I have been working on my new book (on the subject of drugs as it happens) all the livelong damned day, so I don’t have to much to say except, even loathing award shows as I do, I was delighted that Amy Winehouse picked up five Grammy awards, providing proof that, counter to all the fashionable hypocrisy and propaganda, one can still actually be psychotic, stoned, drunk, self destructive, and an all round mess (plus being ratted out by a tabloid newspaper and tossed into dubious rehab) and still produce, if not great art, at least some of the best music around. Needless to say, the sobriety gestapo, led in this instance by the miserable Natalie Cole, is moaning that an alleged and incarcerated drug addict should not be so honored. Nice one, Natalie, let's lower the poor girl's self-esteem a bunch more notches when she's trying to save her own life. Ah, fuck ‘em. I've had more than enough of the self righteous dictating what is acceptable behavior for the artist and what’s not, and degrading and diminishing all who disagree.(But get well Amy, we need you.)
The secret words are Charlie Parker
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6 comments:
Right on brothers & sisters let here it for the scumbags
amy rules. she was so not expecting it. i almost cried when she fell into the arms of her band and didn't want to come out.
(although, to be honest, it also looked like she really wanted a drink.)
Dammit. Sometimes it seems like talent and addiction are linked, at least in some people. I love Amy's music, and I suspect that it's pretty hard for her to get it out. I'm tired of seeing brilliant young people burn themselves up. It's all well and good to imagine the young Rimbaud living in another world of poetry, absinthe and opium, but Elvis just plain looked like shit on the bathroom floor. Having outlived many of my heroes, I can no longer find the romance in self destruction. Having said all that, I'm glad Amy won some recognition, and she's certainly an adult who is entitled to treat herself however she wants and to make her own mistakes.
Now, back to the brilliant young people burning themselves out stuff. When are we going to recognize that some of us are possessed by some kind of holy madness? When are we going to respect and nurture that? I don't mean that '70's rock star bullshit where mega stars were indulged in every way imaginable. I mean finding room for Elvis Presley and Charlie Parker and Amy Winehouse to be artists, to feel their painful feelings and to thrive as humans.
Fuck, other than the fact that it would be deemed impossible in some circles, that doesn't seem like an unreasonable wish.
Always a windy sonofabitch.
Oh, I just had dinner with my oldest friend's daughter. She's a sophomore in college and she makes me feel a little bit good about the future. She grew up in San Francisco, and has been known (when she was little) to burst into tears of frustration at the enormous disparities of wealth and poverty in that city. We were talking about the awful lives of street addicts when she made a brilliant observation.
(I'm paraphrasing) "People in San Francisco are very 'tolerant' of those people. That's because they don't give a shit about them. If we could accept them instead of being 'tolerant' towards them, we'd be forced to see them as human, just like us."
I really don't think that it's my job to go around rescuing people from their addictions, or condemning them for their addictions, but I guess I really do see it as my duty to honor them as fellow humans.
Kids today.
Sanity is for other people.
Jon,
I think you really nailed it. From what I've seen, whether condemning or rescuing, you're judging, and either one is presumptuous and tends to be about yourself, not about the person with the so-called problem. Both are undermining.
Not to say you can't be supportive and loving, but giving someone the respect you refer to and the space to find their own way is about all you can do for anyone, including your own kids. As I see it, anything else is taking, not giving.
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