Benjamin Francis Birnam

My blogs

About me

Gender Male
Location United States
Introduction My pseudonym here is an amalgam of Ben Sanderson's first name, my father's middle name, and Don Birnam's surname. Ben is the protagonist of Leaving Las Vegas and Don the central figure in The Lost Weekend. The profile picture is Mickey Rourke as Bukowski's Henry Chinasky from Barfly. The posts herein constitute truthful depictions of my life growing up, written in various styles ranging from abstract poetry to straightforward reporting. In every case, unless otherwise obvious, the "I" and "you" in them is me. None of the works are fully formed stories, nor are they necessarily always entirely factually accurate, though I have never deliberately embellished or changed things around. I wish I could embellish but don't have the imagination for it. Rather, it is simply that some memories were never stored long term and others were persisted through a decidedly intoxicated prism.
Interests Obsessing on the past, ignoring the present, fearing the future
Favorite Movies Lost Weekend, Days of Wine and Roses, Jesus' Son, Panic in Needle Park, Reefer Madness, Barfly, Factotum, Drugstore Cowboy, The Man with the Golden Arm, Leaving Las Vegas, Blow, EIght Million Ways To Die, The Basketball Diaries, Studio 54, Rich Kids, Over The Edge
Favorite Music Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, The Clash, X, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana, Green Day, Anti-Flag, Ramones, Velvet Underground
Favorite Books A Million Little Pieces, Factotum, Junky, Leaving Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Dry, A Drinking Life, Less Than Zero, Naked Lunch, Story of my Life, The Beautiful and the Damned, Tales of Ordinary Madness, Wired, Literary Outlaw, The Great Shark Hunt