EP 115: ALMOST FAMOUS - Famous Last Words: I'm on Drugs!!

Good Morning!!!!

This week my special guest co-host Dan and I look back on the wonderful drug-fueled and bell-bottomed lives of rockstars and their groupies in the 70s when music didn't suck.

Enjoy!!!

Love You!!!! Bye!!!!!

Transcript

Bridget: 0:04

Foreign. Good morning.

Dan: 0:10

Good morning.

Bridget: 0:11

I'm Bridget.

Dan: 0:12

I'm Dan.

Bridget: 0:13

And this is Flicking Beans. Sup?

Dan: 0:17

How are you this morning?

Bridget: 0:18

I am great. It's not mornings.

Dan: 0:21

Oh, yeah. It is technically afternoon. It is

12: 0:23

38, maybe. I can't tell from your giant butterfly clock. It's. Your clock is confusing. You need a better clock.

Bridget: 0:31

I love my butterfly clock. Anywho, this is great. I'm so happy to have you here. Here.

Dan: 0:36

It's great to be here.

Bridget: 0:38

And this movie was your idea?

Dan: 0:40

Yes, it's a fantastic movie. My friend Brian popped my cherry with this movie and we rented it and went back to my place. He didn't pop my cherry, though. He's heterosexual.

Bridget: 0:52

Okay, maybe we should say what the movie is.

Dan: 0:56

The movie is Almost Famous. The entire gist is a kid who follows a rock band and he's a rock journalist, essentially, and he writes a story about him for Rolling Stone magazine.

Bridget: 1:07

Right. And the thing that. That struck me about that is his mom is played by Frances McDormand.

Dan: 1:13

Yeah.

Bridget: 1:13

He's brought up just like this little child genius, pretty much. And they don't even tell him that he skipped grades and that he's younger than everyone in his class.

Dan: 1:23

Not till he was what, 13 or. No, he was 11 and everybody else was 13.

Bridget: 1:30

I think it's amazing though, and what stuck out to me about that, I mean, he's a real person, but I'm amazed that anyone so young knows their passion at that age.

Dan: 1:42

Some people I've met are just like on the straight and narrow path for their life. And then the vast majority of people I've ever met are not on that path far. Yeah, I rock journalism too. Like what 11 year old is like in the journalism, first of all. Right, but let. But, oh, my God.

Bridget: 2:02

Have you heard of Cream magazine?

Dan: 2:05

Yeah, it's a. It's a real magazine, except the real magazine is spelled C R E A M. And in the movie. Yeah, it's C R E E M. Okay.

Bridget: 2:16

Like a knockoff Dairy Queen it would be. So the first person that he kind of sees that is in this industry is Lester Bang. I read one of Lester Bangs, his book. Without really knowing who he was, who he was, or the influence at the time. And I was like, it just looked really cool.

Dan: 2:36

So, yeah, it seems like he would write some really cool.

Bridget: 2:40

Yeah. First and foremost, his mother, don't do drugs.

Dan: 2:44

Oh, my God.

Bridget: 2:45

Don't do drugs. And I kept thinking, he's going to do drugs. And he never did. Nope. Precious. And the Dimples did not Hurt.

Dan: 2:52

Yeah. This kid throughout an entire movie of rocking out with rock stars and partying with rock stars. I don't, I think he drank maybe a little bit, but he didn't do any drugs whatsoever.

Bridget: 3:04

No.

Dan: 3:05

And they're all doing drugs just like around him.

Bridget: 3:08

And the only time he had sex was sort of that male rape situation.

Dan: 3:12

Yeah. He was deflowered by a couple Band Aids slash burpees. Yeah.

Bridget: 3:17

Yeah.

Dan: 3:17

That's a very rapey situation.

Bridget: 3:19

It was. I'm like, plus it's in the bus and they're going past all the teenage girls from the high school running along the side of the road in all their matching little gym uniforms. And I'm just like, you know, how come it, it's very not acceptable now and to have sex with a high school girl as an adult. You're a pedophile. And somehow it's still ingrained in our society that teenage girls are the cutest.

Dan: 3:52

Yeah. It's creepy, but there. I'm not. No, I'm not going to touch this with a 10 foot pole.

Bridget: 3:57

It's terrible.

Dan: 3:58

I'm going to get into trouble. No matter what I say as a male, I cannot really touch this with a 10 foot pole. I feel other than the fact that teenage girls are not right for adult people and same with teenage boys. No. Just say no.

Bridget: 4:14

Well, we just got into this with the movie Risky Business.

