Fellow Celebrity Who Gives a Damn: George Clooney 27 September 2006

These celebrity profiles are short and sweet, intended only to highlight that celebrity does, indeed, lend itself to educating the public and drawing media attention to the plights of those who collective voices, however many millions in total and however infused with horrific suffering, are drowned out by the aimless meanderings of empty socialites. One by one, I’m picking my way through fellow celebs who actually do seem to give a damn.

Who gives a damn? George Clooney gives a damn.

Clooney on the Iraq war: “You can’t beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people revenge-seeking. These days it only matters who’s in charge. Right now that’s us — for a while at least. Our opponents resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win. I believe (Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can’t beat anyone anymore.”

Most significantly, Clooney is active in advocating a resolution of the Darfur conflict. His efforts to raise awareness about the ongoing misery include an episode of Oprah, speaking at the Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C., and interview after interview on the subject. He has also traveled to the region for first-hand information gathering.

Clooney had this to say about the Darfur genocide: “The news is that two years after we’ve said “genocide” that it’s still going on and it’s increasing — and that somewhere in there we can all talk about this and make speeches and say this is horrible and we have to do something. But every day we don’t do something, and every day this goes on, thousands of people are dying and dying horrific deaths. Samantha Power wrote a piece where she met with a woman who was running as they were coming into camp. And she [the woman] was holding two of her kids and her son following her, and they shot her son in the back, who’s six. And she ran up in the hills with her two daughters. And they came back, and they have stuffed the well full of parts of all the citizens of this little village, including her son. They poison the wells in every town they go into. They don’t want the land. They just want to [ethnically] cleanse everyone. The unfortunate truth of it is it’s not somehow sexy enough news and it’s hard. It’s hard to look at, and after a while people don’t want to see it. And there’s a lot of, I think, wear and tear on people seeing a lot of tragedy. But while we don’t pay attention to it and sort of shut our eyes, there’s an awful lot of killing going on, an awful lot of rape going on. Here’s the thing: We always see this now. We have tragedy fatigue on television. Every day, 20 kids [are] killed in Iraq or, you know, there’s always disaster. Pakistan, Afghanistan, there’s always horrible disaster in Nepal now. But this is genocide, and if everybody just got up right now out of their chair and picked up a phone and called their congressman, or called the number that registered with the president, it makes a difference. It always has.”

An aside: Can we get some armed NATO troops in there already? No? Fine, let’s start a fund to hire Croatian mercenaries to protect these people. Hell, Charlton Heston can round up a group of neo-Rough Riders in a heartbeat. Stop already with the geopolitical excuses, the religious obstacles and the myriad other excuses offered by handwringers who don’t really give a damn about human lives. FIRST, we save lives and end suffering. THEN, we worry about the potential political fallout. It’s very simple – we either put love and respect for each other above politics and religion, or we don’t. If we don’t, we’re sub-human and deserve this planet not a whit. The imbeciles in governments around the world think they have it all worked out, think they know how to manipulate world events, that they can predict the results of global (in)actions, yet they’re no better equipped, in terms of basic intellectual prowess, than you, nor I, nor a factory worker in Macau. What they believe, erroneously, is that they are privy to information that separates them, elevates them, and positions them in such a way as to make their insight more accurate, more helpful, more invaluable to humanity and the world. The reality ism the only elevation that has taken place is the separation, up and away, of their soul from their intellect. Having one without the other renders a person far less capable of acting as a steward or leader than the simplest child. So, am I saying that a group of children would handle the Darfur disaster better, more humanely, than our current crop of world leaders? Yes, I’m saying exactly that.

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The most significant book you’ve read or I will buy it back from you at full purchase price: Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 Trust me on this one, just order it. You’ll thank me later.

A Quote 25 September 2006

Doing some reading (I know, it’s bad for the eyes) and this Thomas Berry quote hit me a moment ago (it will either resonate for you or it won’t):

“Unaware of what we have done or its order of magniture, we seek to remedy the situation by altering our ways of acting on some minor scale, by recycling, by diminishing our use of energy, by limiting our use of automobiles, by fewer development projects. The difficulty is that we do these things, not primarily to ease our plundering of the Earth in its basic resources, but to make possible continuation of our plundering industrial life patterns by mitigating the consequences. We mistake the order of magnitude of what we are dealing with. Our problems are primarily problems of macrophase biology, the intergral functioning of the entire complex of biosystems of the planet.”

We all need to look a bit deeper, it would seem.

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The most significant book you’ve read or I will buy it back from you at full purchase price: Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 Trust me on this one, just order it. You’ll thank me later.

