Posted on 12/23/2005 6:39:07 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
During world war two American troops away from home for Christmas were entertained by Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby and the Marx Brothers. Even in Vietnam Bob Hope was guaranteed to put in an appearance. But soldiers in Iraq are more likely to get a show from a Christian hip-hop group, a country singer you have probably never heard of and two cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys.
Just as the seemingly intractable nature of the war has led to a growing recruitment crisis, so the United Services Organisation, which has been putting on shows for the troops since the second world war, is struggling to get celebrities to sign up for even a short tour of duty.
It is a far cry from the days following the September 11 2001 attacks, when some of the biggest names in show business, from Jennifer Lopez to Brad Pitt, rallied to the cause. "After 9/11 we couldn't have had enough airplanes for the people who were volunteering to go," Wayne Newton, the Las Vegas crooner who succeeded Bob Hope as head of USO's talent recruiting effort, told USA Today. "Now with 9/11 being as far removed as it is, the war being up one day and down the next, it becomes increasingly difficult to get people to go."
Newton said many celebrities have been wary of going because they think it might be seen that they are endorsing the war. "And I say it's not. I tell them these men and women are over there because our country sent them, and we have the absolute necessity to try to bring them as much happiness as we can."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The Narnia guy is a billionaire. So he can afford it...
I've been around "artists" of all types for 30 years and have met very, very few who were well balanced. For one thing, it's an extremely difficult job. It takes a certain amount of obsession with the craft, whatever it may be, to do a halfway decent job of it. It's not a job where you punch the clock, go home, forget about work and veg out in front of the television.
From what I've seen, the best of any given artist is pretty much handed over to their work. Needless to say, this plays havoc in their personal lives and their view of the world.
There's a great scene in Chaplin where Charlie's wife and kids find him in the studio putting the score together and the wife asks, "Is this how you lost your other wives?" To which he responds something like, "I don't know, maybe."
Sure, but the issue is about conservatives risking money--he sure doesn't want to just throw that $80 mil away.
I've been around "artists" of all types for 30 years and have met very, very few who were well balanced. For one thing, it's an extremely difficult job. It takes a certain amount of obsession with the craft, whatever it may be, to do a halfway decent job of it. It's not a job where you punch the clock, go home, forget about work and veg out in front of the television.
I know. I am one of those folks. There are a lot of obsessed flakes, but the ones who achieve are those with good work ethics, not loons.
From what I've seen, the best of any given artist is pretty much handed over to their work. Needless to say, this plays havoc in their personal lives and their view of the world.
I'd say that's accurate as far as it goes. There are artists and "artists" who work obsessively and invest themselves and their egos in their art. But more often than not, those folks create strange work that doesn't get them very far beyond a little corner of the art world. The ones I know who actually make a living have wives and kids and homes and work their butts off, but they're pretty normal folks.
There's a great scene in Chaplin where Charlie's wife and kids find him in the studio putting the score together and the wife asks, "Is this how you lost your other wives?" To which he responds something like, "I don't know, maybe."
That appeals to the romantic streak in artists. Chaplin was an artist but he was also a jerk. Many artists think being an artist gives them a license to be a jerk, due to years of BS from other artists. But the artists who make it have regular contact with reality.
The narnia guy made a pretty educated bet. It's pretty tough to lose money on a movie these days. Add to that Disney's distribution, and it was an even money wager...at least over the long run.
Most successful artists have good work ethics, but that doesn't rule out totally loony behavior. The folks that I know in the arts are a mixed bag in regards to families, though most are on second, third and fourth wives/husbands. But again, the wives/kids aren't important to them in the same way that they are important to a lot of people.
I'm not sure they feel they have a license to be a jerk. It just comes naturally. The artistic community, such as it is, tends to be made up of emotionally immature, unstable, self-centered,and generally speaking, somewhat unhappy people. Happy, well-adjusted people go to work for insurance firms where they are more apt to build the financial security required to maintain house, families, cars, etc.
Probably the best essay on the subject is by Edmond Wilson called the Wound and the Bow.
Edmund not Edmond.
Movie stars and such can't go over and encourage the troops right now. They're too busy making sure Hollywood has one of its worst years at the box office in decades.
I loved this part of the article:
Fear is also a factor. "They're scared," country singer Craig Morton, who is in Iraq on the USO's Hope and Freedom Tour 2005, told USA Today.
Oh, the poor widdle babies! These jokers would only arrive at secure airfields surrounded by more security than the Queen of England has, and they are "scared." What a joke.
EXACTLY. tit-for-tat. I can count on one hand the number of times i went to the movies in the last 20 years. If they cant support AMerica then we CANT SUPPORT THEM! Simple.
I'll look into that. Good catch.
