Previously on Platinum Hit: The music died.
CLIFFHOOKER
Immediately after all the color and shape went out of the world, Jewel showed up on her unicorn and told them all that the Jigsaw Killa decided that they had to stay in that room and write all the hooks that there are in music and that once they have written all the hooks that there are in music, the stars will start going out one by one and then Biggie will return and save us all. Or possibly it will be Sting in a Biggie suit, Jewel's not sure.
Sonyae: "That just goes to show you with this contest, you just never know."
First they write their names on a piece of paper and they all put them in Nick's porkpie hat so their names will smell like Ventura Blvd. jerkwad forever and ever after. Jewel pulls out pairs of names to create teams.
Jes and Scotty: That will be good. They are the people whom I would most like to listen to in real life.
Nick and Anybody: Will be very bad, but I very much hope it will be Johnny... Score! Oh, they are so miserable! ¡Que delicioso!
Johnny, verbatim: "Are you shittin' me, brah? Really? Dick Ditolli?"
Yes really!
Which leaves Sonyae and Brian, which means titties are on the menu for sure. They are going to write the magnum opus of song cycles about boobs, I can feel it. Or else stalking because they both write stalker songs most of the time. 69 Stalker Songs. Or maybe it will be a duet and she will be like, "Why don't you love me? All the boys love me." And he can be like, "Why don't you love me? No girls love me." And she can be like, "I DO LOVE YOU!" and he can scream "I LOVE YOU TOO!" and in the end of the song they are like, "BUT IT DID NOT WORK OUT!" Twist!
TOTES MOS DEFTONES SONGWRITING SESH BRAH
Brian: "I have ideas!"
Sonyae: "Me too, in my way."
Nick: "The best way for us to collaborate is if you are in a different room."
Johnny: "I was just thinking that."
Jes: "What if I think I'm Ke$ha? It will sound horrible, watch."
Oh my goodness it is so bad.
Scotty, barfing: "This is the worst thing you've ever done to a person."
Jes: "But it's the only thing I've ever done on this show, so..."
Scotty, verbatim: "I think she probably has a Jetta at home that she drives to and fro."
Jacob: "♥."
Brian: "I will sing the tunes okay, but the words themselves will just be gibberish."
Sonyae: "I am feeling you on that."
Brian: "And then we will turn the gibberish into a song or songs."
Sonyae: "That seems like gilding the lily to me personally. A bridge too far. I say if you start with gibberish and stick with gibberish, the anecdotal evidence suggests that you will win every challenge."
Brian, who is looking good this week: "[Gibberish.]"
Sonyae: "...Wait, this is gibberish."
They irritate each other. Everybody irritates everybody.
Nick: "Johnny, what's another word for 'drawing'?"
Johnny: "I hate you."
Nick: "Johnny, do you know anything about Peru?"
Johnny: "There are ruins there."
Nick: "What are ruins?"
Johnny: "Seriously?"
Nick: "Yes, seriously. Do you not know my backstory where I left home at five and have tattoos? Can we not just like posit that I am illiterate?"
ibid.: "Case in point, the word separative. As in, This collaboration is very separative."
Johnny's White Privilege/Rage: "You have handed me the keys to drive this motherfucker into the ground. Check out how fast I become the gross one here."
GIGANTIC PRODUCER
Jewel and Kara are not there to explain the man, who looks like Russell T Davies which equals instant affection, but he does a good job explaining himself. He runs a thing or something and then later on maybe he can help them? Whatever, he is adorable and probably he has worked with hitmakers because they all have worked with hitmakers and they're hard to tell apart sometimes.
TEAM LADYBIEBER
Scotty: "I am basically just going to make this shit up out of my head, because it turns out our songwriting session was no good."
Guy: "I expected as much. If you people had any work ethic at all you wouldn't be counting on this game show to skip levels."
Scotty hooks, Jes hook-harmonizes. Guy loves it. Guy compares them to the Beeb.
TEAM GIBBERISH
is Brian and Sonyae. Instead of doing anything, Sonyae tells him a story about how they didn't do anything. Or whatever, I never understand what the fuck she's talking about, but something about how they hit every genre including ska and Tuvan throat singing but forgot to do R&B. He is disappointed, more so than Brian and Sonyae are, because they are oblivious as people.
Then they rewrite the hook in front of the guy, and of course it is fabulous! It is fabulous because it is "Love Me To Life." Dude does not know that, so he just thanks her for being the exact black girl she appeared to be.
