Did anyone else take offense to the 'They seem to read' comment? No? Just me then? K!

Nice little article though. Thanks for posting.

nychick | August 24, 00:22 CET

Did anyone else take offense to the 'They seem to read' comment? No? Just me then? K!


Not me. I laughed. I totally agree with him!

Nebula1400 | August 24, 00:29 CET

I like his compliments on Canada!! (=

TheSlayer246 | August 24, 00:36 CET

I like how he Googled himself. Oo-er! ;0) And then admits to doing it. LOL! You've got to admit that they guy speaks as he finds and is totally grounded.

lynnie | August 24, 00:41 CET

playing live is like a three-hour magic trick

Not unless he's dramatically increased his set length recently, it isn't. Or is this the musical equivalent of boasting about length in other settings? Bless him, he's such a boy.

roadrunner | August 24, 00:55 CET

Who hasn't googled their name at one point or another?...or maybe that's just me :)

MySerenity | August 24, 00:56 CET

He's right you know. Googling his name really is like heroine. At least it is for me.

SpikeBad | August 24, 01:11 CET

Heh, I love that refreshing honesty in an actor. I love that he doesn't get involved in all that red carpet nonsense, too.

He's very good at reading other cultures :)

That was a sweet interview - thanks!

vanity | August 24, 01:14 CET

Or, you know, heroin. I am so looking forward to seeing him this weekend. Nice to know he likes us too.

Lioness | August 24, 01:22 CET

nychick-
Yeah, I was a little offended by that comment. I've lived in both Canada and the US. Ignorance abounds everywhere. It's not a US export. But I do love Canada. Even if I couldn't choose my doctor.

Still love Jimmy James.

Nancy Boy hair Gel | August 24, 01:23 CET

Oh that was a nice little interview

And I'm glad he keeps avoiding the pitfalls of celebrity

It's nice to see someone so grounded

debw | August 24, 01:28 CET

Oh, roadrunner. Thanks for the belly laugh on a particularly challenging day. Still experiencing residual giggles from your post.

barest_smidgen | August 24, 01:48 CET

Roadrunner, I agree...that was hilarious.

Anyway, one of my favorite things about James I love so much is how he's willing to truthfully say something about himself that could easily be embarrassing. But he just says it! I admire that, and I wish I could do the same thing.

And to those people who took offense, it was meant as a compliment, not an insult. He's just trying to say that to him it seems that Canadians are more knowledgable than Americans. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not true, but it's what it seems to be to him. I think it's much better to take it at face value as the compliment it's meant to be and not turn it into something that makes you angry or hurt...

Just advice..not gettin all preachy..hehe.

Pmacca01 | August 24, 05:33 CET

was gonna point out how much I laughed at roadrunner's post, but see several beat me to it. :) nicely said.

ETA: although maybe he means the three hours he spends sucking that sucker and making everyone feel like showering. I love ya, James, but for crying out loud with that thing...

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2005-08-24 07:30 ]

zeitgeist | August 24, 05:42 CET

I love Canadians. Without exception, every one I've ever met has been so nice. Also, love to buy from Canada on eBay. Every single transaction I've done from Canada has been communicative, prompt, professional and friendly.

I watch Dave Attel's show sometimes and when he went to Canada, he kept snarking about how nice everyone was (he's such an asshole). He walked around asking people if they locked their doors at night. Not a one said yes.

Sure, they don't have a lot of our 'stuff' up there, but I think it speaks volumes about their community that they are how they are, and maybe, that's even the reason. And they're so clean! :D

Willowy | August 24, 05:43 CET

Ignorance abounds everywhere. It's not a US export. But I do love Canada. Even if I couldn't choose my doctor.

You're referring to the States with the doctor comment, right? 'Cause you are certainly free to choose your own doctor in Canada.

Ruadh | August 24, 06:05 CET

"ETA: although maybe he means the three hours he spends sucking that sucker and making everyone feel like showering. I love ya, James, but for crying out loud with that thing...

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2005-08-24 07:30 ]
zeitgeist | August 24, 03:42 CET"

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say - Huh???

