“The trouble with the world is that everybody is three drinks behind.”

- Humphrey Bogart

I`ve been sober now for 18 years. With all the drugs, psychedelics and narcotics I did, I was [really] an alcoholic. Honestly, I only used to do cocaine so I could sober up and drink more. My last five years of drinking was a nightmare. I was drinking a half-gallon of rum with a fifth of rum on the side, in case I ran out, 28 beers a day, and three grams of cocaine just to keep me moving around. And I thought I was doing fine because I wasn`t crawling around drunk on the floor.

–Dennis Hopper
[Quote from 2001]

Everyone knows The Commodores first hit single was, "108 Minutes Til I Get Your Love"

Unfortunately, we waited another 30 minutes for the numbers to come up again with nothing, but we did find this…

...And we just wanted to post these guys because that white guy is just the grooviest muthafucka EVER! Ohio Players, ya'll!

]]> http://www.sorryigotdrunk.com/archives/2010/05/lost-on-music-choice-channel.php/feed 0 http://www.sorryigotdrunk.com/archives/2010/04/classic-drunk-veronica-lake.php http://www.sorryigotdrunk.com/archives/2010/04/classic-drunk-veronica-lake.php#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:11:41 +0000 Sweepea http://www.sorryigotdrunk.com/?p=3260 Sexy blonde bombshell Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman on November 14, 1922. Expelled from a boarding school, Lake had a troubling childhood. Her mother contended that Veronica dealt with schizophrenia, but no formal diagnosis has been reported.

1941′s I Wanted Wings was her breakthrough role. The film was a box office hit. Later that year she starred in Hold Back the Dawn. Her more popular movies were Sullivan’s Travels, This Gun for Hire, and I Married a Witch.

Lake was considered one of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood during the early 1940s. Years later, Lake would quip, “I never did cheesecake; I just used my hair.” She became known for onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was teamed together merely out of physical necessity: Lake stood just 4 feet 11½ inches and Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches tall. Veronica was the only actress then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with Ladd, and they made four films together.

Though audiences loved her, Lake had a reputation for being difficult to work with, mostly due to her complex personality. Lake’s career faltered with her portrayal as Dora Bruckman in 1944′s The Hour Before the Dawn. The film was bombarded with criticism of her unconvincing German accent.  The scathing reviews of her performance, the premature birth and death of her first child, and divorce from her first of several husbands triggered a decline in Lake’s career and personal life.

Her reputation as difficult to work with made the offers begin to wane, and her growing alcoholism didn’t help.  As her popularity declined, Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.  After only one film for 20th Century Fox, 1949′s Slattery’s Hurricane, her career was over. By the end of 1951, she had appeared in Stronghold, but had to file for bankruptcy.  Due to unpaid taxes, the IRS seized her remaining assets.

Lake was unable to get out of her debt; she broke her ankle in 1959, and could not continue acting.  The fall of her career devastated her. She was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. By the late 1960s, her physical and mental health continued to paralyze her.  She developed paranoia, believing the FBI was stalking her.

She co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast, in 1970, mostly due to the success of her autobiography. The film was a horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline, and was panned by critics. Soon after its release, Lake was hospitalized. She died on July 7, 1973 of complications of her alcoholism — hepatitis and renal failure.

I haven’t bought a DVD or Blu-ray in months, maybe even a year. I can’t even tell you the last time a movie warranted me spending any of my hard earned cash to own it. I have around 100 DVDs. I only own one Blu-ray and that was a gift. (It’s Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side in case you were wondering). I’m an avid Netflixer and I try to watch at least a couple movies a week, whether it Time Warner On Demand or Amazon On Demand. The point being is it takes something special for me to spend any real money on owning a film.

Long and the short of it is, FANTASTIC MR. FOX is everything I hoped WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE would be but wasn’t. It’s a seminal picture from one of the real auteurs of my generation. It’s a departure from his former work while still remaining a part of his oeuvre. While I don’t fault Spike Jonze completely, I still think he’s a genius and hope he keeps amazing me with his movies. His short, I’M HERE – A LOVE STORY is pretty fantastic, so I’m not too worried, but WTWTA was kind of a mess. It’s probably Dave Eggers fault. Let’s just say it was and move on.

Both movies were based on classic children’s books and both were expounded upon to make them feature length. Wes Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX, however is not only good kids movie, it’s a great movie period. It’s funny, witty, clever, beautiful, smart, and just kind of amazing. My wife and I kept having to rewind it a just so we could laugh again at some of the action and dialogue. You could freeze frame virtually any shot in the movie and hang it on your wall as a work of art. The craftsmanship involved in the production of this movie is splattered all over the screen. I can’t wait to dig into the special features. Oh, and the voice work is impeccable as well. I love that they didn’t just sit in a booth recording the actors, but had Clooney, Streep, Murray etc. running around in places so you get a whole new organic sound instead of the deadened sound of a vocal booth.

All in all, I couldn’t recommend it more. I can’t wait to have some friends over to watch it together with them as well. It’s a fun ride.

So go.. Rent it, Buy it, See it.

Now, he’s moved on to partnering with James Mercer, the lead singer of The Shins and I couldn’t be happier. After being thoroughly underwhelmed with the new albums from Gorillaz and MGMT, it was nice to finally buy an album that I wanted to listen to a second and third time, and not because I was searching for something to like.

The album is simultaneously groundbreaking and not groundbreaking and that’s a good thing. They take their respective strengths and put them together and they fit perfectly. It’s just a great, relaxing ride. When my wife asked me why I liked it so much, all I could say was, “There’s nothing offensive about it. Nothing to not like. Just great songs that can be replayed and replayed.” I’ve done so five times since downloading the album yesterday and in an attempt to ween myself away from it gradually, I created a Broken Bells radio on Pandora so I’d at least have something else playing as well.

I can’t really pick a particular song that captures the feeling of the album, the entire album is that feeling, so I’ll just embed the Lala of the whole thing after the jump for you to check out yourself. Let me know what you think..

“Drink is the greatest wrecker of men since women was invented.”

– Jimmy Durante, in On An Island With You

Check it out HERE!

A nervous breakdown due to job-related stress led Robert to look for work as an actor or extra in movies. He appeared in a few B-movie westerns and appeared as a villain in several films between 1942 and 1943.

Mitchum would become most well-known due to his film noir films that were popular in the mid- to late-40′s. But his career was checkered with bad-boy activity. After a string of successful films for RKO, he and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. After serving a week at the county jail, he spent 43 days at a prison farm. The arrest didn’t affect Mitchum’s success in the long term. In fact, the conviction was later over-turned, as it was proven to be a setup. His studio, however, was embarrassed by the ordeal, and they ordered Mitchum to clean up his act or they would terminate his contract.

Even after many successful roles in film noirs and westerns, his childhood prankster days seeped in to his adult life, and he often caused trouble during filming. He was expelled from 1955′s Blood Alley due to his horrible behavior on-set. One day Mitchum showed up drunk and tore apart a studio office when they didn’t have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming, claiming he could not work with the director. Because of the many pranks he pulled on fellow actors and crew, as well as his continual tardiness, producer John Wayne took over the role himself.  Following a succession of average westerns and some box office flops, he regained prominence in the film community with his most well-known character, southern rapist Max Cady in 1962′s Cape Fear.

Robert Mitchum continued to work in to his 80′s, but the parts got smaller as his health deteriorated. He died on July 1, 1997, shortly before his 80th birthday, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. Yet his dark, cynical personality in real life made his portrayals in film noir films of the 40′s legendary.