PopWatchers, I initially approached this post with the intention of writing a confessional. I’ve been moping about my apartment, depressed and disillusioned. The reason? Nick Drake didn’t want to be my friend. Not even my MySpace friend.
Let me back up a bit here. I know you don’t know me very well yet — I’m new to PopWatch, so hello! Great to be here; be nice to the new kid — but FYI, I’m pretty much the diametric opposite of a MySpace junkie. Despite the fact that working with computers at EW.com helps me pay the bills, I assiduously avoid them when life allows for it. I never even buy stuff online, save the occasional movie ticket. It took me years to finally join Friendster, the social networking site for people who don’t like to network very much, or competently, it seems. Finally, after feeling like I was missing out on the biggest phenomenon of the 21st century, I logged into the social networking alpha-dog site, MySpace, and got an account, mostly so I could check out new bands, which I heard was a cool thing you could do on MySpace. And, boom! Like magic, my whole world opened up. I could type the name of any band under the sun, and lo and behold, there they were! I was agog and a-grog and dizzy with delight.
Now, here’s where my story gets a little bit sad. I’ve been so busy listening to music and reading about cool new bands, that I never bothered to add anything to my own profile. If you visit my page — and you should! PLEASE. VISIT. ME. — you’ll see that I only have one friend, Tom, and he’s been there since day one, so I’m fairly sure he comes bundled with the software. So I was beside myself with excitement when I stumbled upon a page for none other than my teen-years idol, Nick Drake.
Nick and I go waaaaaay back. I bought all of his albums: Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, and Pink Moon.I bought his box set for the rarities and b-sides. I read his biographyby Patrick Humphries, all 288 pages of it. His mournful yet oddlyuplifting dirge, "The Road," was the soundtrack for long drives on thehighway up to college; his anguished vocals on "Black Dog" got methrough a terrible breakup. I felt like he really understood me. Andeven though we had never met, that we were friends.
It behooves me to mention, for those of you who are not so familiarwith this great man’s oeuvre, that he passed away in 1974 at the age of26, after OD’ing on antidepressants. So you can only imagine my joywhen I found he alive and well, kickin’ it with 34,497 friends onMySpace. Holy Resurrection, Batman! So what did I do, PopWatchers? Iapplied to be Friend No. 34,498. And waited. And waited. And waited.And waited.
Silence became the roar of rejection in my ears. It became a game of,if you watch the pot, will it not boil? I realized that Nick, afterlooking over my pathetic, losery, non-peopled sans-photo page, haddecided to take a pass. *Sob.*When it got too painful, I tried avoiding my computer, which didn’tmake my boss here too happy. It had become an obsession, an unhealthyone, I admit. I was in a really bad place.
But you know what, folks? All that’s changed now. I think thatsometimes you just have to go ahead and tempt fate, because when Ilogged into MySpace this morning, I saw something that nearly made mefaint. To quote Nick on "At the Chime of a City Clock," "See how yourfriends come in twos/Or threes or more/For the sound of a busy place/Isfine for a pretty face/Who knows what a face is for." He was chillin’there right next to Tom, holding his acoustic guitar aloft like he wasabout to strum me a ballad. And not only that, he had written me amessage too!
Date: May 3, 2007 12:27 PM
Subject "Family Tree" Track Featured on MySpace PlayerBody: Friends,
Please enjoy the track "They’re Leaving Me Behind" from the upcoming album "Family Tree," to be release June 19th.
More to come…
Okay, so it wasn’t the most personalmessage. I mean, the guy has 34 thousand + friends to entertain, andI’m pretty sure he only has that one guitar. But it made me dance withglee anyway. My sexy, heartthrob, lovelorn hero has a new album comingout! And you know what’s better than even that, PopWatchers? He’s myFRIEND.
Of all the stars on MySpace, who would you like to befriends with the most? Dead or alive, it’s open season on PopWatchtoday, folks! Weigh in below…
Comments (1-25) of 25
Welcome, Adrienne! I didn’t know Popwatch hired 101 year olds from Brooklyn!
not to be mean or anything but you might have better luck with myspace if you actually tried to add stuff to your profile. even if it’s just a random picture of your favorite singer. something is always better than nothing.
I was rejected by Zach Braff on My Space. It may have been some bizarre fluke. But he never added me back. So phooey on the My Space snubs!
And for the record, I prefer simple profiles to ones full of glittery annoying graphics, and slideshows of pics no one is interested in seeing.
