Secrets of the City

This should be fun. Bring it! (But please try to read it first.)

That was a well-researched and thoughtful article. Even though there are all these interesting microcategories, there was always a bit of a blur around what constitutes a C or D-list celebrity.

Some metrics that people assume would accompany public recognition, such as celebrity-sized income turn out to have always been less the case than we would assume. I was a bit shocked to recently discover that the appearance fee for a comedian on one of the UK’s big comedy shows – Have I Got News For You? – was about $500. It’s quite possible to be a recognized name and make less than some YouTube celebrity.

I can imagine many people who consider themselves famous on the internet are currently hating Rex for not including them in the article.

I loved it. And the term “microfamous” is much more descriptive than the C or D-list celebrity often used. Or even “internet famous.” Great stuff, Rex.

Conversely, it’s very likely that if you’re a YouTube celebrity, you’re making less than an average comic. (It’s more true than not! Tay is the exception.)

Yeah, Tay Zonday pretty much won the Internets as far as memetic celebrity goes. Even the Encyclopedia Dramatica has nice things to say about him, and they don’t have anything good to say about anyone.

Conversely, it’s very likely that if you’re a YouTube celebrity, you’re making less than an average comic.

I believe South Park illustrated that fact beautifully.

“I moved to New York City a mere six months ago, expecting an anonymous existence while I struggled to make new friends.”

Does anyone believe this?

Haha. It’s true. My friends were Missy, CK, Lock, Rojas… one hand! Not much more than that. I knew no one here.

I was reading through a names book last night and saw this,

Queenie: See Rex

Are you getting any other feedback on the article, Rex? And do you get paid well for writing a piece for NY Mag?

Best part if the article IMHO

‘Anytime your name is used, you are required to e-mail, comment, or firebomb the person invoking it. When in doubt, remember these three maxims: There is no such thing as being above the fray, every battle is worth fighting, and all disputes are good press. ‘

I think fame (micro or otherwise) is mostly about luck. You come out with the right thing at the right time. It is why there are so many one hit wonders in the fame biz. They just happened to do the right thing when everyone was looking. Attempting to manufacture fame is almost impossible. The public is just too fickle.

Jason, Jason, Jason!

It’s not how much $$$ he makes on it that’s important. It’s the amount of tail, which is the goal here.

That’s what I meant by getting “paid.”

Jason: Blog posts are surprisingly complimentary. (I was worried this would get picked apart for being fame slutty. It’s not, of course, but I was worried people wouldn’t actually read it.) And NY Mag pays decent, yes.

TaulPaul: I can’t believe how crass you’ve become. Heh.

Douglas: I don’t think you read it. I recommend Step #8 for your comment.

A little transparency goes a long way, even if the transparency is manufactured.

I only had heard of about a quarter of the people referenced in the article. I think I’m okay with that. Still interesting, though.

I did read it, and Step #8 ia what I am saying is almost impossible. You cannot persist if what made you (micro)famous is passe the next day. Do you keep doing what you did or do you reinvent yourself? You cannot know which to do. Even talent is not enough.

Based on my two prior comments, I’m thinking maybe Rex didn’t read the article.

I only had heard of about a quarter of the people referenced in the article. I think I’m okay with that. Still interesting, though.

I tend to agree with you there. If you don’t passively or actively participate in this fabricated world we call Web 2.oh, you’ve probably never heard/care/think about any of these people. It has a very narrow reach, and I jokingly had some fun with this before.

This is not to say some of these people have no relevance in society in general. Many of them have changed the way industries do business, and continue to challenge traditional thinking.

Keeping up with micro internet celebrities is too exhausting. It reminds me of when I used to hang out with music heads, trying to listen to every new band and song and reading Pitchfork every day…eventually I couldn’t keep up.

So basically I leave it to others to sum it all up for me.

When I first started blogging for the ALAMN, I got some attention (not all of it positive) from others interested in the subject of using new media for nonprofit communications. I even ended being cited in a book.

I had less success as a YouTube star, as a video chuck shot at last year’s State Fair has had only about 1,000 views. I blame ethanol.

The interesting thing about writing this was picking the people to call microfamous. If you think about it, the definition of the term means you SHOULDN’T know them all. To be microfamous means to be known within a small group of people, a niche.

I initially wanted to talk about people like Scoble and Arrington, but they nixed it with, “No one in NYC knows who they are.” And it’s true, just like no one outta NYC knows who Julia is.

