Forget Attention Deficit Disorder (what were we just talking about?) The ‘new ADD,’ my husband says, is Attention-Desiring Disorder. The Dad of the now infamous ‘Balloon Boy’ sought media attention by appearing on Wife Swap & riding a bike in a tornado. New charges may prove more about this weather-chasing fame-chasing Dad.
New Media– blogs and all– has brought self-created celebrity to new heights, or depths. In lower-tech. times, when I was in Oberlin College, a freshman posted his name all over campus on flyers. This ‘Daniel’ was the inspiration for the ADD-crazed hero of CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE, Bravo Sierra’s forthcoming film (& the name of our very own self-promoting Blog!)
The web is loaded with self-created celeb.s like Arthur Kade. ’Jon‘ cheated on Kate; what’s-his-name cheated on Jeopardy. Both lose their shows but cling to our attention. Do you ‘enable’ any ADD ‘celeb.’s? Which self-made saga do you follow? Pop-Culture guru David Shields (REMOTE) nails the ADD mentality. Is there a cure or flame-out in sight for this Disease of Our Times?
PS: Thanks to SUZANNE for this heads-up on Steve Phillips-gate…
PPS: And now Balloon Boy’s Mom allegedly admits a HOAX…
photo: syracuse.com
I’m going to have to scrub out my brain really hard with Comet after writing about this. It may be the thing that rats don’t do.
Cordwainer Smith has this alternative future Earth where everything is happy, creative, and harmonious. People build massive galaxy-girdling projects and come home to safe secure families.
The way this was achieved was to make it a capital crime to broadcast to more than five people at a time. We should consider this for our own Earth.
Wow– harsh perscription, Litotes, but you and Cordwainer may be onto something–
Still, if we consider it for our own Earth, a whole new race of Balloon Boy people may take off in their giant balloons for parts unknown, unable to survive without at least the possibility of someday being TV stars–
Take away America’s stars and star-making industry and what have you got? It’s the one thing we know how to do ‘better’ or at least bigger than anyone else on Earth, alas–
But THANKS as always for seeing the big picture here in your galaxy-girdling comment, Litotes– E
From LISA Does the phrase “balloon boy” make anyone else think of Robyn Hitchcock’s song “Balloon Man”? It’s just me, right?
Great Minds, Lisa: my DJ husband just played BALLOON MAN by Robyn Hitchcock in honor of B.Boy–
Also today we have played:
900 LuftBaloons by a German pop star NENA and
‘WONDERFUL’ from the balloon-ridden musical WICKED
and of course
UP UP & AWAY…
A cure for narcissism? I’ll have to go look in the mirror and think about it. Meanwhile, I say throw the book at the guy. Imagine if this pseudo-prototype-reality-show dad gets a gentle hand slap and off he goes? In a pandemic world we’d see mylar saucers launched on a daily basis. We could never track them all. They’d interfere with our rotten internet connections and miserable cell phone signals. All communication would cease to exist. Hmm, mylar. That’s like a mirror…
THANXX for the mylar-mirror into this story and I like how your apocalyptic vision ties into Litotes’ comment– I agree if this Dad goes free and gets his reality-show-or-whatever, the air will fill with the inflated mylar hopes of millions…
BTW, just got a hot tip (or hot-air tip?) that the Balloon Dad may have copped his concept from SUMMERLAND by Michael Chabon, in which a Dad invents a balloon car which floats away with his son– but hey, the Dad floats into fame…
Anyway, thanks for floating by on the blog–
XX–
E
Am I the only person who wants to know the names of Falcon Hene’s two brothers? Some possibilities: Osprey, Condor…
JUDITH:
No, you are not alone! I have been wondering about that brother myself — his name, yes (‘Condor’ has a nice spy sound to it…) but also his role in all this, as the one who ‘saw’ Balloon Boy take off…I have a feeling that all too soon we are all going to know the names of this whole zany family–
Actually I like the name ‘Falcon’ but the poor kid’s dad is going to wind up a Jail Bird…
xx to Judith for always zeroing in on the Key Questions–
E
i am nominating balloon boy father/ do not know his name/ as your next Disgraced Celebrity of the year
also along with Ryan O’Neal as Father of Year
You are so right Jeff– it is not too soon to be thinking about
Disgraced Celebrity of 2009–
Sarah Palin won ‘disgraced celebrity of summer’ for 2009–
will have to get a post up taking nominations for the whole year-
And yes, here at last is a Dad to give Ryan O. a run for his money–
cheers–
E
I can’t wait for the book!!
