

This Valley is my Hollywood - dcurtis
http://www.31fps.com/2008/08/26/this-valley-is-my-hollywood/

======
swombat
Good article on the whole.

One fallacy though:

 _These are the guys that looked impossible in the face and knocked it out in
the first round._

They knocked it out in the 50th round, but you didn't hear about the other 49
rounds.

Also, seriously... leave the concert just to meet some guy? Don't idolise
people. As the old buddhist saying goes: If perchance you meet the Buddha
wandering on a mountain path, kill him.

The author unfortunately has his priorities all wrong...

~~~
sdpurtill
Well the Radiohead concert kind of blew anyways, it was way oversold and I was
500 feet back. And some guy was standing right in front of me so I couldn't
see. So that made the decision a lot easier.

Love your buddhist saying :D

~~~
SwellJoe
I have a rule about this: If it's a band that _everybody_ has heard of, their
concerts are no longer worth attending.

As much as I enjoy Radiohead, it would never cross my mind to go to their
concert. Best show I've ever seen was the Flaming Lips about ten years ago,
maybe longer, in a crappy concert hall in Houston called The Abyss (held about
900 people, but only about 400 were at that show...I paid $12 to get in and
thought it was a bit steep). But, even though I have exceedingly fond memories
of that show, I would not go see the Lips perform today. It'd just be a
letdown.

~~~
jmtulloss
I saw the Lips 3 years ago and had a blast, one of the best shows I've ever
been to. There's an art to entertaining a small crowd, and one to entertaining
a large one. My guess is that the Flaming Lips are masters at both.

------
aaronblohowiak
It is good to study the "old masters" and to learn the lessons of the
successful, but I don't think cults of personality or "celebrity" of the
successful is putting the emphasis where it belongs.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I am reminded of the poem by Matsuo Bashou -

古人の跡を求めず、

古人の求めたるの所を求めよ。

kojin no ato wo motomezu,

kojin no motometaru no tokoro wo motome yo

Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the wise;

seek what they sought.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
that's probably a better translation than the one i was familiar with /
alluding to: "Do not try to imitate the old masters. Seek what they sought."
also, I agree with the above. points for comprehensiveness!

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
The poem is a fragment from a larger epistle... there are probably a dozen
accurate translations of it, all different. I went with this one because I
like the way it reads in English.

Disclaimer: My Japanese proficiency is pretty limited. I studied it for a
couple of years and have a passable accent, but mostly I just know enough to
get myself in trouble :)

------
stcredzero
I'm reminded of a woman's description of what it was like to live in LA. She
said it was like "being an ember in this big, blazing bonfire."

------
gojomo
Speaking of Hollywood, the term there for people who behave like this is
'starfucker'.