Dan: 4:17

Yeah.

Bridget: 4:18

Just a couple of weeks ago. And it's like, this is illegal and it's, it's not cool. But it used to be something that was kind of a big joke then and.

Dan: 4:30

Well, I mean. Yeah.

Bridget: 4:31

The younger the better. Yeah.

Dan: 4:33

But if you look at 80s movies in general, they're pretty rapey.

Bridget: 4:37

Oh yeah.

Dan: 4:38

Porgies.

Bridget: 4:39

Well, how about Sixteen candles?

Dan: 4:42

I'm 42, everybody. So I grew up in the age of American Pie. Looking back at American Pie, it's like. Oh my God, like Hindsight river, like we thought was acceptable and.

Bridget: 4:55

Okay, well it's like, like saying hormones are raging so hard that you want to stick your d*** in anything gooey.

Dan: 5:03

Yeah. That's unfortunate. That's. That's the life of being a teenage boy.

Bridget: 5:08

Oh, you mentioned the Band Aids. So those are, we learn, not groupies. And they really make a whole lengthy distinction. But you know, we're just basically muses.

Dan: 5:19

Yeah.

Bridget: 5:20

Who give blow jobs. We don't have sex. We only get blow jobs. Oh my God.

Dan: 5:25

They're total groupies. But I like this.

Bridget: 5:27

They're groupies.

Dan: 5:28

I like the name Band Aid better because it's like it kind of encompasses more what I would feel a groupie does, which is like half muse, half sexual concubine, half. I don't know what else.

Bridget: 5:40

But like a healer. Yeah, Like a medicated band aid.

Dan: 5:44

But, yeah, I feel they. They aid the band. That's like their job.

Bridget: 5:48

Right. Obviously, that's. That really happened.

Dan: 5:51

What, that band?

Bridget: 5:53

Yeah. Oh, they've got the same groupies. They.

Dan: 5:56

Oh, and they trade them, like.

Bridget: 5:57

Yeah.

Dan: 5:58

Tokens. Like, I'm doing this movie. That was messed up.

Bridget: 6:01

That was not real, though. And what you see in a lot of movies when you see a band backstage. I'm sorry, they are not playing acoustic guitars and singing. They're drinking and they're passing around the bowl.

Dan: 6:13

Well, this is a movie that's based on real Vince, but it is not real itself.

Bridget: 6:19

But it's. Again, it's the same movie trope that when you go to the. The quote party, the locals party at the. Where were they? Ohio somewhere. Oh, so they go to the kids party and.

Dan: 6:34

Topeka.

Bridget: 6:35

Topeka, Kansas.

Dan: 6:37

Yeah. And it was, hey, we're just some good people who want to have a good time. And that's how they convinced Russell, the guitarist of the band, to come to a party with Topeka. Because he wanted to be around real people.

Bridget: 6:51

Real people, exactly. And it's weird because of the other side and they're going, oh, my God. You know, I never thought of him as a real person, just as a rock star. And, like, how cool they feel being in close proximity to this rock star. It's kind of the same. Something about who you're near is giving you some kind of boost in your confidence.

Dan: 7:18

Yeah, yeah, I get that.

Bridget: 7:20

It's been a while since that's what she said.

Dan: 7:25

Okay, so what's next? This is a great part of the movie, actually. Russell is on lsd and these kids at the Topeka party keep giving him more and more drugs. And so he is just blitzed out of his mind. And somehow he ends up on the roof and he's about to jump into the pool and he's like, my last words are I'm on drugs. And. And then he's like, oh, no, I can do better. And so his next one, I Dig music, which was like. And then he goes back to I'm on drugs.

Bridget: 7:56

The entire crowd groaned. Dig music. Oh, that.

Dan: 8:02

That was.

Bridget: 8:02

But why wasn't his last word, I'm a golden God? Why did he think he could top that?

Dan: 8:08

I don't. Well, he's on drugs. He doesn't know what the f***'s going on.

Bridget: 8:12

And the other movie trope about house parties is wherever there is a pool, everybody's gonna jump in or fall in or someone's gonna fall in.

Dan: 8:23

Ain't that the truth?

Bridget: 8:24

You never see the movie parties at some poor person's house, like, the actual person in your school or whatever that would have drug.

Dan: 8:34

I don't know. I've been to some parties in Valley Junction that were like the drug dealer's house. I mean, I've been.

Bridget: 8:41

Yeah, Yeah. I have to throw this shade, I guess. Jason Lee.

Dan: 8:46

Oh, I love Jason Lee, but do.