TEAM DOUCHE CHILLS
Dude: "Johnny looks excited, Nick does not look excited."
Nick: (Could literally be shitting his pants.)
Johnny: (Only ever needs an ally, or an audience, or somebody to wink at.)
Dude, whispering to Johnny: "Nick-is-the-fucking-worst."
Johnny, whispering to dude: "Do-not-penalize-me-for-that."
Dude: "Gavin DeGraw is right here in the studio recording."
Johnny: "That's exciting to me, and not totally gross like it is in reality."
Dude: "I'm going to go get him, because having you two assholes in this room isn't giving Jacob enough hives yet."
Gavin: "[Some rumbling inaudible truths.]"
Johnny: "Well, great! We collaborated by ignoring each other, so this should go swimmingly. Have you noticed how I'm 100% adorable and Nick is 100% repulsive? Keep that in mind moving forward. I am still not clear on the word team."
Johnny, and I mean: "I'm guessing Nick is going to sing some power pop punk gutter garbage that sounds like Sum 41 circa 2004. So I am going to sing this one song I have that sounds like a Gavin DeGraw song." [My emph. How cute is that.]
He sings a Johnny song, which is always already a Gavin DeGraw song. But will DeGraw accept the gracious handjob of Johnny? Or will he understand the difference between the pandering right now or the ongoing pandering that Johnny thinks of as real life? If you honestly think that's a question you don't know Gavin. Or boys.
Gavin: "I can see myself, for example, singing this song."
Johnny: "I fake it so real I am beyond fake."
Gavin leaves! It is over! What?
Nick: "...Wait, that was the whole pitch meeting? This is disgusting."
It is, honestly. It is ridiculous what just happened. There is a stink on this. It is nice to see Nick hurt, but not that nice.
THE HIPSTER WITH THE MOST CAKE
Jewel, wearing some beautiful thing: "So what hook did you pitch? Because that's the song you're now doing, just like every week. The whole 99 hooks thing was just to keep you busy while Mommy answered emails."
Nick: "Some fucking Gavin DeGraw-sounding Johnny bullshit, naturally. The Man is constantly keeping me down, Via my refusal to participate positively in my own life."
Jes & Scotty: "Like a Justin Bieber song or something? It was a bit of a blur, honestly."
Brian & Sonyae: "Beyoncé. Black girls can only sing Beyoncé songs. So Beyoncé."
Jewel: "You n00bs do not disappoint."
For Jewel's genre -- I was thinking about this hardcore last night -- I think it should be like that magical Misty Mountain thing of Jethro Tull or Donovan or "Stairway To Heaven." With the flutes? And you can see Arthur Rackham elves peeking at you around trees when you hear it. It's been my personal plan to become the Stevie Nicks, but I guess Jewel would be good too. All I know is that someone has got to stop Joanna Newsom.
Nick: "Johnny, the fact that we despise each other doesn't mean we can't collaborate. How about bygones."
Johnny, in his stupid red jeans: "I will attempt and fail to meet your challenge."
Johnny, fucking verbatim: "But it's that sunrises are cool, something romantic to watch. And the idea of somebody being an all-day-long sunrise."
Nick: (Sings a pretty song with this queerdong shaved-vagina idea that actually fits the genre of Gavin.)
Johnny: (Bitches about this because he can't hear the Gavin on the other side of the Nick because A) he is on that emotional level and B) he lives life at one remove.)
Sonyae & Brian: [No idea.]
Jes & Scotty: "We wish Jes was black and we are working on that process. It's going poorly."
Johnny: "I am completely unable to meet you halfway, even though you're being totally smart and mature and writing a killer song for me, just like every week when you collaborate. I am more interested in performing my superiority and the hassle of working with you than actually experiencing the complete non-hassle of working with you."
Nick: "Nobody's ever been more of a sniveling bitch than me, in my life! It's sort of eye-opening. Is this how I appear to others? Quite the mindfuck."
DAY
Sonyae: "Brian keeps playing instruments because he can play instruments, which are conventionally thought of as being part of a song, whereas I am more gifted at writing nonsensical lyrics and cannot play any instruments, because it would interfere with screaming my ass off all the time. Rather than seeing this as a good team dynamic, I am going to say that Brian is quite lucky to have me. And my nonsense."
My Ridiculous: (Keeps that pretty head down; does not fuss nor does he particularly toil. I hope they win.)
Scotty: "Jes, you have got to stop thinking that you are R&B. You're not R&B. You're never going to be R&B. I am writing this whole song myself. I still don't get the point of Jes. Nobody seems to."
