Star people...

This gets filed under the "15 minutes of Fame" category... Google Analytics said I had 80 hits the other day! Woo-hoo!! Considering I have an average readership of 3 (thank you, all!), I was pleasantly surprised! :-) I tracked it down to this link, a French blog dedicated to Amandine from Nouvelle Star. So, what am I gonna do now?? Exploit the crap out of it!

The post says, "Un américain qui vit à Paris à écrit ça sur son blog à propos d'Amandine" and quoted "And the winner is..." from June 12. Someone else (a real French person) agreed with me that there are quite a few of us out here who would have enjoyed seeing/hearing Amandine do anything from Janis Joplin. She has the range and the pipes for it. At least this time around it went to someone with real, raw talent. As one commenter (the only one!) pointed out, "...for someone like her [it] is like winning Thermophilae's battle. This is what happens to the rare people who don't act like a clown but who live their true feelings and who give everything to their art." Thank you, Anonymous.

I've watched a few of these shows... Star Ac, Nouvelle Star, Fame Academy... call me a glutton for punishment, but I like this kind of stuff. This year, NS aired the auditions. I can't imagine having to sit through the number of hours that must take! They also had a new crew of judges, which included André Manoukian, Philippe Manœuvre, Lio and Sinclair. I was really impressed by Philippe Manœuvre... I had seen him in assorted music shows over the years and I always thought he was a pretentious asshole, but his comments were concise and his judgments fair. He is a purist and his roots lie in his involvement with the music scene over the past few decades. I'm a new fan. He done good. They done good. Let's see what Amandine does.

In the second half of my 15 minutes of fame (tick, tock...), a few days ago I was contacted by a marketing associate at Spiegel and Grau, a division of Random House in New York. I think this is one unexpected perk of blogging, free stuff!! :-) She asked me if I would be interested in a book which was written by a British expat living in France... the American edition has only been on the shelf for 2 days, and my copy arrived today. Thank you, KN! I will be happy to give a review once I have finished reading it.

If there is anyone else out there who would like me to read, wear, sample, sip, taste their works, wares, goods, potables or comestibles, please... by all means... get in touch! Red is the preference, and I'm a willing (shameless) promoter of free enterprise!

Fame is a bee. It has a song. It has a sting. Ah, too, it has a wing.
~Emily Dickinson