Bridget: 8:48

Not love Jason Lee. He's, like, my least favorite actor. Everything that he's been in, his character is exactly the same. I don't think he's a good actor. I think he's a good talker. He is good at not stopping talking. But as far as acting, no, it's all the same. My name is Earl Was. All right.

Dan: 9:08

Yeah, I liked that.

Bridget: 9:09

I enjoyed that.

Dan: 9:10

Yeah.

Bridget: 9:10

But he also didn't talk as fast or as much.

Dan: 9:14

Well, what about the Kevin Smith movies?

Bridget: 9:16

That's what I'm thinking of. The Clerks and the Chasing Amy. Thank you.

Dan: 9:22

Mall Rats.

Bridget: 9:23

Yes. I hate them. Dogma. No, it's always the same to me. But he looks like a rock star when he's singing.

Dan: 9:30

He acts like a rock star. Hear what? What are you talking about?

Bridget: 9:33

Penny. She's supposed to be 16.

Dan: 9:36

Oh, she is?

Bridget: 9:37

I'm not sure. They get into this thing where he's saying, I'm 16. 17. And she said, so am I, and he's, no, I'm really 16. And she says, so am I. And he says, 15, actually, and then she stops. So I'm thinking, she's 16. She's a runaway. Most likely.

Dan: 9:55

Call. Like, they don't get into her backstory.

Bridget: 9:58

Well, he learns her name, which means they've got something special. More so than. Than she and Russell. She was really just a piece of arm candy or amuse.

Dan: 10:11

No, seriously, like, muses are the best. Like, they get your creator, you paint and you draw more and you just create more. And it's all about just, like, the beauty and. Sorry.

Bridget: 10:21

I'm my own muse. What? When. When his mom says, was I not fun? I mean, what do you think about his upbringing? Do you think that she did him a favor or. Or that she actually hindered him by pushing him farther and more forward? And did she do the sister a disservice by not raising her the same way?

Dan: 10:45

Well, she did a disservice to not telling him how young he really was like in the beginning that was a little messed up, I'll give you that.

Bridget: 10:52

Why didn't she just homeschool him?

Dan: 10:54

I kind of got the feeling he kind of was like the first part of his.

Bridget: 10:59

That's a good point. Since it was set in 1973. Yeah. When all the good music was in.

Dan: 11:07

There was a lot of good music in the 70s.

Bridget: 11:09

Amazing.

Dan: 11:10

And a lot of cocaine, which would have been fun. And a lot of sex. God, man. And leather fringe coats and like disco shirts and like bell bottom pants. 70s are where it's at.

Bridget: 11:23

But Kate Hudson, she's such a teeny tiny little thing. There was one point where she was wearing a crocheted crop top. Just fell right under her b**** and her little six pack waist. I couldn't handle it.

Dan: 11:37

It was basically a tube top that was crochet.

Bridget: 11:40

I wish I could wear something like that.

Dan: 11:41

Go for it.

Bridget: 11:42

It was a little cute, little lacy lampshade. Torso is the lamp. But I don't think you could make her look ugly.

Dan: 11:50

Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't think that's possible. Kate Huds it. I like this movie. I've had a crush on Kate Hudson ever since.

Bridget: 11:56

Oh yeah.

Dan: 11:57

I mean this is one of her most infamous characters, I feel. I mean this is just a great movie in general. It's one of my favorites. Okay. So I looked this up on Google and this is what AI when it came to Penny's age is. It's intentionally ambiguous, but dialogue suggests she's around 16 years old, though she claims to be older. While the character's real life inspiration, Penny Lane was in her late teens, early 20s, during the 70s rock era, making her a young adult groupie. So yeah, she was a teenager probably.

Bridget: 12:27

Which is she probably ran away. She pro just got kind of pretty.

Dan: 12:31

Yeah, yeah. They don't get into her backstory really.

Bridget: 12:34

But when she overdoses and they're pumping her stomach. Who were those people?

Dan: 12:39

That was the. The hotel doctor.

Bridget: 12:42

Oh, gotcha.

Dan: 12:43

Because this was a day in the age when like big fancy hotels and like big cities had like physicians on staff for their customers in case something happened.

Bridget: 12:53

Especially rock stars.

Dan: 12:55

Well, yeah, because it kind of happens probably pretty frequently.

Bridget: 12:58

Because I'm thinking, oh my gosh, they're going at it and putting that tube down her throat. Like it's something they've done a lot of times before.

