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Aging Disgracefully


mos6507

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Yeah I know what they meant, I think. However I also think it was that very attitude that makes them easy targets now. It's pretty easy to make fun of the aging rock star with millions in the bank who continues to run around anti-establishment sneer as they hop into a rented car and head from their luxury hotel to a private jet. No matter how "street" Keith tries to act he's pretty much become the establishment he once railed against. That's what I think these society page hack scribes are trying to get at when the throw that type of dart his way. The author of that particular article wasn't as funny as he could have been and he did take some cheap shots, he wasn't very kind to Nancy Wilson, but I truly think he thought he was being humorous. But yeah that's where this type of thing gets "dangerous", in fact that's how many bigots approach their well crafted barbs. It's often thinly veiled insults in the name of humor.

Still I think celeb's are the demographic where some of that has to be allowed, being in the spotlight invites it and you can't have it both ways because they are often caught behaving badly. For every somewhat innocent celeb victim there are many who deserve the chides. For all but a few here it's only an issue because Jimmy was mentioned, if it was Britney Spears taking the hits I doubt it would have gotten a second look. Also we should be honest, younger celeb's like Britney, Paris and countless other male stars are written about in this manor, it's not limited to those over 50. This types of trash media is limited to celeb's, young and old, skinny and fat, gay and straight etc. No one cares to follow me, you or John Q. Public around to see if we have beads in our hair or are sporting leather pants, with or without panties, as we hop out of our daily driver and head to the store for milk and bread. Though they probably should because I am often drunk when I do.

You make a number of good points here--I agree that Britney and co. get this kind of trash journalism aimed at them too, it's just that this particular article (if you can call it that) was aiming its scorn at people it took exception to because of their age. (Using the time-honored method of exaggeration--really bad pics of people, except Jimmy, funnily enough--to evoke "humor".)

Also, some musicians etc. do claim anti-establishment credentials while milking the establishment for all it's worth. But I don't think most of the people in that piece do that. Not even Keith--he may have been around longer than most of them (except Tom Jones), and he has buckets of money and oodles of fame, but he's totally his own man, rather than a pillar of the establishment. Not only was he pissed that Jagger accepted the knighthood, he also insisted it was true that he'd snorted his father's ashes, until management convinced him to pretend he was joking. :D You'll never see "Sir Keith."

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You know the real shame is that trash in the media isn't shocking anymore. I can honestly say I have become desensitized from years of nearly constant attack from violence on TV and in movies, vulgarity is everywhere, it's not uncommon to witness extremely bad manners as I encounter the miscreants walking around in public. Believe it or not I have tried to shield myself from those things, I choose not to knowingly watch violent programs or movies with indulgent vulgarity. But it's nearly impossible to avoid, just watching the news might mean being exposed to lingerie commercials that are more graphic than most porn I saw when I was a kid 30 years ago. I suppose that's why I'm not shocked by stuff like that "article". That and I'll bet even Robert Smith would chuckle at the "cracked out Liza" comparison, not all of it was bad but what was bad was pretty bad. But I don't think the author was trying to perpetuate any ageism sterotypes, he pretty much covered it all by gay bashing Manilow and calling Nancy Wilson fat. Like either of those comments are a new "joke". If he's guilty of anything besides being tacky it's being passe'. That and he needs a new joke writer, if the best he do is slam Jimmy for looking like a Monte Python character he's not getting it done.

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Please! Jimmy Page is the hottest 65 year old man I have ever seen! He looks rather handsome and elegant. Most of all- healthy.

I can't stand the society we live in. It's only going to get worse. My 8 year old daughter is afraid to eat. My 8 year old...!

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Please! Jimmy Page is the hottest 65 year old man I have ever seen! He looks rather handsome and elegant. Most of all- healthy.

I can't stand the society we live in. It's only going to get worse. My 8 year old daughter is afraid to eat. My 8 year old...!

I'm worried about the society and culture as well, and try to think about ways how to make even a small difference; boycotting women's magazines, complaining to companies which use unhealthy images in their advertising, asking politicians to restrict advertising that's directed for children... imo we really can't afford to have things get any worse at all. I'm glad that your daughter at least has an intelligent and caring role model (or several) to guide her through childhood and show that there are several options as to how one can succesfully fit into the society without selling oneself short. That's something really priceless these days.

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I don't think 65 is all that old these days. Some of my friends that are in their 60's look very youthful. I'm not going to get behind the idea that there is some kind of youth movement to deride seniors. But if there is they better stop and look in mirror and brush up on their history. Pretty much everything going on in mainstream pop culture has been done before.

It's like the kids with blue hair at the indie record store who call me sir and treat me like I'm some old dork because I dress conservatively and buy blues and jazz cd's. Every time they give me attitude as they stand there sneering at my purchases with their angular haircuts and ratted out Sonic Youth t-shirts I feel like saying, "yeah way to go there Skippy, you're real cool and all. But I was jamming Sonic Youth 20 years before you were old enough to buy your first Eminem cd".

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It's pathetic to see what some of the values parents teach their kids. Such as entering their daughters into beauty pageants, who are barely passed toilet training. They think at that age their 5 or 6 year old daughter is beautiful. What the hell is wrong with them? They're not beautiful, they're little girls. Just remember Jon Benet Ramsey some 13 years ago and look what happened. That case has never been solved. Obviously a coverup from the corrupt Boulder Police Dept. AI've heard a lot of this goes on out there in Colorado with many cases.

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okay, so Jimmy's 65, silver haired with a few wrinkles, and genuinely starting to resemble a founding father rather than a sex god rock star. One thing to remember is that he's still a hundred times cooler than Pete Wentz or Gerard Way will ever hope to be.

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okay, so Jimmy's 65, silver haired with a few wrinkles, and genuinely starting to resemble a founding father rather than a sex god rock star. One thing to remember is that he's still a hundred times cooler than Pete Wentz or Gerard Way will ever hope to be.

Agreed! And Jimmy looks very healthy, better than the early eighties.

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I can see some of those. But Ann Wilson looks pretty good the last couple of years. I think she had surgery a few years back and lost a lot of weight. She can still belt out her tunes. She doesn't look like she did in the 70s when she was much smaller than she is now but she doesn't look that bad now.

Jimmy looks better with his white hair then he looked with his dark hair over the last decade or so before.

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I don't think 65 is all that old these days. Some of my friends that are in their 60's look very youthful. I'm not going to get behind the idea that there is some kind of youth movement to deride seniors. But if there is they better stop and look in mirror and brush up on their history. Pretty much everything going on in mainstream pop culture has been done before.

It's like the kids with blue hair at the indie record store who call me sir and treat me like I'm some old dork because I dress conservatively and buy blues and jazz cd's. Every time they give me attitude as they stand there sneering at my purchases with their angular haircuts and ratted out Sonic Youth t-shirts I feel like saying, "yeah way to go there Skippy, you're real cool and all. But I was jamming Sonic Youth 20 years before you were old enough to buy your first Eminem cd".

:lol: I know exactly what you mean.

I do think there's a culture of youth in this country and much of Europe (can't speak for other countries), though. There's a multimillion dollar industry invested in helping people look younger (or think they do, which is all that matters), while nobody's actually trying to acquire wrinkles or dye their hair grey, unless they're doing it for a movie!

Edited for speling

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I don't think 65 is all that old these days. Some of my friends that are in their 60's look very youthful. I'm not going to get behind the idea that there is some kind of youth movement to deride seniors. But if there is they better stop and look in mirror and brush up on their history. Pretty much everything going on in mainstream pop culture has been done before.

It's like the kids with blue hair at the indie record store who call me sir and treat me like I'm some old dork because I dress conservatively and buy blues and jazz cd's. Every time they give me attitude as they stand there sneering at my purchases with their angular haircuts and ratted out Sonic Youth t-shirts I feel like saying, "yeah way to go there Skippy, you're real cool and all. But I was jamming Sonic Youth 20 years before you were old enough to buy your first Eminem cd".

65 isn't old at all.

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okay, so Jimmy's 65, silver haired with a few wrinkles, and genuinely starting to resemble a founding father rather than a sex god rock star. One thing to remember is that he's still a hundred times cooler than Pete Wentz or Gerard Way will ever hope to be.

Well, to me he is STILL a sex god rock star!! :) I think he looks WONDERFUL these days, and happy/certainly looking healthier than ever.

Which leads to me totally agree with all the comments about this whole "Aging Disgracefully" writeup---I agree that this society is WAY to hung up on the whole "if you're not young, you're crap" mentality. Actually, as people have already said on here, lots of these people are looking pretty great on that writeup, and are still doing lots of great things with their lives. More than you can say for a lot of young folks!! :)

Sharon

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:lol: I know exactly what you mean.

I do think there's a culture of youth in this country and much of Europe (can't speak for other countries), though. There's a multimillion dollar industry invested in helping people look younger (or think they do, which is all that matters), while nobody's actually trying to acquire wrinkles or dye their hair grey, unless they're doing it for a movie!

Edited for speling

The only other country I'm knowledgable about is China, and it's the opposite there as they revere the aged, grey hair, wrinkles & all. At least it's been that way up to now. Adoption agencies in China actually give preference to older married couples, you can forget about adopting in the US if you're over 35.

My 67 year old Chinese husband (who is better looking than even Jimmy Page, I kid you not!) moans about this all the time. How he gets no respect from our daughters, it would be different if we'd raised them in China, yadda, yadda. I try to remove those rose-colored glasses sometimes but it doesn't help, LOL.

Anyway, it is sad that today's culture is so caught up with the impermanent things...youth, looks, money, etc.

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