Tales of Walker's philanthropy are not new. CNN confirmed one story from a decade ago when Walker noticed a young U.S. soldier shopping with his fiancee for a wedding ring in a Santa Barbara jewelry store."The groom was just back from duty in Iraq, and he was going to be deployed again soon and wanted to buy a wedding ring, but he said he just could not afford it," saleswoman Irene King told CNN. "I don't think the soldier realized how expensive those rings are, about $10,000."The couple apparently did not know who Walker was, King said."Walker called the manager over and said, 'Put that girl's ring on my tab,'" she said. "Walker left all his billing info, and it was a done deal. The couple was stunned. She was thrilled and could not believe someone did this."King called it "the most generous thing I have ever seen."
Paul Walker's death bothers me for a multitude of
reasons. Is it because he was my go-to
celebrity for a man-crush because he was so dreamy? Partially, yeah. Is it because it is a shocking and horribly
unexpected way to die, albeit ironic? Of
course. Mainly, it is because Paul
Walker actually seemed like one of the most genuine celebrities out there, who
actually started a charity and was heavily involved in philanthropy. Not because he was Sean Penning it. But because he actually wanted to make the
world a slightly better place to live.
Let's get this out of the way: was he probably
doing something stupid like drag racing in the car? It's likely.
We all have moments of stupidity.
It just sucks that it led to him and friend Roger Rodas (who was also
very active in philanthropy) dying in such a horrible way. I can only hope that they were unconscious
when it all ended. Such great publicity
for Porsche that their half million dollar Carrera GT bursts into flames almost
instantly and couldn't withstand any form of an impact without turning into a
twisted ball of debris.
For those of you celebrating or claiming that he
deserved it, I'd like to remind you that this is someone's father. Paul Walker left behind a 15 year old
daughter - a daughter he was trying to
get away from Hollywood so he could spend more time with. Rodas left behind an 8 year old son who was
at the scene and raced to try to pull his dad from the wreckage until the
rescue teams had to pull him away from the burning vehicle.
And why did Paul Walker deserve it? Because he made some "shitty
movies"? Get the fuck over your
hate. We will talk about your hatred a
little later. Paul Walker was an
actor. He made quite a few movies and
some, like the later Fast and Furious movies, were designed to be stupidly
entertaining. If you cannot
differentiate a human being's life from his choice in acting roles, than Flying
Spaghetti Monster help you. I have more
of a problem with the wide plethora of tremendously ridiculous SyFy and
Hallmark movies and I still would not wish death on any of the cast.
I like the Fast and Furious movies. A lot.
They are entertaining to watch and they indulge the long buried gearhead
inside of me. I also enjoyed Joy Ride,
The Skulls, Timeline, Into The Blue, Running Scared and Takers, among others.
As far as scope and figure goes, I understand that
one famous white person (and one quasi-famous hispanic) does not hold a candle
to the 5,260 people that died in Typhoon Haiyan. Life for life, there is no comparison. But I did not grow up watching those people
in media. A typhoon is a tragic natural
disaster that is also an expected travesty, due to geographic and climate
conditions. On average, nearly 2 people
die EVERY SECOND OF EVERY SINGLE DAY, across the world. It is not that my heart doesn't also hurt for
those affected by natural disasters, but we are removed from it in
America. I cannot be heartbroken for
every single loss of life across the world.
A celebrity dying typically would not impact me so strongly because most
celebrities are dicks. If Kanye or Taylor Swift went down in a plane crash, I wouldn't celebrate it. But I certainly could never believe that the
world had lost anything in the process.
Is that a terrible American way to think about
things? Maybe. For all my worry about Darfur years ago (and
I fretted a lot), what fucking good did that do? My sadness at the loss of an actor has no
more of an impact than if I was mourning the loss of an entire nation. It is meaningless to anyone but myself.
I do find the media coverage of this whole event
disgusting beyond belief. As with all
things that American media covers, a lot of it will be rumors and
"in-depth analysis" of the most banal things. What did his last words mean? And, oh my god, what was he wearing when he
died? Our media is a monster that should
be put out of its misery but I can't get into that right now. The media will decide what the story is when
they close the chapter on this book.
Lastly, I have to say that I am so sick of this
culture of hate. Oh, you hated the Fast
and the Furious movies!? Wow, what a
refreshing idea to base everything on!
Oh, you hated the Prequel Trilogy!?
I'm sure there will be a whole line of people queuing up to argue that
Jar Jar was a perfect allegory for communism.
It has become trendy to hate certain things. Sometimes with good reasons; a lot of the
times, not at all. I have no doubt there
is a generation of hipsters that hates the Prequel Trilogy and has never seen
it. They are simply judging it on the
merits of how acceptable it is to exclaim your hate for it. Why view it with an open mind when you can
already hold an opinion that puts you in league with the cool kids?
A good while back, Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick
Stump posted a blog entry along the same lines.
He pointed out some other great examples like Nickelback and Dane
Cook. I can't make an argument for
Nickelback not sucking but it has become all too easy to compare aural rape to
the music of Nickelback, without even a passing thought. As for Dane Cook? I actually think he's funny. Or at least, he was when I last listened to
his stand-up. It was acceptable to love
Dane Cook's comedy when I was a Senior in high school and just transitioning to
college. I am not sure at what point
that turned into all of society deciding that Dane Cook is as unfunny as cancer.
For that matter, look at all of the hate that
Patrick Stump gets. People love to hate
on Fall Out Boy. He is constantly told
to go kill himself. When he was chubby,
they called him fat and belittled him.
When he was skinny, they said he must have been on drugs. With the exception of a very specific social
group, Fall Out Boy was just as much a band-non-grata as Nickelback. And why?
Have most of you listened to an entire Fall Out Boy album? Much like the Fast and Furious movies being
light-hearted (and light-headed) attempts at adrenaline cinema, Fall Out Boy is
making pop music. Do I listen to
them? No, not really. Have I given them the benefit of the doubt
and listened to their albums? Yes. With the exception of bassist Pete Wentz, who has made increasingly questionable decisions in his life, the rest of the band is
legitimate. Patrick Stump is an
impressively talented multi-instrumentalist who will never get recognition for
that fact because he writes music designed to be consumed by the masses.
The same applies to any other band you might hear
on the radio. Does it get annoying
hearing the same song over and over again?
Of course. But is that really
enough reason to completely write off the album or the band? They get successful and you judge them so harshly. Look at the band fun. I would have never in a million years
expected to enjoy their album Some Nights.
It is just so far off from my usual musical fare. Maybe you've heard "We Are Young"
about 800 million times and it burned you out worse than Richard Pryor's shaky
hands did him wrong. But have you
listened to the rest of the album? Did
you know that the band members actually paid their dues playing in bands like
The Format and Steel Train, the latter of which I saw at The Huntridge many,
many moons ago?
It has gotten too easy to hear one note of
something and declare it awful and preach your hatred of it. Whether that one note is literally one note
of an album or that one note is one film in an entire filmography. My words aren't going to change anything in
this world. But if even one of you takes
just the briefest of moments the next time you are going to judge something so callously that you've never even seen or heard, then it will have been worth it.
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