Dan: 13:07

Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, this. I don't know. I can't recall what hotel it was, but I'm assuming it's probably well known for rock stars.

Bridget: 13:14

Sure.

Dan: 13:14

At the time.

Bridget: 13:15

So I would think. Yeah, it's not their first rodeo, not their first pumping. How sad do you feel when he tells her the truth about Russell's poker bet? How he sold her for case of beer? I think he just blurted it out. I think in his. I would assume based on what we already know about the character and he's very kind that he did not want to tell her that. But it's just the tension of the situation kept building and he blurts it out and she just grumbles.

Dan: 13:48

Well, I also feel it's part jealousy too, because he's. I mean, he's kind of been made throughout the movie to like not walk in on them having sex, but they're always like in the room having sex when he comes by to do his interview. And so he's kind of like forced to hear him do that. I wrote down.

Bridget: 14:08

Right. I wrote down. Is she helping him or is she hindering him at first?

Dan: 14:14

Blowing him? That's what's really going on.

Bridget: 14:16

No, I mean William.

Dan: 14:18

Oh.

Bridget: 14:19

At first it's like she's his in, if you will. And then it's like you really can't. No one is really your friend.

Dan: 14:29

Yeah.

Bridget: 14:30

So at one point he thinks she's opening the door, but at the next point she has closed the door because she's in there. You know, Russell.

Dan: 14:40

Well, she does that quite a few times throughout the movie. Like the whole deflowering is like her opening the door to some extent for him to. That happen. And then she runs away to Russell's room, I think.

Bridget: 14:52

Yeah, it felt like too. And she was saying goodbye to him. Maybe she's saying goodbye to the boy. Yeah, you know, this is. Now you're.

Dan: 15:00

Yeah, whatever.

Bridget: 15:01

So just to talk about like the idea of celebrity. Also when Lester Bangs warns him from the get go. They're not your friends. Don't expect them to be your friends. They will corrupt you because you're basically super innocent.

Dan: 15:18

Yeah, he is. I mean this is a very big coming of age story for. I mean it's based on Cameron Crowe's life.

Bridget: 15:23

So would you want to be famous?

Dan: 15:26

This movie made me want to become a rock star because in the immortal words of Jason Lee in this movie, and the chicks are great, man.

Bridget: 15:35

There's more than just chicks. But especially you're thinking back then you had Rolling Stone, but you had no social media. They would have been fantastic to live in 70s especially with the free love and the hippies and the music. And then.

Dan: 15:50

Oh yeah. That would have been pretty awesome.

Bridget: 15:53

The long hair and the even longer mustaches.

Dan: 15:56

Yes. Also, Russell inspired me to grow that, like.

Bridget: 16:01

No.

Dan: 16:01

Where it was the stash with the little soul patch.

Bridget: 16:05

Okay. Okay. God, did they even really do that then?

Dan: 16:09

Probably, yeah. Everybody had mustaches back in the 70s.

Bridget: 16:13

Soul patch, though.

Dan: 16:14

Well, some people did.

Bridget: 16:15

Okay.

Dan: 16:16

They're rock stars. They can get away with anything. Looks wise.

Bridget: 16:19

At one point there, they get the new manager and he's like, you know, goodbye, bus, Doris the bus. I love that. Get a plane. And then they almost die. Which as soon as the pilot opens the door and walks back there, I'm like, what the f*** are you doing? Get behind the controls. Yeah, I guess there was a co pilot, but still.

Dan: 16:42

I mean, you. You want both of them.

Bridget: 16:44

Could have cracked his head open in that turbulence on the way back. You have a radio?

Dan: 16:51

It's. Well, yeah. There's an intercom system.

Bridget: 16:53

Yeah.

Dan: 16:54

Well, it's more dramatic the way he did it. It's definitely way more dramatic. And that's probably just why they did it, is because it's more dramatic.

Bridget: 17:02

Oh, it's super dramatic. And everyone in that situation, they say, you know, your life flashes before your eyes. But really, they just start to argue and start truth telling, which I think probably would also happen.

Dan: 17:16

Last words? Of course.

Bridget: 17:18

Funniest one was the guy that goes, I'm gay.

Dan: 17:21

Yeah. The poor drummer.

Bridget: 17:23

Oh, God. Well, chances are everyone has known forever.

Dan: 17:28

Probably. Well, he had his own groupie to his own Band Aid, too. And so maybe they. Maybe she pegged him. We don't know.

Bridget: 17:40

I thought they just called that a beard.

Dan: 17:42

I'm confused on that one.

