Not Burying the Past so Peeps Don’t Have to Waste Time Digging it Up

by Chris McGinty
Nathan posted a blog on March 23, 2010 concerning a little box and a little regret. Or something like that. I like reading Nathan’s blogs. I think he’s a pretty good writer, not necessarily a great proofreader, but he’s comprehensible and compelling. That puts him steps ahead of many of the folks who write on the internet.

With this particular blog he stepped a little bit away from “Hey we’re cool creative guys, please like us” and dealt with something that we all have a point of reference about. Family.

Some of us think family and glow with pride and fellowship. Some of us think family and think things that aren’t quite so glowing. Some of us think family and realize that they’re mostly cool people, and we love them, but they just don’t inspire any deep sense of anything. This isn’t a bad thing by the way. It’s better than hatin’ on folks.

The one thing that I regret concerning family history is that I don’t think anybody saved much of my grandfather’s work. I don’t think he wrote much, but he did write, mostly about movies. He published a few reviews in Leonard Maltin’s “Home Video Guides” and they were supposed to get me copies, and highlight the ones he did. But it didn’t happen.

I had a thought once, but I’m not even sure what to do with it. It involved interviewing people who would otherwise not be famous, and writing up their lives. Depending on how you did it, it could be a compelling read. The roadblock that popped up in my head, aside from having so many other projects that I really need to worry about long before I’d even consider this, is that it would require poking around in other people’s business. Let’s face it, people have lied before, and even done it in book form on Oprah. The simple fact is that people’s e(my mom just called, she has some of my Grandpa’s writing. Is all good) (sorry, I’m explaining to her that anal penetration can hurt)…

I don’t remember where I was, and I think I was about to misspell a word anyway. People’s memories can sometimes get skewed, so even if they’re not outright lying, taking one person’s account of something can be inaccurate. What this leads to is the need to verify stories with people, which requires interviewing a lot more people than just the subject. I mean, I write a lot, and I have what I believe to be pretty accurate accounts of things, but occasionally I’ll talk to people and they’ll remember things that I said or did that I don’t remember, and sometimes even remember things more accurately.

The project would require prying into people’s lives in a society that values its privacy, so while I think it’s an interesting idea, I doubt I’ll be following through with it. Still this brings us to Nathan’s article. His family seems to be close enough, but not so close that any real history could be written.

I guess it got him thinking about what we do. Many of our experiences are recorded either on the audio show, or in our writing. Our sense of humour is present in our public access shows. It wouldn’t be too hard for future generations to find out what we’re about, and what our lives were like…

(Sorry. Called my mom back to ask her to send my grandfather’s stuff down for me to look through, and I had to explain to her that there are ways for women to give head without getting their knees dirty.)

Finally, I would like to deal with fame real quick. Nathan says he’s not really all about the fame, but as I said in my comment on his blog, history remembers the famous and the infamous. Sure our works may stay in the family for a while even if we don’t become famous, but it won’t have the same staying power as it would if we’re famous.

I guess what interests me about Nathan’s stance on fame is that this is the same guy who worries about videos getting into the six and seven figures in You Tube views, when we barely break the four figure barrier, and only occasionally. There is a trade off here and it’s this. Having that many views will give you some level of fame, and will only ever happen when you start achieving higher levels of fame than what you have. I joke sometimes about achieving mega-fame, but what I really want is the Henry Rollins level. I want to be known by almost everyone, but only understood by my real fan base. That would be ideal for me.

Heck, at this point, I would just like it if a few people would read this. We can work on the six and seven figures later.

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