(no subject)

[shadowkat]

After half-watching A Face in the Crowd on TCM, starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthew, I'm debating taking myself to the movies. Not sure if I will or not. It's a pretty day, but violently cold, albeit not as violently cold as it gets in the midwest - KC was often bitter, at the negative numbers. I stopped paying attention when it got 20 below 0, that just meant don't go outside unless absolutely necessary. Here - it seldom goes below 0, but NYorkers being NYorkers act like it does.

If I were to compare my posting style to a fruit - it would be A Prickly Pear - sweet on the inside, prickly outside. I'm prickly. Quick tempered. Opinionated. Inconstant in my opinions or agnostic, often contradicting myself. Often bitchy. Occassionally sappy and sentimental given to bursts of poetic prose. Prone to lectures. Littered with bouts of insecurity. And ghod, defensive. I'm aware of it. Have tried to change it. Have given up. I'm never going to become a raspberry, strawberry or sweet tempered mango, it's prickly pear all the way.

There's just something about online communication that brings out both the bitch and sap in me, no clue what it is. Have considered numerous times of giving up the practice, not posting. But I like to write, more to the point - I like to know people are or may be reading what I write and may occassionally even get a thrill from it.

Anywho, recommend A Face in the Crowd if you haven't seen it. It's a film about a homespun guy who a newswoman turns into a celebrity who becomes over time rotten with power.
The film is about how power and celebrity can destroy a person. It's true. I don't think human beings know how to handle being celebrities or having that much attention focused on them. It warps us in weird ways. I think we all crave the attention, but we can't handle too much of it at one time. It makes us a bit crazy. Like anything I guess.

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I wanted to let you know (although I'm guessing that you already know), that I always read all your posts with great pleasure. I don't always respond/comment because I don't always have anything to say on the topic.

And I hope you don't change. There is nothing wrong with being prickly or even bitchy (I know, as little girls we are told we should be sweet, but that is such a crock). I really think it is better to be comfortable in your own skin, no matter how contrary or confusing that may be. Frankly I know a lot of very sweet compliant women who are bores to be around and I would never dream of wasting my time reading anything they might write!

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

No worries on that score. There doesn't appear to be a sweet and compliant bone in my body. ;-)

I do fear I've turned off a couple readers though, even lost a few. Can't do much about that. But shrug. Tis life.

[arethusa2.livejournal.com]

I watched that movie today, and it's just amazing to see how nothing has changed, and the lines between politics and entertainment are even more blurred.

I go off-line a lot when things get to be too much, but I miss the communication with others. Maybe it's okay to be a little bitchy and sappy, huh? (I even enjoy your bitchiness.) And maybe I shouldn't worry so much about always being perfect.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It is, isn't it? While watching it, I thought, if anything things have gotten worse. Lonesome Rhodes reminds me a bit of Oprah Winfrey - who is using her cloute and power to push Obama. And speaks for the people.

I honestly think celebrity status is not good for people.

On the online thing - it's a tough one. I do the same thing. Post. Then retreat. But miss the communication. I worry that I lose people due to the bitchiness (not the sappiness - people seem to like that as far as I can tell). But have learned not much can do about it but shrug it off. And in my better moments, I'm pretty good at.

[arethusa2.livejournal.com]

What happened to Oprah is very strange. When the students at her African school were abused, she said she couldn't believe what had happened to her. Heaven knows it's hard enough to have a sense of proportion in an ordinary life. (I'm always fighting self-loathing and criticism.) But add fame, and the situation falls apart completely.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

Well, better bitch/sap than bitchslap, I guess. (Whatever that means. I don't even know, & I'm the one who said it.)

I have to admit, sometimes when I've fallen behind on LJ, I put off reading yours, because I know there'll be a lot there & it'll be dense & chewy with stuff I'll want to respond to but won't have time to! But of course, putting it off just compounds the problem.

On the celebrity & what it does to people, have you seen the interview w/Glen Hansard (http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/glen_hansard) in last week's Onion (the A.V. Club section)? He was in The Commitments & hated being in the public eye as a result. 15 years later, he starred in Once & says that he was much more able to handle it the 2nd time around (& being 15 years older!).