Potato Salad

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/324283889/potato-salad

It's all about art. And art is about conception. Not painting by numbers, but looking at the world in a skewed way and exercising your vision and titillating your audience.

In other words, Zack Danger Brown (I mean really, his middle name is "Danger"?) knew Kickstarter was not about money, that the way to get famous was to have a great idea.

It's no different from Marcel Duchamp. Or Pablo Picasso for that matter. Or all the modern art you think you can replicate but could never come up with.

Or the Ramones... You didn't think of breaking it down to the basics, never mind have the ability to write catchy tunes.

The potato salad Kickstarter is a joke. Unless Mr. Brown has some gigantic plan, which I doubt, or otherwise he's delusional, this will be the end of his fame, his notoriety, no different from Napoleon XIV's rendition of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!"

And what I find fascinating is a complicit, brain dead press so starved for something to trumpet that they tell this story with no analysis, saying merely LOOK, THIS IS COOL!

And the people subjected to me-tooism on the Top Forty who are forwarding this to everyone they know, because it does titillate them, it does make them question their preconceptions.

And now you've got me writing about it.

I wasn't gonna, but then I went to the page where you can literally see the counter change, happened twice while I wrote this, people donated.

Sure, it pays to be able to play your instrument. Sure, it pays to know the business. But if you want to be truly successful, both pale in comparison to the ability to look at the world and twist it, come up with something new and unexpected, that gets people talking.

In other words, Zack Danger Brown achieved what everybody desires to. He rose above. With tongue firmly in cheek.

If some band we'd never heard of had raised the same amount of money we wouldn't be interested.

But potato salad?

Can potato salad be art?

Yes, when it's wrapped in a fundraising campaign that makes no sense.

P.S. He only asked for ten bucks. Instead of saying my dream can't come true without your help, Zack is saying I can do this without you, but it's so much more fun with your involvement.

P.P.S. The updates keep the same attitude, the same ridiculous self-congratulatory Kickstarter attitude all the worthless fundraisers employ. We did it, couldn't have done it without you! In other words, Zack didn't break character, he didn't say LOOK AT ME, I WON THE PRESS LOTTERY! Although he did ultimately link to news about his campaign, which I would have advised against. Hell, if I'm already at your site, why do you have to bang me over the head with your success?

P.P.P.S. And the real loser here is Kickstarter, which allowed its site to be hijacked. That's what Zack Danger Brown is doing here, poking fun at the fundraising site. And once you become the punch line... Kickstarter never should have let that happen. Or should immediately put out a tongue-in-cheek publicity release, salivating for the product, with puns and jokes. Because if someone is ridiculing you, the best thing to do is to co-opt it and own it.

P.P.P.P.S. The best things in life are simple. A kiss. The three minute single. And mama's homemade food. Nail any of these and it's much more satisfying than any possession. Because life is about experiences and the memory thereof.


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