deep cover, keeping it real.

the huge anticipation i had for mann's feature length miami vice a couple of years ago was such a welcomed blessing. meg and i had our minds blown by collateral, perhaps his "best" film in which all the parts and vibes known to mann just clicked with ease. google said miami vice was next and the heat was on. netflix got the seasons 1 and 2 dvds delivered. it felt great. tc, meg and i had our radars turned on to track and absorb the people so far into deep cover that they forgot where they came from, who they were. this often gets compounded in the art and music places we travel, where personalities are large and evolving, based on what one is into and looking at, what cover they are under. the lines between a maniac, a phony and a legit warrior are so blurred. it is full of excitement, like the frontiers of yore, and can happen at any place, any time. as long as there are people communicating and needing to be understood, you can have this.

i recently finished denis johnson's "tree of smoke" and it blew my mind in many an unexpected way. to begin with, i wasn''t much a fan of his prose. i beleive the film "jesus' son" turned me off. as a film student, the potheads loved it due to the drugs and the girls loved it due to crudup. i'd be trying to drink that 40 and talk about barray hannah's "ray" knocking me over but every motherfucker had the same thing to say: "dood did your read jesus' son?". several years later i did and it wasn't bad at all, though still not sold. "tree of smoke" is as good as any of the heavyhitters vollman has laid on us over the past 15 years, and he's really knocked me out w/ his dreams of north america. both authors create complete mythology in a haze of undercover loss and reinvention. "tree of smoke" is perhaps the best antiwar book i have ever read and i cannot recommend it enough.

i am a david allan coe superfan. he is one of the best songwriters, singers and characters america has produced. he's so illegal on so many levels, but so perfect on others. he's about as lost in deep cover as an artist can get and must remain there in order to survive.

was it real?


first chapter of tree of smoke:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/books/chapters/0902-1st-john.html?ref=review


david vibes hard with al goldstein parts 1 and 2: