Thursday, July 01, 2004

Tram, Glam and Ham.

Last night I attended ‘An evening with Janet Street-Porter,’ with Jenny in the very lush Newman House on St. Stephen’s Green. Quasi-Mojo declined to be my plus one at the event. I'm sure he would have enjoyed nicking handbags, humping legs, dipping himself in the ice buckets and that kind of thing, but he just didn't go for it. In fact he dismissed it summarily with a brush of his hand, a look of disgust and the words, "So base. So rude."

Outside there was quite a cufuffle as people gathered to hop on board the very first public outings of the flashy new LUAS Tram. Like the event we attended, it was without charge and involved a lot of sitting around and wondering what everyone else was doing there. Both events would have had a similar exclusive feel that was tinctured only by the presence of certain conspicuous nobodies who are blatantly untalented at savoring a privileged position - and might i add, such shortcomings are not at all always a bad thing.

In many ways, the whole occasion was an opportunity to reflect on such issues of status and how it is won. Obviously we gain or lose status by the opinions of others, and in many ways it is not by merely achieving our own goals that we receive status, but - and this is particularly the case in the broad phenomenon known as 'the media' - by achieving the goals that other people have but can't meet themselves. So opinions are powerful. Janet Street-Porter (as she stated herself) "made a career out of having an opinion on everything." But what's so great about JSP's opinion? I suppose the answer is not in it qualitively but quantitively i.e. the fact that so many people heard it.

As was evident from the lame questions at the end; the fact that few people talked to her at the ensuing champagne reception (no strawberries or cheese: lousy penny-pinchers); and the very obvious reality of her being 25 years older than the average age of the audience; JSP was not up there because she was liked or even becasue she was that interesting, but because she could act as some excuse for up-and-coming-whatevers to come and shmoose and look pretty and influence some useful people. Only trouble was it seems, that no-one of any 'use' was actually there. Still, people looked pretty and there was free champagne.

Janet did say some things that were interesting (if not contemptible to jealous people like me). When discussing which medium she favours (radio,tv,print) she said that it was difficult to say because just like men, they all come with chips. This initially confusing metaphor became a little clearer as she went on. She meant gambling chips. She described how these chips are gradually lost and then they have nothing and it's time to go looking for some other chip-holder. She's been married four times. What a refreshing attitude!

I've found that if you wave at LUAS drivers, they wave back. I hope I'm not the only person who's going to do this, but I fear that if everyone waves there may be some anti-waving legislation passed by those lovely people we elected to government who look after our best interests.

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