"Hey Cowboy, The Phone Is For You!"

When you're out in the prairie, herding up some sheep and rustling up some dinner to cook up over a campfire, do you ever wonder why it is, with all the endless information that we've acquired over the ages, that people still do drugs? I'm not even talking about any of the "minor" things.

Like, what is somebody thinking when somebody says, "Hey, you should stick this needle into your arm or between your toes. It's so insanely great and you'll never regret it ever?" What goes through somebody's head the first time somebody hands them crack and they intend on using it? Is this really a world where somebody actually thinks, "Man, oh man, FINALLY I can start that Meth addiction I've been hearing so much good stuff about?" "Jeepers, if the eighties taught us anything it's that cocaine is the drug of champions."

"Wildcat..." Did Owen Wilson write those scenes in The Royal Tennenbaums where his character Eli Cash falls prey to drug use as he rises to minor celebrity with the knowledge that this was going to happen to him or was it something he was already dealing with in his personal life? Or was it something he was seeing his own friends do and he wrote it thinking it would never happen to him? If this is so just what was the spark that caused him to fall prey to his reported drug use even though he really did know better? His recent events have made people look at this film that he cowrote much like how we all looked back at NIRVANA's music after it was already too late for poor Mr. Cobain. While the film was charming and colorful, it had its serious side that isn't quite lost in all the cinematography and whimsical performances. "Wildcat..." Despite most of his film choices since that film, we still like Owen and wish him well.

We can all say this..."I had a friend..." Usually it extends to "I had a friend who..." That is usually followed by a story of the prodigal friend who fell into a path of drugs and self destruction. My particular friend did know better and as far as I knew he was pretty anti drugs during high school. The thing that kills me is where did this friend encounter the "X Factor" in the A + (X) = C. I was certainly there, but how could I always be there? It bothers me to no end. Recently I was contacted by this friend and I think we're on the way to working things out. I can only hope that his drug use has greatly lessened.

And how was I able to avoid this "X Factor" all this time? I grew up raised on a mixture of rock, comedy, and novelty albums. The hardest thing I listened to as a child was THE BEATLES "White Album." I also listened to Cheech & Chong as well as odd psychedelic albums like the "Wozard Of Iz" and the poorly conceived but hideously hilarious anti-drug album "The Dope King's Last Stand" featuring Muhammed Ali, Pat Boone, and Jimmy Carter. Even today I can find humor in films like Half Baked and Up In Smoke. I've been in a serious relationship with somebody who was a user of certain recreational substances. Still I never did drugs. Sure I faked smoking once in order to try to impress a girl. I like to think that it was my personality that got us petting heavily behind the scenes at the Del Amo mall. Oddly enough it was calling her for free illegally from a security phone - in front of the security desk - that got me banned from that same mall for a year one week later. That's also the height of my criminal life.

So here we are in anissue that has both old western and drug overtones...or whatever else one can get out of the idea of "Shoot'm Up". We're not trying to answer the ultimate question about anything, nor are we passing any judgements. We've all been touched by these things one way or another.

One thing I can say is that I've had the idea of this issue for over a year and am pretty annoyed that a film with practically the same title is coming out this month. Why'd it have to be this month?

What's in this issue? Tales of Wild West Cowboys and Desperate Addictions...or at least our interpretations of them. And photos a'plenty including my gallery of Pin-Up cowgirls I've started working on since last year. And of course an interview with one of my favorite bands in the Silverlake scene called ANAVAN... Pssst... two of the members have been interviewed in this magazine before as part of another band! Also the coverstar this month is neo-burlesque legend Desire' d'Amour who made her first appearance on the cover of our "3-D Issue" and i've been wanting to feature her properly for a long time now. Look for more images of her throughout the issue.

So Giddy-up partners and let's start telling our tales before the fire goes down or the month runs out... Whichever happens first...

Yeehaw! This is "The Shoot'm Up Issue"!

yr no-fi pawdna',

Chris Beyond
editor, no-fi "magazine"
nofimag@hotmail.com




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