The Cult of No Personality

No. This isn’t about Corey Glover and the boys of Living Colour—BTW, one of the most underrated bands of the last 20 years. This is about getting fame. In my strip this week, Layne brings up Paris Hilton and how she’s known world wide for virtually nothing. The only thing that she’s know for, her looks and her money, weren’t even worked for. She was born with both.

This brings us to the following question, is it easier to be famous now? I think that the answer has to be yes. Hilton has zero talent, except for what she did to her former boyfriend one night. I have to admit, she looks to be really proficient at that. But I don’t think that skill translates well into fame or fortune.

You want to see the strip that spawned this inner monologue? Check it out here:
www.room19comics.com

Hilton was born with a silver spoon up her nose and she has worked that into a semi-hit television reality series, the desire of a lot of men and her style is imitated by some women. But how did she do it? That’s the billion dollar question. The first time I remember hearing about the Hilton sisters was about five years ago. All I heard was that Paris and her equally vapid sister Nicky would go out every night, get completely trashed and say stupid things. Aside from finding them attractive, in that slutty sort of way, I didn’t give them too much attention, and thought that they would disappear into a mountain of cocaine and down a river of Red Bull and vodka.

But I underestimated the power of the Hilton. After awhile, they began to appear every where: Paris with that cocked head look and stoner smile, Nicky with those bat-shit crazy eyes. Then things pushed forward even more, they were guest starring on TV shows. First as kitschy walk-ons and then on talk shows begging for some kind of “edge”. Then Paris got her own series, then she was in a few movies, then she was supposed to record a CD (which hasn’t seen the light of day). How could one person with no talent have so many irons in the fire?

I mean, it can’t be all the work of her PR person can it? If so, whatever that person is being paid, it’s not enough. While it’s no secret that Americans like their celebrities stupid and slutty, Hilton has taken it to a new extreme. She is so dumb and so slutty that she’s almost a cartoon of herself (and I think there may have been talk of a Hilton sisters cartoon at one point), but no one seems to give a shit.

People still take her picture, still ask her questions (which are never answered intelligently) still appears on the cover of a truck-load of magazines (yet is never completely nude). Maybe we’re the idiots here. It’s obvious that Hilton is laughing all the way to the bank, she doesn’t even hide that smug smile. Maybe she found some Rosetta Stone that unlocks the key to being well-known without doing any work. I don’t know.

I guess the only thing you can do is congratulate her, right? Nah. I’d still rather be me than her.

Speaking of me, I finished my Web Design courses on Monday night. Completely and totally done. D-O-N-E. I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a relief that this is. It was about 48 weeks, and I have to say, I worked hard for that year. I was a little sad to leave, because I did enjoy learning a new skill, but at the same time, I’m not going to miss the homework.

If you want to see my final project, check it out here:

www.boston-braves.com/carreonphoto/carreonphoto

It’s supposed to be an updated version of this site:

www.carreonphotography.com

I think that I did a decent job. Now all I have to do is update my current site and find some new customers. That should be happening in the next couple of weeks or so.

Speaking of the next few weeks, next week there will be no new strip. I am going to be in Chicago for the entire week, so I won’t have time to upload anything. Sorry about that one, kiddies. Also, on Friday, come back to this site as we will be doing something pretty cool. I don’t want to tell you exactly what it is, but I think that you’re going to like it.