Silver Weirdness

Silver Weirdness

There I was, browsing the internet, stumbling upon yet another creative writing challenge. One of those keyword of the week things. I can do that, I told myself. Just free-associate and jazz something up. A little bit of this, a little bit of that and there you go. Boom! Ok, so what's the word? Silver. Well, that doesn't sound too complicated. A nice six letter word, nothing fancy. One of those precious metals, like gold and... platinum? Is bronze a precious metal, or just a metal? Isn't it just an alloy? If so, why were they handing out alloys during the olympics?

For a brief moment I was sitting there with my eyes closed and a wrinkled forehead, contemplating the deeper meaning of copper alloys and the olympics. What was I even doing!? Maybe it was time to admit how this challenge was kicking my ass. Just stop. You don't have to do this. Move on. Do something productive. Was I beaten? No, not yet. Sooner or later something was bound to happen. All I had to do is wait, and so the hours passed. Days, maybe even weeks worth of feeling like I was left stranded at a stranger's house and gotten up early.

Unattributed meme of former Silver Lake resident and writer-director Quentin Tarantino, famous for movies like Pulp Fiction and "Reservoir" Dogs.

I was a fraud. I sucked. Like a vampire. Vampires are allergic to silver, aren't they? I guess so. In some movies at least. Werewolfs are for sure, but again. What was I doing? Then it struck me. Maybe I could write something about me trying to write something about silver. Genius! For a moment I felt like I was extending my finger towards god, but... nothing. On closer inspection I wasn't even sure what it meant. Writing about writing about writing? Either way, I reckoned this had been done a million times before anyhow. I probably should just settle for -whatever-, then sprinkle some "silver" on top of it and shoehorn the whole thing!

For whatever reason I was remembering Band of Brothers and David Schwimmer, the Friends guy, chasing an ensemble of actors up some mountain trail while yelling "Hi-Ho Silver". At least that's somewhat relevant, I thought to myself. Band of Brothers was one of those World War II action dramas, probably based upon some autobiography. Apparently it premiered on September the 11th, 2001. Good timing I supposed, for that kind of patriotic hooha.

Courtesy of the Internet.

Eventually I realized how both David Schwimmer and Damian Lewis, another Band of Brothers actor, used to live in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Not only them, but also a bunch of other actors, like: Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Jason Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio, even Walt Disney. Kinda weird, but not exactly a revelation, it being Hollywood and all. Obviously actors are living in Los Angeles, who would've thought!?

The Silver Lake Reservoir:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Lake,_Los_Angeles

I shrugged to myself and went meh. It wasn't much, but maybe it was something. Like a piece of trivia you'd hear and instantly forget. Then things got strange. Independent researchers had gathered evidence on how a young Osama Bin Laden used be a subtenant in a Silver Lake halfway house, back when he was a foreign student and used to frequent the Cha Cha Lounge. Nah, not really, but it would've been cool. I checked twice and it's probably fair to say there's no connection whatsoever. Not to Hollywood, or Band of Brothers, or any Cha Cha Bar in any capacity. At least not according to my five minutes of research, but don't quote me on that.

Interestingly enough, a few years after Band of Brothers, Damian Lewis would co-star in the screen adaptation for Steven Kings Dreamcatcher. In the movie him and his gang, including fellow Silver Lake alumni Jason Lee, would end up fighting alien hostiles colloquially known as "shit-weasles", who happened to be allergic to... silver. A bit like the werewolf in the 1980s supernatural thriller Silver Bullet, another Stephen King adaptation. And Stephen King, you proably guessed it, at one point was living in Silver Lake. Kind of weird, but still not altogether X-Files weird.

Dreamcatcher (2003):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285531/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I was intrigued. It turned out there was another actor who used to live at Silver Lake called Jay Silverheels, famous for playing the Lone Ranger's native american sidekick Tonto. I imagined being there, about ten years after the war. A little boy wearing a tiny cowboy hat, glued to some black and white television set in silent anticipation. Then the William Tell Overture would kick in and reveal a silver stallion in full stride. On top a masked Clayton Moor hightailing it through the desert, banging his six shooter at some unseen meanie while yelling his catchphrase... HI-HO SILVER!!

I felt deflated. I stepped away from the keyboard and went outside to catch some fresh air.

A poster of Clayton Moore, the Lone Ranger himself, riding his trusty horse Silver.