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Re: frenzy of renown

it's been interesting living in LA.  everyone is just so /over/ celebrities. 
  when you see them milling about here and there, or if you work with 
them...  i don't know.  they become much less of a phenomena.

phenomenon?

i know don knows the correct usage.  ;)


so, fred- you didn't know mark shannon, did you?


just curious.

melanie


>From: Alfred B Johnson <hoopyfrood at juno_com>
>Reply-To: Alfred B Johnson <hoopyfrood at juno_com>
>To: Over-the-Rhine at actwin_com
>Subject: frenzy of renown
>Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 22:18:02 -0500
>
>I knew the phubbbs.  They're on 5 b's now, aren't they?  This, as much as
>anything, is making me feel older.
>
>But I like being older.  You should try it.  :)
>
>(I've noticed that a lot of people around 40 right now like to say
>they're still as much of a kid as they were at 18.  And I always think,
>"You wanna be eighteen forever?  Teenagerdom was nutso baby.  Live in the
>now.")  (Okay, maybe I don't think exactly that, but I do like being the
>age I am.)  (The first time I thought of this was when I was student
>teaching under the supervision of a 45 year old woman who desperately
>wanted to be ten years younger.  It was  . . . graceless.  And
>gracefulness is where it's at.)
>
>About fame:
>
>There's a kinda interesting book called _The Frenzy of Renown_ by Leo
>Braudy.  I think he could have made this a really interesting 100 to 150
>page book.  Instead, it's a 600 pager and gets a little wearisome.  But
>it is an interesting sorta tour through fame as a concept, as it has
>developed and changed over time.
>
>I think we use famous people as part of out contemporary mythology.  That
>is to say, we attach stories and emotions to famous people.  No matter
>what size the fame.  If you see somebody in an OtR shirt, you know
>they've identified with the virtues of the band (or maybe its vices).  If
>you're also an OtR fan, you can guess (with some accuracy) that you'll
>have a few things in common with that person. The way stars use their
>fame to signify, to actually become part of the art, is part of what
>popular music is about these-here-days.  And OtR is part of that, though
>not on the scale that ol Britney Spears is.  But consider: OtR's image is
>remarkably consistent, in terms of visual and musical tastefulness and
>interest and depth.  The image is part of the appeal.  (On this: read
>Daniel Boorstin's _The Image_ and high-falutin'-French-theorist Roland
>Barthes's _Mythologies_.)
>
>So anyway, people who do popular kinds of music want to be famous partly
>because it will add new elements to their art, not to mention financing
>it.  (E.g., Bill Mallonee's music might not be better if he was
>mega-famous, but he could at least afford a band and more comfortable
>travel . . .)
>
>But then there's also that thirst for recognition.  Another topic.  I
>will leave it alone, lest my two cents swell to ten.
>
>That is all,
>
>Fred
>
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By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, 
penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, 
whereas in fact we live steeped in its burning layers.

- Teilhard de Chardin


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