Celebrity Culture - BS Observations - Celebrity Cash-and-Burn

It’s ironic to me that the Free Articulator’s first front page, launched in 2006 made mention of Britney Spears in the most derisive tones, portending her crash long before the MSM made mention of it with regard to her folding marriage and desperate, but failed attempts to cling to the shreds of her career.

Since then, I’ve been fond of making fun of Britney Spears by saying “The initials say it all.” Meaning that they comment on the music, the woman, her character, and her career. The news that she has lost custody of her children is now exploding into the mainstream media (MSM) and dominating headlines and soundbytes internationally. It gives me pause.

The former Disney Mouseketeer has lost the plot completely. Whatever talent she has, or retains, is obscured, and all the money showbiz has offered, ($50,000,000 a year) for a twenty-something would seem insufficient to help her, though she does a credible (if soul-destroying) job of remaining in the media spotlight; a celebrity’s major job description and most precious social capital these days.

It seems to me that the attention we pay her as she shatters her career, ruins her life and that of those around her is more of a commentary on who we are as a society and civilization, than who Britney is as a falling star of pop culture.

I think the MSM today is feeding and fueling her plunge into obscurity as visibly as possible and that we are helping her along. I find that rather shameful. If we’re to believe the media attitude on this it comes across as “Nobody seems to care,” except the media who rush to publish so they can exploit this event to make money from corporations who’ll purchase more adspace this week to capitalize upon the circumstance of celebrity cash-and-burn (sic). “The meida maketh and the media burneth.” All we are supposed to do is stir the ash; fertile ground for the next media sensation to rise as phoenix and inflame our desire to consume.

As has been mentioned earlier, the Free Articulator will be taking a look at the cult of celebrity in a consumer soceity at a later date.

In the meantime consider what it means as society loses the values it once placed in glamorous graceful and cultured celebrities (holding to the illusion we considered reality at the time), and ponder for a few moments, if you will, who may gain what by destroying the value and inspiration celebrity once gave us.

Celebrity is a commodity traded by the value others place in the attention we freely give.

On who, or what, do you spend your attention today?

There is where the dollars flow.

Creative Tip: Working Across Time Zones - The World Time Server

A truly useful resource in the internet age where we collaborate across Time Zones and are constantly confused by date and time and trying to find a location and way to collaborate is the World Time Server, a free internet service that you can use to schedule online meetings or check out times around the world.

Take a bit of time to peruse the link and then bookmark it in your browser or add it as a tab (in Firefox) or a Favorite in IE, you will find it is very useful. We use it to help us shedule meetings with people working across many differnt time zones. It features a Time Converter, a World Meeting Planner (which we use regularly) and a number of other useful features that help us to locate a suitable convergent time for creative collaboration and business meetings. Fantastic tool to facilitate getting things done. No, we’re not sponsoring them, nor do we own share, we just like the service and use it to create and do business.

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Three - Your art has the potential…

Do we, as Creative Artists, have any responsibility for what we communicate to others in and through our work? There are numerous examples of how people are influenced by works of literature and entertainment, with gaming perhaps one of the most controversial. The author Trevanian, wrote in Shibumi (a spy-martial arts thriller) of the technique of Naked/Kill and also a theft and after the book was published copycat methods of descriptions he gave were found to have influenced real world crimes. As a result of these events Trevanian decided not to give full details of method and called this “social responsibility.” There are other examples from the age of television and movies that have also inspired crime and other behavior. In this third of the Code Point Articles, NDK Creative Artist addresses the power Creative Artists have to influence society and offers us a more detailed explanation.. — Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief Read more

Creative Tip: Reading leads to riches…

I read an immense amount of material. I read because I have an insatiable desire to know things, and I once coined the term infomaniac to describe this compulsion to know. Reading leads to riches, the riches of understanding and realization.

I just read this article about creativity and I recognized every single point in a subject I have spent a great deal of time researching, studying, considering and experiencing. I think readers of the Free Articulator will recognize them, and as I did, find affirmation in what Do you recognize these 10 mental blocks to creative thinking? has to offer; read it now.

