HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-08-11, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2005. PAGE 5.
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Putting the ‘fan’ in fanatic’
Well, if you’ve been around the block, you
certainly knew her once, although you
probably wouldn’t recognize her today. She’s
55 years old now. Been living by herself on a
remote island in the Baltic Sea for the past 20-
odd years.
To tell you the truth Agnetha’s gone a little
bit weird. Afraid of airplanes. Can’t stand
crowds. Avoids open spaces. Doesn’t like to be
around electronic equipment.
Which is a switch for Agnetha. Back in the
70s she was perpetually surrounded by
thousands of people, not to mention television
cameras, tape recorders and microphones. She
flew around the world several times a year,
first class.
Agnetha Faltskog was the Dancing Queen -
the statuesque blonde irt the Swedish pop
group Abba. She helped them sell 350 million
records worldwide.
And it damn near killed her.
Agnetha developed celebrity phobia. She
began to have nightmares about her fans
turning violent and aggressive. “I had visions
that [fans] grabbed hold of me,” she says, “that
1 was being suffocated by the sheer weight of
people.”
Which wasn’t so far from the truth. Agnetha
remembers adoring fans at concerts surging
around her like a stormy sea, reaching,
clutching, pawing.
“Sometimes when we were finally back in
the car, we would burst into tears from the
sheer terror of it. It shapes your whole
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.
- John Updike
ou know Agnetha? Agnetha Faltskog,
the blue-eyed Nordic blonde?
Not ringing a bell for you, eh?
Arthur
Black
personality.”
Or warps it.
Celebrity is a strange and willful beast.
Some recipients - Paris Hilton, Robin
Williams — take to the spotlight like pot
plants in a grow op. Others, like Agnetha
Faltskog and Michael Jackson, wither and
writhe like sausages on a hot barbecue.
And still others - a very few - jump out of
the way before the celebrity express train runs
them over.
Take Charles Webb. He and his wife have
spent the past 40-odd years living on the
margins, taking menial jobs as fruit pickers,
dishwashers - even janitors in a nudist colony.
They didn’t have to do that. Mr. and Mrs.
Webb could have been living in a mansion in
Beverley Hills, riding in limos and hob
knobbing with the creme de la Hollywood
creme at the Oscars.
Back in the early 60s Charles Webb, at the
age of 24, found himself an instant - and
famous — multi-millionaire. He had just
published his first novel, The Graduate. It was
about to be made into a blockbuster
Hollywood movie and the world was Charlie
Webb’s oyster.
He turned and ran. Forfeited all rights to the
book and the movie, gave away two houses -
even unloaded his wedding presents - and
moved with his wife into a trailer park in
England.
“It (the wealth and the fame) felt phony,”
Webb says. “It just didn’t work for us.”
Was Charles Webb nuts? No....rather brave,
actually.
“It wasn’t slumming for slumming’s sake,”
says Webb. “It was a need to understand
something. And being short of money was part
of it.”
Fame can throw you down some strange
corridors. John Cleese, once the Clown Prince
of British comedy, wound up making
motivational videos for small businesses.
Cleese met everybody who was anybody in
the entertainment business during his career,
but even he could be dazzled in the presence
of star power greater than his own. Meeting
Queen Elizabeth for the first time, Cleese
blurted, “I have seen you on stamps.”
The famous baseball player Babe Ruth was
a bit more phlegmatic in the presence of
royalty. Upon being presented to King George
VI at Buckingham Palace, Ruth nodded
amicably and drawled “How ya doin’, King?”
That’s the other thing about celebrity. It can
puff up the ego, but it can let the air out of
one’s tires even faster - as Aaron Copland, the
famous U.S. composer, discovered in a New
York bookstore one day. Copland noticed a
woman at the cash register about to pay for a
copy of his book What to Listen For in Music
as well as a paperback edition of
Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
Copland touched her on the arm and asked
with a smile, “Would you like me to autograph
your book?”
The woman looked at Copland blankly and
replied, “Which one?”
Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
Lucky dog
It’s times like this I really envy my dog.
Sure, she eats a steady diet of the same
thing day in and day out. And yes, she has
to rely on my schedule for so many things,
including what time she gets to eat supper or
an opportunity to exercise.
But as a warm and sunny Monday morning
dawned for me, as the last vestiges of a
vacation calm were being shoved away by my
return to the world of work, Ani was preparing
for another day of chasing squirrels and
kicking back in the shade. While my morning
began with the irritating “wree, wree, wree” of
the alarm, Ani slept on. While I ran around
getting ready, Ani stretched, moved to a new
location where she performed her circle dance
before nestling down and falling back to sleep.
While I dashed to the car, she sauntered to a
cool spot and dropped.
And for the hours that I’m at work, making
the money to keep her in dog biscuits she
delights in a carefree existence, answering to
no one. For Ani, every day is a holiday.
What a nice thing that must be considering
how quickly a holiday passes. Looking back to
my first day off seems such a long time ago,
but it was over in a heartbeat. Not a big
surprise, of course. Such is life. Time passes
far too quickly.
Initially as the days of my vacation ticked by,
I began to think that this time things might be
different. The reason was my inability to sleep.