PLAN B MEET PLAN B/PAGING BRAD PITT 23 September 2006

Many people believe that all celebrities know each other, that once we ‘arrive’ we are given a secret black book that contains the contact information of every movie star, every pop singer, every artist, model, and mindless heiress. Not true. The only contacts we have are those we forge on our own and those held by our PR agencies.

My point? I need to get something to Brad Pitt (a man who seems to recognize the unique genius of Neil Barrett) and FAST. And I need your help. You see, I have in my possession a copy of Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble that has been inscribed by Lester Brown with some kind words for Mr. Pitt concerning his recent green building project in New Orleans. A lot of people visit this site. Surely, someone with a connection to Mr. Pitt will drop by, no? Can I get a little help here?

Coincidentally enough (I prefer to think of coincidences as synchronicities. Semantics perhaps, but it’s a personal preference nonetheless) Mr. Pitt’s production company is called Plan B. I think the connection between Lester and Brad is pretty well predestined.

As an aside, with the now official and soon to massively acclerate housing crash in progress, more and more people are going to start understanding the prescience of Kunstler. While his politics may not be your cup of tea, let that not get in the way of his message. Don’t know James Howard Kunstler? Look him up at www.kunstler.com. Whether his predictions hold up perfectly or not, only a fool dismisses his message. My favorite Kunstler quote: “Suburbia is best understood as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.”

Technorati Tags: brad-pitt, lester-brown, james-kunstler, climate-change

GOOD PARTY LA/BANKSY/WILD TURKEY 20 September 2006

I’ve just returned to my Sonoma County retreat from a furious four days in Los Angeles. Being famous means I have to fly around quite a bit these days, which is fine – I used to do a lot of traveling in my former incarnation making and selling wine – but it’s always, always so good to be home.

BANKSY: I was lucky enough to be able to squeeze in a visit the downtown Banksy show. Talk about a LINE! I’m just glad that I was allowed to skip it, but I did feel kind of like a jerk, sauntering past hundreds of people. Banksy did a great job transforming a really beautiful warehouse space into a temporary gallery. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, click HERE. In short, Banksy is a guy who takes different hyper-contemporary art forms such as stenciling, appropriation and graffiti and presents them directly to the public in various urban settings. I wouldn’t say his genius is in his actual artistic technique, one can find superior examples of every medium he tackles – his genius is in his social and political commentary and the boldness with which he approaches each project. My favorite piece at the show was a massive painting that depicted a young girl, who stand atop admist a pile of rubble, bloodied and grasping a dangling teddy bear. To her left a cameraman is getting the shot. Behind her, a news woman is holding back rescue workers, making certain that the ‘news’ is properly captured before the Red Cross interferes. Stunning. The man is amazing. I’ve enjoyed watching him over the past few years and I look forward to everything he pulls off in the future.

GOOD MAGAZINE LAUNCH: A good time was had by all at St. Vibiana’s in Los Angeles this past Saturday evening as GOOD Magazine kicked off its inaugural issue with a grand party. I had the chance to hand out a few copies of Plan B 2.0 as well as briefly meet Audrey from GOOD, whom I had been pestering by email as well as my favorite LAist writer, Sloane Berrent. The party was great, the magazine is even better – congratulations to everyone at GOOD for making it all happen. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that publishing a magazine is a massive challenge. If you haven’t subscribed to GOOD already, now is the time. It’s only twenty bucks, and all twenty go to the charity of your choice. Does it get any better than that?

WILD TURKEY: I also discovered over the weekend that the best way to diffuse a potentially ugly late-night situation involving a posse of Santa Monica thugstas is to shove an unopened fifth of Wild Turkey into the mitts of the most inebriated member. The result? Raucous shouts of “SNAP!” (first time I’ve ever heard that in the real world – I thought it was a TV thing), a whole lot of chest bumping, male bonding (“Your name’s Tod? Yo, my name is Todd! Give it up!”) and the “thugsta password” with which I can now receive top-tier treatment at a certain watering hole. The story behind why I had the bottle of WT in my pocket is equally interesting, but you can ask me about that, dearest reader, next time you see me.

Oh, how many people have checked out the latest copy of Esquire? The Brad Pitt interview, while brief, is worth the price of admission. Actually, you can just flip through and read it in thirty seconds at the newsstand, saving you the money to buy a copy of Good or StayFree! Pitt’s reading list is what really got me going – all three books are worth a read. Anyone who drops McDonough’s name (William McDonough, author of Pitt’s recommened read, Cradle to Cradle - another side note is that in the same issue of Esquire a new cookbook by Charlie Palmer, who has a restaurant at the Dry Creek Hotel about one mile from where I sit, is reviewed and the book is like Cradle to Cradle, a new-fangled Durabook. You can read ‘em underwater and recycle them!) is more or less telling the world that they’re paying attention. Pitt seems to be talking the talk and walking the walk.

