Cormac's Coke Side Of Life

Coca-Cola references in Cormac McCarthy novels:

The Orchard Keeper, p. 199

Suttree, pp. 23, 70, 71, 72, 156, 185, 392

All the Pretty Horses, p. 221

Cities of the Plain, p. 114

No Country For Old Men, p. 20

The Road, ARC pp. 19, 123

"Stacking up stone is the oldest trade there is," he says, sipping a Coke. "Not even prostitution can come close to its antiquity. It's older than anything, older than fire. And in the last 50 years, with hydraulic cement, it's vanishing. I find that rather interesting." From New York Times Interview.

From the Oprah/Cormac interview last week:

C: I think you have, as you said a passion and if you do it well then you may get rich in spite of yourself.

O: And so all those years that you were poor did you ever think that um one day or was it a concern at all not having money. You know a lot of people, a lot of, you’re a different kind of man because a lot of people have a lot of angst have a lot of anxiety feel a lack of self worth…because they couldn’t earn the money.

C: Yeah. Well.

O: You never had that?

C: That’s them and this is me I don’t know how to answer your question its um, I always very naïve I always assumed I’d be taken care of in some way or another and I was I was always very lucky something always happened just when things were truly truly bleak some totally unforeseen thing would occur.

O: Like?

C: Oh like I was I was living in Lexin Lexington Kentucky once and I was housesititng a friend of mine gotten me this job housesitting so I had a place to live but I didn’t have any money I was um I don’t mean that I didn’t have much money, I didn’t have any money but there was still some groceries left in the house so I ate those

O: Uh huh.

C: And uh, then one day someone knocked at the door and I went to the door and there was a guy standing there and he said are you Cormac McCarthy and I thought I don’t think there are any warrants out for me and I said yes I am. He said sign this please I said what is it he said it’s he said I’m a courier and uh he said thank you and got in his car and drove away and I opened up the letter and there was a cheque in it for $20,000 . And it was from, I was the first I was the first fellow of a new foundation that they had started some people in Chattanooga the Lyndhurst Foundation they had some Coca Cola money and they started this foundation and they were going to give these fellowships to people this you know long before the MacCarthur Fellowship.

O: Wow.

Can you imagine what kind of profound product placement may be able to work into the movie version of The Road? The novel is the story of a father and son crossing an ecologically savaged America where the boy has never seen the world as it is now. They find a soda machine at one point during their cautious almost military secret maneuvers to avoid death cults of cannibals. In a ash covered land with no food they find a can of Coke. The boy has never tasted Coke before. In marketing, especially the Coca Cola Company, they have a term called mind share, which regards brand awareness. when I read the novel, this scene was very touching because in the wasteland the little boy got to have a treat. The kind of effect this could have on the budget, on the emotional impact of the scene and the opportunity for Coke to get a literary product placement is kind of exciting.

I believe McCarthy's use of Coke in his novels supports his work as lying in a conservative American folk tradition. This tradition contains hobo art, outsider and folk painting as well as the folk revival of the 60's.

Grant McCraken writes:But something happened to America. It went from a couple of ideas of Americanness to many ideas of Americanness. This may be hard to see from the genteel surroundings of Atlanta headquarters and from the pleasant residential world of Buckhead, but you only had to look at the CSD (carbonated soft drink) "category.”

It stopped being a category. Suddenly, there were new age drinks (Snapple), energy drinks (Red Bull), nutritional drinks (7 Up Plus), lots of little start ups working every niche, and some very scrappy competitors (Pepsi). Not one America, but many Americas. And in this new choice set, Coke began to look too sweet, too caffeinated, too fattening, a little unhealthy, and, gasp, a little old fashioned.

I believe McCarthy's use of the possibly old fashioned but ever popular and sentimental fave Coke is like Hobos and folk artists using familiar images for narration. I believe it also indicates a narritive rooted in a conservative tradition. Conservative as a looking back to the past for guidance and rejecting the materialism driving art, politics and ideologies.

