Whitney Houston

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OK, I'm surprised a thread has not been started about this. But I'll kick it off:

1: Whitney was a talented entertainer. She had some good songs. Her death is a loss for the entertainment community.

2: Whitney's death is not a tragedy in the sense that forces out of her control took her away from this world too soon. She was a victim of her own foolish and self-indulgent behaviours. More so than many addicts, she had the opportunity to clean her act up and set a good example for the African-American community she cared so much about (see below). Her addictions were well known and well documented and demonstrate that she had contempt for the laws of the land.

3: I do not believe in speaking ill of the dead, but I also do not believe in whitewashing them. She was just as bad as the addicts who infest our country, and I don't blame people who complain that she is lauded while a poor crack ***** who dies anonymously in a back alley is villified. Some would say that we should laud the ***** just as much as Whitney, but realistically, I think we should criticize both as harshly. I know that's cruel, and Whitney fans will howl, but great talent doesn't excuse drug abuse.

4: The hullabaloo about her funeral is riduculous. Fans who enjoyed her music may be energetic, but they don't have a "right" to see the funeral. It shouldn't be streamed. The family and close friends should be allowed to send her off privately without a big show.

5: I personally don't like her based on her idiotic comments she made when she married the upstanding Bobbie Brown. She said something along the lines of "I'd never marry a White guy, because I think it's important to show Black solidarity" I apply the doctrine of reversibility here, which I know aggravates many of you but tough luck. The Black community lauded her straight shooting show of support. Now suppose, just suppose, Taylor Swift were to say "I'd never marry a Black guy, because I think it's important to show White solidarity." What would we call her? A racist. Plain and simple. The ACLU, the NAACP, FBI, and every other acronymed group would pile onto her, and Oprah would crucify her on her piece of crap network. Yet Houston gets cheered. Racism of that sort is either right or it's wrong. Utter hypocrisy. It is for this reason that I have never liked or respected her and her supporters.

6: Now, I trust I have not spoken too harshly, as we all make mistakes in life. But what gets under my skill is the unstated asserion that great wealth or talent excuses people from behaving properly.

 

I was trying to say something nice before mentioning the negative stuff. I'll try again:

She was someone's daughter, mother, wife, and friend. She had value because she was a human being. The loss of her life is sad.

 

IMO it's not so much that as just the fact that people find celebrities interesting, particularly when they flame out. So crackhead Whitney is interesting and deserving of all kinds of circumstantial consideration (Why did she fall apart? Was it Bobbi Brown? If only she'd gotten help!), but random crackhead x is not and should just be jailed or institutionalized or shipped to the morgue without comment, no matter the unknown complexities of his or her character.

I thought Whitney released an album a couple years ago during her 'comeback' (same time as she appeared on Oprah with that odd speech impediment that everybody found so creepy).

 

From what I remember she had a really good voice, at least back in the 80s. Her songs seemed more popish and more of the flash in the pan type, rather than they were substantive. In other words, pretty much forgetable.

I suppose from an entertainment perspective that may be true. But it's a pretty sad comment on her work as an artist, that she is more remembered for her marriage to Bobbi Brown, rather than her artistry.

 

Whitney Houston won an oustounding 6 Grammys in 14 years. Slightly less impressive was her recent attempt at 6 grams in 14 minutes.

 

So it was overdosing?

 

Well, the reports are fuzzy. There were drugs in her room, they were prescription, but they were obtained illegally, she OD'd on them, she OD'd on illegal drugs, it was just alcohol, etc etc etc.

Regardless of the details, you would have a hard time convincing me that her drug use, one way or another, didn't contribute greatly to her death. And as I said before, she was not one of my favorites, but she was a human being, and it is almost always a loss when one of our fellow humans is lost to us, regardless of whose fault it was.

 

Thanx for the clarification.

It's sad.

I liked her.
But a few days prioir to her death, I got stuck in traffic and the radio station played her 'I have nothing' and I went home thinking what she was doing now.