The Wide Open World

As I talked about in my thoughts after Berlin, I told myself I would get out of the house more often. Now is as good a time to start.

I wanted to see Queer before it left theaters and saw that it was playing in the former Laemmle Sunset 5 theaters on Sunset and Crescent Heights in West Hollywood. Fuck. The time and money I wasted at that fucking Virgin Megastore during the early 2000s was obscene. It is a wonder that they went out of business. The only tenant that has remained is the Crunch Fitness on the second floor which is where Madd and I ran into Renee Zellweger in the elevator all those years ago. And it was in those Laemmle theaters where I cussed out Drew Carey for talking too loudly during a movie — I believe it was during a sold-out screening for Bowling for Columbine. And running into Adam Duritz from Counting Crows in that Virgin Megastore and that Vietnamese dude that never aged from 21 Jumpstreet.

Buzz Coffee became a generic Starbucks; there is now an urgent care and a Trader Joes; the Laemmle is now a Landmark after being independent for a few years; and in the place of Virgin is now an AT&T and CB2 store. So yeah, it’s fair to say the vibe has changed.

As for the film, I don’t know how much I liked it. I think I have to re-read the book then re-watch it to make a final judgement. On the surface level I liked it, although there was something too romantic, too clingy with Bill Lee. Maybe it’s my projection of William Burroughs and his complete degeneracy, but I expected it to be more lurid and less linear. There was a gorgeous jungle scene with a choreographed moment of bodies melding into one another. I also appreciated that they used Nirvana songs anachronistically since Kurt and Burroughs did have a friendship.

I did use public transit to get there. Part of the ride involved using the B line which is the subway. The last time I used the subway about a year ago, the car reeked of shit, piss and pot (and probably other fluids.) This time, it was mostly odor-free I am happy to report.

I took the opportunity to go to the In-N-Out in Hollywood since I don’t live anywhere near one here in Downtown. You can never go wrong with a double-double animal style with fries and a 7-Up.

And if that wasn’t enough, I decided to go all out and got French toast and bacon at Blu Jam Cafe this morning.

Me so fancy.