Thursday, August 06, 2009

Ruminations on what is "real"

Have you heard of DJ Paige Railstone? I had not either . . . until sometime last week. Normally, this isn't such an amazing thing, as I am neither as hip or as cool as you might suspect. When I have the luxury of listening to indie bands and obscure stuff, it is . . . as likely as not . . . due to the generosity of some of my more "plugged in" friends.

But, I do read somewhat extensively on the Internets and it was through this avenue that I first heard (on Twitter no less!) about the talented Ms. Railstone. It was on Hank Green's Twitter feed post of July 31st that I first noticed this:

Just got "Off the Railstone" emailed to me by a stranger. Having a hard time believing I hadn't heard of#PaigeRailstone until today.

I didn't think much of it, to be honest . . . but the unusual name kept cropping up in Hank's tweets and then also in his brother John's tweets. Then a few others in the Nerdfighter community (who cross over into the Pottercast community . . . and whom I also follow on Twitter) started mentioning the name. So, huh, I thought. Some new musical act. Didn't seem very odd, since all of these Nerdfighters and Pottercasters are also Wizard Rock fans. Common groups of people who sometimes share musical interests. Not unusual at all.

And then, I read an interesting biography of DJ Paige Railstone that was posted by John Green. You can read the very interesting tale (and I recommend that you do or the rest of this won't carry much weight going forward) via this link. This certainly increased the intrigue factor, don't you agree? Leaving aside whether or not she had mad dj skillz (and I never bothered to investigate her music), she certainly had a colorful childhood. And good on her for rising above her problems to achieve something.

And then, I moved on with things. But . . . then came today.

And today, I loaded up my RSS feeds and saw that John Green, author of Paper Towns, had posted a new video. I watched the video and found out this information. (Again, I urge you to take the time to watch the video, so that you can understand what is going on. here.)

So . . .

. . . why should you care?

Well, perhaps you don't. But I thought this kind of dovetails into many of the thoughts I've ruminated about here on WWYG?! over the years--stuff about the mysteries of Internet fame, the perception of people versus the reality of people, and things like that. Mr. Green's experiment indicates to me even stronger that achieving notoriety on the Internet is a very tenuous thing. (Of course, the story of DJ Paige Railstone is infinitely easier to accomplish if you already have a dedicated of Nerdfighter followers who can be relied upon to spread the word if you dangle it out there.)

Still, it makes you question what is real and what is determinedly fake. And it made me think about how hard it can sometimes be to live up to the preconceived notions that swirl around us all the time.

Thinking about these preconceived notions made me sit down tonight and search out this stellar clip from the end of that awesome late '80s movie, Can't Buy Me Love. (For the third--and final?--time, I urge you to click here for a brief plot synopsis of the film, so that you can appreciate the extreme pathos of Ronald's triumphant (and very hackneyed) speech that attempts to heal all wounds and prompted one of the most egregious slow claps in pop culture history. [NOTE, please that I am a sworn enemy of the Slow Clap.]

(The real meat of the clip begins at the 2:00 mark in the video.)


So, what I want you to remember is at the 4:00 mark--"It's just tough enough to be yourself."

Indeed, Ronald, indeed.

So, I will try to put aside all these wasteful notions of notoriety and just try to be the best me that I can be.

(Maybe I'll even get a slow clap out of it someday.)

3 comments:

David said...

And, speaking about what is real . . . how about this email that I received today.

"Good Day

As you are aware of the activities of terrorist attacked at our airport,
during our daily routine on 100% inspection of incoming and our going
flights, we arrested a man with a consignment that claiming to be your
partner, after we scan the trunk box, we discovered the trunk box contain liquid cash in [US] Note and other documents attached to the consignment did not carry the suspect name, but carry's your name and address as the receivers of the trunk box and this is very SUSPICIOUS.

Get back to me immediately to explain your intention; before I proceed to contact my superior and your embassy for more investigation, hope you are not sponsoring terrorism with this fund? be very sincere to me please.

Attached is my ID.

Yours in service,

Office of Meche Nathan,
Metropolitan police chief
Heathrow Airport UK"

1. He was apprehended with "liquid cash"! Did he get ahold of Dr. Horrible's matter transportation ray?
2. I always though--given that they helped create the language and everything, that the English had a better command of the English language than this.

3. I really should spend more time making fun of this, but it would have detracted from the "point" I was throwing together in the main post above. But, please deconstruct at your leisure and be sure to include witticisms in the comments.

Anonymous said...

Real things include:
Hair Extensions
Tire Irons
Leprosy
Brilliantly Shiny Ingots

And that is all that is real, sir.
--TFS

Sven Golly said...

All this metaphysics before breakfast is giving me a headache. Let me get some coffee and then we can talk about the myth of the singular self and other stimulating subjects.