Politainment

David Geffen is an entertainer. He is the “G” in Dreamworks SKG, owner of both Geffen Records (John Lennon, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Weezer, &c.) and Geffen Film Company (Beetlejuice, Beavis and Butt-head Do America), and namesake of the Geffen Center at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art to name a few.
So why is his recent spat with Hillary Clinton making such waves in the political arena?
Entertainment is among the most profitable sectors in America’s service based economy. In the recent explosion of new media entertainment, thousands of bloggers have focused their pages on the political arena, while 24-hour “news” channels fill their hours with not news but political commentary. Millions of dollars change hands every day in the form of subscription fees, advertising revenues, and the salaries of the talking heads.
The stars are colliding. Geffen is now in major support of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. A former talk-show host is President Bush’s press secretary. Voters almost expect a gubernatorial candidate to have acting somewhere on their resume. Nearly every college student would take a bid for the Presidency by comedian John Stewart far more seriously than any of the current players.
Politics has always been considered a service, but over time the service provided has transitioned from carving out a brand new political philosophy (ah, the 18th century!) to endless stump speeches delivered solely to be cut up into sound bites and distributed across the country to become the nation’s evening entertainment.
So here we have it. Americans are more prosperous than ever, able to spend progressively more of their leisure time consuming non-essential services provided by others. Some choose to watch “Reality” TV programming such as “Survivor” or “Fear Factor,” while others partake of MSNBC or Fox News Channel in the spirit of being active participants in the nation’s wellbeing. But I must question whether there is any difference between watching the breakup of a celebrated couple in the tabloids or a bitter partisan exchange between politicians and “experts” on DirecTV channel 360.
Which is worse: to sell voyeurism and self-centered paranoia blatantly as such or to dress these up as “politics,” creating endless conflict for the sake of attracting attention and dividing Americans? Is it more beneficial to take the prescribed dosage of amphetamines to escape reality or consume the bright, shiny, and sweet rat poison wholeheartedly out of service to our fellow man?

red

If love spans eternal
she is but a mask worn by death;
eternity will claim us all.

SU.PE.RB

I remember dates. Dates as in mm/dd/yy. Dates such as 02.04.06, 03.24.06, 05.21.06, 10.07.06, 10.10.06, 11.10.06. Indelibly etched into the fabric of my mind, most are good, though some are bad. All of them are life impacting.

02.06.07 is the first submission of this year to join that list. Today has been awesome. Went to class with my favorite film prof. After class, Ty, Siobhan (a new addition to the class) and I went to Disneyland to ride two rides. Had a quick meeting with Dr. Kleist (I’m an English minor now in case you didn’t know) and transferring credits should be (relatively) easy. Met with Dave Martina for about an hour and a half to discuss The Fountain and wound up in a fantastic discussion with half of the people in Common Grounds. Had dinner with Micah and now I’m in class (yes, that’s right… I’m continually multitasking).

There was even a lot of bad stuff that happened today… I was up until 4.30 completing chapel make-ups, I was late to class, California Screamin’ was closed. I suppose today was nothing too terribly incredible, but in my mind it’s monumental. And it has much to do with transition.

Last week was bad. I was coming unhinged.

This day was nothing ridiculously special, but it was comfortable. I feel normal. Odd that normality is actually my primary criterion for determination of greatness, but it will do.