"In Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Greenwich Village in New York City and other locales situated near college campuses, thriving folk music scenes developed. The revival was a social construct made out of a conservative, restorative, cultural patriotism. Though expressed as a romanticised vision of the past, seeking a more just, genuine society, the revival rebelled against oppresion, consumerism, and modernism. Young people participated in such numbers and with such fervor that the folk revival became an immense cultural and ideological force." From Craig Morrison.

If you want to know about Oprah Cormac interview, please leave me your e-mail in the comments

Tinsel Time

Poor Stagg.this is one of ur many offroading adventures with shopping cart this week. At one point after we were coming home with turkey and ham...dogs kept running up to us. It's like they knew we had a hundred bucks of meat in the cart.


Ths is our smug pretentious artist decoration..."so conceptual"! STAR.......

Yes, that is product placement. I bought this Coke decoration for a friend of mine. He was a really talented and cool cinematographer...who filmed one of my shorts called The Slut's Bedroom. Richard was really into Coke, collected Coke bottles from around the world and I thought this xmas ornament was cool. He passed away before I could give it to him. I had forgotten I brought this with me and it was nice to think of Richard with this little object.

Big special hugs to friends and thanks for stopping by...the friendships and visits from blog friends are near and dear to me. Stay safe and have fun and I hope all holiday wishes and magic dreams come true for you and yours. XXXXOOOO

American Idol Meets Fight Club

Let the healing begin...

"If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this is useless fine print and another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.......Tyler" (seen for a few seconds at beginning of dvd version of Fight Club)


The first rule of American Idol if you are cool is don't tell anyone you watch American Idol.

I however, am not as cool as I'd like to think I am. I watch American Idol. Hate the singing style most of the time. I don't like trained voices, prefer natural sounding rock singers. Among my top favourite singers of all time are Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland, Bono, Roger Daltrey, Chrissie Hynde so I have been very delighted with Taylor Hicks. Been secretly watching the whole thing. Don't tell my cool friends.

American Idol can teach us how to practice world peace. How to practice non-violent conflict resolution. American Idol can make us all better.

As much as Kennedy's murder was a heartbreak for a nation, so too were the messy tragic deaths of Judy Garland and Elvis Presley. Thay may not have been assasinated, but they could not live either. The culture that adored them and worshiped them also killed them. Drug abuse, obesity, loneliness, dysfunctional love lives, families and despair mirrored our societies failures for many of our population and do so still today.

Eventually, this is how I knew either Hicks or McPhee would win. Art heals. Sports is the marriage of art and war and competition brought us the reincarnation, or revival if you prefer, of Elivs and Garland. McPhee does a beautiful version of Over The Rainbow but the mass appeal and adoration of Elvis would probably seal the votes for Taylor Hicks who sang In The Ghetto beautifully. And vote people did, over 63 million votes counted by the worlds largest voting system. Will we use this system in the future to monitor behaviour in the middle east? In Darfur?

The homage and spiritual rebirth of Garland and Elvis moved some audience to tears. Closure. Life really does go on. We can feel like we were there and if old enough or nostaligic enough an opportunity for release and renewal watching Hicks sing about the ghetto. Not the ghetto of rappers and drive by shootings, but Elivs's ghetto. The one Elvis believed could be saved one little child at a time. But...yet, the reason I was so moved by Hicks version is because of my music, Ice T, NWA, Tupac, Biggie, Eminem and laying it down against Elvis' era. Hicks version may be gentrified, but so is resolution, so is world peace. Tompkins Square Park in NYC is no where near the park I'd walk past after dancing all night at Area or Danceteria. Back then Tompins Square Park was a shanty town, where my date bought me flowers picked by one of the "residents" from the public park flowerbeds.

I don't like gentrification or homogenization. I don't like globalization.

But I do like people sharing their personalities and diversities. And I loved seeing kids and the elderly moving freely in the sunshine in Tompkins Square Parks makeover.

I like tolerance, but even better I like curiousity and genuine compassion which make the legalization of tolerance pale.

American Idol demonstrates how we can have it all. We can love our brother and sister, compete and allow our individual beliefs to shine and share.

