UTMC

rc26 wrote:http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/any-g ... 250047229/

It's never too soon, but why would you really want to?

SSCAM wrote: why would you really want to?

I'd agree.

People live. People die. This happens to everyone, even the rich and famous. Sometimes, it happens, even to them, when they are still quite yound. She wasn't really old yet.
I cannot feel any more worked up about this than any other death out there, but I wasn't into her work at all.
But I can understand that those who were fans feel this, somewhere deep in their guts. Artists touch us in ways that others don't. They tell us things about ourselves, things we find hard to articulate, even recognize at all. So if someone tells me they were great fans of her and now feel the pain, I can believe that, understand that even.
However, considering how the media treat this, top-of-the-bill news event, how people all over seem to be wringing their hands how horrible this is, well...sorry, I can't believe she touched that many people that deeply. Sorry, I cannot. Many, many of those now tearing their clothes over her death are either just full of BS or emotionally defective in some way that makes them go nuts about the death of someone they aren't really emotionally invested in. Sorry, cannot believe it.

Jokes about the death of someone, anyone, are always tasteless, but I admit that I am among those sometimes making such jokes, and sometimes laughing about them. It's part and parcel of fame that someone dislikes you and will make fun of your misfortune. There's no way to make such humor appear righteous, but considering how the misfortune of the famous always seems to overshadow the very real misfortune of many, many millions the world over, I guess it's just a way of dealing with that.

Houston however...I don't care about her death any more than I do about the deaths that happen everyday, everywhere. People making jokes about it...I cannot care about, either.
Or maybe I do, which would explain why I'm taking the time of typing this.

I was shocked. Everytime I see a story about someone in their 40's dying I get all wierded out, mainly because I'm in my 40's and got a late start in normal living (compared to other people my age) because I spent about fifteen years doing other things. So ordinary-living-suburbia-wise I'm only 30 or so, but IRL I'm staring down the barrel of middle age. I have to remind myself constantly I'm not in my 20's anymore.
Last summer I was wrestling another guy 50 lbs heavier than myself in a pseudo-brawl outside a pub in Nantucket and I got broken ribs for it. 43 year old skinny guys shouldn't be wrestling former college wrestlers while drunk, the same way 48 year old entertainers shouldn't be doing drugs. So yeah.
Bad things happen to good people all the time.

So, you really are the Ayatollah of Mayhem.

I guess so. You'd never know it. I kept a lid on it at DOOM because I wasn't in my comfort zone. Yes, I have one, and it's like ( ) this big.

I enjoy off-color humor and if anybody came up with a real zinger on the subject, I'd appreciate hearing it. That said, I don't know why people would be so quick to make jokes that aren't particularly clever about something tragic. Whitney Houston was a big fucking deal who sold a whole shitload of records and was a huge influence on a lot of artists and fans. Just because I don't particularly like her music doesn't mean I don't see the significance of her passing.

I know there are others on this board who have seen loved ones (or themselves) taken to very dark places due to addiction and/or mental illness. It can take people who seemingly have every opportunity to succeed and turn their lives around, and drain them to nothing. Houston was beautiful, talented, and wealthy. Until her 30s, she was also squeaky clan (publicly anyway), and not the type you would expect to see consumed by drugs. All kinds of people can be taken over like that.

{edit} - This is all assuming that she died of something related to substance abuse, which is a hug assumption.

Sony Music laughs the loudest.

Whitney Houston album price hike sparks controversy
Sony Music under fire after cost of greatest hits set on iTunes rises by more than 60% after singer's death

Sisyphus wrote: 48 year old entertainers shouldn't be doing drugs.

Good thing I'm not an entertainer

what's 6 inch long and didn't get suck on valentine's night ?

Witney Houston's crack pipe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorthon

Good point. The media really dropped the ball on covering Quorthon's death.

Someone's all butthurt because their favorite esoteric "metal 'artiste'" wasn't openly wept over in the mainstream media. So they create some internet poster to make themselves feel better. Call the waaaaaahmbulance.

Then again, for a more accurate comparison to a recently deceased, hugely influencial singer (black, BTW) who did a better job with their drug addiction;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_james

Bigshankhank wrote:Then again, for a more accurate comparison to a recently deceased, hugely influencial singer (black, BTW) who did a better job with their drug addiction;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_james

And she got some significant coverage. Not as big as Houston, but significant.

Whether Etta James, John Lennon, Whitney Houston, or Gorgotharianstrafangor dies, it is ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in the world. The only reason it is newsworthy, the fact that there are people who care about it. How valuable they were as an artist is subjective, and ultimately irrelevant.

