Better To Be A Baker

So yesterday I was talking to a woman in a local shop. She was describing a certain type of man to me, a kind of spooky, haunted, slightly red-neck-but-sexy guy--vague, a little ethereal, maybe smart, buried feelings,and....strange....and with strange friends....but she couldn't manage to describe the particular type of strangness....and my mind went to the film PARIS, TEXAS, and, more specifically, to the part Harry Dean Stanton played in that film, so I asked her...."Did you see the film, Paris Texas?" And she nodded Yes, and I went on, "Do you recall the man Harry Dean Stanton played?" and she half smiled and nodded her head Yes, and I asked, "Is he strange in that kind of way?" and the woman's smile became broader and she said, "I worked on two films with Harry Dean Stanton. I still have a silver bracelet he gave me. No, the man I'm talking about isn't nearly as strange as Harry Dean Stanton." So I said the usual Silverdale-Girl-From-The-Farm-Thing, which is, "YOU WORKED WITH HARRY DEAN STANTON?" and she said "Yes, that was right after I worked on BLOOD SIMPLE with the Frome Brothers," and I thought subtly sophisticated thoughts like: Wow. Golly. Gee Whiz. Holy Shit. I was afraid to ask her anything more for fear she might tell me she'd worked with Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren or somebody I really REALLY admired. Because too much admiration in one day is not good for a person.

And then I thought: hold it, kid. You KNOW you know that people are people. You KNOW you know that because you have lived among people for sixty-five years and worked intimately with people for twenty-six people. You have even worked with actors so famous that people in the waiting screamed when they saw them enter. SCREAMED. Not because they were scary, but because they were famous. Only, you knew them so well they were.....well, just people. "Just people". What a terrible thing to say. Whadda concept. And then I thought: fame must be shit. It just must be shit. Better to be a baker or a crane operator or a bank teller and not have to work with a persona, not have to jump developmental miles, not have to pretend to be more than you are, more mature than you are or more intelligent than you are or more "with it" than you are or more ANYTHING than you are......than to be famous. To live with that kind of shadow every day must be hell.

And then I thought: being anonymous is best. It's best, and you know it. It's best, you can count on it. It's best, you can put your money on it. And then I looked at the woman and said, "Hey, I'd like to see that bracelet sometime. Is it real silver?" And she smiled for the third time and said, "You know, actors are crazy people. We had to hold up the set for two whole days for Stanton. But the silver bracelet? Yeah, it's what's real." And I smiled back and said, "Well, wow."

"One more success like that and I'll sell my body to a medical institute."
-Groucho Marx in The Coconuts