@taulpaul: its called “synthetic transparency,” according to the guy who quoted me in his book.

BTW: I’m cited as a FAILURE of st, as I recall.

I’m still trying to figure out if that is good or bad…

It’s not the number of followers in your cult, it’s how much Koolaid they’ll drink for you.

I always find it interesting that many these microfamous weblebrities who network like crazy and are obviously great at pr/marketing usually make less than the schlep down the office complex that is slinging widgets.

I had a professor in college that always advised graduates away from chasing fun & fame…..because the compensation doesn’t always/usually come in cash.

It’s not the number of followers in your cult, it’s how much Koolaid they’ll drink for you

IT WAS FLAVOR AID, DAMN IT!! (walks away in disgust)

I can tell you it’s not cheap to advertise on The Really Big Internet Show hosted by iJustine and produced by Carson Daly .

I think we can all agree that your welebrity means nothing until you get several thousand words in the NYT magazine to whine about said welebrity.

Speaking of faux transparency… Max, how much $$$ did Rex offer you to post this story on mnspeak?

and when I say $$$, I really mean XXX

He gave me a box full of penises.

I said I’d take it Greek.

Man, they play for keeps at Gawker.

Yeah, they don’t pull their nerd punches when trying to hound a popular chick into suicide.

Look Max, if you don’t want to run the risk of Gawker ruining your life, then stay off the internet entirely. And don’t leave your house.

If Gawker is going to waste their time on a Minnesota blogger, they have already lost.

Yeah, they don’t pull their nerd punches when trying to hound a popular chick into suicide.

Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Internet Suicide

Oh, so Rex created MNspeak. That explains a lot.

I mean, there has to be some New York morning television celebrity with too bright a smile who they can follow into Target and take photographs of.

Wound’t it just be easier to move to a small town where everybody knows everybody if it’s plain recongition you’re after?

I figure when Gawker does a take down piece on Sorgatz, he’ll be chased off the internet and into his dream job…chick blogger Gigolo.

Oh, hahah, you guys think THAT’S bad? Pareene (the Gawker writer) is a friend of mine — and he’s from Minneapolis! His chiding is funny, and comparatively harmless to what’s out there.

He gave me a box full of penises.
Did they come in a microfamous assortment of colors and sizes?

They looked like this (safe for work).

ummmmm

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.

@taulpaul – I think this calls for a Lighthouse Rex Web2.0 trading card.

@Max

You mean wasting time on a MN blogger like this?

@ Rex

Holy frick, you know people at Gawker? Oh my stars! How difficult would it be for me to ruin my life and the lives of others and then parlay that into Parade magazine cover story?

I believe that Rex was guest editor at the Gawker Thinktank for a month or so?

Max, my workplace is completely anti-lighthouse. Hello unemployment line! Thanks Max!

Sure. Can you do anything interesting?

(I gave Emily, the writer you’re referring to, her first job after leaving Gawker. And there’s one Minneapolis writer I’m trying to get hired there now. Not saying who!)

Don’t come in here and lord your microfame over us.

Score!

Wait, why would I need to do anything interesting?

Rex, please allow me to introduce you to BScott

Next time Rex is in town I am totally stalking him.

I sense a great,albeit tiny, career as a microparrazi.

Rex: “And there’s one Minneapolis writer I’m trying to get hired there now. Not saying who!)”

It’s Marsh, isn’t it?

He said “writer.”

Oh, snap! Marsh is going to come out swinging for that one.

It’s Marsh, isn’t it?

Dear god, I hope so. What an attention whore…haha

Just remember Marsh is only giving a few blowjobs away in the back of a van from being a journalist.

‘And don’t ever fucking call me a “journalist” again. I do not run a blowjob operation out of the back of a van.’

That sounds like the Gawker fast track.

Yes, please make Marsh the EIC of Gawker.

Aww, hell, make him to EIC ofJezebel too. That blog could use a Marsh thread every day.

Marsh makes too much in Minneapolis what with all the free teeth whitenings and laser vein surgery he gets from the MPLS/St Paul advertisers.

Well, I know it’s not me. I produce too much actual content and not enough catty linkbait to work at Gawker.

Marsh makes too much in Minneapolis what with all the free teeth whitenings and laser vein surgery he gets from the MPLS/St Paul advertisers.

I wonder which vein he had lasered…

That being said, my Targetron link is pure Gawker.

“actual content,” by its very nature, should be linkbait.

