02:02 - 17.04.06
Sassy
I was listening to an interview of the singer Pink on Much Music, while working on my Sunday puzzles. In addition to the sudoku books that my youngest found on sale at the grocery store yesterday, there were also the weekly treasures that is one of the main reasons I subscribe to my local paper. My youngest had just been picked up by number four son and his partner to go to their Dad's family gathering. His Dad hadn't returned his calls all week, but number four son seems to have taken on the position of mentor to his younger brother, maybe as a way of thanking him for all the emotional support he had given him when that other relationship he had cratered. What goes around comes around and isn't that what family is supposed to be about anyway. His big news was the ultrasound that his partner had had a couple of days ago. The September grandbaby appears to be a boy. Just as number two son and his partner really wanted a girl number four son and his partner really wanted a boy. I apologized for not going to the direct marketing party that had been held the day before by his partner's sister. It was intended that she get the free gifts that come from the sales. I don't really have any money for the type of expensive merchandise offered and would really rather just give them cash instead. That way they can choose any product they need instead of what that one company carries. Besides that, between the shopping yesterday and the emotional housecleaning I experienced while I was telling my tales of woe to my sister's sister-in-law (I actually had a fairly severe asthma attack as I talked about it) I just didn't have any energy left at all. There were no hard feelings and i think it is finally beginning to sink in that I have been really ill and not malingering after all.
Anyway the reason I was listening to Pink's interview was two fold. Firstly her voice and music reminded me a lot of Suzi Quatro's as did her demeanor. Saucy or sassy depending on one's point of view. Also she seems to be someone who has demanded the right to continue thinking for herself and being what she is, regardless of what the current mold for the "rock star" image is. One comment that fascinated me was that when her managers tried to send her to an etiquette course, among others, she told them that was an insult to her mother's parenting. Given that her communication style is direct with no punches pulled, I can see where her managers were trying to take her and it had nothing to do with manners at all. Good on her. Her continuous message to the young women calling in or sitting in the studio was that they were good enough the way they were and not to buy into the sales pitches of the image makers. She writes her own music and expects to have her creative wishes respected. That indicated to me that she was trying to practice what she preached. Good role model. Despite the very personal questions posed to her by the VJ she answered frankly but without any apology for who she was or what her past revealed about her. Live in the now - said Baba Ram Dass - and it appears she does. The other question that interested me was the one about how much right to privacy does she have and how much right to know do her fans - and detractors - have. It was obvious she really hadn't thought about that as a single one-off question. It appears that she takes each instance as it comes and doesn't generalize or stereotype others enough to have a pat answer.
However, it brought to mind an opinion poll the other day on one of our local news outlets. The question being "do stars have any right to privacy?" It was at the time when there was the barring of journalists from Namibia while Ms Jolie and Mr Pitt await the birth of their baby. Someone responded that no public figure has the right to expect any privacy, since the price of their "fame" is a fan's right to vicariously live every moment with the person "they made famous. If they don't want to share then they should get another job.". There was enough venom dripping in the entire response to show someone with a bad case of the green eyed monster. I think most public figures know they are going to lose some privacy if they deliberately set out to become a star or leader. However, I think there is incredible arrogance to assume that a fan's personal attention is the only reason that that person in the headlines is successful. As far as owing it to the public to live with no personal privacy, one has to wonder what about their own lives people like that one poll responder, are trying to avoid or hide. Glas houses you see. Unless the headliner in question is abusing their power in some way I really don't think it is anyone else's business how the "famous" live - or the everyday average joe for that matter either. The response that Pink gave was interesting too - "Where's the mystery then?" Her take was that that mystery was one of the most potent grounds for creative growth. Too may stars focus on the public response to too intimate revelations about them instead of focussing on developing and expressing the creative skills that got them to the headlines to begin with. In a way, fans sabotage their heroes when they demand a full disclosure that they couldn't sustain themselves. Right? She went on further to say that she thought Johnny Depp was the only star she could think of who had been able to maintain that aura of mystery in these times. I don't quite believe that since other names came to mind as I was listening but it is much harder these days to effect. Besides, with stars especially, they are creating a world of pretend on purpose for our amusement. Why does their daily reality matter then? Are we so bankrupt of good role models that we have to demand someone like an actor pretend to be one. What about just picking up a book about the lives of, oh say Mother Teresa, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Jonas Salk, Albert Einstien, Thomas Edison, Aung San Suu Kyi, Marie Curie. Take your pick, but take a pick. Quite making up excuses for not trying to clean up one's own act, eh.
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