The Season of the Soiree

Autumn is the season of the soiree. All the parties everybody wants to be at start happening just around this time of year and continue throughout December. As the invitations mount up for The Artist D, the Internet's First Superstar, I'm reminded how much I hate parties. Maybe it's just the people who throw them. Since a lot of people throw parties for one simple psychological goal. That being having their ass kissed greatly for throwing a party and proving their fabulosity.

I would like to think I would keep some compunction when it came to massive amounts of people kissing my ass. That is if I was ever in a position to bring ass kissers. I experience this now and we all do when it comes to people trying to get in our pants. We will always be told we're better than we are if someone wants to have sex with us. That or lure nude photos out of you.

The ass kissing gets worse when you "are somebody." I know some people who are ridiculously annoying yet have money and power. People who want money and power will flock to them no matter how they feel about them. The sad part of the story comes when those annoying powerful people actually believe their friends are friends!

You could take anyone who is knowingly filthy rich or in a crazy position of power to use as an example. How does Donald Trump, President Obama or even Madonna trust anybody? How can they attend functions in their honor held by "their friends" and make statements about how happy they are that everybody came? Worse yet they make statements about how much love they feel when any outsider can see 90% of the people there have nefarious intentions.

There are some people I imagine truly attract good people. I think most people who shows up to Bette Midler's house for dinner are their with honorable intentions. Sure, there's always someone out there who wants to use you as a stepping stool. But certain people actually do have friendly redeeming qualities. Not that I know Bette Midler or have ever eaten dinner at her house, but she seems nice enough for this theory.

It's those other people I first mentioned whom I compare to the powerful people I know. They're generally annoying and seem like their base attitude is that of a total prick. There are certain people out there you can't help but think the only reason someone likes them is because they want something from them.

I think if I was rich and powerful I'd just stay home.

Get Up, Get Out & Do Something

One of my biggest annoyances are people with time and potential who do absolutely nothing. I've been here for quite some time. That is here living loudly in the Underground. I'm a very black and white individual. You either do something or you don't do something. It's all rather simple. And you can't tell me you want to do something big only to cling frighteningly to the small.

I've always had to work in a lot of different facets in order to make it possible for everything I want to be possible. I was only rewarded with small pieces of time where I got to sit for months and work strictly on my art projects. Any other time you will find me working full time jobs with over time and coming home to produce paintings, videos or broadcasts for the rest of my waking hours. I suppose what makes me so hostile towards people with time and inspiration is that they have the time for the inspiration. I have the inspiration but very little time. 

Those few times where I secluded myself in my studio and had the luxury of doing nothing but being The Artist D were disappointing whenever I tried to network my ideas outward. Sure, I can stay in my own world and create my own thing for my own benefit. That made me happy. The point that frustrates is we could create so much more if we just worked together. 

Throughout my art career I've found hundreds of people who are artists "stuck" at home in front of a computer. I've tried to get them to work with me to make what they do bigger and reach even more people. They always fall short. I have never found anyone as ambitious as I am, unless they also have no time to indulge their ambitions. 

It reminds me of those good old movies with the real crazy character with stars in his or her eyes. When they've finally made it to the big city and they grab their friend by the shoulders and say, "With my ideas and your connections we could be big ... big ... BIG! We're going to make it!"

The only time I've found people who will have that moment with me are now dead. They were usually too busy but we had big plans. They saw the potential and wanted to work with me to make it possible. They knew that they could do it alone. I know I can do it alone. But think of how much louder that could all be if there were more people involved! 

Now that I'm rubbing shoulders more than ever I am finding an even more frustrating creature. The individual that created something great, maintains it, is successful with it, but doesn't want to do anything more to make it any better. Sweet Jesus you've worked so hard to put out some grand project and you don't want to make it reach even more people? You don't want to continually redesign your platform to make it even more astounding? I don't understand and it aggravates the hell out of me. 

