Letters to the Editor
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Vimeo.com too
The fame isn't quite as big for Vimeo stars, (though there is overlap) but the work is usually much more creative and interesting, as are the potential interviews.
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Not worth 15 seconds
. . . much less 15 minutes. WHY did you interview him?? Fine, let him post his rants on YouTube--it's (kind of) a free country, but I beg you: Please, please, please no more enabling of Ms. Crocker. Perez Hilton is bad enough. I'm certainly no Log Cabin Republican, but s/he's an embarrassment to gay people everywhere and to our country . . . and REALLY annoying.
With all that's going on - Iraq, Iran, Constitution as toilet paper, etc, etc - this queen's having a too-public hissy fit about Britney Spears??? Where to start?
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Why?
Slow day?
This kid needs help. why post this so more attention is paid to someone obviously troubled and in need of therapy. This looks like car crash stuff without the cars. Do some real work please.
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Slow News Day?
Wow Farhad,
Just when I thought you'd turned the corner into interesting tech journalism, it's back to the bitchfest. Because something appears on the net, doesn't make it technology. Really, we can do without devoting pixels to the overdramatic acting of an obviously disturbed individual whose goal of becoming the web's effette "it" girl are just sad.
As long as we're being dramatic, I feel betrayed that you posted this in a column. This is not "Gizmos, people and big ideas". If this is what your "occasional Machinist feature" is going to be, the kick off should have been a kick to the curb.
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I first saw Chris Crocker a few months ago on a myspace video. Since then he has begun popping up on Youtube with disturbing frequency. It's going to add a whole new meta level of irony when this kid harms himself or someone else in his quest for online notoriety. The part that confuses me the most is his legion of fans that say how funny he is. Is he really funny, or are they just amused by mental instability? I really don't get it.
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I Feel For Him, BUT....
My one comment about "Chris Crocker" is that having seen his "Leave Britney Alone" video, which appeared to be genuinely emotional to me, and reading the above article which mentioned his receiving death threats from homophobics, I truly felt for him. I know he must know what it is like to be ridiculed or attacked simply because of what you are or what you look like, not necessarily WHO you are and what you have to offer. I am a caucasian, heterosexual married woman with not one ounce of desire to see ANYONE personally attacked or hurt because of their gender or sexual orientation or race. I would honestly think that "Chris Crocker" would feel the same way.
Why, then, in his "Why I'm Gay" video does he make demeaning, misogynistic comments about the unpleasantness of his entry into the world through his mother's birth canal? I'd rather not explain it here -- just watch his video to figure it out. Well, here is my human-to-human question for Chris: Why is it any more acceptable for you to generally degrade women in such a way than for some hate-filled, homophobic man to make some lame, over-used remark about gay men "dropping the soap"? Or, any of the 100's of tired, juvenile, homophobic cracks we've all heard since 6th grade? Comments like both of the above are meant to demean, belittle, and humiliate a group of people and put them "in their place". Considering that he seems to be such an obviously creative, expressive person, somehow I find myself surprised that he isn't above that....
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File under: "Be Careful What You Wish For"
I'd never seen or heard of Chris Crocker myself until yesterday, when I too was attempting to access Spear's MTV performance online. (Yes, I was having my very own *slow news day*)
At first glance (and it was just a glance as the clip went on far too long), I thought it was quite the clever performance piece, esp. given the enormous amount of (for the most part, deserved) negative attention re: Britney's MTV debacle.
Thinking nothing much more of it, I now read Farhad's interview. Too bad. What a waste...of my time viewing the YouTube clip and enjoying it, and quite possibly a waste of *Crock's* future as a young gay actor/performance artist.
If he's reading this: Chris, you DO realise Britney Spears is sort of the current MTV generation's equivalent to Anita Bryant? (Britney's table-scrap opportunity of kissing Madonna on another crap MTV awards show nonewithstanding.) Oh. Right. You obviously don't. Do yourself a favour. Educate yourself by Googling/Wiki'ing "Anita Bryant".
Now, apply my "Anita" analogy to your apparently sincere Britney worship of today. "Can you hear me now?"
Embarrassing indeed.
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Bad video day
Well, if it is bad video day, then my chef d'oeuvre Dinner Dominican Style beats the pants off this crap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWR_9euLBJY
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Mr. Manjoo Is Painfully Naive
Crocker is a raving queen of a publicity hound, and you fell for his line of bull hook, line and sinker. The giveaway was the bit about his having once been friends with Perez Hilton. Oh really?? That's a fair amount of juice for a simple vlogger supposedly just dipping his toes into acting. And as others have already stated, this was a grotesque waste of bandwidth. I'm also amazed that so many MSM venues are giving this guy free publicity. Truly stunning.
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All this about Britney?
You have got to be kidding.
I'm not sure what's more pathetic, the 15 years of fame we seem to be giving to these "former new mouseketeers" or the 15 minutes of fame that Manjoo's article lavishes on a very troubled boy.
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Within 10 years this queen will be
dead from a communicable disease. He is pathetic, so is britney.
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"Leave 'Chris' Alone!"
What, we don't have enough mentally ill celebutards in the news already? We have to go trolling for cheesy understudies on YouTube?
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On Histrionics
Is this video for real? Does it matter? Probably not because an individual like this could not tell the difference between a faked emotion and a real emotion whether it came from him or somebody else. First of all he, like the rest of does, doesn't know Britney as a person. We only know her as a symbol and her symbol has moved from pop star to tabloid fodder. When it comes to histrionics it doesn't matter because in the end it is all about grabbing someone's attention. Thanks to You Tube and reality TV we are all attention whores. Remember Oscar Wilde's famous quote: the only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about. I thought maybe he was identifying with her at some level. Why does he feel her pain? But then I think in reality he is exploiting her whether he realizes it or not.