Continuing Minds

Cowell mistrusts friendship or ordinary human relationships, with their obligations and unpredictability. His preferred companions are ‘trashy girls’ with whom he has one-night stands.

‘He certainly wasn’t looking for intellect or strong characters,’ says Bower, glancing down the list of bimbos and beauty queens and failing to find the likes of Joan Bakewell or Dame Iris Murdoch.

In the matter of sex, by the way, a romp with Simon Cowell is like going on the Dover-Calais ferry – ‘roll on, roll off, and frankly you’ll be sick throughout’.

In Cowell’s family tree are Polish Jews, an Indian Army officer from Hyderabad, and a ticket inspector on the London buses. His mother was a Soho chorus girl and his father a wealthy estate agent, who sold Stanley Kubrick his house near Elstree Studios, and who died on the lavatory in 1999.

Born 40 years prior to that tragic occasion, Cowell was always spoilt rotten. Scholastic achievements were scoffed at, and Cowell’s reward for achieving two O-levels ‘at the lowest grade’ was a red TR6 sports car, worth £7,000.

Proud to have been ‘outspoken, obnoxious, cheeky and bored easily,’ Cowell’s personality was in place at the age of five, though he didn’t leave home until he was twenty-six.

The descriptions of Cowell before he was famous are my favourite parts of this book. Briefly a management trainee at Tescos, he then became a tea boy at EMI.

He saw at once that the way to get ahead in the music business was to pretend to be camp, so he began ‘wearing a V-neck white T-shirt exposing his hairy chest’. He pulled his trousers up to his armpits and called everybody darling. Though Jonathan King said ‘Simon’s the one person you should keep on’ other executives were unimpressed.

Cowell was ‘a camp, silly, indecisive record producer who was catty and manipulative’ people complained – yet these are more or less the very traits that would make his fortune.

His fortune wasn’t made instantly, however. Nor were his instincts spot-on. He let Kylie Minogue, fresh from Australia, sit in reception for a week, ‘ignored by everyone’.

He turned down Take That. ‘I don’t like the lead singer,’ Cowell said. ‘He’s too fat.’ Poor Gary Barlow. He told Britney Spears, ‘You’re mad. No one can be successful with a name like that.’ He got tremendously excited by ‘a fabulously sexy Brazilian girl called Karen’ who was later exposed as having mimed along ‘to words sung by a Spanish vocalist’. That’s scoffing at scholastic achievements for you. Genuine Brazilians speak Portuguese.

As a disc that cost 50p to manufacture retailed at £8, Cowell made his first £500,000 marketing a disco tune for the gays called So Macho.

Linda Vlasak, Leavenworth, will be recognized with the Czernin Palace Memorial Bronze Medal Award on Saturday in recognition of her accomplishments in promoting United States and Czech relations.

1. You are being honored by the honorary consul of the Czech Republic, Sharon Valasek and the Czech and Slovak Club. As a member, can you give us a little background about the award and what it signifies? Could you also tell us about your background and why you wanted to be involved in promoting good relations between the US and the Czech Republic?
I have to confess it has never occurred to me that I have done what could be seen as promoting good relations between the US and the Czech Republic or fostering Czech-American relations. What I have been doing all my life was motivated by an urge to make my friends understand better where I came from.
Your question about my background gave me a pause. How come that now, a sworn-in US citizen for years and feeling as American as I do, I still have a stubborn, parallel Czech identity? I feel no conflict between the two. They can be successfully reconciled, which is not uncommon among immigrant and first-generation Americans. For their Czech and Slovak descendants, their ethnic roots are defined by kolache and beer fests, polka dances, brass band music, embroidered folk dress, and traditions of a rural life which is now history. But the compatibility of Czech ethnic roots and the American way of life has deeper traditions and a much longer history. Now, as far as I am concerned, an autobiographical detour is in order.
My good fortune was to be born half-way between the two World Wars in Czechoslovakia, one of the new states that emerged from the ruins of the old Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of WWI in 1918. At the time I started going to school, my parents were active in various civic organizations, political parties, and the lively cultural scene of my hometown. I was allowed to tag along and so was able to absorb some ideas from the grown-up conversations, ideas and ideals that became mine for life. These were often connected with names of people and places held in high esteem by my parents and grandparents. America and the Americans were frequently mentioned: President Wilson; the Secretary of State Crane; Jane Adams; leaders of Czech and Slovak krajani organizations; and above all, Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk, the American wife of the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk.
When I had learned to read, there was Mark Twain, Jack London, Louisa May Alcott, and other authors to satisfy my interest in all things American, from movie cartoons to athletic and camping programs offered by YMCA or Girl Scouts, the Indian and cowboy stories and campfire songs. It seems that a lot of my Czech contemporaries had a similar experience in forming their favorable opinion of America. All that was part of the popular culture of the time. To my surprise, I have discovered that a lot of this affectionate interest did survive in the Czech Republic under some slight disguise through the years of Communist systematic suppression of any positive reference to America.

