer Lopez - So now Kung-Pow is still working on Adam’s little movie - as what? To this day I still don’t know and I’m working on this enormous Hollywood movie, and Kung-Pow could barely pay his rent and my buddy “PINCH” from New York is now living with us in our living room and I’m being pretty generous with everyone. But I’m also starting to feel like I’m being taken advantage of and I don’t like feeling like that...

THEN:

My Father and Grandfather die within 3 days of each other by straight-out coincidence - so I have to leave the huge movie I’m working on and fly East for the funerals - that’s correct - plural - “Funerals” and when I return after 7 days - I’m a bit RAW to say the least and the whole Kung-Pow and Pinch leaching off me is wearing thin VERY QUICKLY - I need a change.

ENTER:

PEG, Pinch’s very good friend from NYC who I also sort of new from way back because she used to be my other buddy’s girlfriend - Peg was a model and she just moved to LALA LAND from NYC. She was living in a house at the top of Beachwood Canyon with 2 other models - until 1 of them ends up with the dude who wrote “Traffic” - they actually ended up getting married and the other one ends up becoming famous in her own right but what-ever - so now Peg has this house to herself and she starts seeing some dope fiend rock-star - He was in bad shape when I first met him but Peg and I were becoming closer and closer and I guess Pinch told her about my dad. So, she truly seemed to have an authentic fondness for me plus we just got along really well, we had the same sense of humor and I liked her ALLOT. So, one day out of NOWHERE - I was truly at the end of my rope with the whole Kung-Pow situation and Peg says, why don’t you and Pinch just move in with me until you figure out what’s what. Two days later, me and Pinch end up moving in with Peg and JJ. I had NO fucking clue who JJ was, I’d heard of “The Red Hot Chilli Peppers” but I was and am a DIE-HARD Rap fan, so whoever the hell he was meant nothing to me. 1997 would become the most unbalanced, psychotic, insane, certifiable and bizarre year of my entire life - I’m just happy - I’m alive and able to write about it.

TO BE CONTINUED:

STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY:

The information contained in this electronic blog and any attachments to this blog may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, or the person responsible for writing this blog, any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying is strictly prohibited. Any and all information written in this blog is owned by the author of this blog.