You Have to Wonder If Andy Warhol Would Like to Amend… [Derived Headline]

You have to wonder if Andy Warhol would like to amend his famous quotation, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,”now that the Internet has made it so stinking easy to get famous, these days.

Well, you don’t have to wonder. But Ido. I’m the wonderer.

It’s been 25 years since Al Gore first constructed the Internet in his basement out of construction paper, string and glue. Yet the Net is just now hitting its stride in terms of giving individuals the opportunity to get their names and ideas out into the world.

Many earn their Internet celebrity through innovative ideas combined with being in the right place at the right time. Blogs are big, these days. In some cases, well-maintained blogs in the political sphere have produced a new batch of talking heads for CNN. Gossip bloggers are embarrassing celebrities in a fashion that “E! News” can only dream of. Even video bloggers kind of like Lonely Girl 15, but not fictional characters are getting their faces and names into the mainstream in a way once reserved for TV, movie and music stars.

YouTube.com has really served as lightning in a bottle for increasing the visibility of those individuals savvy enough to tap into its potential. The Tribune ran a story on its Feb. 26 Gear cover, titled “Meet Chad Vader, dark lord of YouTube,”which chronicles one such success story.

Two Wisconsin men have produced an enormously popular Internet series on YouTube, chronicling the adventures of Chad Vader, Darth’s little brother, who is day manager of a supermarket. All six episodes they’ve produced have been highly entertaining; that’s three more than what George Lucas was capable of doing with his idea.

And then there are those who stumble across Internet “fame”through pure blind luck, such as … me. Not that I’m famous, but through a series of misadventures, my column from last week about the merger between Sirius and XMsatellite radio has managed to seep its way into all corners of this great land of ours. Allow me to tell you about it.

Apparently, thanks to a small mention Imade about Howard Stern, my column was linked on a Stern fan site. This, in turn, drove up its visibility to the point that, if you were to search Google News for Sirius-XM this past weekend, my column ended up being the No. 1 result. Outstanding.

Being at the top of a news search engine isn’t exactly where I’ve always dreamed of being, considering Idon’t write news here. This column is opinion, and so a lot of people from all over have been tricked into freebirding upon my goofy prose rather than hard news on the subject, and they don’t seem to appreciate my yuk-yuks about Lynyrd Skynyrd.

An executive from Sirius Radio has written the Tribune a letter to the editor on the subject, which is above and beyond the response Iever thought Iwould generate with this column. Knowing now that the subjects of my columns may actually read what I’m writing about them, maybe Ishould take it easy on the Tom Cruise references.

Dear Tommy:I’m sorry for making fun of your height. And your marriage. And your worship of alien overlords. My bad.

My column has generated a puzzling amount of feedback from men and women who live too far away for me to reasonably ask them if Icould possibly sleep on their couch (you never know when you’ll need emergency lodging, in life). A lady from the Netherlands contacted me about a column on “Boston Legal.”Agentleman from Tennessee agreed with my comments on R.E.M. Awoman in Colorado does not like me one bit. APortland, Ore., entertainment blog implored Thermals fans to say hi to me at the band’s show in Fargo. I seem to be assembling an army of Paul Westerberg fans from across the U.S. by namedropping him in just about every column Iwrite.

If Paul Westerberg is reading this, please call me. I’m visiting Minneapolis in May, and I’d like to sleep on your couch.

Once, after Iwrote a column about Guns N’ Roses, a GNR fan site linked to it, leading to a number of positive responses and an invitation from a radio station, WRKO in Boston, to be interviewed on a piece they were doing on Axl Rose. I’ve since added the title “Axl Rose scholar”to my business card.

The Internet is a series of interconnected computers that is interconnecting each and every one of us like we never knew possible. We all have a voice now, capable of traveling anywhere and everywhere. Write an entertaining blog about “Lost,”and you might receive gushing praise from someone residing in Oklahoma. Produce a short video, depicting Tyra Banks as the blueberry girl from “Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory,”and someone from Arizona might wish you a fiery death.

Personally, Iblame Al Gore.

(Reach columnist Kelly Hagen at 250-8259 or kelly.hagen@bismarcktribune.com. His column runs on Fridays.) When all eyes are upon you

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