A Few Words On… Amy Winehouse
by boh3m3 on Sep.13, 2008, under A Few Words On...
Most people have multiple systems of measuring time. They have a watch on their wrist, a clock on the wall, and a calendar next to the clock covered in sharpie notes with a different fucking kitten for each month of the year.
I measure time in a different, but no less accurate manner. It’s a three-month cycle, common of nearly all drug abusers, that is marked by the amount of time it takes for Amy Winehouse to have a new drug-addled video crop up on the net.
Now since I first saw the heavy-eye-makeup beehiveio’d songstress I’ve been fascinated by her. She’s like the Icarus of drug addiction and pure rock n roll lifestyle. The phrase “rocking and rolling”, as secular black slang for dancing or sex1 makes no apparent mention of methamphetamines however.
It seems apparent that the news media would have the collective planetary panties in a twist every time Amy so much as smokes a cigarette or imports in bulk from shady Colombians. Nowadays she can’t even buy an regular case of extra strong stake-awake pills without getting hassled, scorned, and paparazzi bukkaked.
The people have forgotten, or the news media would like the people to forget, exactly what our “stars” truly represent. Be it music, acting, art, social change or literature, these beacons of skill and personality are the guiding lights for some people.
Lucille Ball is a favorite of Stevie Ryan, I’ve heard. My friend Zack idolizes Jon Lennon and Ghandi.
George Carlin was my North Star from the first moment I heard his stand-up act. Every day the world seems a bit lessened by his absence. He was one of the few to shine on, instead of dying in his bathroom like Elvis and Jim Morrison or fellating a firearm like Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Cobain, and Ernest Hemingway.
What I mean to say is that Amy Winehouse has to ride the life she’s choosing for the good of all. People live vicariously through what they hear about her and in doing so relieve the day to day tedium of their own doings.
Some people end up farmers. Others end up counting the pennies of the rich for table scraps. Winehouse is the beacon in the lighthouse. Holding an unattainable position, but visible and tangible enough for one to imagine a life as exciting and brutal as the tide crashing against it.
She has some incredible talent. But it’s just not for beings like her to hang about for 70 more years and sign contracts with Vegas Hotels for 5 lifetimes. That sort of stuff is for Carrot Top and Tom Jones.
I suppose that’s why we take such satisfaction in celebrity gossip. It’s ingrained, sadly, into our culture as a means of coping with the long grey line of the average American lifestyle.
From a social standpoint, I suppose it’s a comfort to some. To see even their heroes falter or lose the path of pwnage is to see their world reflected on an exaggerated scale. We, as Americans, are playing the role of Narcissus with tabloids being the rather tacky and pointless mirror.
So next time you see a video of her in night vision camcorder view talking to mice she things start her nonexistent ice cream car, take a moment and thank her for living the life you would probably find repugnant. Then ponder what it really WOULD be like to have a car made of ice cream, and what flavor it would be.
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September 13th, 2008 on 9:50 am
so shes the star that shines to brightly? my arse.
shes a highly talentent singer but she chose all the shit, she cultivated it. she stared into the darkness and begged it to stare back.
she’ll die young (magic 27) be morned by millions, have crappy novels, movies and comics made about her.
the tragic death of a legend. again. boring.
September 13th, 2008 on 10:12 am
i don’t know much about this woman…nor am i inclined to learn very much about her. as a child i worked as an usher in a movie theater and her song about rehab played all the damn time and got on my last nerve. i saw a picture of her…a few years ago when she was at an awards ceremony wearing a yellow dress. she looked fucking hot. thats of course when she had weight and was more than skin and bones. now i see pictures of her every once in a while on a tabloid at the checkout line. i don’t know much other than shes addicted to a drug lifestyle. its a pity, because maybe she could have been a great singer. i too miss george. i grew up watching him. i watched his comedy specials even as a small child, and then i watched shining time station. do you remember that? either way, amy winehouse will be forgotten. i dont believe she’ll be immoratlized. just like anna nicole, even though there was the hype, she will be forgotten in ten years. maybe sooner. no one is going to forget cobain or hemingway.
September 13th, 2008 on 2:45 pm
I don’t know much about her either.
September 13th, 2008 on 5:38 pm
You are a very talented writer!
Why not read one of these blog things on camera? As a sample of what you do on this site.
A lot more people will watch a 10 minute long video than read a couple paragraphs.
Keep up the good work Ben
September 14th, 2008 on 1:55 am
I have one song by Ms. Winehouse and that is “Me and Mr. Jones”.
It’s a smokey blues-jazz song with an immortal line that always makes me giggle: “What kind of fuckery is this?”
Sadly, she is only in the music biz to score better drugs and keep the dealers gainfully employed.
September 14th, 2008 on 2:58 am
a. whinehouse on never mind the buzz cocks. hosted by the one time friend simon amstell.
litraly comedy with tragerdy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihFzr8QPfOg
September 14th, 2008 on 4:41 am
@ DevonBasedMan… agreed. that might have been the most painful and sad thing to watch. i might have switched channel had it not been for the comedic brilliance that is simon amstell.
September 14th, 2008 on 4:03 pm
Oh come on sunshine, you’re not seriously glorifying a lifestyle of destructive addiction because it makes you feeling better about living safely? You think it’s somehow noble and artistic that she should die young? I disagree. Vehemently.
There is no glory, hidden or otherwise, in fucking up your life and breaking your family’s hearts. And if the media obsess over her for it, if the gossip columnists use her dysfunction as fodder for their soulless, exploitative careers, that just highlights the joke. ‘Celebrity’ as a concept is a load of crap.
September 14th, 2008 on 7:20 pm
As a musician Amy Winehouse makes a good zombie. I really don’t care much for this foul wench or for her music.
When it comes to artists, I always try to keep the art separate from the artist. So, for bands I like I always try to keep the personal lives of the artists separate from the music they create. I can enjoy their music and not give a toss about whether they’re drug addicts, rapists or Barbara Streisand fans. It’s the music I really care about - there is definitely an admiration for the music they create, but as humans beings they may no be so good.
@brandon I agree about Cobain and Hemingway being remembered and I think that they are remembered more for what they created than their suicides. I think when Amy Winehouse eventually kicks the bucket, if she is remembered she will be remembered because of her lifestyle rather than her music. Perhaps this is the media’s fault more than her fault.
If you want to be remembered, what do you want to be remembered for? Your contribution to the world or being a drug-fucked mole?
September 15th, 2008 on 12:55 am
correction: moll, not mole.
September 17th, 2008 on 7:55 am
One of my roommate’s brothers favorite jokes is this: ‘My favorite musician is Kurt Cobain, because he killed Kurt Cobain.’ I know it’s pretty bad, but i just hate Nirvana.
I cried the day day i found out George Carlin died. =[
I’m not personally a huge fan of Amy Winehouse. She knows that all her drama and drug abuse get her media attention, therefore she figures she can sell more albums, to buy more drugs. It’s a sad cycle, but a lot of people make money off of it, which is an even sadder thing.