Jenna Fischer (Pam from The Office) is my favorite “friend” on myspace. She always writes cute little blogs. Love her! Oh and Adrienne, welcome to Popwatch!
If you want to feel like a peon, check out Jamie Lynn Siegler (“Meadow”)’s MySpace. She certainly has a high opinion of herself. I guess she’ll come off her high horse when her future claim to fame will be a spot on “The Surreal Life”.
Tim Lincecum didn’t add me! I waited a whole month! Now I’m all depressed!
Don’t know who he is? Watch ESPN’s baseball Game of the Week this Sunday night and find out.
My fave famous “friend” on Myspace is Kelly Clarkson. She’s really good at her fans updated on what’s happening. And although she isn’t really a person, Veronica Mars’ myspace page kicks some major *ss, too. BTW, nice post, Adrienne. Welcome aboard!
Sometimes you have to send your friend request more than once to get added. Some of these celebrities get thousands of friend requests a day, so it makes sense a few might slip through the cracks the first time around. It has nothing to do with whether your own MySpace page is interesting, obviously. Musicians and actors are selling things; they want as many friends as they can get.
I have several famous MySpace “friends”: Patty Griffin, Fiona Apple, Jason Mraz, Allison Moorer, Mandy Moore, Kevin Smith. A few of these people actually write their own blog entries, so it pays to add them and then subscribe to their blogs.
I tried to add Lindsay Lohan several times with no success… I added you by the way, as it seems a bunch of other people did. Miss Popularity!
How can he ad you? He killed himself years ago!!!! If you don’t beleive me, beleive allmusic!http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gifyxql5ldte~T1
I try to keep myspace to actual friends I could get out for coffee. but I did add Mika (the singer) well before he was MIKA the star, and I did add Deborah Gibson… just because. But the one who made me sweat bullets was your own Whitney Pastorek! I found her myspace, and I was so excited, cause she’s so witty and glib, that when she didn’t accept me for days, I actually felt totally rejected. But then one magical day, I saw that I had one extra friend, and it was her, and well, all’s right with the world. So I know how you FEEL!
Another Jenna Fischer (& Angelina) MySpace favorites. Great behind the scenes info, and they’re both so down to earth.
Ooops…meant Angela, not Angelina
Getting rejected by some major celeb is sad really. It’s happened to me too, but I don’t mind. I don’t like having too many friends. My suggestion for your profile would be to add something to it! Tell us who you are, what you are like/dislike! As well as what your passions and interests are! Blog about your days of working at EW! That’s what makes a profile more interesting. Nothing fancy.
She wrote in this blog that Nick Drake passed away. MySpace has many pages run by fans, corporations, etc. that remember people that are no longer with us.
Living: I’d say Mos Def or Rob Drydek. They are myspace friends of mine already, but meeting them in person would be cool.
Dead? Per Myspace user “SpaceTimes” it is possible to befriend the likes of Zora Neal Hurston, Alber Einstein, Frida Kahlo and Marcus Garvey. I’d be up for meeting any of them…
My favorite “famous” myspace friend is Annie Barrett! hehe.
Great post, made me laugh inside. I really know almost all of my myspace friends personally, but i recently got to be the friend of max crumm(of grease: you’re the one that i want fame). he’s such i cutie that i couldn’t resist myself.
My “famous friends” include Drew from Beauty and the Geek 3, Hanson and the Four Bettys (current 2nd place Sweet Adelines quartet in the entire world!). I’ll add you later on, don’t worry.
My “famous friends” include Drew from Beauty and the Geek 3, Hanson and the Four Bettys (current 2nd place Sweet Adelines quartet in the entire world!). I’ll add you later on, don’t worry.
my favorite myspacer celeb friends are actually up-and-comers: the cast and crew from the webseries “we need girlfriends.” the show is hilarious and the guys are genuinely nice. two of them even signed my guestbook on myspace.
Diane Lane snubbed me on myspace. After all the nice things I’ve written on popwatch about her roles in such critical bombs as “Judge Dredd” and “Streets of Fire” (two awful movies that featured good performances by Lane), I was hoping for a little quid pro quo friendship adding. So, Diane Lane’s not a popwatch comments reader, or she doesn’t like me. Either way, it bummed me out to no end to get that rejection.
I was apparently rejected by Paul Rudd, which although rude, freed me from my paralyzing obsession with him and allowed me to redecorate the shrine with snaps of Warren Buffett. So, you know. Silver linings.
Aahhh I am sorry but is Nick Drake dead or Alive?
laura – adrienne notes in the post that he died in 1974
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