Friday, February 15, 2008

The Ledger/Dykes Fuss


A few years ago I had the limits of my taste for personal expression tested attending a presentation of the work of performance artist Mike Diana (his life was the inspiration for playwright David Johnston's Busted Jesus Comix). Bottom line: a dude gets to say what a dude wants to say.

Much blogging has occurred this week since a tour operator named James Dykes announced that his company, Rich and Famous Tours (which offers celebrity siting jaunts across the city) would include a new haunt: the building in which heartthrob Heath Ledger recently died.

Such a fuss! The story was picked up by the NY Post (ick!) and Dykes has reportedly received a bucketload of indignant hatemail.

The buses roll by the Dakota about a thousand times a day to show eager tourists where John Lennon was shot. A gay themed tour makes a standard of pointing out the Campbell Funeral Parlour where Judy Garland was mourned.

Do I feel a need to see the facade of the building where a sadly doomed young hunk died? No. Can I respect that a slew of heartbroken fans might want to? Absolutely. I have visited the graves of James Barrie, John F. Kennedy, Shakespeare, Gypsy Rose Lee, Dorothy Day and Mother Goose.

How is it different?????????

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