Marc Spitz

today was a strange and busy one. interviewed spike jonze this morning for an oral history of Jackass that i’m writing. then went to cafe and wrote the anita pallenberg/performance chapter of the jagger book. then came back here and interviewed john waters for the same feature (the premise being Jackass is a more recent point on a long line started by waters and the dreamland studios crew in the early 70s). i have a photo of john waters and myself taken in the backyard of an ex girlfriend’s house in the valley about, jesus, fifteen years ago. her dad basil was a film composer and was working on one of his movies. serial mom (we were also dating when he did free willy…yo). i used to put the photo of me and john waters on my fridge and people would stop and look at it sometimes and ask me, “marc, is that your father?” and i’d always say, “yes. yes it is.” i mean, spiritually, he’s a father to all of us isn’t he?
in our interview today, he talked about how the jackass guys were very Christian in that they suffer for us. i mean, some of the shit in this story is more intellectual, or i should say some of the jackass dudes are more intellectual than i realized. it’s like when i interviewed iggy pop for spin years back (and for harp more recently but still a few years back) i was like, “okay, this guy is smarter than i am.” but his public image is that of a savage, all id.
the jackass piece (which is for maxim’s october issue, i believe, in time to the jackass 3D movie which is out in the fall) is actually a good sort of kid brother piece to the bigger, mick book because it’s long and requires a lot of work too, so it’s a good distraction and one i get paid for unlike say, the yankees or watching the wire box sets (i’ve never seen anything beyond a few episodes of season one, so in keeping with my “stuff i need to have seen by 40″ series. is it possible it’s overrated so far? when omar is not onscreen, it can feel like pirates of the carribean when johnny depp is offscreen. i will probably eat my words. either way, it’s helping me cope. i mean there are 90 days left of summer. i feel like i’m in jail on a DWI charge or something. jagger jail. 2,000 light years from home
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