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02.05

On Saturday I drove to Dallas with Lisa and Erin for a Veronica Mars cast appearance. If you're not familiar with Veronica Mars, it's a sort of teenage crime drama, Nancy Drew meets Daria maybe. Even though it's targeted at teens, all the characters are deep, realistic, mature and multifaceted, and Veronica is (in my opinion) a great antidote to the normal airhead Barbie role-models on TV (even if she is cute as a button). Also, my Nancy Drew analogy isn't very good -- while there're subplots involving stolen mascots and bitter boyfriends, the main arc has more adult themes like the murder of Veronica's best friend and her date-rape shortly therafter.

Well, going to this wasn't something I'd normally do of my own volition, but it was fun. I didn't interact much with the cast because I'm shy and too conscious of the strange relationship between fan and star. And anyways, I'd feel strange having photos of me pretending to be friends with people I don't know -- if the point is to prove I was in their august presence, I have that covered. Well, they were all very nice. Jason Dohring (Logan), who I have to admit I have a guy-crush on, reminded me a lot of Hudson Mueller from LBJ with his self-effacing smile and obvious eagerness to make people like him. Percy Daggs (Wallace) seemed the most relaxed and friendly, like somebody you'd actually meet on the UT campus and not in Hollywood. Kristen Bell (Veronica) was the most self-contained.

I've decided that if I'm ever famous, I'm going to host a surreal autograph-signing session where fans have to come and sign pictures of themselves for me. Not that I will be. But it would remind people of the weird paradox of fame. We're all fascinated by famous people for the sole reason that they're famous, but being famous isn't anything that special in itself -- in fact, having to participate in signings and smile all day is probably about on par with being a cashier at Target. You're just as objectified, if slightly more appreciated.