Bridget: 17:43

That's the woman that's with a gay guy to make him look straighter.

Dan: 17:47

A beard, huh? I've never heard that before. Really? No, stop it. I'm dead serious. This is like a new vocabulary, man.

Bridget: 17:57

Who has, like, a hot wife. She's his beard.

Dan: 18:00

Okay, nice. That's. That's interesting.

Bridget: 18:02

Okay, Yeah.

Dan: 18:04

I did not know that. Sorry.

Bridget: 18:07

Wow.

Dan: 18:07

I don't keep up on my gay terminology.

Bridget: 18:09

I don't.

Dan: 18:10

Sorry.

Bridget: 18:10

No, that's old. Maybe you're just too young.

Dan: 18:14

I am young. What can I say?

Bridget: 18:17

Oh, I remember my 40s. Those were the days. Anyway, I do have some fun facts. Okay, my fun facts are, obviously, since it was about rock and roll, it contained over 50 songs, which is very unusual. And the budget was three and a half million dollars, which a normal movie music budget would be around a million and a half. I think that's pretty cool.

Dan: 18:42

God forbid, if they were Taylor Swift songs, imagine how much that s*** would cost.

Bridget: 18:46

Taylor Swift is just like an angel on earth. Okay, so Frances McDormand was playing the character of Cameron Crowe's mother, and he was determined to keep them apart. He didn't want her to meet his actual mother.

Dan: 19:03

Oh, why?

Bridget: 19:03

Wanted her to play it like she would play it. And first day of shooting, he found them eating lunch together. Kate Hudson said it was the best, most fun film experience that she's ever had.

Dan: 19:18

Oh, I can totally see that.

Bridget: 19:20

And Philip Seymour Hoffman was only on set for four days of the total shooting, and he had the flu the entire time.

Dan: 19:29

Oh my God. He played through the pain pretty well on that one.

Bridget: 19:33

Which one is Patrick Fugit?

Dan: 19:35

That's the kid. The fifth. The Will.

Bridget: 19:39

William.

Dan: 19:39

William. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bridget: 19:40

Oh, then this is hilarious, cuz I didn't know his actor name. The. You're going to love this. In the bus when they're all singing along to Tiny Dancer.

Dan: 19:50

Uhhuh.

Bridget: 19:51

His singing was so bad that they lowered and lowered and lowered his voice in the mix so you couldn't hear it. It described it as warbling.

Dan: 20:00

Oh, God. Poor guy.

Bridget: 20:04

Poor kid. But yeah, and the fashion, the hairy coats, the everything.

Dan: 20:09

Is another fun fact I found out years later, or I thought it was a fun fact, because I used to watch the show ncis, but I love that show. The rock DJ is played by Pauley Perrette, which is.

Bridget: 20:21

I love her.

Dan: 20:23

Which is. What's her name on nc. Abby on ncis. Yeah. You like? And you can hear it in her voice if you're looking for it.

Bridget: 20:30

Okay.

Dan: 20:31

But yeah, and if you look back in the movie, it's. It's a young version of her. I mean, she is cute.

Bridget: 20:37

She doesn't even have black hair in real life. She's a natural blonde.

Dan: 20:40

Crazy.

Bridget: 20:41

She has to dye it black for ncis.

Dan: 20:43

She also got arrested for like, abusing her husband.

Bridget: 20:46

Oh, I love her, like physically, like.

Dan: 20:49

Beating him kind of.

Bridget: 20:51

You're like, she deserved it.

Dan: 20:53

Yes.

Bridget: 20:53

He must have been what he was wearing.

Dan: 20:57

God.

Bridget: 21:00

You never hear about that.

Dan: 21:01

Surprisingly, it was in the news.

Bridget: 21:03

No, I didn't hear about it, but I'm not saying it isn't true.

Dan: 21:07

I'm not saying it was like. I think I heard it on TMZ or something.

Bridget: 21:11

I mean, listen, who else knows celebrities business more than tmz?

Dan: 21:17

Exactly.

Bridget: 21:17

Who else doesn't give a if they're gonna ruin someone's life? But tmz, I mean, it's probably coming straight from the police scanner?

Dan: 21:27

Pretty much, yep.

Bridget: 21:28

Anywho, anything else on this one?

Dan: 21:30

Not that I can think of.

Bridget: 21:32

So did we do it?

Dan: 21:33

I think we did it.

Bridget: 21:35

We flick some beads.

Dan: 21:38

Okay. Love you.

Bridget: 21:39

Bye.

Dan: 21:40

Bye. Party all night long.