Famous for being famous. Yet, what does fame really entail these days? Heightened scrutiny by the watching eyes of every single bored & obese blogger out there. Not being able to trust anyone to not divulge secrets to newspapers willing to pay sweet money for a good story. Having to live in gated estates to avoid the papparazzi who would do anything for the perfect photograph (if you have achieved a consistent level of fame and can milk off of it, that is). Having every single move photographed & documented (once the constant level of fame is in place, otherwise the paps get bored pretty quickly).

There is also no genuine respect anymore for the famous. One may still have his 15 minutes, but he will have to lower himself to such a shameful level in order to even have that (isn’t it now everyone will have his 5 minutes?) From softcore porn to pop star! From “I’m so dumb, watch me in Wal-Mart” to Fashion Goddess!

These people are merely pupets, devoid of any spark of being a HUMAN, let alone of containing any divine energy. They would be lost without their handlers, spokespeople, publicists, the PEOPLE WHO DRESS them on a daily basis. We can blame it on a number of factors: the marketers who need to come up with more subtle ways in which to try to sell products, the newspaper & television pushers, the bored people at work who have nothing better to do but read gossip rags, the tweens who think is the way to be, the parents who pay for this to continue, youtube for allowing any idiot with a video camera to do something stupid, myspace for saying “hey, anyone can be a rockstar! even if it’s just on myspace!”, the movie studios who allow these twits to be in mainstream movies, perfume companies for allowing products with NAMES (brands in their own rights) to be placed on the creations of others, the list goes on & on.

Will these people ever wake up out of their “wishing to be famous” stupor? Will they ever realize that they are inherently boring and lacking creativity and anything meaningful? That their acts of degrading themselves and fellow humans for tv ratings & to sell other people useless junk are flawed acts and do not lead to actual fulfillment in their own lives? Will they allow the real actors to come back and be ugly & fat, yet act their asses off? Sing like there’s no tomorrow? Allow actual creativity & talent to shine through and just sit quietly on the sidelines in order to enjoy it all? NO. Not at this point. Each person thinks that he has something special to offer the mainstream population, and it costs less to film these people than to pay writers to make good shows, or to reverse the perceptions in a normal person’s head that being different looking (unlike every girl looking like Ashlee Simpson or what have you) is okay.

I choose not to dwell on these topics anymore, because it scares me that there is little chance of anything respectable being put into the mainstream anymore. Yet, with the factors above being involved, who would really want to be thrust out into that world anyway?

1) Pink Floyd: The Wall, “The Machine”, “Have a Cigar”, The final cut, etc.

2) Neil Young: Just about everything he’s done.

3) Ani Di Franco: Who has always skirted the main methods of distribution and production.

And a host of others. One of my favorites is “Smokin’ with Superman”, a local Madison band who, in their songs, say “F-U” to Radio airplay.

Pax. Kimberly

When I moved out of the compulsion to eat junk calories, and started spitefully to eat nutritive foods, a different sort of spiritual awakening started to emerge. I don’t send out my plays and poetry and scripts much these days and I’m at total peace with it because I’ve decided I don’t want to participate in the perpetration and perpetuation of junk culture. Anything happening on a national level or that is “American” at least is not worth my time. I can’t help but think of what Thom Yorke of Radiohead said in a recent interview in the NY-Whore Times Magazine, about why Radiohead never signed with a major label: “Why would I sign a contract with an industry that’s imploding?”

Instead, I’d like to hook up with other theater artists and any other kind of artist, actually, and create “nutritive work.” Call it “Community Sponsored Big Cheap Theater.” It’s a germinating vision for the moment, but there ya have it.

Talent-capitalism is an empty system- it encourages the ego to strive in ambition to make the self known.

Wow. Nicely said.

I have heard it said that genius resides in almost all of us. “We” are the majority, in fact. This leads to a type of elitism that allows crap to flourish.

Crap is also popular because it caters to the lowest common denominator. One must also take into account that taste grows and develops with character so in the beginning, when people are young, crap is actually appealing on some levels.