Millions of people loved Whitney, so it is newsworthy. She was loved by many for her singing and she influenced a lot of pop singers. Its not like Anna Nicole Smith or some other meaningless celebutard died.

Very few people gave a shit when Alex Chilton or Lee Hazlewood died, but I didn't get my panties in a bunch about it.

Yup. Everyone in my family have heard of Whitney, and damn near everyone in the western world. Can't say that about Etta (though I loved her), or Tomas (never knew of him). Pretty self-explanatory. Same way (insert celebrity's name here)'s death willl be covered far more extensively than mine.

Zer0 wrote:Yup. Everyone in my family have heard of Whitney, and damn near everyone in the western world. Can't say that about Etta (though I loved her), or Tomas (never knew of him). Pretty self-explanatory. Same way (insert celebrity's name here)'s death willl be covered far more extensively than mine.

But then again is that really a bad thing ?
celebrity is merely a by-product of these people's professional activity, not the sign of any form of quality that they might have above the ones you have. media's need content to put between the advertisements, and entertainers need to promote their products. The fact that people have affect impulses in the process really is the result of a misunderstanding of the rules of the market.

rolly wrote:Sony Music laughs the loudest.

Whitney Houston album price hike sparks controversy
Sony Music under fire after cost of greatest hits set on iTunes rises by more than 60% after singer's death

actually, Dolly Parton is laughing loudest. She wrote 2 of her hits. Whitney was broke. Not kinda broke, broke as a joke. Since she has no rights to her songs (just perfomance fees), her estate stands to gain nothing from the spike in album sales. Promotion and pressing fees come out of the artist's percentage with respect to album sales. Publishing fees are right off the top. So, all of the writers of all of her songs will gain a windfall in profits off her death.

Sad end to a sad story that will continue to fail as an example of how not to succeed.

xtian wrote:

Zer0 wrote:Yup. Everyone in my family have heard of Whitney, and damn near everyone in the western world. Can't say that about Etta (though I loved her), or Tomas (never knew of him). Pretty self-explanatory. Same way (insert celebrity's name here)'s death willl be covered far more extensively than mine.

But then again is that really a bad thing ?
celebrity is merely a by-product of these people's professional activity, not the sign of any form of quality that they might have above the ones you have. media's need content to put between the advertisements, and entertainers need to promote their products. The fact that people have affect impulses in the process really is the result of a misunderstanding of the rules of the market.

It's not bad at alll. It is what it is. Perfect strangers will sincerely mourn the death of one of the Kardashians, and that, I think, comes with the rules of the market: they have fame and possibly even riches, which is what you the consumer want, promote them in a way to make you feel you have a "connection" with them, making you feel included in their "family," thus insuring you'll buy more of their product. That's life--not good or bad, it just is.

at least witney houston sang on records. I'm a little off the mainstream media but what do the kardashian do ? I mean except be part of that whole misunderstanding that if you're in the media then you must be popular and if you are popular you should have done something, while nowadays you first have to be in the media to be popular then nobody will ask you to do anything because having done something is less important than be popular by any commercial mean possible.

xtian wrote: nowadays you first have to be in the media to be popular then nobody will ask you to do anything because having done something is less important than be popular by any commercial mean possible.

Exactly, X. I used the Kardashians specifically because they don't "do" shit, except for being famous and rich and being on TV. But since they're famous and rich, they are worshipped and idolized. Sorta like those ancestral dukes and counts, whatever in countries with royalty, or even no royalty, like Germany. These old farts are still idolized because they're rich and famous and on TV and in the magazines. And people will weep when they die. Why? Because they're rich and famous and on TV and in the magazines.

xtian wrote:at least witney houston sang on records. I'm a little off the mainstream media but what do the kardashian do ? I mean except be part of that whole misunderstanding that if you're in the media then you must be popular and if you are popular you should have done something, while nowadays you first have to be in the media to be popular then nobody will ask you to do anything because having done something is less important than be popular by any commercial mean possible.

+1

Rabbit_Fighter wrote:

Bigshankhank wrote:Then again, for a more accurate comparison to a recently deceased, hugely influencial singer (black, BTW) who did a better job with their drug addiction;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_james

And she got some significant coverage. Not as big as Houston, but significant.

Agreed, that wasn't my point. Rather, if we were to make a big deal of someone's life after they pass, Etta is a better example; she fought her demons and won. Or to say it another way, she could handle her high.

Funeral soundtrack available on iTunes!!!