THE IDIOT

 

 The idiot

“Historically, TV had been the dominant medium. We all used to wonder why we spent so much time watching TV. When asked “why TV?,” my answer was always the same ‘TV is the best alternative to boredom. It's the closest we can come to doing nothing while thinking we are doing something. It was always our go to way to kill time’".

“Today, our best alternative to boredom comes from an app.  Firing up an app on whatever device you happen to have in your hand, no matter where in the world you are, is how we kill time.”

I’m naïve, I must be.  Watching Mark Cuban, the “tech billionaire,” testifying in Congress yesterday in support of the Time-Warner-ATT merger, I was surprised by the silence – no one interrupted and called him a pestilent idiot – when he uttered the above sentiments early in his remarks.

“The best alternative to boredom.” “Go to way to kill time.”

I’m not a goody two-shoes and I do enjoy television and other entertainment media.  But I can’t regard Cuban’s comments as anything but an offense to the gift and privilege of being alive and sentient, whatever your religion or other moral code might be.

I’ve never quoted (as far as I can recall) Henry David Thoreau, but I think “as if you could kill time without injuring eternity” (from Walden) is pretty good and something I can identify with. 

I knew I thought Mark Cuban was a dope, but now I know why. Jane likes him on Shark Tank, though.
.

 The other idiot

Kevin Ayers: Idiots (Link)

Dégueulasse (Abel Ferrara Preps DSK Scandal Project)

 

Abel Ferrara 

 

Abel Ferrara Preps DSK Scandal Project; 

Gerard Depardieu, Isabelle Adjani To Star?

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Monday, 26 December 2011 20:48 

 

EXCLUSIVE: Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval has confirmed that Abel Ferrara and screenwriter Christ Zois are working on a feature script partly inspired by this summer’s sex scandal surrounding former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani have been rumored circling characters based on the scandal-plagued former IMF chief and his wife Anne Sinclair and have met with the director, but Maraval says the project is still a long way from active development. 

The idea for a film came about on a lark when Ferrara was making 4:44 Last Day On Earth with Wild Bunch earlier this year. Per Maraval, it was suggested that the DSK sex scandal would be a good fit for Ferrara given the filmmaker’s penchant for themes of addiction. Maraval says Ferrara and sometime collaborator Zois are now writing a script which could include elements inspired by the lives of other politicians like Bill Clinton and Silvio Berlusconi along with Strauss-Kahn. But, despite earlier reports in the French press, he stresses it’s too early to say anything definitively. “One thing we do know is that there’s a real common desire amongst Depardieu, Adjani and Ferrara to work together. But like every day in this business, we have to see if there’s a film there. Today, the only reality is that they are writing something inspired by Strauss-Kahn that will focus on addiction and politicians. It’s more that than the Strauss-Kahn scandal itself,” says Maraval noting, “If it becomes a serious thing, I’m not even sure it will be the same film with Adjani and Depardieu.” Finally, he adds, “If we feel there’s a movie, we’ll go further.” 

Queried about the project in an interview published in France’s Le Journal Du Dimanche yesterday, Depardieu declined to comment on rumors but offered, “In general, I’m very good at playing characters that I don’t like or those that I don’t resemble.” 

Gérard Depardieu

Anne Sinclair and Dominique Strauss-Kahn 

Isabelle Adjani looking somewhat Anne Sinclair-like

NOTE:  I was taught the evocative French word "dégueulasse," or "disgusting," a lifetime ago by an old girlfriend who had a French mother.  My friend told me that once, while swimming in the Mediterranean in some unpleasant waters, she overheard another mother speaking the word to her child.  Her own mother translated and the word (and the way it was said --  intonation and meaning matching perfectly) stuck. 

I think "dégueulasse" probably fits on a number of levels the project described in this typically prematurely written, trial balloon showbiz trade paper (Deadline Hollywood) article.  That being said, I'm sure someone will eventually produce a project like this and I do like the actors mentioned as possibilities for the roles.  Also, there are worse ways to spend time than researching Isabelle Adjani photos during the week between Christmas and New Year.


For more DS-K, please see here:  Idiots (link)

For DS-K -- "Idiots" (Kevin Ayers Lyric/Song and Article Links)

It's getting crazier in every way;
We've got the same kind of Idiots as yesterday.
They were chosen by more Idiots,
They're one of a kind --
They'll steal your life,
But they'll never get Mine.
Cause I'm Gonna Get Mine,
Gonna Get Mine,

Gonna Get Mine, 

Gonna Get Mine!

I'm sick and tired of spending all of my years
Living under the thumbs of those old racketeers.
Power and money - More than life Everytime.
They can use your life,
But they'll never get Mine.

Cause I'm Gonna Get Mine,
Gonna Get Mine,

Gonna Get Mine,

Gonna Get Mine!

  DEAD PEOPLE LIKE TO KILL

IT'S THEIR ONE REMAINING THRILL.

This post is dedicated to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, superstar-selfless public servant, his international "peer group" (you know who they are), and their lackey-minions in the working press everywhere.  For further, see Here and Here:

"The arrest of a mediocre international civil servant in the first-class cabin of his jet isn’t just a sex story: It’s a glimpse of the widening gulf between the government class and their subjects in a post-prosperity West."