Devin Glenn - Supplemental Post #1

This past week has been filled with celebrity-related events for me! Sadly, because I attended the Grammys last year as a seat filler, I wasn’t eligible to enter the lottery again this year. Even with that being the case, I encouraged one of my friends to go for it and he ended up being among the 1% randomly selected! He flew into town Saturday night and then Sunday morning, I took him on the hike up to Griffith Observatory and gave him a mini tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As we walked from the TCL Chinese Theater to Amoeba Records, I was struck by the sheer amount of star power infused into the space’s geography. Of course, there were the iconic stars that made up the sidewalk under our feet, but there were also murals on the sides of buildings, posters attached to just about every surface, museums, restaurants, and shops all paying homage to the film industry’s finest. One particularly interesting progression of events was that after my friend and I took a photo of our feet next to Meryl Streep’s star and I snapped a shot of a mural dedicated to her, my friend quite literally brushed shoulders with her later that night at the Grammys where she was in attendance as one of the award presenters. I found it fascinating to think about how we had progressed in one day from an abstraction of Streep as a literal star, to her likeness on the side of an electrical box, to the final site of her physical embodiment itself.

Fast forward to Wednesday, I had the opportunity of attending After Midnight (a late-night comedy panel game show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson) in Paramount Studios. While the taping was filled with some genuinely hilarious moments, I found it interesting to observe how constructed the audience interactions were. During every commercial break, there was a designated crowd energizer who stood up on stage, pumped pop music through the studio speakers, danced, sang, and reminded those in attendance to laugh even more and even louder during the next segments. During the shooting itself, there were a few moments that were meant to be funny that weren’t, and this person (without fail) would still laugh enormously loud in an attempt to elicit more positive reactions from those in the crowd. The performativity of the entire situation felt incredibly surreal and even uncomfortable at times.

In contrast, I left straight from the taping to meet up with some friends for a Griff concert and it was a wonderful experience. Griff might not as well-known as some pop stars, but she has opened for the likes of Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, and Coldplay, so she definitely possesses a tangible kind of star power. The thing I loved so much about the concert was that since Griff has been opening for artists in stadiums for the past year or so, she purposefully chose a smaller venue for her own concert as a way to connect more personally with those in attendance. Griff’s voice is powerful, especially live, and her movements on stage (although performative to a certain extent) felt motivated by her artistry and her emotional connection to the songs. At one point during a song, I made a hand heart to Griff and she made one right back while still singing and somehow holding onto her mic. It was little moments like that I think grounded her in a solid sense of authenticity.

From Meryl Streep and Taylor Tomlinson to Griff, I have had a star-studded past couple of days. I’ll be attending the People’s Choice Awards in a little over a week, so you can expect another update on my star sightings after that. Below, please enjoy a smattering of photos and videos that accompany the events detailed in this post:








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