What are you /used to be a fan of? How far have you gone in your obsession? Posters on the wall? Writing to your idol? Stalking? Have you been in or even run a fan club?

-- Tim (tim@newmail.net), April 28, 2000

Answers

Robert De Niro. I haven't stalked the guy or anything, and I just have one Taxi Driver poster, but I have seen all of his movies but 2 and I own 21 of them.

-- Katie Trame (mrkite@apci.net), April 28, 2000.

No, I've never been in a fan club. And I wish I could get close enough to an idol to stalk them! I wouldn't stalk them, but it'd be cool to live close enough to one of them. Neither have I written to an idol, but I have wanted to. I wanted to write to Gordan Korman so much! But I don't know how. He is such an incredible author. I've read almost all of his books, although it's not like I can have any posters on the wall... Books/authors don't tend to make posters. :) Not much of an obsession. I have greater obsessions with people that aren't famous, but whom I think are just incredible people.

-- Sarah Joy (yojjeth@hotmail.com), April 30, 2000.

HA. The X-Files. I was hopelessly obsessed with it 8th and 9th grade. Taped it religiously (3rd through 5th season, most of 1st, 6th and 2nd; got the TV appearances by the stars and a Simpsons' X- Files parody episode), read every possible news item/history/article remotely related to the show (kept an admirably huge binder of the crap), wrote them (got a nice generic letter and a nice generic autographed picture back), had long philosopical discussions about the episodes and related material with fellow fanatics I knew offline and online (via phone and message boards)... 'twas pretty pathetic.

I kept watching it after 9th grade, but without the, um, related enthusiasm of previous years. Then, 7th season, it got incredibly stupid, I got disenchanted and I've never looked back.

Oh the angst.

-- Ducky (ducky@fukka50.com), April 30, 2000.

I'm the president of Krysten Chambrot's fan club. "Krysten! OHMIGAWD! I'm your BIGGEST #1 FAN!!!!"

-- Stephanie (thekwakster@yahoo.com), May 08, 2000.

I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton. But I've only gone as far watching all of his movies and reading everything I can about him. (Speaking of which, does anyone know about a commercial he's supposedly directed? I've heard rumblings of it online but can't find any specifics.) I know people who are much more into Tim Burton than me though - you know, the people who put up web site shrines...

-- Lorna (galpal@iname.com), May 10, 2000.

I was a huge fan of.............. [ahem] Alanis Morissette fan three years ago, in seventh grade. I could recite Alanis-isms at the top of my head, I had rare and imported CD singles, books, posters, magazine pictures.

Now that I think about it, I have no idea why.

Then, last year, I became OBSESSED with the X-Files (high 5, Ducky!)... I also taped every single episode, bought videos of episodes I hadn't seen, comic books, those corny fan fiction books... I live in Thailand and sometimes our cable station is really cool. Last year, for about five months they were showing simultaneous seasons of the X-Files, four episodes a weekend.. Then, in January they stopped showing them. :| And slowly my fandom faded. I am still in the fan club, and still recieving magazines, though. I'm waiting for Season 7 to come out here, although I've heard the most ridiculous things about it.

-- Kathy Macleod (kmacleod@thedorm.com), May 26, 2000.

I'm still obsessed with XFILES!! I was obsessed with Matthew Lillard until I met him and just realised he was a lovely generous person! Not like a STAR! So, that made me respect him more, and I still like him but I'm not going to cry because I missed an article or something! My new obsession is music. Especially Rachel Stamp! The band is so good, they're like Glam and I've writing an erotic fan fic with the lead singer ::slaver::: I've written to several famous people and gotten boring signed photos back. I'm in a Space fan club and that's about it. really!

-- Katy (Katysawyer@aol.com), May 27, 2000.