James Dean, Me, and...Who'll Write Your Memoirs When Your Gone

First, let me apologize for not writing more often. School has a funny way of interrupting progress on blogs. But anyway, enough of the excuses. Here goes...

I've noticed something very interesting while I've been researching the life of James Dean. There are a lot of biographies about his life, and most of them have been written by "friends" and "confidantes". I put those phrases in quotations because some of these authors seem a little, shall we say, fishy.

It seems that none of these authors wrote their memoirs without other intentions and none of the like one another. Each contains pointed digs at the others. Each author claims to have been James Dean's "Best Friend", some even claiming that they were his one true love. Each claims that James made derogatory comments about the others, that he actually didn't like them. With each new memoir they state that they are simply "setting the record straight." What a joke. It seems that they are simply enacting their own seperate agendas and are trying to make themselves look better.

I'm not saying that these books are bad. They are in fact quite the opposite. They are fun little books that paint the actor through the eyes of another person, which just happens to be my favorite type of memoir. It just strikes me after I've read through them that they were just trying to make you believe that they alone knew the "real" James Dean.

This begs the question: Who'll write your memoirs when you're gone?

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James Dean, Me, and...Death

James Dean had a strange obsession with death. He is seen in several candid photographs with various symbols of death, including hanging from a noose and the one at left, where he sat inside of a coffin in the funeral home where his body would be taken a mere seven months later.

I too am curious about death. However, unlike James Dean, I oftentimes worry about other peoples deaths, not my own.

I cannot stand to see someone I know sleeping if I can't see them breathing. I will always go over and check. I have to have a piece of mind.

I'm not trying to creep anyone out or anything, but death has been on my mind a lot lately.

My Nana is not doing so well lately. I am not sure how much longer we are going to have her in our lives and it scares me. I've always considered my Nana to be a bionic woman of sorts. She has had many health issues throughout her life, going in and out of the hospitals since she was a small girl. Yet, she always comes out on top. The last time she was in the hospital, the doctor used her chart to teach his students. One of them said, "She's had all of this and she's still alive". To give you an example of her strength, she recovered almost 90% from a major stroke in just over two weeks. That is unheard of.

I am struggling with the thought of saying goodbye forever. It is tearing me apart to just think about it. I know that I should be glad that she's lived a long and wonderful life. I know that I should be okay with this. But I'm not. I'm selfish and I want her in my life for a long time to come. However, I know that I have no control over this. God does.

Death is still tragic. James Dean died at the beginning of his life. He was only in his twenties. His life was cut tragically short. A boy from my High School died unexpectedly during surgery this week. That is what confuses me about death. It doesn't just come for us when we're old and have lived a full life. Too often, it comes for people in the prime of their life. No one knows why, especially me. I know that there are several people out there who are searching for the answers. Please let me know if you find them

Book Review: Surviving James Dean

This book was written by William Bast, close friend, confidant, and oftentimes roommate to James Dean. Originally published in 1956 under the title James Dean: A Biography, the book sold well and became the first official biography of James Dean. It garnered the author a lot of publicity and many considered it THE definitive James Dean book. However, that was only half the story. What Mr. Bast left out was the fact that as well as being James Dean's close friend, confidant, and roommate, he was also his lover.

William Bast met James Dean while they were both students in the UCLA theatre department. From that meeting (through their girlfriends at the time) a friendship blossomed. That friendship would last over the next five years until the tragic death of James Dean in 1955.

The connection that these two shared is hard to describe, and I won't try to do it justice. I couldn't possibly get it right. It was the kind of friendship and love that one only experiences once in a lifetime. To say more would be to ruin the book.

This book not only gives you a look at James Dean. You also follow the author and learn about his life. It gives you a great view and understanding of Hollywood in the 1950's and also what it was like to be a homosexual during that time period. I highly recommend this book, not just for the story of James and William, but for the descriptions of the era as well.

Movie Review: James Dean (2001)

Well, I'm not quite done with the book yet, though I expect I may finish later tonight. However, Nana and I watched "James Dean", the 2001 TV movie based upon the life of James Dean. So, I thought I'd review it.

First let me say that James Franco's portrayal of James Dean is stunning, powerful, and beautiful. It ranks near the top of the best biographical portrayals of all time. There are points in the film where I have a hard time discerning the fact that it isn't James Dean himself on the screen, but someone who is portraying him. It's an inspired performance worthy of praise.

