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11 July 2005

Locally famous. I've decided to become locally famous. It's about time. Kellydamnit advised against it, but I'm going to do it anyway. What's your advice?→[More:]I'm going to draw a really creepy 'zine, putting it out every couple of weeks. Will this work? And, is it worth it?

post by: interrobang at: 03:10 | 37 comments

Hmmm. What is your definition of fame?

Well done!

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 11 July | 03:22

i have the hiccups, will you write about me in your zine? and yes, it will work. analogue is the next digital.

posted by muddgirl 11 July | 03:26

I no longer know what my definition of fame is, since I've found my favorite girl ever.

But. I'd like to (when it occasionally happens) be feared as I walk into a bar. That's pretty much it.

Plus, I'd like my local fame to get my best friend laid.

posted by interrobang 11 July | 03:26

Never undrestimate cheese curds.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 11 July | 03:39

But, I don't live in Wisconsin anymore!

posted by interrobang 11 July | 03:40

Well, you could go the way of 'FlapJack Mary' of Chicago's Rush Street, but something tells me that wouldn't help your friend. At all.

posted by maryh 11 July | 03:41

I've just got to say, WOOHOO! It's raining (which just doesn't happen that often in Greece in the summertime.) It's raining and I'm not sweating, and mr. taz is bringing me some wine. Totally sweet.

posted by taz 11 July | 05:25

[Oh, taz, my gig tonight was a huge (500 guest) Greek wedding. Thought of you a couple times!]

posted by Frisbee Girl 11 July | 05:51

[I mean, not that you had a huge Greek wedding, but that yo- Oh, nevermind!]

posted by Frisbee Girl 11 July | 05:58

opa!!! yeah... actually, we got married in the U.S., so the only Greek at our big fat Greek wedding was my husband.

and... the rain is gone already :(

posted by taz 11 July | 06:06

Hopefully it's on it's way here. I feel like a stranded whale in this heat man. :(

posted by dabitch 11 July | 06:33

Getting back to the "Fame" question....

White Collar Crime. Not to be confused with White Collar Grime, by the way.

posted by mmahaffie 11 July | 06:50

I have so warned you about this. But, in any case, here is what you do, since you do not want my advice...

Find yourself a close-knit scene of some kind. Being locally famous on a large, city-wide scale is close to impassable unless you're on tv or in a major band.
So go with the goths, punks, hipsters, whatever floats your boat.

Get in not just with the scenesters, but also the workers. Know every bartender, dj, and bouncer in the city. Be able to greet everyone you see by name. When you know their name, they will make a point to know yours. When people see staff greeting you, they will think you are Someone To Know.

Now, for the actual reason you're famous, you will need to be multimedia. For me, I was online and a DJ. (although the online thing got me the DJ gig). For your zine, make sure it is in a stack at the door of every damn bar and club you frequent. Get the bouncer at the door to read it. Put something about them in there, they love that shit.

And now, congrats! By this point strangers will be professing you to be their lifelong friend, you will be accused of sleeping with everyone under the sun, you won't be able to shake someone's hand without a rumor starting, and your life should be a nearly unbearable mess. You're locally famous!

posted by kellydamnit 11 July | 07:06

A story about local fame:

A young man moves to a village in Wales and gets talking to an old man from the village. He asks the old man what his name is; the old man gets very irate at this point and says: "See that line of houses over there? I built them all, but do they call me Jones the house builder? Do they hell! See those railway lines over there? I laid them all, but do they call me Jones the engineer? Do they hell! See those bridges over that river? I built them all, but do they call me Jones the bridge builder? Do they hell! But, a long long time ago, I fucked *one* sheep..."

posted by dodgygeezer 11 July | 07:21

Oh, one other thing.
Once you're famous within your chosen scene, you will become famous outside of it by being the Voice of those within.
I somehow, sadly, ended up the media's go-to girl for the goth perspective after Columbine. Odds are you won't need a full scale school shooting to reach this point, though.

At this point things get very interesting, as complete strangers will feel they can talk to you, not just in bars, but also in, say, grocery stores. And everyone within the scene will be quite concerned with making sure the world knows how much they disagree with you.

posted by kellydamnit 11 July | 07:23

Will this zine be available to those of us who are not local but wish to help encourage your sudden climb into the neighborhood stratosphere of infamy by perhaps purchasing said zine online or something like that?

(Aha! dodgygeezer I love that joke!)

posted by LeeJay 11 July | 07:52

Chester Brown's Yummy Fur started off as a disturbing self-published comic, practically a zine, in the '80s. It was godawful and ridiculous in every way (art and story) and probably only eventually got published in comic book form because of the black-n-white glut in which anything got published. (I think I still have the first issue. A comic shop gave it to me just to get rid of it.)

But look at him now! He's not only taken seriously, he's intellectually and artistically dissected in the most academic of tones. It sounds as if he actually developed into something legitimately interesting. I dunno--I haven't been able to look at a Brown comic since that 1st ish.

posted by shane 11 July | 08:56

White Collar Crime. Not to be confused with White Collar Grime, by the way.

a guy i knew in college has a band by that name, or anyway did the last time I ran into him. He probably would count as locally famous for various things, though White Collar Crime is probably more the beneficiary of his otherwise realized local fame than the reverse. but uh, yeah, white collar crime. Except the name's already taken.

the main thing about becoming famous is keeping people interested in what you're gonna do next.

posted by mdn 11 July | 09:21

Create a scandal. Or a crime wave. Lawrence should provide plenty of opportunities.

