It Gets Better Than What?

I often get in debates with my mother about how good she did as a mother raising a child. She doesn't think she did all that good of a job. This is probably the opinion of most good mothers. It's much like an artist (any creator, really). Whatever we write, paint or produce is never good enough. We're fabulous creators, but at the end of the day no one can convince us that our award winning piece is as good as it really is. Same with mothers. The good ones will never be able to realize they've done their best and raised something incredible. This is strange to me especially since mine seems to be on the same page that I turned out alright. Yet she still doubts doing a good job raising what has become so great.

If you ask me, the end result is the proof that you've done a good job. However, ask certain people and they'll never agree that baptism by fire is a good method no matter what a great metal it produces. It all brings up thoughts on this "It Gets Better" campaign that continues to rear its head from time to time. It appears the beginning of the 21st century has been dedicated in part to saving our battered bullied teens. Which is both lovely and a bone of contention with me. Nobody saved us and now just because kids are seen as more vulnerable we have to tell them not to worry ... it gets better. 

I'm trying to think of someone fabulous I adore, admire and respect who was not born from great tragedy and  strife. I can't think of anyone. Can you? Please tell me because the older I get the happier I am when someone can tell me one of my long standing opinions is mistaken.

Which begs the question are we saving lives, creating fierce dragons or crippling the already weak even further? As we say almost weekly on The Fabulous D Show, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you're not going to be a warrior then what in the hell are you doing fighting? And if you are fighting then I guess you're a god damned warrior. Slap a name tag on and don't worry about anyone patting you on the head. You just go on right ahead fighting.

It gets better. They keep saying it gets better. It does get better. If you stay on your own course and stick up for what you believe in then it gets better. But it gets better because you make it all better for yourself. One day you'll be out from under the thumb that's crushing you. You'll be happy you were true to yourself after that. Then you can build your empire far away from all those people you didn't like.

I am who I am. I'm strong and born to be brave. Few people stopped to pat me on the head. I got my support and I sought my shelter when the shit storms came. I got it all by myself. Crafty, no? Nobody reached out and offered a supportive shoulder. And when I held the knife to my wrists I made sure it had more purpose than if I was actually going to kill myself. Don't be silly. The last reason anyone should threaten suicide is to actually do it.

Has Beens Unite

Let's face it, people like me are all stuck in the best moments of their lives even if it's still some of the best. While brainstorming guests for Season 4 of The Fabulous D Show it was remarked that my list was full of has beens! Upon taking a look it made me realize that I find it very hard to take interest in new things. It's just not that interesting to me if it doesn't have a connection to something that helped spark me originally. That doesn't mean I made a list of people you've already heard on my show (or heard anywhere for that matter). It means I made a list of people who are not particularly on the radar anymore.

What delighted Rosie O'Donnell most on her talk show was having her childhood infatuations on to interview. That theme has been seen again and again on almost anyone's show. There are always new things tantalizing the newest generation. To us it will never be like the stuff we first fell in love with. It's just like how a child born into Myspace has never felt quite right with Facebook. Just like how The Internet's First Super Stars would never feel all that comfortable in the 21st century social networking era of the Internet. I will always want to have more people to interview from before than after, just because it brings me a fuzzy feeling of nostalgia along with unearthing some relics for you all to take a peek at. If we didn't have talk show hosts clinging to their first inspirations there would be far less variety for the new to pick from. Neopostmodernism at it's finest, we've all taken a little of then to make a lot of now.

Did RuPaul bring Michelle Visage on as a regular to RuPaul's Drag Race just because Michelle is fabulous? While that's reason enough that wasn't the reason at all. They were hosting The RuPaul Show when I was just a baby queen. They had history. History with each other and history with all the baby queens they communicated to. What is the first thing I thought when I saw Michelle again? Not about the fierce divas they are, but who they were to me. It's Ru and Michelle back together just like "we were" in 1996!

Zodiac Killer

I found it a bold move to change the zodiac signs (LINK) even though grounds had been found to do so. Growing up in a zodiac-obsessed mindset I know how important it is to know, "What's your sign!?" Changing it all of a sudden must have really sent some people into a tail spin. Telling a Leo they are no longer a Leo is like telling a Catholic that the church is a fairytale and Jesus killed their puppy.

In fact I was so surprised by the announcement because I was of the understanding that no matter what inconclusive evidence stood to change a tradition, people just don't do that. It's right up there with religion and politics. Even though we know some political agendas are a horror, that doesn't stop us from thinking people ought to hold fast to them due to tradition. Just because Grandpa voted for a Republican means you should too, it doesn't matter what that Republican may stand for. Just because science has disproved the existence of a Sky Daddy and history has exposed religion as a scam, you are expected to continue to subscribe.

