Making It Up As I Go Along #208

MONDAY…
--- Some e-mails with Jim in the morning. Work is pretty good this evening… I’m getting more comfortable with things but am thankful that Christine is around with me for this week.

TUESDAY…
--- One cool dog, the Great White Hope, will be missed. Jim and Stann’s faithful friend and a pal I many times dog sat for was a good one.

WEDNESDAY…
--- Still really cold out right now… I’m getting tired of the bitter cold. We’re too close to Spring to deal with this.
--- Work is fine… Greek for supper tonight and fall asleep watching a movie on TV before bed.

THURSDAY…
--- CNI luncheon. It’s to say bye bye to Linda who’ll head to QC while I take her place here. So with that, I’m working 11:30 to 7:30 today.

FRIDAY…
--- Bring on the seal hunt… bring on the ignorance. Latest celeb to show a lack of thinking… Paul McCartney. The former singer/songwriter and current Knight of the Round Table… Sir Paul ventured onto the ice off the coast of PEI to search for the endangered seals! Blah!!! There are so many of those things out there that McCartney was tripping over them. Once again I’ll say it… I don’t eat seal and I don’t have anything made with seal fur… but protesting this hunt is only logical if you also protest slaughter houses and the inhumane treatment of cows and pigs. So Paul, ‘let it be’… you became irrelevant many a ‘yesterday’ ago. Back off what you know nothing about and try writing a new song.
--- And after work I go home to see Larry King Live talking seal hunt with Sir Paul himself. Pauly boy feels that the hunt should be replaced by an eco-tourist style event. Like whale watching, bring the tourist to the ice flow to view the seals! Yes indeed, let’s bring an overweight Texas couple to the ice flows of the North Atlantic… in the middle of winter… no law suit waiting to happen there! Idiocy. And talking idiocy… Paul’s wife has been brainwashed. Paul can at least listen to another point of view… she can’t understand why another point of view exists.
--- Work is okay, today is a QC luncheon (my last with them for a while). And the work afterwards is fine enough.
--- Talk to Jim on the phone for a while after I get home.

SATURDAY…
--- Movie day with Missy. Melissa and I go to two movies today. The first is Brokeback Mountain. I think it’s good… Heath Ledger is very good in it… but I think the hype is a bit much. I’ve seen two of the movies up for best picture this year (Brokeback and Crash)… and I’d vote Crash to win with little hesitation.
--- After a break at Melissa’s place, we go to Last Holiday with her friend, Karin. We decided to end the night on a lighter note and it worked… a fun little movie.


Educated by Way of Celebrity
Our celebrity fixation is enough to make my head explode. It props up so many who don’t deserve or need the propping and it brings on behaviour from the masses that can only be seen as moronic.

An example… the public have made Michael Jackson into a freak. He has been treated like the messiah ever since he was six years old and the result is, he’s never had a chance to grow up. Mike’s emotional growth ceased when the Jackson Five became famous and he’s been forced to live as the child he is ever since. If Michael Jackson was not famous but acted the way he does, he’d have been brought to some sort of asylum years ago. Instead, this is a guy linked to children in a most disturbing way. And even then, when he’s going to court to face his accusers, mobs of fanatical people scream and cry as they catch a glimpse of their hero. They’re truly blind.

The Winter Olympics have come and gone and the celebrity factor held strong here as well. It came right at day one when Yoko Ono gave some bizarre speech for world peace and unity. Yoko has done nothing deserving of worldwide fame ever. She married a talented singer/song writer and rode his coattails. And because she was seen next to John Lennon for so long, the general public have become accustomed to her… so she becomes famous simply for being Yoko. But why should any of us care to hear what she has to say at the Olympic games?

It seems that showiness is seen as more important than substance. You can be a lesser actor or athlete but if you have a wild side, people will love you for it. Or they’ll love to hate you for it… either way, it means publicity, so the celebrity is happy.

Baseball player, Barry Bonds dressed up as a woman for a team function. The team held a mock American Idol event and Barry went as real American Idol judge, Paula Abdul. I’ve seen footage of this at least a dozen times. None of those showing Busty Barry speak very complimentary about it. They sort of make fun of it. But nobody really chastises him for it either. It, like so many other celebrity watching events, has become a grey event. It’s not good… it’s not bad… it’s just a happening and we’ve got to see it.

Fact is, Barry looked gross and ridiculous. Footage of him dressed like that made me only want to change the channel.

In today’s world, we the masses look to celebrities, not only to entertain us… we want them to educate us too! John Lennon had his Yoko… and now, so does Paul McCartney. His wife is some dim girl who, because of who she married, suddenly has a voice to be heard by millions. Heather knows nothing. She’s passionate but she’s uneducated. But in today’s world, passionate will do.

This week, the McCartney’s took to the ice in hopes of saving the seals. Seals aren’t endangered… but that doesn’t matter to celebrities. Seal meat is eaten and seal oil is used for all sorts of human causes… but all Heather and Sir Paul can see is fur coats. This past week, they were on CNN’s Larry King Live and they felt that sealing should go the way of whaling. End the hunt and bring the tourists to see the animals in their natural habitat.

There are two big flaws there. The first is the fact that many whale species were being hunted on levels that made extinction a real possibility. This isn’t the case with seals. The second is that whale watching occurs near shore, in the summer. To bring tourists to the seal herds would mean going much further from shore and doing it in the winter. The North Atlantic isn’t all that hospitable a place at the best of times… it’s downright dangerous in winter.

Larry King did a reasonable service to the sealing argument by bringing Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams on the show. Danny spoke of the reality of the seal hunt and offered to bring the McCartney’s to Newfoundland in order to better educate them on the matter. Paul claimed that they “are already here.” He seemed to feel that he had learned all he needs to know. But PEI is not Newfoundland. And PEI is where Paul was. But details don’t matter… let’s just save the seals!

Danny also brought up a species of animal that really is endangered. One that is in much more need of celebrity voices. The cod fish. Danny asked Paul and Heather for their help in saving the cod from extinction. To which Paul answered, “I’d love to, but one thing at a time.” That’s celebrity on camera slang for “No”. You see, in Paul’s world, he sees all the seal pups being wiped from the face of the earth in the next three weeks (when the seal hunt is set to begin). So time is of the essence. And cod fish? Well if they were cute and their blood was splattered for all to see on pure white ice, well the story would be quite a different one.

Danny Williams also brought up the inhumane treatment of cattle, pigs and chickens. He even went so far as to claim that if slaughter house floors were painted white, the blood would make them a pretty gruesome place too. The McCartney’s felt this was avoiding the real issue and accused Williams of trying to change the subject. “We’re talking about seals!” whined Heather.

And with that, Danny Williams was able to prove the ignorance of the McCartney’s. He pointed out the flaws in their logic and they got flustered and annoyed. The problem is that, from the point of view of a world wide audience, Danny Williams is a nobody and the McCartney’s are worshiped. And, like Michael Jackson’s faithful fans as they applauded him while he went to court, the masses will follow the McCartney’s blindly.

Education and knowledge on events and matters are seen much like the boring celebrity. There’s nothing bold or stylish about it… it takes time to digest and think about and you need to make a point of allowing yourself to get it. No, in today’s celebrity driven, stylish world bold statements and headlines are seen as the all important. Ignorance is indeed bliss.