Damn! By a strange twist of fate (get the photo relevance - heh, heh?) I missed seeing Steve Earle here in Vancouver. One of the few folks I'd pay big bucks to see, and I missed him. Of course, the "strange twist of fate" wasn't all that strange. I don't pay attention to the "Who's Comin' to Town?" news. I'd miss The Second Coming, I'm pretty sure ('course, that one I'd be glad to miss, but...). I really have to get out more. Or at least pay attention to what's going on around me. Damn. I hate that.

But, speaking of things missed, as anybody halfway literate knows, J.D. Salinger has died. And, of course, he's being written up as having been a great recluse. A man who shunned the limelight. Positively antisocial, by golly. A mystery man. And why? Because he wanted to live exactly the same sort of life we all live - unnoticed. Just another guy living in a small town in New Hampshire. Now, in an age when it seems like every moron with no shame figures he/she damned well ought to be famous, and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that fame (as, of course, a cretin of enormous proportions), maybe it's true that simply wanting to live an average life is aberrant. Maybe J.D. was totally nuts to not want to sell himself and his family in order to bask in the glow of the public's adoration and sell more books.

But...really?...I don't think so. He wrote good books. People read them (the verb is definitely present tense). So, he was somehow obliged to give interviews? To pose for pictures? You're kidding, right?