Records are meant to be broken. I guess that's the point: set them, then break them.
But, in this case, I'm not so pleased by it. My friend and bandmate Lis Harvey set, last fall, a record for the fastest tour of the fifty states ever. Pretty sweet. She did all the booking and promotion herself, drove herself to all forty-eight lower states (flew to AK and HI), and basically did a hell of a thing.
Apparently someone else has decided to break the record. That, in and of itself, is cool. What isn't cool, to me, is that he is doing this without acknowledging the existence of a record to beat. Why? I'm not sure. It feels like he's attempting to get published in the book before Lis, the first person to do this, gets published. I'm probably reading into this too much, but I'm a little annoyed.
Adam Brodsky is the guy's name. I wish him luck, but I sort of wish he had waited until the next book's publication. I just hope Lis gets the extra public recognition of that badass road trip before someone else steals her thunder.
Over and out.
According to my sources, Mr. Brodsky knows the people who did publicity for Lis's tour. There seems to be little chance he doesn't know about her record, and that he is breaking it, not under the impression that he is setting a new one.
However, he apparently has been in touch with Lis a little bit, asking if she'd like to share his Madison, WI date with him. That's a nice thing, although I wish the dude would mention publicly that he isn't exactly blazing a trail here.
I haven't contacted him myself, because I feel like it's not my place. I can fume here, on my own turf, but if Lis is okay with it, then I'm okay enough with it not to vent anywhere but here. And, really, that's all I'm doing.
And you're right, at least Ripley's had the ... um, decency or whatever it is, to publish her. Even if they colored her hair black.
Posted by Joe at August 25, 2003 4:29 PMFor what it's worth, Adam is aware that Lis set the record and has mentioned this fact in a number of radio and television interviews. Also, it's highly unlikely that this record will be listed in the book as Guiinness only lists "cool" records.
Posted by Mary at August 27, 2003 5:55 PM
Agreed. To give him the benefit of the doubt, with his talk of "setting a record" rather than "breaking the record," I wonder if he might have talked to Guiness people before Lis filed her final paperwork. Someone oughtta set him straight. On the other hand, all those Ripley's Believe It or Not readers will know the truth!
Posted by Lisa at August 25, 2003 3:36 PM