Coachella

Every year there's an annual tradition in April that MJ and I adhere to: watching Coachella from the comfort of our own homes on Youtube. I like to think I would give anything a fair shot to try it, but Coachella is one thing I just KNOW I would not enjoy, at least as much as it's hyped up to be. Yes, I get it's in Palm Springs near Joshua Tree and goes on for 2 straight weekends (Week one and Week Two!) and it's outside in the desert and there's various stages where so many artists show up to perform that you can get all the music and live entertainment you want...and there's drugs, so many so many drugs, which is apparently a feature, not a bug of the experience. That and paying through the nose for lodgings or sleeping in tents, mass traffic getting into the event, being treated like second class citizens by being seated way at the back if you're not VIP, and for more checkout Reddit "Coachella is awful." I'm sure some people have a good time who like the music and like the vibe of being out in the desert for 3 straight days, it's just not worth it for me. This year, Lady Gaga(!) was the headliner which is really splashy along with a bunch of name-brand artists Post Malone, Ty Dolla Sign, etc., etc., a good place to study up on pop culture trivia for sure. Oh and Bernie Sanders made an appearance, with a speech to vote against President Trump's policies. Kylie Jenner and Timothy Chalamee were there! Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio were there! All VIP guests in the front row, I presume, and soaking up the fact that they get noticed and everyone else wants be them but can't (no jealousy!) Is it wrong of me to think Timothy Chalamee being one of the hottest stars in Hollywood, can get almost any role he wants, this generation's Leonardo DiCaprio, already Oscar nominated for A Complete Unknown (The Bob Dylan Story) and still not yet 30......can pick a better partner than Kylie Jenner, previously with child and part of the talentless but famous anyway Kardashian/Jenner clan? Maybe their siren song is just strong to attract even the most unattaianble of bachelors. I appreciate Bernie Sanders being out there with the masses instead of giving the vibe like the rest of Congress or the political elite that they're better than normal people. There's a world in which Bernie Sanders wins the 2016 Democratic primary against Hilary Clinton (Feel the Bern!) and gather momentum with the popular vote, taking those away from Trump and the huge populist base he has, wins the election, and the next 8 years are common sense, for-the-people policies that only American's favorite grandpa (and not Joe Biden!) can deliver. He's still clear-headed in 2025! Oh I didn't mention about Coachella that you have to get into a lottery to purchase tickets, it's a whole thing, kind of like trying to chase fame: I hate getting in line to chase after something that everyone wants, and when you finally finally get to the front of the line and ready to see what the commotion is all about, it turns out it isn't even something you like. This has happened to me on numerous occasions of waiting in long lines for food, long lines for nightclubs, long lines in traffic... Life experience has taught me that going against the line for something that not everyone loves but still has great value is the way to go. That and I hate lines. One tradition that I DO miss is reading newspapers with my grandpa in a quiet room, just ourselves, and learning Chinese. I love learning and have loved it from a young age mostly because my grandpa instilled in me a love of learning, so it always felt like a nostalgic practice mixed with intellectual activity mixed with quality bonding time with grandpa to sit in a room and just read. There are no lines to wait in to read, my grandpa was always ready to give me information on Chinese words, to tell me a story about some phrase in the newspaper and why they used that word, some historical context, or a new Internet slang term (my grandpa was born in 1925 and was still learning new slang terms from the Internet!) He would have been 100 years old this year, and if not for his physical body giving out, he would have kept reading and keeping his mind sharp. It's easy to say looking back on it, but you never know when the last time you will do an activity is, and how much you will miss it, no matter how mundane it is. Most of us appreciate reading, but maybe we all need a reading partner, one who keeps us honest by also reading and keeping each other from always checking our phones in this digital age. My grandpa was always game to read and he never owned a smart phone, nor even a cell phone; his life was patterned off of 1940's living of reading and spending time together. Nowadays I can't get anyone to even sit with me for an hour much less days to hang out (kind of a me problem) but still....I guess I didn't appreciate grandpa's willingness to just be there and be willing to drop everything at a moment's notice to teach me something. He didnt' really offer much verbal advice or direct pearl of wisdom on how to live life, but maybe that was his way of giving advice, by showing me his way of life and seeing how appealing the simple life can be: no music, no phones, no distractions, no lining up for 3 hours to get into the other line for 3 hours to buy overpriced alcohol at a music festival.....spend your life doing the things you like to do, not what everyone else wants to do.

