Get Ya Freak On.

[robotthepirate]

UK for the win! They've finally listened to my psychic channeling and put in someone with an established reputation instead of "The guy who didn't win the x-factor". Never have I been so happy to hear a song by Blue.

And on a very similar note. Semi-final 2 tonight = Ireland = Jedward.

This whole voteUK subliminal messaging thing though might be voteUK worth an investigation.

[McDuffies]

UK as well as most of other countries tend to send their B-league musicians, for reasons unknown to me. Think Sweden will send one of their indy bands in the vein of Mando Diao or Cardigans or something like that, or that Germany will send one of their punk acts - you know, something that already has a substantial international fanbase - nah, they'll usually opt for a completely forgetable, radio-friendly europop. Strangely enough, most of countries don't really send anything characteristic for their country's scene, but instead make misguided attempts to construct something that they think other countries would like. Which, I think, has less appeal, since there are better places to get that kind of music than eurovision. I'd certainly like the show better if there was more local flavour.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Amy Winehouse is dead.

[robotthepirate]

She is. Heard it on the way to work last night.

It's a sad day if not all that suprising. Shame.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Nah, not surprising in the slightest. But still upsetting. The most annoying part for me was that yesterday everyone on facebook was posting statuses about how much they never cared about here anyway, blah blah, why do people care that she's dead, she was just a stupid crackwhore drug addict. Like suddenly having an addiction means a person doesn't matter anymore, and no one should care when they die? WTF is that all about? Because addictions are so easy to quit, right? They just do it to themselves, so they deserve it? Get off your moral high-horse, asswart.

Uh.. yeah, might be a little bit of a touchy thing, heh. But I really enjoyed her music and had hopes that she would be able to turn her life around.

[robotthepirate]

Yeah. Its still sad no matter what the circumstances. She was an amazing singer and could have gone on to do great things musically if she'd been able to sort her life out.

Maybe people are clamming up because subconciously they know that somewhere someone close to them needs there help to recover from something and they don't want to admit it.

[McDuffies]

I was surprised. Anyone can name a dozen of similarly self-destructive celebrities who don't die that young. Just think of how several years ago everyone thought one day Brittney Spears would be found dead in a bathtub or something, yet she recuperated. The most likely scenario in such cases is that celebrity keeps on stumbling in and out of rehab until in late middle age, accumulated health issue catches up with them.

"Back in black" was a great album, but her tabloid reputation was very off-putting to me. I imagine her whole situation as people closest to her trying to help her, and then millions of fans, media, satirists who needed a resident victims and nostalgics who revered her as the second coming of Billy Holiday validating her way of life. Inarguably her lifestyle made her infinitely more popular than any other soul revival singers, but feedback from that popularity probably pushed her deeper. Asides from discussions about her talent and potential, at the core you still have a story about a girl who destroyed herself before eyes of entire world - not that anyone's actually guilty, it's just that that whole cult of celebrity is screwed up.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I was surprised. Anyone can name a dozen of similarly self-destructive celebrities who don't die that young. Just think of how several years ago everyone thought one day Brittney Spears would be found dead in a bathtub or something, yet she recuperated. The most likely scenario in such cases is that celebrity keeps on stumbling in and out of rehab until in late middle age, accumulated health issue catches up with them.

Well, here's the whole 27 Club phenomenon.

A lot of Winehouse's problems stemmed from depression and other mental instabilities. People with already-existing psychological disorders have a harder time quitting addictive substances, while people who don't have those disorders may struggle less when quitting or won't get addicted as easily in the first place. And of course being a celebrity already takes a pretty significant toll on ones psyche, especially if you're famous in part for being an addict, as Winehouse was.

What breaks my heart moreso than anything else is that instead of being remembered for her music, she's probably more likely to be remembered as a joke now. "Haw haw! She SHOULD have gone to rehab, not like that song she wrote! Haw haw I'm original and TOTALLY NOT the MILLIONTH person to make this joke!"