People happy with what they have made and satisfied are strange to me. I'll never be satisfied until I'm done and I don't plan on ever being done. Until forbid, that is. 

Business Decorum is Bullsh!t

I hate business decorum. In fact I hate all decorum. Even further I hate the word decorum. It stands for everything I stand against.

DECORUM
–noun

1.

dignified propriety of behavior, speech, dress, etc.

2.

the quality or state of being decorous;  orderliness;regularity.

3.

Usually, decorums. an observance or requirement of politesociety.

Propriety of behavior? Ridiculous. Orderliness? Frightening. Polite society? Disgusting. It's all a charade for even more of society's game playing. Truth, honesty and straight forwardness is nearing extinction. Which is almost hilarious when you think of where we come from. We used to be so prim and proper, covering all parts of our bodies at all times and upholding the highest standards of decorum. Today we walk around dressed like hookers and "telling it like it is." Meanwhile we're still being as decorous as ever. We can expose skin, emotions and more but we still can't hurt feelings. The fact that there are feelings to hurt is disturbing. We shouldn't let anything get to us, especially words.

Business decorum is the worst. In social life we are being fake with decorum to achieve something we consider real. In business we are being fake (decorum) within fake constraints (business). It's like living in Candyland and playing Battle Ship with Gloppy (the molasses monster from Candyland). A game within a game within a game equals a whole lot of nothing and a big waste of my time.

I have a friend whom is somewhat a celebrity that society would consider a "has been" as far as pop culture goes. She has continued her celebrity on an Internet basis and has done very well for herself. She has attempted for as long as I've known her to make a "come back." That is as far as society deems a celebrity from the 90's returning to top fame twenty years later.

Since she has been striving online with her celebrity and in turn her business she has been approached by many of the expected media outlets trying to cut deals with her. She's been offered television shows but turns them down. Oprah has approached her to do things and they've never been able to work things out. She's had up to three radio show contracts throughout the last ten years with each of them being cut short and terminated by either herself or the station management.

Never being a famous celebrity anywhere but my own corner of the Internet I always wondered why she just couldn't do it. If you're offered the stars just take them, right? I may have been doing what you know for over ten years now, but I have never tried to network among entities. The corporate big dogs of the Internet who have large audiences that would be interested in what I have to say.

I now understand how my friend can turn down Oprah. There comes a point where there is no more room for negotiation. Talk about compromising your principles. Here we are with such incredibly infuriating things to say about the decorum of society while having to be decorous to be able to say them. Then, in the case of my friend who had accepted the radio show deals, she got to say what she wanted to and then was terminated for saying so. That or her freedom of speech was so heavily restricted that she had to quit.

It makes me think of Rosie O'Donnell. Numerous opportunities to say what she wanted to the world all ending with her being shoved down back into her world. Hilariously she never hid how she felt or what her opinions were, yet once she achieved her position on television everyone was shocked.

One of my goals this year was to pour myself into connecting with everyone I possibly could. I don't need more attention or another platform because I already built my own. However, I just wanted other people to know I'm here and have something to say. Much like my friend I feel my message and interesting way of delivering it would be a superb contribution to anything near mainstream. In doing so I have been easily swept up into this business bullshit. Fake smiles and handshakes all around the room ... the bored room, if you will.

I've discovered that simply asking to write for another person's magazine can turn into this diatribe of how my honesty is unfit for their publications. I'm told to censor this and tone down that. While reaching out trying to "offer my services" to other entities I've quickly discovered this interesting world where I'm extremely unwelcome. Quite frankly I find it invigorating. It's a fight I didn't even know was waiting. It's like being a member of an underground secret society of freaks and finding out you're too freaky for them.

It's certainly frustrating though. You can be a raving freak just so long as you fit the mold of the raving freak they're looking for. As we say frequently on The Fabulous D Show ... You have the freedom of choice, please choose from the options provided and nothing else. 

Decorum ... disgusting.