Seems like nice guy is catching on
ntario’s new Progressive Conservative
leader John Tory is suddenly catching
on with voters and it may be because
he is not endlessly ranting and raving.
One poll has put his Conservatives level
with Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s
Liberals at 38 per cent support and a second
has the Liberals at 38 per cent and
Conservatives only two per cent behind.
Just two months ago the Liberals were far in
the lead with 42 per cent. This is usually
enough to win an election. Analysts are
puzzled over how to explain this tightening of
the race.
The Liberals have not had discernible major
setbacks. They had a budget in May that
avoided tax increases and since have added a
few more planks to their most common theme
of expanding protection for the public, which
does not cost much money.
Almost their only worry has been a daily
reminder they have not secured adequate
sources of electricity and could face blackouts
because of high use in the hot summer.
Tory has been leader almost a year and an
MPP five months. He has not set Ontario
politics on fire.
He has accused McGuinty of being a
spendthrift and having no plan to tackle the
energy shortage, but has agreed with the
Liberal premier on several major issues,
announced few new policies and not
differentiated himself much from McGuinty.
Tory nonetheless has felt comfortable
enough to spend a couple of weeks in Paris,
brushing up his French, in whi^h McGuinty is
fluent enough to answer questiQ<>.
Toiy’Mlart has been'modest; even low-key,
bift one dung thatdistinguishe^hfm from most
leaders is he goes to great ' efrort to avoid
seeming confrontational. ' ■
He said he would have more moderate
Eric
Dowd
From
Queen's Park
policies than his predecessors as leader,
premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, and be
closer to William Davis, premier from 1971-
85, in whose office he served.
Tory, among examples, readily supported
McGuinty in his request for money to narrow
the gap between what the federal government
collects in taxes from Ontario and what it
returns, and even called on his federal party to
back the premier.
He is particularly more moderate in style.
He called for more civility in the legislature,
saying MPPs often heckle so loudly they
prevent debates being heard and that includes
some of his own members.
Tory made suggestions for easing traffic
gridlock that included pulling repair crews off
roads during rush hours and towing vehicles
quickly from accident scenes, and when the
Liberals scoffed these were minor, responded
amiably he was merely starting a debate and
would welcome others.
Tory at his most pugnacious has said
McGuinty’s only plan for
Harris, who called a Liberal an “asshole,” and
McGuinty, who is not by nature a back-alley
brawler, but got into scraps with Harris in
which each accused the other of lying and has
an image of breaking promises which
discourages people from warming to him.
Tory also is a relief from federal leaders
constantly at each other’s throats. Liberals in
Ottawa have offered bribes of jobs to get
opponents to join them, so they could cling to
power, and the Conservatives are known
mostly for threatening to bring down
government.
Leaders who were not strident have done
well in Ontario, notably Davis, the longest-
serving premier of recent years, whose
strongest oath was the occasional “good
gracious” and his predecessor, John Robarts,
who once called the federal Liberals
“Machiavellian,” but mainly avoided harsh
language.
Tory is trying to follow in this tradition of
being a nice guy, but he should remember they
also had policies that appealed to voters.
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for leng
which certainly increased the length of my
days, but there was definitely a lack of quality
to them. With the passing of daylight, I
wearied. Yet, as the soothing blanket of
darkness moved in each r.ight, I felt myself
becoming more alert. Reading, relaxing, deep
breathing... nothing seemed to stop my busy
mind.
In the early morning hours my head would
hit the pillow and 1 was for the first time that
day instantly alert. Finally, I would drift into a
light dream-plagued sleep that stopped wi»h
increasing frequency as the hours moved on.
By morning I felt as if I’d been in battle,
which I suppose was somewhat true, as I
fought to unwind and give my body and mind
needful rest.
I have never been someone who can rely on
little sleep. Researchers have proven that
people’s clocks all run differently, that many
are not equipped to work a typical nine-to-five
job. It’s also been proven that many of us are
not getting enough regular, deep sleep as we
should to be as productive and healthy as we
can.
No doubt in my mind. Earlier vacations have
proven to me that a good eight or nine hours is
required for Bonnie to run at her optimal best.
When my time isn’t governed by employment,
I have listened to my body. Bedtime arrives
not at 11 p.m. because tomorrow is going to be
an early day, but when I feel ready. No radio
announcer, no music, no annoying screech
rouse me from slumber. My eyes drift open
when my brain says they’re ready I have, and
take, the opportunity to languorously stretch,
myself from calm to the real
the
upper-class
Tory has
ith their air cc^diboners off and
pi 1 mg th Mimsler
it her marl '
to as’‘*a
i odd, mild rL^i|*tertithiscent of
English of hatt-at-cdntury ago.
avoided the harsher language of
to slowly bring myself from calm to the real
world. 1 arise rested and ready Jo take on a day.
«. ^ThisJs the way it has been fpr years when 1
enjoy Jhi . ne trisect m
r>4fcl AasOtli lx > rftgirtl^nyself of
; Wihuuslidri and .^i^k^^^Tfier^bre a huge
frusrratiort to tmd my^< ba^k a| my desk
a little envious of Ani.