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The most significant book you’ve read or I will buy it back from you at full purchase price: Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 Trust me on this one, just order it. You’ll thank me later.

Paris Hilton, Are You Listening? 15 September 2006

How long ago did you get sick of it? I mean really sick of it? She was rich, she wanted to be famous, and she achieved her goal. End of story, right? Not by a long shot, not even close. Now she wants, in her own words, to be compared to Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana. What? And in Hilton’s quest for tabloid immortality, she has gone way, way, way over the edge.

There are so very many good people who are working tirelessly to help make the world a better place. Paris Hilton, simply by occupying so much media space with her empty presence, works in direct opposition to these efforts. I ask only that she switches off her vapidity vacuum for 24 hours, to allow some light back into the universe.

I suspect that part of the problem is that Ms. Hilton may be functionally illiterate, thus unable to fully appreciate or promote many of the progressive ideas that are flourishing as the world faces a host of critical social and environmental crises. Appropriately, one of these social problems is functional illiteracy, which afflicts over 30 million U.S. citizens. The assumption that only those among the lowest socioeconomic castes are plagued with illiteracy is absolutely misplaced. If I’m right, I encourage Ms. Hilton to face her problems publicly and in so doing become a role model for many like her who feel deeply shamed for not being able to read the morning paper.

You know what, though? I could be entirely wrong about this girl. Her whole act? It could be just that, an act. Maybe she’s shockingly bright and dedicated, privately, to a life of philanthropy. Either way, I say let her prove me wrong. I hereby challenge Paris Hilton (you are reading this, right Paris?) to a public reading of Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. If I’m wrong, I’d like to offer a very public stage on which Ms. Hilton can force me to eat my words while simultaneously becoming a real hero by promoting a book that trumps the Holy Bible in significance.

I could, however, be wrong about how I’m being wrong. Maybe you’re not secretly smart and dedicated to helping right global wrongs. Maybe, just maybe, you are entirely self-absorbed and don’t give a damn about anyone or anything outside your shallow and entirely ephemeral personal “empire”.

Either way, Paris, give my people a call. Set me straight. We can settle this thing celebrity-to-celebrity, with a little help from my man, our man, Lester Brown.

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The most significant book you’ve read or I will buy it back from you at full purchase price: Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 Trust me on this one, just order it. You’ll thank me later.

Technorati Tags: paris-hilton, lester-brown, tod-briliant

GOOD MAGAZINE LAUNCH PARTY! 12 September 2006

Well, rather than write something witty here, I’ll simply paste the latest press release that my publicist penned. I urge all of you to visit the GOOD Magazine website and pick up a subscription IMMEDIATELY. Check it out – for only $20, you get a blisteringly hot magazine that serves to enlighten the world AND every last penny of that $20 goes directly to the charity of your choice. I ask you, does it get any better than that? Can you NOT subscribe? If you’re reading this, go forth and become a subscriber. Publishing is a very, very difficult game. Support these guys, okay?

The release:

Instant Celebrity Activist, Tod Brilliant, to Attend GOOD Magazine Launch Party, Jacob Arden McClure Art Opening in Los Angeles

Healdsburg, CA (PRWEB) September 5, 2006 — Tod Brilliant, celebrity activist, will be in Los Angeles to attend two special events during the week of September 11, 2006. On Saturday, September 16, Brilliant will travel to the historic St. Vibiana’s Cathedral to support the GOOD magazine launch party. Two nights earlier on Thursday, September 14, Brilliant will be at the Los Angeles debut of artist and friend Jacob Arden McClure at the opening of McClure’s show at West Hollywood’s Museum Works Galleries.

Brilliant recently teamed with Lester Brown, founder of the World Watch Institute and the influential Washington D.C.-based Earth Policy Institute, in an innovative effort to promote mass awareness of Brown’s latest publication, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble .The announcement highlights the growing synergy between established scientists and academics like the MacArthur Fellowship awardee Brown and members of the entertainment industry who are acknowledging their social responsibility and acting accordingly.

