Fame is Fleeting
“Is it any wonder I reject you first? Fame, fame, fame, fame
Is it any wonder you are too cool to fool
Fame (fame)”--David Bowie
Andy Warhol said we will each experience fifteen minutes of fame in our lives. I guess that could be world wide fame or local fame. Andy Warhol was correct and I have experienced mine. My fame has changed my life, and I walk a little lighter throughout this world and with a greater sense of duty as a result of it.
You see, in my town, I am now known as the “Batman Nut.”
When the Batman Begins hype was starting, I was going to teach a class on Batman for little kids at the local community college. One of the supervisors of the program called the paper and told them about it because the enrollment was down for the kids. To coincide with the release of the film, the feature editor thought it would be clever to write a Batman story for the paper. Thus I was contacted and after two separate conversations with me, the reporter pieced together a story. I lent him my Grad School research project on the character for his article and all was going well.
A friend of mine and a fellow comic collector (i.e. geek) told me during the interview to stress I am married. When I asked why, he gave me a serious look and said, “you KNOW why—just stress you are married.” I stressed I was married and the reporter interviewed my wife with questions about what it was like to be married to a geek.
The paper sent a photographer over, who took dozens of shots and ran with some interesting photos of the highlights of my collection of Bat-memorabilia. All of this was in the spirit of good fun.
The article was printed, it was well written, and it was fun. I was interviewed by the local radio station about my collection and about the film that was released the day after the debut of “Batman Begins.” My wife listening in said I was comical and it was an entertaining interview to listen to. All well in my world—and then fame came into play.
Usually on Thursday mornings, I peruse the paper looking for garage sales items to make money on eBay or add to my other obsessions. As I approached a garage sale a few days after the article appeared, a gentleman running a particular sale that mentioned comics in the ad yelled “Batman-dude, I have comics here. I was hoping you would come by. Check them out.” To be honest, his comics were not very rare nor were they of any sort of quality, so I thanked him and told him I owned all he had. He gave me a look like I was some sort of snob so, I bought a picture of the 1985 Chicago Bear team—one must be kind to the public. “Bat-dude” does not want to disrupt his positive relationships with the fans.
Three days later, I was at the drive-thru of our bank, when this young woman taking my check for cash began smiling at me. My first thought was, “hey, this weight watchers stuff is working.” For a moment, I was seriously thinking to do even more with the program. Then the less arrogant part of my personality took over and I thought, “I have snot running out of my nose,” or “There is a fly on my forehead” or “she’s laughing because my wife ordered ‘Hello Kitty’ checks which look stupid (especially true when one is buying items at Menards or any other home improvement store).” So rather than wondering, I asked “What's so funny?”
“You’re the Batman guy,” she said excitedly. “We read your article and we thought it was great.” Well that was nice, I thought as two of the other tellers came by and waved.
One of my administrators at my school joked around with me. “Good to see you’re an expert on something—Batman is so educational.” I can imagine him at some administrators’ conference as some schools have “experts” in various areas like articles published in journals, contributions to books, awards for excellence in education. He can proudly stand up and say, “Yeah, well…I have a ‘Batman’ expert on my staff.” Actually I was published in a History journal, and a book War and Popular Culture by Paul Holsinger and I won an excellence in education award—its just that the Journal article was on Batman, my contribution to the book was on comics in the war, and I am still not sure why I won the excellence in education award—oh now I remember—dressing up like a cheerleader for the United Way (another story someday). That was much more embarrassing than an article on Batman and I stressed I was married quite often as I walked around in a cheerleading costume with a wig and make-up because…well…“you KNOW why...”
Some place called “This Is News” or something like that, called and offered to mount the story on a wood plaque and keep it under glass with an engraving of whatever I wanted on it. This sounded kind of cool as this place from Somewheresville, USA combs through newspapers and finds interesting articles. Now the catch is that they will do it for free, but, if I want to keep it, it will only cost me $175.00.
Now one can read the article at http://www.pantagraph.com in the archives section. I also found it online in another source: my brother’s blog at http://marksweetwood.blogspot.com/ And one can read the pdf of my research paper at:
http://www.pantagraph.com/ent/sweetwood.pdf
My family members like to buy me Batman stuff at Christmas and I enjoy the gifts—with the movie coming out, the market will be flooded (uh, I guess that is a hint.) And my sister asked for two copies of the article, as she hopes to do some sort of preservation of it. I am stressing that if she were to do something with it, that would be the greatest gift she ever gave me (another hint) other than a Mego Joker action figure (i.e. doll) when I was ten.
Three weeks later, I am not as approached as much, and I feel a bit saddened by it. I was watching an Eagles special on TV the other day and an appropriate song came on: New Kid In Town. To quote: “There's talk on the street, it's there to remind you, that it doesn't really matter which side you're on; You're walking away and they're talking behind you. They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along.”
Fame (fifteen minutes or not) is fleeting. No wonder Batman is nocturnal.