I have no idea why I'm so emotionally involved with this. Honestly I only had a few of her songs, it wasn't like I listened to her everyday. I just really liked what I had heard from her, I guess.

[Yeahduff]

It's too bad. I liked her more than Duffy and Adele and her other contemporaries, and for a second there it looked like she might make a come back.

Not that I necessarily expect people who didn't care for her music to weep or anything, it's just weird that all of a sudden we're questioning our priorities as far as news coverage goes.

[McDuffies]

Well, here's the whole 27 Club phenomenon.

Isn't really complete since there's a lot of musicians who dies around age of 27 though not exactly at 27: Nick Drake, Ian Curtis, Jeff Buckley, D.Boon of Minutemen, even Elliot Smith... what's fascinating is not a mere coincidence of a number 27, but rather the fact that just under 30 is long enough to make a star of yourself and then burn out.

Not that I necessarily expect people who didn't care for her music to weep or anything, it's just weird that all of a sudden we're questioning our priorities as far as news coverage goes.

It's unsettling how people apstract celebrities into fictional characters and then all compassion is out the window. It's like they're watching a movie and character died at the end and they're like "well, the guy was an asshole anyway".

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Not that I necessarily expect people who didn't care for her music to weep or anything, it's just weird that all of a sudden we're questioning our priorities as far as news coverage goes.

It's unsettling how people apstract celebrities into fictional characters and then all compassion is out the window. It's like they're watching a movie and character died at the end and they're like "well, the guy was an asshole anyway".

That's a good way to put it. I mean, I can kind of understand the leap from celebrity to fictional character in people's minds, if you never met the person and stuff like that. But so many people were/are saying things like how she deserved it because she did drugs and was a slut, or wasn't a good musician anyway. I think the last part of that sentence pretty much sums up their ignorance as far as I'm concerned- just because you don't care for someone's music doesn't mean they are talentless. And, even if the person in question wasn't talented, it doesn't mean that they deserved to die. I mean, what the hell? Do you go to the funerals of, say, supermarket owners, and say "Why are you guys all mourning this guy, he was just a supermarket owner?"

I guess it's people trying to distance themselves from death by saying "Well so and so died because he/she made bad choices. I am a GOOD person, therefore I can't die. The more I denounce this dead person, the better I look by comparison, therefore even FURTHER reducing the chances that I'll die!"

[McDuffies]

That's a good way to put it. I mean, I can kind of understand the leap from celebrity to fictional character in people's minds, if you never met the person and stuff like that.

That's how celebrities are treated their entire life, and one would think that death at that age would sober someone a bit but I guess not.
I wouldn't pitty the poor celebrities too much but I figure that once in a while you have someone whose actual goal is playing music and not being talked about by every hack show host in the country, but that is not an option when you get a certain degree of fame... kind of what happened to Kurt Cobain.

[RobboAKAscooby]

I wouldn't pitty the poor celebrities too much but I figure that once in a while you have someone whose actual goal is playing music and not being talked about by every hack show host in the country, but that is not an option when you get a certain degree of fame... kind of what happened to Kurt Cobain.

The whole celebrity thing is made much worse nowadays by how damn easy it is to be called a celebrity - just a reality tv appearance or being the (often shameless) kid of someone rich.
It used to be some meaning to the word celebrity (the word famous too) but now anyone can do it by accident and it takes away value from the people who work for years to hone their skills and create something (music/acting/modelling/whatever).
And it all feeds back into the tabloid cycle, with the shameless "celebrities" doing their stupid crap just so they can get on the cover of some shitty little magazine.

I'm gonna stop myself now before I go onto a big rant.

I will say most of the celebs I follow are people who actually work for the love of the work and not the fame - which is a big part of why I like those people.

[McDuffies]

Still, you have to addmit that becoming a kid of someone rich is not easy. Only a handful of people in the world achieve it.