We had a bunch of dorks play in their own band once in the Indian Ocean on the USS Belleau Wood in 81, dont remember who it was, but any port in a storm...
When I was a bouncer 2 years later, an all girl band was playing at the place when they asked the guys in the audience if they had ever been to Diego Garcia...I was stunned, spun myself around, and just ran up to the stage. They had just returned from there.
Your take?
[Verse]
When the day is dawning,
On a Texas Sunday Morning
How I long to be there
With Marie whos waiting for me there
Every lonely city
Where i hang my hat
Aint as half as pretty,
As where my baby's at
[Chorus]
Is this the way to Amarillo?
Every night ive been hugging my pillow
Dreaming dreams of Amarillo
And sweet Marie who waits for me
Show me the way to Amarillo
Ive been weeping like a willow
Crying over Amarillo
And sweet Marie who waits for me
Sha la la la la la la [X3]
And Marie who waits for me
[Chorus]
Theres a church bell ringing
hear the song of joy that its singing
For the sweet Maria
And the guy whos coming to see her
Just beyond the highway
Theres an open plane and it keeps me going
Through the wind and rain
[Chorus]
Is this the way to Amarillo?
Every night ive been hugging my pillow
Dreaming dreams of Amarillo
And sweet Marie who waits for me
Show me the way to Amarillo
Ive been weeping like a willow
Crying over Amarillo and sweet Marie who waits for me
<- hates tom hanks movies.
"Didn't Toby Keith go also?"
Toby's gone many times, both to Afganastan and Iraq.
Also Ted Nugent, Daryl Worley and Shelly Wright(her brother is a Marine).
Not so--ask the investors of Return to Oz and Battlefield Earth, to name two big productions based on popular books, if it's tough to lose money on a movie these days. Still, the point was whether conservatives risk money on films, and they do. If, say, The Passion was such a good bet, why did Gibson have to put up the money himself?
Most successful artists have good work ethics, but that doesn't rule out totally loony behavior. The folks that I know in the arts are a mixed bag in regards to families, though most are on second, third and fourth wives/husbands. But again, the wives/kids aren't important to them in the same way that they are important to a lot of people.
I don't know what to tell you. There are plenty of non-artists on third and fourth wives. And as I said, the professional artists I know (one a good friend, one a friend for 25 years, another a woman I dated, etc.) are as normal as anyone. The flakes are scraping by with other jobs and are strictly amateurs. If you read up on the folks who are at the forefront of their artistic fields, you'll find few flakes, though there will be plenty of flakey behavior, something you find in non-artists too. I just find the whole "mad artist" thing a romantic invention of those artists who can't sit down and do their work.
I'm not sure they feel they have a license to be a jerk. It just comes naturally. The artistic community, such as it is, tends to be made up of emotionally immature, unstable, self-centered,and generally speaking, somewhat unhappy people. Happy, well-adjusted people go to work for insurance firms where they are more apt to build the financial security required to maintain house, families, cars, etc.
That's a very broad statement. It's a comforting cliche I guess, but it's just not so. All those art schools are overflowing with people who don't end up in looney bins. Artistic people don't just go to Hollywood, they work in our communities in local TV, magazines, animation companies for industrial work, etc. The artist I know who has won a pile of awards for his work is probably the most normal person I know, period.
Probably the best essay on the subject is by Edmond Wilson called the Wound and the Bow.
I may have read it, I have a couple (aging) copies of Wilson around.
When you're successful then you qualify to graduate from flake to eccentric. De Kooning and Picasso were not flakes, they was delightfully eccentric. Same with William Styron, Iris Murdoch, Julian Schnabel, Robert DeNiro, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan et al.
And yes, there are plenty of flakey people just scraping by, but there are just as many very successful ones. The arts are not filled with "Father Knows Best" types. From my experience, which is extensive, it's pretty much filled with folks who would be non-functioning in any other environment.
I don't know where you're based. Perhaps geography has something to do with it. But that's the art world as I've found it in NYC.
Hmm. They will stand up for a murderer (Tookie) but won't support our troops.
I suspect there's more to this story than reported. Fer instance, I know from past experience that entertainers typically carry hefty insurance policies when doing any type of tour. These policies are almost always paid by the tour promoter. If the USO decided the insurance premiums were too high, then they would decline offers of "free entertainment."
Picasso and those others you mentioned all delivered the work. Eccentric? Why wouldn't they be--there are millions of eccentrics outside the arts.
I'm not saying there aren't flakes in the arts. I'm saying, the cliche has a basis in reality, but it's not the whole picture, not by a long shot. It's just been allowed to take over the impression of the art world due to repetition in movies and TV. If you don't deliver the work, you're not going to make it. Once you make it in ANY line of work, you are free to be a weirdo, and there are plenty of people in every line of work who become jerks or "quirky" once they've made it.
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