Is it any wonder you are too cool to fool
Fame (fame)”--David Bowie
Andy Warhol said we will each experience fifteen minutes of fame in our lives. I guess that could be world wide fame or local fame. Andy Warhol was correct and I have experienced mine. My fame has changed my life, and I walk a little lighter throughout this world and with a greater sense of duty as a result of it.
You see, in my town, I am now known as the “Batman Nut.”
When the Batman Begins hype was starting, I was going to teach a class on Batman for little kids at the local community college. One of the supervisors of the program called the paper and told them about it because the enrollment was down for the kids. To coincide with the release of the film, the feature editor thought it would be clever to write a Batman story for the paper. Thus I was contacted and after two separate conversations with me, the reporter pieced together a story. I lent him my Grad School research project on the character for his article and all was going well.
A friend of mine and a fellow comic collector (i.e. geek) told me during the interview to stress I am married. When I asked why, he gave me a serious look and said, “you KNOW why—just stress you are married.” I stressed I was married and the reporter interviewed my wife with questions about what it was like to be married to a geek.
The paper sent a photographer over, who took dozens of shots and ran with some interesting photos of the highlights of my collection of Bat-memorabilia. All of this was in the spirit of good fun.
The article was printed, it was well written, and it was fun. I was interviewed by the local radio station about my collection and about the film that was released the day after the debut of “Batman Begins.” My wife listening in said I was comical and it was an entertaining interview to listen to. All well in my world—and then fame came into play.
Usually on Thursday mornings, I peruse the paper looking for garage sales items to make money on eBay or add to my other obsessions. As I approached a garage sale a few days after the article appeared, a gentleman running a particular sale that mentioned comics in the ad yelled “Batman-dude, I have comics here. I was hoping you would come by. Check them out.” To be honest, his comics were not very rare nor were they of any sort of quality, so I thanked him and told him I owned all he had. He gave me a look like I was some sort of snob so, I bought a picture of the 1985 Chicago Bear team—one must be kind to the public. “Bat-dude” does not want to disrupt his positive relationships with the fans.
Three days later, I was at the drive-thru of our bank, when this young woman taking my check for cash began smiling at me. My first thought was, “hey, this weight watchers stuff is working.” For a moment, I was seriously thinking to do even more with the program. Then the less arrogant part of my personality took over and I thought, “I have snot running out of my nose,” or “There is a fly on my forehead” or “she’s laughing because my wife ordered ‘Hello Kitty’ checks which look stupid (especially true when one is buying items at Menards or any other home improvement store).” So rather than wondering, I asked “What's so funny?”
“You’re the Batman guy,” she said excitedly. “We read your article and we thought it was great.” Well that was nice, I thought as two of the other tellers came by and waved.
One of my administrators at my school joked around with me. “Good to see you’re an expert on something—Batman is so educational.” I can imagine him at some administrators’ conference as some schools have “experts” in various areas like articles published in journals, contributions to books, awards for excellence in education. He can proudly stand up and say, “Yeah, well…I have a ‘Batman’ expert on my staff.” Actually I was published in a History journal, and a book War and Popular Culture by Paul Holsinger and I won an excellence in education award—its just that the Journal article was on Batman, my contribution to the book was on comics in the war, and I am still not sure why I won the excellence in education award—oh now I remember—dressing up like a cheerleader for the United Way (another story someday). That was much more embarrassing than an article on Batman and I stressed I was married quite often as I walked around in a cheerleading costume with a wig and make-up because…well…“you KNOW why...”
Some place called “This Is News” or something like that, called and offered to mount the story on a wood plaque and keep it under glass with an engraving of whatever I wanted on it. This sounded kind of cool as this place from Somewheresville, USA combs through newspapers and finds interesting articles. Now the catch is that they will do it for free, but, if I want to keep it, it will only cost me $175.00.
Now one can read the article at http://www.pantagraph.com in the archives section. I also found it online in another source: my brother’s blog at http://marksweetwood.blogspot.com/ And one can read the pdf of my research paper at:
http://www.pantagraph.com/ent/sweetwood.pdf
My family members like to buy me Batman stuff at Christmas and I enjoy the gifts—with the movie coming out, the market will be flooded (uh, I guess that is a hint.) And my sister asked for two copies of the article, as she hopes to do some sort of preservation of it. I am stressing that if she were to do something with it, that would be the greatest gift she ever gave me (another hint) other than a Mego Joker action figure (i.e. doll) when I was ten.
Three weeks later, I am not as approached as much, and I feel a bit saddened by it. I was watching an Eagles special on TV the other day and an appropriate song came on: New Kid In Town. To quote: “There's talk on the street, it's there to remind you, that it doesn't really matter which side you're on; You're walking away and they're talking behind you. They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along.”
Fame (fifteen minutes or not) is fleeting. No wonder Batman is nocturnal.
posted by Eric Sweetwood at 6:18 AM
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