Saturn Scene – An Astrological Look at Pop Culture

In 1961, a 17-year-old Parisian girl named Françoise Hardy was on the precipice of stardom. After learning how to play the guitar in her early years and performing in various clubs around town, she successfully auditioned for France’s Vogue Records. Five months later she released her first single, “Oh Oh Chéri,” although it was the b-side (“Tous les garçons et les filles”) that would catapult her to international success, quickly selling over 500,000 copies after being broadcast on television.

Hello Françoise, success calling

Hardy went on to a healthy career as one of the most successful singers of the burgeoning yé-yé movement. Additionally, she became a a favorite of the fashion world, and her style is still studied today.

Hardy had many fans among the musicians of the times, including Mick Jagger, Jacques Dutronc (both pictured below) whom she would later marry, and Bob Dylan. Dylan dedicated a poem to her and famously would not continue a Paris concert until she visited him backstage.

But what I find most interesting about Hardy is her interest in astrology. Hardy is a Capricorn, a sign characterized by their ambition, deliberate calm, and scholarly dedication.

And wonderful hair
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At 29, Joanne Rowling felt like a failure. Her marriage had recently ended in divorce, her money was running out, she had a young baby to take care of, and she was clinically depressed. Her mother had died a few years earlier. Suicidal thoughts were constantly on her mind.

Nearly everything had been taken from her.

And for some reason she was haunted by the idea of a young wizard named Harry that came to her one day while on a train. He and a whole world had arrived fully formed in her head.

She had to write a book about it.

So she soldiered on. Welfare paid her rent and heating bills, while cafes proved to be the best place to both get her daughter to fall asleep, and for her to focus on her manuscript.

Of this time Rowling said in an incredibly inspirational Harvard commencement address,

…failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

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Fey in her early days

At age 29 Tina Fey was living her dream. After spending years at Chicago’s Second City, performing a grueling schedule of eight shows a week, she was now “Saturday Night Live’s” head writer.

And yet part of her dream was still unrealized.

While she had ascended quickly to head writer, Fey still spent most of her time behind the scenes writing for others. She wanted to be onscreen.

As is often the case for writers on the show, Fey became an extra in the sketches. Then one day she caught a glimpse of herself on a monitor and didn’t like what she saw, “I was like, ‘Ooogh.’ I was starting to look unhealthy. I looked like a behemoth, a little bit.” She then called her husband and told him she was starting Weight Watchers.

Ultimately, Fey dropped 35 pounds.

And then everything changed.
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Actors, best friends, and Scorpios, Janie Haddad Tompkins (Emmy nominated The Regular Show) and Maria Thayer (Eagleheart, Strangers with Candy) guest on the podcast. We discuss their much maligned sign, discover that Maria is living a happy version of the film “Memento,” and Janie tells a harrowing story of what she went through during her Saturn Return. Listen below:

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For more on Janie, check out her twitter and My So Called Hollywood Life. For more Maria, visit her twitter, as well as the amazing Eagleheart.

Ben Lee is an Australian singer-songwriter, actor, and founding member of the band Noise Addict. We discuss Ben’s salad days of lo-fi recording, his career trajectory, and a profound meeting with an Indian Avatar. Listen below:

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For more from Ben check out ben-lee.com.