I know its five months early, but lets just cut to the chase:

Obama win re-election..

Can all just move along please? We can save ourselves a lot of misery if we just accept this right here and now instead of prolonging the inevitable until November. Come on. Its just going to ruin our summer if we keep living in denial or even Detroit for that matter. Facts is facts, folks and if Mitt just bails right now, he can save himself, his party and the rest of the country a whole lotta embarrassment, pain and even money. Im telling right here and now that Barack Obama gets a second term. Period. Its as clear as crystal meth to me.

Mitt just cant cut it, whether it be the mustard, the cheese or even his jib. Hes a weak candidate, but the strongest of the bunch of yahoos that ran in this clown car during primary season including such stalwarts as Nasty Newt, Sanctimonious Santorum, Bubblebrain Bachman and Herman You Want MY Pepperoni on Your Pizza? Cain. You noticed I left off Ron Paul who is still hanging in there for Gods know what reason. Why is he a Republican? They hate him more than they do Mitt. Poor delusional bastard. Hes the only candidate with any ideas which is a major strike against him as a Presidential candidate, let alone a Republican Presidential candidate. (Dont tell his supporters I said this. I dont want that mutant flash mob anywhere near my personal space.)

So Mitt becomes the front runner pretty much by default and wha hoppin? He gets ho-hums from his supposed base. His own partys lackluster support is going to skunk him just like they did McCain. And there is no one and I mean NO ONE he can pick as a running mate that will get Mitt the backing he needs to give the Prez a run for his considerable amount of money. The only person the Repubs will even consider would be the reanimated corpse of Ronnie Reagan, but then theyd try to convince Mitt to switch places with him. Then theres that problem of who has more personality, Mitt or Zombie Ron? And dont expect Silly Sarah Palin to join the ticket. Pasadena, baby. Besides, Tina Feys overexposed as it is. Mitt by himself? There's no there there. Beside someone else: Where is he? He's Claude Rains in the 21st Century.

So Barry the Big O'Bambino gets another four years and certainly not for the swell job hes done in the first term, stumbling and bumbling about like a middle manager out of his depth.

Let me talk to you directly, your liege: Its high time you stop exacerbating the problems we face by playing the blame game like you said you wouldnt do. Bush has been out of office since January of 2009, dude. How can you move forward when you keep turning around and looking back? You cant help it. Its the nature of your party affiliation. Thats your greatest weakness, Mr. President. Youre a stinking Democrat.

Bin Laden dead? Well, if it did occur (which I still doubt), you can claim it and you do. It happened on your watch and you can play that card from now until November. Obama got Osama. Period. Im not convinced, but its your game since you made the right call.

As far as your support of gay marriage, I can only say, Its about f**king time. Of course you wouldnt have done so at this juncture if Dopey Joe Biden didnt open his yap now instead just before the convention like you wanted. Joe beat you to the punch, Barry. It turns out that he has bigger cajones than yall. You came out, pardon the expression, on Good Morning, America and tell Diane Sawyer that it was your two daughters who convinced you to finally make a stand. Bull hockey. You and your minions are claiming that it wasnt politically motivated? This is an election year. Everything you do is politically motivated. And am I the only one that thinks you were sweating bullets during that interview? A lot more uhhs and umms... than usual. Im glad you said something but it sure didnt come out easily. Now back those brave words up, buster. I'll believe it when I see it. Of course, I think Michelle maybe had a lot more to do with this than we think. Thats the real Reagan incarnateNancy, that is. And has anybody seen Joe Biden since last week? I got a feeling he got a major dressing down from da big boss man. What if hes not on the ticket come convention-time for pulling the trigger too early?
The 15 million dollars POTUS raised in Hollywood the other night in Hollywood is another example of the obscene amount of money these campaigns are raising. As a credit card carrying member of the 99%, I find this disgusting. This is going to be a billion dollar election. And the rest of us cant even afford Marie Antoinette's cake. (Never mind. I'm on a roll...) Guess what we get to eat instead? The same thing we have to day after day just to get by. Remember Hands Across America? Welcome to the Human Centipede Across America. Eat hardy. The 1% are deciding our fate and we're more than glad to pony up the dough.
So what say we just vote tomorrow? Just a show of hands. Everybodys made up their minds anyway and those that havent probably wont end up voting. In the end, itll will closer than we anticipated, but the results will be the same:
Barack Obama, two term President. Just like Bill Clinton. And George W. Bush. What a trifecta that is.

