As We Descend Into the New Year

Hello Friends (all four or five of you)
I've been SO neglectful of this, which is why so few of you have heard of this. You've not heard of me, because you've not heard from me. This is not a random statement. While I've been away, I've learned an essential reality about why certain people are on our radar, and certain people aren't. I'll give you a couple of really identifiable examples.

Lady Gaga. Seriously, who was she before she became who she is? A nice girl named Stephanie (I think) who happened to have a pretty awesome singing voice. But none of us knew that until we started hearing from her as Lady Gaga, who is, as anyone will agree, a larger than life persona in the mold of Madonna, and Cher before her. Once we started hearing from her, we all wondered what life was like before she got here. Whatever you think of her music (I try not to), she's on the radar and she isn't going to be easily dismissed. Love her, hate her, or simply be aghast at her, she makes an impact.

Example number two:

The cast of "Jersey Shore". Am I the only person who thinks "The Situation" is a symptom of multiple personality disorder which just happens to afflict an otherwise non-descript kid named Mike? What is it about this group of people that keeps us watching every ridiculous thing they do? What the Sam Hill is so special about "Snooki"? She's just a liliputian with a tan, for heaven's sake. Why do we care about their love affairs, their hook-ups, break ups, and whether Mike (the afore-mentioned "Situation") has a career as.... anything, after "Dancing With The Stars"? Really.
And yet, we're transfixed. Why? Because we keep hearing from them and they're just...self-absorbed enough and inappropriate enough to make them something you HAVE to look at, if only for a moment. Much like the way you have to look at a pile-up on the highway. It's just horrific enough. The problem with Snooki, Mike, Pauly D, and J-WOW, etc is you can't turn them off. They leave not just an impact, but impact trauma.
See?
Almost got me into a full-on rant. Which goes to show that when you hear from people who make an impact, it causes a shift.
Now, since this is an art blog, what's any of this got to do with art, you ask?
We'll answer that in more detail next post.

More later

KCD