2. The award is an honor given to an individual or entity that has made significant contributions to fostering Czech-American relations. What are some of the most important things that you do to enhance relations between the two countries?
To enhance the relations between the two countries means building on the good will that there already is and to continue fostering the cultural exchange in as many fields and on as many levels as possible. Nothing creates a more lasting benefit than the experience of having lived and studied in another country, especially when young and receptive. There are already some US-Czech Republic student exchange programs in place (for example, at Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan.). What is important in the end is how individual citizens relate one to another across the borders, how much interest and understanding they have for the joys and tribulations of living in another country. It is these modest, ordinary human relationships that cement friendship and cooperation between nations. I do hope that my own involvement in such manner will do some good. In any case, it makes me feel good.

3. You played a key role in bringing a number of Czech educational programs to Kansas City. These programs helped further educate the people on Czech history and culture. What were some of the highlights?
As to my contribution to bringing Czech educational programs to Kansas City, it is the Czech and Slovak Club that deserves the credit for making them happen when I discovered resources and people. Such was, for example, the visit of Ms. Eva Strizovska from Prague, Czech Republic, editor and publisher of the Czech Dialogue/Cesky Dialog, a bi-lingual magazine dedicated to connecting Czechs who live abroad with events in their country of origin. During her stay in this area, she was able to interview some members of the Czech community, for the volume in the series of narratives about the settlers from Czech lands who live in the Great Plains states. Two bi-lingual volumes of similar narratives based on her travels in Texas, are in print, under the title Howdy from Texas/Jak se mas? Texas I. and II The Great Plains volume is scheduled to be published this summer. A similar project was made possible by bringing over, to conduct a family history workshop, Helen Epstein, an affiliate of Harvard Universitys Center for European Studies, whose book, entitled Where She Came From: A Daughters Search for her Mothers History, was based on research in Czech lands and became internationally recognized as a model of writing a family history.

4. What are some of the most important things that you feel Americans should understand about the Czech Republic and vice versa?
For Americans, the important thing to understand about the Czech Republic is that this small country is the home of some 10 million people who value fiercely their independence, freedom of expression, and human dignity, much the same as the Americans do. Whenever free of foreign oppression, the Czechs stood firmly with the Western democracies and were loyal allies of the United States. Let us keep it that way.
For the Czechs, the important thing to understand about the Americans is that America is a very big country, the home of millions of people with family roots all over the world, not all of whom can be expected to know about a small nation in the heart of Europe and accept Czech interest to dominate American global agenda. And both sides should remember that the roaring mouse might save a slumbering lion, while the lions mighty paw can give some protection to the mouse.

5. You have an extensive collection of Czechoslovak (also Czech and Slovak) books and are considering how and where you will direct their final disposition. Will the books most likely be donated to major museums?
To answer the question about my collection of Czech and Slovak books, yes, I am thinking about their disposition.
I would like them to go to places where they would be read, whether in the original Czech language or in the English translation. I am now exploring some sites for their distribution, but I really do not want these materials to collect dust in some basement while the world reads only what is on the Internet or on a tablet. So much for that.

Rimsie McConiga

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The Hollywood Reporter: Why did you decide to take part in the Beijing International Film Festival?

James Cameron: The trip has been planned for about a year, so it was in the works well before this phenomenal success of Titanic 3D. Although I did anticipate that China would be a strong market for the film, because we had been very strong here in 1997, vastly outperforming our expectations on a relatively small number of screens. And also, because of the success of Avatar, I knew it was a major 3D market. So I put together the fact that the Chinese audience seemed to really like the movie Titanic and that theyre huge 3D fans, and I assumed wed do well here nothing like this though. So the trip was planned back then. But there are multifold reasons for me to be here now. Were trying to jam a lot into one trip. Im here as the co-chairman of CPG Cameron Pace Group to talk about 3D production, both for broadcast and for film. There are some meetings around that. Then, were having some Avatar 2 and 3 Chinese co-production discussions.

THR:Really? Is this something youre pursuing?

