Colonel Panic wrote:

steve wrote:Oh yeah, almost forgot. Spend about 16 hours with Hunter S. Thompson at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. Very weird scene. Almost exactly as weird as you would imagine, and in all the ways you would imagine. I should tell that story some day.

Steve, cut the BS. You never met HST. You're just being a dick.

ya fuck that guy 4rlz. dude doesnt even like burial.

John Landis stopped by the booth my friend was running at a horror convention here about a month ago, basically doing a lap around the merchandise room. He flirted a little bit with the friend's girlfriend and we gave him some free stickers.

I met Barack Obama's wife recently. Gave her a handshake and say "Hi there!" She gave me an odd glance in return.

Saw James Iha at El Cid recently. He had silver hair I think.

Once sold popcorn to Bob Odenkirk. He could tell that I knew who he was so he tried hard to make the transaction really quick and avoided eye contact. I also sold popcorn and bottled water and other various candies to John Malkovich and his entire family. He was dressed EXACTLY like he is in the film BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. I once tore Horatio Sanz' ticket to Lost in Translation. He was sweaty, eating a huge bag of popcorn, wearing Zubaz, and he appeared to be really nervous. I guess he had never met a movie theatre employee as intimidating as me. Or he was concealing outside food and beverage.

At the bank yesterday I saw George Clinton making a deposit. The teller asked if he had a show to play. He simply responded, "Naw man, just hangin out...".

A friend of mine used to work the door at some club in NYC. Some singer songwriter dude that was getting tons of press was playing, so there were some famously well to do individuals in attendance. Gwyneth Paltrow walked up and told my friend that she was on the list. And of course she wasn't. "Sorry, but you aren't on the list" my friend noted. "Well I should be!" "Well, you're not. Sorry. It's twelve bucks to get in." "Well, I don't have any cash!" "Yeah, and I'm loaded! Ha!" This little interaction got her within an asshair of getting fired. Always gotta let the celebrities in for free.

My little semi-amusing-at-best Ian Mackaye anecdote:

When I was 15 years old, my brother and his friend took me to see Fugazi in Athens, which was the first real show I'd ever attended. I was somewhat familiar with their music at that point, mainly through End Hits and seeing Instrument about three or four times.

After they finished their 2+ hour set, which was absolutely top notch, and I would even say life changing (for me), 85 or 90 percent of the club had emptied out. My brother and his friend had gone off to use the can, so I just kind of milled about in a daze pretty close to where we'd watched the show, which was maybe 7 or 8 feet from the stage.

The techs were busy breaking everything down when Ian Mackaye came out to lend them a hand. It was one of those weird moments where we just looked and noticed each other at the same time. All I wanted to say was anything along the lines of "Great show, thank you", etc. Unfortunately, because this was my first brush with fame, I got a bit "star struck" (of all bands and people... ridiculous) and kind of silently gawked at him. This led to him silently staring back at me, which in turn just made me freeze up even more. This lasted about three or four seconds before he just shrugged and went back to disconnecting cables, or whatever he was doing.

Everything I've heard since is only about how all of those guys are some of the most gracious, friendly, approachable people you'll ever come across, which just makes my story even more embarrassing to relate. Aside from feeling like I was such a dumb little asshole, though, thinking back on this incident brings back memories of that show, which probably did more than anything to inspire me to start playing music. I don't think I'll ever say a bad word about Fugazi.

lemur68 wrote:

steve wrote:Rode an elevator with Cab Calloway and said "Hi-de-ho!" to him when he left. He smiled at me and nodded. An hour later I pushed Henry Kissinger down an escalator (He was going down).

Re-imagined your story

I'd rather see him pushed down a flight of escalators going up. My knowledge of physics is pathetic, but I'm hoping it'd result in a few extra steps for him to tumble down.

My friend Mark used to present a radio show in Nottingham and would interview most touring 'large' bands that came through, he has some great tales and scurrilous gossip but the thing I remember best is that he interviewed Lloyd Cole and midway through a large commotion (no pun intended) broke out in the building and they went to see what it was and it was Blackie Lawless of WASP turning up in a limo with a bunch of heavies who were insisting that the building was cleared and security checked and that Blackie was given a clear path to the building.
When Blackie emerged from the car, Lloyd Cole decided to mob him for an autograph for a joke and was promptly kicked shitless by Blackie's bodyguards while Mark looked on horrified.

He also has many tremendous Blast First anecdotes from Nottingham in the 80s.

He also recently had his entire record collection stolen and his house burned down but that's a seperate thread possibly entitled "Reasons Nottingham is a fucking hellhole"

I sat immediately in front of Steve Davis at a Magma concert. Disappointingly, he doesn't wear the waistcoat and bow tie in real life.

I met Jimmy Saville at an event I was doing sound at. His skin was practically transparent. I did not shake his hand because I was genuinely afraid it would come off.

I played Little League with/against future Hall of Famer
Jim Thome.

When I was in grad school, I met several well-known writers, as Iowa is a pretty standard stop on book tours. The most notable were Norman Mailer, Tobias Wolff, John Ashbery (on a couple of occasions), Mark Strand, BER's former teachers James Tate and Carolyn Fourche (who I even danced with one night), Donald Justice, Richard Wilbur, Julian Barnes, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Also met Michael Moore for about five seconds. Ethan Canin used to play softball with us almost every weekend. I still occasionally kick myself over missing the chance to meet John Irving.

Met Beck and Ian McKaye at Yo-Yo a Go-Go. Both were awfully nice. The two had a conversation about folk and blues music behind me in line at the grocery store.

Met Nirvana and Mudhoney after a show in Bellingham. This was Nirvana's famous "surprise" show at the WWU gym. Kurt Cobain was ridiculously nice and accommodating.

An old band of mine played with one of Ben Gibbard's old bands.

I'm starting another graduate program, um, next week, and I anticipate that I'll meet some pretty well-known people in the field of finance and economics. Too bad that George Soros already spoke at my program a couple of years ago and thus won't likely do so again anytime soon, as my dad hates Soros, and I would get a kick out of telling him that I met the man.

- i'm third cousins with country singer Randy Travis, though i've never met him.

- met Sherman Helmsley while working at an air force base. he'd come to, idk, talk to some troops and boost their morale.

damn it, i know there's more..