“Dream as if you’ll live forever…Live as if you’ll die today”. Elvis, Marilyn, Bogie and James Dean share their common tales in this classic Diner scene painted by Helnwein.
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This week Anna Nicole Smith has entered the diner on the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. She joins with those whose shining stars where quickly snuffed out at the prime of their lives and perhaps their careers. All had chosen similar paths into this abyss of loneliness and dispare. Though some could say they ought to be admired for their great success, I would have to wonder if, given the chance to do over again, they would trade it all for one moment of freedom from this their glass prison?
This Helnwein picture is a parody of the more famous Edward Hopper’s painting “Nighthawks”. In it we see the lives of lonely souls played out against the stark blackness of a New York City Street. Encased in glass and put on display before passersby and onlookers who see them as surreal yet; to those trapped inside this glass diner, they are all too human.
Smith could best be expressed in the words from the title of the soon to be published ‘tell-all’ entitled “Train Wreck: Anna Nicole Smith Unauthorized”. The silver screen is busting with celebrity train wrecks like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and the Simpson sisters – we simply shake our heads and cluck our tongues as we walk by.
Perhaps its time we take a moment and pause, stop star gazing and start feeling the pain of those heading for the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. Instead of being onlookers and passersby maybe it is time we stop, look, and listen to what these broken hearts are trying to say. Somebody should consider reaching out a helping hand to heal and to save.
Continue reading “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
