Interesting and/or Notable People
This page is about people who stand out a little from everyone else for some reason or other.
One
day, back a long, long time ago, Alexander was talking to Aristotle, who
said there were an infinite number of worlds. Alexander started to cry
and when Aristotle asked him why, he said something like, "And to
think I haven't even conquered one." For some reason, I have always
esteemed him as the posterboy for ambition, and I think that's the sort
of attitude people should have (though not necessarily an ambition to
conquer the world).
Some people say he wept when he thought he had conquered the world and there were no more worlds to conquer, but I always heard it the other way. Nonetheless, he still was ambitious.
Somehow, Alexander the Great doesn't have an official web site. I don't think he was in to computers much.
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At first, Avril stood out to me because I thought she was a really
bad singer, and I figured if we live in a world where someone who is
that bad can be that famous, it shouldn't be that hard for me to be successful,
too. (Although, as I say, her success might also have something to do
with her using a Mac.)
Now, however, I really don't think she's all that bad of a singer, but I think
she still has qualities that make her stand out. But considering that this page
has gotten nearly 200,000 hits mainly from Avril fans, I wouldn't move her even
if I thought she wasn't interesting.
Not to psychoanalyze her music too much, but it seems pretty apparent to me that
Avril's music is about anger over emotional pain. It's never starkly apparent,
and on some songs it is less apparent than others, but still, in every song I
see this as being the fundamental motivation. Music is expression, whether you
make it or listen to it, and people want to express that emotion. That's why
Avril is famous. I'm not saying that everyone who listens to her is a worst case,
but I am saying that the people who listen to her find comfort in her music.
But the thing I notice in Avril's music is that there is no hope or redeeming
elements to her music. Another band I've been listening to a little bit lately
is Seventh Day Slumber, and while they are very hard and heavy, their songs are
about a solution. They try to give hope, while Avril is just angry. Of course,
Seventh Day Slumber is a bit harder than Avril, but I never said they were the
same.
Seventh Day Slumber sings about things that people don't want to talk about, or in other words, pretty dark material. I don't know if it's something that people should be encouraged to listen to, but I would say it's preferable to Avril. I don't listen to Seventh Day Slumber on a regular basis, and find it much too hard, but if your into that sort of thing, you might like it. You can listen to Seventh Day Slumber's CD in its entirety on their website. The audio quality is the pits, but it's all there. Their best song musically is "Innocence," athough you decide about the lyrics.
My apologies if Avril is "your favorite" and you think I have insulted her by suggesting another band.
Anyway, we still have pictures. Perhaps the title picture doesn't flatter her, but in reality she isn't that bad, though she looks even worse in this picture. Those two are the most popular pictures on this page. There are more pictures of her at my "Pictures of Avril" page. I decided I'd make a separate page for that since I have more than I want to put on this page. The pictures are available in a thumbnail list or a full size list. She also has a bunch of pictures on her web site, avril-lavigne.com, but those don't have my whitty commentary accompanying them.
Freud stands
out because he was really pretty sneaky. Yes, he was a big improvement
over the old "Give 'em shock treatment, that aught to fix 'em"
way of doing things, but that doesn't mean he was an angel. Freud was
in the interesting position of being the unquestioned oracle of knowledge
when it came to people, so when people disagreed, Freud would label them
as unstable and in need of treatment. I don't know if they were ever actually
thrown into the funny farm, but Freud's "diagnosis" probably
didn't help his opponent's reputation. I, of course, don't approve of
dealing with your opponents this way, but I do find his sneakiness impressive
(and kind of funny).
Don't believe me? I read it all in Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties by Paul Johnson. This book is so popular it's the 50,006th best selling book at Barnes and Noble! (The last time I checked.)
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Although, Kate Botello was a great co-host of several shows on TechTV,
there is a lot of those kind of people, so she wasn't all that stand-outish
back then. However, in one Extended Play episode, she announced that she
would be leaving (to be a Broadway star, as it turns out), and she has
only made one other appearance since then (plus she was on a video).
The reason she is interesting and notable
is that she was successful (though I suppose she could have had more fame
and money and stuff) and decided to leave it all. People should do what
they like to do and all, and I guess she wanted to be Broadway star, but
for someone in a position such as hers, to leave is very odd. I'm not
really sure I understand why a person would do this, but it intrigues
me.
Everyone thinks they would be happy if
they were rich and famous. No one ever said that was true, but once people
are famous, they never seem to quit. Kate Botello might not have been
rich and she wasn't extremely famous, but what she did have she left to
do something else. Giving up fame intrigues me about as much as being
famous for no reason (see Ellen Feiss below).
According to Google, there are 1,070 web pages containing the term "Kate Botello" (at last count). In contrast, there are 15 pages containing the term "Travis Dart".
Click here to
see a video of her last appearance on Extended Play (3 mb), or go to her site
at KateBotello.net.
