Rachel's Rant 2: Fans need to be sedated

I always look back at the Ramones when I think about becoming famous. I do have some fantasies of becoming a famous singer or a rock bandmate, but I rethink it every time.

My mom has a DVD of The Ramones' performances, backstage footage and news clips about the punk rock band. There is some secret footage that was never released: a video clip from Brazil, I believe, where The Ramones were trying to leave some place. There was a crowd of fans that stretched all the way down the street and they were blocking the exit of the parking lot. Some security guards tried to make the fans move out of the way, but they didn't budge. So the driver decided to slowly move into the crowd down the streets.

The screaming fans still didn't leave. They kept banging on the car and standing in the band's presence. The sounds of bodies colliding with the car were loud enough to be picked up by the cameraman's microphone.

Bands are only made up of humans, not gods. I still want to shout at the fans and tell them to stop acting crazy. They still do. Fans can be extremely crazy, proclaiming that all artists and celebrities are immortal beings that can do anything they please. Then again, look at Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger. Look at Joey Ramone. They aren't immortal beings; they are just as human as the rest of us.

Why all of this commotion? Shortly following a Fall Out Boy concert in April, I was excited to perhaps go backstage or somewhere behind the pavillion at Merriweather, hoping to get an autograph and talk to a couple band members before going home. I was going to see if Fall Out Boy was around to sign my copy of my favorite album Folie a Deux and just talk to them briefly about the concert and music in particular.

However, I wasn't going to lose my cool about it. I would have been super excited, but not crazy; I would hold myself down. I did see a few girls (who seemed to be teenagers) out the corner of my eye as I was leaving, after getting off the phone with my parents and finding it hard to move past the Merriweather staff. The girls were chatting excitedly as if they've just been shot with a high voltage electric jolt.

"Oh my God," one girl cried. "How did you get that signed?!"

"My mom went back there..." another girl said, breathing heavily with excitement. She said that her mother went back to the staff to ask for an autograph for her daughter and she got one.

"Oh my God, let's all go!" the third girl yelled. I tried to run after them across the field, but my exhaustion caught up with me fast. It was around 11 p.m. in Columbia, Md., my throat was hurting from screaming and singing along and I couldn't wait to go to bed. So I left the pavillion with my ticket as my only souvenir and without an autograph.

I still wish that I went over there to get one, but I didn't want my parents to be upset that they had to wait for me and they backed up traffic for doing that. At least I had a good time, that's all I can say.

But do you see how stupid those "fangirls" were acting? I try my best to strive away from that. In fact, all people should not be acting like that.

Here's a guide on how to ace your encounter or interview with a band or famous person-

1.) When you meet them, stay calm, collected and poised.

2.) If you get a chance to talk to them, stick to two topics: the concert and their music. Try to come up with other things that you could discuss just a little bit about those two topics. If it's someone else famous, just stick to what they've done and maybe ask them questions about it.
Example- If I met my favorite actor Orlando Bloom (from my all time favorite movie Pirates of the Caribbean I), here's what I'd ask him:
What did you love about doing a pirate movie like that?
What kinds of films are you drawn to when it comes to acting?
What drives you? What motivates you?

3.) Don't be a sleaze. Bands and artists don't care if you want to marry them or if you think so-and-so is cute.

4.) Don't talk too much. The band wants to leave and take a nap for the night. It's been a long concert, after all! So don't go on and on about your dog, your life, and how you're so obsessed with them. You know why? THEY DON'T CARE! Just be brief.

5.) Don't go up to them drunk. Limit your alcohol. One drink does the trick for me, which is why I don't drink often, more like once in a while. Once I down a daiquiri in less than an hour, I will feel tipsy and I might fall right over. I will also feel a rushed feeling like an electric jolt, which to fangirls, may increase the insanity. That could happen to you if you drink before talking to them. Your drunkenness is not attractive, no matter how many beers you've had. Try to stay sober, especially if you're underage.

6.) If you're too nervous to talk, just go up to them and get the autograph. But don't be too afraid to say, "Hey! Could you sign this for me?" Do it and go.

7.) If you see them in a hurry to leave, leave them alone. Just turn around and go. Don't torment them to death. They have lives, you know.

8.) Do not catch the band in the bathroom for autographs. That's a really bad time.

9.) Finally, scream after you have already left them. Prefferably when you're alone with your friends.

Watch the movie Notting Hill, there is a part in the film where Hugh Grant's character William takes Julia Roberts to his friends' house to celebrate his sister's birthday. His friends handle it all very well until after Roberts leaves the house after the party's over. Then all of William's friends start screaming, not believing that they met a real famous actress. Try to do just that.

Just hold off on the excitement until they're gone. Then go insane.

Other than that, don't go crazy in front of them. Easy on the sugar and the caffeine. And please, don't go up to them completely wasted.

