Wrote tonight about minor celebrities, people whose work I admire but are unknown to most of the population. I was inspired by a video about Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder, who tells many stories about people telling him he looks like that famous pro skateboarder, but don’t believe him when he tells them that he is in fact that pro skateboarder.
What a surreal experience it would be to have that happen. I’ve never been famous in that way. Well, briefly. I’ll write more about that later. But this idea of minor celebrity ties back to XOXO Festival for me. Most of the speakers and guests through the years have been people whose work I was somewhat familiar with, but the one thing they all have in common is that they create work on the internet, and they were known to Andy Baio or Andy McMillan, both minor celebrities in this same way.
I don’t want to mythologize the Andys; I do want to say that they are seekers of and magnets for the coolest things you’ll ever find on the internet. Indie games, digital artists, writers with deep knowledge of esoteric and lost topics, the Andy’s seek them out and promote them. They lead a small community of like-minded, inclusive, and kind people.
This is the viewpoint I’m writing my final post about the final XOXO. A very specific kind of community for the people involved, focused on a specific kind of fame for people. A fame of empathy and imagination. That’s the best kind. Stay tuned.