This comes from the Headlines-I-Never-Thought-I’d-Write department.
Last week, a reporter from the Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia contacted me and asked if I was performing at the James Brown Soul of America Music Festival on Memorial Day down in Georgia.
For years, I’ve been confused with Will Wheaton, Jr., the well-known soul singer, so I told the reporter that he was probably confusing the two of us (it happens all the time, especially when James Brown or Russian stacking dolls are brought up, for some strange reason.) The reporter told me that the festival made it clear that it was Wil Wheaton, the actor, which is weird because until the reporter’s inquiry, I hadn’t heard about the festival at all. In fact,I was surprised
to hear that I’d been mentioned in association with this event, because
I am solidly B or even C List right now, and not exactly the kind of person who would be a big draw at the James Brown Soul of America Music Festival on Memorial Day down in Georgia like, say, Will Wheaton, Jr., the well-known soul singer.[1]
I forgot about it until today, when Google News sent me one of those "Hey, Wil, you wanted to know when you were in the news, so now you know, and knowing is half the battle," alerts.
The entire story requires outrageously annoying and intrusive registraton, but here’s the part that mentions me:
Also, actor Wil Wheaton, of Star Trek fame, said he had no plans to
come to Augusta. He seemed amused when he responded to inquiries last
week."I respect and admire the godfather of soul as much as anyone else,
and though I’ve been known to get on up like a sex machine from time to
time, I will be paying tribute in my own not-coming-to-Georgia way."
The whole story left me with the impression that there are a lot of questions about the event, and it all seems kind of shady, so now I’m actually happy that I may have been mentioned in conjunction with the event, because it could be sort of edgy, now.
[1]Note that it’s common for event organizers to invite a ton of guests
to an event, knowing that not all of them will show up, and advertise
those guests as "invited" or "scheduled to appear." This often happens because organizers have ambitions that aren’t practical, and you should never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to something more benign, like an overly-ambitious promoter. I don’t know what the case is, here, but what’s important is that I have an italicized footnote to this entry.