During this season Chris Daughtry was accused of performing LIVE's rendition of Johnny Cash's “I Walk the Line” and not giving his inspiration creds. Some LIVE fans fumed. One week later Daughtry acknowledged it was not his own rendition adding that LIVE was one of his favorite bands.

Last night the band Live performed with Chris Daughtry. High fived, hugged and sang their hearts out.

American Idol understands that music poetry and nostalgia heal the wounds that life and ego inflicts. Non-violent conflict resolution is a facet of good sportsmanship.

Katherine McPhee looked tired and distracted when the camera wasn't on her. It's as if she knew wasn't going to win, but she kept at it. She gave it her very best. Her fading energy was overcome despite her intuition that she was not the winner. I think she knew and yet she still came out fighting. I appreciated her more last night for that attitude than all season.

What ever happened to the residents of Tomkins Square Park? We could learn a lot about different ways of living by studying and visiting with the people who live outside. Why do they choose outside over shelters? What kind of an economy do they make a living with? How can we apply this economy into our way of life and help them be more comfortable in the city?

If life is a game who are you? A sore loser or a good sport?

Urban centres are always trying to clean up their rough neighbourhoods. But if we can't help our richest most talented citizens like Garland and Presley how do we help people with less options? I suggest they are the ones who can help us.

I think Guy Kawasaki and I should be working on these urban issues of rough neighbourhoods and people who live outside. I suggest he and I work on saving the women in the DRC. I am gonna kick his ass at technorati, and then get to him to use his genius and marketing skills to help me find new ways for all our citizens of the world to get along and live well.

In some small way, Whitney Houston made an appearance last night on Ameican Idol. I don't know if the rumours are true about her suffering from drug use, loneliness but her cousin performed last night, and made me think also of Whitney, Garland and Elvis. Dionne Warwick was awesome, I knew she would be because I saw her sing on Oprah's Legends Ball the day before. Warwick performed with Burt Baccarat and the evening could have been complete with that for me.

I began to cry when Prince came on stage. You're kidding, Prince on American Idol?

I couldn't believe it. Ryan Seacrest deserves boons for his deadpan delivery saying well thats it folks, now for the winner...he had me sucked in a ready for a verdict and then Prince walks on stage.

You see this is healing at it's most lovely. The oft censored Prince on American Idol. We can all be friends.

Even Coca-cola was brillaint with it's co-opting of war...take sides? Coke take sides? No Coke created a whole new dimension. It's motto in ads last night "The Coke side of life."

If we don't take sides does that mean we're on the fence? No, it means we can enter another dimension. Compassion, tolerance, and particpation are the noble heights of assimilation and gentrification.

Somehow American Idol was wild and got cool. It mixed nostaligia and cutting edge and it worked. Like the Ford commercial it gave me pause. Ford produced a commercial with Hicks and McPhee going to a drive-in watching the other contestants perform on the drive-in screen. Do I think people should park their cars? Yes, let's reject this lifestyle of driving everywhere, move downtown and take public transit for gods sake people!

But...maybe cars have a small value where they could be rented for pleasure trips like to the drive-in theatre or to visit grandma out of town. Maybe, Candy, cars are too powerful to give up completely, but less driving may put the pressure on car manufacturers to utilize alternative power? So drivers, come up with a way to force inventive environmental dynamic cars. Put your car in the garage for week, all of you. The leaders and manufactuers will HEAR YOU! You are the leader.

Yes, American Idol got cool last night, from Mary J. Blige, and McPhee and Meatloaf singing beautifully together to Prince dancing like an angel.

Meatloaf and Ed Kowalczyk from the band Live were both in Fight Club. Live's original name was First Aid. Instead of censoring artists like Prince, or hiding our homeless or avoiding Darfur...maybe we should be incorporating these extremes into our problem solving. Maybe our culture's first aid treatments and healing should be incorporated into answers. We should hire the homeless to work in our streets. We should invest in the women in the DRC so they can buy their own army and create a business to sell us stuff. I don't know the answers to help people live well but I believe the answers are in the tragedies. Fight Club was cool, counterculture, challenging and controversial. In many ways we must fight amonst ourselves to really be alive. Let's take that conflict and talk violently about peace. Can we reject the tepid action of our leaders by taking action ourselves and seeking the answers by casting the counterculture and wallflowers as our stars? Like American Idol succeeds and assimilates? This should not be a surprise though. After all the old Micky Rooney and Judy Garland films had the conflict and the solution? How did Mickey and Judy save the day? "Let's Put On A Show!"

