Regular Unnamed Friday Column

I'll remember this week as an explosion of excess akin to the Monty Python sketch of the man at the restaurant. Too much of everything. Even the good stuff seemed more than I could handle. Here's a rundown.

RIP. This was a week full of celebrity deaths. We all know about most of them, so I don't need to explain the roll call here. Steven Wells, Gary Papa (pictured), Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. With the Philly deaths, Steven Wells hit me harder than Gary Papa. I think that's because I read Wells' Philly Weekly columns about his cancer. Here is his last Philly Weekly column. On @PhillyWeekly Twitter, there have been some great tributes like this one being posted up.

Social Overload. Social media is leading to socializing overload. The event invitations on my Facebook are piling up. I received at least 20 social invitations (including personal invites from friends for coffee or lunch) this week. Highlights this week included: Casino Free Philly circus, Philly Tweetup at McGillans, Derrick May at Arts Garage (Saturday), Jake Henry's record release party at Vango (Friday- tonight!).

Best Week Ever...Not

In a freshly-minted, savory, semi-regular Friday column, I will try to string together too many adjectives and give some highlights of the week. What I mean by semi-regularly is that I will do it once today and IF I receive positive feedack (ie. one measly undulating comment), I will do this item again.

Say It Ain't So VH1. This first item is dedicated in honor of Best Week Ever, which was too good to let live. There is a movement to save Paul F. Tompkins (Not sure if this factoid is worth printing: @PFTompkins has pointedly been mum on this topic in public and on Twitter). Best Week Ever even living in the shadow of being murdered, ahem being cancelled, covered the great Philadelphia in the it's June 12th blog entry. But Philly peeps you ned to read the Citypaper version of the story in the clog so click right here. I had a Phillygasm reading this item as you can see by the comment I made. Jennaphr Fredericks AND Danny DeVito together are pure comic gold.

Massive Party Weekend in Philly. Where were you this past weekend (June 5-7) was the question everyone was asking on Monday. Me personally, I hit the Roots Picnic, Belle & Sebastian tribute party hosted by Philebrity at National Mechanics and saw Stinking Lizaveta outside Dock Street on Sunday. I'm disappointed that I didn't make it to Art Brut, Picnic afterparty at Fluid, NIN/JA (funny acronyms, ftw), or Sundae. The shore looked fun too with electronic legend Paul Oakenfold playing at the Taj Mahal. I know people slag Oakey for weak, drug addled mixing (Cokenfold as he's affectionately called), but I had a blast a few years ago when he showcased at the now defunct Emerald City in Philly.

I'm most dissapointed I missed Sundae. Questlove made an appearance there and it looked fun. But no worries, Sundae is a weekly party at the newly opened Schmidt's (hope I spelled that right- too lazy to spell check right now) Piazza at 2nd in Germantown in Fishtown. (P.S. Don't care that I missed Phish, even with it's Philly style spelling)

Self-congratulatory item. Thanks for the feedback on my blog I got this week on my SubwayDance Party piece. It resulted in some misunderstandings, controversy, and some fuck-the-Canucks tweets. The 18 year old Nick apologized to me on Twitter, which I should have used to fuel a foofaraw that Philebrity would cover. But instead I told him I hearted him and wished our feud to be over. But it also enhanced understanding between Toronto and Philadelphia. A subway dance party with wiz coming soon. Stay tuned.

It's (Not) Always Sunny in Philadelphia. "Hey anybody look out a window lately?" Har har. This popular (and thankfully still running) FX program was riffed on as the hilarious joke of the week around here. Oy gevalt, the weather.

That's it for my first installment of the un-named column that comes out on Friday about the week in Philly. Tips, comments, and insults always welcome.

The Darker Side to Growing Online Fame

Recently someone asked the question whether if the proverbial tree actually fell if it wasn't Twittered about. I responded that I'd require Twitpics to believe the tree and the forest actually existed. Now that I am following an olio of personal friends, celebrities, and local folks I wish were my friends, I feel like I am living in a reality show. And while much of it is rooted in reality, a lot of it is staged.

I've succumbed to following celebrities on Twitter. I have no interest in following Ashton Kutcher and his struggling to be still be relevant squeeze Mrs. Kutcher (that's what she calls herself on Twitter), but the Kutchers' comments about the Twitter tv show were big news. Kutcher (Ashton said this, but presumably Demi concurs) states that a Twitter show would encourage stalking.

My question is what kind of stalking? Encourage us to hang on their every tweet, view their movies, purchase their products? Twitter stalking is highly unsatisfying and is sophisticated PR. Ethan Suplee of the now cancelled Earl (He was Randy) completely sucked me into his world with his pseudo personal tweets about his sarcastic family. He posted a Twitpic of his daughter and I went for the bait. The photo was of his daughter with her hand blocking the camera. That reminded me that Twitter are not unscripted moments for the famous. I know their publicists are in on the game. (Has Entourage shown Ari Gold on Twitter yet? If not now, then soon).

My friends who Twitter often put up tantalizing pieces of information, but unless I am actually talking to them on the phone or by DM, I'm never getting invited to all the things they talk about. Sometimes it's tempting to do a pop in when somebody I've never met says, "come out tonight," but I know they aren't talking about me. They are talking to their friends and I am an eavesdropper.

But this stalking thing is a real issue. I've known people who have gotten very enthusiastic and has started following me on every possible social networking site. One time I was chatting via gchat with a guy and then signed off- an hour later then he found me on another social media site and said "I thought you were going to bed, but here you are." But as long as he doesn't start showing up at my bbq's, it's manageable. I can't make light of this issue because I know several people who have been relentlessly followed on the internet. But I think the Ashton Kutcher's of the world might have more potential stalkers, us regular people don't have fences, moats with alligators or bodyguards to protect us.

I think those of us who are active on Facebook, myspace, Twitter and other social media have developed public personas and what is really interesting is our private lives intersect with the public. There is a lot more I can talk about, but I must get ready to go out dancing. You will know my whereabouts because I already posted updates on Twitter and Facebook.

I will develop this topic in a later blog post. I appreciate comments.