Who is a celebrity?

Not having a television at home now for several years means that we do not follow regular programming of any kind. We also do not go to main stream cinema, the big release with this or that Hollywood actor or actress is of little interest to me to the point that I often do not know who they are  when they are mentioned in the news. Neither do I care, the reason being that a good actor will get to be known on his or her merit and for the body of his or her work. To be famous because you have a certain physical look or good plastic or dental surgery does not make talent nor interesting personality.

Then you have celebrities who embrace a cause, you name the cause. Yes a good idea as long as it does some good or raises a profile but beyond that I question the motivation. A celebrity flies in to visit a camp full of poor people in the middle of nowhere and has pictures taken. Another is pictures with animals another with sick children. All good to raise awareness but again what is the long term value of such gestures given the world we live in where a new cause emerges everyday. At a recent Hockey game, the team used it's celebrities to gather from the fans 26,000 teddy bears to be given to poor children. A nice gesture, but given that in Canada, we are told one million children live in poverty and the numbers are growing, many in the public asked would food and warm clothing have been a better option or of more lasting value than some teddy bear?

The celebrities I know but do not follow every breath, are usually personalities who are in the theatre, opera or dance world, writers, musician or persons who left a mark on our world by tangible accomplishments. TV personalities I do not care for, movie actor and actresses, I appreciate are mostly elderly or dead or very well established with a large body of work. Sports personalities I do not care for either, they are playing a game, they have talent but beyond that no I am not interested.

So when one of those so called celebrities dies like this week in a fiery car crash and the name is on every possible news story, I ask who is this? Likely to be forgotten in a year or so. To me it is fabricated celebrity status made up by the Media, telling us this person is a celeb. Nothing new here really it has always been thus, though now it is in overdrive, perfectly ordinary people and people who behave badly can become celebrities for the power to shock.

I also do not believe that winning an Oscar is proof of talent or celebrity status. Though we are told this is the mark of achievement in the North American Movie Industry.

So I consider myself free of celebrities, I know of people whose name are household commodities, some I may consider to be famous for what they have done but nothing more. It will certainly not condition my view, attitude or behaviour based on a celebrity.

Maybe not having a television helps in bringing peace and order in how one thinks, you have time to focus on something else instead of a box or screen talking to you with the constant parade of celebrities and experts.

At Christmas time, I do like a lot of people enjoy my peace and quiet, a time for reflection, so doing without lots of electronics and intrusion from so-called celebrities, is a blessing in itself.

What no Television

We are now at the 5 month mark since our return from Italy. Our intention was when we returned to buy a new television, we even made a date to go to the store and look at models, the latest technology with gadgets etc.... This was in August, we were still unpacking and moping for la bella Italia, boxes everywhere and chaos. So we postponed our trip to the shop and then simply forgot about it. It turns out that we did have a large flat screen TV in Rome but never watched it, we always had other things to do or things to go and see, so the television just sat there. Now last weekend we were in Montreal and our hotel room had a large screen TV, we turned it on mostly for the puppies as background noise when we were not in the room to distract them. I did watch a bit of news but overall I found the contents of what was being presented on various and numerous channels totally vapid and of no interest to me what so ever.
The talking heads in most cases, no in all cases had no idea what they were talking about, just flapping their gums about this and that and finding themselves very funny, I just found them boring, sorry Radio-Canada and CTV. Most announcers on television are so pretentious and so full of their own importance its comical, they are also desperate to look just like everyone else on the street, faux common bond. They are dying to tell you what is new and hip and why you should do like they do, because their mothers or someone in their family think its great. They got their finger on the pulse of things, really?  All this to say that I would not buy a television set based on what I saw on television. I found most announcers and assorted talking heads good reasons not to get involved with the thing to begin with.

At Christmas lunch at one point the conversation turned to a series on television, I had never heard of it
neither had Will.  We told family that we did not own a television set and did not plan at this point to get one. We got strange looks, in North America the television culture is deeply ingrained and is part of everyday life, no one really thinks of doing without a television.  We have come to realize that we are a breed apart, too much travel, too much living abroad, too many different experiences. We are on a sort of permanent jet lag. So we will continue to do without a television for the foreseeable future.