Superstar Hits!
From WebstersIsMyBitch:
I’ve been hard on Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon for a few months now because those assholes don’t make sex tapes, don’t cheat, don’t drink to excess in public, and don’t murder people, which makes my job a lot more difficult.
Precisely. This is why people with their shit together can make great actors, but lousy celebrities. THIS is the true Amy Winehouse Principle.
I have a theory that when someone recognizes your work before your face, you’re an artist; when someone recognizes your face before your work, you’re a celebrity. This came to me one day when I passed BB King’s tour bus and said to my friend “I don’t think I even know what BB King looks like” and I didn’t notice BB King standing right there because, you see, I didn’t know what he looked like.
Sorry, BB. All you had to do was play a note and I’d have genuflected. BB King and Bono are perfect examples of each side of this equation, although they are equally talented.
18 Comments
Jake who?
Ooooh, my friend. He very, very pretty.
Who is Bono?
Bono is my boyfriend. He just doesn’t know it yet.
I disagree – BB King can play guitar well. Bono is an asshole with a mediocre voice.
You’re misunderstanding me: Bono’s musical abilities include, but are not limited to, his voice, which is recognized to be impressive.
Character qualities are completely irrelevant to the discussion, but if they were, Bono would have massive cred. You know, saving people’s lives counts. I’m just sentimental that way.
I might not recognize BB King, but I would probably recognize Lucille.
I figure it’s reported every time they fart, they have only their farts to feed their egos.
That would explain Paris Hilton.
Saving peoples lives? Castrating all the males in Africa would save more lives. Shooting Mugabe would have too. But having a pop concert and being sainted in society as a result? Well you have to do what you can but Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace prize and is lauded for her charity work but that doesn’t make me want to date her. Tony Bliars political ability is considered impressive but he still took us into an illegal war and should be arrested. He is the single most negative cause of the destruction of our culture in modern memory. So what is ‘considered impressive’ by some can be shit. After all, some still think Micheal Jackson is an impressive parent. And just because you did something worthwhile with your friends 15 years or so ago doesn’t mean you’re not an asshole. He’s an asshole. Massive cred? U2 has sold a shitload of records of course he has massive cred. Anyone who sells loads of pop songs has ‘massive cred’. Doesn’t make them Tchaikovsky now does it? Stalin had ‘massive cred’ but he was still a murdering bastard.
U2 did some good music in their time. Bono is an asshole. BB King plays good guitar.
IMHO
I believe that may be the single most perspacious thing I’ve ever read from you.
I like a Gyllenhaal too. Not Jake, though.
I think it would be fair to tell you why I dislike Mr Dog Biscuit so much – I’ve read that he supports the IRA. The bombing of the Rotunda in Birmingham is the one that I most remember for some reason. But I wouldn’t call it sentimental.
How many lives have you saved, Philipa? How many villages have drinking water and viable economies because of your efforts? Where is the $180 million a year which you have raised for African relief in the past three years?
I have not read that he supports the IRA. I have his albums and have read the lyrics, and I don’t think you can find support for war in there or anywhere in his body of work.
Let me give you a sample:
The video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_bz2RdV6qk
The lyrics:
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858515081
Bono has saved no lives. Neither have you. Neither have I. More “villages” have running water, electricity and food thanks to the efforts of the US Government (and paid for by US taxpayers) than any other nation in the world, or any other group of nations in the world, and yet the US is demonized and labeled stingy by the corrupt UN.
All Bono has done is to collect a relatively small basket of contributions and give it to despots after taking his own percentage as a handling fee. Bono’s a pantload of self-promotion with sunglasses.
Well, the US hasn’t paid its dues in fifty years. That’s enough to get you thrown out of the Boy Scouts.
$180 million a year, for three years. You think that doesn’t save lives? Of course you think it saves lives, or you wouldn’t have equated US dollars with saving lives. And no, he does not charge a handling fee; you are completely wrong and self-evidently desperate. When you don’t stick to facts you risk getting written off entirely.
I’m sure that there are a lot of people in Guatemala etc, who have much to say on the subject of the uses to which US dollars are put, including Canadian Bruce Cockburn, who was in a jeep that was blown up by explosives donated by the US government.
You missed my point. So what if the US hasn’t paid dues to the corrupt UN… the US has more than paid it’s dues in benevolent action to help rebuild faltering nations (and still is, regardless of which party is in power).
My point was that Bono is a self-righteous self-promoter who donates a relatively small amount of money from his fundraising concerts to folks who aren’t willing to fork it over to the people that need it, just like most charitable organizations.
If Bono was honest and sincere, he’d be sitting in the middle of Zimbabwe teaching the locals how to grow food instead of crowing about himself on stage and claiming that he’s working miracles when he isn’t.
I’m not talking about fundraising concerts; I’m talking about debt relief and the One campaign. Those are very big numbers, and he doesn’t get a cut of any of it.
You think singers have much to teach farmers about farming? What would his credentials be for that? He has none, and it would be a waste of everyone’s time. Are you suggesting he give up effective, benevolent action to help rebuild faltering nations to pontificate on things he’s not qualified to speak on?
I say, he’s very good at this fundraising/debt relief/infrastructure building thing. Let those who’ve proven their skills and abilities to do good things do them.
Do you disagree?
Bono is full of self-righteous bullshit, and I think it’s great that he can generate charitable contributions, but he’s just a loud obnoxious pissant in the great scheme of things, that’s all.
Then stick to those facts. I, too, find him irritating, but I don’t claim he hasn’t done all the things he has done.
I just find irritating men really hot. What can I say? I’ve had a crush on Steve Jobs for twenty years.
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