Head trip?

Reader question:

What does it mean when a film is described as a “head trip”?

My comments:

Needless to say, the film is an exciting one, thought provoking, even frightening or disturbing.

A film or movie is described as a head trip because it’s a trip that happens in the head, different from an actual trip to the shopping mall, to a park or to the mountains farther afield.

A head trip, on the other hand, is an experience of the sensory organs in the head (or heart and mind). For example, if you watch a film of exploration of the Arctic or the tropical forests in the Amazon, it is a head trip. You experience the beautiful desolation of the Arctic of snow, ice or the rich diversity of life in the hot, humid, green and colorful Amazon without having to move your feet outdoors, without having to endure all the physical hardships involved in such a trip.

Or travel.

A head trip is, in short, a journey that happens in the head. It’s an experience of mind blowing ideas or strong emotions.

Head trip is a relatively new coinage. Merriam-Webster.com dates its “first known usage” to 1970. That’s about correct. I once heard on audio Alan Watts using this expression in one of his lectures on either Taoism, Buddhism or Zen or something about religion or psychology. I cannot recall the exact lecture but, anyways, considering the fact that the philosopher died in 1973, the Merriam-Webster is about correct.

I’m not suggesting that Watts coined the term. I’m merely offering a piece of supporting evidence that someone did use the term “head trip” circa 1970.

By the way, any lecture by Watts is a head trip, and a rich and rewarding one. Try it for yourself. Many lectures by the late British born philosopher remain in print and on audio.

Alright, no more ado, let’s read a few media examples to get further acquainted with “head trip”:

1. In 2009, Eric McCormack returned to series television in Trust Me, a show that co-starred Tom Cavanagh. It lasted just 13 episodes but tonight, McCormack returns to the cable channel in a new TV show, Perception. Will it outlast Trust Me or will it be cancelled after one season as well?

In this new television series, he plays an eccentric neuroscience professor with paranoid schizophrenia, Doctor Daniel Pierce. Daniel’s recruited by the FBI to use his knowledge of human behavior to help solve crimes, often with unusual results. The show also stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Arjay Smith, Kelly Rowan, and LeVar Burton.

Perception premieres tonight on TNT. Is it worth your time? Here’s what the critics are saying:

USA Today: “This reduction of a serious, debilitating illness to a personality quirk would be as unwatchable as it is insulting were it not for one thing: an appealingly disheveled star turn from Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack as Daniel. He’s not enough to save the show, but the mix of humor and pathos he brings to the role does at least make watching Perception a bit less of a chore.”

…

NY Times: “Mr. McCormack puts Pierce’s vulnerability and fear in the foreground, and avoids the huckster’s smirk that can sometimes mar his performances; he’s winning, and he has an easy rapport with Ms. Cook. For more critical viewers, though, that may not outweigh the show’s forced eccentricities, or the way in which ideas and motifs from Monk, House, The Mentalist, Numbers and other series clank around in plain sight.”

Boston Herald: “If you were to take this series seriously — and you won’t — you’d find it fits with the genre that exalts those with mental disabilities as savants (starting with Forrest Gump). Daniel’s schizophrenia — which he refuses to treat — isn’t an affliction, it’s a super-power. ‘Rationality is overrated, particularly if you’re a Cubs fan,’ he says. Maybe. But Perception is a head trip not worth the journey.”

- Perception: New TNT Series; Is It Worth Watching? TVSeriesFinale.com, July 9, 2017.

2. Charles Kelley’s new disc, The Driver, might very well be his solo debut. But, the singer -- also known for his role as co-lead singer of Lady Antebellum -- will be the first to tell you that he’s far from alone on the disc. The first single and title track has already found a home on the airwaves -- and has netted him (along with collaborators Dierks Bentley and Eric Paslay) a Grammy nomination. And, though Hillary Scott’s vocals can’t be heard on the album, there are a couple of female artists on the album that you very well might be familiar with.

...

With The Driver being in stores now, February promises to be a month to remember for Kelley. Between the album, a scheduled trip to the Grammys and the fact that he and wife Cassie are expecting their first child, he says he’s definitely living in the moment these days.

“The album release is the culmination of a lot of hard work -- that balances both high points of extreme confidence and pride, and low points of extreme self-doubt,” he admitted. “I’ve learned a lot about myself in this process and how much I lean on my wife and also my team for support. It’s been a head trip at times but also incredibly rewarding. I can’t say I have ever been more proud -- until, of course, the baby comes,” he confessed, laughing.

- Charles Kelley Talks Working With Stevie Nicks, Miranda Lambert on New Album ‘The Driver’, February 6, 2016.

3. Ponzi king Bernie Madoff is seeking new business ventures behind bars — in the hot chocolate market.

Madoff , 78, has bought up all Swiss Miss packets from the commissary at the Butner federal correction complex in North Carolina, and is reselling them for a profit, according to a report.

“Bernie really was a successful businessman with quite original insights into the market, and he’s continued applying his business instincts in prison,” journalist Steve Fishman told MarketWatch after interviewing Madoff at length for his new podcast “Ponzi Supernova.” “He made it so that if you wanted any, you had to go through Bernie.”

Madoff, who is serving his 150-year prison sentence for the $65 billion fraud, seems to be doing hard time quite comfortably.

In the podcast series, he boasted that his cell doors “are not locked at night,” the Guardian reported.

“I have a pretty big picture window — [but] you can’t open it,” Madoff said.

“Ponzi Supernova” is made up of hours of never-before-heard interviews.

The first four episodes debuted Thursday on Audible, and the final two will be released in the coming weeks.

Fishman said inmates ask Madoff for financial advice.

But he’s been treated just like any other con, too.

The former billionaire was slapped by a fellow prisoner for changing the TV channel, one inmate claimed.

Madoff also divulged how he pulled off the scheme.

As Madoff’s firm became successful, the banks that wouldn’t work with him had a change of heart.

“All of a sudden, these banks give you the time of day. They’re willing to give you a billion dollars.

I had all of these major banks coming down and entertaining me. It is a head trip,” he told Fishman.

Madoff also says he wishes he had been caught earlier — but Fishman believes the only remorse he feels is for himself.

“He takes the position that he helped a lot of people make a lot of money, and that he got trapped by them,” Fishman said. “His remorse has a lot to do with how he destroyed his career and his family, and a lot less to do with the fates of his victims.”

- Bernie Madoff is peddling hot chocolate in prison yard, NYPost.com, January 13, 2017.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.