His Lunch With Feedback!
So you know how in my comments section whenever Matt leaves me a message and I verify for you, my humble reader, that it is truly himself because of my SiteMeter? Well yeah, that's because SiteMeter tells me the towns your ISP is pinging from. Each time Matt stops by it matches the town he lists as his home on his MySpace, so I always assume that its the right guy.
There was always the chance that its a set-up, and that the show's publicists set up the website and has an employee visiting sites like mine from that location to make it look like its Matt, etc etc.
Then one day at Tech Support, where I hang out as OutSource, a fellow named Dale Hoppert joined and his town was the same as Matt's. I noticed it right away. I thought to myself, what if I lived in the same town as Matt? What would I do? I know what I would WANT to do, but I'd be terrified to do it. (If you, dear reader, knew how many celebrities I've seen on my journeys in NYC, and never spoke even a hello for fear of leaving a bad experience in their minds (the notable exceptions being Lili Taylor and John Bolger when I served them lattes as a Starbucks employee--they were both just so danged GOOD looking! I couldn't keep my mouth shut!)) And sometimes, the dream is better than the reality.
So anyway, Matt is a part of Tech Support and had a live chat with those who could make it. The following is an excerpt. Keep in mind, Dale's Tech Support name is "Kommie";
00:13] < Kommie > I live in Rancho, too! OK My Q: You answered most of it... but how LONG did you live in the lair? Did you all really sleep dorm-style like that?
[00:13] < sean99 > .
[00:13] < |Robin| > .
[00:13] < Codec > ]name a gammer and puter geek that has a neat deask and i'll prove he aint a gammer lol
[00:13] *** kyal requested CTCP PING from #Techsupport: 1157256841
[00:14] < Feedback > We really did all sleep in that room.... well...
[00:14] < Feedback > Creature was sometimes distracted by the noise, so sometimes she slept on one of the couches
[00:14] < Exxtreme > Snoring?
[00:14] < Feedback > (there was this COOL swinging suspended couch that was really comfortable)
[00:14] < Cluster > .
[00:14] < Kommie > but you really shacked up together 24-7! for how long?
[00:15] < Feedback > and Cell Phone Girl really did have a migraine
[00:15] < Shae > .
[00:15] < AdamLedzionSapphireLament > .
[00:15] < Feedback > so she slept on a couch outside the room the night before the dog challenge
[00:15] < |Robin| > .
[00:15] *** kyal [www-data@...] has quit [Quit: DeltaAnime WebChat - http://chat.deltaanime.net]
[00:15] *** kyal [www-data@...] has joined #Techsupport
[00:15] < Shokly> okay so it wasn't an excuse that she was afraid of dogs huh?
[00:16] < Chesu > I think the whole thing was six weeks long...
[00:16] < kyal > i just got disconnected. did i miss my turn?
[00:16] < ArthalasSpanishdude > .
[00:16] *** kyal requested CTCP PING from #Techsupport: 1157256976
[00:16] < Feedback > I don't know if I can officially say how long we were all together, but I think it's fair to say that there was never more than one elimination per day of our stay at the lair.
[00:16] < Codec > i would have understanded the fear most of all though my sis was attacked at ayoung age
[00:16] < k2 > no, Kyal, you're next.
[00:16] < Kommie > thank you, Feedback!
[00:16] < Feedback > And Kommie...
[00:16] < Kommie > yes?
[00:16] < Feedback > Not that you get special treatment just because of where you live...
[00:17] < Feedback > but we've gotta have lunch
[00:17] < Twizzler0171 > .
[00:17] <|Robin|> .
[00:17] < AdamLedzionSapphireLament > .
[00:17] < Feedback > If you're so close... it just doesn't make sense not to.
[00:17] * Kommie is flabergasted and would be THRILLED!
[00:17] < Shokly > woah good one Kommie!
[00:17] < Shae > ::is moving::
[00:17] < Feedback > Cool.
[00:17] < Feedback > Okay, Kyal.
[00:17] < k2 > (slightly jealous, but holding her own) Kyal's turn, Lasombrant next.
[00:17] < ArthalasSpanishdude > Thumbs up
[00:17] < Exxtreme > Where are you guys anwayy?
[00:17] * Kommie swears to take pics!
This might be anyone's common reaction to finding out someone you've internetted with lives in your town, but if you've been on television, won the reality show you were on, are the subject of a fan_club, and are live chatting with that fan_club--would you also put yourself out there to personally meet one of them?
See how paranoid and anti-social I can be? I hope your answer to the above question was 'Yes, of course!' but I would have said 'oh HECK no!' because who KNOWS what kind of person is on the other end of those keys???
But see, that's why I love this Matt Atherton guy. He's the me that I want to be. (yes, a 6'1", handsome married white guy with a flat belly and lots of chest hair.) Seriously, he's someone who would just DO this, just invite a dude to lunch out of the blue. Throw away the artifices of celebrity and fanshipness, and just invite a dude to lunch.
AHA!! You say. Still, what if it's all a trick?! To wit I say, feast your eyes---
Matt was Spiderman at Grinnell College. That's his yearbook, chronicling his on-campus exploits. He did it on his own just as a 'hello' to the new students.
