From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V7 #78 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Thursday, July 19 2007 Volume 07 : Number 078 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] OT: Fans (Loooong) ["Jackie M. Young" Subject: [chakram-refugees] OT: Fans (Loooong) This was posted to my Manilow list (though he's hardly mentioned), and Xena fans aren't mentioned at all (probably because there aren't many in NV??), but I know there are some ST fans here, and of course, this article applies to all fans in general. ;) (Ironically, a good friend of mine who's set designer for ST got his start as a ST fan club president here in Hawai'i, so what they say about mixing your hobby with your job is totally correct. ;) ) - ---------- lvcitylife.com/Super-fans Date: Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:21 pm ((PDT)) Up Front Super-fans Star Wars. Elvis. Rocky Horror. These people like them. They really, really like them BY EMMILY BRISTOL Mark Surra, a 45-year-old electrical engineer, is obsessed with Blue Oyster Cult and he doesn't care who knows. He's one of the guys with a fan license plate--a Las Vegas centennial plate that reads "4 BOC." And it's no coincidence that he runs the www.vegas4boc.com website, where you can find out everything you ever wanted to know about the 1970s-era band. For instance, did you know that the umlaut above the "O" in Blue Oyster Cult is purely for show? Surra says it was the idea of a band manager who thought it made the name look cool. "I've kind of carried the torch," says Surra, sporting a band T-shirt and two necklaces with their logo when I meet him just after work. "I think some of us [fans] have been able to express ourselves about it more than others." But just what is it that has captivated Surra since he first heard "Don't Fear the Reaper" back in junior high? "It was just something about the genre of the music," he says. "They were the most instrumental and influential [band]." To Surra's delight, the band not only still tours, but makes it to Las Vegas every year. When tour dates get announced, he posts a countdown clock to the next local show. And if you think Surra is the last great Cult fan, think again. He's known by members of the band and by their fans as "Vegas." And he's been able to meet members of the band through his fandom. They even used Surra's guitar--an exact replica of Buck Dharma's Gibson SG signed by the guitarist himself-- n a Las Vegas performance for a song. "That was just a moment I will never forget," he says. Surra's not just a fan. He's a super-fan. And like most super-fans, Surra has spent a fair amount of money on his obsession, including traveling for concerts, buying merchandise and maintaining his website. But while Surra's first love is Blue Oyster Cult, he admits to some other fan tendencies. It seems to be common that super-fans are hooked on more than just one obsession. For Surra that includes Arizona State University, his alma mater, and rooting for the Buffalo Bills from his home city. "Most people who are obsessive are obsessive about more than one thing, " says Monica Beisecker, who uses her Ph.D. in psychology to study pop culture. "I think it's extremely important [to our society]. It shows a side of our behaviors and communication." Even academics who study pop culture and fandom aren't immune from its effects. Beisecker, 38, has her own super-fan obsessions, including watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory more times than she can count, and being the vice president of a local Elvis Presley fan club, All Shook Up in Vegas. (Full disclosure: I'm a member of the same fan club.) "My academic work is because of Elvis, absolutely," Beisecker says. "Even why I chose my field of psychology." Most recently, Beisecker presented a paper at the Far West Pop Culture Conference in Las Vegas in January. Her topic? Whether or not there is a religion surrounding Elvis cultivated by his fans. Super-fans know a thing or two about religion. Far beyond the average fan, super-fans carry their enthusiasm to near-religious extremes, whether it means donning costumes, devotedly attending conventions or even turning their passion into a full-time job. While a lot of us learn to cloak our fandom or leave it behind altogether in our adult years, super-fans have an uncanny ability to stay rooted in their obsession and find new meaning in it over the years. Are super-fans all just losers with no lives who stay in their parents' basement? Hardly. Super-fans are everywhere, in all walks of society, from the drugstore clerk to those in surprisingly high- powered jobs. It ain't easy being cheesy While most super-fans can remember that everyone else isn't coo-coo for Barry Manilow, sometimes fans can get the harsh end of jokes thanks to those relative few who have lost all sight of reality. And jokes at the expense of super-fans are