Like an adult forcing their children to believe in Santa Clause we stick to the zodiac we know as much as we believe the horoscopes we read in the paper. Although there is something to be said about the truth to falling under a certain constellation, however on the other side of things you can fit into a lot of the zodiac descriptions just as much as any horoscope could be tailor-made to suite what happened last week.

Honestly I did breath a sigh when I found I made the cut off for Leo. I am a fiery rapturous angry creature who thinks he or she is king of the jungle. Knowing other Leos who are now Cancers makes me think they must be awfully pissed. The kings and queens have been dethroned and that is exactly what it's going to feel like for any Leo.

Looking around at the articles that have popped up the titles say it all. Zodiac Change Causes Panic, Zodiac Shift: A Real Mood Killer, Changes in Zodiac Cause Identity Crisis... On one hand I can say that if you needed to be defined my traits connected to constellations - you didn't have an identity to begin with. On the other hand we align ourselves with what we want to be. And telling me I am no longer labeled a Leo by society would be telling me that my name isn't really The Artist D!

Where have all the Cowboys gone?

"They" say time on the Internet moves much quicker than time in reality. I've lived on the Internet a long time and after taking almost a year away to live amongst non-Internet folk, I come back to find myself in The Twilight Zone. It's your usual story about the man who goes into the bomb shelter and comes out to find ...

What does he find? It could be exactly what he saw before he went underground. He may find that a new city of the future has sprung up. He could peek his head out to discover alien spaceships whirling around firing at Terminator robots 100-stories tall! He may find a planet completely run by meerkats (pictured right).

I've poked my head above ground back into the Internet planet to find that people have done what people do best: Fuck it up further. Where in the hell is everyone? I swear, I leave you alone with your tinker toys and Playboy Magazine for one second and you ruined it. Didn't you? It looks like a lot of folks have become bored with the Internet. I sauntered around and it looks like most people spend times reading Huffington Post and spending hours refreshing their Facebook page. Oops! There I go showing my age. Pages refresh themselves in the 21st Century.

People aren't networking like they used to and that makes me smile. It's Facebook or bust. The good thing about Facebook though is it appears to have obliterated what us Oldsters call "The Blog." They have this thing over on Facebook called "Notes." You write notes and your friends read the notes, but they aren't really blogs and it's given people permission to no longer say anything of comment. Just notes. Just Post-it's on the refrigerator door. It's what the sheeple always wanted. A boring dream come true. A snapshot of the nation.

There are plenty of blogging platforms left, but people are terrified to share their opinion on the Internet anymore. That's Facebook's fault too. They are the ones who gave a crushing blow to the grass roots of Internet anonymity. Anonymity was the way we Internet Super Stars meant it to be, my dear Internet babies.

I've come to find that there are very few "good" blog network communities. This makes me smile too because if it's harder to find bloggers then there appears to be less of them. While I'm certain there are not less of them, they do appear to be a background whisper to what people now use the Internet for. Opinions and commentary are still everywhere, but it was always the infringement upon the personal blogger / webmistress domains that got me riled. Leave us alone. Leave Britney alone!

I sat and pondered on an Internet tree next to a beautiful Internet lake as to what my Internet has become. Remember the days when everything was personal site driven? I would never have signed up for any service to help me do anything (post picture, movies, blogs, etc.). It was all setup on my own domain and nobody got a piece of my pie. That was the point of growing up to be The Internet's First Super Star. Learn to do it yourself and screw everybody else. But now it's been flipped and reversed. All celebrities, personalities, friends and your neighbor's cat prefer to just have a domain with links to other places. An interesting change. Change I can not believe in, but change I can deal with. Thanks for the simplification, guys.

So I return with a site and links, because I have better things to do than design fully structured sites. I have things to say, just like everyone else, and instead of working on the layout I'd much rather say it, type it, speak it, record it. If "they" want their Internet to be streamlined with neutral walls and art from Posters.com on the wall, that's just dandy because the Internet goes psychedelic with me in it even if it is a streamlined P.O.S.

As my first act of returning to the throne I will be appearing LIVE on Cotolo Chronicles this Thursday at 6PM PST / 9PM EST to do our annual Roll Call From the Bone Garden! We will be reviewing this year's dead in the most refreshing of ways. You must tune in! (http://cotolochronicles.blogspot.com/)

I have poked my head out of the Internet top soil. Now where the hell has everyone gone!? Welcome to the Internet of the future. Fucking meerkats everywhere ...