About GOOD magazine:

GOOD magazine is an offshoot of philanthropist and media entrepreneur Ben Goldhirsh’s Reason Pictures. From GOOD’s website: “GOOD, a new voice in media, embraces this generation’s merger of capitalism and idealism. We provide an entertaining, thought-provoking, cultural platform for those who want to do well by doing good…Our mission is to stimulate the culture of good by creating dialogue around things that matter.” More information can be found at www.goodmagazine.com + www.reasonpictures.com <

About Jacob Arden McClure:

Jacob Arden McClure is an award-winning painter and filmmaker who has participated in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions. He is well-known for the short video installations he shows in conjunction with his art. McClure has curated art shows nationwide. More information can be found at www.jacobarden.com + www.mwgalleries.com

About Tod Brilliant:

Former Roshambo Winery/Gallery cofounder, current Creative Director and celebrity activist, Tod Brilliant, like many, has given time and energy to a number of nonprofit organizations and projects. Until recently, this part-time participation was enough to assuage Brilliant’s pangs of guilt. The turning point for Brilliant came earlier this year, during a presentation given by Brian Steidle, a former U.S. Marine whose photos and stories of the suffering inflicted upon the people of Sudan’s Darfur region have opened the eyes of many, including world bodies, to the Sudanese genocide. Brilliant decided to use his talents to effectively promote awareness of the dire need for the immediate and active involvement of citizens across the globe to stem the devolution of global society and the environment. Working full-time as a well-connected celebrity, Brilliant’s first post-fame project will promote the work of Earth Policy Institute and World Watch Institute founder Lester R. Brown.

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The most significant book you’ve read or I will buy it back from you at full purchase price: Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 Trust me on this one, just order it. You’ll thank me later.

I’ve Been TAGGED! 11 September 2006

(You can get background info on my CELEBRITY STATUS and what I plan to do with it HERE.)

Jeff at the great Sustainablog blog-tagged me on this post about books. I think his ulterior motive is to clearly demonstrate that celebrities do, in fact, read. With fellow celebs Hilton, Lohan, Richie having done volumes of work to promote literacy, Jeff is pushing me to do my part. Fair enough! Some of this info is covered on this site’s ‘Reading List’ page.

A book that changed my life

Only one? Well, I must stay consistent and true, therefore I nominate Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet in Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. This is the book that finally snapped me out of my “I-can-do-my-bit-by-simply-choosing-paper-over-plastic” routine and forced me to realize that if I don’t dedicate my all, my everything, into doing what I can utilizing my personal skill set, to help spread the word about this book (and, in turn, hopefully help bring about a better, more livable future for all creatures on our planet), then I won’t be doing my part as a father, a son, a citizen, or a friend. Does that sound over the top? I don’t know . . . it’s honest. Read the book. We don’t have time to NOT act.

Books I’ve Read More Than Once

I try not to read books more than once and I never, ever view a movie twice (well, aside from Buckaroo Banzai and The Burmese Harp). However, there are exceptions. Plan B 2.0, of course. I’ve read it three times this year. Another is my all-time favorite childrens’ book: One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer, who happens to be my all-time favorite childrens’ author. I’ve kept my original of this book over the years, crayon scrawls and all, and now I share it with my son, who also loves it. I’ve also gone back over a few Heinlein novels, Malcolm X’ autobiography, the Tao of Jeet Kun Do, Motel Fetish (okay, this is a photography book, but it’s saucy as hell), People’s History of the U.S.A. (new editions deserve new readings), How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (Lenny Bruce’s autobiograph), And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. Oh, I can’t fail to mention Yukio Mishima’s absurdly perfect and astoundingly beautiful tetralogy. There are others, but, well. . .maybe later.

Books I’d take with me if I were stuck on a desert island.

Who started this desert island thing? Was it SPIN? Or did it exist prior? Regardless, I’d have to take Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar. It’s simply the greatest book I’ve ever read. As Pablo Neruda once said, “People who do not read Cortazar are doomed. Not to read him is a serious invisible disease.” Also Plan B 2.0 so that I would be compelled to take damned good care of that island. Maybe the Chicago Manual of Style as I’ve never cursed at a book more thoroughly and on a desert island, I’d need a solid foil to keep the days lively. Mishima’s tetralogy I’d bring along, as there are so many beautiful observations made in those pages - on a desert island I’d likely need a whole lot of perspective.

A Book that made me laugh

Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin. He’s one of my heroes, but don’t tell him that. I had him over to dinner last week (did you know that celebrities have to invite at least one fellow star over for dinner on a weekly basis? It’s an odd networking rule, created by the 35th degree Architects of Fame), but never made mention of the fact that I adore his writings, comedy, plays, acting. In fact, I barely said a word to the man, lest he intuit something.

A Book I wish I had written

Marc Bojanowski’s The Dog Fighter and Jesse Shepard’s Jubilee King. Mostly, for reasons of jealousy. Marc and Jesse are good friends, amazing people, and far better writers than am I. Now, there are plenty of writers who surpass me, but I have to actually hang out with these guys, so it kills me! I wish I had written BOTH of their books!

