Has anyone become famous, and not bought a mansion?

musicismylife78 wrote:

this is so stupid.

Its like trying to tell someone the sky is blue and they keep saying, no its maroon.

I have tried again and again to say I understood why people move out of their small houses once they get famous. In fact i said that in my first post. I said I understood. I even said there is a genuine threat of people killing or assaulting celebrities.

Yet this thread is made up not, of constructive insights into why or why not people do this, but bashing my thread and saying I am an idiot or I am insensitive to peoples need for privacy.

What do you want from me.

This board has some great people, and its a board dedicated to a great band, but alot of you are pretty insensitive.

If a person disagrees with the band or with an idea, its bash so and so time.

And lets be real here. Lets be honest with each other. The whole idea of suburbs came out of the fear of blacks and crime. Thats the truth, whether you folks want to mock me or not, its fact. White flight, urban decay, crime, racism, gentrification.

So excuse me for suggesting

I dont tow the party line and never will reguardless of if I am bullied on this board or elsewhere. I dont agree with PJ all the time, and I dont think they are above criticism. If they do something I dislike I aint gonna lie, I will say what I think. But the thread isnt about PJ, its about society, and how modern society is.

When people get wealthy they move to a big house away from other folks, and around people like them. That may be human nature or normal, I just find it odd.

The fact you all seem to see it as no big deal is even more the point of the post.

I dont know, maybe I am different, I just think, you make a million bucks, and you buy a house, maybe a new sportscar, but what does it all do for you?

Dont pretend you havent all seen Mtv's Cribs. Its more than, "I am proud of my house and my success", its showboating. Its showing off. Its status.

I understand but I also disagree.

musicismylife78 wrote:

yeah but there is always an exception. Fugazi and The Flaming Lips as has been mentioned.

"but I still got love for the streets" anyone heard that line before? how about "my block".

Its not just black and white. pun not intended. in the case of hip hop, it seems to me, the hip hop artists have an intense and personal relationship to the people and the places they grew up in. So far be it for me to suggest they would be conflicted after getting money and success.

I know absurd of me to even bring it up. Like I said, how do you all like the maroon sky?

but soulsinging, these moves the suburbs also are a seperation. Its fact. Whether people want to discuss it or not, its steeped in racism, overt and covert. People want to be with people who look like them. Again, its not cut and dried as people are making it seem.

Racism plays a role, so does status and the act of social identity and community, ignorance plays a role. Socialization plays a role.

Its long been a discussion in black culture about black vs white culture, to be black and to be wealthy. If you are the head of Time Warner and black, how do you negociate that? Is it a struggle to fit in with blacks? With whites?

I read an entire book made up of famous people's writing on race and how race played a role in their lives. Facinating read.

musicismylife78 wrote:

you dont want to get me started on the issue of houses. I do rent an apartment, but I am very much a radical and my own opinion of whether houses or apartments are needed are numerous on this board. I am a radical/anarchist commie socialist. So yes, while I do not live in a tent, I do think this economic crisis is a result of the overall greed of humanity. I dont think buying houses or buying anything is a solution, to any problem, whether its the emptiness one feels or as a solution offered by economists as to what needs to be done to "save" our way of life.

I am not wealthy, and my outlook on life, and my ideals, and my morals make it so its hard for me to rationalize the buying of mansions were I ever able to get said money.

I also know I am not the only person who feels this way, although often it feel like I am. The thread was about that. I know I am not alone on thinking that success and wealth doesnt by happiness. That buying a mansion with an elevator and having butlers and having a movie theater in your home, doesnt mean a damn thing.

The thread was about those people. the people who see past the garbage thrown at them via ads and tv and everyone in general every single day. The idea that you arent worth a damn if you arent swimming in money or you dont have an ipod or you dont own a BMW.

The fact Fugazi and Flaming Lips are all that are offered as counterexamples, is even more of the point. The dominant paradigm is the same everywhere. You go to school, get a job, get married, settle down, retire and die. Thats the way its been for ages, since at least the industrial revolution started. And if you are lucky enough to be born rich or create something that is a big deal and you aquire fame and wealth, you are supposed to buy a bunch of items, big houses, multiple houses, a yacht, a fancy car.

That way of life is boring. I will never be one of them. And never want to be. Its sterile and mundane. I am far more interested in people who dont follow that perscribed way of life. Who buck the system. Who do whatever they feel like doing, just for the hell of it. Who dont give a damn about status or wealth.

Those are my values and morals. Obviously it places me in conflict with most of the dominant culture.