Friday 17 April 2009

Pinocchio Story





“Do you think I sacrificed real life for all the fame and flashing lights?
There is no Gucci, Louis Vuitton or Ice,
No clothes that I could buy that could release my mind from this jail
No vacations that I could fly
Or take me back to real life.

I ask you tonight
What does it feel like
To live a real life?

I just want to be a real boy
Pinocchio lied, that’s what kept him running,
I tell the truth and still I am running
I turn on the TV and see me
I turn on the TV and see nothing

What does it feel like
To be real?
Not some façade that no one can really feel

Do you really have the stamina
For everybody that sees you to ask
“Where is my camera?”
For everybody to say sign my autograph
For everybody that sees you crying to say
“Boy you ought to laugh”
I just want to be a real boy”




“Pinocchio story”- a free-style song performed by multi-million selling rapper - Kanye West in which he tells his live audience a story about himself, juxtaposing his life with that of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet whose nose grew longer every time he told a lie. During this performance, West cries in front of the audience as he tells the audience of how he feels his life is a lie, a life of emptiness and of no real substance.

After listening to this, I doubt this will really have a major impact on changing the opinions of the young minds who have decided to pursue the limelight, but it tells me that truly, “all that glitters is not gold”, and fame and fortune does not in any way guarantee happiness. Contrary to what many might believe nowadays, the desire to be famous is not a solid ambition, and although a formal education is by no means the only path an individual can go in life, neither is the search for stardom.

Thursday 16 April 2009

New Ambitions vs. Old Values




We often forget that celebrities are mere human beings like ourselves and before we know it, fall victim to this unquestioning, almost blind admiration. We idolise these *gods and goddesses* we have appointed from among us.

I say this because we (the adoring public) are the ones responsible for their fame, if they did not have us, there would be no them. Celebrities NEED fans to be famous.
Now, I do not mean to sound condescending or snooty as I have fallen victim to this love for celebrities many a time!


The blind admiration of fame without regard to the fact that celebrities are mere MORTAL beings like us and being famous in itself is not a positive attribute which speaks of the character of a person is what I am talking about.


The fact that anyone..and I mean anyone who stumbles upon 15 minutes of fame for whatever reason, can become rich and famous for the rest for their life (e.g. Jade Goody R.I.P) quite understandably translates to young people as *WHY study and work for the rest of your life to exist in a world of bills and mediocrity at best?*


When you could sign up for big brother or X-factor (the latter being a talent show, I know) not do extraordinarily well or show any talent (e.g. William Hung) and still become rich and famous


"Academic success" and other such phenomena are now deemed as almost unnecessary by most and most of those who still pursue an education secretly harbour dreams of “making it big” through some other means. But that makes me think....is it not allowed to have other dreams? Hmmmmm...confusing stuff.


Nowadays, it is commonplace to meet girls who are studying courses such as medicine at university but wish to become models when they graduate or boys who study law but cannot wait to finish university in order to pursue a career in professional football, although they are fully aware that these dreams are not particularly realistic as the two professions mentioned above have very early recruitment and retirement ages.


I do not feel comfortable with the thought that future generations will grow up in a world where the values I was taught are forgotten. Values such as , "you can’t buy love”,
“looks are not everything”, and “we are more than the sum of our achievements or failures” and lastly “all that glitters is NOT gold”.

The art of ~*escapism*~


Why do we do it to ourselves?




why do we follow the lives of celebs instead of living ours??




Well…I call it escapism. Escapism from the real world, escapism from looming exams and deadlines, escapism from pesky friends and loved ones, escapism from body issues, and even more general problems like economic distress and political instability. Who would rather spend their evenings following wars and bombings, economic recessions and illness and poverty when we could easily change the channel from the news to E! and enter the bubble gum-world of what’s hot and what's not? Who wants to face the grim reality of real life when we could easily be in a fantasy world where everything is perfect and if problems do exist, they are not ours to worry about?




