Tuesday, December 5, 2017

The Fraudulent Familiar

Opioid drugs work as analgesics by binding at opioid receptors in the brain.-- H.J. McQuay


James Woods simplifies what I would convolute. His followers are “friends”. He is invigorated by his interactions with them, and since I have utilized the noun in the same fashion with my small following in turn, my hesitation to embrace the notion of virtual connection friendships seems unwarranted, or perhaps developmental damage makes my emotional demands unseemly. In terms of the actor, I never much preoccupied myself with his performances. The opening story in Cat’s Eye was yet another insufferable Stephen King satire. Woods had his fun with it, an early signal of libertarian rebellion. I never thought too much of his cocaine feature, which his tweet reminded me was titled The Boost. Ebert hits the right keynotes, but this hustling isn't a resonating force for me. Shark came and went, more television legalese, with fictive passion. Cop was typical of the Reagan era; he does project mania well, as he discussed in an interview with Terri Gross, and there are feature films which would undoubtedly enthuse me, but Twitter brought the man to my attention and appreciation. Warmed me up as a fan, if never a trophy commodity with sexuality to open the door. He allows his humanism to reveal itself, in contrast to Mia Farrow, who hides behind her righteous liberal indignation. Sometimes we use formality of address in tweeting to him, but the majority of us know that device familiarity is not face to face, and though I’ve written to him that he doesn’t intimidate me, a hypothetical meeting would leave me unsure of my footing, initially at least, though he seems more personable than many in the industry. This might be the confidence of age as much as the insulation of fame. I support perhaps 75% of his political assertions. This includes his outrage over the Steinle trial. I read the alternate juror’s Politico piece, and while first degree murder was a stretch, Zarate had no business picking up a gun. It should have been an involuntary manslaughter verdict. This continuing progressive implosion makes Woods and his December leanings towards women sixteen years and above old school, doesn’t tarnish the pleasure his timing gives me; I do not sense any sordid skeletons in his closet, though Hollywood lives and subverts itself on scandal and dirty money, slavers to insure, in our world weariness, that seediness clings to legends like spores. (This references my nausea over Spacey’s sexual orientation more than Woods, as I was sexually attracted to the former and I am not spent with feeling infuriated.) I have no reason, as well, to disbelieve Amber Tamblyn’s claim, but can assert the same for Woods: the least of my problems when I was sixteen was fending off the passes of older men not connected to my hyper sexual mother, and think Amber needs to get over herself. If she felt threatened due to this episode, she could have contacted authorities, so, why is she indicting Woods in his twilight years? Was he aggressive, threatening? His claim that her recollection is a fabrication may have another meaning, as in, I meant no harm, but it isn’t for me to judge, and I fail to see why this has to be held over the actor’s head. We all have indiscretions.

Now, with all the above qualifications, with what his tweets have taught me about him, and my one sided responses to him on disability and my ever withering dismay over living inside my own head, are we friends? No, though he was using the designation as mannered social intelligence. Could we be? An impoverished drowning once semi-pro journalist growing gnarled in her spastic contortions, and a jaded celebrity who speaks his mind? Probably not, for a simple reason: I’d pucker my maudlin invalid face and pull on him. Men who are men are supposed to rescue me, and that would be his role, whatever else the dynamic, on the hypothetical supposition of getting to know one another. This doesn’t mean I won’t approach his publicist on the topic on which this post dwells for my column, presuming I survive my current travail, nor does it mean I will not be a sympathetic interlocutor if I can restore some semblance of my writing life this season. His skill as an actor comes through over time on our micro mighty social media habitat. His wit and charm, though they cannot heal me, makes me feel better. His barbed irony takes me out of myself, and I intend to stay in his corner, because it is a rare gift few others have been able to bestow, VIP or not. Given the bastion of liberalism which foments in the Golden State, San Diego's homeless crisis is incomprehensible. Jerry Brown is the progressive paragon of my youth, and between Pennsylvania's string cheese budget on this end, the hepatitis on the other, perhaps we need to stop submerging ourselves as adversaries. I've dealt with a slew of CA residents on Twitter over the years, and maybe they need to get their minds off beach fronts and Beverly Hills.

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