I talked about being famous on the Internet ages ago, here on my blog. I've been pondering it again lately.
Wil Wheaton discussed, here, some of his thoughts on being Internet-famous. One of his thoughts particularly struck me:
I’m incredibly grateful that I get to do more with my work than just make things, and when she meets a real celebrity, instead of someone who’s just Internet Famous like I am, I hope they’re awesome to her.
And I have to disagree with him just a little bit. I think that people who are famous on the Internet are the real celebrities. This is because they are considerably more real. There are a handful of people whom I follow on the Internet - Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer - who I would certainly consider 'celebrities', but I wouldn't consider them 'fake' celebrities.
I feel incredibly special when I have a chance to interact with any of these people. I feel very encouraged by the fact that these people, whom I respect both as people and as artists, take the time to reply to people on Twitter, or take the time to reply in the way Wil did.
An example from my own life.
Earlier today, I tweeted the following:
pondering how to walk toward the mountain. sometimes @neilhimself is an inspiration, sometimes a bit more "well now what do I do" ...
Just make sure you’re walking towards the mountain, all the time.
I'm currently two years into my undergraduate degree in vocal performance. I'm trying to find a job for this summer, so I can pay for a place to live. I've landed an unpaid week-long internship at a drama/improv camp, which is wonderful for me and teaches me LOADS, but the rest of my summer is pretty open. It's very difficult for me to do 'gigs', per se, because I am a classical singer ... I sing Schubert, Verdi, Britten, Fauré, etc. I sing big, classical pieces in languages that aren't spoken where I live. This isn't exactly something that's in huge demand.
What else do I do? I love to act. I have no credentials. I live in a teeny little town. I love to write. I should just DO it more often.
/endwhinybit. Sorry.
So I'm feeling stuck. I need a job that will fund my studies; I need to walk towards the mountain.
Neil replied to me about an hour ago:
@Kaylotta Nobody said it was easy. But as advice, it might help...
to which I replied:
@neilhimself Sure, never easy. It shouldn't be easy. :) just figuring out how can be a bit of a mindbender.
I've never been under the impression that my life would be easy. (Some days I would sure like it to be, but hey.) It just seems to be a big fight to do what I love (classical singing) and still eat.
someday. someday.
Anyway! My original point with that was that even though Neil's advice was hard for me to take, as I've been trying to land jobs that really had little to do with what I want to do for a living, I still felt very special that he would take the time - not more than thirty seconds - to reply to me. Especially when my tweet would have been buried four hours down his timeline! To my mind, that sort of thing shows an incredible devotion to the people who care about one's art, and that is, I think, one of the best qualities that a 'famous' artist can have, whatever the medium.
This still leaves me in the difficult position of not quite knowing whether I'm taking good steps with my life. *ponders the mountain*
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