ObliviJes: "We are collaborating beautifully!"
Nick: (Sings exactly the song that Johnny would have him write.)
Johnny: (Mugs at the fucking camera; calls it "trite BS" because he can't separate the singer from the song; has no sense of the irony here at all.)
Yeah, it sounds like trite BS: That is your commodity. The only difference between Johnny-as-Johnny and Nick-as-Johnny is that you don't like Nick, and that you are presuming that we also don't like Nick and thus will agree with you about the unrelated issue of the song's quality. But that is not how the world works. (Well, that is kind of how the world works. But not when you can see the seams and stretch marks on it, like here.) Openly inviting us to see the movie inside your head, where you are Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the whole world is your Zooey, just makes it a smug exercise in being a sheltered young person without much to say, which is what you were already doing.
Johnny: (Sings the exact same song, but it's better because it's him.)
Nick: (Finds a way to quibble anyway. Never fear.)
For this performance, the part of Jackie Tohn's ADD delirium will be played by Johnny and Nick's devotion to their loggerheads/determination to be the main character here.
Nick: "I am not going onstage with this song! It has been ruined!"
Johnny: "We are so angry! Look at us living in a story about our being angry!"
Nick: (Stalks out the room, finally broken.)
Johnny: (Literally punches the air in triumph. Jesus, with this guy.)
ASSHOLES ARE SO ATTRACTIVE: WHY
Nick: "He is trying to write the worst song possible. I can smell the sabotage!"
Johnny: "I have effectively crashed this plane in the wilderness."
Nick, suddenly appearing: "Have you not noticed how for six weeks I've been consistently lauded as a dream collaborator, and now all of a sudden I'm the problem? Does that not sound fucked up to you?"
It is! It is so fucked up! But here's the rub: They're all out of the studio and hanging out, so Johnny has the social capital to make Nick look like the bad guy, because outside the studio Nick is the bad guy. (If Johnny goes home, also, it's going to be even more confusing for him, because of the support system he's engaging here now, which confirms that he is the good guy and the protagonist of this story, so if reality doesn't conform he's going to freak.) Johnny invites Jes and Scotty to come with him to the world of no accountability, and it's making Nick act crazier and crazier, because he is a rat in a cage. Screw this show for making me feel so bad for Nick, but this is some demonic shit Johnny is pulling. And neither of them even know it, because reality TV does not allow for reflection or even sleep.
Johnny: (Sits back, drinking deep of Nick's outburst, smiling grotesquely. Actually refers to him as a "baby moron of a lesser human." Fucking "lesser human," we're getting out of him. Bad show, Johnny. Ugly business.)
Nick realizes that he is going home. Brian puts on his scarf uniform to deal with this amount of conflict.
Brian: "Johnny would never do that!"
Scotty: "Are you sure that this is what happened?"
Nick: "No, seriously. I know I'm the worst but this is really happening."
Scotty, privately: "No, Nick is right. He's a great collaborator and Johnny hates him. The stink is on here."
Nick: "I am unfit for employment. This is my only shot."
Jes: "Hold my hand and tell me your whiny story. We hate Nick! We love each other."
Johnny: (Luckily, has somehow learned to be a good kisser.)
PERFORMANCE
Keith Naftaly is wearing a vest! Evan "Kidd" Bogart is that dude from before. Johnny cannot wait to fail! He is loving this! It is so fucking dumb.
Team Bieber: "Love You Down" starts with an exhortation to yell "JB!" and fall in love with him. Scotty is all about being Justin right now; the music part is really pretty. I still haven't heard a Justin Bieber song, but if this is what they are like maybe I've been avoiding it for no reason. There is a part about asses that Jewel doesn't love, but the song is so pretty and they are having so very much fun. Scotty is so great. Jes is so fun.
Teamoncé: "Stranger To Love" is a Beyoncé song for sure. This is the best week, these are the best songs. Brian is awesome, Sonyae is awesome, it sounds like the realest song. I think maybe these songs are so good that the rule where the song I like is the failure might not even come into play. Kara grooves so hard on this song that maybe she has a feeling. At the end it becomes all manner of sweet and yearning, and who knows.
Team Fuckface: "All Day Sunrise," which you can see that Johnny is taking seriously because he has put on a Gavin DeGraw knit hat. Everything gross at once in one place. Nick sits it out altogether, because that's how much of a drama queen he is, and Johnny blows it up amazingly, because he's so good at this, but it smells so bad. Nick hates it more than if it were Jackie Tohn singing, even. What a pair of cocks. What a plan to fail. Monstrosity! I hope Kara and Jewel beat them with socks of batteries. Just whale on 'em.
