Yep. You heard it right. Andre Agassi smoked crystal meth. Albeit when his career was on somewhat of a nosedive (apparently) back in 97. I guess he is proof (in this instance)that drugs do not fuck up your life/career etc. as meth is one of the most addictive drugs available and he went on to resurrect his career and leave Brooke Shields for Steffi Graf/Nike for adidas. Wait, he fucked up there huh. Remind me never to smoke a bag of meth.
Anyways, in his new autobiography he recalls taking the drug at his house with his assistant 'Slim'...
...Slim is stressed too … He says, You want to get high with me? On what? Gack. What the hell's gack? Crystal meth. Why do they call it gack? Because that's the sound you make when you're high… Make you feel like Superman, dude. As if they're coming out of someone else's mouth, I hear these words: You know what? Fuck it. Yeah. Let's get high. Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, snorts it. He cuts it again. I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I've just crossed. There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful – and I've never felt such energy. I'm seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds...
Powerful stuff I am sure you will agree. I can remember the first time I did speed in like 95 and hoovering maniacally at like 4am much to the amusement of my more seasoned drug-taking buddies. The next day my head hurt a bunch and I watched The Goonies. I still haven't really done it properly since.
Judging by his attire in the early 90s I don't think meth in 97 was his first taste of illegal substances. I can remember him being told he was gonna be excluded from Wimbledon for wearing black. They have since made it a white-garment-only fag sport. He always kinda appealed to me as a fledgling metaller as he looked a bit like a wannabe Anthrax member or something and nothing like Jim Courier.
He had the illest signature shoes (the Air Tech Challenge series) in the late 80s/early 90s, aside from you-know-who in my opinion, the fourth of the series being my favourite (gotta love that psychedelic marbled heel counter). They went a bit wayward after that one (no, I didn't like the Huarache model) for me. Let's hope Nike get to reissuing that properly soon, I sold my originals a few years back...
Following the success of the first in the Trapped Under Vice mix series by resident A Fist in the Face of God mix-maker Fenriz back in July, we have the highly-anticipated second instalment of the series, imaginatively titled Trapped Under Vice Vol. II. In stark contrast to the style of the first volume, I wanted a style I know virtually nothing about, so I asked Fenriz for a collection of the stuff that had inspired the people who had inspired him to make music. Anyways, here is the intro from the man himself.
Every week or so I'm gonna try and post some pictures of hot chicks, you know, just to mix it up a little. Most of these were stolen either from this blog, which is excellent btw, or here. Enjoy...
Until The Light Takes Us is a new movie chronicling Norway's genre-defining black metal scene from the early 90s. It features Varg Vikernes, Fenriz, Hellhammer and many more black metal musicians. It is making its premiere here in London next Wednesday, October 7th, 2009.
This finally looks like the real-deal in terms of a decent movie/docu focusing on black metal, and I've been pretty psyched to see it since I saw the trailer a year or so ago. I caught up with Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites, the movies directors, albeit briefly, before they flew out to Greece last week. Here's some of what we spoke about...
So, having read an interview on ANUS, you proclaimed to have little prior knowledge on black metal until you decided to do the movie, how long ago was this and what drew you to black metal? Audrey: That's not quite it. We were introduced to black metal by our friend Andee Connors who runs Aquarius Records in San Francisco, he had also put out Aaron's first record and knew that we were really into experimental and lo-fi music, and knew that we would be into it. So, we ended up amassing a huge black metal collection and were drawn more than anything to the sense of honesty in the music. At the same time, everything that we'd read about it was sort of breathless, so there was a schism. We assumed that there was a good documentary about it and went looking for that, just because we wanted to see it. But there wasn't. So, one thing led to another, and after doing really exhaustive research, made the doc we wanted to see.
How long ago was this? Audrey: Well, we researched the film for a year, filmed for two years in Norway, and came back to the states with 350+ hours, a lot of debt, and a lack of funds to finish. So, we took a break to clear our heads, spent a good chunk of time raising funds, then started logging and editing. Then our system crashed. Which, just is a devastating thing to have happen. We regrouped, raised more money, got a new system and editor, and spent the next year editing. We premiered the film at AFI in L.A. on Oct 31, 2008. So....it feels like my whole life.
Ha ha, I bet. Man, that must've really hit you both hard when you lost everything, was there a point where you thought 'this project is doomed, let's go make a piece on blah blah blah instead'? Aaron: Well, it was definitely a dark moment in our lives, but we were committed to finishing the film. You don't get very far in these things without a superhuman level of commitment.
I think the only semi-decent documentary I've seen is the Satan Rides The Media one, even though all it does again is focus on the church burnings, violence etc. and has very little focus on the actual music. Is Until The Light Takes Us more music oriented? Aaron: Well, first of all it's not about being a music documentary or an expose or journalism etc. It's a film. And to give you some reference points, we take more from filmmakers like Godard, Von Trier, Chris Marker, and Lynch than we do from other documentary makers etc. I would say the film has many focuses including music, post-modernism and global culture.
Was it the music or the allure of black metal that you think convinced you to make the film? Or was it like Audrey said, to 'make the doc we wanted to see'? Aaron: I would like to think that all filmmakers stick to making films they want to see first and foremost. We certainly do. It was the music that first drew us to the subject though. Which albums/artists in particular? Aaron: Darkthrone (Transilvanian Hunger, A Blaze In The Northern Sky, Goatlord Tape) Burzum (the first four), Immortal (up through Blizzard Beasts), Emperor (All), Mayhem (Everything up through De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas), The early Thorns Demos, Enslaved, Gorgoroth etc. That's where we started, then we worked our way both backwards (through Bathory, Celtic Frost, Venom etc.) and forwards (still finding new stuff all the time), lately Drudkh etc. I think our path was pretty typical for a music fan. We weren't planning a doc when we got into it. Just huge music fans working our way through a huge genre that was new to us. Audrey: When we first got to Norway we had really bad jet lag, and I swear the only thing that we could go to sleep to was Blizzard Beasts. I'm sure a lot of people have had that experience...
Ha, I gotta say Burzum has always gotten me off to sleep nicely. Would you agree that black metal is musically diverse (often contradictory perhaps) from band to band? Out of the four original 'big bands' (Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal & Mayhem), none sound too alike Audrey: Yes, it's a good point, and a point we get at in the film is that these people are individuals with different goals. There's always some cohesiveness within a scene, but if you look at early Darkthrone and early Emperor, there's certainly room to say that they had different things that they were working toward. And then there are bands like Thorns, who are amazing, but the boundaries of what black metal is or was or could be has always been a slippery slope. To us, so much of it is about intention, ideology.
Tickets for the screening next Wednesday, October 7th, are available here. I am also dj'ing the after party (which is free). Flyer below...
Yep. You heard it right. Andre Agassi smoked crystal meth. Albeit when his career was on somewhat of a nosedive (apparently) back in 97. I guess he is proof (in this instance)that drugs do not fuck up your life/career etc. as meth is one of the most addictive drugs available and he went on to resurrect his career and leave Brooke Shields for Steffi Graf/Nike for adidas. Wait, he fucked up there huh. Remind me never to smoke a bag of meth.
More killer Agassi/Nike ad's here.
