Tragedy? What's tragic is the amount of web space, printer's ink, and felled trees just to cover this crap!
I had thought that an institution like Rolling Stone would have avoided the temptation to cover the Britney Spears mess but seeing how they're Rolling Stone, and the rag just ain't what it used to be it's no surprise they they are. But whatever it takes to get circulation up, I guess.
Medicated pop stars are as old as rock&roll. Most of the great jazz and blues musicians that stumbled around before them were as equally f*cked up on smack, uppers, or even just railroad gin. But there's nothing more vacant than a dim-bulb blonde staggering into infinity, and then having a media complex force it down your throat 24/7. I don't know that there's any lesson we haven't heard already and, really, the media outlet that airs her untimely death will surely get some kind of reward (not to mention what the paparazzi's take is going to be).
So, are we sad? And what's so tragic? Homegirl was pulling down some serious money--still! Yes, money doesn't buy happiness, etc., but we're forced to care because record companies create things like Ms. Spears, churn out lord knows how much in revenue, then the contracts flood in and what was once presumably a normal kid--albeit robbed of a childhood, apparently--is now a millionaire in some Hollywood mansion. Enter the medication!
I don't know. And then Rolling Stone covers her in the current issue. Yes, Spears is a trainwreck (so are most actors, writers, producers, reporters, linemen, presidents, senators, pilots, soldiers, etc). Yes, she bones some dude in a dressing room (doesn't that sound normal?). She buys a new car ever month (haven't done that yet!). She drinks lattes, for cryin' out loud!! She's not crazy! We're the crazy ones!
Then the bible thumpers are gonna say that Hollywood did this. That could be true. Britney was, after all, a southern girl with (again, presumably) values. They're gonna say that she was "robbed of her childhood." There could be truth to that too. I was allowed to run around the woods and fields in New Hampshire till all hours. It was very Robert Frost; these were different times; people read books because there were only three channels on the tube; farm girls were...
So, a tragedy? Define tragedy. Is hers the face that launched a thousand ships? If so, then yes. If not, pack sand. And, anyway, when she goes to live on some oasis in Dubai we will have forgotten about her altogether.
Al of this, my friends, is at the core of West Coast Hearts.