But okay my fear is this. That Johnny will work the room, like always, and the questionable racial thing about this show will come into play, and Nick will shit himself in front of them like always, and they will forget the dream collaborator that Nick is and just look at what's in front of them: The smart hot white kid that keeps his cool, and the deranged ethnic punk-ass kid with his entitlement and hatred of everybody.
Of course, if Johnny sails through -- or wins -- this round, then none of this will matter, but it means losing one of the other ones, and what's the point in that? Ideally they would both get kicked off, but I really feel like it's entirely contingent on Jewel and Kara and Keith to work this one out mentally. Johnny is always going to be Johnny and nobody is more predictable than Nick, so you can rule them out effectively for changing the situation. That just leaves the judges -- who are admittedly perspicacious, falling on the reality TV spectrum somewhere around Project Runway -- and their ability to overlook Nick's awful personality and see the double worm in this particular apple.
BACKSTAGE BITCHFEST
Nick & Johnny: (It's gotten boring. It's just gross and ugly and boring.)
The thing about art and artists is this: Your whole job is to guard the door and open it when it's time. Let things out, true things. And in practice what this means is that you're closer to the door than other people and if you don't watch yourself, it can open up on its own and you get confused about what's inside you and what's outside in the world.
I don't buy in, for example, to the neurotic-writer thing or the alcoholic-writer thing. (I come by those things honestly, through my own diligent brokenness.) But the stereotype of the artist is true, for this reason: Not that you have to be crazy to be inspired -- that's bullshit -- but that being an artist means always feeling like the table at a séance. You're working with radioactive personal numinous shit most of the working day, and having a real life means vigilance about whether or not the radioactive shit comes home with you.
And for a lot of people that means identifying with the crazy, or using the crazy as a crutch or an excuse, or thinking that the crazy and the art are mixed up together, when in fact that's getting the cause and effect backwards: You're not an artist because you're crazy, you're potentially crazy because you're an artist. Like any other hazardous working environment.
It got to the point where Brian would come downstairs in the middle of the night and play beautiful songs on the piano that nobody ever got to hear. That was his creative outlet. And Dennis would bring these bags of hamburgers to the house -- this story makes me cry, every time -- and he would bribe the songs out of Brian, one hamburger at a time. And we're so stuck in this idea that crazy is okay for artists that nobody ever thinks about what a fucking tragedy that is, or even remembers to imagine what could have happened if it wasn't put forth as all one thing or the other. That it didn't need to be that way.
Stability, which is everybody's problem, eventually has to become your primary goal. Mediating between states of being is something that is your job as a growing human, but it is literally a matter of life and death if art is what you choose. And it's not something that you can do just one time and then be normal: It's a thing you have to do every time, all the time. Eurydice cannot come back with you.
RELEVANCE?
The reality TV paradigm means they are going to be creatively immersed for way too long in a situation that is only about the work. Marathons are a thing, beautiful objects can be created in marathons, but the difference between a reality TV marathon and a regular artistic marathon is that people are watching you go crazy. You don't have the benefit of being alone. (And if you're Johnny, or special snowflake Nick, that was already true because life is already a reality show.)
Jewel sends everybody up to the stage, three pairs at once. What was it like working together?
Scotty & Jes: "We bounced lists of anchors and lyrics back and forth and narrowed it down, it was really fun."
Brian & Sonyae: "We are on the same page. Stalking, tits, and nonsense."
Nick & Johnny: "[Screaming and crying and howling and whining.]"
Jewel & Kara: "Fucking hell."
Nick: "I know that you feel sorry for me and not him."
Johnny: "I know that you feel sorry for me and not him."
Jewel & Kara: "Um, we'll get back to that."
The winning song is: Brian and Sonyae, of course. Because sometimes Beyoncé doesn't have feelings in her songs, so it was nice that Sonyae sang as though she were being softly and rhythmically murdered by love. Keith loves the tortured soul of both Sonyae and My Ridiculous, and loves them as a duo. Kara and Jewel, they love the lyrics so much. And when Kara reads them out loud, they sound really nice and not crazy at all.
Jewel stares at the other pairs and says the song has no hit potential and did not capture the voice of the person... And it is Nick and Johnny!
