The Leo Report is my weekly to twice weekly column roughly on life. Roughly on life because all topics are game. I may even write about you. It will be written fast and choppy each topic under a header- and yes headers are exciting as one ages.
( Typo warning- written between work and family life- limited editing available)
Hunter S. Thompson
Okay, Hunter S. Thompson is an slight inspiration to write in Gonzo style. What I love about Mr. Thompson is that he went and did first hand interviews of his subjects, and reported back by slightly making stuff fiction to hide identities but he provides a deep gritty real life no holds bar account from Hells Angels to his adventures on the political trails or campaigning for sheriff himself. The honesty even if brutal and uncensored is remarkable and something I hope to aim to in my own writing.
If I get enough following I may write on my own interviews with murders and gang members- but that is when enough people follow me- until then some other topics.
Saint Tropez Photography
A photography account I love on Instagram is Saint Tropez studio, and photographer Patricia Faure Photography. There two accounts by the same woman who is an amazing photographer. When it comes to photography there is an “it” factor, which is present in the work Patricia Faure. The images have a crispness even though most are gray scales or black and white. There is a uniqueness to the compositions that just appears. There is simply an “it” factor to her work, which is hard to do.
The “it” factor I would argue is harder to do when the subject of photography is a model, which is indeed the subject of Patricia Faure. To stand out and show artistry one has to advance past the model which is already interesting, and this is what she accomplishes.
My favorite photo of her’s actually does not have a model, but instead an older Porsche going skiing. I’d place it in my office- well if I didn’t work in the confines of a professional career- so when I have a big writer’s office in LA, or when I finally have any office in LA. In the Meantime the joyless art of corporate America is on my office walls.
I hope you look at her work and follow her pages.
Cartoons or Jokes
I use to make a snail cartoon- how exciting- but it would say absurd things. Should I make a new toon?
Oh yeah a joke is needed here: What do you call a lawyer who forgot how to practice? A judge ! This joke is inspired by Gonzo experiences and words told to me about judicial amnesia to what they use to actually do.
Forest Gump
My weekend movie was re-watching Forest Gump as it’s currently on YouTube. I’ve seen this movie two or three times before, first as a kid, and then again somewhere along the line. The movie has a timeless power, and watching it years and years later one must admire the film making is very good.
My relationship with Forest Gump is a little unique- as in College I read A Storm in Flanders: The Triumph and Tragedy on the Western Front (2002) by Winston Groom who is also the author of Forest Gump the novel that inspired the movie. The book was assigned by my favorite history professor and a truly wonderful man who loved history and taught a very American set of history courses such as America in Modern conflicts. The course was heavy on personal accounts of war, which as I age leave the lasting lesson of the human cost of war. Perhaps, this is why I liked this professor- the course secretly leaves a pro Henry Chabot Lodge isolationism of the 1920s fan fare.
In reading the book by Mr. Groom I grew to really like his writing style and I learned that he and his family have served in every American conflict- perhaps the inspiration of Lt. Dan and I’m going to ruin the movie but it’s like two decades old so go watch it, but anyway someone in Lt. Dan’s family dies in every American war- although the movie is missing many American conflicts.
So with that over educated college background, the movie Forest Gump is just a movie that is hard to capture in one review. It is truly a movie of the heights of the America century or what ever historians in 3000 AD will write is our golden age. From Alabama football, meeting the major US presidents of the Cold war era, investing in Apple, Forest Gump winds a unique course through an historic era that in the future we will probably give more weigh to its influence on today’s world then we do today. The other thing that stands out is the weaving of the fictional character into meeting some many famous movers and shakers of the era who ended up dying.
There is strong sense when you know a little bit about the novelist Mr. Groom that Forest Gump has a lot to do with his lived experience of this period. He was in Vietnam himself and lived through these many events as a living breathing American. Many of the scenes have reactions or recounts that my parents and baby boomers seem to have or recall. The central focus on Vietnam and Watergate being things every boomer seems to sharply recall.
Mr. Groom also continues a tradition and seems like the last of the Southern American Novelist- yeah America can be more than Country music or LA Pop music. We can actually create novelists occasionally. William Faulkner of YouTube has not yet emerged.
The End
Okay, so this is the rambling gonzo like column. Come back soon.