Fame (名声, 명성, 名声)

Fame is actually the name of a movie that's "Jeopardy-worthy," a fact that I deem to be well-known enough to possibly show up on Jeopardy. It's a movie inspired by A Chorus Line about high schoolers ironically trying to become famous, through singing, dancing, and acting. Stars Irene Cara, of "What a Feeling" 1980s fame, herself a beneificary of fame but also of immense talent. Talent and opportunity, 2 very important but not completely necessary elements of fame. You can have no talent but just have fame thrust upon you, like Kim Kardashian, Hawk Tuah Girl, and a variety of people everyone knows but for the wrong reasons. That's kind of the wrong type of fame. Then we have Mr. Beast, the famous Youtuber Jimmy Donaldson who became famous due to playing games similar to Squid Game and cash giveaways. Like not just $1000 giveaways, life-changing amount of money kind of giveaways, like giving away $10 million to just the winner of Amazon Prime's Beast Games this past seaon (He gave away more through bribes and various elements of gameplay probably to the tune of about $20-$25 million just in the form of prize money). A lot of people criticize him for feeding the Squid Game spirit of greed and caring only about money and doing it all for show (yes he does nice things for others, but why does it always have to be on camera?) but there's no denying that he has talent, a new type of talent for displaying videos that people care about, that people want to watch (he's the No. 1 most subscribed channel on Youtube, beating out India's T-series and the channel for kids, CocoMelon. He's pretty much revolutionized the way people watch TV; Generation Z and Generation Alpha don't even watch traditional TV anymore, and the once-proud mainstream channels CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, etc. are all pretty much guaranteed to be phased out of relevancy after their last demographic base passes away, Baby Boomers and Generation X. Those networks would kill for anything resembling Mr. Beast's numbers. Mr. Beast has undeniable talent, but also gets my thumbs up at least for using that fame for good, kind of like when I buy a lotto ticket, I know I'm not going to win, but I hope that at least someone who wins it will use it for good. Mr. Beast has won the lotto of life but is also using it (generally) for good, philanthropy. He also does some crazy stuff like trying out $500,000 private jet rides an weird stunts that really have no utility, but he's making videos in Africa helping the hungry, the farmers, getting clean running water going......it's basically what most well-meaning people would do if they could do anything and didn't have to devote half their lives to work, paying the bills, attending to their children......Did I say half their lives? I meant pretty much their whole lives. Mr. Beast can do all of that because he's wealthy, but also because he wants to....I'm not sure if I ever became famous and achieved his level of celebrity, I would trust myself to devote all that energy to what I say I would do with it.....I could definitely get complacent and just spend it on selfish things and put off the philanthropy and giving back until later, which I'm sure there are plenty of billionaires doing now. I also admire some of the Jeopardy winners who do good work with their fame. People who go on Jeopardy normally get about 1 day of fame, the day your episode shoots, but some of the elite few get a week of fame by winning and being on more episodes, and if you're really good you get to keep coming back time and time again, and become "Jeopardy famous" but not really famous worldwide, still not Mr. Beast-level famous or even "Jeopardy-worthy." (Ironically, Jeopardy winners will never get their name on Jeopardy because the show doesn't test any knowledge about the show itself, with one notable exception.......of Ken Jennings). Ken Jennings is the one Jeopardy contestant ever who didn't start off as a celebrity (there is a celebrity Jeopardy show allowing celebrities the easy path to get on Jeopardy, which if I ever got famous or anything might be a better chance of getting on the show than just being a regular joe) who became famous into mainstream status. I recently attended a Jeopardy in-person event where some prominent winners showed up like Drew Goins and Sam Buttrey- they are very much "Jeopardy-famous" and were big stars at the event, getting VIPs to line up to take photos with them and just get a chance to talk to them, got makeup done, etc. Ken Jennings was too famous to make an appearance (actually he can't mingle with the contestants for game show propriety's sake). I was a little too gunshy to talk to them even though I watched both Sam and Drew on my TV so many times ( I really don't know what to see to a celebrity as a no-name peasant, there's no way to sound original or funny or anything without saying something they've heard thousands of times, it's just a weird dynamic of acknowledging their fame and "fanboying out") but while MJ was getting food nearby (vegan chili!) I stood outside of the theater and waited, and Sam and Drew walked out.......as normal people, no entourage, no more waiting fans. It's like when they're in the Jeopardy studio or at a Jeopardy event, they magically become stars, but that magic fades once they go outside....the general person on the street won't recognize them. That's being Jeopardy-famous. It struck me that this is what fame is- it's allusive, it's fickle, anyone can get fame for almost any reason......and they could lose it too if they want to, by not exposing themselves to the fame. It's like a magic trick, you can't just will yourself to become famous, there needs to be some luck, some abracadabra, some magic powder....and it's okay not to get it, it's one of those things everybody who doesn't have it (me) thinks they want, but probably isn't all that it's cracked up to be once you get it (and it's hard to keep). Sour grapes!