Goodness. Imagine for one second that a song Johnny wrote on his own lonesome did not "capture the voice" of Gavin DeGraw. Really sit tight and think about that. And then think about how they both think they are safe because of the fact that Nick had nothing to do with it. As for Jes and Scotty: The "ass" thing is addressed; Kidd doesn't know that Bieber would actually sing it, but they did a good job.
But this either means Nick goes home, like so many others have done and mostly correctly, for opting out...or Johnny goes home for writing the losing song. Precedent says it's the former, but I don't really like either choice. But if Nick throws a fit and Johnny smarms about it, it's going to be twice as gross, because of the Antigone or Starbuck thing where you can be 100% right, but if nobody believes you, you are wrong by being crazy. The system has been gamed before you ever got there.
It's why calling any woman "hysterical" -- even if that's the precise word for what she's being -- is, at most, the nuclear option, because you cannot ignore the context or derivation: The baggage of being rendered voiceless on the critical level that defines the conversation. ("Angry black man" and "angry black woman" are insidious in precisely the same way; it's possible you're thinking gay ones at me right now.)
Not that I'm telling you anything new, but we react so strongly to words that sometimes it's helpful to revisit why they carry what they carry, and in this case you're seeing a perfect illustration for this feeling: There is literally nothing Nick can say right now that won't prove Johnny's point. His wrong, nasty, scum-sucking little point. And the fact is that that's not something that Johnny is ever going to have to feel, the absurd ugliness of that feeling, which is why it's so bad to see happen.
Yes. I am stalling because I don't want to watch this. Nick's fault is youth; Johnny's fault is privilege. And the latter makes me more nervous than anything in the universe, generally speaking, because I don't like implications or accusations that are unanswerable. But also, now that Jackie's gone, they are my favorite ones and I don't want to see them show the ass. It's exhausting, firstly, and more so it hurts my heart because I have very strong feelings for them and I want them to do well and be happy in all areas of life. I don't know how surprising it is to say at this point that they are/were my three favorite ones, but I'm guessing you'd figured that out by now. You only go after the ones you love because they're the only ones you can see.
HOW THAT GOES
Shockingly enough, Nick goes zooming into Johnny's trap at full tilt, telling them he would like to opt out of the judging just as he opted out of the song, because Johnny eats dirt and so on.
Jewel: "Kara, just keep going with the real questions."
(They do.)
Johnny: "Let's get back to blaming Nick, though."
Jewel & Kara: "But okay, but let's talk about the song right now. That was a Johnny song, not a Gavin song."
Johnny: "But Nick! He's standing right here being awful!"
Jewel & Kara: "Nope."
Nick: "I wrote a melody he ignored that was totally Gavin."
(He sings it.)
Kara: "Yeah, that would have been much better. I like that."
(My friend Paul explained to me at this point that Gavin writes conversational melodies with lots of room to move around in, while John Mayer and Johnny write tonal melodies with jazz inflections, which is why Johnny cannot effectively write Gavin songs even though to my untrained and ignorant ear all of this sounds exactly the same. "If you're writing for Gavin DeGraw, what you need to be bringing to the table are tough acoustic rhythms that he can chunk out. Writing for either means bringing solid imagery that plays to the cheap seats, while having something more to it for the repeat listener. If Nick is asking you to explain the concept of your hook, it's not a good hook.")
Jewel, once again justifying this show's existence: "Nick. Did you fight for that and get overruled? Or did you pout and whine and trash the entire experience?"
YES! I love Jewel!
Keith & Kidd: (Get bored because this is not about the music, but about the reality of what is going on here.)
Nick: "Johnny took over and wouldn't let me speak."
Johnny: (Wide eyes! Shocked at the implication!)
Kara & Jewel: "Yeah, we haven't ever gotten shut out in that way. That's not how it works."
Nick: "And yet you have six weeks of people telling you how great I am in the room."
Johnny: "Factually speaking, he walked the hell out of the session. I succeeded in getting him to do that."
Kara: "Well, not so fast. Were you receptive to Nick's input?"
Johnny: (Does not even know that he is lying.)
Nick, to the extreme delight of all present: "Let's see how much of a dirtbag you are right now. Swear on your mother's life you came to this session in good faith."
Jewel: (Amazed but still loving it.)
Johnny: (Silent and appalled and still blinking at them like Nermal; unable to swear because for real Nick is right. They stare back. The Nermal is not working great.)
Nick: (May have pulled this one off!)
Kara: "Johnny, how is it though that you, of all people, failed to write a Gavin DeGraw song?"
