I grew up in West L.A. and now live in Santa Barbara. I have seen many dozens of celebrities in my life just going about their normal business. For the most part I ignore them but I’ve chatted with a few. In all of my years only one celebrity was a dick to me: Christopher Lloyd.
He lives in Montecito, in fact he lost his house in the most recent fire. My favorite sushi place in the area is in Montecito. I’ve been going there since it first opened several years ago. I’d seen Chris in there before, by himself, at the far end of the sushi bar.
I went in with my then wife and Chris was there with a friend/date. The date was at the end of the bar, then Chris, then two empty seats. There was also one table open. When we went in the hostess directed us to the table but I asked to be seated at the bar. The hostess was a little hesitant but sat us next to him.
When we sat down, he looked at me like I was a complete piece of shit and how dare I take the stool next to him. He then turned himself sideways so that his back was to me and his face was to his date and he spent the rest of his time that way. I assure you that I didn’t say “hello” to him let alone stare or try to talk to him. What an ass.
My old boss once sat down next to Jason Alexander at a blackjack table in Vegas. They played for awhile in total silence, barely even making eye contact with each other. After awhile, the actor leaned over to my boss and said, “Hey, thanks for not making a big deal about me being here. I really appreciate it.” Then he walked out. My boss looked at the dealer and said, “Who the hell was that?”
He honestly had never seen an episode of Seinfeld in his life!
Heh. A good friend of mine owns a little charter fishing boat. He had Julia Louise Dreyfus and her husband on his boat four of five times at the height of the popularity of Seinfeld before he even knew that she was an actress.
No, I wasn’t trying to imply he was a bastard (sorry, OP), but I did think it was kinda funny that he just assumes everyone on the planet knows who he is.
Keith Relf, formerly lead singer of The Yardbirds was electrocuted playing his guitar. Wiki says his guitar wasn’t properly grounded. Don’t know if it was onstage or not.
Is there any anecdotal evidence of promoters who didn’t pass the test? What would be the consequences if Diamond Dave stuck a finger in and pulled out a brown one? Who would make sure everything was grounded correctly? Or would they just cancel the show?
Yeah, to tell you the truth, that whole Van Halen “making sure the promoters did their job” thing sounds bogus and like PR to cover their asses after making silly demands. For one thing, having someone pluck the brown ones from their M&Ms would be a pretty easy thing for a promoter to have someone do, and a pretty easy thing for the guys in the band to notice hadn’t been done. Plus, I know I wouldn’t have confidence that the much more complicated job of setting up the band’s wiring safely was done just because someone took the trouble to take the brown ones out of the M&Ms.
On the other hand, I don’t know that I’d want to eat M&Ms that some anonymous person had pawed through, so maybe they’re telling the truth and never intended to eat the M&Ms to begin with.
The best one we ever recieved (for a moderately well known indie band) included several pages of just random shit, but it was hillarious - a 1987 Fleer baseball card, a mint condition Furbie, etc.
Not to be pedantic, you guys, but when someone is electrocuted it means they died.
From M-W online:
Main Entry: elec·tro·cute
Pronunciation: \i-ˈlek-trə-ˌkyüt\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): elec·tro·cut·ed; elec·tro·cut·ing
Etymology: electr- + -cute (as in execute)
Date: 1889
1 : to execute (a criminal) by electricity
2 : to kill by electric shock
I respectfully disagree with the contention that if you’re electrocuted, you’re dead. I know a guy who was electrocuted on the job 5 years ago. He was very badly hurt, but not dead. In the Workers’ Compensation report he was described as having been “electrocuted”.
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about the term “electrocution” being used to describe “execution by electricity”. Edison loathed Westinghouse, this was all to do with A/C vs D/C in the early days of electricity use. A/C won out, but that’s the extent of my knowledge of that, and no doubt - no doubt at all - I got that much wrong, too. At any rate, there was evidently some controversy over what to say about the impending execution by electricity and what the “term” should be.
Edison suggested that the guy was going to be “Westinghoused”.
I like that story, and if it’s not true, it oughta be.