everywhere--from a South Park remark about "faggy little goth kids" to William Shatner telling Star Trek fans to "get a life" on a Saturday Night Live sketch. Call it the Trekkie effect. "I was the black sheep of the family. I was the only one who watched it," says Scott Parker, a 31-year-old Trekker (they hate the term Trekkie). Star Trek fans deal with the most derision. In fact, many Trek fans were leery of being interviewed for this article for fear of being ridiculed. (Some went so far as to ask, "You're not just going to make fun of us, are you?") And they take pains to say they aren't the over-the-top geeks you see in documentaries such as Trekkies. "You have the people who are way off the deep end who dress up every day and go to work like that," Parker says. "But this is 2007, not 2047." Parker gives his wife and daughters some credit for keeping him in check. Parker's wife won't allow him to display much of his extensive Star Trek collectibles or posters inside their three-bedroom Henderson home, and thus it gets shunted to the garage, much to his chagrin. "If my wife would just break a little bit, I'd have it up all over the house," Parker says, laughing. "I've seen some houses that are almost like a church of Star Trek. ... I tell my wife if we ever move, I need a room just for my Star Trek stuff." But if Star Trek fans are sensitive, they've got close company with Star Wars fans. Damien Metz is president of one of Nevada's oldest Star Trek fan clubs, the U.S.S. Columbia, and a "commanding officer" in the local 501st Storm Trooper Legion. The latter is a sub-genre fan club for those with "screen-accurate" costumes of villains from the Star Wars movies. Metz, 42, takes advantage of the skills from his day job as a freelance sign designer to fuel his obsessions. He bought a "tricked out" Suburban and customized it with a Star Wars-themed paint job, including a driver's side door that reads "Death Star staff car," as well as a custom license plate that reads "D VADER." (His wife's reads "P LEIA.") At 6-foot-2 with long blond hair, Metz would stand out in a crowd anyway, but when he drives around in his Suburban, he rarely goes unnoticed. Although he usually receives compliments-- like those from a curious police officer who pulled his wife over just to look at the custom work on the car--Metz says there have been a few times people have made fun of his super-fan car. Once he found his car keyed. And one time he was stopped at a red light and a guy in "a $100, 25-year-old piece of crap" looked over at Metz in his Suburban and gave him the "loser" sign. "I was like, 'Yeah. I'm the loser in my $60,000 Suburban,'" Metz says, adding that his car has been to Skywalker Ranch and on display at Star Wars conventions. But then he adds, "You gotta have an open mind and know how to deal with people without open minds." Another dicey issue is when the object of a super-fan's gaze is less than perfect, as is often the case with iconic celebrities. Just ask Michael Jackson fans how hard they have it these days. Elvis fans have to reconcile his drug use and rumored womanizing. Likewise, for some Liberace fans who just happen to be homophobic, it is difficult to admit the entertainer was gay. "A lot of fans will not believe those things are true and they'll despise people who bring it up," Beisecker says. But most super-fans are less prickly about getting teased. For instance, Surra loves the renowned SNL sketch about the Blue Oyster Cult in which Will Ferrell relentlessly bangs on a cowbell while Christopher Walken interrupts to say, "I just gotta have more cowbell!" "When I saw that, I was like, 'Oh my god!'" Surra says, laughing. "I loved it! I love anything that gets Blue Oyster Cult in the mainstream. And you know what's funny? Blue Oyster Cult has never been on the show. I have always called them the Rodney Dangerfield of music." Henderson native D.J. Allen, 31, says you have to have a good sense of humor as a sports fan or you risk losing your cool. "I call myself a converted sports fanatic," says Allen, the CEO of Imagine Marketing and a lifelong Dodgers, Cowboys and UNLV Rebels fan. "At the end of the day, you have to understand it's entertainment. But you'll have moments where you see the line [can be crossed]." But before he became a reformed, more polite sports fan, Allen admits that if one of his teams lost, he would be miserable for at least a day or more. "I used to be crushed when they would lose," he says. "It would just cloud my whole day. I would be in a bad mood because of it. ... If you're not a fan of something, it's hard to understand." We are family One of the connecting forces among super-fans is the community they build with each other, aided in large part to the Internet. After all, many super-fans are alone in their families or everyday lives when it comes to their obsessions. "That's part of the fun of it," Trek fan Parker