Pribek

It seems as though there is increasing consumer backlash regarding celibrity self importance. Right now, I am hearing a lot about Rosie O’Donnell and John Travolta.

Are these people important? The answer is, yes.

Do their opinions matter? Yes they do.

These people are important because they generate income for others. These people have been able to tap into something that has enabled them to have mass appeal. Whatever it is that they do, that the public responds to favorably, is undefinable. There are publicists, agents, managers, and entertainment business people that are constantly trying to nail down what works, but at the end of the day, they don’t really know. If they knew, there would be no movies that flop, no T.V. shows cancelled etc.

There are better actors than John Travolta and better talk show hosts than Rosie and, some that no one will ever hear about because luck and timing are factors also.

John could just go on flying his 707 around to pimp whatever movie he just finished. Rosie could spend her mornings hanging upside-down and then go to work and be entertaining. But, their egos will not allow it. They mistakenly believe that the reason the public, in general, has reacted favorably to them that all of their ideas are of special importance.

The opinions they have do matter but, no more than mine, your’s, or anybody’s. All God’s children are special.

Even though you can’t define why someone has mass appeal you can, sometimes, decipher the anomalies that coincide with the demise.

If John wants to continue to bop around in his jets and lecture us on global warming, at some point we may not be interested in his movies. If Rosie thinks that her role is to be controversial or, somehow save the world, at some point, people won’t watch. When they stop making other people money, they will cease to be important on any level.

I saw a good rock and roll band the other night called Losing To Apathy. Their live show is tight but raucous.

I did another interview with Doctor Bob for his show on US97. He will be playing some songs from “Trouble Ain’t Over” and cuts from the interview this Sunday and a week from then. The show runs from nine to noon CST and they do a live stream.

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Baseball season starts in five days. Everybody I know is deep into the NCAA basketball tourney, March Madness. I haven’t been keeping up on that probably a product of no T.V. Baseball is good on the radio. In my youth it was a common thing to see people sitting on there front porch in the evenings listening to Jack Buck. Jack Buck had a jazz rhythm when he spoke. I used to hide under the covers and listen to the end of the games, quietly on a transistor radio.

Here is a picture of the Cardinals World Series ring from STLToday.com

They wanted a classic look combined with a bling factor for the athlete of today, very nice.

The posts will be a little spotty in the coming days as I am moving. It’s a period of transition right now but, things are good.

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Saturday morning, it’s already warm enough to have the doors open. It’s supposed to reach 85 degrees today. I’m sipping coffee and listening to the Allan Holdworth album “Hard Hat Area”. Good music for the morning. Holdsworth’s music is some of the most evolved, pure, music for the sake of music around. Gary Husband on drums also, I always enjoy hearing him.

I listen to talk radio as background noise a lot. There are two stations to choose from here. One is an ESPN and the other is a Fox news. I listen to the ESPN more during baseball season, the Fox station is bombastic and editorial, sometimes entertaining.

I was listening to the Fox station last night. Bill O’Reilly comes on at eight. I don’t usually listen to him and it has nothing to do with politics. He has an alpha debating style that I find annoying. It’s a technique that is good for winning a debate and bad for the exchange of information. If he is talking with someone who is accustomed to the tactic though, and doesn’t cower, O’Reilly will let him say his piece.

Anyway, last night he said he was going to be talking to Mark Cuban. I like Cuban. I think he is a visionary, put your money where your mouth is entrepreneur. By the way he is Blog Maverick in the sidebar.

The topic was 9/11 conspiracy theories and, more specifically an internet movie called “Loose Change” that Cuban has agreed to distribute beyond the internet. O’Reilly is torqued off that celebrities are getting into the mix. Rosie O’Donnell did an indecipherable cut and paste post on her blog, either endorsing a conspiracy or acknowledging one; I can’t really tell. Charlie Sheen, who has babbled about conspiracy, might be the narrator of the film. And, Cuban whose involvement leaves O’Reilly baffled.

One of the most telling quotes of the show came after the interviews, during the caller section, when a listener told O’Reilly should watch the film and Bill said, “If this thing were contained to the internet, I wouldn’t be paying attention to it”. Now, I’m paraphrasing and that would upset O”Reilly but I only heard it as it flew by. The reason it is relevant is; Cuban has a vision of the present and future in regard to media and O’Reilly does not. You can’t go on ignoring the internet.

The show started with a gentleman from Popular Mechanics who has done extensive writing and research refuting 9/11 conpiracies.

Cuban comes on and O’Reilly’s side is that he shouldn’t distribute the film, it’s propaganda and you should not justify it. Cuban agrees that it is propaganda and feels that you have to expose propaganda in order to confront it.

O’Reilly then compared it to people that espouse the “never was a holocaust” theory and the Nazi propaganda films. Cuban, who is Jewish and had relatives that died in the concentration camps feels that people should have access to all of it. At one point, O’Reilly asks whether Cuban would release a film about the Popular Mechanics findings to which Mark replied, “without a doubt”.

Cuban is right as rain and O’Reilly is dead wrong. You have to know and understand your enemy in order to defeat him. If people don’t have access to “Mein Kampf” and the Nazi films they have less understanding of the mind and motive of the madman and increase the chances of it happening again. If “Loose Change” remains an internet phenomenon it gives the gives the appearance of suppression and thus, adds fuel to it’s power as a propaganda tool.

What about the notion that Cuban could profit from this venture? I don’t have a problem with it if he does. I’m glad that there is someone that has the kind of money to release it, and has enough sack to expose this jive. The kind of money this thing could make doesn’t impress a guy like Cuban. He has a drive that comes from being brought up in a family that was permanently affected by suppression. Suppression is censorship, whether it involves the evil or the good.

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