Just after the Eve's midnight on 31 December 2004 the title of this post leapt from the aether. It promptly set up shop in my skull as if it owned the joint and has been tearing down pointless walls for three months since.

Mundane life hums and pops along, small voltage in a small circuit. High voltage, dealing lightning from each hand in a feedback loop with the universe itself, flying threads of energy whipping back around on me in regenerative charging cycles... that's what I want, that's where I'm going.

Be something extraordinary- my credo for the new millenium.

We credit rockstars with powers and abilities outside the norm in Western society. They occupy a special plane all their own, and the rules don't apply to them. It's seen as a desirable position, overlapping "genius," "president" and "priest" to varying degrees, but with more hip-swivel.

When we flatten our pre-conceptual walls we see it's not musicians alone who qualify for rockstardom. Writers, scientists, photographers, architects, actors, movie-makers, programmers, chip-designers, activists, chefs, child-rearers, linguists, artists, bio-engineers, astral travelers... rockers all. A rockstar is anyone who creates something and does it not just well, but so well it's outside the bounds of common experience.

You are not a rockstar because you take a pretty picture. Or because you wear your inner life on your sleeve for all to see, turning whatever situation is at hand into an avenue of self-promotion. You are likewise not a rockstar because you persevere under the injustice of the world. Martyrs are, after all, failures. And failures, no matter how spectacular, do not qualify for rocker status.

You are not a rockstar because you can convince people to look at you. Any fool can do that, and will find people don't honestly see what's right in front of their faces and the shallow attention doesn't satisfy. There is a difference between the image and the item. Don't pretend to the throne, be the real thing.

Being a rockstar is about exactly that: being. People look at you precisely because, as a rockstar, you're something amazing. While it results from the holistic effect of your actions, it's not something you can consciously do... it's something you are.

With Western culture mired in mediocrity, hypocrisy and outright fakery, rockstars in all fields are more needed than ever. Banality is to be had in plenty and is collapsing under its own weight, a weight great enough to take many of us down with it. Creative acts are the natural domain of rockstars, with self-directed evolution the ultimate creative act. Can rockstars remake the world? Rockstars, my friend, are the only ones who can.

Be something extraordinary.