GREATEST MOVIE CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME: BUD

"A Repo Man's always intense! C'mon, let's go get a drink!"

Holy rolypoly, it's been a long time since I updated this thread of my favorite movie characters. I've got two coming at you. Here's the first one, the next one's tomorrow.

The first one is the inimitable 'Bud'; Harry Dean Stanton from Repo Man.

Repo Man is one of those quintessential movies for me. If you follow the latitude lines of punk rock and the longitude lines of low-budget movies, you end up in a bizarro land where these guys exist, drinking generic beer and living by an unrecognizable code. There is no other movie ever made quite like it.

Harry Dean Stanton was the only Hollywood made guy in this movie, and he picked up the role because he met the director (Alex Cox) at a party, and told him his soul was dead, or that he was a ghost, or something to that effect. The real story's on the DVD commentary, I just don't remember it now.

Harry Dean Stanton could chew the fire out of a candle without blowing smoke. The guy's a veteran of World War II, shown up in 100 different movies and TV shows, but is always himself, and a cut above everyone else. Bud *is* the Repo Man code that he spouts through the movie, which is based on Isaac Asimov's three laws of Robotics. The repo men work at 'Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation', and I always get the sense that Bud really believes he's helping people by jacking their rides.

Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of scenes that other guys steal; Dick Rude's fantastic death scene, the rodriguez brothers, Sy Richardson firing into that house, Otto's parents getting sucked into the televangelist, Miller proselytizing about the aliens (Bud, Miller, Lite...the repo men are named after beers, that's how you know you can trust them). This movie could've easily been a Big-Lebowskiesque tongue-in-cheek joke, but Bud anchors it. He lives what he teaches, and you're always pretty certain that HDS isn't even in character. If he showed up at your house for your car, you'd just give it to him. Without Bud, this movie is a romp where guys with mohawks get sushi and not pay.

I leave with my favorite Bud quote, which says it all: "I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees."



Take witness with these clips:

1

2 (there's no way they paid for that)

J. Robbins

I used to be a big Jawbox fan, and this is terrible news.

Where does the time go

Sheer insanity, my life is. Dropping a quick note to catalog my doings, so I can point the medical professionals somewhere in two weeks when they ask me "how the hell did you do this to yourself?"

Last Friday at M Shanghai, I played with Via Skyway for George's 34th birthday, preceded by the best hot and sour soup I ever tasted. Playing with my old friends was a lot of fun; and after the 30th or 40th time it still doesn't get old playing bass while Rob Machold is playing drums. The guy is just incredible.

Oh yeah, Jackson broke the PA. Please contact him directly if you're seeking renumeration.

Saturday: hopped on a bus to Boston and went back to the Band in Boston podcast house in Somerville where Get Help performed two weeks ago. It was good to see Andy, Jen and their dogs Smoky and Stella, although Stella doesn't remember me, and for some reason isn't talking to me. Bitch.

Anyway, I was sitting in with Boston's The Beatings, who showed up sans bassist Erin, The Beatings are usually an aggressive audio experience, but the living room we were in prefers a relaxed vibe so the songs were reimagined with acoustic guitar and me on organ. Since Erin couldn't make it, I attempted to play bass lines with the organ foot pedals with varying success. Anyway, the podcast has already been posted at Band in Boston (follow the link above), take a listen; I see Andy has gracefully mixed the organ parts low.

Sunday, rehearsed for 5 hours with Get Help. Tony and I are having a contest to see who can die of malcontent first, and we express this musically via Get Help. Check out our goofy blogs at our myspace page, and see if you can find the aching inertia in all the whimsy.

Monday: tried to clean my apartment. I'd made a batch of homemade Egg Nog for a friend's weekend holiday party before dashing out to the via skyway show, and I'd done a pretty poor job of disposing of eggshells and milk and cream cartons. I came home to a smell that can best be described as a farm funeral home.

Last night: rehearsed for tonight's Boston Strikes Again! show at PA's Lounge and stayed up late putting together a kickass hardcore punk mix for the trip up. I don't think most bands listen to insanely loud music on the road, but Strikes Again! isn't most bands. We're insane. We'll be listening to Pantera, Slayer, the Butthole Surfers and my hardcore punk mix. I predict speeding tickets.

Anyway, I found a couple great mp3 blog sites for hardcore & punk; these guys dig out 7" from the vaults and share the wealth. Something I Learned Today and 7 inch punk. These are tremendous sites that I could spend weeks at. Despite the great hardcore music, they're just about the music, which is a refreshing change from the indie rock mp3 blogs which are increasingly about the bloggers themselves. And you know how much I hate bloggers writing about themselves .

Rule of Thumb

I'm usually of the mind that musical taste is subjective; but here's a pretty reliable measuring stick to determine whether music sucks: when the artist throws up while performing it.