Almost Lynched, the first Couch Buddha film

This first film idea was inspired by both Almost Famous and Blue Velvet. I like Cameron Crowe's sweet story of a young lad who follows a band around gets those Valuable Life Lessons, but I've wondered this: What if the boy who gets exposed to Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll doesn't come out all sugar-spun and happy? What if he comes out like....Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet? Perverse, angry, totally messed up inside and willing to blame his being in the wrong place (with a band) at the wrong time, (late '60's, early '70's) rather than admit that it was him. Almost Lynched is our story. In this post let's just describe our characters.

The Band

Our band is a kinda of 3rd rate Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young clone. They think they're striving for social relevance, but they haven't really thought about things that much. They're in it for the money and chicks, really, but they bring themselves to admit that. In the band are:

The Lead Singer -- Handsome, but as much as he thinks he is, and he can sing, but not as good as he thinks he is here either. He can play the guitar, but he's a poet and thinks that that's beneath him, despite counter -examples like Dylan. He's the object of desire of the groupies.

The Rhythm Guitarist -- The most talented member of the group, he thinks if he's just great that rewards will come his way. Yes, he believes that.

The Bass Player -- Been with the two guitarists forever, but hates rock and wishes he were a jazz soloist. Not enough guts to leave the band or be a soloist, so here he is!

The Drummer -- Implacable, inscrutable, kinda like Charlie Watts only more laconic.



The Others

Evil Ms. Partridge -- She drives the bus, she manages the group, and is taking them for every penny. Take every story you've ever heard about corrupt band management, and put it here.

Frank -- Our lead. Nervous, anxious, he just knows in his heart that the right combo of drugs, women and music will bring him to a higher state of being. He's a great guitar tech, and makes the group sound better than they are. He could care less.

Eva -- Sublimely beautiful lead groupie of a pack of groupies who define themselves in a pack hierarchy. Eva sets the aesthetic character of the group, and symbolically represents a truly sexually powerful woman whose great flaw is that she is eternally stuck in 1968.


This is just to start us off. I have a lot of this in my head and more will emerge.