"FAMOUS." WHATEVER THAT MEANS.

There is an over-abundance of media exposure that has led me to the belief that celebrity status in the universe is not only attainable, but relatively happenstance.
Not necessarily- but in the last few days, I've been reading Live From New York, an "uncensored" pseudo-biography of Saturday Night Live from its conception to its eventual established niche in popular culture, written by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. I'm fascinated for obvious reasons, the primary being the establishment of the notorious seven original Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players, some of whom remain my greatest improvisational heroes to date.

What continues to eat at me, page after page, is how intensely easeless some of these performers made their work history out to be. That last sentence probably makes no sense, but what I'm trying to say is that there seems to be this collective of innately talented individuals who simply showed up and watched this wonderful and exclusive world build up around them. I am not saying that they did not have the talent, ambition, or work ethic to be there- hardly. What I have difficulty understanding is how all of these vastly illuminate individuals managed to find each other so perfectly and with such immense precision; how, at twenty-one years of age, these people were writing for a nationally syndicated program or doing absolutely incredible work that surpasses some of my more creative fantasies. I remain legitimately baffled.

And honestly, it's not just the book that has brought all of this rapid-fire deduction on: I feel absolutely bombarded with the concept of "mediazation" of an individual(In my own words, the intense and repeated inundation of individuals in society by means of television, internet, movies, media of other sources, etcetera. Naked Chronicles defines it as "the way in which symbolic forms in modern society have become increasingly mediated by mechanisms and institutions of mass communication") to the degree where they have no course but to become "famous" by whatever social public exists.

I have no difficulty with these levels of "fame" that might as well be attained on a day-to-day basis. The fact is, I desire very little of that sort of public identification. What I so desperately seek is the kind of artistically-driven atmosphere that seemed to exist in this SNL reality within the late seventies, a world that housed some notoriously incredible minds with what seemed to be great ease. I simply cannot imagine the abundance of talent that appeared to merely gravitate towards one another. It seems a rather impossible feat, to be honest. But, good heavens, how I would kill for it.

I have a considerable envy for those with whom everything appears to merely fall into place. I am sure that the situations are certainly skewed from that sort of simplicity, but there are so many instances where everything looks as though an individual with some sort of god-given talent just met the right people at the right time and managed to get what they needed with so little extraneous effort. Seamless goal accomplishment, if you will.

All of this just seems to drive home the fact that I need to continue to work unceasingly and unwaveringly in my efforts towards whatever it is I so desperately desire. I have to work and work and work. But I'm not really concerned with that. I just need it. More than anything. And therefore, it is my responsibility to make it happen. Period. Simple as that.
Good.