Or I'll find you. Just kidding! :)

It happened

Unbelievable. Carrie Wood finally resigned. I heard it from someone at the interest meeting for the radio station XTSR and I broke my boycott of the paper by picking up a copy of the Towerlight.

I guess it's my turn to say "what goes around comes around", but I won't. When I heard the news, I was shocked, a little happy, saddened, and empathetic. I read the Towerlight statement and Wood's final statement straight through quickly as I made my way to find dinner at Newell Dining Hall. I thought it would never happen, but it did. And the best part is, the reason for her resigning has nothing to do with me.

She quit because she allowed a sex columnist to get published there every week. She could have let some other columnist take the spot, such as the "Your a Idiot" column or someone else's column that didn't provide any graphic information. The anonymously written blog/column "The Bed Post", according to the campus paper statement, was addressing a "sensitive topic" and contained sexual details. Because of that, the University President Robert Caret sent Wood an email last Wednesday and Wood responded in the worst way.

She described in her statement that she acted in complete panic. "I responded out of feelings of fear and of being threatened," she wrote. "In my response, passages were worded in such a way that made it look as if I was throwing my staff under the bus and pushing the responsibility for the column on them."

The paper said it was possibly a mistake, publishing the sex column, but this has been going on for almost a month. The editor and staff could have looked at Lux's work intensively and thought about it. They could have realized that it would be unethical and bad taste to publish her columns.

Then again, this somewhat does have to do with First Amendment rights. In my Media Law class, I learned that there have been lawsuits between high school papers and the school's administrators. Supreme Court ruled that public school administrators can tell what the papers can and cannot publish. But not college papers; college papers are protected by the Constitution.

Still, pornography is still a major issue; it was distasteful to publish that at this time. Someone should have thought of that.

It was a wise decision for her to leave her position and write a statement explaining the situation. If I was in her shoes, I would have panicked, too; I would have had another anxiety attack. But I wouldn't place blame on other staff members. When it comes to publishing explicit content, it's usually the editor's fault as well as the production's fault. The editor should have realized that it was wrong to publish it and she wouldn't have been in danger.

Thank God it wasn't because of me. I'm happy just for that. I don't want to be the reason for her leaving the position. I would have felt that everyone at the paper hates me because I would have done it and I'd suddenly become the enemy. I don't want to be the enemy.

The sadness that I feel is because I still can't work there at the paper since I'm still on University probation. That, and I feel that my writing dream is now slowly dying of cancer. It's not because of Carrie Wood, it's because of me as a person.

I get too emotional when I get rejected or someone yells at me. I always have a fear of it and I end up losing control when that happens. However, I am constantly reminded with the fact that reporters and writers get rejected and yelled at all the time. Some readers don't like particular articles that they sometimes go up to the writers and scream at them about it.

Because I can't take those responses very well; maybe I shouldn't be a writer at all. Then again, I'd have to see what the psychiatrist says and how I'll react to medication. Still, I feel like I should never write for that newspaper ever again. Besides, some of the articles and opinion pieces are wrong or they just disappoint me.

Moderately bummed

I was looking at my former Journalism professor's profile on the home page of Towson's Mass Communications Department and I heard about a workshop coming up on October 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. It was called "High School Journalism Day" taking place here on campus (specifically in the University Union) and it had workshops on taking a publication to the Internet and beyond.

It all sounds very cool and I'd love to be a part of it since I'm a Journalism major. There are just a few baby hiccups: the deadline was on September 23, which has already passed, the registration fee was $20 (the same amount for my membership dues for the television station WMJF), and I would be interfering with the Towerlight, which means I'd be in violation of my University probation.

Now if I had already talked about my idea to start my own publication to Dr. Spaulding and my current teacher Jenny Atwater before that deadline, why didn't they tell me about this? And more importantly: if I had only just held myself down instead of letting my jitters, my angst and jelousy get the best of me, I wouldn't be on University probation right now.

Then again, it's probably for high school students only, which might be why it was "High School Journalism Day".

I'm definitely not going to that. And I mean it. Besides, I have class that day and I need to pay my dues to the television station soon. I also have a lot of other things on my mind, like speaking about possible medication to a psychiatrist and an on campus counselor in addition to my off-site therapist, writing articles for Prof. Atwater's class and FMOE (for my own experience), finding assignments for WMJF reporters, and cleaning my room at home.

Yes, my room needs cleaning. There are so many papers, books and folders cluttering up the right side of my room in front of my teeny tiny desk from Ikea that has a poor excuse for a bookshelf. The small space at the bottom of it isn't even enough for all of the books and papers I have. So I need to downsize the amount of stuff that I have already.

Still, looking at the website made me feel depressed. I can't go over to that office for the next year and I would love to write there, just not for the current Editor in Chief.

On the bright side, I'm an assignment editor for the television station and I'm possibily going to help the campus online radio station XTSR. I'm not sure what will happen later in the semester or my junior year for that matter, but I'll wait around for now.