Look, I never thought I’d be posting about Justin Bieber two days in a row either. But those photos of him with Selena Gomez – click here if you missed them – were the best thing that happened to me yesterday. And as I initially reported a couple of weeks ago, he covers the new Vanity Fair. The pictures are hilarious. Especially the one with him and the open shirt. The video is even better because, like, this is our world. In which a young boy is fawned and fussed over with a wall of glass between him and a dozen or so screaming girls, relegated to the outside, screaming for their boy king, and he’s just…there… not giving a sh-t, like it’s a regular day, and it’s not embarrassing at all, as they’re treated like cattle while he doesn’t have to lift a finger for a sip of water. This is good for a 16 year old? Is it?
Read the excerpt. Read the excerpt and meet a kid like all the other kids before him. Meet a kid who has been taught the “humble words” but really doesn’t know what they mean when they come out his mouth. And, yes, as always, meet a kid who’s been told he’s SPECIAL.
“I’m crazy, I’m nuts. Just the way my brain works. I’m not normal. I think differently—my mind is always racing. I’m just … nuts. But I think the best [musicians] probably are.”
It goes hand in hand with that sense of entitlement. When they talk about themselves, they’re always isolating themselves. Not normal, crazy, and nuts – in this case, all synonymous with SPECIAL. In Justin’s case, it’s because he says he stays up all night “thinking”. Like none of us do that. But when his mind races, it’s because at night is when he can connect his feelings to family and God. Right.
Then he name checks Michael Jackson and Boyz II Men. He’s in their category.
Oh but just wait. Before you bludgeon yourself, just wait. There’s more.
Why do the girls, why do they lose their sh-t?
“Not trying to be arrogant, but if I walked down the street and a girl saw me, she might take a look back because maybe I’m good-looking, right? For younger guys, it’s like [they think] they’re not cool if they come to my concert. That’ll [change], I think; it’ll happen, maybe when I’m 18. But meanwhile all their girlfriends are coming to watch me.”
At some point you have to laugh. At some point you concede that you simply don’t know anymore. At 37 I simply don’t know. I don’t know what I’m not seeing. I just can’t see it. Also… what if he doesn’t grow?
No matter. According to his mother, “she and Justin have been put on earth to bring light and inspiration to the world.”
Don’t fight it then. Give yourself over to Bieber Fever. Because this is the way of the Lord. But though he is divine, mom says he still knows his place. You can snort now:
“I put up a little video on YouTube [under the name “kidrauhl”] for Grandma and some relatives to see, and the next thing we knew, all these strangers were clicking onto it, probably because they recognized the song. (At first) it was ‘Oh look, honey, you have a hundred views.’ Then ‘Oh wow, a thousand views.’… Next thing we knew, thousands and thousands of views. But it never once occurred to me that there would be a music career out of this. We don’t have yes-men around him. I don’t want him being a diva.”
That’s what Dina Lohan said.
This is what Justin said. But it could totally be what Lindsay said:
“It’s hard to really balance myself. A regular kid, if he catches the flu, he just gets to go home. But I can’t do that…. Everything is important. But, you know, my sanity is important, too. Even if I’m angry, I’ll just put a smile on my face and fake it. I don’t often fake it—what’s me is me….I know I have to give up a lot of myself, or a lot of a private life.”
He only reads because Will Smith told him to. Click here to read the full piece.