30 Second Review: World War Z

World War Z, the latest from novelist Max Brooks, is an “oral history” of those who survived a global zombie infestation in Earth’s near future. A super-virus that kills the host but maintains the brain without the need for oxygen and food is let loose across the globe. The book is a chronological collection of interviews with survivors and as such lacks a singular and cohesive narrative. That’s not a detriment, as all the voices turn the book into a cubist painting of sorts - you see the same subject from many sides at once.

Still, the execution is flawed in that it cuts off surprisingly well-written mini-stories to refocus on the less thrilling bigger picture. There’s no better example than the story of an American family escaping through Canada that juxtaposes a deteriorating marriage against the backdrop of zombie hordes as seen by a child and re-told by an adult. Their story is just so rich and engrossing I’m disappointed to have to move on, although the real disappointment is that the book is really short and I burned through the whole thing in just a few hours.

Conclusion? A week after reading this I’m still contemplating how I’d escape from my 4th story apartment if the building was flooded with zombies. Sure, the science is implausible, but the writing, narration and pace are surprisingly top-notch. A perfect read-while-you’re-on-the-subway-book.

A movie is also in the works (scripted by Michael Straczynski!).

World War Z by Max Brooks. ISBN: 9780739340134, Random House, 2006.

Links:

World War Z Official Website
Another reviewer’s take on the book

Warning you may be offended if you click the link…

It’s a serious warning, you may be exposed to words and language that may offend your sensibilities, if you still have any. And if you do have some, please let us know how you have managed to preserve them in the face of such offensive journalism that passes for respectability. This is pretty clever stuff, and it illustrates a point found elsewhere. I’m truly encouraged to see this sort of thing going on.

To enjoy being offended click through to this YouTube video.

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Two - Communicate only that which you truly know about in your art.

As we continue this series of deeper explanations of the points of the Code of a Creative Artist we come to one of the seemingly simpler points…

Communicate only that which you truly know about in your art. If you do not know then find out.

What can you know about your own thoughts? What thoughts can you think about the thoughts you have on any given topic? This is not about existentialism, or the metaphysical, I’m simply pointing up that there are things you Read more

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: One - Constructive artistic ideas are valuable contributions to society.

We are continuing the series of expansions and explanations about the Code of a Creative Artist in order to provide people with more insight into the value of these points. Point One of this code states:

Constructive artistic ideas are valuable contributions to society. Protect, persist with and perfect them in order to attain their optimum communication.

In the 30 or 40 years of my life Read more

Creative Tip: Vocabulary Building - One Word A Day

If you’re a songwriter, a poet, a storyteller, a journalist, or indeed anybody who works with words or wants to improve their literacy, there is no better way to consistently add to your intellectual toolkit than by subscribing to A.Word.A.Day.

This fantastic free educational service is one of the longest surviving email deliveries in the world. Every day it brings in a new word, with definitions and often a little history about word origins that fleshes out your understanding of context, which can be very useful for those engaged in historical novel writing, as but one example.

I’m committed to lifelong learning (well, who can avoid it?), and I find that learning just one new word every day, can help me:

• remove a creative block
• stimulate new ideas
• enrich my knowledge of our culture and civilization
• refresh my knowledge of meaning and definition (aiding memory)
• help me write and create the precise desirable effect I want to have with a reader

When I’m editing the work of others, having a veritable cornucopia of words, definitions and meanings in my intellect’s databank makes me an organic thesaurus, banishes the overuse of the same words in repetitive fashion and thus keeps my writing and that of those I edit lively and engaging, rather than repetitive, stultifying and boring.

If you’re not already a subscriber to A.Word.A.Day, but are working creatively with words, then get on over there and begin refreshing and expanding your existing vocabulary. You won’t regret it. Language competence is a highly sought after and extremely valuable skill and even if you’re not creatively inclined, knowing what words mean improves how you work and communicate. Words and their meaning enhance our ability to experience and enjoy life.

US Corporate Censorship of Political Statements by Artists — Pearl Jam

If you monitor the art & entertainment industry closely you’ll see how careers are often destroyed simpy by denying access to broadcast channels and the opportunity to address the public in talk shows and current affairs programs. In America such censorship is emerging in a number of different ways, The Dixie Chicks’ statements about George Bush was but one example. The most recent example is to do with Pearl Jam and AT&T. Read more