Today I was in the Writing Center perusing magazines as I waited for my class to start. I picked up Spin and saw Death Cab For Cutie on the cover. Immediately I heard in my head the lyrics for "Cover of the Rolling Stone." You know, it goes: Rolling Stone, gonna get my picture on the cover. Stone, gonna buy five copies for my mother.
This was prompted by the fact that a guy I used to work with, Nick Harmer, is in DCFC. He was the Music Director and I was a lowly DJ at Western Washington University's college radio station, KUGS. My friend Alison, co-host with me of "The Broadcast," always said Nick would be a rock star. He just looked like a rock star. He was cute, with a little boy/boy next door face. He seemed sweet. We went to their first show at a bar in Bellingham, The 3B, and after the show he practically ran out. He wasn't 21 yet and he was still shy. Now he's 30, a little chubby, and he's an indie rock star. The last time I saw him he was sitting outside a famous Bellingham eatery with Ben, the lead singer of DCFC. He told me he had just quit his job, managing a Blockbuster or something, and that they were "doing the band thing." I pretty much knew he was going to be a rock star. I should have gotten his autograph.
Seeing him on the cover of Spin made me muse on the trajectory of fame, and how our paths intersect with those of others. It also reminded me that I see a good friend of mine for the dorms at University of Oregon, Marc, on TV occasionally. I first saw him in Fred Meyer. He was on a Nike poster hanging from the ceiling. Then he was in one of those Valentine Hallmark ads with the magnetic bears. And then he was in a MGD commercial, the one where the woman tells her boyfriend (he's the boyfriend!) that her roommate is coming home and when he goes to the fridge to get a beer he sees the picture of the roommate and she's a hottie. He smiles and grabs three beers (implied threesome). Funny thing, though: he's gay. One of my best friends in college (a man) was in love with him. He was also in a Honda commercial and currently he's in a Taco Bell commercial. When we lived in the dorms together, I used to borrow his Benneton rugby shirts (green and white stripes). I still have a note he left on my door in the dorms. It's a cartoon he drew of himself, with severe cheek bones and hair made entirely of ninety-degree angles. He looks like Grace Jones.
Ahh! Those were the 80s!
5 comments:
Funny your two brushes with fame. I have none: nada--zippo. No one I either went to any school with is famous or even infamous. Mike Conboy who I went to elementary/jr. high/highschool with got his legs cut off in a freak industrial accident, but that's about the only person I thin who made the papers. Is it strane that there is no one famous in my life?
I love stories about people who once knew famous people ("I see famous people"). Here are my brushes: I once read with Pam Houston. In my high school class was Sharon Tate's little sister. Also, the cheerleaders at my high school, the Boyce sisters, were sisters to Christopher Boyce, who was either the Falcon or the Snowman, I forget. Also, Tracy Austin's big brother was in my graduating class.
Ta da.
Middlebrow went to Costco (that sounds like the opening to a joke) and saw _Tart_, the second book by our fellow WWU classmate Jody, for sale there! He said he didn't want to tell me because he thought I'd be mad! How can I be jealous of that? So that's another Almost Famous connection.
BTW, I need to hear more about the Pam Houston reading. I NEED to.
Oh, an in the most ironic sighting, the girl next door to us on Beldon Place (our last house in SLC) was dating or friends with the boy who starred in Almost Famous. Who's not really famous anymore.
gee, lynn you're like uber-almost-famous.
I once had a boss who went to high school with david schwimmer (ross on friends). how's that? and someone i knew knew gwyneth paltrow (but i can't even remember who that was).
my only real claim to fame is that my grandpa invented the machines that make velveeta cheese and those lucky charms marshmallows.
oh, and my friend's brother was in that fake MTV (or was it VH1) boy band, 2Gether (um, I think that's the right name).
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