An Appetite for Fame

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Today was supposed to be a study for me and in general it was. However, the day-to-day life of this New Yorker "wannabe" also entails doing household chores....laundry, a few dishes and a general tidying of my small quarters. When I went out to pick up some laundry detergent I noticed pandemonium at "Stromboli's"-the local pizza hangout down the street. Cameras, crowds and mayhem ensued which naturally drew my attention and when I arrived I was informed that yet another television celebrity show was being taped in the restaurant. Whirling the pizza dough in the air, was none other than baseball legend, Jose Conseco, former "Partridge" David Cassidy was the server, singer/actor Meatloaf was on cash and actor, Gary Busey was constantly coming in and out of the restaurant enticing people to come in for a slice. I enquired about what show it was and a heard a range of responses from "Trump's Celebrity Apprentice" to "Celebrity Rehab"!!! I always thought New Yorkers were not celebrity hawks because there is such an abundance of them all over the five boroughs but I was wrong...fame is fame (even if you already enjoyed your "15" minutes years before!!!). Sitting on the sidewalk, in her usual garb, with her customary sign, sat a young homeless woman who I see on a daily basis. Her eyes are always shielded and I assume, she does not want the "15" minutes that were taking place five paces up.

On the subject of fame and celebrity, I hired a piano accompanist to assist me with my song and we met in the Times Square District for my lesson in a warehouse building. The building was quite old and had one of those old-fashioned elevators with the arrow moving clock-wise from floor to floor. As I arrived at the 14th floor, I could hear operatic voices, Broadway belters and in the halls were scores of people practising their lines from various sheets of paper. As it turns out, everyone was rehearsing or even more enticing, auditioning for various productions. The cacophony of sounds running up and down the halls was tremendous and it was everything I envisioned goes on in dozens of warehouses across the city. Who knew what former "ghosts" had haunted these hallways scores of years ago...a young Streisand perhaps rehearsing those famous pipes before her first Broadway show? It was quite exciting and nervewracking all at once! But one couldn't help but to be swept away by the enormity of it all...the number of dreamers who one day envision their name on a marquee on Broadway or at the Met must be overwhelming!!!

I had no worries whatsoever but felt goosepimples when I imagined what it must feel like for these individuals. Everyone knowing that in each room of that corridor was their competition and that down the street was yet another building full of yet more of the same.

Time to study now but perhaps tonight I will have dreams where my name is on the marquee!!!

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