About a month ago, the YWCA asked if I
was at all interested in being a "featured member" I said "sure" without really thinking about
it. One afternoon, a woman with the YWCA showed up by the pool with her camera
to take my picture. She took about 100 pictures. Some of the pictures showed me
standing by the pool, and others had me in the pool. The one they used (right)
shows me actually in the pool. I was given directions such as "look
like you're going to start swimming" So I looked like I was going to start
swimming, and the picture they used is the result of that.
Yes I am wearing a Dolfin "Uglies" Halloween Pumpkin suit.
I made a point of not mentioning it to a lot of people because I
wanted to see if anyone noticed. People did actually notice - there are a couple
of snapshots on Facebook in which I was tagged.
A few people noticed too much and wouldn't shut up about it. This
leads me into my point of view on celebrity. Now, I'm not saying that I think
this gives me any sort of celebrity status, but it plays into how I tend to
perceive celebrity.
When I was in Jr. High (late 80's), I was a big fan of Gilda Radner.
I read her book, "It's Always Something." Unfortunately, I read it shortly after
she passed away. The book struck me because here was this person who was larger
than life in so many ways, writing about the gory details of her cancer
treatment, her crush on Gene Wilder (obviously before they started dating),
everything. It was about then that I really formulated the whole point of view
that famous people, actors, singers, musicians, artists, etc. all wake up in the
morning and go to bed at night (depending on their schedule). They get colds,
they accidentally eat something that doesn't agree with them and end up in the
bathroom when they'd rather not be, they pull muscles, they fall in love, they
end relationships, they lose loved ones, they adopt pets, and they have to find
a way to react to the attention they get.
Twitter has given famous type people an outlet to interface directly
with fans. Some handle it really fabulously well while obviously keeping up a
logical barrier between their public and private lives, and some not so much.
I've responded to tweets from famous people who I don't know personally. I've
never received a response, but I don't really think that's a big deal. It's just
like when I get a response from someone I don't know. I usually file it.
There is a mystery about people who are larger than life, but I try
to keep it in perspective. If I had been embarassed about the idea, I wouldn't
have agreed to take the pictures for the Y. On the same token, the times I've
gone on stage and played guitar, if I was embarassed about that, I wouldn't have
done that either. All the same, I still feel that slight discomfort when someone
I don't know, or someone I don't know well starts telling me that they liked my
song, picture, what have you. It's just a weird feeling. I imagine that
<insert famous type person here> never truly gets used to the attention
and may also experience that, probably a lot stronger than I ever have.
Which reminds me... I have been playing my guitar a bit lately. I
might have even started writing a new song. Hooray for re-established guitar
callouses and creativity!
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