The Devil and Daniel Johnston

If you haven't seen it, go rent it yesterday.

My dad has been telling me about this movie he saw about an artist who came up in the late 70's, grew up in rural West Virginia attending the Church of Christ with his family and just couldn't help himself, he was such an artist. Drawing, songwriting, film-making, he was brilliant. He's a genius due not in part to his bipolar disorder. The movie documented his inability to finish college and how one night he joined the circus! and in 1985 ended up in Austin, Texas and got a job at McDonald's but became a legend on the scene by giving out tapes (CASSETTES) that he produced on his own little old-skool recorder. He got on MTV (back when it was actually cool and not a skin-a-thon network) A few years later Kurt Cobain started wearing a T-shirt he received as a gift that Johnston had drawn for someone else years prior, he wore it EVERYWHERE, and that created buzz about the guy all over again. From there the story just gets nuts and you can't believe it's all really someone's life. He'd go off his meds and just do crazy, damaging, self-defeating, stuff. Poor tortured soul, ranting about Satan and the number 9.

Anyway, bless his heart, I really wanna go see him live now. He still plays, though he's always been raw. Lots of neat indie bands have covered his stuff. Man, I wanna be some nutjob whose songs get covered by neat indie bands! :)