If you mean the lollipop thing, move with the times, he don't do that no more.

lynnie | August 24, 16:43 CET

Oh, so he stopped what yesterday? Cause he was doing it a few weeks ago :)

zeitgeist | August 24, 17:40 CET

erm lollipops haven't been seen on stage for a while now ,not since GOTR broke up .. he did unwrap one at The Carling Acadamy , throw it away and tell the audience that he didn't do that stuff anymore . The solo work is very different to the GOTR work,and so is his stage persona. In fact he says on the DVD of the London Halloween Gig " all you guys know is if I can suck a lolliop, now we're going to find out if I can sing"

BTW the answer is " yes he can"

debw | August 24, 19:17 CET

zeitgeist Did he? I stand corrected. It never made me feel like I needed a shower, never found anything wrong with it myself. It was part of the act for those who squee over that sort of thing. Not my thing, but I wasn't bothered by it. But as his hands are now full with his guitar he doesn't do it anymore. Well, apart from when you saw it of course. Was it during a gig? Or a Q&A? If a Q&A did someone pass him one, cos he probably just did it so they wouldn't feel bad.

Still don't need a shower though.

[ edited by lynnie on 2005-08-24 17:19 ]

[ edited by lynnie on 2005-08-24 17:19 ]

lynnie | August 24, 19:18 CET

It was some pics of a solo gig in the UK a while back, just having fun with it though :) May have been when he took it out to toss it away. And, yes, I do own both GotR's disc and Civilized Man. The solo stuff is way better vocally :)

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2005-08-24 17:22 ]

zeitgeist | August 24, 19:20 CET

It’s a bit tricky for him to generalize about the awareness level or reading habits of the U.S. when James is himself an American. Is he including himself in the legions of the clueless or does he feel he’s surrounded by the wrong people and is glad to be free of them for a while? Judging from what he says about the whole Hollywood red carpet/party scene, I think the latter. I don’t think he’s shooting himself in the foot at all by avoiding it and is smart to focus on the acting and not on being a flavor of the month celebrity who’s seen in all the cool places. Just don’t lump me in with the self-involved and superficial and I’ll love ya forever, Mister James! :- )

bloodflowers | August 24, 19:49 CET

Considering that he always makes it a point to say how much respect he has for the BTVS/ATS fans, and often publically repeats his theory that BTVS fans had to have something special going just to get past the title and recognize the quality of the show, I don't think he was talking about the US fans in his throw away compliment to the Canadians. He was simply making a comment about the fact that the vast American public is not as literate as one might hope. Since we on this board are constantly bemoaning the popularity of reality shows and the success of mindless or moronic shows on TV, I would think that most of us would probably agree with him if he hadn't been comparing us to another country at the time. The comment also probably comes from the strong anti-intellectual leanings in popular culture in the USA.

His comment just transported me back in time to a temp job I had at a switchboard in a major metropolitian city (not NYC.) I brought in copies of National Geographic to read when it was slow. At one point one of the former street kids also working the board used the word "duckets." (sp) It made me curoius since it seemed an odd word for her to use. It turned out to be street slang, and she was amazed that I had figured out (assumed really) it meant "money." Although I was ready to attribute my knowledge of the word to old pirate movies, one of the other operators explained to the group in a hushed voice, "She READS!" as though it was something rather strange and mysterious.

So yeah, I try not to make generalizations about whole countries, but many Americans could read more...just like people in most other countries. ;-)

[ edited by newcj on 2005-08-24 19:56 ]

newcj | August 24, 21:06 CET

“I don't think he was talking about the US fans in his throw away compliment to the Canadians.”

I didn’t think he was talking about the fans, either. I meant the people he has to deal with in Hollywood that may not read anything besides Variety or care about what happens outside of their one industry town. I’ve always thought he was quite generous to fans in maintaining that maybe we ‘get it’ more than the average couch potato and that he’s just as much of a fan as we are. I know he’s rather opinionated (and bless him for it) and I certainly can’t blame him for being frustrated with the U.S. in general right now, but he shouldn’t assume the majority of people are rude, illiterate knuckleheads—even when there have been many times lately when I can’t exactly argue against that. Ah well, the bee in my bonnet is a-settlin’ down now.

bloodflowers | August 24, 21:50 CET

I think that he was talking about people in general, and generalizations will 90+% of the time get you into trouble. I've met brilliant, well read, well spoken people from dozens of countries and I've met complete idiots from those same countries. I roll my eyes and get on with my day.

zeitgeist | August 24, 22:53 CET

What's with Canada vs. US?

TheSlayer246 | August 26, 22:55 CET