RAW R.I.P.

As Richie and I deal with Richie's life-threatening condition, I finally hear (4 days late) that Robert Anton Wilson has taken his final voyage, mere days before his 75th birthday.

Here's the message I left on RAW's blog, tagged onto his last post:

93, 31, 23, 5, hike!

I don't know what kind of clever thing I can say. I hope your passage was like your friend Tim Leary's. Reportedly his last words were these: "Why not? It's beautiful."

I hope you had a beautiful passing. I hope you saw whatever beatific vision Leary did.

You were so optimistic about our future as a species, that we were on the way to evolving, that if you saw the world getting better and better you were getting smarter, and if you saw the world getting worse and worse you were getting more stupid.

Of course, you wrote those words before America elected George W. Bush not once, but twice, and California elected Arnold Schwarzenegger twice as well. I think perhaps DEVO had it more accurately: as a species, we are devolving. Of course, that shouldn't stop those determined to evolve. And that was your determination throughout life.

I wish we would have gotten to that optimistic, brave new world you saw in your mind's eye in your lifetime. I wonder if we ever will in my lifetime, or in the lifetime of those who are the right age to have been children of mine if I had decided to have children.

I suppose we just have to keep hoping.

I suddenly have a craving for pasta tonight.

Arrividerci, mi amici. Pax vobiscum.

93
93 93
Michelle

Peter Jackson gets screwed by New Line: It's on.

What was one of the reasons why the Lord of the Rings movies didn't suck? Peter Jackson. What's the reason why the upcoming Hobbit movie will probably suck? Absence of Peter Jackson.

According to New Line Cinema co-chair Bob Shaye, Jackson is now persona non grata at New Line. What horrible sin is Jackson guilty of that Shaye would disassociate from him? He simply wants to get paid his rightful share of the profits that are due to him for the three movies, that's all. No Hollywood "creative accounting" chicanery. None of that bullshit. He wants his share. And that's only fair.

This is an age-old story. This is why I have nothing but contempt for the MPAA and the Four Families of the Record Industry. I don't see Universal Studios crying over what they made from Jackson's surprisingly good remake of King Kong.

All I can say is that this makes Shaye look like a dick, and Jackson look like a hero.