river

There is so much grace in this interview of River Phoenix.

My favorite part in the interview is when he talks about the music he made. The interviewer says - 'release it'. And he says 'but it's for me; it's a private venture…' That captures the artist - the inner world that is not exploitable. It's a level of truth most celebrities cannot pretend to know - though they seem to fool others. When they are fully exploitable, they have no private space that is sacred. There is nowhere left for creativity to happen if you've exposed that corner of yourself. 

There is a recent movie that addressed the exploitable celebrity - Beyond the Lights. I think an important movie though it didn't get much attention. It may have been obvious and over-simplified, but it tries to get at this idea of being exploited to where nothing is left sacred, not your body, not your thoughts, not your relationships (Beyonce, take note). And the worst is when the celebrity thinks they are who they portray - but they don't realize that they are nothing more than the mask - and that there's nothing left behind the mask but empty space.

I can listen to Nathalie Merchant's song River over and over. And I do.