I wake at 5:30 am. A nightmare wakes me. In the dream I am fighting for my life. Which life is that? The one I've had these past two years or the one before that? In reality, I have forgotten to turn the heat down and am overheating under the covers. It’s one of those dreams that seem real and even probable. I get up and turn down the heat in the house. When I return to the bed Willi has taken my spot.
After lying in bed for another twenty minutes I realize that it is a hopeless case to try to fall back asleep again. I missed my early morning writing practice yesterday and perhaps this is why the chaos is showing up in my dreams. I head for the kitchen and write three pages of stream of consciousness anything. Better out there than in here I tell myself. And it helps a bit. I work through the dream and what it is trying to tell me. One of the messages in the dream is simple…to keep my cool. Turn the heat down so that I won’t unconsciously lose my head. That sounds like good advice.
Willi is doing better it seems. Perhaps he really was just sick of the smell of his food. Anyway, I am determined to have my dog around for as long as possible and if that means cooking his food for him than so be it. He seems visibly energized and happier on his new diet.
I watched a bit of American Idol last night. Paula Abdul is absolutely hysterically funny to watch. I think she has finally found her true calling…judging other people’s voices. God knows she didn’t have much of a voice herself. But you have to give her credit for having become as famous as she did with the little tiny voice that she has. Notice she’s not using it anymore and is anyone upset or missing it?
What really fascinates me about this show are the people who are absolutely howlingly hideous singers…I mean they are sooooo bad. And the judges are merciless.
”Don’t sing anymore…hideous!” Simon says, while Paul Abdul buries her face in her hands shaking her head in disbelief, not knowing if she should laugh or cry.
Their condemnation of the terrible singers is a calculated attempt at generating buzz and word of mouth. In the end it’s all about ratings not reality. Notice that there are only two kinds of contestants in the American Idol version of talent: The ones who can really sing and the ones who are just unbelievably dreadful and deluded. What about the singers who are not half bad but not particularly compelling? We never get to see them because they are too bland and cause no emotional reaction whatsoever, and as a result no word of mouth. In the real world of singing there are many more people in this in-between category.
So, once again Hollywood perpetuating a myth about artists and talent that is only two dimensional: Singers either have a rip roaring talent, or they are dreadful and utterly self-deluded. What about the ones that have real potential and are developing…they are conspicuously absent from Hollywood’s version of talent and only become visible again once they have attained the status of the undeniably talented. Hmmm, once again the culture is generating bad and inaccurate ideas about what it means to be an artist.
And so a new day begins...
You've made some interesting and astute comments on this reality tv phenomenon and the state of being an artist in America. I have never been remotely interested in any of the reality shows because I know real life has no cameras, no directors, no consultants and no editing. Sometimes it goes on for long stretches of time without anything interesting happening and perhaps the best part: there are no commercial breaks. Oh yeah...Paula Abdul has been working on a new album.
Say it isn't so.