...I'm gonna live forevaaaaa...

"I had an epiphany a few years ago where I was out at a celebrity party and it suddenly dawned on me that I had yet to meet a celebrity who is as smart and interesting as any of my friends."
-Moby

It's been a big celebrity period for me. Oscars on Sunday, Tibet House benefit on Monday. I really enjoy seeing the celebrities who eat, sleep and breath their image, art or music, particularly in contrast to those who don't. I watched the pre-Oscars Oprah celebrities-interview-each-other fabstravaganza, or at least part of it, and I found it pretty interesting. George Clooney grills burgers. I grill burgers! OMG! He's just like me!

Seriously though, he seems like a really cool, down-to-earth guy. This seems to be considerably easier for actors than any other celebrity (which makes it all the more annoying when actors completely lose their minds). It seems like musicians and artists really need to sell themselves and their work a lot more thoroughly. It makes sense, because to pull off some of the things that they pull off, you really need to believe in yourself. Who's going to like your lyrics or your painting if you yourself express uncertainty as to whether it's any good? Who's going to give you a chance if you can't even say your own band name with a straight face? "Hey, I guess we're Platonic Sasquatch." Is that really any weirder than Pearl Jam?

And the thing is, the longer these people stay famous, the more capable they are of convincing themselves, and thus everyone else, that totally ridiculous things are cool. I saw Sonic Youth play a few years ago. Ironically, I think they're now all over 50, and have been doing this for almost 30 years. After every other song, they'd all just start squealing their guitars and making feedback. To be honest, it approached being unbearable. But I didn't leave. I didn't boo. All I did was plug my ears, mutter something to myself and wait for the next song. And that was probably the most negative reaction they got in the whole room. Some people actually enjoyed it. If you walked into a bar and a band you'd never seen before was doing the exact same thing, they'd be hard pressed not to get nailed in the face with a full can of beer.

"The nice thing about being a celebrity is that when you bore people, they think it's their fault. "
- Henry Kissinger

The moral of the story is that we can convince ourselves that anything is good. When I was in college, sorority girls used to walk around during the winter dressed like my grandmother, which is ridiculous. But they thought they looked hot, and thus, so did everyone else. I personally enjoy wearing two different colors and styles of plaid, one over another. Aesthetically, it's terrible, but I kinda like it. So in summation, I am exactly what I'm ranting about. Go figure.

What I ate while I was writing this: Grilled roast beef melt. A little deli roast beef, sliced up into little pieces, some red onion and chunks of cheddar, tossed on a hot skillet until warm and melted. Covered the bread with some horseradish and a dash of BBQ. Delish.