i’m still here
In 2009, Joaquin Phoenix appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman” to promote the film. two lovers. He wore a black suit, white shirt and black tie. His hair was unkempt and his beard was overgrown and unmanicured. He was wearing sunglasses and chewing his gum. He was fidgety, sometimes incoherent, rudely aloof, and disgustingly awkward.
he succeeded in covering everyone’s eyes
Phoenix’s appearance and behavior embarrassed the host and the audience. Was he suffering from a nervous breakdown? was he high? Was he joking?Turns out he was steeped in experimental film performance art i’m still here, directed by Casey Affleck. Playing the role for 18 months, he successfully covered the public eye, confusing first the media and then movie audiences.
at first glance, i’m still here It may look like a mockumentary, but it deconstructs the relationship between image and subject, subverting traditional documentary conventions to convey messages about fame, identity, and the nature of media representation. However, there is one very important difference. A mockumentary requires an unspoken contract with an audience that understands the jokes and social/political criticisms being expressed. Instead, i’m still here It intentionally hides information that viewers need to stay up-to-date, creating disorientation and uncertainty.
at intervals
I’ve admitted to a similar level of disorientation in recent weeks when I’ve stumbled upon poker’s Twitter space. There, a man who went by the moniker “Eden Rocks” developed a sort of strange notoriety. I first learned of him through a video circulating of him attacking Donna Morton, a heavyweight in his poker community. Then I heard a clip of him “butting toes” with Danielle Negreanu. The two threw drunken words at each other, a pathetic and demeaning expression of male egos running amok.
Against my better judgment, I actually tuned in to Space on Friday morning, hoping for a reaction to Brian Rast’s third WSOP Poker Players Championship victory. Instead, I endured 30 minutes of reactions to Eden Rocks turning 86 from Caesars’ property for his first offense.
I don’t know if he deserves a suspension. Apparently there was a minor altercation and he was kicked out of the $1/$3 cash game tables last week. He was a little rough on the $250,000 rail a few days ago. He competed in tag team events, so money is at stake. It’s possible that the WSOP went too far, but it’s also possible that he’s rightfully considered a nuisance.
Wiretapping in a mental hospital
Making great use of the post-documentary culture movement, i’m still here It was an unpleasant viewing. Phoenix melted into the role, fully committing to his fall from famous actor to mumbling rapper. The approach he took may have seemed excessive, but it showed an artistic point that required the level of fidelity he brought to the role. When the reality presented is a public figure increasingly in crisis, it provokes criticism of viewers, the media, and the relationship between the two.
Throwing a tantrum like a shivering teenager
Likewise, the man behind Eden Rox seems to be dedicated to the role. From bombastic rhetoric to melodramatic rants, he revels in the spectacle, posting teasers and devising cliffhangers for his nightly bouts of verbal diarrhea. He’s provoked when he takes a challenge, throws out a tantrum like a shivering teenager, breaks the fourth wall a moment later, and claims it’s all part of the story.
As a viewer, I always couldn’t help but question its authenticity. i’m still here And listening to Eden Rocks gives me that same confused feeling. Like Andy Kaufman playing the absurdly foul-mouthed, arrogant lounge singer Tony Clifton, it’s hard to take it at face value. Eden Rocks likened his role to a circus ringmaster, but listening to him for half an hour felt more like eavesdropping in a psychiatric hospital.
Kaufmanesque
Over my Friday morning coffee, I realized I could turn my Twitter space off at will, but something compelled me to stay there. I’ve heard other people talk about her FOMO when it comes to these spaces, but it wasn’t. I was starting to feel something about the Eden Rocks presentation. It was part Howard Stern radio talk show, part audience-participation improvisational comedy, part Andy Kaufman performance art, and part Charlie Kaufman metafiction.
This may be a fairly obvious observation that Johnny has made recently, but in that case, I’d like to apologize to the Eden Rocks followers who long ago had a close understanding of what he was doing. I have resisted participating in these spaces as much as possible. Because they look like trash can fires. Now that we’ve had some exposure, I can tell that, alongside all of the gossip pedaling, swearing, attention grabbing, and bully-fighting kumbayaing, there’s probably, perhaps, something interesting going on. is provisionally accepted.
Comedians are constantly experimenting with form, with metacomedy of all kinds being developed by the Kaufman family, as well as Woody Allen, Larry David, Garry Shandling, Tom Green and Norm Macdonald. . Now, I’m not going to put Eden Rox in that category for a second, but I’m cautiously suggesting that there might be some way behind the conversation hijacking, the belligerence, the madness, the madness.
part of the meta
Many speculated at first that Phoenix was just kidding. But his convincingly long performance made it less likely that it was all fake and more likely that we were seeing something real. At that point, a mirror is held up to our reactions and responses, making us writhe, and as the man once revered for his acting becomes a monstrous figure of devastation and a disinterested narcissist, our It was the audience who challenged preconceived notions and were being brought to justice. only within yourself. We were stripped naked against the backdrop of a story that defies definition.
Choosing How We Respond Is Revelatory
Eden Rocks reveals something about the nature of the poker community, either by chance or by design. His speeches are controversial, offensive, penitent, and savior, drawing attention to the train wreck uproar. We can never know exactly what is made and what is real, but choosing how we react is revelatory.
It’s very possible that I’m overestimating Eden’s swearing, and that he doesn’t really understand what’s being argued, so he uses “meta” justification when dragging the listener down a conversational impasse. Very likely a sheep-headed thug. A more fundamental problem in poker. It’s also possible that he’s somewhere in between, the Worsel Gummidge of poker. He’s a fit-for-purpose Scarecrow who comes to life and adventures with a collection of one-of-a-kind suits and interchangeable heads.
At the end of his interview on “The Late Show,” Letterman quipped, “Joaquin, I’m sorry you can’t be here tonight.” I don’t know if Eden Rox is really there, but writing about him definitely made me part of the meta.
