The untimely death of child actress Erin Moran over the weekend — at age 56, her body was discovered in an Indiana trailer park — leaves an abyss in each of us even though we may not recognize the depth, and the severity, of the hole. For those of us of a certain age, Erin Moran, will always be Joanie — the spunky, spicy, daughter on the first season of Happy Days.
I’m always torn when it comes to admiring people who may be talented, but who should not be morally allowed to reserve our undying adulation. Fame and adoration tend to clasp each other, and since most performers are broken, it becomes a difficult task to try to divine who deserves our public scorn versus who deserves our moral compassion.
It’s no secret that I’m an Eric Clapton fanatic — but there is no hiding from the facts of his life that he was an addict, an abandoned child and an abandoning father — and one of the greatest guitar talents of several generations.
What’s a fan to do? Pity the man? Admire the Guitar God? Can we temper the person with a little bit of each, or are we not allowed to split the righteous baby when it comes to placing a talent in the history of time?
Continue reading → How Alcoholism Saved Eric Clapton from Suicide
There are days when I am riding the bus home from the train station and I see high school aged children looking at their phones, playing games and going online and I think to myself with wonder that these children have never known a day of their lives when there was not such a thing as The Internet. I have seen children sitting in groups having non-conversations in which words are exchanged but nobody is really listening, all the while updating their Twitter and Facebook accounts about the details of the exchanges that they aren’t really having. They simply can’t seem to peel their eyes away from their small computers in order to have any kind of real interaction with their friends. Now it seems that hardcore internet addiction may be entirely genetic.
Continue reading → The Hereditary Nature of Internet Addiction
Having children in the simplest sense is a purely biological expression in that all that it takes to make it happen is to have the right conditions. There are no tests or other requirements that need to be met prior to people having children and it is not just the existence of television shows such as “Sixteen and Pregnant” and the like. Then you find out that you can take all the illegal drugs you want and still be allowed to have any number of children, even seven!
Continue reading → Should Drug Abusers Be Banned From Having Children?
On March 17, 2011, I published The Death of Mike Starr Questions the Value of Celebrity Rehab in our Celebrity Semiotic blog:
I find Celebrity Rehab and Sober House to be depressive and memeingless. The toxic relationships are difficult to tender and impossible to abide. Should rehab and therapy and healing be done in private and away from the public square or shown weekly on VH1? I can’t imagine anyone who is addicted ever wanting to attend a rehab program after watching those Pinsky train wreck soap operas.
I am most disappointed in Drew Pinsky, who appears to be a good man, but his direct involvement in the exploitation of celebrity addiction is stunning because he is trained to know better. Drew Pinsky must know those people need privacy and ongoing, deep, therapy away from the very lights and microphones that likely helped push them down the path to their addiction in the first place.
Continue reading → Why We Were Right All Along about the Wrong of Celebrity Rehab
The death, at age 44, of former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr brings into question the real value of reality television shows like Celebrity Rehab and Sober House with Dr. Drew Pinsky. Should we be gawking at the medicated and the mentally ill for pleasure and profit?
Continue reading → The Death of Mike Starr Questions the Value of Celebrity Rehab
Thomas had a colossal problem, which was that he had no idea why he was always running out of time to do all of the important things that he wanted to do in life.
Continue reading → Chasing Down Time: Ten Sentence Story #115
You must be logged in to post a comment.