When celebrities do have problems, they also make headlines, who can forget the legendary rivalry between Paris Hilton and her side-kick Nicole Richie? Who can forget the leaked sex-tape of Kim Kardashian and her then-lover Ray-J? Or the more recent brawl between pop-sensation Rihanna and her beau Chris Brown? These are negative headlines, but in-the long-term they serve to benefit the stars involved as there is no such thing as too much publicity in celeb-land.




This brings us to the point that celebrities whether famous for positive or negative reasons (or somewhere in the middle), for the fact that they are given large scale attention, inspire emulation. They are ingrained into the collective psyche and before we know it, the saying “what you can’t have, you want more of” comes true. We can’t have their lives but we want to see more of what they are getting up to. We want to know as much as we can so when we discuss them with our friends, we share gossip about them like we are speaking of our mutual friends. Then we begin to feel as though we know them personally. This is where things can get dangerous.




Its not hidden that there are people who have attacked and stalked celebrities because they are inflicted with conditions such as “celebrity worship syndrome”, an illness which means an individual becomes overly involved with the details of the personal life of a celebrity.

What is a celebrity?


We live in an age where an accurate definition of “celebrity” does not exist anymore. In times past, perhaps the possession of an outstanding talent or number of talents which clearly set one apart from others would qualify an individual to be called a “star”. Now, things are somewhat different.


On the topic of what attributes exactly constitute a celebrity nowadays, it is now obvious, the title is no longer restricted to the phenomenally talented, beautiful, or wealthy, now, it appears that as long as more than a certain number of people know who you are, where you have been “spotted” in recent times, who your friends and family are and what you like to do/wear, you can be called a celebrity by modern standards.

Come to think about it, if all this information about the lives of celebs was not put out there for us to hungrily gobble up, we would not know it. Our lives would not be spent following theirs. So I ask, who is behind it? Someone must pay for this large-scale exposure, and it surely can’t be them (celebs) as they are just people like us at the end of the day and are not very likely to be able to pay for it. Rather, it is the other way round, they are paid both in cash and in kind to be famous. Celebrities are paid millions as magazines jostle to have the rights to pictures of their weddings, their new-born babies, their homes and their parties. So who sponsors the publishing and broadcast corporations?

We all know that adverts are what support the running of most television channels, so in the case of celebrities, it’s the same. Those who need to advertise their commodities use the celebrities as platforms for advertisement, of which the most obvious benefactors are the fashion industry, the beauty and cosmetics industry, electronics industry and the motor industry among others. News of designers sending celebrities thousands-worth of free merchandise is commonplace, jewellers lend their most expensive pieces to celebs for well-covered events such as awards, celebs are given “goodie bags” overflowing with free products (and not cheap ones), electronics, beauty products, jewellery amongst others.

The red-carpet is no longer a place where stars are asked questions which the public want to know about their work and their lives, where journalists ask the questions their fans want to know the answers to. Instead, a celebrity is expected to answer questions centred on how they look that night, what designers are their favourites, who their stylists are and so on. Celebrities who do not know much about designers are impatiently moved along or ignored, if they give unsatisfactory answers, are mocked in the numerous post-awards “who wore what” articles.


These industries push the stars into our attention and keep them there, glamorizing their lives and creating a beautiful, carefree, youthful, affluent, interesting, sexually liberated (or quite the opposite in recent times e.g. the Jonas brothers), uninhibited image. In my opinion, it is human nature to envy anyone who seems more attractive, affluent and who has or seems to be achieving more than you. This could easily be a healthy ambition if all of these attributes where factors we could control. Or if fame were given on a basis of meritocracy, but as we all know, such is not always the case.

So how healthy is it for us to obsess over individuals who live lives they are lucky to have been given. Is it healthy to want what you have not necessarily ‘worked’ for? That is ‘work’ in the true sense of the word, not ‘work’ being to host a party and dance on a table all night in drug and alcohol-fuelled debauchery or to go shopping clutching a smoking cessation product for example, in full view of the press who are sure to be there.


