Monday, February 21, 2005

Am I A Bad Person?

So, if you're anywhere near a television or a newspaper today, you know that over the weekend two famous people died: Hunter S. Thompson and Sandra Dee. And maybe it's a generational thing, but I can't understand what all the damn fuss is over the latter.

Not that I'm glad she's dead or anything. I mean, I feel as sorry as I ought to for her family and friends, but is there really any good reason her death should receive as much media attention as Thompson's?

He was Mr. Gonzo Journalism, the guy who wrote "Fear and Loathing," who made counterculture writing into an art form.

She was fucking Gidget.

Let's be honest with ourselves, people. If, forty years from now, Britney Spears and Michael Chabon die on the same day, I know which one I'm gonna mourn.

I guess what really has me pissed off is the fact that,w hen AIM's little news box came up after I logged on this morning, Dee was mentioned, and Thomspon wasn't. As a cultural impact barometer, that scares the living fuck out of me, people. Groundbreaking journalists deserve to be better remembered than teen idols. The idea that they're not paints a very bleak picture of the national mind. Can't we do better than this?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I realize this is going to make me sound hard-hearted, but . . .

Gidget was more famous than Uncle Duke.

I don't have any particular attachment to either of them, and it kind of shocks me that so many people are so vocally outraged over this. This doesn't mean he was less important, it just means he was less famous.

It's not as if this is somehow a surprising turn of events in the media. Hell, Mother Theresa barely rated a spot on the sidebar when Princess Diana died. Francis Crick died the same week as Rick James and got at best a tenth of the column inches. What were people expecting?

-Dave

Lena said...

Who's Sandra Dee?

(This calls for an Internet search.)