David Blain Inspires Xenophobia In England

[Tony]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29965-2003Sep18?language=printer ..full article

LONDON (Reuters) - If there's no such thing as bad publicity, then magician David Blaine's stunt of starving himself in a clear plastic box in London has been a smashing success.

More than a million satellite viewers tuned in two weeks ago to see Blaine -- a 30-year-old American whose previous tricks include freezing himself in ice and balancing for 35 hours on a high pole -- enter the box suspended by a crane, where he has vowed not to eat for 44 days.



So much for "tolerance". ;)

[Mr Manifesto]

So if you throw eggs at the screening of a Woody Allen flick, are you anti-semitic?

[schplurg]

No you're wasting good eggs, unless of course they are already rotten.

Tonys sig "quote #3":

"Every quote is taken out of context when it's put in the form of a signature."
-----Grammatron"

Mine isn't.

[reprise]

All I can say is that if Blaine thinks the Poms are giving him grief, he should be very glad that he didn't choose Australia in which to perform his stunt. Our intolerance of wankers is legendary, whether they're home grown or imported.

[JamesM]

What a bizarre article. The response to Blaine has nothing to do with xenophobia and everything to do with what you would expect to happen if you made a spectacle of yourself in a major city, and a stationary target, to boot. Don't tell me this wouldn't happen in any country.

I think antics of the Londoners is pretty funny, myself, but then I am a coal-hearted misanthrope.

[Stig]

I'm going to London next week. I think I'm going to take my catapult and a big bag of Maltesers to fire at his box. I think he's a bit of a helmet. Nothing to do with him being foreign though.

Stig

[reprise]

I think that it's possible Blaine didn't realise just how irritating many other nations find the brash "look at me, I'm important" kind of celebrity seems to be accepted in the US - though how in the hell you can be an international entertainer and not realise that the Brits (along with the Aussies) find this kind of hyperbolic self-promotion beneath contempt is beyond me (sack your management team, Mr Blaine). Being famous for being famous is a sure recipe for ridicule in many nations; promoting yourself as such borders on insanity (and the comparisons to Houdini did NOT help Blaine's image, they just made him seem even more self-important).

That said, who can judge just what the Brits will regard as having artistic merit? After all, there was that exhibition of used nappies at the Tate. Perhaps Blaine could donate his own to the collection. :D

[HarryKeogh]

i enjoy a good magic trick as much as the next guy but it's just that he's soooo boring.

i live about 20 minutes away from where he stood on a pole for a couple of days. i never bothered to pass by. it's just not exciting. i dont think it has anything to do with the people of england taking pleasure at humiliating an american. theyre taking pleasure at humiliating a jack off.

sure, not the classiest behavior but not xenophobic.

[BillyTK]

Tony may wish to look up definitions of "xenophobia" to avoid any further confusion with "incredulity". I'm in total agreement with JamesM, and suggest that Tony may also wish to look up the definition of "chauvinism".

Here's a quote from Captain Snort from this thread (http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26976) which pretty much sums the whole affair up:
[...]my sentiments are summed up by one of the placards held up when he went into the box. 'One man starves, the world watches, 1 billion starve, no-one cares'