He brought his original Feedback costume gear to show Dale. How Like-Us is this guy? VERY. That was made by a friend of his named Tom, if I'm not mistaken.
Fat Momma calls Matt all the time. And Matt takes the call all the time, as he did here at lunch with Dale. My hero The Cop taught me that this is an acceptable expression of friendship.
How cool is that drawing? Look for it on the comic stands.
Now. The only other way that this is a setup is if Dale is an employee of the Feedback PR department. I'm a cynical and suspicious person by nature but see, it's just too much work to think it's all a fake.
I choose to believe that Matt's a good, friendly guy and that Dale lives in the right town at the right time. That way I get to learn another lesson of what friendship is about, which I tried to explore in my fanfic. Friendship is a human, bonding choice that people make towards one another. It's the best thing that humanity has to offer the planet.
Shiny happy times here in the latter part of my summer!
Thanks, Matt, for coming across my computer screen.
There was always the chance that its a set-up, and that the show's publicists set up the website and has an employee visiting sites like mine from that location to make it look like its Matt, etc etc.
Then one day at Tech Support, where I hang out as OutSource, a fellow named Dale Hoppert joined and his town was the same as Matt's. I noticed it right away. I thought to myself, what if I lived in the same town as Matt? What would I do? I know what I would WANT to do, but I'd be terrified to do it. (If you, dear reader, knew how many celebrities I've seen on my journeys in NYC, and never spoke even a hello for fear of leaving a bad experience in their minds (the notable exceptions being Lili Taylor and John Bolger when I served them lattes as a Starbucks employee--they were both just so danged GOOD looking! I couldn't keep my mouth shut!)) And sometimes, the dream is better than the reality.
So anyway, Matt is a part of Tech Support and had a live chat with those who could make it. The following is an excerpt. Keep in mind, Dale's Tech Support name is "Kommie";
00:13] < Kommie > I live in Rancho, too! OK My Q: You answered most of it... but how LONG did you live in the lair? Did you all really sleep dorm-style like that?
[00:13] < sean99 > .
[00:13] < |Robin| > .
[00:13] < Codec > ]name a gammer and puter geek that has a neat deask and i'll prove he aint a gammer lol
[00:13] *** kyal requested CTCP PING from #Techsupport: 1157256841
[00:14] < Feedback > We really did all sleep in that room.... well...
[00:14] < Feedback > Creature was sometimes distracted by the noise, so sometimes she slept on one of the couches
[00:14] < Exxtreme > Snoring?
[00:14] < Feedback > (there was this COOL swinging suspended couch that was really comfortable)
[00:14] < Cluster > .
[00:14] < Kommie > but you really shacked up together 24-7! for how long?
[00:15] < Feedback > and Cell Phone Girl really did have a migraine
[00:15] < Shae > .
[00:15] < AdamLedzionSapphireLament > .
[00:15] < Feedback > so she slept on a couch outside the room the night before the dog challenge
[00:15] < |Robin| > .
[00:15] *** kyal [www-data@...] has quit [Quit: DeltaAnime WebChat - http://chat.deltaanime.net]
[00:15] *** kyal [www-data@...] has joined #Techsupport
[00:15] < Shokly> okay so it wasn't an excuse that she was afraid of dogs huh?
[00:16] < Chesu > I think the whole thing was six weeks long...
[00:16] < kyal > i just got disconnected. did i miss my turn?
[00:16] < ArthalasSpanishdude > .
[00:16] *** kyal requested CTCP PING from #Techsupport: 1157256976
[00:16] < Feedback > I don't know if I can officially say how long we were all together, but I think it's fair to say that there was never more than one elimination per day of our stay at the lair.
[00:16] < Codec > i would have understanded the fear most of all though my sis was attacked at ayoung age
[00:16] < k2 > no, Kyal, you're next.
[00:16] < Kommie > thank you, Feedback!
[00:16] < Feedback > And Kommie...
[00:16] < Kommie > yes?
[00:16] < Feedback > Not that you get special treatment just because of where you live...
[00:17] < Feedback > but we've gotta have lunch
[00:17] < Twizzler0171 > .
[00:17] <|Robin|> .
[00:17] < AdamLedzionSapphireLament > .
[00:17] < Feedback > If you're so close... it just doesn't make sense not to.
[00:17] * Kommie is flabergasted and would be THRILLED!
[00:17] < Shokly > woah good one Kommie!
[00:17] < Shae > ::is moving::
[00:17] < Feedback > Cool.
[00:17] < Feedback > Okay, Kyal.
[00:17] < k2 > (slightly jealous, but holding her own) Kyal's turn, Lasombrant next.
[00:17] < ArthalasSpanishdude > Thumbs up
[00:17] < Exxtreme > Where are you guys anwayy?
[00:17] * Kommie swears to take pics!
This might be anyone's common reaction to finding out someone you've internetted with lives in your town, but if you've been on television, won the reality show you were on, are the subject of a fan_club, and are live chatting with that fan_club--would you also put yourself out there to personally meet one of them?
