Saturday, March 14, 2009

Facebook and Celebrities, Berkeley and St. Patrick's Day

What the hell is a "celebrity"? Back in the late eighties there was a band in San Francisco called "Celebrity Skin." I got to know a couple of them in passing situations. One of them really cracked me up when we walked through a big grocery store and pointed out all the people from tv and the media on magazines. I didn't know who alot of them were. Now, I suppose I have my favorite people who might be on a magazine in a large grocery store...or hair salon...or skin care places, for instance. Some of these celebrities have Facebook profiles. I think this is really funny and fun and very Planet Glee. Let's give everyone someone to play in their minds about That's what art does. We are all artists.

Some people get paid very well to be artists. These people are in the mainstream media, television. I am also on television on my call-in show. A friend who played guitar with me on Bro Jud on Love Energy on cable said I should call the show "Jammin' with Jennifer." That was really a compliment But I don't play guitar on Planet Glee. I play the bayan of the tabla--badly!!!---by the standards of the "classical. folk, and spiritual Indian music (bhajans) with the musicians who come on the show.

Last night we didn't have the phone lines running. Too bad. That makes Planet Glee even more fun. The guest had won 2008 singe/songwriter by voters in the local San Francisco paper The Bay Guardian. I can say this: his songs were quite uplifting in terms of lyrics. I really need to listen to the cd he gave me of his music. I was curious about what songwriters in San Francisco should be about.

Meanwhile, since Facebook has celebrities in there I looked up Naveen Andrews. I had had a huge crush on him since BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA although I also liked him as the Sikh in THE ENGLISH PATIENT. There were a few comments in there about how sexy he is in the tv show Lost. Earlier I had looked up Rafael Nadal because he is so funny. Actually I think these two men are bedworthy but it is because they can laugh at their situation. That's appealing to me. Here in cable tv world--and in the performance realm at all. I still read on Bro Jud on Love Energy. I get to pick out the stuff to read from what Jud gives me. Sometimes I completely disagree with where the reading is politically, I have to find something funny in it...glee.

Today I went to Berkeley. That's where I went to school and where I learned that I wanted to be moved by what I studied. I spent alot time writing papers--academic stuff. Let's play the scholarly game. It's a very fun game. But when I go to Berkeley I have no desire to be working there as a teacher or something. One has to have a job. I teach children with severe disabilities. I want to be an artist.

Speaking of painting and images and illusions (maya), why is the rainbow associated with leprechauns? Why did San Francisco have its St Patrick's Day parade on a Saturday? If these people are allowed to go to large parking lots behind bars to drink in the wind and cold why did they have to do it on Saturday? What sacrilege? And have you heard any snake charming music lately? I almost bought a snake charmer cd at Amoeba in Berkeley today.

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