Running on River

Oh, who’s this River Phoenix fella? He’s lovely. :-D 

Not sure if you’re talking about tiensions or bloodfromthejugular (the ones I mention more, if is last one, is a “she” xD). Anyway they’re both lovely, yeah, and I’m gonna marry both ;-) (sure we can manage “distance thing” xD).

So many great insights on the Riv, thanks for sharing and letting me vent. (Is Across the Way on your list of ‘Outside River’ sites? I didn’t see it, but you might have it under another name.)

Nope! I forgot it! Thanks! (good forums, I’ll update that).

See? My head is horrible, for that reason I need all of you to rememvber sites xD

I wanted to add, the thing that always struck me about Riv and his ‘message to the world’ is that it wasn’t about ’clean living’ - that was a construct and misrepresentation of the media

- it was ‘DO NO HARM’: do no harm to our fellow animals (“It’s our duty to protect them” - River); do no harm to the environment; do no harm to each other, we can live in peace and build a brighter future. And River lived by those imperatives implicitly.

Unfortunately who he ended up harming was himself, and that’s his business and his alone. Of course he kept it hidden, like everyone does.

Also, I don’t want to dwell on his death or get all depressing because I ultimately want to celebrate Riv’s life, but my impression was that for his actual fans - those of us who loved him for his tremendous talent and beauty and principles of kindness - the vast majority viewed what happened to him at the time with great compassion and sadness. And ‘knowing’ what a lovely person River was, the way he died didn’t really matter when all is said and done, because how and why he died didn’t DEFINE him for us. I dont feel his fan base deserted him once the cause of his death came out, they still flocked to the Viper Room en masse to pay their respects and mourned around the world for lovely River, but eventually people grow up and sometimes painful memories are easiest put aside in order to move on. I believe the love for River is still there in his ‘first fan’s’ hearts though, perhaps dormant, but never extinct. 

What I do think happened, unfortunately, is that River was turned into a ’cautionary tale’ and used and abused in the media, such as in that disgusting article comparing Riv to Belushi for example (Natalie Merchant’s tribute song ‘River’ from the album Tigerlily says this quite beautifully, have you ever linked to that here? Some new fans may not be aware of Merchant’s lovely tribute to our man, there’s a fairly decent vid on Youtube I think.).

And I know for a fact, because I heard about it from many friends at the time, that parents used their son’s and daughter’s love for Riv as a tool of shame against them when he died, “Look what happened to your idol, he died because he was bad and took drugs, that’s what will happen to you”. There was the photo leaked from the morgue and photo-shopped in the Enquirer, Riv callously used a pawn in the ‘anti-drug’ crusade, and a stigma inevitably attached. Subsequently many young movie fans have came up knowing River only as a ‘druggie’ or how he died, which is an absolute travesty and abomination.

Oh, it happens too even with non-new generations. I mean: look at my mother. She hates the kid. She hates I admire “troubled” celebrities. When she heard some things about my “other husband” she told me something like “another addict, meh” and I was like “mother, no, he quit”. My mother thinks all celebrities are druggies or assholes, or both things (and well, probably she’s right, but I can think you can admire some people althiugh they have “dark sides”).

And BTW another thing I said the other day: even his/their dark sides can be a good “anti-drug” inspiration too. I mean, I’ve never did heroin ‘cause it killed Rio and almost killed Reznor, too afraid of that one, so… hey, this is a good thing! xD

Okay now I’ve worked myself into an indignant froth!  Oh well, count me in the Pervert column where Riv is concerned, but wanting to jump his bones is rooted in my deepest respect for him as an amazing person and an artist, beautiful and flawed and real.

Another pervert one here, you know me ;-)

But I always say it’s not just a physical thing (although he was gorgeous in that, yeah), I would really love to have sex with their brain and heart/soul too (this happens me too with Reznor and Fincher, sometimes I’m like “ah, I need to have sex with your brains, REALLY”).

My urge to tackle him to the ground started in earnest upon seeing R o R and I figure he was 17 then so that’s pretty much legal, right? God I hope so. ;-)

 Peace be the journey, Bree

 

:-*** (kisses drifting on the tide)