Commentary From Romus on Amy Winehouse's Death

Amy Winehouse has been found dead and I am not sure whether to mourn her passing or congratulate her on accomplishing death. She wanted to die publicly like a rock star. And the lure, whether we admit it or not, was that we got to see her do just that. Amy Winehouses' career was a prolonged funeral. And like many others, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Marvin Gaye, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Hendrix, Tupac Shakur, and others, the morbid spectacle they become overshadows any art they give to the world. We demand our stars flame out and achieve eternal iconic status. That is the hunger of the masses who use celebrities are portals into other worlds, not only opulent worlds, but ones of extreme decadence and addiction. They cheat death again and again. So in turn, as with Amy Winehouse, we are no longer listening, we come to watching with tremulous breath.