Take Your Pick

While I do not claim to have special information regarding the secret point of origin of every movie idea there is, it does so happen that at least some of my information is special. And so today I will share with you the secret origin of the movie, “Tenacious D And The Pick Of Destiny”.

It all began in Summer 1975, while I was working as Best Boy (assistant to the Electrician) on an AFI film shoot. Perhaps here some will (tangentally) be demanding an explanation of how I came to be working on an AFI film shoot, as I was a CalArts student at the time. A CalArts friend of mine arranged it. Now would anybody mind if I continue? Thank you!

Stuart Cornfeld, who subsequently became a big famous film producer but was then an AFI student (or to be more specific, fellow, unless I am mistaken), was also working on this same AFI film shoot, as a producer or something. Amy Heckerling, who subsequently became a big famous film director, was also working on this same AFI film shoot, as an assistant director. While on this shoot I often performed tasks directly for Rob Hahn, the film's cinematographer. Rob had initially come to California/AFI from New York with Amy Heckerling, who once was his girlfriend. They had broken up by the time of this shoot, though Rob made it clear that he still had feelings for Amy, who sometimes looked at us and smiled. Perhaps this would all benefit from my having special “Possible Tangent” paragraphs.

Possible Tangent
Interestingly, a girl living in the same apartment building where I was staying in Westwood during this time, a Catholic girl named Virginia, was the best friend of Stuart’s then-girlfriend. One morning, while waiting in my street level apartment for someone to pick me up and drive me to the film shoot (possibly Stuart, who drove me there a few times), Billy Joel’s sax player arrived in a very expensive sports car and dropped off this Catholic girl named Virginia. A few years later I believed this to be the same Catholic girl named Virginia who Billy Joel described in his song, “Only The Good Die Young”. And interestingly, a week after I made this observation aloud, Billy Joel was sitting next to me on an airplane (Easter 1978) explaining that he told Time Magazine Virginia was some girl he went to high school with (not the Virginia I knew - though on his next album one finds the line, "you can't get the sound from a story in a magazine"). A week after this airplane trip to the West Coast I received a letter from Paul McCartney, which as far as I can tell had nothing to do with Virginia.

Back To Our Story
One day in the Summer of 1975, Stuart offered me the opportunity to buy some pot, which he said was the same as the pot sold to Mick Jagger, and that its great quality accounted for its relatively substantial cost. I had to pass, though as many of us know there’s pot and then there’s pot. I treasured knowing about that pot, as I did not have the pot itself to treasure, though perhaps I would have continued to treasure knowing about the Mick Jagger pot even if I had owned it and then smoked it. I will never know.

In 1982, Amy Heckerling directed the movie, “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”. She had Stuart Cornfeld acting in a small part in this movie (the owner of the fast-food restaurant who insisted on the wearing of a pirate outfit). We also see Sean Penn in the movie going on and on about having the very same guitar pick Mick Jagger used. In fact, at a key moment he gives the guitar pick to his friend, a true sign of the character's good heart, unless the character made up the Jagger connection and therefore is being a sleazeball to portray himself as making a sacrifice in giving it away. The moment also spoke to the audience's consideration of the possibility that perhaps this character really was cool enough to party with Mick.

As for myself, I had no doubt whatsoever: the guitar pick to which Sean Penn referred, special because it had belonged to Mick Jagger, "began" as the pot Mick Jagger smoked. Stuart Cornfeld was in both situations. I would have associated together the Mick Jagger smoke with the Mick Jagger pick even had Stuart not been involved in either situation. I have therefore had this special sense about this special guitar pick in my mind ever since 1982. I have also over the years been increasingly developing the conviction that Stuart Cornfeld really did have the same pot Mick Jagger smoked back in 1975 (if there ever was any doubt).

In 2006 Stuart Cornfeld produced the movie, “Tenacious D And The Pick Of Destiny”, the pick in the title being a reference to a most special guitar pick, one that was magically owned at one time or another by every great rock and roll guitarist in the history of rock and roll. Could I possibly have any doubt whatsoever, after retaining over the years the idea of Mick Jagger's guitar pick in direct relation to the idea of Stuart Cornfeld (perhaps Stuart is somewhat more than an idea, sorry about that), that the origin of this Tenacious D Pick of Destiny began as anything other than the pot that Mick Jagger smoked (which I once could have purchased)?

Possible Tangent
At some point in 1988 (about half-a-year before Ringo Starr sent me a letter written on the 25th anniversary of the famous February 9, 1964 appearance by The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show), I was on vacation in England, during which I took a trip to the town in which Mick Jagger grew up, his childhood hometown. While walking around there, I thought I saw Stuart Cornfeld driving by behind the wheel of a potato truck. Though Stuart is a redhead and the driver of the potato truck was blond, I still thought it might be Stuart (yes, this was after Billy Joel did the song warning against changing the color of your hair). I might have forgotten about the potato truck incident if not for what happened next, which was something I also might have forgotten about, if not for the potato truck incident: As I boarded the train back to London after a day of walking around Mick Jagger’s childhood hometown, someone who looked like Simply Red (who is named Simply Red because of his hair color) appeared to be exiting the same train car. The music video for Simply Red’s 1985 big hit, “Holding Back The Years”, shows Simply Red throughout the video walking around in what is presumably his own childhood hometown. I cannot swear it was Simply Red in Mick Jagger's childhood hometown, but clearly this was meant to trigger this impression in me. If you had lived my life, or at least walked half-a-mile in my shoes, you would appreciate the idea that it was at the very least meant to trigger this impression in me. As you might guess, life has chosen me for many of these types of experiences. In fact - well, nevermind. Perhaps if this paragraph had been entitled, “Total Tangents” instead of “Possible Tangents”, I then could have continued along these lines....

The End Of Our Story
And finally, or tangentally, it may be of interest to know that the director of "Tenacious D And The Pick Of Destiny" is someone named Liam Lynch, a very close friend of George Harrison's son, Dhani.

Damage Control
And now for something completely different: A few days ago I wrote and posted a new comedy sketch idea, "Arguer And Corrector Discuss Russia", which you can access through clicking on the title a few words ago earlier in this sentence, or, if you are one who only moves forward and considers it only tangental to move backward, you can click here.