Saturday, February 09, 2008

Thanks, Michael Stipe!

This is amusing... to me, anyway. I have this lame little blog, about my career change and now my medical education, right? About how I'm trying to retain a shred of the geeky, funny personality that got me this far in life, while also becoming a responsible, reasonably knowledgeable person.

Okay, so that's the back-story. Now, anyone with a blog that lasts a while will eventually amass enough content that some of it will come up in Web searches. The Web being the Web, there's always that slim chance that one's own little blog will be lumped among the best, or at least the very few, places to go for the answer to a question. And that's happened to me.

Is it a question about being an older student, and going back to school? Not really, no. About the PA profession, maybe? Well, that has happened, true, but this is more of a multiple-people thing, over several weeks.

Is it about comparing and contrasting the arts world to medicine? Um... no.

Well, okay then, you would think; I can't seem to shut up about my friend from Minneapolis, the Academy-Award-nominated Diablo Cody*. Surely that was it.

And once again... no.

I wrote a post a while back, capturing one of my random 'WTF?' moments over a small thing that captured my attention. It neatly summed up the way the outside world has become confusing and dreamlike, since I started my stupidly intense grad school thing last summer.

I was convinced I was hearing REM's Michael Stipe doing voice-over in the new Chevron ad. (Not in a 'this famous person is sending me messages through my TV' way, just in a 'holy crap! Is that Michael Stipe?' way.) And I've had a few comments to this old post pop up, with e-mails resulting.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sincerely glad to have been helpful in some way. It's just so fittingly weird and random that THIS would be the thing that gathers... oh, at least 5 to 10 people... from the world out there to my own tiny, dusty square of the Internet.

So for the record, the voice is Campbell Scott's. He does sound a lot like Stipe. And here's some good news: Stipe sounds more like Stipe lately too. For the lowdown on what could be the best REM album in quite a while, click here.

Come back whenever you like, though. Cheers.

* Who won the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay 2008 about two hours ago, by the way.

10 comments:

Howie said...

Thanks for clearing that Stipe thing up for me. I too thought it sounded a lot like him. Knowing Micheal's politics, I just couldn't see him doing a spot for an oil company.

REM has somewhat legendary status here in North Georgia and it just didn't seem like something he would do.


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Anonymous said...

I don't normally leave random notes like this, but I thought it was peculiar enough to do a web search for Michael Stipe and Chevron, and found others thought the same thing. I thought Chevron sought out Stipe intentionally because he's an environmental person. Sounds like him, if you ask me. Funny.

Unknown said...

I too had that, "Holy crap! Stipe is doing a commercial!" moment. That is actually what led me to your blog... a Google search: "Michael Stipe chevron commercial".

Though I am kind of glad to know that it isn't J. Michael Stipe, it sure sounds like him. I expect the voice on the commercial to break into a rendition of "Belong".

Thanks for clearing this up!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure it is him.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with anonymous, sound like him, if you ask me....

Agreed Agreed Agreed

God Bless

Anonymous said...

I was thinking the same thing.. along with the Russell Investments ad. It has been driving me crazy!!

Anonymous said...

Still googling this -- the ads are in heavy rotation again! Thanks

Anonymous said...

Of course I came here from googling stipe chevron, but what a great post about the serendipity of the intertubes. People think that the internet removes serendipity (think amazon vs bookstore) but really it just puts it in new places. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I too am convinced that it is the voice of Mr. Stipe. I'll try to find some spoken track of Campbell Scott, then compare the two. "The creatures jumped the barricades and are heading for the sea".

Unknown said...

Thanks for clearing this up. Been killing me for 6 months. I am firing up the CD player this second as this is one of my favorite REM tunes.

"Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She got up from the kitchen table
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio
Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea, sea"

ohhhhh ohhhhh ohhhh...Love it!