Yesterday I was shocked to hear reports that legendary actor David Carradine was found dead, hanged from an apparent suicide in his hotel in Bangkok. I immediately felt that things did not add up. Carradine was 72 years old, rich, famous and still working. True, he had spoken of suicide many times in his life, but that had been years ago. Many artistic people go through such turmoil in their life (as do many others), but once 72 years old, it would seem that you had decided to live. I also found it strange that he was in a hotel in Bangkok. If you’re depressed, contemplating ending your life, you’re generally at home, bed ridden, a shut-in, maybe abusing drugs and alcohol. You’re not gallivanting in an international party city, staying at the Swissotel. Something was fishy here, and this morning, with further reports released about his death, it became clear that this was not a suicide, but rather an accident that will cast a shadow over the strange and wonderful career of David Carrradine. 

Bangkok is one of the few places that sounds like what it is. Onimonapea? I’ve known a few people men that like to travel to Bangkok when they get the chance to. They tell me it’s wonderful, and that you can do anything you want. I’ve seen pictures of things that I would blush at describing to you. Back to Carradine…David Carradine was in Bangkok shooting the movie Stretch, a title that drips with irony now. Apparently, the film crew was going out to eat without Carradine, because he was busy taking his life into his own hands (ahem), enacting his own version of Stretch. Reports have surfaced that not only was there a rope around his neck, but there was also a shoelace around his genitals. David Carradine was a victim of Autoerotic Asphyxiation gone wrong. Autoerotic Asphyxiation is something that’s easier said than done, apparently.

Was this a “When in Rome” kind of thing? Bangkok is Fast and Furious sexually. Or was this something he did regularly? I hope it wasn’t something he was trying for the first time.

Carradine’s career was strange, and had he died in his sleep he would have been mostly known as the white guy who played a Shaolin Monk in the series Kung Fu, which was an idea that Warner Bros allegedly stole from Bruce Lee. Later on, his part in Kill Bill would become almost as famous, and Carradine must have realized that his career thrived when in an Asian themed setting, hence his Stretch in Bangkok.

Now, David Carradine will be remembered as another victim, maybe the most famous one, of Autoerotic Asphyxiation, which I will refer to as AA from here on. AA must be wonderful, in the same way that I think heroin must be wonderful, because I don’t know why people would do these things, unless there was a big reward. Of course, there’s no big rewards without big risks, and I’m not big on judging other people’s…interests. I’m a live and let live kind of guy, even a live and let die one, but I implore you to think a second time about what you’re doing, as you take your shoelaces off of your shoe and tie them around your genitals (dirty), as you take that rope and tie it around your neck, please please please think of your family, think of the cleaning lady, and consider what happened to David Carradine, the actor who came and went at the same time!

 

Cinema This Week Appear Every Friday At Noonish.

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