Everyone hail to the Pumpkin Song

It's Halloween! I think Halloween counts as my favorite holiday, though Christmas is a close second. That probably explains why I love The Nightmare Before Christmas so much. I saw it the day after Halloween when it first came out. I remember a time when you could mention that movie and some people wouldn't even know what you were talking about. Now of course half of Hot Topic & Spencer's stores are filled with merchandise, and if you were to walk into Disneyland right now and get in line to view the "Haunted Mansion Holiday" featuring Jack Skellington and all the rest, you'd be in for a long wait. From what I've seen, you can even take pictures with Jack and Sally out there!

This kind of thing always seems to stir a strange feeling in "true" or "original" fans. On one hand you want to rejoice, because finally people out there won't look at you like you're crazy when mentioning it, and there's suddenly all kinds of goodies available for you to get your hands on. I'll never forget the first time I was working in the mall and heard two guys walking through the store discussing who Wolverine could beat up. It wasn't long after the first X-men movie and it just filled me with so much glee that other people suddenly acknowledged this character I had been in love with for years now. And then somewhere along the way I realized everybody loved him and... it lost its "specialness."

I guess that's what it comes down to. When you love something that isn't popular, you have this wonderful little secret. I always knew that the songs in NbC were pure joy and beautifully sung, and not many other people did. At that level, it's easy to pretend like its just you, or maybe you and your close friends, who share this little secret with the movie/book/artist/etc. It's sort of like a relationship, isn't it? And then suddenly every goth kid on the block is wearing a Jack & Sally shirt, and you almost feel cheated on. Surely those kids are just following a trend and don't actually feel the same special feelings you do! Those are yours! They're private and special and no one else can have them!

I've never been able to have long conversations with other Beatles' fans. Sure, I'll tell you about my faves and such, but I'm not going to go into why I love them. Because if I found out you feel the same way... it's like no longer do I have this special connection with John Lennon, and doggone it, illogical or not, I'm keeping that.

The thing us fans all need to remember is that regardless of how many other people enjoy what you do, it's still yours. In a little while I'm going to put on NbC and I'm going to sing along and gape at the stunning animation and nothing can take that away from me.

Do you have a thing that you consider "all yours" and prefer not to discuss with others? Is there a particular fandom that you feel has been ruined by popularity?

A few words about my title and chosen name.

My Own Little Corner - In Roger & Hammerstein's Cinderella, C sings a song called "My Own Little Corner" and it's all about her playing pretend and being whatever she wants to be, safe from the persecution of her stepmother and stepsisters. I always loved the song as a kid because I spent most of my time playing pretend, and I find it has even more meaning now when I'm an adult who picked a career for the sake of making money and not for following my dreams. So until I can actually get out there and pursue my passion, this is my place to "be whatever I want to be."

Syrin - In high school I used to play MajorMUD. I started off as a thief named Rogue, but after reading the Drizzt Do'Urden novels I decided I wanted to be a ranger. For whatever reason I've never had the patience for learning proper stats, so I let my boyfriend do the actual rerolling for me. I told him I wanted my name to be Siryn, after the character from the X-force/X-men comics. In MajorMUD you only have that one chance to change your first name. You can change your last name as often as you'd like, but it takes a Sysop to edit your first name and depending on how nice your Sysop is, you may not have that choice at all. So he and I are talking online (in the 90s talking on the phone and being online were not an option, remember) and he says "Ok, so your name will be Syrin." "NO, Siryn." He goes in on my account, does the rerolling... and suddenly "Syrin has entered the realm." Sigh. So that was my name. It's supposed to be pronounced like the word siren, but lots of people started referring to me as see-rin after that, so I suppose you can choose whatever pronunciation you would like. No one pronounces my real first name properly either, so it's nothing new to me.

I think both of these explanations provide some insight into my personality and who I am. I hope to update this page on a weekly basis, but we all know in internet terms that is a death knell. So I'll see you when I see you.