i always feel the need to explain myself

I'm not trying to be ironic or a smartalec (has anyone ever seen that word in print? how do you spell that?!) when I say I like people like Kanye West, you know. I like performance art. I'm convinced, convinced that what Ann Coulter is, is a performance artist since she has ceased to properly function as a political pundit or whatever she claimed to be. (The sales on her last book? Not so good.) When you label something as good art, you can write off a whole manner of sins, especially Ann Coulter's. How much more palatible is Kanye's smug self-righteousness when you find yourself slowly getting in on the joke that it's not really real?
And THAT, my friends, is why Joaquin Pheonix is not being funny. Everybody's in on that joke. Yeah, like you really quit your career as an actor (a darn good actor) to become a joke of a rapper with a grissly-man beard who wears sunglasses to bed. Maybe people took you seriously for a nanosecond, but when Ben Stiller is up on stage at the Academy Awards doing a hilarious impression of "post-retirement J.P.", well, the jig's up. Tell Casey Aflec to stop filming you; the documentary's never going to happen because what is it going to say? "We filmed this when everybody thought I left Hollywood to be a hugely successful rapper. People were so surprised when we showed up at Sundance with this VHS. I hope you have as much fun watching it as we had making it. Peace and Love, Joaquin."
That's not performance art because No One (save Joaquin and Casey) believe in it.
And this is why Kanye rules. Because the stuff that comes out of that man's mouth...it's just...classic. Classic stuff.
"If the Bible was written today, I would be in it"

jillie

p.s. I realize that sometimes outrageous people aren't performance artists. Paris Hilton is Paris Hilton, heiress and product placement slut, not "Paris Hilton," the character. I get this. ...I just wish Paris and Ann and Rush and all the Kardashians and Real Housewives [of Atlanta/NewYork/WhatHaveYou] were in on the joke, too.