Two Minutes of Fame

They say that we'll all get fifteen minutes of fame in our lifetimes; I recently got two of mine. I was interviewed for a Current TV bit on Celebration, and the finished product has now been released: http://current.com/items/88972930_living_in_a_bubble

I was a little nervous about the interview because many past TV bits and documentaries have portrayed my beloved hometown in a highly inaccurate light. The personification of this is a Dutch documentary locally referred to as the Freaky Deaky Dutch Video, which can occasionally be seen on Sundance under the title "Celebration." Anyone seeing it would come away with the impression that we're a town full of insane robotic souls who have an aversion to sitting anywhere near each other. Or perhaps it just gives the impression that none of us wear deodorant, since it's full of shots of couples sitting at opposite ends of their couches. When one is talking, the other typically sits stiffly like a deactivated automaton. Then there are the Circlevision panoramics that are guaranteed to give you motion sickness. It's a study in bizarre film-making, and it's best viewed after the consumption of heavy doses of alcoholic beverages.

But thankfully the Current TV piece is much more balanced. It actually portrays life in Celebration as it really is: a mix of fantasy and reality in the shadow of Disney World with much more soul than the typical Stepford portrayal gives it credit for.

When I first started this blog over four years ago, I never thought I'd one day be interviewed as a chronicler of life in Celebration. At that time, I wasn't even planning to resume my freelance writing activities, but now I'm fully immersed in magazine work; although most is animal or self-help related, I do regular pieces for Celebration Life magazine and I've gotten other writing gigs based on my blog. I never really imagined that my hometown would meld so closely with my professional life.

It's kind of neat that Duloc Manor is immortalized on video too. As I watched myself rocking on my porch swing, I remembered how I dreamed of having one. As our house was being built, I was so excited that it was changed from Colonial style, which didn't have a porch, to Craftsman. Then there was the wild goose chase of finding a swing in the off-season and locating someone to hang it. But now it's there, and I've spent many happy hours out there chatting with neighbors and enjoying the Florida sunshine.

In the video, you can also see a small portion of the Disney bric-a-brac that pervades most of my house. Initially I swore that I wouldn't let it take over, but in the footage you can pretty much see that it was a losing battle.

Still, I haven't gotten my full 15 minutes yet. The whole piece is only around seven minutes long, so all told I appear in maybe two minutes of that. But it's still rather fun and exciting, and hopefully it will give a whole new audience a more accurate picture of what Celebration is all about.