Can I ask why people love famous people?

I mean I get the love of Pendleton becuase she's female and a good cyclist, the majority of you are after all red blooded, testosterone driven, bike geeks.

But seriously. 4 threads discussing one cyclist?

Why do you care?

There are only 4 threads about sheldon brown and two of them are about his death. In my view he has done far more for furthering cycling than any track cyclist.

I just don't get it. Why is celebrity so goddamn interesting?

^The Cringing Cult of Celebrity innit?^

someone photo shop a front cover of closer with Pendleton's face and a shocker headline please. I would but I have no skill or whit.

it's all about people's dissatisfaction with their petty insignificant lives and the fact that our brains have evolved to have immense thinking power but unfortunately no common sense. Gone are the days when people were content with working hard for a living and being happy with a wholesome meal on the table at the end of the day. Instead people feel they are owed a living and cheap chicken meals so that they can sit around criticising the 'celebrated' celebrities because they could do so much better themselves.

I am perplexed by peoples ability to sit through one 'episode' of Big Brother, let alone an entire fucking summer of it. All you have to do is look at the number of tv shows on telly that are basically freak-shows dressed up as documentaries. I think the latest one is about a woman with giant legs. I mean, it's fucking wrong, and in this day and age, people will just watch it. But if they had a freak show in a west end theatre, would people turn up in droves? or be protesting outside at the ethics of such an attraction?

jesus, i sound like a moany old grandad, someone of Buffalo Bill's generation perhaps.

QED. Not so sure about the red blooded bit...

I think the fact that the bike porn thread inevitably turns to pictures of girls on mediocre (though to shit) bikes is proof of the red blooded...

I don't.

ever since cave men (and women for all you spare ribs out there) wore jewellery and face paint humans have been facinated by asthetics. And since everyone now has a TV in their home they are bombarded with TV show's and adverts on how to act, cook, look, excercise. Ok, so we have the choice of not watching these shows but the fact of the matter is people are weak minded in one way or another (including myself in some form, although unknown to me).

The public don't see Sheldon Brown on the TV, in the papers or magazines. And i think often the real hero's in life are those whose don't have or want fame. All the fame seeing mongers are fakes in my eyes.

Alot of it is to do with how we are brought up and what our parent's watch and read.

People in general think changing themselves (betting themselves) is a bad thing as your not staying true to your roots. BOLLOCKS. I think people should be forced in to education and media should be edited to be constructive towards a better understanding of the world rather then all
the guff which is out there. But nobody with any power in 'Great' Britton has the balls to dictate a little bit. Maybe we woudn't have so many uneducated childern if they were 'persuaded' in to edcation rather then be left run riot.

It's all very conplex, but if we start off with a very rigid base for education and punishment then we can lighten the pressure as and when appropriate.

Beats the hell out of me...

Not watching television is a wonderful palliative though.

I think the criticism of 4 threads about VB is somewhat off the mark, afterall this is a fixed gear website and she is a multiple world and now Olympic champion

Now if there were 4 threads about Jade Goody then i would be concerned, seems to me you must be seriously bored even to bother starting this thread, maybe you should go grab a copy of heat to while away the day with . .

No sneaky editing now...

VP isn't a celebrity. A celeb is someone who's most famous for being, er, well, famous.

and anyway, # of threads doesn't = love. I love sheldon, but what's to discuss? I find VP (specifically what she is doing) interesting and worthy of discussion.

Ha . . freudian slip

Some might be thinking, 'oh that guy can't even spell!'. How many published authors do you think spell everything correctly? Not many benny.

You mean VP.
Anyway. How many of those threads are about her cycling ability. They all descended into she is/isn't attractive threads. Fucking waste of time.

How many threads are there about Rebecca Romero? Also a british track cyclist competing in the 08 olymics?


As for my boredom levels required to start this thread. It's as valid as the majority of the shit on this site. Surely we spend all of our time discussing pointless shit becuase we're stuck at work?

I am not stuck in here with them, they are stuck in here with me.

+1 Hear, hear, Object

That's what I was after, someone to tell me what the interest is.

I don't and never have understood fame. I am interested in people that I know and not people I'll never meet.

Knowledge interests me. Personal achievement doesn't.

That said. Now tell me why she is discussed on aesthetic appeal rather than cycling ability?

"I wanna live forever"

I suspect you already know the answer to that question.
Whether it is right or not is a different matter. Objectification of people is wrong, sure, but it has become ingrained in many of us...
That'll be 2p.

I figured as much. It's where my forum name comes from. We treat people as commodity and it is inherent.

Doesn't mean that I have to like it.

No, you owe us 2p.

each.

ok but there's a world of difference between personal achievement (winning big bruvver) and personal achievement of VP:



If you're saying that even VP's achievements aren't of interest to you, then fair enough. What interests me (in no particular order):
- how you get so damn successful
- what it's like being a female sports woman (how do you survive in the "she has to be pretty too, or I'm not interested" world)
- what the impact of her and the rest of the team raising the profile of track cycling is (on people in the UK as a whole as well as cyclists)

I think you've got an interesting point tho. My counter to you is that fame and achievement are a consequence of knowledge.

-

well done, now there are 5 threads, how about a nice cup of...

for the record, I would like to be friends with Pendleton. Maybe we could invite her to drinks. She seems lovely.

"I think Object has put on a bit of weight."
"I'd like him to ride my bike if you know what I mean!"
"I can't stand that Object.. so full of himself"
"All the attention must make Object a bit mental"
"Did you see Object was yesterday's page 3 in the Sun?"

Moo.

I don't give a toss about famous people's fame, it sounds trite but it's what they're like as people that counts and fame turns many of them into bell-ends they would otherwise not have been.

Though someone famous said something along the lines of "beware fame, it will bring the real you out - whatever you spend your life hiding will be hidden no more". Something like that.

My favourite line about fame is from A Bout De Souffle, where there's an interview going on with a pretentious film director (played nice and tongue-in-cheek by Jean Pierre Melville, a great film director).

What is your ambition?
To become immortal, then die.

Great film that, especially the scene where she is trying to work out front tooth, rear tooth equivalence on her Peugeot.