It seems like alcohol and writers go hand in hand. I learned from the best, my roommate, Mr. Chad Deal. His capacity to drink and still write wonderfully is an inspiration to all of those wanna be alcoholics…
And of course the list of writers who drink and do drugs is extensive. To be honest, I didn’t even know who Hunter S. Thompson was until a couple years back. At the same time, I never really thought that I wanted to dedicate my life to gonzo writing (and the mix of all the other things I do). Speaking of which, I am playing a gig that I organized at Mamut Brewery with a band from Chicago named Zigtebra, San Diego new band under the name Gravyyard (for now), a local TJ guy that does some amazing loop work 1MFS (1 man freak show) and Ensenada/TJ jazzy band Sake Padrino. I will be playing classical guitar, here is a video I recorded when I first moved to TJ. I will be playing similar things to the video:
Going back to writers and alcoholism…. I realized my life is pretty much like it was my senior year in college. Minimal responsibilities except do tons of research and deliver papers on the deadline, except I don’t have a deadline but the ones I set myself. I wish I had a real deadline. Thus, I spent most of my week drunk, pretending to work, but not doing much. On Tuesday I did an interview for a story I am working on, and I promised myself I wouldn’t drink since it was early, but the person I was interviewing ordered a beer and I couldn’t help myself. The interview went great, I have all the material, but the alcohol beat me.
On Wednesday, another story came out and I got really inspired by it, this one somehow I managed to write it all while drinking. I got published twice on Thursday, the story about Panca’s/Half-Asleep’s mural getting defaced and an article I sent weeks ago about greasy Indie Burgers that I love at Colectivo 9.
Feeling accomplished for getting published, I started my weekend early, bought a bottle of Makers Mark, had Irish coffee for breakfast and kept day drinking until night came, took a power nap and went at it again. What happened, I am not sure, the weekend was a blur. A fun, awesome blur. I met people, I met girls, I had a blast, but can’t help that feeling that I did nothing productive. And this means more work has piled up. Inspired or not, I need to work and will work this whole week like I did two weeks ago. I conclude that drinking and work is not for me. Coffee… Coffee does make me work.
Which brings me to celebrities that I saw that were obviously drunk. Gary and Jake Busey coming off an airplane were definitely fun to talk too, they were rowdy, drunk and fun. But by far, photographing Danny DeVito and smelling the alcohol from 10-feet away will always be in my memory. Especially because I am 6’4 and he is not taller than 5’0. Danny is a really nice person, or at least he was when he was drunk going through the airport. I am sure if I become successful to be able to day drink and get away with it, I will go down that path, but for now, I’ll stay sober until after Jeopardy (8:00 pm).
I saw Danny more than a couple of times, but I only have two sets on my hard drive. One of him departing on March 15, 2009.
The other set I have of him is him arriving with his wife, Rhea Perlman, on March 28, 2010. Danny took the limelight as Rhea disappeared, but both were really nice to everyone.
Until next week and I say more shenanigans on my own blog.
Matingas 