And as long as our tragedies are back stage, American Idol is beating the shit out of the United Nations and world leaders.

Elvis knew, and couldn't live with it, we're all in the ghetto till we help each other. I got two words for you. Soul Patrol!

Eminem Rising

Oh wow...this was one of my very favourite commericals the other night...what a beautiful script and imagery and talk about attitude. You all know Eminem can do no wrong in my world...and I was so excited when he shows up in this advert.

Another one I really liked was the coke fantasy one...



I thought there were some really nicely twisted adverts the other night too. I liek a commercial where I scratch my head but like it. Last week Stagg and I had seen a review of a restaurant out by Grandmas called Hymalayan and we were going to go check it out. Then there was the Timothy Hutton ad where it's all twisted and I thought it was kind of cool. Turns out it offended some people. It begins like its a public service announcement for Tibet but then ends with but you can enjoy Tiobet food. I thought it was surreal and kind of interestingly self-conscious. I didn't hate in fact Stagg and I went bug eyesd because it was for some place we just said we would check out so we were laughing at its twistedness.

As someone who grew up Buddhist as a kid and not only has met the Dalai Lama but has supported some of his causes over the years and spoke against buying any China made products...I was not offended by this commercial. I thought it was super covert. I thought the advert was really clever. I knew it would piss off China governement in a really covert subtle manner.

The truth is people spend money on products that directly put money into the oppressive government of China. It made sense to me to promote spending our money on Tibet culture as a form of showing support with our time, and money. The reraction against this commercial is another example of "outrage" misdirected and reflecting total ignorance.

Holiday Tree

I hadn't decorated a tree in five years! I had a lot of fun digging out the ornaments and picking up a tree. We had to drive to get a tree because we couldn't find one in our neighborhood...so we put the tree in the back seat of the car with the roof down. This was our tree last year

. And here is the tree we had in 2008. In these pictures as well as the tree in 2008, you can see the homemade "star" I put...with "star" spelled out all artsy. I got some arctic animals this year for the tree too. Okay and I think that wraps up my catching up posts for this past holiday season. Hopefully I can stay on top of blogging this year...I miss it!I like looking at the decorations in pictures...weird I'm sure...There is a narwhal...and an orca with sequence...and a felt letter A and a felt letter C.

A A glass poodle decoration
A bear and a mexican skull


A wedding cake decoration from our sister Kathy Stagg.
A pope from Grandmas collection of decorations

An owl...a coke bottle a wolf
Yes and a smore playing guitar!



And a decoration that says "all you need is art"

For Some Of Us...He Never Left...Yea Rourke!

The appreciation of the arts has been replaced with the cynicism of the viewer.

On the internet...everyone is a fucking expert. Especially about the movies, right? I don't know how many times I've bit my tongue on web boards, or blogs, or in newsprint, where people filled with cynicism, trash movies. Especially actors. Yep...everyone is an expert. On the internet people use music and movies to highlight how intelligent and CULTURED they are. I once had a discussion at an online bookclub where pretty much every participant trashed Mickey Rourke. And this web board was supposedly seasoned cultural "experts"...I hung on...even defending him in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (what can I say...I love movies and I really love B movies!)

People believe an objects worth is dependent on whether they "like" it or "hate" it. If someone hates a movie automatically, in their view, it is a shitty movie.

I've heard people say they hate a movie because the actors suit was ugly (Collateral) or the actress had a squishy face (Renee Zellweger) or a director was a coke head so the movie sucked (about the fucking wonderful American Gangster)...and most of us have come to take these kinds of petty comments as serious film insight.

