You've Got to be Kidding Me

Greetings Friends,

I've seen a lot of cultural change over the course of my life, some of it significant, some of it worthy of the most vigorous head-scratching. Nixon resigning: significant. The first launch of the Space Shuttle: significant. President Reagan getting shot by a guy who wanted to impress Jody Foster: significant. The end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall: significant. Bill Clinton getting "serviced" by an intern in the Oval Office: significant. 9/11: significant. The US electing its first African American president: significant. Dozens of photographers falling all over each other taking pictures of "celebrities" making their own milkshakes: you've got to be kidding me.

I'll be the first to admit I spend way too much time cruising around online. But, out of inertia comes inspiration. If I didn't dally over some of the choicest celebu-sites, I'd have no idea a place called Millions of Milkshakes existed. Thus, I'd have nothing to write about, and no cultural phenomena on which to unleash my biting sarcasm.

Is making your own milkshake at some West Hollywood ice cream parlour really worthy of worldwide attention? Apparently; if Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and throngs of reality show attention whores are doing it - then yeah - fire up your digital photographic and video equipment and erode some more Internet bandwidth if you please. Much as I hate to admit it, it's a bona fide cultural phenomenon; one for the 21st century, not at all like attempting to breach the velvet rope at Studio 54 in 1978. At least there, you could hobnob with real celebs; Steve Rubell was one picky MoFo. I doubt he would have let the likes of Jon Gosselin or Spencer and Heidi rub elbows with Princess Grace, Halston and Bianca Jagger. The man was a coked-up fraudster, but at least he knew how to separate the cream from the curds (or should that be turds?).

Over 30 years later, people still talk about Studio 54. I doubt anyone will be talking about Millions of Milkshakes in 5 years. If they are, they'll be conversing with tourists from Lower Armpit Nebraska; the same people who lined up outside Magnolia Bakery on West 10th and Bleecker, in the West Village neighbourhood of New York City, waiting to buy the fabled cupcakes made famous in a Sex and the City episode. Where will the trend go next? This definitely is not the last cultural phenomenon that will have me scratching my head and exclaiming, "You've got to be kidding me!"

Nava