In Continuum.

2008 has been a bad year for celebrities, not because the bad ones are being arrested for even more DUI charges, but because the good ones are all dying. It has gotten to a point whereby enough is enough, and one more celebrity death is seriously going to cause me to explode. Celebrity deaths don't usually get to me, since it happens all the time. George Harrison's death a few years ago might have shocked a lot of Beatles fan, but I wasn't exactly shocked when I read about it online. It is always going to be saddening, of course, when you read about the world losing another talent to the hands of death. It is a frustrating process that none of us can prevent, and we can't help but feel so trivial and little next to the might of death. It takes away everything, destroys all that is under the sun, and time is its accomplice. Not even the all powerful love can defeat death though, because death takes away love without any hesitation or mercy. It doesn't matter if you spent the better part of your life begging for money at the local park, or a rock star whose life everybody envies. When it is your time, it is your time, and nobody is spared from this intangible and yet powerful system of life. 

First it was Heath Ledger, then it was George Carlin. August took away Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes, on the 9th and the 10th respectively. Now that it is September, it took away Paul Newman, one of the greatest actors in cinematic history. There are probably a couple of names that I missed in between, but these names are certainly sad enough for the world of cinema. It is a dark year in Hollywood certainly, and I have no idea why 2008 has to be so cruel to all our favorite stars. Heath Ledger was an up and coming actors with so much potential, and George Carlin is probably the best comedian of all time. I am not exactly a fan of Bernice Mac, but his death certainly came as quite a surprise for me, and even more so when Issac Hayes followed suit a day afterwards, the same guy behind the theme song of Shaft and the voice of Chef from South Park. Paul Newman, what can I say, the coolest actor in Hollywood, if not the most talented. I was just talking with my friends the other day as to who we'd like to grow old to look like, and I mentioned Jon Bon Jovi in the forties, and definitely Paul Newman in the seventies. With Paul Newman's death, I wasn't exactly surprised, since he has been battling lung cancer for the longest time. But seriously, it's just unfair that the untalented and stupid celebrities are still hanging around, wasting our resources with every extra heart beat. 

At 83 years of age, Paul Newman has lived a fulfilling life, and nobody can deny that. Everything from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to The Sting, to Road to Perdition. He has established himself as one of the screen's legends, though I cannot say that I have seen many of his works. Still, he is one of those actors you cannot help but respect, and it is definitely not the kind of respect automatically earned posthumously. You read some of the comments people have left on news or movie websites, and you just can't help but feel disappointed with humanity as a whole. There are actually people who think that they do not deserve the kind of attention that they are getting with their death, and words like "burn in hell" are being thrown around carelessly without thoughts. Seriously, you start to wonder, just what in the world is wrong with these narrow-minded imbeciles. Here is a man who donated nearly 300 million dollars to his own charity foundation in his lifetime, and you are throwing words like "burn in hell"? What is the matter with you? I was just telling my mother about it yesterday, about how I have a little hope in humanity when I see human beings helping out with animals and the nature. It makes me feel happy, honestly, until I change the channel to watch some politicians lying to the news camera, or some evangelist being arrested for child pornography. We are doomed, and it is our own doing. 

So, as I was saying, 2008 has been harsh. I mean, just look at the amount of hurricanes and typhoons (yes, they are different) around the world as of late. This is the third typhoon to hit Taiwan this month, and all the other things happening around the world is just depressing to say the very least. I am sure someone somewhere is coming up with some armageddon theories all over again, telling believers to behold the "wrath of god" or whatever it is that they preach in churches nowadays. I do not believe in the end of the world, since it has been predicted to happen a few hundred times over the past century or so. The last time I checked, we haven't experienced a great flood around the world, the skies are still not raining fireballs, and I am still here typing this entry without being struck by lightning. The world is still here, and it is still going to be here long after we are gone as a species. We are really not much different to dogs and cats in the eyes of mother nature, and it really only takes a lift of her eyebrows for us to be wiped out. In the mean time, we watch these amazing human beings dying one by one, and you cannot help but feel affected by it.

How unfair is the world, when train wrecks like Amy Winehouse are still alive and breathing. These people really do not deserve the kind of attention that they are getting, the way that they destroy themselves with drugs and whatnot. Nothing is ever going to happen to people like Amy Winehouse for a very long time, for reasons unknown to most people. It's saddening to know that throughout my own lifetime, I am probably going to see a lot more deaths of famous and talented celebrities. I am also going to witness the death of a few family members and friends, and that is certainly not an encouraging thought no matter how you convince yourself that the inevitability of it all is no different from you getting hungry after not eating for a whole day. It is inevitable, but that doesn't make it OK, to me. You don't read about a respectable person's death and carry on as if nothing has happened. That is not to say that we should grieve about it, which would be stupid if you don't know the person. But just the general sense of loss, you know? 

Anyway, I think personally, 2008 has been rather kind, though uneventful. Kind, which is really all that I can ask for personally, and I have learned to be contented with the littlest of things. But the world in general seems to be heading in an opposite direction from me. I can see myself reviewing 2008 on the very last day, and using the same words like "donkey balls" to describe it all. Because, it has been a year full of donkey balls, unnecessary and tragic deaths all around. I do not wish for the death of people, but you can't help but wonder sometimes, why the talented and the good people are dying faster than the untalented and idiotic people out there. Once again, I have to bring up the name of Bill O'Reilly, because I think this is one right-winged idiot who does not deserve to live at all. Anyway, so here's a giant thumbs down to 2008, and a one minute silence for one of the greatest actors of all time.