However, the script is another story entirely. The entire time I was watching, the film, there seemed to be a giant gap in the plot. It was as if the script writers had attempted to erase anything too controversial from James' life and just show it's audience a basic, scrubbed up version of this person. It seemed as if half of his life was excised for being unfavorable or not clean enough for air. It's like the viewer only gets to see half of James Dean.

The most glaring ommission is that of William Bast, James Dean's best friend, roommate, and rumored lover. He was turned into an insignificant character who appears onscreen for no more than 30 seconds. On top of that, that turned him into an African American man named Billy. I was shocked. I may be a little biased, seeing as how I just finished Mr. Bast's book (review coming tomorrow) but he was a very significant part of James' life. To be excised almost completely is inexcusable.

There were also a lot of moments that seemed overly dramatized and some that even seemed contrived for dramatic effect. I know that this was a made for TV movie of the week, but accuracy should be expected to some degree.

The biggest beef of all was that this movie clocks in at a paltry 95 minutes. It hardly seems right. There was so much material to work with, yet almost none of it was used. This could have easily been a two-night event, much like it's counter part "Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows", maybe even a miniseries. Because the pacing is so fast, the movie is at times difficult to follow or stick to. At the the end of the movie, I looked at my Nana and said, "That's it?"

I know that this review is mostly negative, and for that I apologize. The film was good for what it was. I just wanted more. Perhaps I will find the missing half when I watch the 1976 movie, also titled "James Dean", which is based upon William Bast's first book about James Dean. So, I rate the movie as follows:

Acting- A

Script- B

Accuracy- B

Here's The Trailer:

A Nice Video

James Dean, Me, and...The Beginning

Let me start by saying that I'm not really sure why I feel so much so suddenly about someone I never actually knew and, until just a few days ago, knew absolutely nothing about. It seems absolutely crazy. And yet, here we are.

I've always felt strangely close to people that I don't know, felt as if we could be best friends, that I could somehow help them. It's usually celebrities (Rosie O'Donnell and Britney Spears for example)and the occasional politician (Hillary Clinton). I feel for them when their surrounded by paparazzi while trying to shop or when they go through emotional issues in the public eye. I know that I can barely deal with my emotions in private, much less in public where everyone is watching. It's one of my life's unexplained mysteries. But I digress because, as usual, I'm off topic.

Back to James Dean.

This all began when I was looking up something about James Franco. As I was browsing his IMDB page, I remembered that he got his big break playing James Dean in a television movie. This realization led to a search for James Dean information. I knew that he was a rather famous actor who had died tragically when he was only in his 20's. I was aware of his films, but I'd never seen them. I had discussed him recently with my friend Sean, who was starring in the Terrence McNally play Corpus Christi, in which James Dean is used as a stand in for Satan when he tempts Jesus. Sean had just watched all of his films and told me that I should see them too. I quietly added them to my mile-long "To-Watch" list.

So here I was a month later researching James Dean. I looked at the library for the newest, most up-to-date book I could find. That book happened to be "Surviving James Dean" by William Bast. Apparently, he had been James Dean's roommate and best friend. I love books about old Hollywood that are written in first person so that you feel like you're there in the moment. This books seemed to be just that, so I snapped it up and took it home.

I started reading as soon as I got home and arrived at the half-way point at 3:30 A.M. I couldn't put it down. The only reason I stopped reading was the fact that my eyes were literally in pain trying to stay open. The rest of the book would have to wait.

Now, here we are a few days later and I am about to finish the last few pages. I am delaying the end because the book is so good that I don't want it to end. (I will post a review tomorrow when I'm done). I am thinking about writing to the author and telling him how much his book has touched me. Who knows, maybe I actually will.

So, that's how this got started: a twisted, crazy chain of events that somehow led to me picking up a book. That's the beginning.

Now comes the body, the actual substance of the blog. It may end up being just as crazy and twisted as the path I took to get here. I'm okay with that. In fact I would be ecstatic if that's where this ends up. We're going to breach many topics here, including death, sexuality, love, and loss. The sky is the limit.

In the words of James Dean himself, "Well, there, then now!"

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog.

In recent days, James Dean has become somewhat of an obsession for me. I'm not sure what it is, but I am going to be working through it, with this blog as a place to gather my thoughts.

Hopefully we'll both enjoy this experience.