Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Lou Reed Rules!

He just totally doesn't give a fuck at all any more. He doesn't care. He's got his money and had his fame, and he's basically past it now and just wants to do what he wants to do. And anyone who doesn't like it can screw off. Some of these aging celebrities, the guys who lived fast and hard and expected to die young but didn't, they just develop this no-bullshit attitude over time. Like George Carlin. Or Harrison Ford. Over a long enough timeline, that "eager-to-please" quality that famous people tend to radiate just drains away, and all that's left is a jaded old guy who has seen it all.

That's Lou Reed. And it's pretty awesome. Like his take on the upcoming film Factory Girl, in which Sienna Miller will portray Edie Sedgwick, Guy Pearce will play Andy Warhol and members of nerd-rock outfit Weezer will play Reed and his Velvet Underground bandmates.

Yeah...Weezer...Playing VU. Lou talks to the New York Post about his feelings on the project.

"I read that script," Reed said the other night at a party for his new photo shows at the Hermès boutique and the Steven Kasher Gallery. "It's one of the most disgusting, foul things I've seen — by any illiterate retard — in a long time. There's no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money."

Reed was asked at one point to get involved with the project.

"I wouldn't be part of that," said the rocker. "Just like I wouldn't be part of 'I Shot Andy Warhol,' " Mary Harron's 1996 film about Valerie Solanas' assassination attempt on the artist.

"They tried to turn Valerie Solanas into a heroine. They're all a bunch of whores."

For the record, though I don't think it's any kind of GREAT film, I kind of enjoyed Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol. It doesn't so much make Valerie Solanas a heroine. She still comes off as pretty insane. It does lend a bit of credibility to her odd socio-political beliefs, but isn't that what filmmaking is about? Expressing complex ideas through creative storytelling techniques?

Anyway, Lou Reed likes to call people whores, and for some reason I find that kind of charming. And let's face it...he's right to be upset about Rivers and the Crew playing the Velvets. Can you think of a less appropriate match of bands?

Okay, I can think of a few...The Smiths. Animal Collective. Soul Asylum. But not too many...

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