Mitt will be ringing your doorbell very soon. Hello. My name is Elder Romney

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Plagiarism is a crime. Somewhere in the middle lies influence.

When I began writing, the voices of those artists and authors that passed before me kept whispering into my sub-conscious as I struggled to find my own voice. I didnt try to ape anyones style or appropriate anyones prose, at least not intentionally. But the more that we are exposed to the works of others-the great, the good and sometimes even the bad, something is bond to stick. Once its all on the page, its pretty easy to spot the inspirations, allusions and furry lil copycats.

Sometimes its just a matter of structure. I basically had all the components for my movie memoir IN THE DARK, but didnt really know how to tie it all together until I read Anthony Bourdains KITCHEN CONFENDENTIAL and Ive made no bones about it. Im pleased that I was able to tell him that when I attended his book signing here in Portland back in 2003. (Bourdain also gets a cursory nod in PLEASE HOLD THUMBS)

For RED ASPHALT, since it was a novel, I thought I was starting fresh. Now in retrospect, its downright obvious to me who and what stimulated my imagination in one form or another as I scribbled my story. Its high time I acknowledged them.

First up, CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger: To me, the first person narrative of a smart-ass loner who thinks hes better than everyone is more than just a Holden Caulfield reference and more of a blatant steal. I unashamedly admit that RYE is my favorite novel of all time and even fantasized adapting it into a screenplay back in my twenties. Of course, I missed the point. I havent gotten smarter over time, but at least I finally recognize that this would have been impossible and realize the long lasting impression it has made on me since I firsat read it as a teengaer.

TAXI DRIVER, written by Paul Schrader and directed by Martin Scorsese, obviously shares this theme as well. Travis Bickle is Holden Caulfield inside out and Calvin Wheeler is a degenerated clone. Travis wanting to rid society of the scum of the earth isnt very different from Calvins wanting to be the Worlds Handyman, fixing all of its problems. Shooting off the middle finger in my book could have come from the multiple digits in TAXI DRIVER.

(Jesus. CATCHER IN THE RYE and TAXI DRIVER. Im a regular John Hinckley.)

Stephen King: The inclusion of the synopsis for ABRACADABRA aint a far cry from what King did with MISERY. The tortured writer going over the brink is a familiar King device. Now its one of mine.

Oddly enough, NOT Joel Schumachers FALLING DOWN, written by Ebbe Roe Smith. This vigilante tale actually came out after I came up with the initial story for RED ASPHALT and it is because of this film that I shelved it for a few years until it became (hopefully) a distant memory. When I appeared on the MILES AROUND radio show to promote ASPHALT, one of the hosts mentioned it but since that was a nerve-wracking first media appearance for moi, I shrugged it off. The thing is that as much as I like FALLING DOWN, I had to distance myself from it for a couple of reasons. First of all was the similarity to my story. Second and most important was that ASPHALT is based in part on my job working as a lab courier for Smith-Kline Beecham Clinical Laboratories and my everyday uniform was identical to Michael Douglas wardrobe in FALLING DOWN. Too close for comfort. Good thing I wasnt inspired by that show.

Look out! Jm J Bullock has a gun!

Anyway, I backed off of RED ASPHALT until near the end of the decade because of FALLING DOWN. Distancing myself from it for a period actually helped. I dont recommend that tactic for everything. I have one project Ive been trying to put together since Betty White was an ingnue for the same reasons as RED ASPHALT. Other works have popped up that are too damn similar. But at this rate, Ill be dead before Im anywhere near finished. It all becomes procrastination very quickly and that is a crippler of epic proportions.

I have no delusions of grandeur about my writing. I dont think RED ASPHALT is fit to be mentioned in the same breath as the works of Salinger, Scorsese, Schrader, King or even Schumacher. But at the end of the day (somewhere around 11:30), whatever stimuli I digest filters through me, sometimes causing me to riff on their ideas, themes and ambiance, sometimes prompting (gasp!) originality.  Whenever inspiration strikes or from whatever source, it has to be welcomed with an open mind or it just ricochets into oblivion.

It's a gift. Treat it as such.