Zadie on Fame, Kurt on Using
I wonder about this, using their words. At least as far as Kurt's concerned, I can take some refuge in the fact that Courtney is netting $4 mil for the publication of his private journals. Gross. (I justify my use of the excerpts in that they're already out there, and I know that at least one reader will find them interesting.) Buy newsweek. Or steal it from your local Comfort Suites. Your choice.
"There's no accident in the fact that the breakdown in faith and the rise in the obsession with fame go side by side with one another," Smith says over coffee. Lunch is long gone; eating, writing - she does everything lickety-split. This includes her reaction to the fame that hit her with the publication of her first novel. "White Teeth" made her famous, and she was not one bit ready for her close-up. "I can't imagine what it's like to be Tom Cruise. It's like a living death, it's horrible." This from a woman who refuses to understand why the British press wastes ink gabbing about her hairstyle and her looks. Fine, we won't say a word. But she makes her point: "I remember once being in the street in London and watching a bus go by with my face on it, when 'White Teeth' had just come out, and the way that made me feel. It was a sort of mixture of pumped-up, false power, vanity and terror. And to multiply that, and to actively want it in your life, seems to me horrifying. It's about the emptiest thing on the planet, and I wanted to write about that."
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Well for those of you who are concerned with my present physical and mental state. I am not a junkie. I am not gay, although I wish I were, just to piss off homophobes. Ive had a rather unconclusive and uncomfortable stomach condition for the past 3 years which by the way is not related to stress which also means it is not an ulcer. Because there is no pattern to the burning, nauseaus pain in my upper abdominal cavity, I never know when it will happen, I can be at home in the most relaxed atmosphere sipping natural spring water, no stress, no fuss and then WHAM! like a shotgun: stomach time. Then I can play 100 live performances in a row, guzzle boric acid & do a zillion television interviews and not even a burp. This has left doctors with no ideas except the usual: here Kurt, try another peptic ulcer pill and lets jam this fibre optic tube with a video camera in it down your throat for the 3rd time and see whats going on in there. Again. Yep your in pain alright. Your stomach is extremely inflamed and red. Try eating ice cream from now on. Please lord, f�k hit records, just let me have my very own unexplainable rare stomach disease named after me. And the title of our next double album, �Cobain�s disease.�
So after protein drinks, becoming a vegetarian, exercise, stopping smoking, and doctor after doctor I decided to relieve my pain with small doses of heroine for a walloping 3 whole weeks. It served as a band-aid for a while but then the pain came back so I quit. It was a stupid thing to do and Ill never do it again and I feel real sorry for anyone who thinks they can use heroine as a medicine because um, duh, it don�t work. Drug withdrawal is everything you�ve ever heard. You puke, you falail around, you sweat, you s�t your bed just like that movie �Christiane F.� It�s evil. Leave it alone.
I am the product of 7 months of screaming at the top of my lungs almost every night 7 months of jumping around like a retarded rheesus monkey 7 months of an-swering the same questions over and over ... I�m really bored with everyones concerned advice like: �man you have a really good thing going. Your band is great. You write great songs, but hey man you should get your personal s�t together. Don�t freak out, and get healthy.� Gee I wish it was as easy as that but, honestly I didn�t want all this attention but Im not freaked out which is something a lot of people would like to see. Its an entertaining thought to watch a rock figure whos public domain mentally self destruct. But I�m sorry friends Ill have to decline. Maybe Crispin Glover should join our band.
Well Ive spewed enough, probably too much but oh well, for every one opinionated, pissy, self appointed rock judge cermudgeon there�s a thousand kids ...
Hope I die before I turn into Pete Townshend.
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Excerpts from separate issues of Newsweek.
12:29 a.m. - 2002-10-24
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