Cameron: Its still very exploratory. Were doing some meetings. Were just looking to see if it might make sense in terms of what would be required of us and what we would get in return. Because again, this is a major market. I think by the time Avatar 2 and 3 come out, China could easily be the same size market as the United States, which is crazy. Its not something we anticipated even five years ago. But it totally makes sense when youre sitting here in Beijing and you see how theyre basically skipping the latter part of the 20th century and going straight to the 21st century, with installation of 3D compliant digital theaters in towns that never even had a movie theater before. Theyre just skipping film completely. Theres no film in their film business which is pretty cool. And you know, it was the same story with the telcos here. They just skipped what didnt really work and went straight to what does work now. So thats exciting. Its an exciting market. And obviously Im doing a little bit of press around Titanic 3D, but frankly, we dont really need to do anything. It launched pretty well without me being here at all, so I dont think Im adding much to the equation.

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THR: You really believe the Chinese market might equal the size as the US market?

Cameron: It seems reasonable, given the number of counties and townships that dont have a theater at all right now and with the rate of their GDP growth and growing middle class, as those towns get theaters, were going to go from whatever it is, 9,000 theaters now, to 20,000 theaters just in China. And when I say lsquo;we I mean lsquo;them. But its becoming a great place for Hollywood filmmakers to show their films. The standards are relaxing, more films are being included and the percentage that one can take out of China is now a reasonable number. It could be even better but at least its now a reasonable number, considering that they bear all the distribution expenses here.

THR:If half of the global box office is eventually Chinese, how does that change the equation for a global filmmaker like yourself?

Cameron: The beauty of it for me, is that it doesnt change anything [Laughs]. Apparently, Ive already been doing it. Avatar was huge here. Titanic was huge here. China is the biggest market for both of those films outside of the US So I guess I dont really need to do anything different from what Im already doing. If I suddenly switched to making a contemporary rom-com set in Seattle, thats not going to play well here. But as long as I keep doing these epic, pageant kind of stories, whether theyre set in the past or set in the future, and keep focusing on highly recognizable universal human relationships and stories that come from the heart, I dont think Im going to have to make any adjustments. The Chinese are very interested in emotional filmmaking. Their films are extremely emotional. And I can relate to that. When I watch the best of Chinese cinema setting aside the wushu stuff with all the fighting, which is great and I love it from a technical filmmaking perspective, but generally speaking its not very emotional its very emotional filmmaking, about families, relationships, men and women, mothers and daughters. So I think Ill just keep doing what Im doing.Titanic made two-thirds of its money internationally. Avatar madethree-quarters and three-quarters of that on 3D screens, when it was still a nascent market. So I think I just keep doing what Im doing. It seems pretty straightforward.

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THR:What do you think it will mean for the industry as a whole though, that Hollywood might soon be making movies for a predominantly foreign namely, Chinese audience?

Cameron: I dont think that people should consider it that way. Its not like Hollywood consists only of Americans. You know, Im Canadian. Look at the people in Hollywood theyre from France, Germany, England, Australia, China and so on. Hollywood is a place that the world has sort of voted to be the place where we make movies for the rest of the world, as opposed to individual countrys film industries, which are making films in their language for their own markets, with some bleed out. But we all know that if you really want to make movies for global consumption you go to Hollywood, but you can come from anywhere to do it. And I think thats just going to continue, no matter how the global pie gets sliced up. Look, Chinese cinema is spectacular, and we could all learn from it. But I think Hollywood is an interesting way for them to get around their own internal guidelines, because theres a lot that theyre not allowed to make here. Theyre not allowed to make science fiction films, Im told. But they can partner with Hollywood studios or they can import Avatar [laughs].

THR:You mentioned that China has been leading the way in the expansion of 3D. As the great champion of 3D, how do you assess the mediums current state of development?

Cameron: There are some countries that have been quite aggressive with 3D. Even back when we were rolling up to Avatar, France was aggressive. And Russia, especially, was very aggressive. But China, I think they scrambled to put in 300 or 400 theaters in the weeks just leading up to the release of Avatar. So nobody was more aggressive than China. I think it helped that they were right at that cusp of building out a national infrastructure, where in the other places, such as France for example, they were having to replace existing infrastructure.

THR:Throughout your career youve always pushed the cutting edge of movie making technology and you certainly seem to be a bit of a futuristhellip;

Cameron: I must be, because theres a book about me called, The Futurist. [Laughs]

THR: So, I imagine you must have found yourself speculating about what might come after 3D. Do you feel like were running out of ways to stimulate the senses in the theater setting? And what might come next?

