An exceptional procrastination

My zine, The extraordinary life of Michael Lee Aday, came about through procrastination.

In January, I had unwillingly taken on a travel writing project, even though I had promised I would never accept anything as tedious as updating a travel guide. But I accepted it because it was a good project to keep me active after a couple of years of not doing much writing-wise. I didn't mind visiting the locations, but once that part of the job was finished, I had to enter all of the data onto my employer's database, which was mind-numbingly tedious.

So after doing some intense work every day, my reward was listening to music. Every hour I gave myself a break of five to ten minutes of music to get away from the computer screen.

After hearing of Meat Loaf's death, I decided to listen to his first album, Bat Out of Hell, which I'm ashamed to admit I never knew about. Soon it became an obsession. Meat Loaf fans posted old interviews, videos and documentaries about his career, so I began watching and listening to everything possible. I discovered his impressive lifetime work.

So as I was working on my day job, I had work breaks and weekends listening, understanding and reading everything I could find about this fascinating artist. I took copious notes and compiled the ultimate Meat Loaf listening list, which I played as I typed in my data.

I discovered elements of Meat Loaf's difficult childhood, how he lost his mother when he was 19, and a violent and alcoholic father who tried to kill him. His remarkable talents as an actor and singer. His incredible force of will to follow his creative skills.

Meat Loaf said yes to everything from singing in rock bands in the early 70s to singing musicals and roles in movies and on the stage. He did everything from Shakespeare to the Rocky Horror Show. How he randomly met and befriended talented musician and songwriter Jim Steinman. And how the two went on to write one of the most popular and highest-selling albums of all time.

Then came the stream of endless rejection to get the album recorded, how nobody believed in Jim Steinman or Meat Loaf's music, which was completely different from any music of the time. It took Steinman and ML two years to write the album and another two to find a record company that was able to sign them. Then it took them months of performing to build their audience after their record company refused to publicise the album.

My Meat Loaf procrastination became a welcomed distraction and obsession. Before I knew it, I had written pages of notes, and all of the fans' old photos became the inspiration for some sketches. Then I began thinking, " Hey, maybe I can make a little zine with all this research. So I started writing a tribute to ML's extraordinary life and my reflections as a new fan.

Before I realised it, I had written 10,000 words and had made dozens of sketches inspired by Meat Loaf.

After sending in my travel guide, I began editing and compiling my tribute to Meat Loaf.

The result is this little book about this enigmatic performer, his unlikely career path and possibly the most epic journey any album has had to take to be recorded and published.

If you want to read my little zine its available on Amazon.

Keep an eye out for a give away in a few weeks time and more zines further down the track.

Searching my full name on Amazon (Rochelle Del Borrello) will give you all of my zine publications so far.

After discovering Meat Loaf I have been well and truly stuck back in the 1970s.

What are you currently obsessed with?

Reality TV and the Kardashian's marketing trap

My dirty little pleasure has always been reality t.v. I've been obsessed ever since Big Brother burst onto the small screen in the early 2000s with its first reality tv social experiment by isolating strangers inside a house and away from the outside world.

At the time, Big Brother was a revolutionary concept. These days it's a tired and rehashed model after seeing endless versions of the same thing from BB, Survivor, The Bachelor, Jersy Shore, Love Island and many more. Today we have celebrity versions of many, which low-grade celebrities use to revive their average careers. And we now have new stars that have come out of the reality genre.

It never ceases to amaze me how people are becoming famous for nothing and building their careers from nothing other than their personality, character and brand. It seems to have been a tried and tested model for reality tv stars to start in the world of tv, build a formidable following on social media and branch out to create their products to sell.

My reality of choice used to be Jersy Shore, which saw a group of Italo Americans, each with very different personalities, all in the same house with copious amounts of alcohol and outings to nightclubs to create total utter chaos. The social experiment focused on a specific cultural group with classic stereotypes and personalities. It was all contrived; many of the participants weren't even Italian. But the result is a group of people who have become famous for socialising, getting drunk, having random sexual encounters and violent confrontations. 

The group has matured; they all have families; one went to jail for tax evasion, yet his comeback journey from alcoholism has been continued on his social media. There have been spin-offs and several reunions. The ongoing stories of these reality tv characters continue on social media today. It is a mind-boggling process. Their strong public personalities have made people fall in love with them.

For me, the attraction of reality tv is pure curiosity; at first, I wanted to see if there were people who fit the Guido stereotype in America. Then I got sucked in by the various characters and the cheesiness. Watching bad reality tv is a way of switching off from the outside world; there is no thought, no substance, just something so bad you cannot help yourself. It sucks me in without realising it, just like mindlessly scrolling through social media. Before you realise it, you've been scrolling for hours, and it's already after midnight. 

The reality tv trend of fame is continually being confirmed through other entertainment platforms beyond television. The massive audiences of top YouTubers, Instagrammers and TikTok stars are much larger than many tv networks. It is exciting to see the potential to create a career out of nothing other than an idea or a personality. 

People are currently creating stardom and wealth on their terms; the power is no longer in a studio system or TV network. Heck, you don't even need a publishing house to become a best seller or a production factory to make and sell your merchandise or fashion product. It's a fantastic time of great potential and creativity. 

Yet there is an inherent danger in this potential, too; the world of influences, pseudo-experts and false prophets setting themselves up as specialists in their field without any real education or experience makes it a lot like the wild west. There is no policing and controlling content, and there is no way to draw the line between entertainment and marketing.

The most sophisticated version of reality tv has to be the current season of the Kardashians. The new series builds upon the success of 20 seasons of Keeping up with the Kardashians, which established the family's personality, social media presence and business. A carefully crafted reality program focused on each family member's personality and perceived controversies within their personal lives are what gave them so much success.