Yes, there’s got to be a book in here somewhere!
Thanxx for the comment & book-vote–
E
ps to ‘pk’: the full name got lost on this comment so if
you want me to add your name or screen name, just let me know
what it is and I’ll get it up. glad to have you here, ‘whoever you are’–
balloon mom is in the pic. now too. not fair this balloon family will get that ‘reality show’ after all?
Jeff, I agree, but as JFK said, Life is not fair…
(surely they won’t actually get a reality show, though?
maybe a true-crime documentary type thing?
anyway, yes, a lot of ‘not fair’ here, especially to the kiddies–
enough to make anyone want to hop a hot-air balloon & escape…
suzanne thought you would find this story from NYPost.com interesting:
You have to read the girlfriend’s letter, the details in the last graf are just up your alley! xxx
EXCLUSIVE: ESPN’S STEVE PHILLIPS IN FOUL AFFAIR WITH PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
By JEANE MacINTOSH in Wilton, Conn., and DAN MANGAN in NY
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/exclusive_espn_steve_phillips_in_bLw9UoSAQJwJLU4ZDXvvDO
Ooh– thanks Suzanne for this Heads Up on the
Scandal Most Likely to Pop the Balloon Boy Saga–
yes, the Girlfriend is ‘out there’– another Self-created celeb. in the making…
Elizabeth, Please post on StarLit page. Thanks! — Richard
2004 The Year I saw Norman Mailer
The first impression was, its Norman Mailer sitting in the front booth. I was sipping a glass of Sonoma red at my favorite table, the one beside Mary, the harpist, who had just finished my request for an old Robbie Burns tune, Loch Lomond. I looked to my right— Norman Mailer in the window booth! But then I thought, it couldn’t be. He’s too small. But he looked perfectly like him, only three-quarter size, like the way a sculptor might make in a likeness, but it couldn’t be him because Mailer is, well, just too Big for the one-room, 45-seat Company of the Cauldron. If he did come here he’d have to rent it out for the night, a private dinner party (the Cauldron can accommodate such requests, just ask) for his self and his many personalities. Mailer the novelist, Mailer the Chronicler, Mailer the New Journalist, Mailer the anti-war protester, Mailer the political candidate, the mystery writer, the wife stabber, Mailer the anti-masturbator. Yes, that’s right. He’s got a whole essay assailing masturbation— for men, that is; he admits he’s not sure about women, the only time in the history of his great self he ever admitted to not knowing or having an opinion about something). There’s got to be enough Mailers inside of Mailer to sit at every table. They would argue with each other, throw food, pinch the waitress, stab the chef, write a good review about the dinner, write a terrible review about the dinner, spend the night in jail for bolting on the check, get thrown off-island.
All I wanted was to go over and say how much he meant to a boy wandering the bookstores in Greenwich Village stumbling upon a copy of “Advertisements for Myself.”
—Richard Cambridge
From a flash fiction/memoir-in-progress, “A Restaurant is a Necklace of Semi-Precious Stones,” based on a once-a-year dinner every June at The Company of the Cauldron in Nantucket over a 30-year period.
THANKS RICHARD!
I love this vivid piece– love the image of many mini-Mailers duking it out. Mailer’s ‘novel biography MARILYN is a favorite of mine. Yes, I will get this up right away on the StarLit. page; YOU are the first to post FICTION there– happy to have it join the poetry & essays already in residence– cheers–
Elizabeth