Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Chicago: Not my kind of town

This weekend, I took the lovely wife to see Chicago as part of a Valentine's Day dinner and movie date. I have to say that the movie was fabulous. The acting, the costumes, the story, the way the story was told, the dancing, the music, everything. I could go on and on about the movie but there are pletty of reviews and the Academy has recognized the film's excellence with about a bazillion nominations. On the technical oscars, it's a toss-up in my mind as to who should win between Chicago and LotR:The Two Towers in terms of light and costuming.

The reason I wanted to blog about the movie was because I found a couple of aspects of the story quite relevant to what's going on in popular culture this week. In the story we find out that an awful lot of what's going on has to do with show business. The women are murderers. In a normal court they would have been found guilty and either spend the rest of their lives rotting away behind bars or, well, we won't go any further as I think you get the picture. In fact, one woman who has no show business connections is executed for a murder she may or may not have committed. But our heroes (????) are sensational in the actual sense of the word. In Chicago, which lives vicariously on the startling acts of others, the murders these women commit are just fodder for the papers. Add a lawyer who knows the system and can manipulate it and by the end of the movie they are headlining Chicago's biggest theater.

There were obvious parallels in this movie to the OJ Simpson trial and all that surrounded it. The bit I found a lot more relevant and a lot more creepy were the parallels to the latest Michael Jackson uproar. In the movie, the characters do things in order to pull the spotlight back on themselves after society's wandering eye has left them. They manipulate the press to create sensational events so that they can generate publicity to propel a dead or dying career. After watching the movie I had to wonder about MJ's video back and forth.

I think every generation has to have it's star-turned-circus-sideshow-act. Elvis and Howard Hughes are two examples from other generations. For my generation it's the "King of Pop". To look at the guy, he fits the part. But more to the point is the back and forth on the video interviews. First ABC and the scandal over the children and then the "rebuttal" piece on Fox. All of the sudden I'm seeing a set-up, especially after watching Chicago. It's all looking pretty contrived to me. A fading rock/pop star who all his life has craved the attention and recognition the media machine provides shows up and goes off with an obviously inflammatory statement on a sensitive subject. This is a guy who owns an army of lawyers and the video isn't editted? So now there's a stink and MJ has to go to Fox to tell, "his side of thestory". It's like two for the price of one. And guess what? America tuned in. I'm not sure who I'm more frustrated with, the media for being so easily flimflammed (or being involved in outright complicity) or the mass of Americans who actually think watching this guy's sad life is more interesting than living their own.

Dude, get a life. The only way this ever goes away is if we don't tune in. We don't need to know about MJ or J Lo and Ben or anyone else. We need to live our own lives and make our own memories. All of this stuff is meaningless. How many readers remember Wham or George Michael or what happened in a southern California park's public bathroom? If you do remember any of these things, it's because you liked the music Mr. Michael made (which was quite good and even occasionally socially relevant at the time). In 10 years Michael Jackson will be a footnote (unless he can find that ability to make amazing music again) in entainment history. His music will not be, however. It is what we create that is lasting, what we leave behind. No one cares about Elvis' personal life now, but his music still has the power to move people. We need to stop paying attention to them and focus on the world we can influence and affect. The world that we can make better through who and how we love. Paul says to think on what is excellent. MJ and all the hoopla is not excellent.

Of course that's just my opinion, but in this case, I don't think I'm wrong.

The Physicist   Link Me    |