Talk:Daniel Johnston

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I do not contest that the article is not perfect. But to me it seems important to have access on informations about an artist covered by Beck, Tom Waits or mercury Rev and many others...

Contents

[edit] Bipolar disorder?

I snipped

Johnston suffers from severe bipolar disorder, and has had varying luck with different treatments. He has been institutionalized for periods.

It's been a couple of weeks since I requested the source for this, and none has been provided. It's quite likely true, but we shouldn't be relying on editors' memories for this sort of fact.

It can be reinserted in the article provided it is accompanied by a source citation, per the verifiability policy. Dpbsmith (talk) 00:37, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Daniel's manic-depression began to manifest in the early eighties (Yazdani 1999, p.7-8) around the time of his first recording, Songs of Pain, and before Hi, How Are You?.
Hyacinth 09:01, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

This Houstin Chronicle article refers to Johnston's condition as manic-depression (aka bipolar disorder), so I'll put that reference into the article. Schi 01:44, 16 April 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Photographs

As I suspect the current photograph will be deleted soon (its copyright status is hazy), I have solicited photos from the Daniel Johnston fan site. There are also several photos on Flickr (although the ones currently licensed under CC are not good). If my appeal to the fan site is unsuccessful, I will beg a photographer on flickr for a few. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 23:58, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I have received permission for a few photographs, and I have uploaded them to the commons. They are all included in Commons:Category:Daniel Johnston. I replaced the one on this page with one of these photos. I really like this one, personally. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 00:25, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

We already have permission to use the one you deleted, and it has been up for over a year with no trouble, it's a great, more or less recent photo don't monkey with it, doof!

Please remain civil. If you look at the photos page you will see it was tagged as "without proper copyright tag" on Jan 8, 2007. This means, unless someone provided evidence that the picture is in the public domain (an implausible claim). Or otherwise gives evidence for our permission to use it, it will be deleted tomorrow. Until the copyright status of the old image is cleared up, the new image should remain. If you can clear up the status of the image, than I would be happy to return it to the article here. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 18:49, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Unfortunately this is one of very few pictures we have of Daniel. If you own the rights to a better one (or know someone who does), I would be happy to help you upload it and change the picture on the article. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 20:22, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

"It has recently been confirmed that he is the "the coolest man to ever live" by Jesus Christ himself." I'd like to see a reference for this...

[edit] BLP

Considering the nature of the difficulty he has overcome, are we certain that this is appropriate for BLP? Do we have definite & stable evidence of his agreement?DGG 03:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Daniel's New Fascination with Nazism & Anti-Semtism

Should an area on his page be set aside to acknowlege this turn of events? Today at the Convention Center, Austin icon and OG “outsider artist” Daniel Johnston told two jokes before a jam-packed day stage crowd: 1. “I heard they just sentenced a man to the death penalty… for trying to commit suicide.” 2. “I heard the Jews are having a pajama party… at the concentration camp.” Daniel punctuated the last one, which drew a pretty uncomfortable silence, with a Nazi salute and a screechy “Heil Hitler.” SpyMagician 06:06, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't see how this one incident deserves its own "area" in his entry, or how this incident is a new "fascination" with nazism and anti-semitism. If you listen to Daniel's 1990 broadcast on WFMU, he also cracks a Jew-joke, albeit not as offensive as the one at the event in question. His distrust of Jews is most likely a byproduct of his strong religious beliefs -- it's something he shares with Henry Darger, a devout Catholic who didn't like to pronounce his landlords Jewish last name. Whatever anti-semitic inclination Daniel may have, it is a miniscule part of his public persona (unlike say, Bobby Fisher), and does not deserve mention. 141.155.57.107 04:20, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
The link is dead, but either way, I think this only deserves mention if it a continuing thing. If this does become a reoccurring part of his personality that it mentioned often in the press, it should be mentioned here. Unless this incident causes a substantial controversy, it is probably not worth mentioning. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 14:01, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

I placed a quick summary of it in the recent news section, with a link. I don't think we should be protective of anyone's reputation here. Controvery or not--- and there does seem to be some on various blogs--- It's certainly worth mentioning.

From the above..."His distrust of Jews is most likely a byproduct of his strong religious beliefs...". This sentence implies that strong religious beliefs lead to anti-jewish bias. Of course it has throughout history, in many cultures and many parts of the world, but the sentence is a bit crude, and not really accurate. If Johnston's brand of Christianity led to an antisemetic viewpoint, this would be a problem for him (and would make him an ignoramus), or the writer of the sentence feels that a strong Christian backround leads to a mistrust of jews (and I doubt if this is what the editor meant). More likely, it's a cultural issue. However, at no point in the documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston is the subject brought up.
Please, wikipedia is not a discussion forum. The sentence in question is not part of the article, nor will it be. Let's keep the discussion focused on the article. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 20:53, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Johnston's apparent antisemitism is certainly wiki-worthy; interpretations of why he tells antisemitic jokes are on less certain ground. I've reinstated an account of his behavior at SXSW 2007; if I can find an accurate account of his jokes I will add that. I sense a certain paternalistic tone to some of these comments, so to reiterate: there's no need here to protect this man's reputation.Goophus 10:29, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

While the blog post you cited may be a reliable source for the claim that he told this joke at sxsw, the statement from Goede is not. There is no way to verify that it was posted by Goede, for instance I could just now post a response by that name. --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 17:48, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Plenty of other blogs cite this incident as well. I'll leave it as is for now (uncited), but I'll be adding their citations when I have the time. If I find other sources suggesting he did tell these jokes, do you believe they are newsworthy?Goophus 07:27, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
By wikipedia policy it cannot be there and not be cited (since Johnston is alive anything that puts him in a negative light must be cited). I have two concerns: (1) while mentioned in several blogs, I'm not sure it's sufficiently notable to warrant mention in a general article on him and (2) the claim by "Goede" cannot be verified since it is effectively an anonymous post to a blog (not a credible source). --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 19:06, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

If this is going to remain on the site it needs to be put into the context of his mental illness. Marring an entire entry with a piece of information that may or may not be true, especially given the lack of any sort of context or reason that this is worthy of inclusion under "recent news". There needs to be something written other than the possibility that he told an insensitive joke to make it worthy of inclusion. Including it alone like that makes it seem as if it is an undeniable fact that Daniel Johnston is racist, insensitive, and some sort of Nazi sympathizer, when the fact is that this comment or any "fascination" is due to his mental illness AND strict Christian upbringing.

[edit] Has been classified as an artist?

His drawings sell for all kinds of money, and he did that famous mural of the "Hi, How Are You?" alien. I'm going to stick "artist" in his initial description. The phrasing as it stands sounds sarcastic. Bleedingcherub 00:41, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Just" bi-polar?

Do not misunderstand me, this is by NO means an insult to Daniel and his work, but his manner of speech, his writing style, and aspects of his current lifestyle all seem to point to the possiablity that he may also be autistic and suffering from some other metal illness then simply bi-poler syndrom. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.250.130.215 (talk) 20:04, 12 September 2007 (UTC)


Personally, I still like the old term manic-depressive.George415 00:34, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree that he's probably autistic, but that's mere speculation, not a publicized diagnosis. Bleedingcherub (talk) 06:08, 7 December 2007 (UTC)