Firstly, my fandom exists in a bubble. Apart from the guy in High School who gave me Murmurs to listen to, I’m a bit of an REM island, kinda always looking for someone who I can chat rem with. As an adult its always a little more difficult. My son would walk up to random kids in the playground and as ‘You like Minecraft?’ and start chatting. It’s a little hard when your in your 50’s.
Over Christmas I was doing letterbox flyer drops in my neighbourhood. ( I run a zero waste shop in Marrickville, Sydney). Height of Covid we were all wearing masks inside, and if you are like me pretty risk adverse, outside too. Team that with the Australian summer and you have me in a wide brim straw hat, zinc cream, long sleave shirt, backpack with arms full of flyers. (think Marlon Brando in Island Of Dr. Moreau doing a letterbox drop)
On my way around the streets I see a guy wearing a 1995 ‘Bear In the Woods’ tour t-shirt. And think ‘Cool t-shirt, I wonder if its Vintage or New? I do a jog/walk over to him (arm full of flyers) trying to get his attention saying ‘Excuse me… Excuse me.’ He looks at me and starts to jog/walk in the other direction saying ‘No thank you, not today’.
It took a few seconds before I realised what I looked like and maybe he thought I was about to charity mug him (we call them ‘Chuggers’).
So Mr. 1995 tour t-shirt, if you are on here, Hello, nice t-shirt, is it vintage or a reprint? I hope we cross paths again… In less award circumstances.
Years ago, on the way to work, I got behind a light blue VW Beetle that had R.E.M. and Beatles bumperstickers. I would have been curious to meet that person but I never saw that vehicle again. I’m guessing that was late 90’s/early 00’s.
Years ago, I was interviewing for a job in Mississippi. One of the people there asked me if I’d ever seen kudzu. I said, “Well, I am an REM fan.” And she said, “Oh, then you know.”
I was like, “I don’t know what’s worse, that I used that as a reference or that you knew what I was referring to.”
I got the job. Stayed there 4.5 years. That person became (and still is) a friend of mine.
Gosh! I just remembered I have that cloth REM badge from the fanclub in the bottom of one of my dressing table drawers which i never did use. I am about to become a local walk leader for one of our daily local Council health walks. I must dig it out and sew it to my backpack to see what/how many reactions I get …
I repurposed a Batman baseball cap to include the patch that came with a fanclub mailout circa the release of Green. I don’t recall it ever eliciting a response from anyone. I also have some stickers from the fanclub (maybe Automatic era) that I’ve never used. Believe it or not, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen any R.E.M. decals for sale out in the wild.
My computer tower in the early 00s (in the time of Old Murmurs) had one of the fanclub stickers on it (a Reveal themed one). I ended up getting a couple more stickers from other bands/artists later on and stuck those on too in order to accompany the REM sticker. Eventually got rid of that computer case around 2006 or 2007.