Cameron: I think we can identify some short-term goals to improve the theater experience. Make the light levels higher especially for 3D and increase the frame rates, which will create a clearer image so we can go to higher resolutions. I would like to increase the frame rates before we go to higher resolution, because I believe temporal resolution is more important than spatial resolution thats just the way it works. Theres ways to continue making that big screen experience better and better. And well continue to do that. But its true that we are kind of out of senses to add. Stereoscopic media was the last fundamental thing we could do. We see in color, so when we were making films in black and white, that was restricting our senses. By making films in color we brought the technology up to the level of our sensory system. By making movies in 3D were bringing it up to the level of a species that has two eyes. If we were a bunch of Cyclopes we could have just stayed in 2D indefinitely. We have two ears and those ears are shaped to give us spatial definition of the sound field around us, so going to six tracks in surround formats has also just been about calibrating our entertainment to our sensory apparatus. Now, I think were done with that. Could we add smell and taste? I dont think that really fits. Experiments with that have been pretty sketchy and not well received, necessarily. As opposed to 3D, which has always been a compelling illusion that has fascinated people. Its been, technologically, the hardest one to pin down and bring to scale. But the interest has always been there in public consciousness, which is why Ive always had complete faith that its inevitable. Were now able to do it with digital camera technology and CG and digital projector technology. The next horizon will probably be laser, which should get us the higher light levels, better color performance, better dynamic range all those techy things. Its going to continue to improve and thats the beauty of digital technology. Film is maxed out and is now obsolete in my book. But digital, by its nature, is pretty open-ended.

THR: Can you discuss your recent deep sea dive?

Cameron: One thing that people have been getting consistently wrong about the deep dives, is that it wasnt just one dive, it was a series of dives actually nine dives. It started with a sixty foot dive and then I went to 1000 meters; then 4000 meters; then down to 7000 meters and eventually 8000 meters. By the time I was in the 7000 to 8000 meter range, I was diving deeper in the vehicle that our team created, the deep-sea challenger than any other existing vehicle on the planet. And that includes all government and academic, institutional vehicles on the planet. We were going deeper than anything else. And thats before we even went to the Challenger Deep. I think the interesting lesson here is that a small group of privately funded, passionate young engineers, can come up with something that governments cant do.

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THR: And so what does that mean in the bigger picture?

Cameron: Well first it means, as governments, whether its the US or any other government, weve lost our edge when it comes to exploration whether its space or unexplored corners of the oceans. And secondly, there are a lot of new technologies and advancements being made in material sciences that allow us to do things at a fraction of the price that it would have been previously. That allows private individuals to come into the game. Those two factors combined are making exciting things happen. You see the same thing in space, with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. You know, Emond Musks Space Ex is going to be regularly orbiting vehicles to service the international space station. They basically stepped into the shoes of NASA for a fraction of the price. Thats a better business model than doing deep ocean exploration. I hate to even use the term entrepreneurial for what were doing, because entrepreneurial implies that theres going to be some big profit at the end if youre successful. But really for me the end result is the science and exploration and the imagery were getting. Its not a profitable thing we arent doing it because we expect to find oil and gold down there. But see, the thing is, you never really know where pure research is going to take you. The New Britain Trench at 27,000 feet no one had ever been down there to look at it. In one dive, in the first five minutes, I discovered two new species. In the first five minutes of being on the bottom!

THR:Throughout your career, your films have always been about taking audiences to new worlds whether its the past, the future, or an alien planet and it seems like youre driven to seek out new worlds in your personal life. Where do you think that impulse comes from?

Cameron: For me, it all fits together. Because the love of science fiction and a love of the idea of exploring the unknown and the incredibly rich and wondrous universe is the same thing that drives my art, my drawing, my writing and the exploration. In my teenage years, thats why I learned to scuba dive. The scuba diving took me to wreck driving, the wreck diving took me to Titanic; Titanic took me into the world of ROVs and deep sea exploration. From there it just continued deeper literally. I would like to be going the other direction as well. In 2000 I spent the summer in Moscow going through the cosmonaut biomedical protocols and centrifugal training and all that stuff. I was going to go to the Muir space station when it was still in orbit. Its a long story, but unfortunately that fell through Ill just say it had a lot to do with the crash of Columbia.

THR: Think youll get up there eventually?

Cameron: Well, yeah its a big future right?

Being obsessed with having enough money for a comfortable retirement seems like a national pastime. Almost daily, we are bombarded with worrisome messages about running out of money in our later years. From there, its a short hop to living in unappealing senior housing, hoping our resentful children will keep paying our bills and occasionally visit.

While money is certainly important to personal security, the things it can buy are only part of a successful retirement, and often not the most important part. More money may give us a sense of satisfaction, especially as we compare our relative income to what other people make. But Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on behavioral economics, says that after about $75,000 a year, additional income does not buy us any more happiness.