The first season of the Kardashians seems ever more contrived and manipulative than any of the Keeping Up series; in fact, the new series focuses more on the individual family members' careers and businesses.

In the first few episodes, we've already seen Kim Kardashian's appearance on SNL, her Vogue cover, collaboration with the Balenciaga high fashion brand, how she used her influence to get a man off of death row, her road to passing her bar exam and now her Sports Illustrated cover.

There are more minor family controversies, there have been divorces and new engagements, but the focus is on good co-parenting and keeping the family growing and together. So now we see more subliminal and less subliminal advertisements for Kim, Kortney, Kloe, Kendal and Kylie's businesses. It feels less and less like reality and more and more like an extended brand deal.

I've only briefly watched Keeping up with the Kardashians as I found them too vacuous and entitled. So I started watching the Kardashians out of curiosity to see precisely how extravagant the family makes itself out to me. There is no doubt the Kardashians have more money, wealth and assets than they could ever need. The trappings of their wealth are astounding; their lifestyle is filled with extravagant mansions, designer clothes, luxury cars, private chefs, jets and diamond jewellery that they don't even take off when they bathe. They certainly enjoy their wealth and work very hard to maintain it.

The series is also carefully constructed to paint them in a serious light; family orientated, motivated, gym-going, justice-seeking, feminist businesswomen and Armenian migrant representatives. Sometimes it is all a little too contrived.

I find myself asking whether these people are so out of touch, not to realise that their desire to do fun things like grocery shopping, going to the car wash and putting gas in the car aren't only ordinary things that everyday people do. Still, these are things that many people are struggling to do right now.

Perhaps it's the socialist in me, but I think the super-wealthy should be more aware of their privilege and give back more to those less fortunate rather than keep desiring more and more. It's pretty grotesque to witness how none of the Kardashians has a social conscious other than to boost their influence and ego.

I admire what the Kardashians have built; their business has a natural skill and gift. They have created an empire. But the Kardashian's privilege has blinded them. They are so out of touch with reality that they have become little than a farce.

I don't feel like watching any more of the series for the time being, as I feel like I am being pulled into a clever marketing trap.

Unless it's too late and I have already been hypnotised. Then I might find myself mindlessly watching next week's episode without knowing how it happened.

Be careful what you wish for: a reflection on fame and wealth

People say you should meet your heroes, but sometimes you could regret what you wish for.

There are many stories of people who meet their idols and turn out to be genuinely horrible.

You might want to meet them, but they won't necessarily be willing to meet you. 

The entertainment industry is filled with superficial narcissists with huge egos.

Other famous people have done terrible things to attain and keep their success. 

It always saddens me when I hear of children being neglected, abandoned or forgotten by a famous father or mother. Or even children in mitigation for years after a famous parent has passed away, over a slice of the big pie of earnings amassed during a lifetime of touring or working.

I'm sure it's rare to see successful artists without ego who take the time to connect with their fans, actively thanking them and being constantly humble about their work.

There are dozens of examples of famous people having difficulties with their families and those arguing over money and inheritance.

Legendary 1950's comedic actor and director Jerry Lewis was an egomaniac who left behind a stream of endless horribleness. Despite giving money to charities and developing the modern concept of the Telethon to raise funds for worthy causes, he was generally a terrible man to work and live with. He basically disowned his six adult children and first wife, leaving everything to his second wife and adopted daughter. He also had an illegitimate daughter whom he never really acknowledged and who basically died elderly and homeless for most of her life.

Back in my student journalist days, I was able to get a chance to meet Sir Peter Ustinov, who was one of my favourite old-school classic Hollywood character actors from the golden age of cinema. He turned out to be rather charming and open to meeting a couple of clueless and surprised students. We ended up having a lovely conversation with the elderly performer, who was filled with advice and time for the younger generation.

Years after his death in 2004, I was saddened to hear how Sir Peter's six surviving children were in mitigation for years over the estate of the late actor and writer. Sadly most of Sir Peter's trusts which also contained the rights and royalties to everything he wrote and filmed, are not available to the family. Legal fees are eating away at his fortune, and stringent rules regulating the trusts established in Liechtenstein and Switzerland keep everything away from his surviving family.

More recently, in 2017, when one of my favourite American singer-songwriters, Tom Petty passed away suddenly, I was doubly saddened as his daughters from his first wife and current wife immediately plunged into mitigation over his estate. Thank goodness, after several months in court, they were able to reach an agreement.

Being famous doesn't make you immune to human problems like greed, misunderstandings and poor family relations.

Another famous example that comes to mind was from Roy Orbison's life; he had to endure terrible tragedies like the death of his first wife in a motorcycle accident and the death of his two eldest sons in a house fire when he was away on tour. Orbison was a workaholic and focused his energy on performing, writing and recording songs which led him to neglect his surviving son, whom he left to be raised by his grandparents. Even when he later remarried and had another two sons, he practically forgot his first surviving son. While focusing on his big career comeback in the early 90-s, he abandoned his teenage sons, travelling with his wife to LA to work on new projects and collaborations. Later he reconciled with his oldest son before his sudden fatal heart attack, but he never really repaired or addressed the emotional damage caused by the separation. Today, Roy Orbison's sons proudly keep their father's legacy alive and collaborate to promote the Orbison name.

There are so many tales of estranged and abandoned children or the rich and famous, which begs the question, is it all worth it?

It's interesting to reflect on the nature of fame and fortune, whether you need to be pigheaded, arrogant and generally a lousy individual to attain success. Or is it better to be less rich and famous and focus on being a good person while nurturing your family.

What would you choose to do?