March 29, 2004
Without Blushing
Fame is a fleeting mistress. an achievement as ill-defined as it is sought-after, fame has long renounced itself as mark of specific achievement, handing itself down instead to a middling lot of vaguely discernible visages. the faint line between famous and infamous has long evaporated, as to be famous is now simply to simply be known, to be remembered and acknowledged in passing shades of grace.
with its quality in such question, the idea of fame as motivation is sort of strange, the narcissism of committing one's self to public adulation in place of some other nobler accomplishment is indeed a questionable approach to achievement, as fame itself is marred by its own ephemeral nature. it's meaningless, and it's hollow. it's vain and it's empty. but so is everything else, when you really think about it.
fame is just as much the catalyst as it is the aim. fame is an unforeseeable finale that umbrellas a collective of efforts under which personal achievements are realized. proactive. active. it anchors a vision for bonding seemingly nebulous goals into a strongly epoxied front.
To quote Mister Merrill: "The reason we choose Let's Get Famous as our intended goal is because Fame represents an easily identifiable destination that is both within our grasp and indeterminately far away. Imagine you are standing in the plains looking at a mountain range. Within that mountain range you will find rivers, lakes, valleys, caves, small villages, magic mushrooms, trails, trees, and many other metaphors for human experience. But where do you go? You may be perfectly happy in the rolling foothills, or just wander about and end up about two miles south drifting along the river. These are all fine. But up on that far craggy peak sits a small red flag with four letters in bright yellow. F. A. M. E. From atop Fame Mountain you can see into all the valleys, and along the way you will find caves and great places to snowboard. It's not the destination, it's the journey. And once you reach it, you have all these new opportunities and a new vantage point. Is there another mountain range? Another land or continent? A rocket ship? Who knows. Everyone's path to Mt. Fame will be different, and they will arrive with different skills and abilities and we'll have a big party."
It is in large part just a reevaluation of focus. When tempted to ask your friends "What did you do today?" instead ask, "What did you do to Get Famous today?" Subtle, but in time it begins to hold a person accountable for their day-to-day.
This blog is set to detail the specific efforts of a crusade: a triumvirate of efforts (in the form of myself, my roommate Jona Bechtolt, and our shadow-lurking associate K. Michael Merrill) be they personal, professional, or artistic toward a common (albeit sinister) goal. in regular A.M. meetings over hot beverages (here on referred to as Let's Get Famous, or LGF), three men map the trajectory of a future. Meetings have been underway for some weeks now, and plans are well under way. In forthcoming entries I will do my best to chart these developments, and also collect the evidences of our meteoric rise to fame.
Posted by zac at 10:42 AM
March 27, 2004
Hey, Let's Get Known
(from left to right: Jona Bechtolt, Mike Merrill, and Zac Pennington, ready for your unnatural adulation. and um, respect.) A slight revision in the form of massive overhaul: this is the point in the song where that man's voice shouts "REMIX!" and they bring in the diwali riddims. and ludacris comes in for a verse.
I know it might be a difficult adjustment for all of you to make, as I'm sure you've come to depend on my particular brand of irreverent social critique so seamlessly guised as "musical criticisms," but let's face it: to consistently commit myself to the sort of quality control my vast audience subjects me to is something of a daunting task. and, as I'm sure you can appreciate, not really enough about ME for my tastes. and just as i resigned to my position of a desk-chained workhorse, the solution to my plight became all-to-clear: exploit the inspiration.
Allow me to welcome you to Let's Get Famous, ver. 2.0. The Subject? What it should've been from the get go: Let's Get Famous. This is owning desire. This is battling archaic ideology. This is proactive. This is getting legit. This is reclamation.
The means may be uncertain, but the goal is as clear as the gleam from my still-spinning rims: we're gonna be famous. and I'm going tell you how.
More to come, I assure you. Much, much more.
Posted by zac at 2:10 PM | Comments (5)
March 10, 2004
A Preface
The following is sort of an experiment. which is to say, this preface is also something of a qualifier. expect a lot of these. Qualifiers, I mean.
anyway.
The following is sort of an experiment. An experiment in writing about music. This is something that I do very often, but generally this music I am writing about is music of relevance; that is, music of current, particular relevance. A band releases a record, and it is my job to provide said record with a context between their other releases, judging the works by the stretches of a career with specific, immediate trajectory. Such judgments are comfortable. They are transitory. the factors that effect these judgments are in themselves qualifiers and can always be revised.
that's not what this is meant to be about. this is not about the new belle and sebastian album. this is not about where Liz Phair went wrong. this about something a little more personal, as well as (hopefully) informative. it's that balance that I'm struggling with right now. This is about, specifically, The Greatest Band In The World™. This is a title that I reserve the right to recant and redeem at any point here-after, and yet whose inherent weight should never be regarded as pedestrian. It's like those green jackets that they give golfers, a title to be worn, traded, re-evaluted. often. actually, I'm not really sure about that green jacket thing.
I imagine that the first few tries herein are going to be a little sticky (I can assure of this for at least the first entry, already completed, very awkward), but hopefully, for the sake of us both, I'll come upon my stride relatively soon.
I don't know. Maybe I'll remember what writing for my own enjoyment feels like.
my name is zac.
Posted by zac at 12:54 PM