Tom Waits as an actor

[senorcorazon]

Every time I get a little down, I watch the "excerpt" of this:
http://www.jonasmekas.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JM&Product_Code=53

Someday I'll pony up the full few bucks and get the delight. Some of Tom's best work.

[Gilly]

He does play himself but I'm much more interested in seeing who Tom Waits is than hearing his songs. He's a very interesting guy but his songs just don't connect with me.

As for Scarlett, she's one of those actors that chooses great movies and then goes off and makes an idiotic choice. That would be fine if you're versatile but she's not. But, I loved her in Ghost World, Match Point, Lost in Translation and The Prestige.

[bruce]

The Prestige.

Sadly they did not stick closer to the book for her character. 

[Pat K]

The Prestige.

Sadly they did not stick closer to the book for her character. 

What happened in the book?

[Joe Rogaine]

Remember the movie staring Tom and Sylvester Stallone.

[Spoony]

I agree, Tom Waits gets a lot of passes from critics. I think he goes through some unlistenable phases.

Fishing With John was great because it didn't conceal how pissed he got at John Lurie for dragging him out to the middle of nowhere.

He fetishized old-timey music for kids, who are impressed with being old, shitty, and homeless. I know a guy who worked at a liquor store for most of his youth because it was what Tom Waits would do. Bad influence on the aimless, that one.

C

[bruce]

The Prestige.

Sadly they did not stick closer to the book for her character. 

What happened in the book?

She auditions in the nude

[masterofsparks]

He fetishized old-timey music for kids, who are impressed with being old, shitty, and homeless. I know a guy who worked at a liquor store for most of his youth because it was what Tom Waits would do. Bad influence on the aimless, that one.

Hahaha, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Did your friend not realize that Tom Waits is an extremely wealthy man play-acting at looking like he lives in a junkyard?

[Sarah]

Blaming Tom Waits for that choice seems a tad silly.  I suspect he was predisposed to follow that route regardless.

[Spoony]

You're right... that guy was missing a gene. "Let the buyer beware" and all that.

I'm not saying Tom's a dick or a con man, he's just got a schtick that that get's harder to buy into the older I get.

[masterofsparks]

Yeah, I'm not so concerned with Wait's shtick or his play-acting or whatever. It seems to me that every entertainer or performer is playing a character, so attacking Waits for doing the same is kinda silly.

[Joe Rogaine]

Anybody know where to get a copy of the movie Candy Mountain staring Tom Waits and Joe Strummer?

[Spoony]

Yes, it is silly to attack a performer for having a schtick, (every time I see Clinic I think to myself "help me doctor, I'm schtick") but shame on the tool who buys into it to a degree that they think joining a traveling circus will make them a well-rounded person.

I thought we'd disproved that whole 'hippy' thing by now.

[yesno]

same thing with Charles bukowski I think. He romanticized a drunk aimless lifestyle but in real life was a pretty hard worker. Because of bukowski and other writers I used to think drunkenness was cool. Hunter Thompson led me to more exotic things.

I agree that it's not the artist's fault in any way when dumb kids are influenced by what they read and see, but it's a real thing.

[Vambo]

TW owns the role of Renfield.