I’m reading A Grand Madness: Ten Years on the Road with U2, which, incidentally, is actually by someone I know. It’s her journal notes and writings while traveling all over following the band. She is a Number One Fan.
I, myself, am a huge fan of Prince. I own every CD, have gone to concerts, know an inordinate amount of information about him, etc, etc. It began in the 80’s while I was in high school. It probably sounds weird, but I love him and feel connected to him. I don’t mean how when an artist is mentioned, someone says, “Oh, I love him!” No, I mean I really luuuurve him. He is like a member of my own family. But it’s not really weird- I’ve never written to him or stalked him or anything. I’ve never been delusional or anything.
Anyhoo, ahem, I know I’m not the only one who’s ever felt that way- the book I’m currently reading shows me that, at least.
Who are you a Number One Fan of?
If it wasn’t for the blissful nuisance of having a wife and two kids to support, I would have attached myself like a limpet to Bela Fleck and followed him and The Flecktones to every concert they’ve played since 1994. Since I can’t do that, I have downloaded (legally!) a significant portion of the live recordings they have available at Archive.org, as well as paying retail for every CD with Bela’s name on the front (about 14 or so). The only other thing that disqualifies me from #1 status is that I don’t post at the Flecktones’ website. I’m probably Bela’s #2000 fan or so. Still, no one else in the world of music has been able to capture my attention like he has over the last 12 years.
Small stage, and I was standing in the pit right in front of Annie’s mike stand. When the curtain went up, I was looking up Annie’s nostrils. I spent the concert playing with her toes whenever she stood still at the mike. I tried hard not to distract her when she was heading for the high notes in Scheherazade, but otherwise…
She took it with good grace, and even autographed my program for me after the concert without punching me in the nose.
A year later, I did the same thing. She remembered me and smiled when she walked to the mike. Then she tried to stomp on my fingers. But she was smiling when she did it.
There are several authors that I’ve been to a number of their book readings and signings. Joe Queenan recognizes me from previous signings and says hello each time. I don’t know if Garry Wills recognizes me from signing to signing, but I suspect that I’m the world’s greatest collector (and maybe the world’s only collector) of Wills’s books.
I heard on NPR today that Bela Fleck has done a “This I Believe” segment (I think it airs tomorrow – Tuesday).
The only fandom I’ve joined recently is for HBO’s Deadwood. I own the DVDs (of course), have season 3 Tivo’d, printed out all the transcripts and put them in a binder, and preordered the books. I watch some Deadwood almost every day. My voodoo doll looks like Chris Albrecht.
The movie Back to the Future. Well, I used to be. I must have watched it a hundred times during junior high and high school, probably more. I don’t know what it was that fascinated me so much about the movie for several years; looking back, I still love it, but I only watch it about once a year these days. (I’m not much of a re-watcher, period.)
As for my #1 fan credentials…would you believe me if I said I wrote my college application essay (to the Univ. of Chicago) about BTTF…and got accepted? That my brother and sister and I would recite huge chunks of it from memory on long car trips? That my brother and I are in a race to see who buys a used Delorean first? (His plate would say “SLACKER,” mine “RTHANGL,” but we’re both in no financial place to do this right now!) And I’m a little rusty, but throw me some trivia…I’m game.
Not so much anymore, but in my day I’ve been that kind of obsessive fan of Kate Bush, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Eddi Reader, Trent Reznor, k.d. lang, and, most of all, Jane Siberry.
I’ve been a geek-level fan of Back to the Future eyes Millit warily and Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and pre-Tin Machine David Bowie, and the works of Stephen King. There was a time when I could identify the manufacturer of carrousel horses by the style in which they’re carved. I have been a Pee Wee Herman fan and an Ed Grimley fan. Not Martin Short - just Ed Grimley.
I can’t really hold up a badge of devotion other than the amount of time I’ve spent enjoying each of these things. I’m put off by fandoms, and (some) fan art and (most) fanfics creep me out. If I love something I think of the characters as friends - people other than the original creator making them do things is kinda distressing to me. So in the internet era I’ve resisted getting involved in fandom sorts of stuff. I’m not sure if that makes me more of a devoted fan because I hold the subjects in a sort of sacred esteem, or less of one because I don’t ever become more involved.
Specifically his early '70s stuff. I have the Decades CD set and I don’t think there is a better sequence of three songs on a CD than Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand.
