Writer's Block: Brush with stardom

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Nope. At least that I can remember. (Which means if it happened it wasn't that exciting). But I grew up in Elkhart, Indiana; generally the famous people who ever were there grew up and got out-- and the few that stopped by later didn’t stop by for long. (I swear, the only reason Indiana was a blue state this last election was because Obama was willing to visit Elkhart twice during his campaign, which is probably unheard of before in our history-- and of course I was already out of town by the time it happened). And I never ran into anybody in St. Louis, at least that I recognized-- though some of my close friends have. (Danny saw Jessica Alba at the Galleria, and apparently the bowling club once encountered Nelly?). So many of my students ask me whether I’ve ever seen a famous person and I have to tell them that, believe it or not, there are places in the US that are just as boring and unglamorous as their own hometown, lol.

Speaking of which, I’m sure I’ve never seen anyone famous in Hagi and probably not in Kyoto, either—but if I saw a famous Japanese person I doubt I’d recognize them because I am even more ignorant of Japanese pop culture than American media.

But this is fine with me, because I’m not driven to meet famous people. I had a high school teacher whose dominant hobby was collecting pictures of himself with celebrities, tracking them down at events in Chicago and Indianapolis and using his young kids to warm up to them. It always struck me as kind of creepy and a little pathetic. Maybe it’s my introversion, but I’d rather use all that effort to make a lasting personal connection-- not a moment of hero-worshipping the celebrity will forget about five minutes later.

( And, As Usual, My Writer's Block Turns Into An Abstract Essay )

Writer's Block: Brush with stardom

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Nope. At least that I can remember. (Which means if it happened it wasn't that exciting). But I grew up in Elkhart, Indiana; generally the famous people who ever were there grew up and got out-- and the few that stopped by later didn’t stop by for long. (I swear, the only reason Indiana was a blue state this last election was because Obama was willing to visit Elkhart twice during his campaign, which is probably unheard of before in our history-- and of course I was already out of town by the time it happened). And I never ran into anybody in St. Louis, at least that I recognized-- though some of my close friends have. (Danny saw Jessica Alba at the Galleria, and apparently the bowling club once encountered Nelly?). So many of my students ask me whether I’ve ever seen a famous person and I have to tell them that, believe it or not, there are places in the US that are just as boring and unglamorous as their own hometown, lol.

Speaking of which, I’m sure I’ve never seen anyone famous in Hagi and probably not in Kyoto, either—but if I saw a famous Japanese person I doubt I’d recognize them because I am even more ignorant of Japanese pop culture than American media.

But this is fine with me, because I’m not driven to meet famous people. I had a high school teacher whose dominant hobby was collecting pictures of himself with celebrities, tracking them down at events in Chicago and Indianapolis and using his young kids to warm up to them. It always struck me as kind of creepy and a little pathetic. Maybe it’s my introversion, but I’d rather use all that effort to make a lasting personal connection-- not a moment of hero-worshipping the celebrity will forget about five minutes later.

( And, As Usual, My Writer's Block Turns Into An Abstract Essay )