Writer • Musician
Hollywood Blvd. Interviewer: Good Evening Mr. Phillips. Gordon Phillips: Good Evening Tom. Interviewer: This is quite a busy time for you as your new book on President John F. Kennedy comes out tomorrow. My first question for you tonight is why you felt compelled to write it... Phillips: Sure Interviewer: ...There have been a great …
There has always been a strange wave of inspiration that hides in cool autumn mornings, and it comes two-fold in the hills of California. The commitment to folk music--writing it and playing it and maybe listening to it--is difficult to maintain throughout the year. Especially throughout the spring and summer. Yet now all the youth …
‘The Way of the World’ came out four years ago when the ways of the world were somewhat different. For one it was just beginning its descent into economic chaos and Bin Laden was still alive. The book focuses mainly on international relations in the post 9/11 era and America’s role in a world that …
After searching endlessly for a spot in the ocean of a parking lot and joining the hundred or so other people who had parked illegally, I trekked over to the amphitheater. Carnival lights began to rise before the setting sun as the masses gathered before the entrance. I saw steam rising from inside, and only …
No key representative or figurehead is leading Occupy Wall Street, and any public figure who has participated in it has been dwarfed by the sea of citizens who, frankly, aren’t looking for a leader. Therein lies the key to what has escalated throughout the country in the past month. It has been patronized by government …
Morning route along Hollywood Blvd. It's maybe a 15 minute walk to the Chinese Theatre, taking place along this comfy scene that many wouldn't associate with the famous street. So it's all something like night and day on either side of La Brea. On this side you're more likely to run into a dog on …
Continue reading "morning breezes, beneath a rising sun and barking dogs"
I once held a theory that what motivated people to vote was merely a perverse sense of competition perpetuated by the two-party system, and that most of us had little to no idea what the candidates represented or what they planned to do, and that we were instead attracted mostly to the idea of the …
'Love Me Tender' is part of that rare breed of song that really cannot be sung by many others since it so greatly represents the man who did so first, and Elvis does sing it in a way that is indeed very tender, very vulnerable, almost as if the King was truly desperate for the …
Prologue Through its access to entertainment and the general media, Hollywood has earned a reputation for setting trends, for laying the groundwork for what becomes the American consensus regarding everything from fashion to philosophy. This notion, weaved together with the old spirits of Manifest Destiny, has made the whole West coast something of a rallying …
Sunday’s back with the third week of football, which reminds me of how this season already feels unlike any other, for we may have needed our pastime more than we realize. And football is the new pastime. Baseball has let us all down with its overpaid stars who put themselves in the horrible danger of …
I tried to eat tonight and as I stared into the pores of my plate I felt somehow undeserving of it. How anything I took in would be somehow gluttonous in light of what day it was. I wondered if I was alone in that regard, if there were others who perhaps weren’t guilty but …
When I think of the passengers of United Flight 93, I think of how, beneath the accumulating rubble of the past ten years, the most subtle and profound of gifts to this country lies waiting to be discovered, and cherished in a way that very few ideals, if any, ever have in our modern history. …
Today I sat beside a drifter who was drinking water with sweetener (from Mentos) and lemon. I was trying to write my story but he wanted to keep talking. He spoke of how his male boss tried to seduce him, bribing him with a promotion. He spoke too of wanting to make friends in LA …
Quinby's Pad, the new blogging app? Wha?! I used to think iPads were unnecessary and useless, but I was wrong. I now have the ability to write and access my work without the cumbersome load of the laptop, and without the tedious task of transcribing from lightweight paper journals to the Mac. Technology's climbing at a …
On a warm California night, I look up at the stars that reappear from the rolling clouds of violet. They continually speak to me. They watch me, wait for me, though I feel that I am not their only subject of scrutiny. Still, they whisper theories as to what I may do when the time …
Continue reading "Clouds in a Violet Sky (Rawling’s Journal 8/23/2011)"
Reading Rimbaud. A passage called Credo in Unam. The Gods lose love and they fall in love again. They are stuck in the stupor and bliss of the heavens, and yet they still experience human emotions. And this is the backdrop for the problems of the human world. Perhaps they are not problems, but merely …
Casablanca and Citizen Kane: a story of an un-review by G.T. Phillips Part I I always prefer to sleep on my sofa. At least these days. It keeps me feeling mobile. On the move. Never settled. All these thoughts swarm and scurry through my brain at two in the morning as I lie awake in …
Continue reading "The Disgruntled Critic or: ‘The Fallacy in Film Criticism’"
It surprises me, the moments I might have in a cafe, comparable to those I might just as easily experience on a beach at sunset. The sound of the waves might be replaced by the radio or the chatter of patrons, unaware of the music they create for me; while the beauty of that fading …
I remember when I met Rick Bragg two years ago at the Storyteller’s Summit Writer’s Workshop at the University of Florida. I explained to him that I was an aspiring filmmaker and also a great admirer of his work, which was true even though all I’d read was ‘Somebody Told Me’, an anthology of pieces …
When I created this thing a year ago today, I had very little idea what to expect from it. Its title those first several weeks was ‘Pancakes and a Working Title,‘ and I actually had to be talked out of keeping it, which today strikes me as scary but still pretty hysterical. In that time …
Ren Michael 