But per dodgygeezer's advice, be the one to uncover the scandal or crime wave. I'll bet the person who caught Jones the sheepfucker was locally famous. Be a situationist.

And don't say we didn't warn you.

posted by warbaby 11 July | 09:50

Oh, and plan on it taking about two years. So you're going to have to stick with it.

posted by warbaby 11 July | 10:58

I've been plotting Total Chicago Domination for about two years now, and so far it's gotten me two appearances on the local NPR station, a couple of interviews in local zines, a couple spots on conference panels and a whole lot of email. I guess you could call that locally famous, in a way.

At any rate, media coverage is key. Don't just set your zines near nightclub doorways, send copies to the local alt.weekly, the main paper's literary critic, etc. Get your name in the paper and stuff.

posted by me3dia 11 July | 11:38

what me3dia said--you have to get in the papers and on tv.

posted by amberglow 11 July | 11:59

With all due respect, I beg to differ on media relations.

Make as many contacts as you can, but don't do so for coverage. Be an anonymous source. Help them do their job by supplying information and thus bind them into your web of contacts. Media is always having to fend off self-promoters, who are a dime a dozen. Better yet, get them to do you a favor. This means they have an investment in you and want you to do well.

Julius Caesar once consolidated his command over his legions by borrowing money from his commanders when he couldn't make the payroll while advancing on Rome.

*adjusts tights, twirls cape*

posted by warbaby 11 July | 12:24

but you can't get famous by being an "anonymous source"

posted by amberglow 11 July | 12:29

Media is always having to fend off self-promoters, who are a dime a dozen.

So you pretend to be anonymous while actually self-promoting?

Self-link!

posted by shane 11 July | 12:42

I've found that when i returned to a relatively small (80K) college town after 2 years (I'd lived there for about 7 years)...people i had never met would always say "oh, so you're schyler...i've heard so much about you." This has happened so many times so far, that I'm convinced that I'm locally famous...albeit in a somewhat small cultural continuum of hippies, hipsters, and rednecks...

Good luck!

posted by Schyler523 11 July | 13:11

Karl Rove is famous, eh?

Working with media isn't the same thing as being famous. It can be the means to an end.

*gestures hypnotically*

posted by warbaby 11 July | 13:29

I was on the news last night...and I'm still not famous. This makes me a sad panda.

posted by PsychoKitty 11 July | 15:00

You could do what this guy did.

(I've actually had a few conversations with him and his wife. The guy was totally railroaded. On second though, maybe you should follow kellydamnit's advice.)

posted by mudpuppie 11 July | 19:31

I think I'd like to do something a little classier than that.

I wasn't expecting the answers in this thread to be so serious....

Oh, and LeeJay, if I ever get this 'zine thing done, I'll totally send you copies.

To distribute. To make me locally famous in Maryland.

posted by interrobang 11 July | 19:34

Do you know anyone who sews? Cause you could totally do the penis-in-a-tux thing.

posted by mudpuppie 11 July | 19:37

Uh, I don't know if we even have cable access here, since I don't have a television.

Otherwise, I'd, like, be totally up for it.

posted by interrobang 11 July | 19:38

I don't think I want to live in a world where a man can't dress his wang up and parade it around on local public access.

posted by LeeJay 11 July | 19:45

Uh, I don't know if we even have cable access here, since I don't have a television.

Otherwise, I'd, like, be totally up for it.
posted by interrobang 11 July | 19:38

I think you are totally looking for excuses.

Chicken.

posted by mudpuppie 11 July | 20:11

Well, duh.

posted by interrobang 11 July | 20:20

Well when you make it, dear interrobang, don't forget the little people who liked you even before your wang achieved local renown.

Anyway, here are my suggestion: spend all your time on Mass Street in a variety of disguises. Contrive each day to be interviewed by the On the Street guy. Make each of your answers more subtly offensive than the last. Around week 3, tear off your disguise and shout "It was I, Interrobang, all along!" You will earn the lasting and legendary hate of the entire bizarrely entertaining board of people who compulsively post there.

Or, start a blog on lawrence.com and invent salacious gossip or filthy insults regarding every local band, artist, or person of local prominence in town. (Rinso, repeato, ratso, rizzo.)

Best of luck to you and The Man Who Would be Laid!

posted by melissa may 11 July | 20:22

first of all, Ed the Happy Clown is a work of genius, and when chester finally wrote me back when i was still young and last century, i felt somewhat obligated not to publish the chester brown didn't write me back the bastard comics, much like i don't hand out print outs of drunkenly emailed gentials of the marginally famous.

poor interro, remember to try and use your powers for good and not drunken whimsy. fame is all in the eye of the beholder.
and depending on what you beholding
i cede my ability to participate in this site without compromising someone else somewhere
eh?

posted by ethylene 11 July | 23:35

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