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The Citizen, 2016-06-09, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Try to leave 'em laughing Saddest thing I read in the news this week? A five -word newspaper headline over a story announcing the death of Alan Young, aged 96. Chances are you're too young to remember Mister Young, but if you've accumulated enough tree rings, I'll bet you remember Mister Ed. For the rest of you striplings, Mister Ed wasn't technically a mister. He was a `talking' horse who starred in his own TV show for four seasons back in the 1960s. Alan Young played Mister Ed's straight man on the show. Hence the sad headline I referred to earlier: ACTOR LISTENED TO TALKING HORSE. You never know how people are going to remember you after you croak. Which makes it a good idea to... write your own headline, assuming you get the chance. Oscar Wilde did. On his deathbed in a seedy hotel in Paris the Irish wit took one look at his surroundings and sniffed "Either this wallpaper goes or I do." The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was less witty, more matter of fact. Following a pub crawl through the streets of New York in 1953, AOArthur Black a woozy Thomas patted his mouth and observed "I've had 18 straight whiskeys. I believe that's a record". It was also his parting line. Thomas collapsed and ended up in a coma. A week later he was dead. Of — quelle surprise — alcohol poisoning,. Last words don't have to be depressing. Bob Hope, for instance, managed to get off a rather snappy exit line. A funny one too, as befits a man who spent his life trying to make people laugh. When his wife asked the dying comedian if he had any preferences as to where he would be buried, he looked up at her, winked and whispered "Surprise me." On that subject, O. Henry, the short story writer who specialized in surprise endings had a surprise ending himself. As family gathered around him on his deathbed his breathing got fainter and fainter. "Is he dead?" one whispered. "I can't tell," said another. "Feel his feet," advised the attending doctor, "Nobody ever died with warm feet". At which point Mister Henry sat up, blurted "Joan of Arc did!" And fell back dead. But if I had to pick the most poignant curtain call, I'd give the nod to Major General John Sedgwick, commanding officer of the Union forces at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during the American Civil War. The Feds were lined up facing the rebel forces who were dug in several hundred yards away. The Union boys, wary of deadly rebel snipers, were showing no inclination to march toward the enemy. Major General Sedgwick, in an effort to rally the forces, stood up, glared at the enemy lines disdainfully, then turned back to his own troops and roared: "What! what! men, dodging this way for single bullets! What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. Why, they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." It is a simple matter of respect To some extent, if someone decides to live in the spotlight, they give up certain expectations to freedom and privacy and living a normal life. It's an uncomfortable reality for me to face because it means that, as a fan, I've contributed to the fact that someone who brings me such happiness as some of my favourite artists are denied the right to do things like go for a walk, go out for dinner or perform their art without being assaulted with camera flashes, requests for autographs and people begging for insufferable selfie after selfie. Like I said, however, to some extent, anyone who wants to become a performer has to realize that, if they make it big, they are going to have to realize the only peace and quiet they will get will be when they are completely shut off from the outside world — whether through people actually trying to record every moment of their life or having to re -watch those recorded moments, they will realize that they live their life very much in front of the world. It bothers me a little because some of the moments when I find the most peace are when I'm sitting on my deck listening to music or driving down the highway with my windows open playing an album on my car stereo. While I use music to relax, the people who make the songs and albums that I listen to are denied that very same opportunity. I'm sure the millions upon millions of dollars they make will soften the blow somewhat, however, that peace and quiet is something that I would be hard pressed to put a dollar value on. A celebrity not being able to go outside without having their picture taken of is one thing I can feel some of the collective guilt that society should all share for the way we put these artists on pedestals, however, I saw it sink to a new low last week when I attended a Meat Loaf concert in London. Meat Loaf was the soundtrack of my youth (which seems a lot closer than it actually was). I had cassettes of his work when all I had was a mobile cassette player and CDs when my parents later bought me a boom box. When I first started driving my father's old Ford Focus, it was done with Bat out of Hell and Bat out of Hell II: Back Into Hell playing on the stereo whenever and wherever I went. Even now, when I'm making those long trips to visit friends in Toronto or even further afield, I usually throw some Meat Loaf on my phone so I can listen to a tune or three and sing along. To say his music had a profound effect on my musical tastes would be an understatement so, as I'm sure most of you read, I had to take the opportunity to see him while he was still touring. To answer the question that I get asked the most about the experience: the show was entertaining. It made me wish I hadn't missed the other concerts he had put on in my life and made me wish, as I lamented in last week's column, that I had been bolder in my youth and tackled those opportunities as they came up. While a couple of things stuck in my craw about the evening (who shows up late to a show with no opening act? Seriously?), the one thing that affected me the most was the fact that people used