People use movies and art and music to show how fantastic their own sense of worth and opinions are...without any kind of heart or sense of excitement about the process, the emotions or most of all the root of storytelling...it's all about the critic. Viewers seem to be focused on using movies as a way to make them look "cultured". Film discussion has become fetishized on hating something rather than analysing or discussing the story and it's cultural place and value. Good taste has nothing to do with cultural currency.

Good taste has nothing to do with art making. Being culturally sophisticated has nothing to do with art either.

This idea that culture is something we have by hating on movies and actors...on performers in music, arts or performance is a really sad attitude towards the history of storytelling.

Mickey Rourke might be the best example of the cynicism of moviegoers. Rurke has taken more trashing than many... and granted...he is a larger -than-life persona (his own so-called vanity projects, bad behaviour)...which may draw ridcule....but....

This same contradictory seeming persona has always been what made Rourke seem to me to be the essence of what making art is about...what experimenting risk taking is all about. Too often Hollywood loses it's edge by veering away front he experimetnal and risky...Rourke has always seemed like the edgiest of edgy artists to me. To many, he is off putting, ranchy, risky, sexual, violent, and maybe even wrong...but he is always out there. Rourke has always taken risks. Despite the cost. And isn't that what art is often about?

Someone like Mickey Rourke will probably get their due in excitment from fans in a future generation.
Right now..."old think" and cynicism is what is reflected in audiences, critics and the internet. Actually. the movie Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man isn't just a B-movie...it became an instant cult movie. I believe this movie is a valuable exploration of the outsider including Vietnam vets...but that's another post...

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man: Intro & Reward :) - Celebrity bloopers here

The appreciation of the arts has been replaced with the cynicism of the viewers.

I've had a picture of Mickey Rourke on my fridge or bulletin wall almost non stop since I first saw him in Heaven's Gate and Diner (yep...I'm one of those losers who actually thinks Michael Cimino is an incredible film maker...I thought the bad rap Heaven's Gate took was corporate bullshit.) Rourke was in a great movie called Rumblefish which also was a box office bomb! It's another lovely movie! Awesome cast! There's been a fair amount of talk in reviews about the movie The Wrestler as Mickey Rourke's comeback...

This completely cracks me up...comeback? Mickey Rourke has been in at least one movie, if not two, every year for the last twenty years. Maybe not starring but offering up some of the best cameos and character roles to be found. From The Pledge to Domino to Buffalo 66 to Man On Fire. Nevermind Sin City...when he came on screen the first time I saw Sin City I had tears in my eyes, I was so happy to see so much screen time of Rourke. One of his most fascinating roles was a very small part in the film noir Body Heat where he brought so much personality to the role of an arsonist...he has amazed me ever since.

There's been a lot of people for a long time talking shit about Mickey Rourke and I am so blissed out tonight he won a Golden Globe for his new role in The Wrestler. Way to go Mickey...you deserve it!!! And Springsteen's awesome music got an award too!


Mickey Rourke didn't need a fucking comback...

It's time for the viewer to drop their fetish with cynicism and make their own fucking comeback.

Spies Rockets and Coke

Got out of the house today and saw terrific fun movie Charlie Wilson's War. Stagg liked it because it was a Robin Hood-esquetype story. The writer is one of my favourite writers...a god: Aaron Sorkin! Dialogue was excellent and some of the fighting footage near the beginning was really impressive.

What a totally wonderful movie.

Mysterious scene in FARGO

HOTEL BAR

Marge enters. She looks around the bar, a rather
characterless, lowlit meeting place for business people.

VOICE
Marge?

It is a bald, paunching man of about Marge's age, rising
from a booth halfway back. His features are broad,
friendly, Asian-American.

MARGE
Mike!

He approaches somewhat carefully, as if on his second drink.
They hug and head back toward the booth.

MIKE
Geez! You look great!

MARGE
Yah - easy there - you do too!
I'm expecting, ya know.

MIKE
I see that! That's great!

A waitress meets them at the table.

MIKE
... What can I get ya?

