–Like Fenster, on my 22nd birthday, the Challenger exploded. Though I’m not sure how Ronald Reagan sent them to their death. He did a bad melodramatic reading of “High Flight” though.
–One of my 7th grade teachers, Elbert Couch, is the father of Cleveland quarterback Tim Couch.
–I pitched (no sale) some scripts to DS9 producer Rene Echevarria.
–I’ve met Hayley Mills, Ted Neeley, Gordon Scott, Pat Morita (coming out of a bar across from Paramount). Henry Winkler (crookedest bottom teeth I’ve ever seen), James Best, R. G. Armstrong, and a variety of character actors, and some no-talents like Rick Dees.
I placed 3rd (of 39) in an obscure short story contest judged by obscure novelist Madison Smartt Bell.
I had a speaking line (“Come on fellas, let’s go see the Guidance Counselor”) in a commercial for Union College (Barbourville, KY) in 1981. It was my first and last on-camera performance. Earlier in 1979, I turned down a chance to be in a shot (background extra) in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” because I didn’t want to lose my long flowing 1970s locks for a 50s haircut.
George Clooney was born and raised about 15 miles from where I live.
Cerowyn, yes, I’m guilty of exaggeration. If memory serves, he did just do the “slipped the surly bonds of earth” portion, perhaps combining it with the last few words in the final line “… and touched the face of God.”
It was easier to type the exaggeration, then go into detail.
I still hold that it was overly melodramatic, but that’s speeches for ya.
Because I worked many years as a waiter at Melbourne’s finest restaurant, I got to look after and chat meaninglessly with Mick Jagger, Meryl Streep and Lynn Redgrave (all on different evenings, yes). Real stars. Except for Lynn.
They were all pleasant. But not as interesting as the woman who said this…
Jarbabyj, I’d wait on your table any time, and you wouldn’t have to take off a thing!
The restaurant had many other famous people visit (Bianca was with Mick), but not interesting enough for me to bother telling you, except for the poor soul who thought he’d get a “better table” by telling us he was Art Garfunkle’s brother-in-law.
Redboss
[sub]has met Art Garfunkle’s brother-in-law![/sub]
My grandfather has a small sports stadium and a school named after him in Jouy le Poitiers, France.
My job for a while was making names for new products and companys. Some of the names I created are Sony Aibo and Lego Mindstorm.
I occasionally do freelance naming for my old boss. Right onw, I’m working on a name for a company that makes automatic bidets, so next time you get water squirted up your butt, think of me.
I spilled wine on Henry Kissinger’s shoes. (It was an accident, I swear.)
I stood underneath King Olav once. He was on the palace balcony in Oslo on the 17th of May, watching the children’s parade pass by. Fella bilong missus flodnak and I were wondering around, and suddenly fbmf stopped me and asked if I knew who was standing one floor up. I expected to be approached by men in dark suits and bad sunglasses asking me to vacate the area immediately, but nope. This is Norway, and ol’ Olav had four million bodyguards.
I’ve shaken hands with Valentina Tereshkova. (First woman in space!) Pity she was drunk at the time, but you take what you get.
I do volunteer work for a-ha’s official website. Mostly translating stuff from Norwegian to English, since for some strange reason the fans are not, as a rule, fluent in Norwegian. Imagine that.
I also run a mailing list for parents of bilingual families, called biling-fam. This includes writing the website, which is disgustingly overdue for an update.
About four years ago, What Now? hired me and my friend Mark to write a short, kids’ horror TV series. It was all our idea (we pitched it, they bought it, we wrote them, they butchered them) and I called it “From Under The Bed”. It ran for 13x5 min episodes (ooooh, spooky, thirteeeeen) and from all accounts was popular, if a little controversial for not having many happy endings.
Sublight: You came up with Lego Mindstorm??? How cool is that??
My wife and I met Dave Stoelk at a wedding rehersal. You have to live in Indiana to know who Dave is (he’s the co-host of Across Indiana, a locally produced duh PBS show - or it was as of 4 years ago).
I worked with Carmen Temple. (Also a bit of esoterica. You have to be into Tibetan Spaniels to know who that is)
I had my picture taken with Cliff Robertson in '75. I thought he was a bit of a snot, but he sure was all smiles when the cameras came out. I’m certain that pic is in a box somewhere in my garage.
Guess my experiences fall into the “celebrity” category:
Atom Egoyan, now a well-known Canadian filmmaker, once approached me. He wanted to make one of my stories, which had just been published, into a movie. However, at the time, he had yet to become the respected director he is today and I decided not to allow him the rights to my story. Now, his work is at the Oscars and at Cannes, and mine’s gathering dust. Still kicking myself for that one.
I also had an interesting conversation with David Cronenberg once. Seems he and I both belonged to the same gun club. I shot rifle while he shot pistol, and since each kind of firearm was assigned different times on the range, I was never there when he was. But one day, I happened to stop by during the scheduled pistol times, and Cronenberg and I got to chatting about ammunition–what did I use in my rifle, could he use it in his pistol of the same calibre, and so on. I’ve often wondered since if he’s used any of my advice in his movies–I want a credit!
I let Jean-Claude Van Damme cut in front of me to play an arcade game.
Mr. T rubbed my head and said my hair was good luck.
I once rubbed syndicated talk-radio host Phil Hendrie’s bald head and said it was for good luck.
For a moment of minor glory of my own making–I once drew such a huge crowd of people watching me play House of the Dead at a Gameworks that I had the management asking me to compete in a tournament that was coming up. I still feel bad about declining…but I didn’t have my own car for transporation.
They gave me a free credit after I beat the game, though.
One of the hostages from the American Embassy in Tehran lived on my paper route.
My Dad flew one of the planes which brought Vietnam P.O.W.s back to the states. There was a documentary on PBS about the prisoners and one of them talks about how it felt to fly low over the Golden Gate Bridge and know they were home. I’m pretty sure that was my Dad’s plane.
I’ve met 4/5 of The Cure (Simon was too drunk to stand, much less talk to spastic fans)…
I’m (supposedly) descended from the historical King Arthur on my maternal Grandfather’s side…
I sat a couple of rows behind Sean Lennon on a flight from Salt Lake City to Chicago when I was about 13…
Also on my maternal Grandfather’s side - my Grandfather’s (father? uncle? now I can’t rememeber) supposedly came up with an idea to string the little lights from a telephone switchboard together to put on the Christmas tree. This was after he had set himself on fire trying to put out the burning Christmas tree (the candles on the tree had set the branches alight). Never marketed the idea, though…
In the ‘6 degrees of obscure fame’ category - my younger sister has hung out with Kid Rock, Eminem, and several members of the Detroit Red Wings…
