Adam


The bar mitzvah scene is really glamorous. Everyone tries to compete for the nicest bar mitzvah. It just so happens I had a great bar mitzvah. I mean, for kids that can't afford it or are not as fortunate, I guess they are shit out of luck without a paddle. Shit out of luck. People usually spend between fifteen grand- fifteen being the lowest, really low- to ninety grand. I had a glassblower and carnival games, lots of them. I had a sweatshirt maker, a make-your-own video game. I had dancers. I had a steel drum band during the appetizers. I had fake stuffed lions and parrots. I felt really good after the bar mitzvah, and I was getting a lot of play with girls.

Everyone thinks Hollywood is so glamorous and not dangerous, but I have news for you. It is really dangerous and scary growing up in L.A.- all the riots and gangs. You do not know if you are going to be shot. There was a shooting down the street- and I live in an upper-class neighborhood. It's scary.

The glamorous Hollywood, the TV and movie industry- it affects kids. Who I know, who you know, how rich you are, what your dad does, what your mom does, does he work, does she work, what you have, what I have, what movies he has produced, what movie he is producing.

Money affects kids in many ways. I mean, it's ruined a lot of kids I know. And not to brag I feel it has ruined me. Expensive watches, expensive glasses, shoes, knives, dresses. Wearing a Rolex watch to school, wearing a very expensive bracelet. Or just buying a two-hundred-dollar pair of shoes or a two hundred-dollar jacket or Doc Martens. I mean, I know a person who has a soccer field and an indoor basketball court.

Some things are necessities. The necessities you need in L.A. are a lot different than the average little town in the U.S. Different shoes. Different pairs of sixty dollar jeans. Not a Disneyland T-shirt or whatever. You need Stussy or Jive. It's just crazy.

My parents know that money ruins kids, so they try to help. I go to camp in Michigan, and the kids there are so different that it is just sad. They are not really nerds. They are nice. If you have a problem, they will talk to you. If you are talking to another guy, they won't call you fags. I mean, they are down-to-earth.
The first year I went there, it was weird. I was really different from them. And then I slowly changed. I learned how to be calm. You don't have to be going to a preview or going to this or that benefit. Life is supposed to be calm.

My parents went through a divorce. A lot of kids go through that. It's a lot of L.A.- you know, courts, custody, divorce. I mean, it is sad, the percentage. For every two marriages, one of the marriages is going to break up. For every marriage that breaks up, half of those are going to have kids involved. It is just so sad that it has to happen that way. I was in an English class, and there were twenty-two kids. Twenty-one out of twenty-two kids' parents were divorced- ninety-five percent of the kids of that class.

I don't think it's good for a child to grow up in L.A. Education stinks in L.A. The kids stink. The kids are conceited. Not that I am not, partially. L.A. is not a good environment for kids or anyone. I hate how we have homeless people starving on the streets. I'm in a house with two VCRs and cable. I mean, if we could just substitute one of the VCRs and give to those people it would make such a difference in our world.