This is where you stick random tidbits of information about yourself.
The Jim Neighbors Masculinity Project
Monday, June 03, 2002
I just returned from California and I decided to dip back into my proper grounded world by watching a documentary about the Hamptons. (My wife is in New Zealand, so I have do something with my time...miss you, D.) I have to say that despite having read F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Bonfire of the Vanities and voraciously watching the E channel over the years, the rich, fabulous, famous and their disciples sure are boring motherfuckers. I know my share of shallow bastards, but these people take the cake (and deign to let the masses eat it in a massive fit of faux-liberal noblise oblige at whatever charity gala they write off on their taxes). I am not saying that only the wealthy delude themselves (he says, reflecting on his devastating intellect and piercing blue eyes), but my trip to the belly of the entertainment beast and this documentary disturbs me. It's not merely the vanity of it all - that can be pitied, you know? Like a Prada tide, thousands of former It Girls wash up onto the beach every year, rejected by gods of fashion, age and conceit more mysterious than Poseidon, or Karl Lagerfeld. No, what is upsetting (even more than footage of Paul Simon wearing a teal baseball cap to a funeral!) is - let me coin a phrase - the democritization of snobby elitism. It's not only that living the good life on a level of even the most minor Hollywood "star" is impossible for the vast majority of recorded humanity, or the unfairness of living in a world where there are such disparities in living conditions at all. What is most galling is that the Great Gatsby life is no longer a cautionary tale, but the paragon of existence right now in the states. What exactly did 9-11 change other than the spike in meaningless platitudes about "how we're forever changed" and the rise in sales of American flag paraphenalia? People here are really patting *themselves* on the back when they go on and on about the undeniable bravery of NYC firemen and safety workers and still refuse to make even the most minor sacrifices in their daily lives. I still see the same push-me-pull-me society of self-absorbed preening and reactionary hypocrisy that was there on September 10th. At least we got some charity concerts out of the tragedy!
Ok, enough of this bitching...let me tell you about Leonardo di Caprio's house!
10:07 PM
