Interview · moment 11 of 30
Grad School Dropout, Usenet Flame Wars, and the John Woo Acid Story Setup
from The Acid Story with Curtis Yarvin | The Tim Dillon Show #310 · #310
5 min
Guest
Curtis continues his biography, dropping out of Berkeley grad school in 1994, getting into early internet flame wars on alt.peeves, and setting up his 1997 acid story: after a breakup and job chaos, he decided to drop acid and see the new John Woo film Face/Off on his 24th birthday.
- Dropped out of grad school in 1994 to pursue the CD-ROM and multimedia bubble.
- Met his sophisticated girlfriend seven years older than him on the internet in Usenet literary groups like talk.bizarre and alt.peeves.
- Used to flame Charlie Stross, the well-known science fiction writer, on alt.peeves—now he hates him.
- Worked at Chaos Tools, a Hollywood-associated company that did graphics for The Lawnmower Man and Photoshop plug-ins.
- By 1997 the job and social group collapsed after a series of insane infighting over high school-like drama among adults.
- His relationship with his troubled girlfriend exploded, leaving him with only a job offer from Berkeley, an apartment lease, and family on the East Coast.
- Decided the right thing to do was take a large amount of acid and see the new John Woo film—it was also his twenty-fourth birthday in 1997.
- Saw Face/Off with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta with no expectations, spoilers, or prior knowledge while on acid.
- The film features John Woo's signature move where the character says 'I'm going to take his face' after a face-swap procedure.
Face OffChaos ToolsJohn WooCharlie StrossThe Lawnmower ManJohn TravoltaNicolas Cage