Johnny: "I'm going to stick with, it's because Nick is mean."
(He does a horrific impression of Nick that proves nothing.)
Keith, verbatim: "This song was a lyrical cesspool."
Jewel: "Just keep in mind we are judging you guys on this song, not the spell Johnny has cast on us in weeks."
Johnny: "Okay, I hear you. But if I could just bring up the spell I've cast on you in weeks..."
Kara: "Oh, girl."
The screaming continues and they are both unattractive persons.
Kara: "This is fucking ridiculous. Ego is the antithesis of creativity."
The judges are so wonderful right now. I love this show so much. I want to have a dinner party with Jewel and Kara and Keith and Kidd. Well, what I want is to be married to Keith Naftaly, primarily, and then we can have the other ones over for dinner any old time. Kara on a bottle of Chianti has got to be the most thrilling thing in the universe.
Jewel: "Both your asses should get kicked off."
Judges: "Yeah, for real."
Kara: "Your careers may well suffer for this bullshit. You have shown us your ugliest sides. I am physically revolted by what is happening here. I want to be done."
Jewel: "Honestly, we have to figure out which of you fucked this up worse. I have no idea what is going to happen here. I am just... Just disappointed, honestly. You have made us sad."
I mean... It's not even Bravo Trainwreck good, which would be fine: It's regular good. They are being normal people on their worst day, and you've got these genius professionals who are mentoring them and turning the whole thing back into class again by explaining why this is disappointing. You know? The harsh truth about what it actually takes, and how you're not allowed to have bad days in public. That a work ethic involves getting and keeping your shit under control as much as it involves being creative in the first place.
PLUS, JOHNNY CRYING. CRYING IN HIS GAVIN DEGRAW HAT.
Jewel: "Disappointing and subpar. Neither of you could grow up enough to sing the song. You are both the same asshole, and you're blaming each other. One of you, not both, is going home."
Kara: "What a display. Johnny, you shut him out and it fucked you. Nick? No excuse for not contributing."
Jewel: "Nick?"
(Death pause.)
Jewel: "...You're safe."
It doesn't even matter what happens then. You already know. It's a terrible feeling for sure. I don't want to see Johnny gone. Johnny certainly does not want to see Johnny gone. The rest of the people backstage are silent and disgusted and sad, and Nick rises to the occasion and acts like a dick, and Brian nearly flips out, and nobody knows what to say.
Nick: "I'm going to stop being awful, you guys. Your stone-faced reception of my good news has demonstrated to me what a thousand requests to not be horrible could never do. I am not the lovable trickster that I thought. I get it. But I actually learned from this experience."
Everybody: "We don't care yet."
STAGE
Jewel: "Johnny. This is heartbreaking."
It is! I am so sad that Johnny is leaving!
Keith: "Do you understand that you were going to win this show?"
Kara: "You did this to yourself!"
Jewel: "All you had to do was write a good song, dude."
In One Ear: Out the other.
Poor Old Jes: "I have never felt this close to a person before in my entire life. And I don't mean that as part of the limited group of people I have only known for a couple of days, I mean of the people that I have met in my entire lifetime."
Honorable Nick: "[His shitty, passive-aggressive version of a gentleman's farewell.]"
Honorable Johnny: "[Same, but saves it for the talking-head, because he is precisely that kind of weak dick.]"
Johnny cries and weeps and moans and slumps out of there, and nobody will ever get through to him or explain his part in this disaster, and that's fine. The smarter you are, the crazier you get to be, and honestly, Johnny's solipsistic self-mediated experience of things is part of the firmware. We come by our coping strategies not out of pique but out of need, so whatever Johnny's avoiding by being a simulacrum of a human is probably pretty scary stuff. Or normal stuff he thinks is scary. Or maybe he's just not as smart as we think. But I don't think that's it, because Johnny is pretty much exactly as fantastic as he thinks he is. This one rat-ass day notwithstanding.
The fact that he's drawn to art is a good sign, whatever gets you closer to the door is a good sign, but these are the kinds of egos that don't go down without a fight -- the audacity and the total tragedy of the artist is to have enough ego to think anybody wants to hear your art, and simultaneously enough bravery to let that ego go when it's actually time to make the art -- so for him to get a birds-eye on this situation and its antecedents would involve probably a massive breakdown, which would end up with him a lot less attractive on the other side of it. And nobody wants that, least of all Jes presumably.
I just can't believe we lost Jackie and Johnny within a week of each other. I cannot take much more of this.
week: Hipster Vengeance!
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