In September 2003, David Blaine began performing the infamous “Above the Below” endurance contest. Some people might call Blaine a magician and I think when he rose to prominence in the 1990s, his street illusions distanced himself from the glamourous style of David Copperfield or Seigfried and Roy.
But as one of my math teachers observed about 30 years ago while eating at the Waffle House off of Interstate 75 as he saw a David Copperfield freight truck pass by along the freeway, he asked why doesn’t he just snap his fingers and move it to wherever he wants. Magic is about illusion. At one point, I was approached to help a father-son duo of Cherokee magicians get some gigs. But things got busy with my regular job and we fell out of touch.
Blaine’s “trick” basically had him in a plexiglass box about 30 feet above the River Thames in London. Blaine claimed he was going to spend as long as he could in the box and not eat any food, but just consume water through a tube. Yet they said he was actually fed nutrients in the tube. Yet the whole stunt got a negative response from the start. Blaine and his people set out with extravagance and flair but it was drowned out by the jeers and criticisms of the London public. A pre-recorded message played over a loud speaker and Blaine sounded arrogant in his tone.
He survived just over six weeks at 44 days. During this time, people threw eggs and rotten fruit at the box. They would congregated and wait until Blaine went to sleep then they would organize flash mobs as they had just become popular. Or the motorists would play loud music or blow their horns. Allegations arose that someone tried to pour urine in his drinking tube. Another person was actually arrested for trying to cut the cable.
Blaine reportedly lost about a quarter of his body weight and suffered damage to his internal organs. The event would sour his reputation for the next 20 years. He became the topic of jokes by comics like Chris Rock. His stunt would be spoofed in the comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carrell, Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey.
The fact of the matter by the fall of 2003, America, as well as the United Kingdom, was engaged in an incursion war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was in hiding. Terrorism was spreading. The economy had been in a recession since March 2001 and wasn’t helped by 9/11. Then the DotCom market crashed. Yet it was starting to rebound in the latter half of 2003. So a rich man putting on a public stunt refusing to eat was met with a lot of disdain and criticism as it was rightfully so. People all over the world are trying to make ends meet and there was something almost condescending to the general public about Blaine’s stunt.
Celebrities are notorious for being out of touch with the general public. Even the ones who pride themselves on being regular people will often pooch the screw. Even though Ed Begley Jr., took the subway train to the Oscars, he still went. Some people could say Begley, an environmentalist advocate, should’ve skipped the whole event entirely.
I’m sure when the six women of Monday’s Blue Origin voyage woke up on Monday morning, they might have thought they would be heralded as champions. But the criticism of the whole ordeal has shown that a lot of Americans are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Two years ago, people were divided over how sympathetic we should be for the wealthy ones who died in the Titan submersible.
The R.M.S. Titanic sits about 12,500 feet below the sea on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. That’s about 2.4 miles down. It might not seem like much of a distance here on the ground. Yet underneath all that water at pressure depths that are highly dangerous for even the most skilled underwater explorers, risks are taken.
Not to sound morbid but I had a suspicion that Blue Origin NS-31 might be a disaster. I don’t remember the Challenger explosion even though people I went to school with claim we all watched it live. I didn’t want to see history repeating itself. But the unfortunate Challenger crew were some of the most trained and skilled NASA astronauts of the time. The six women passengers are not astronauts. I refuse to call them a crew, especially since one of them, Lauren Sanchez, is the partner of Jeff Bezos, who is the founder of Blue Origin.
“Tourists” are an appropriate word than “crew.” Only a third of the passengers are scientists who have worked for NASA. They are Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen. The other women are pop star Katy Perry, TV personality Gayle King and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer. To say that America is turning into an oligarchy is an understatement. And while the media made a big hullabaloo about this, executive orders from the Trump Administration are laying off actual women astronauts.
In the past week, people have watched their retirement plans fluctuate as elected officials are committing insider trader in plain sight. How do you expect the American public or people in general to watch this publicity stunt and give two shits? Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has a net worth of over $26 billion and she’s been giving it to charities at an alarming rate that she can’t even keep up with because Amazon’s value keeps coming in.
It’s like those math problems of how long will it take to fill up a bath tub if the drain is open. And while the math teacher I mentioned above said those were stupid problems. It feels more like the plot of Richard Pryor’s Brewster’s Millions where he tries to blow some money on long-shot bets but actually wins and his friends decide to invest to bring in more money.
And I’m sure Monday morning, Scott spent her time either approving a payment to a charity or just keeping out of the public eye. The only reason I continue to support Amazon at all is that I see my membership as a contribution to “The MacKenzie Scott Foundation.” Sanchez might not have paid money to ride in the rocket but I’m sure King and Perry did. Maybe even Flynn paid. But I’m sure Bowe was paid as was Nguyen as they are the only scientists.
And while space exploration doesn’t just have to be for scientist and math wizards, it seems yet another huge wedge in between the the haves and the have-nots. Actress Olivia Munn criticized it calling it “gluttonous.” And Olivia Wilde retreated a meme that mocked Perry kissing the ground. Even when Neil deGrasse Tyson tried to spin it on his social media, it was met with criticism.
They didn’t spend months in space. There’s even some questions of how high they went and does it even constitute going into space. The spacecraft only went about 106 kilometers which is just six kilometers past the Kaman line which is the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. In other words, this is like having a lay-over on a flight in a city you’ve never been to but claiming you’ve been to the city. You didn’t leave the airport terminal or take in local culture.
To put it bluntly, if you’ve ever been to a state fair and they’re offering tethered hot-air balloon rides, this is the equivalent. You didn’t go around the world in 80 days. You’re not Phileas Fogg. One of my friends moved from Las Vegas to Orlando four years ago. Before she left, she took a helicopter ride around the city. But she’s not a chief warrant officer for the Army Air Cavalry transporting soldiers to and from war zones.
Does anyone else find this irony that it happened on the day between the Masters Tournament and the April 15 Tax Day? Talk about sticking it to the people! The Masters has been something that has been overblown every year. But we put the onus on people and then punish them if they wonderful accountants. Not everyone can pay a CPA yet it’s just another headache the government puts on people that they don’t need.
I understand it’s a way to keep people from cheating the government, but people continue to cheat the government. Donald Trump bragged about how he doesn’t pay taxes and people cheered. Yet they have deported undocumented immigrants who did pay taxes and people still cheered.
It’s a crazy society we live in. I’m just glad so many more people are realizing that they don’t care about celebrities’ privileges and extravagances anymore especially being herald in the news this way. I’d take Mickey Mouse’s birthday being announced at the top of the 7 a.m. news hour as a more important news item.
And it seems almost appropriate that the rocket looked so much like a phallic symbol because we’re getting fucked. But what goes up must come down. And the harder they come, they harder they fall.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 