You’re kind of new to the Internet, aren’t you, Rex?

Whaa??? we can’t just post pictures of furry animals with captions and yarn cephalopods?

I mean that! Although the article is a little sarcastic, I actually believe the overall point, that working hard, creating content, responding to people… all of this stuff amounts to a living. If content is GOOD, it will get linked to; if it’s not good, then it won’t. You can call that linkbait, or you can call it good.

(Okay, I know what you’re talking about. I bet you’re talking about how listsicles and charticles and bombastic diatribes get more attention that well-reasoned, factual content. You have a point…)

I wonder which vein he had lasered…

hee hee

I agree that content SHOULD be linkbait. Sometimes it is. But the Interwebs are a massive information recycling factory, with precious little new material being produced as compared to the amount of stuff that just gets endlessly republished.

Rex: “(Okay, I know what you’re talking about. I bet you’re talking about how listsicles and charticles and bombastic diatribes get more attention that well-reasoned, factual content. You have a point…) “

I thought he meant porn.

What shows up on Digg is always the best the internet has to offer. For reals.

Porn is real content.

my money is on askari. rex won’t waste that kinda time and resources on an dude…or ugly girl.

I agree that content SHOULD be linkbait. Sometimes it is. But the Interwebs are a massive information recycling factory, with precious little new material being produced as compared to the amount of stuff that just gets endlessly republished

JACC agreed with me so much he republished my comment.

oh know the little utilized {meta(meta)} comment isn’t that like crossing the streams?

Too Meta?

I was going to say check this out, but I’m not sure we’re ready for a Meta infinite complexity loop.

I think it was porn too…
where else could you get liptickles and cartpickles, not to mention
bomb asstickle tribes?
Yup, has to be pron. Some book called “Fuctual Contact”.

hee hee, just kidding.

LEAVE REX ALONE!!

Chuck, sometimes you scare me.

Man you use a trademark, you get a ‘cease and desist’ letter from a lawyer. This happens all the time and does not mean “Garrison Keillor tried to sue you.” This is a knee jerk from the legal system and nothing more. Garrison Keillor’s neighbor with the garage project should be much more ‘micro famous.’ And now I will (maybe read the article and then) puke.

You said bring it.

Chuck is my microcelebrity of the week.

All the microcelebrities I’m familiar with are a bit on the hoppy side. Also, I don’t understand why so many people dislike Fat Tire like its Julia Allison.

Chuck, sometimes you scare me.

I’m still trying to figure out who is operating the camera. Kitty?

sven sundgaard is a micro-microcelebrity.

Does Chuck have a Flavor Aid stache in that video?

If Chuck also does it Greek, this answers a lot of questions I had about the two of them.

Being a real celebrity, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the microcelebrities on their hard work. Keep it up. I have autographs to mail to 92-year-old women in Crystal.

I don’t know where I fit in on the scale. I’m the most famous not famous person I know.

You’re a microcephalebrity.

I’m the new Zippy the Pinhead?

I can live with that.

over 50 views on YouTube… In your face, DeRusha!

wait…

If I never hear the words “Tay Zonday” again ever in my life I will b-…
Wait, what was I talking about again?

Chuck, which one of us posed for a photoshoot in the premier glossy magazine about homes published by the St. Paul Pioneer Press today?

That’s right baby. SPACES! So you can suck it, microfamous videoblogger

This is kind of like the Dave Chappelle joke (I think) about someone being famous enough that they can fuck someone and make them famous by extension, a la Clinton/Lewinsky. Only with frivolous legal threats.

I twittered all day yesterday from a sun-drenched experience involving various forms of dehydration at the “European” pool at Wynn Las Vegas, and with each tweet, I thought to myself, “Uh oh, this one might make me micro-famous.”

In spite of all of that, my meetings went really well today. Thanks for asking.

(Twittering about such things wouldn’t have been nearly as titilating.)

And Gawker’s take on Rex: Soon you too can dog-sit for Julia Allison.

See Rex, we are nicer than the Gawkeristas. Even iffen we ain’t that smurt.

I thought I already acknowledged that. The writer of that post is Pareene, who is a Minneapolis person originally, and who if this site had any sense, it would OWN, because he’s the best writer in this dumb city.

And he’s a friend, and the jab about Julia is completely warranted. I deserve it. It’s funny, unlike…

Gawker?

I’m still trying to think of a comeback, Max. Hold on…

I know you can do it, buddy!