See how paranoid and anti-social I can be? I hope your answer to the above question was 'Yes, of course!' but I would have said 'oh HECK no!' because who KNOWS what kind of person is on the other end of those keys???
But see, that's why I love this Matt Atherton guy. He's the me that I want to be. (yes, a 6'1", handsome married white guy with a flat belly and lots of chest hair.) Seriously, he's someone who would just DO this, just invite a dude to lunch out of the blue. Throw away the artifices of celebrity and fanshipness, and just invite a dude to lunch.
AHA!! You say. Still, what if it's all a trick?! To wit I say, feast your eyes---
Matt was Spiderman at Grinnell College. That's his yearbook, chronicling his on-campus exploits. He did it on his own just as a 'hello' to the new students.
He brought his original Feedback costume gear to show Dale. How Like-Us is this guy? VERY. That was made by a friend of his named Tom, if I'm not mistaken.
Fat Momma calls Matt all the time. And Matt takes the call all the time, as he did here at lunch with Dale. My hero The Cop taught me that this is an acceptable expression of friendship.
How cool is that drawing? Look for it on the comic stands.
Now. The only other way that this is a setup is if Dale is an employee of the Feedback PR department. I'm a cynical and suspicious person by nature but see, it's just too much work to think it's all a fake.
I choose to believe that Matt's a good, friendly guy and that Dale lives in the right town at the right time. That way I get to learn another lesson of what friendship is about, which I tried to explore in my fanfic. Friendship is a human, bonding choice that people make towards one another. It's the best thing that humanity has to offer the planet.
Shiny happy times here in the latter part of my summer!
Thanks, Matt, for coming across my computer screen.
posted by Me | 9/10/2006 09:45:00 AM
6 Comments:
OK, you found me out! I have been posing as Matt online all this time! I photoshopped his face onto a tall buddy of mine for those pics! I am a paid employee of SciFi/NBC Universal and I'm here to give all you 'net/comic book geeks something to believe in and keep you all hyped up until the comic book and movie come out! How else can we keep your eyes on the screen and your butts in the seats? See, we want your money! We don't want you wandering off and finding something else to get all fanboyish about, so we in the SciFi marketing department came up with this convoluted plan to keep you amused and focused where we want you...
Seriously, though, Matt put it this way: "I am just a regular guy who got an amazing opportunity." I was as shocked as any of you at the offer of a meet-up. I even gave him the opportunity to reconsider... I told him that I am a 41-year-old man and was not going to be heartbroken if he decided maybe he'd gone too far in offering to have lunch with me... but he was actually excited about it! and so was I. I wish you could have heard our conversation... he was showing off the wrist monitor and talking about its construction and showing me all the various modes, flipping through his yearbook telling stories about his Spider-Man exploits in college, and when he started talking about creating Feedback with his wife Sarah he was just so passionate! He's thriled the character has taken off the way it has and at the same time he's worried that all the detail he put into Feedback's backstory might fall by the wayside in the translation to comic book and the TV screen. He loves that a big entertainment company will be marketing the character but at the same time he regrets having lost control of Feedback... I imagine most creators of entertainment properties must feel the same way.
Alan, my lunch with Feedback was completely real and was one of the coolest, most generous gestures of which I have ever been on the receiving end. He is amazingly friendly and "real." Dude, when his phone rang, he showed me the screen real quick and it said "Fat Momma." He answered and said, "Hi Fat Momma!" They use their hero names in casual conversation with each other! I even got to speak with her! I am telling you right now, the heroes are having as much fun with this thing as we are! In an era when the internet is so often cynically used as a marketing tool, this particular fan phenomenon is absolutely real! That's Matthew "Feedback" Atherton we've been haning out with... I am living proof!
PS: Isn't it sad how us "regular people" look like walking corpses standing next to good-looking celebrities?
Um, sorry Dale but I'm quite a good-looking guy, myself. I'd do just FINE standing up next to Matt--- BWAHAHAHAAA!!!!
Thanks so much for coming by and leaving your impressions. I totally believe, and have done so for quite a while now.
Go you! See you back at the HQ!
-OutSource
I have to agree with you. Sometimes, things just seem too good to be true on this big 'ol internet of ours. But after gaming with you, and reading Kommie's story and seeing pictures... I can honestly say that I'm really overwhelmed with how Tech Support has managed to gather so many cool folks in one place. :)
Matt has the charisma and personality to inspire. It's a blessing, and this, as he said - is what he was meant to do.
Hope you don't mind if I add your blog to my blogroll? Let me know.
Tech Support is an amazing group, and rightfully so. We rally around a central focus that is as noble as the day is long. Alan/OutSource, I offer innumerable thanks to you, Dale/Kommie, and others who have been so lavish in your praise of my work so far.
Excelsior!
I don't mind, Krystalle. I hope you can make it through the next post though because, having just published it, I think I may have gotten a little crazier than you might have expected me to be.
But I've been using my blog for self-therapy and I couldn't ignore this day.
Good luck and hope to see you again...
Post a Comment
<< Home