Meat Loaf, this man who had shaped much of my childhood, this artist who has been giving of his talent for decades and is now approaching 70 years old, as a prop for selfies. Meat Loaf may not be the big ticket act he once was, so there wasn't a line of bouncers or a metal divider between him and the audience who took the floor seats which meant he was literally a couple feet away from people who wanted to run up to the bottom of the stage. I thought that was cool — had I got tickets down there, I would have likely got as close as I could to take a picture with my phone and commemorate the event. Maybe this is just my experience as a photographer speaking, but the relationship between a person being photographed and a person taking a picture is a defined one — the person with the camera wants to mark this moment in either their life or the life of the subject of the photograph. People running up to the stage and getting up -close shots of Meat Loaf were doing so because they wanted to mark the event and I respect that and I think it was pretty cool he put so little between himself and his fans. Taking a selfie, however, is something entirely different. Selfies, or pictures where someone puts themselves in front of a subject, thus making them the focus of the picture, have always shown me that the person taking the picture wants to make themself the focus of the image. At that point, whatever is in the background becomes less important than what it was: a photo of the Eiffel Tower, an impressive structure with historical, cultural and architectural value, becomes a backdrop; the pyramids in Egypt go from tombs and objects of reverence to a blurry beige shape behind someone who is way too close to the phone and artists become little more than props for someone's Facebook profile picture. To say I was angry when people were standing 15 feet away from the stage to make sure they could get enough of their face alongside Meat Loaf, using him as little more than a backdrop, wouldn't be correct. I wasn't angry, I was sad. My reverence for Meat Loaf may be tied too closely to my nostalgia of childhood, but to see this man who has one of the best-selling albums of all time (only behind artists like Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Michael Jackson) be made the equivalent of one of those fake - looking cloth backdrops we used to have for school photos troubled me greatly. Fortunately, for my enjoyment of the show, I didn't really reflect on it until afterwards and it didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. That said, it will always be something that I'm reminded of whenever I see the pictures of the show I did take or pull on the concert t -shirt. Final Thought A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron. — Horace Mann 411. Shawn 005 Loughlin Shawn's Sense Profit margins Jn Huron County, people tend to garner attention for the right reasons. We, at The Citizen, try to highlight those situations and perhaps that's why people have come to love what it is we do. Increasingly, however, in other parts of the world, they just aren't so lucky. Whether it's fear or a conservative push -back after years of being politically correct, people are out there doing unethical things and getting rewarded for it. This is nothing new. It's not even something new in this column. It's something I've definitely touched on before. Whether it was Kim Kardashian becoming famous because of a sex tape or musicians stripping their way to the top, I've discussed the aspect of the changing world where it's not necessarily hard work, dedication and an obligation to all things right and true that gets you to the top. It's... something else. While it's sad to say, I can almost look back on the Kardashians of the world now and laugh. For that was a time when no one was getting hurt because of these antics. It was just a harmless little sex tape. Things have taken a much darker turn in recent years. Donald Trump is likely the World Heavyweight Champion of this new movement. He says all the wrong things (in the eyes of many), does things we've been told for years not to do (including promoting racism, sexism and most of the other 'isms you can think of — including fascism if you listen to Robert Kagan of The Washington Post) and is unapologetically rude, confrontational and in - your -face about it; only to see his popularity rise every time the average person figures he's finally done himself in. It's in this Bizarro World (an invention of DC Comics in 1960 — a planet on which up is down and bad is good) fashion that we find George Zimmerman, the man known around the world as the killer of Trayvon Martin. Many found it a travesty that Zimmerman was found not criminally responsible for killing Martin (it was decided that he was within his rights to defend himself when he shot the 17 -year-old) and were outraged, when, at the end of the trial, he was given his gun back. In legal terms, it was the right thing to do. Zimmerman was found not guilty, so there's no reason he shouldn't have the gun returned. It was his, he paid for it and the fact that he used it to defend himself — arguably the very reason you might buy a gun — shouldn't mean he loses it. In ethical terms, however, it was seen as yet another slap in the face to black folks across America. Many felt that not only can white people across the country kill blacks with impunity, but they won't so much as have their weapons taken away from them if they do. That was a few years ago now. Fast -forward to today and Zimmerman decided to rid himself of the gun — and he was paid over $100,000 to do so. There are clearly people in the world who value the fact that the gun was used to kill a black teenager that would make them pay anywhere between $100,000 and nearly $190,000 (reports have yet to confirm the final figure). So, here's Zimmerman with a healthy payday all as a result of doing something that the vast majority of North Americans think was wrong. It's not right, and it's not fair — but it does seem to be the way of the world these days.