tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292754114795396839.post5515535739337274197..comments2023-07-02T10:59:59.422+01:00Comments on Marty Gull: Chris Port Blog #129. On Youth and Media StudiesChris Port (Marty Gull)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10072213193656248085noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292754114795396839.post-27440847084761804522011-09-12T16:19:58.990+01:002011-09-12T16:19:58.990+01:00The etymological origin of the term ‘celebrity’ li...The etymological origin of the term ‘celebrity’ lies in ‘ceremony’ and ‘celebration’. A celebrity is a person who is famous. The word ‘fame’ is derived from Fama, the Roman Goddess of Rumour, with nuances of ‘reputation’, ‘ill repute’, ‘public opinion’ or ‘news’.<br /><br />The types of people celebrated tell you much about a society’s culture. They are usually people who epitomize that culture’s noblest values or most repressed fears and desires. Some types have remained constant. Others are more recent inventions.<br /><br />My culture-generic list of celebrities would include the following: artists, authors, criminals, dictators, generals, libertines, murderers, poets, playwrights, politicians and women of ill-repute.<br /><br />However, following the invention of the mass media, Hollywood’s marketing of the ‘star system’, and Warhol’s cheeky experiments in pop art, the term ‘celebrity’ has become devalued through inflation. Fame may now be achieved by exposure without accompanying talent or deed and, like Warhol’s famous '15 minutes' quip, is usually transient.<br /><br />If our culture rewards and envies cynicism and mediocrity, then that is the culture we live in. If people wish to change that (as do I) then they have to actively refuse to participate in some celebrations and actively participate in others. The media will move where the money goes. The smart money anticipates (or manipulates) where the culture will go. My money is on a backlash and a return to charisma and rare talent.<br /><br />Forgot the most important celebrities in my list! Heroes and villains. Gods and monsters!<br /><br />Good old Daily Mash :)<br /><br />Schools to teach celebrity romance instead of climate change<br /><br />http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/schools-to-teach-celebrity-romance-instead-of-climate-change-201106133935/<br /><br />Celebrity culture making women feel insufficiently stupid<br /><br />http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/celebrity-culture-making-women-feel-insufficiently-stupid-201106173960/<br /><br />Do you know your TV personality type?<br /><br />http://martygull.blogspot.com/2011/03/chris-port-blog-133-do-you-know-your-tv.html<br /><br />'In our celebriphiliac society of X-Factor perverts, the police are now being trained on how to identify and deal with four basic ‘social types’ linked to TV ‘personalities’. Which are you? ...'Chris Port (Marty Gull)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10072213193656248085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292754114795396839.post-67812071549151896452011-09-12T16:19:38.404+01:002011-09-12T16:19:38.404+01:00The 'Judy Garland' song is a bleak comment...The 'Judy Garland' song is a bleak commentary on how school league tables have turned education into a corrupt X-Factor contest, with disastrous consequences for deluded, talentless wannabees...<br /><br />'Reflecting on this analysis from 10 years ago, what strikes me now is how painfully right my dire predictions were. If anything, I should have been more brutal...<br /><br />Drama Education has now been completely hijacked by the language games of commerce. Faculty management are practically illiterate in the language of art.<br /><br />Drama and theatre have become incapable of the rhizomatic interconnections of knowledge performed so consummately by television, computer games and the Internet.<br /><br />'... theatre is so dead, as a form, that it isn’t possible for anything interesting to happen on the contemporary stage. It is a heritage activity rather than in any sense an “art”.' (Lanchester 1999: A1).<br /><br />But it's worse than that. On the predominantly male side, right-wing organizational mafias (masonic), imported from corporate management, have utterly politicized drama and theatre in schools to reflect their personal partisan views.<br /><br />On the predominantly female side, lipstick feminist mafias, imported from cruise ship entertainment, have utterly trivialized drama and theatre in schools to the point where it is little more than an unsponsored offshoot of Simon Cowell Incorporated.<br /><br />Britain once led the world in drama and theatre. Now, in our education system at least, we've been gelded. It is now truly that 'dead heritage activity' of which Lanchester warned. Drama teachers enthusing about Glee... Jesus H. Christ (in the profane sense)... '<br /><br />http://martygull.blogspot.com/2011/03/chris-port-blog-110-manifesto-for-drama.htmlChris Port (Marty Gull)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10072213193656248085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292754114795396839.post-67586425555471205182011-09-12T16:18:54.821+01:002011-09-12T16:18:54.821+01:00Marty Gull Song #7. Judy Garland
© Chris Port, 201...Marty Gull Song #7. Judy Garland<br />© Chris Port, 2010, martygull.co.uk.<br />All rights reserved.<br /><br />[To the tune of 'Memory' <br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhlJZdQDz5E]<br /><br />Southside<br />See the shit on the pavement<br />And a girl who is dancing<br />Down a yellow brick road<br />Judy Garland<br />I dare to wear your slippers today<br />Let the wizard understand<br /><br />Schooldays<br />Here’s a poem from Marty<br />Has the man lost his marbles?<br />He can’t get my new style<br />Criticizing<br />The wizard grieves, can’t get me at all<br />And the Head begins to smile<br /><br />Music<br />Musicals are romantic<br />No more poor ugly duckling<br />I am beautiful now<br />You remember<br />my clothes were bought from charity shops<br />Let the music drown that out<br /><br />Every teacher<br />seems to reach a<br />point of mental breakdown<br />Scorn and rumour<br />Exhausted humour<br />And soon he’ll wear that thorn crown<br /><br />Stardom<br />Let me be Judy Garland<br />Let me be a great dancer<br />Let me learn how to sing<br />When the chance calls<br />A girl will throw a man to the wolves<br />And my new life will begin<br /><br />Burnt out men in smoky cars<br />Who failed to smell the coffee<br />You talk of art I couldn’t give a toss for<br />I couldn’t give a toffee<br /><br />Teach me<br />But you can’t ever reach me<br />You are lost in a memory<br />Of a world that is gone<br />If you teach me<br />You’ll understand what tragedy is<br />Look my life is just a song<br /><br />http://martygull.blogspot.com/2010/11/marty-gull-song-7-judy-garland.htmlChris Port (Marty Gull)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10072213193656248085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292754114795396839.post-22910214518268108892011-09-12T16:18:13.305+01:002011-09-12T16:18:13.305+01:00The Daily Torygraph pretends to hit the nail on th...The Daily Torygraph pretends to hit the nail on the head while breaking the thumbs of the teachers holding it there…<br />'Lessons in Cheryl Cole replace history and geography classes'<br /><br />http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/8739423/Lessons-in-Cheryl-Cole-replace-history-and-geography-classes.htmlChris Port (Marty Gull)https://www.blogger.com/profile/10072213193656248085noreply@blogger.com