Apart from showing us this seemingly perfect and fun image which we naturally want, another way we are drawn into the thick web of celebrity obsession is to create a blur between real-life and the fantasy world celebrities live in. The internet is the major agent of this rapidly blurring line as we easily spend hours on end following the lastest activities of our favourite celebs (whether we like to admit they are our favourites or not). There are pictures of them out and about, and my favourites-‘candids’ of them sometimes, without make-up! With the current popularity of blogs, celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon and offer us an insight into their lives and their opinions, always sure to drop a subtle hint here and there at what their favourite products at the moment are of course.


Farewell Jade


We are still smarting from the demise of Jade Goody, a “national treasure” who was lovingly called “the princess of Essex” by her fans. She was a 20 year old, who rose to fame in 2002, through the popular reality television show Big Brother. It was the 3rd season of the reality show and she was the unknown dental nurse who amazed the British public just as much as she irritated them with her outstandingly low general knowledge of the UK. She famously said that she thought Cambridge was in London and East Anglia or “East angular” as she referred to it, was a country in Asia.

During her stint in the show, she became a favourite of the viewing public and lasted relatively long in the Big Brother house although she did not go on to win. However, what she did go on to do was to become the darling of the media with her own reality shows and perfume lines. Eventually, she returned to the source of her fame, perhaps to bolster her status as a celebrity in the aptly titled “celebrity Big Brother” 2007 edition. Her stint in the same house which catapulted her to fame was to bring her nothing but trouble this time around. After a series of vicious shouting matches and racially suggestive comments between herself and fellow housemate Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, she was evicted from the house and Channel 4 received complaints in the multiples of tens of thousands.

Following this incident, Jade’s image went on a downwards spiral, her autobiography and perfume were taken down from stores and some companies withdrew their advertisements from running during Big Brother as they wanted to publicly show they were not in support of the alleged racism on the show.

The love the public had for her was suddenly transformed into contempt and that lasted till 2008 when she went to India to appear in the Indian version of Big Brother, when the results of a medical test were announced on air and it was revealed by her doctor that she had advanced cervical cancer.

Another reality show began, where she was followed through her last few months on earth, showing her battle with cancer, her wedding to her on-off partner (which was broadcast to the public) and a few weeks later, she passed away, once again the darling of the British media, to be buried in a ceremony which will be televised.

Jade Goody is the perfect example of a star in the true sense of the word and what it means to be a star in today’s world. She had no notable talent; she was loved for being a “regular girl”, someone with a likeable character (at times). She represented a true British or more specifically, Essex girl who personified the “laddette” culture and lived a relatively normal life…apart from the fact that she had earned millions in her lifetime and her struggle with a terminal illness and death was watched by the public.

Purpose....


This blog has been created after a lot lot lot of consideration and time wasting, mainly because I was afraid, scared to fall into the abyss which is blogging ...

I did not want to get lost in "blogosphere", by that I mean, blend into the background and be just another blogger.

To me, there are different types of blogs/bloggers and I am saying this as an outsider looking in...there are some which revolve around the blogger, so much so that the blogger begins to appear self-obssessed and narcissistic, offering their candid views on anything and everything and sharing little anecdotes and pictures from their lives which they have innocently assumed we would be interested in. Unfortunately, such is not always the case. It is obvious why I am scared of being in this group, as I have many-a-time sat and chuckled at the expense of the poor sod who thinks I actually care what happened to them, what they did or what they wore today.

However, being scared was not a good enough reason for me not to do this...I am starting out nervous and tentative, but as with all things, this too shall run its course...as it does, I hope it does what its supposed to do, which is point out things we see on a daily basis and break them down, so we can look at them from different angles and think of them in ways which we would have not, had it not been for this outlet.

Lets see how it goes!