A book I’ve been meaning to read

Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. Everyone I know has read it. . .I’m just not there yet. It is, however, on my desk. Also, Thomas Sankara’s biography. It’s in my room, near the bed. Unread.

Books I’m currently reading

Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0. I’m pretty much always reading this.

Africa: A Modern History by Guy Arnold. This beat is 1100 pages of tiny text. I’ve been working on it for some time.

Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life. It’s hard to get the Religious Studies major out of me, even after all these years.

The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler. SO DEPRESSING. But what if he’s right on? The man is no fool, I’ll tell you that.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. This book doesn’t come out until tomorrow, but I’ve pre-ordered it and await it with much anticipation. I have a zombie fetish. . . I don’t know why. It’s right up there with my Polaroid fetish (massive).

MY TURN TO TAG! Hmmm. . . .I don’t know a whole lot of bloggers out there. I’m going to tag GOOD Magazine and see what happens. Whether or not they respond, you really should check out the site and the magazine.

(image courtesy of thinklab:typepad)

Are We All Poached? 10 September 2006

I wouldn’t bet against it. Odds are quite good that our children will live a life vastly different than the one we know. If *THIS ARTICLE FROM THE WASHINGTON POST* doesn’t jar you into action  (something a bit more proactive than, say, clicking on MoveOn e-petitions), your children, and their children, should disown you.

Does ‘Global Warming’ Let Us Off the Hook? 6 September 2006

Here’s a question that merits some consideration: Does the concept of climate change absolve us, to some degree, of our global responsibility?

The reason I ask this question is that it seems that global warming/climate change has been associated with most every recent ill to befall humanity. Got a problem? Blame global warming! It’s the hip thing to do! In no way am I downplaying the impact that environmental issues have on our daily and future lives. I’m simply axing whether or not the rush to commodify sustainability is leaving a host of other issues comparatively neglected.

Did climate change lead to the genocides in Rwanda or Darfur? Nope. Colonialism, overpopulation and poor agricultural/industrial practices were among the factors that contributed and are still contributing to these horrors.

Did climate change create the HIV/AIDS epidemic? No, this one is largely Mama Nature fighting back against overpopulation and deforestation.

How about the massive desertification of China, the drying of rivers and seas all across the world? Again, human intervention via deforestation, overpopulation and, again, inane agricultural and industrial practices is the chief culprit.

The list goes on and on, but coming up with more examples serves little point. The three examples above happen with or without the first signs of climate change. I’m simply asking if you think that some of us are tempted to absolve ourselves of our guilt by pointing to global warming as the root cause of all problems, rather than face the fact that our personal consumption habits are having a massive impact not just on the future via contributing to environmental toxicity, but the now. We may shop differently, we may even eat organic thinking that this will lower the temperature of the surface of the earth, but we still shop and we still eat a lot. Changing from Safeway to Whole Foods isn’t exactly lifting much of a finger. Think about it – many of us agonize over decisions such as whether to trade the A4 in for a new Prius, thinking that such decisions are changing the world. These are “champage problems”, as my darling Andi likes to say — luxury issues that only the world’s elite face. In spending time wrestling with them, we ignore so very much.

On a somewhat related note, what of those who point to various government practices/policies which directly contribute to environmental problems and say, “Hey, I didn’t write that law, I didn’t pen that subsidy check. I signed the petition on MoveOn! This isn’t my fault!”? It’s what the Democrats seem to do when running for office against Republicans, pretending to be the “eco-Party” when really, just as with the Equal Rights movements, they’re merely slowly, grudgingly being compelled into action by their constituency and, more directly, by the forces of popular culture. We should not dismiss popular culture as ‘the lowest common denominator’ even though it does often elevate the worst of our culture, as it also allows terms like ‘sustainability’ and ‘eco-consciousness’ to become buzz words and it is this buzz that crafts a fair amount of legislation.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments. Yes, I’m baiting a bit. . .just to get some dialogue going.

Unique Challenges of Fame, Part One 3 September 2006

Also, now that I’m famous (read about that HERE) I’ve been thinking about hiring some assistants to help me with the daily pressures. At the top of my list is Personal Cereal Box Opener, as I have the damndest time opening cereal boxes, I really do. I’m okay at getting the cardboard outer box open and can do this pretty much without destroying the package. It’s the inner plastic lining that befuddles me time and time again. I end up shoving my thumb through the plastic, shredding it, and losing much of the bag’s ability to maintain freshness. It’s really an issue for me. I want to help save the world and eat fresh tasting cereal daily and I’m willing to pay the right person who can make this happen. If that person is you, contact me with a resume.

(feel free to comment)