I only imagine how I would feel were ugly pictures of myself to be published and for that to be the general public's image of me.
Having looked at press photos for ADSC for the first time, it's true that he doesn't seem to give a shit about what people think about his condition, i.e. he consistently refuses to wear makeup (or consult a stylist...) to even tone done the effect of his marks... which is, of course, good for him.
Anyway, on to part 2:
this is actually the earlier conversation, and it shows. This conversation was thought lost and the previous podcast was recorded to make up for this loss. That second "go" was released first, not second, perhaps because it was better in audio quality. But when you record yourself a second time it is almost always comes out worse than the first. This podcast's conversation is, I'm happy to declare, superior to the other's and, to repeat that word, less "insistent" from Morris's side than he was in the first. Who knows. Perhaps Buxton was to blame: I don't know if he came across nervous about detaining Morris longer than originally intended. All pure speculation. And that is what is getting me into trouble.
By less "insistent" I mean that Morris has a lot more sparkle to his conversation when he talks about the theme of his film, specifically.
Incredibly, Morris lives very much the CaB lifestyle. He obsesses over his music collection, he reads the internet a lot, he finds it hard to get out of the house unless he is going to gigs and crossing his arms on the dancefloor. I jest. But it was certainly very charming that in spite of all his hollywood connections he portrays himself in such a humble way. Someone with far less claim to fame that he would be justified in playing up the more exciting parts of his life. Buxton drops more names! And he drops the name of some comedian I've never heard of. Guz Khan? Glad to know he's a fan of the M-dog.
I very much enjoyed the discussion of David Bowie's last album. Hearing Buxton sing "David... with his little button eyes" in his trusty comedic Bowie impersonation caught me by surprise. I had never heard anyone else make fun of that aspect of the video before. It sent me right back into mourning -but the conversation that ensued was a great consolation. Morris is right, isn't he? Those videos were hardly important to Bowie himself at the time they were released. He was not interested in their reception he was interested in making a statement to the ages. Like the great dying poets Thomas, Yeats or Milton before him, he has been able to make his own death into something vital.
I seize upon that word "vital" because it the one that Morris so epigramatically applies to Bowie's Black Star: "there's something vital you may not even like about it, but which you can't deny is for keeps". It follows what is "vital" is the man's death, and our loss of him, is now for "keeps". Maybe he didn't exactly mean what I'm interpreting him to be saying, but he is certainly someone who doesn't use any word lightly. His carollesque talent for language - in almost any register - is evident in everything he has ever done. Because he hates a conventional plot, and is not a journalist by nature, he falls between two stools through the lens of the literary establishment, yet he deserves to be remembered as a great writer and actor... and definitely a good filmmaker.
Chris Morris saw Beck live in Barcelona in 1997. Nice to know. Imagine him as a young man. What conversations did he have on that holiday as a tourist?