Social scientists have researched human activities and aspirations that are more deeply associated with wellbeing and happiness. None of them are surprising. But in thinking about the kinds of investments that may produce the greatest returns as you get older, here are six you might want to consider:

Friendships. Human relationships are at the top of the list of things that make life worthwhile and enjoyable. A good friend is a partner in many activities, a sounding board for your own experiences, and often a confidant for personal matters that you need to share. As we get older, friends and family tend to move away or, in later years, pass away. Women are societys heavy lifters in terms of building and maintaining relationships, while men living alone experience more isolation and adverse health effects. Thinking about the number and health of your relationships is every bit as important as making sure the investments in your portfolio are properly diversified and performing well. Seek out younger friends. Try to develop friendships with diverse people who have lots of different interests.

Social networks. Friends become cornerstones of a persons social network. But the benefits of being richly connected to other people and interests go well beyond friends and family. Most people are truly close to only a handful of other human beings. But we come into contact with many other people in our daily lives. Even incidental contact with strangers can bring happiness. To benefit from this mix of strong and weak personal ties, you have to be out there. But over time, the routines of family and work may yield to less structured retirement activities, and our social networks can shrink. Its important to continue being out thereto join new organizations, to participate, to try new pursuits.

Volunteering. Doing something for another person, either directly or as part of a group activity, adds tremendous value to our sense of self-worth. The kind of purpose you may have once felt in your work can be replaced with volunteer work. Many people volunteer to find or maintain valuable friendships and for other social benefits. Interestingly, these people are more likely to stick with volunteering efforts than people who are motivated solely by a desire to make the world a better place.

Learning. Among all the attributes associated with longevity and well-being, education is at the top of the list. Some research has found that the benefits of education stem entirely from the higher incomes that more educated people earn. But other research finds strong signs of non-financial benefits as wellbetter coping skills and knowledge that leads to making better decisions, particularly about physical health and well-being. Continuing to learn new things in older age is also crucial. Our minds are mental muscles that like to be engaged and challenged. Being mentally active not only brings direct satisfaction but is also associated with better health.

Values. People tend to tell scientific researchers that they most value helping others, making the world better, becoming better human beings, and other intrinsic goals and values. Then they turn around in their real lives and focus on making more money, emphasizing their physical appearance, seeking social status, and other extrinsic values. Most people share both sets of values, but those driven more by intrinsic motives tend to be happier.

Wellness. This is such a no-brainer, I almost hesitate to include it. Yet even a cursory look at American lifestyles shows that we take poor care of ourselves, cutting short our lives and running up enormous healthcare bills for ourselves, our families, and society. Such behavior can cancel much or all of the amazing longevity gains weve achieved during the past century. What a shame. Physical and mental exercise, along with a good diet, are seen as increasingly linked to avoiding or at least deferring many infirmities and chronic diseases of old age, including Alzheimers.

Perfectionism drives human performance to elite levels, often helping a person achieve unequaled accomplishments. However, the push to be great can also have a deleterious effect on a person’s mood, and certainly, relationships. Often those around the perfectionist feel disregarded or inadequate. But what if the relationship with the perfectionist involves a horse?

Horses have a unique way of telling us the truth about ourselves, at times revealing parts of our character that are hidden or overlooked. For a perfectionist, a person who spends a great deal of time insuring that character deficits are avoided, this can often be a little disconcerting. On the other hand, the horse’s response to a perfectionist can also be relieving.

When a person imposes this need to be perfect on a horse, the animal often responds with tension. The horse may appear tense, hypervigilant, and essentially on edge, and may resist the handler in a number of ways. The horse may overtly object to the person by balking, acting stubborn, or attempting to flee. On the other hand, the horse may simply shut down, tuning the person out.

There could also be another response that the horse gives. In a natural environment with a horse, where the horse is loose, and allowed to approach the person in any way he wants, often he will vacillate between protective behavior circling around the person, nudging him/her gently and herding behavior moving the person around the arena.

What the horse’s behavior is reflecting is the underlying inadequacy that every perfectionist experiences.  Often in human relationships, the expression of inadequacy by a perfectionist is received with question, or even judgement, he/she can struggle with feeling as though it is unacceptable to be anything but perfect, now or ever. Of course, this only perpetuates the fear of failing and anger about the rigidity required to prevent it.

But the horse never questions what is presented to him. Whatever feeling, behavior, or thought surfaces, just is, right or wrong. So while the perfectionist may screen his/her inadequacy from others and from himself, and fear the judgement that comes with it, the horse only encourages the expression of it, as a part of the person becoming more whole, more readable to the horse.

What the horse does with a perfectionist really benefits not just the perfectionist, but the horse as well. A better herd member is more honest, clear, and authentic all sound human qualities.

Handsome horse photo available from Shutterstock.