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Delonge, Skateboarding + Punk Rock

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:25:50 +0100

Bon Iver + The Roots = Genius

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:50:06 +0100

Charisma as Natural as Gravity.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:43:02 +0100

“One night, as I’m standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for “The Dark Knight,” a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I’d fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you’d asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn’t know. That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they’d really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It’s tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there’s plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they’d given him.

Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He’d brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he’d made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn’t take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.

Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it’s Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can’t help but smile.”

Christopher Nolan, on Heath Ledger.

On Writing.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:24:37 +0100

I started writing by just opening up a journal and there were words that were truthful because they weren’t meant to be lyrics, and that had a sense of integrity to it that I could tell felt real. And that became kind of a template for me to a) stay sane and get this out of my system, and b) I thought that taking some of this ugliness that was bottled up inside me and channeling it into something that had some degree of beauty to it at times, felt like “Wow, I’ve found my voice.”
Trent Reznor.

Is there one riddle you'd solve if you could?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:54:28 +0100

Tom DeLonge: There's one riddle I'd love to solve - about ancient man on this planet and the capabilities we had. Like, the fact that we may have been to the moon or mars long ago. The mythological gods all speak about the same wars of gods so what really happened? Why are the pyramids there? What is on the backside of the moon? Did we go there a million years ago and are we just rediscovering it all now? I don't think we're working with little green aliens in a mountain, but I do think there's a lot of stuff in our solar system that's pretty trippy. There are some great stories out there.

YOU. WON'T. KNOW.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:42:18 +0100

Hey, hey, hey, Mr. Hangman,
You go get your rope.
Your daughters weren't careful
And I fear that I am a slippery slope.
Now even when I lay my head down at night
After a day I got perfectly right
She won't know.
She won't know.
So pray little Kay, love is just God on a good day.
And you can't blame your mother
She's trying not to see you as her worst mistake.
And I wish that I could tell you right now
But it looks like I won't be around
So you won't know
You won't know.
You won't know.
You won't know.
So believe in me, believe in me, believe in me,
Believe, if you think I'll let you down
Well I won't.
They can fire everything they've got
And when you think I'm sunk
I will float on and on.
I have burned the bush that covered my light
Even though I'm scared I won't burn that bright
But you won't know
You won't know.
You won't know.
You won't know.
We're never gonna feel as full as we felt.
So let's go outside and we'll play "William Tell"
Take your time drawing your bead,
I'll stand as still as you need
You're so good at talking smack, you heart attack
But you're the apple of my eye anyway.
My smiling face
That's on my head
That's on your silver plate.

Bon Iver's Video Album...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:48:58 +0100

Hmmm, a video album? Now that sounds like an interesting idea....

In the future, we're going to need a shit load of glass...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:33:56 +0100

One day I want an office like this...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:24:40 +0100

If you haven't already checked out SMODCAST from Kevin Smith and co then get on it. Some seriously great stuff there every single day.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:44:53 +0100