They say we aren't supposed to glorify drug users, but that's how Ellen Feiss (pronounced Fyce) became famous (though she's most likely NOT a drug user). She appeared on an Apple Switch Ad with a sad story about how her PC devoured her paper (and it was a really good paper, too). Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately), her eyes were bloodshot in the commercial and now everyone assumed she was a stoner. For some reason, the idea of becoming famous over nothing really intrigues me, and it is to that end that Ellen Feiss is featured here.
Still, she is funny in her own respect, and though she probably wouldn't have become famous without her bloodshot eyes, she probably does deserve to be famous. Being famous for no reason doesn't intrigue me. It bugs me.
Also on the subject, I did my 404 page up in an Ellen Feiss theme.
You can see her Switch ad and a lot of other stuff on my page of Ellen Files.
The paper was on Chinatown, not that that matters.
And, needless to say, Ellen Feiss uses a Mac. A Powerbook G4, to be precise.
Slightly Less Notable People
While the people above are almost totally unique (in various respects), the people below stand out in their field, but are not totally unique.
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While there are a lot of self-made millionaires and billionaires, Michael Dell is my personal favorite, because he started out so young. When he was in college he sold computer parts through the mail and was making about $70,000 a year. Hopefully, I will be my own favorite self-made billionaire soon; however, I'm more like Stephen right now. (Um, minus the drugs.)
Michael Dell most likely uses a PC.
| Tony Hawk |
My Favorite Athlete |
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Probably best known for his video game series, Tony Hawk is the man when
it comes to skateboarding. It is a possibility that Rodney Mullen may
be more entertaining with his amazingly dexterous feet, and Jamie Thomas
might be able to land a jump off of anything, no matter how high, but
Tony Hawk is still generally accepted as the best. Really, he only has
three advantages that the others don't: he's famous, he's got his own
video game, and he can do a 900 (i.e. 900 degree spin).
It all started when he became the
first person to ever do a 900 in competition, then came his video game
and the fame. Now, he gets to do what he likes for a living, he's got
lots of fans, and he's got lots of money. Sounds pretty good to me.
To see a video of the first 900, click here.
Tony Hawk uses a Mac.
| Blümchen |
My Favorite Musician |
When
you listen to other music you might think "that's catchy" or
"that's pretty" or "that's interesting", but when
you listen to Blümchen's music, you just think "man what a rush!"
Blümchen's music is the fastest, highest-energy techno music I've
ever heard. It's like caffeine for your ears. And, unlike most techno
music, it doesn't get monotonous or stuck in a rut. The vocals help keep
it interesting and the lyrics are better than Avril's, but that's not
really saying much. Only occasionally are the lyrics very interesting,
but it doesn't matter anyway, all of the lyrics are in German. It's interesting
how close "I think I'm fat" and "I'm thinking of you"
are in German. I couldn't imagine why she was saying she was fat.
I have decided that from now on, I will buy all of my Blümchen CD's from eBay instead of the Global Electronic Music Marketplace. The GEMM costs too much and is too slow. I would recommend "Jasmin - Die Fanedition" or "Verliebt," though Herz an Herz is good too. If you want a single, Heut' ist Mein' Tag is a good one. Sesam Jam isn't really all that great.
For translations of the songs and audio samples click here.
And if you were wondering, Blümchen's real name is Jasmin Wagner. Also, you can make the umlaut u ( ü ) by holding down "alt" and typing "129" on the number pad (Windows). On a Mac, you can hit Alt+u and then a normal u.
Here's a picture of Blümchen as a baby. Here and here are pictures of Blümchen as a little kid. Here is a picture of Blümchen as a teenager. Here is a picture of Blümchen after she's pretty much grown up. And here is a picture of Blümchen as the "Object of the Day" (I don't think she knows English very well).
Here is a video capture of Blümchen on Bravo TV (the only video I've ever found on the Internet). She looks quite like Michael Jackson in that hat, don't you think?
This just in: Blümchen retired after the 2001 season. You'd think people would make that more obvious. Oh, well, more power to Vanessa Mae.
To get search engines' attention, I made a separate page of the above section. I might as well link to it. Click here to see that.
| Vanessa Mae |
My Other Favorite Musician |
I
know, I know. I've already had a "favorite musician," but I
can't decide between Blümchen and Vanessa Mae, so I decided to put
them both in. While Blümchen does only eurodance, Vanessa Mae plays
pretty much everything. She started out only doing classical violin, so
she adds the complexity and interest of classical music to all the other
styles and adds the beat and effects to classical music.
Vanessa Mae's lyrics are in English, and you can tell what she's saying. It's not always so good in songs like "Embrasse Moi" and "I Feel Love". Also, she has been wearing less and less since she started her career as some dorky girl. Despite all this, her CDs are well worth buying, and "I Feel Love" has the best solo techno violin part a little way into it. I recommend the CD "Storm".
Vanessa Mae's electic violin is a $3,300 Zeta Jazz Fusion Violin. She also has an acoustic violin, but I don't know what kind it is.
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