Buckaroo Banzai

When people ask what I wanted to be when I grew up, I often joke that I wanted to be Isaac Asimov, meaning that I wanted to have advanced degrees in science and I wanted to be known for my science fiction writing. That’s all true, but in some ways I also wanted to be Buckaroo Banzai, the title character of the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension. The film came out right after I graduated from high school. I was washing cars for a Toyota dealership in Southern Cali...