says. "When you go to the convention, everyone's happy. No one ever fights at the convention. It's just a sense of unity." For Allen, sports is a connection to people all around him even though he's the only person in his family who likes sports. "You are always finding a common ground with sports," he says. "It's like the weather. You can always talk to people about it. It ties people together." Louisianan Justin Toney, 23, will definitely be at this year's Las Vegas Star Trek convention. Last year the college student went to his first Trek convention and filmed a documentary about the television show and its fans, which he plans to premiere at this year's convention. The $1,000 film project will count for one of his communications classes and includes interviews with people who worked on the television franchise and a skit performed with actors from the Star Trek Experience. "I think everybody has a little Star Trek fan in them just waiting to come out," Toney says. Toney and Parker both say they love the franchise because the storylines offer hope for our society. "Hunger doesn't exist on the TV [show]," Parker says. "Everyone is just nicer to each other." Chances are Metz will be among the throngs this summer at the Star Trek convention in town, as well as the big Star Wars convention in Los Angeles this summer to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the movie. "We get to play a little Halloween a few more times a year," Metz says. In the case of Star Wars, Lucasfilm Ltd. encourages it. "The fans have taken such a huge ownership of Star Wars," says Steve Sansweet, director of fan relations at Lucasfilm Ltd. "It's hard to estimate how many fans there are. There isn't a place where there isn't a Star Wars fan. In fact, I know of someone who is going to be stationed in Antarctica, so we'll cover all seven continents." Meanwhile, Elvis fans from all over the world will be converging on Graceland in Memphis, Tenn. this August in honor of the 30th anniversary of his death. "I grew up in Memphis and saw firsthand the impact of fans every January and August," says Darin Hollingsworth, the executive director of the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Liberace's death from AIDS, and his museum still sees about 50,000 visitors a year from all over the world. But unlike icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, Liberace's fan base has been waning as they age, says Hollingsworth. The Liberace Foundation is researching ways to reach younger generations in the same way that other older icons like Johnny Cash seem to be able to attract new fans. Part of that means keeping the old memories alive in the well-curated museum, which has a tribute show, and reaching out to new fans. "He was an entertainment ambassador," Hollingsworth says of Liberace. "He ushered in the era of showmanship [by] being the first to fly onto the stage on cables. He broke new talent. He was the first of the celebrities to go by the one-name moniker, leading the way for people like Cher, Madonna, Elvis." For many fans there's just that certain something that keeps them coming back for more. "He was just a charming, wonderful and talented man," says Pauline Lachance, 72, a Liberace fan who used to work at the museum. "I was just so taken with him. There was something very sincere about him." But perhaps no super-fan highlights the synergy between obsession and homage like Rocky Horror Picture Show fans. In Las Vegas there are at least two different casts--Frankie's Favorite Obsession and Divine Decadence. "It's like a weird kind of meeting place or watering hole," says Megan Tabor, 36, one of the coordinators of Divine Decadence. "[The movie is] a parody of every bad science fiction movie, and on top of that it's a musical and it has a transvestite to boot." Tabor had the common--and uncomfortable--experience of having to come clean about her obsession to a loved one. When she got engaged, she decided it was time to level with her fiance about her decades- long love for Rocky Horror. Tabor started going to the midnight movie shows and acting in casts that shadow the movie performances when she was a teenager, and has been featured in a couple of super-fan books about the movie. "I was so afraid to tell him about Rocky Horror. I didn't want him to freak out and not marry me," Tabor says. "I felt like Samantha telling Darrin she was a witch [on Bewitched]." But when Tabor told her fiance about her obsession, he laughed and said he'd seen the movie, and had even gone to a live performance in Las Vegas. "I realized at that moment that my fiance had seen me in my underwear before we even met," Tabor says. Green Valley High School alum Steve VanMeter, 24, has had his own share of experiences in costume. An organizer of Frankie's Favorite Obsession and a UNLV college student, VanMeter has been on VH1 in his Eddie costume. "One thing I thought was great [about the movie] was how multi- generational it is," VanMeter says of his cast's performances at Hamburger Mary's. "There were people who were coming back after 20 years." And this summer VanMeter, who says he stopped counting how many times he's watched Rocky Horror after 500, will be branching out to do the first "shadow cast" performance of Phantom of the Paradise, part of a three-film cult movie mini-convention of sorts in West Virginia. "I do love performing," VanMeter says. "That's always a draw. Every time I see [Rocky Horror], I see something different." Over the rainbow Outside of appearing in costume or religiously repeating lyrics at random, super-fans are perhaps best known for the amount of money they spend on their obsessions. But there's a soft side that super- fans rarely talk about. Most of them are involved in charitable work associated with their fan lives. Metz says the 5,000-member strong 501st Storm Trooper Legion may be famous for high-profile appearances like at the Rose Bowl parade this year, but what brings members in is the charity work they do in their communities. "It's awesome! In fact, a lot of the members of the group say that's why they do it," Metz says. "A lot of people are into sports. They paint one side of themselves orange and one side black and go stand outside and freeze for their team. When's the last time orange-and- black boy did anything for charity?" One of his favorite stories is from a time he went to Shade Tree dressed as Darth Vader in order to cheer up the kids. When he walked in, a little girl ran up to him and wrapped herself around one of his legs and wouldn't let go. "I had to walk around with her on my leg for two hours," Metz says. "Finally, I had to tell her that it was hard for Darth Vader to be menacing with a little girl around his leg. She just told me she wanted to take me home with her. That was right up there with meeting George Lucas." The Liberace foundation, too, has a little-known charitable side. Liberace started a scholarship program for students of the arts in 1976, Hollingsworth says, because the pianist would never have been able to have gotten his musical education without a scholarship when he was a child. During the past 30 years, the foundation has awarded scholarships to more than 2,200 students in the fine arts. This year, the foundation gave out more than $200,000, and over the years it has gifted more than $325,000 to arts programs at UNLV. Meanwhile, the lesser-known Blue Man Library, a six-year-old fan club for the Blue Man Group, has raised close to $1,400 for Camp Heartland, a safe haven for kids affected by HIV/AIDS. The funds were raised in large part through an exclusive fan compilation CD, which is a labor of love, says Joe Burke, one of the club's founders. And if that isn't enough to convince you that super-fans aren't all scary, consider the influence of their early fandom on their lives today. Allen says he became a sports reporter in pursuit of a dream to one day be a television and radio sportscaster like his idol, Vin Scully. "That's the voice I heard under my pillow as I was going to sleep [to late games]," says Allen, now the coach of his daughter's T-ball team, The Dodgers. "I can't tell you if I'm a Dodgers' fan because of Vin Scully or I'm a Vin Scully fan because of the Dodgers." This has led Allen to another of his great sports loves, working with the UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball team. Last year, his firm started representing the Rebels, which has led him to get to know the players and coaches personally as well as traveling with them for the NCAA tournament in March. "Being involved with the Rebels, it's a childhood dream come true," he says. He's not the only one. Sansweet decided to apply for a job at Lucasfilm Ltd. after retiring from a 26-year career as Wall Street Journal bureau reporter in Los Angeles. "My friends warned me against working at the same place as my hobby," Sansweet says. "But this isn't a hobby. This is my passion." - ------------ - --Jackie ****************************************************** * Proud to have the same birthday as Lucy Lawless! * * * * "I think New Zealand geographically comes from * * ... Hawai'i." --Lucy Lawless, Late Show, 4/9/96 * * * * "Feel the fear and do it anyway." --Lucy Lawless, * * Evening Post, 7/4/98 * * * * JACKIE YOUNG, JYOUNG@LAVA.NET * * * * * ****************************************************** ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:37:02 -0700 From: "Xena Torres" Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] OT: Fans (Loooong) How do you write an article about fans and leave our Xenites? Star Wars fans don't even have a cool fan name. ;) Julie "XT" Ruffell www.bitchofrome.com "I don't do this to die. I do this to live." - Laura "Seconds" ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V7 #78 *************************************