MARGE
Just a Diet Coke.

Again she glances about.

MARGE
... This is a nice place.

MIKE
Yah, ya know it's the Radisson,
so it's pretty good.

MARGE
You're livin' in Edina, then?

MIKE
Oh, yah, couple years now. It's
actually Eden Prarie - that school
district. So Chief Gunderson, then!
So ya went and married Norm Son-of-
a-Gunderson!

MARGE
Oh, yah, a long time ago.

MIKE
Great. What brings ya down - are
ya down here on that homicide -
if you're allowed, ya know, to
discuss that?

MARGE
Oh, yah, but there's not a heckuva
lot to discuss. What about you,
Mike? Are you married - you have
kids?

MIKE
Well, yah, I was married. I was
married to - You mind if I sit
over here?

He is sliding out of his side of the booth and easing in
next to Marge.

MIKE
... I was married to Linda
Cooksey -

MARGE
No, I - Mike - wyncha sit over
there, I'd prefer that.

MIKE
Huh? Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

MARGE
No, just so I can see ya, ya know.
Don't have to turn my neck.

MIKE
Oh, sure, I unnerstand, I didn't
mean to -

MARGE
No, no, that's fine.

MIKE
Yah, sorry, so I was married to
Linda Cooksey - ya remember Linda?
She was a year behind us.

MARGE
I think I remember Linda, yah.
She was - yah. So things didn't
work out, huh?

MIKE
And then I, and then I been workin'
for Honeywell for a few years now.

MARGE
Well, they're a good outfit.

MIKE
Yah, if you're an engineer, yah,
you could do a lot worse. Of
course, it's not, uh, it's
nothin' like your achievement.

MARGE
It sounds like you're doin' really
super.

MIKE
Yah, well, I, uh ... it's not that
it didn't work out - Linda passed
away. She, uh...

MARGE
I'm sorry.

MIKE
Yah, I, uh... She had leukemia,
you know...

MARGE
No, I didn't...

MIKE
It was a tough, uh ... it was a
long - She fought real hard,
Marge...

MARGE
I'm sorry, Mike.

MIKE
Oh, ya know, that's, uh - what
can I say?...

He holds up his drink.

MIKE
... Better times, huh?

Marge clinks it.

MARGE
Better times.

MIKE
I was so... I been so ... and
then I saw you on TV, and I
remembered, ya know... I always
liked you...

MARGE
Well, I always liked you, Mike.

MIKE
I always liked ya so much...

MARGE
It's okay, Mike - Should we get
together another time, ya think?

MIKE
No - I'm sorry! It's just - I
been so lonely - then I saw you,
and...

He is weeping.

MIKE
... I'm sorry... I shouldn't a
done this... I thought we'd have
a really terrific time, and now
I've...

MARGE
It's okay...

MIKE
You were such a super lady ...
and then I... I been so lonely...

MARGE
It's okay, Mike...

And Lots Of Walking

 We have to stop at the Billy Goat Tavern. this is the actual joint that inspired John Belushi and SNL sketch "cheesborger no coke pepsi"

 Good ol United States marketing...tommy gun 1920'2 designed vodka bottle. And a hunters rifle.

 Walking along the Magnificent Mile on a beautiful hot afternoon.

 Millenium Square...visitrs here know how much I love the patio right under Cloud Gate.

A night shot of the El Train.

Coca-Cola and Cormac McCarthy

"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed," McCarthy says philosophically. "I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous." NYT's interview with McCarthy, 1992.

Coca-Cola references in Cormac McCarthy novels:

The Orchard Keeper, p. 199

Suttree, pp. 23, 70, 71, 72, 156, 185, 392

All the Pretty Horses, p. 221

Cities of the Plain, p. 114

No Country For Old Men, p. 20

The Road, ARC pp. 19, 123

"Stacking up stone is the oldest trade there is," he says, sipping a Coke. "Not even prostitution can come close to its antiquity. It's older than anything, older than fire. And in the last 50 years, with hydraulic cement, it's vanishing. I find that rather interesting."From the New York Times Interview in 1992.