[RobboAKAscooby]

Still, you have to addmit that becoming a kid of someone rich is not easy. Only a handful of people in the world achieve it.

Ha ha True!

[Phact0rri]

I think it would suck having people following you around all day and writing news articles about your trip to the bathroom.

[RobboAKAscooby]

I think it would suck having people following you around all day and writing news articles about your trip to the bathroom.

Obviously you're not one of the attention seeking celeb-utantes

And for the ones who are doing it for love of the music/acting/whatever it becomes a matter of choosing to accept it as a side effect of doing what they love or walking around scowling at the world - it has to suck either way but.

Or following Billy Connolly's classic example of grabbing the camera and threatening to shove it up the paparazzos arse

[McDuffies]

I hate how those incidents with paparazzi are always presented as "wow, look at those wacky celebrities, aren't they easy to get upset? You gotta love them, those crazy bastards!"
I remember from some years ago how Bjork allegedly swallowed pencil and a notebook of a reporter, and how everywhere it was reported "that crazy Bjork, another stunt to get more attention" - I mean, how do things get twisted like that? A media spin that justifies their harrasment by saying simply "they all secretly want the attention", which viewers, I guess, buy because they think they'd want that kind of attention if they were in celebrity's place. And it really damages perception, because for a long while, Bjork was being presented as this weird-for-the-weirdness-sake person whose songs were seen as a cry for attention and desperate attempt to be different from others, and that way you'd be biased towards her music before you'd even hear it.

It's a contradiction, on one side every creative type wants his work to reach as much people as possible. On the other hand, everything over a certain level of popularity brings in unwanted sideeffects in form of attention to your personal life an whatnot. I don't think that (save for some extremely exibitionist types) anyone wants that, I mean surely at the beginning average person is attracted to the prospect of being reckognized in the street and called to late night shows, but certainly very soon the novelty wears off and I think that it's unfair to say "well, it's their fault for wanting to be popular in the first place".

I think that every art requires a person to be a bit exibitionist, perhaps a bit self-centered too. After all, you are taking a little bit of your personal inner life and laying it on to the table, and you are working under the proposition that this inner life will be interesting enough to people (and I don't think anyone who says "I don't know if anyone will like this..." really means it deep down. We all hope that they will). But I don't think it's unfair to expect to have control over how much of your inner life you show - and, you know, over your personal space and all.

Now to comic artists or, say, novelists, this is not much of a problem unless you stumble on to a comic convention or are unlucky enough to have some geeky stalker. But how exactly do you become an actor who can make a comfortable living and choose which roles to play and which ones to pass (reasonable request) without giving up on too much of your privacy?

[Phact0rri]

Now to comic artists or, say, novelists, this is not much of a problem unless you stumble on to a comic convention or are unlucky enough to have some geeky stalker. But how exactly do you become an actor who can make a comfortable living and choose which roles to play and which ones to pass (reasonable request) without giving up on too much of your privacy?

I think it depends. I mean there are definately certain writers/comic book people who have been available in the mass media long enough for it to get annoying. Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane, Jhonnen Vasquez, Stephen King, Clive Barker, etc really have that sort of thing that happens or at least happened often enough.

I think that there are certain actors that can do that, but you have to really work up your privacy and if you want to be left alone don't live in Los Angeles. I love this town, but if I had any sort of celebrity I'd be moving to some place up north.

[McDuffies]

Cult writers have cult audience, which is by rule much more obsessive than ordinary audience. And folks like King or Stan Lee traded in relative low-profile for oportunities to get their works on tv or film.

I think that there are certain actors that can do that, but you have to really work up your privacy and if you want to be left alone don't live in Los Angeles. I love this town, but if I had any sort of celebrity I'd be moving to some place up north.

Possibly... it seems like, to get offered juicy roles, you have to be in public consciousness, and if you're out of tabloids for a few months, you're already not so desirable for star roles. Unless you're, I guess, Andy mcDowell or someone like that.