My old roommate and I worked a convention once and we had to be the bodyguards for Carel Struycken (Lurch in the Addams Family movies). It was hilarious moving through the crowd, the two of us shouting to make a path, and people turning around angrily then their eyes would look above and behind us and just bug out in fear.
He is a very shy, nice and quiet man. He demo’d for me his computer system he’d developed that sensed the players’ movements like the new Kinects, but this was back in the early '90s.
I used to talk to both Bob “Mr. Baseball” Uecker and Bud Selig (da Commish)… both used to called me “buddy”.
Infovore… I met Stackpole too, he reference my group in one of his novels… two of the other members talked to him more…
Also reminds me I once yelled at a guy (I was hungry and tired & he was talking to someone in line and not realizing he was up), and it turned out to be author Larry Bonds… (if you read this sorry Larry, love your work).
I ran into another friend of mine once, not 2 minutes after he’d finished interviewing Douglas Adams… but he’d disappeared before we could get back so I could met him. Guess the Vogons’ beamed him up.
On my own part…nobody, really. A few personalities on the local NPR affiliate, a couple of whom have had stories run nationally on Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation. And my wife, who does a Saturday night blues show on the station.
My elder sister is unnervingly well-connected in the punk/indie music scene for somebody with zero professional connection. Members of very noteworthy acts (including AFI, Rise Against, 3oh3!, and Unwritten Law) apparently stay in touch. I get the impression that she might be acquainted with some notable folks in other art scenes, but I’m not sure how well and have no idea who.
The lead singer/songwriter for this band is pretty well-acquainted with me. We’ve exchanged emails before and he recognizes me in the crowd at their occasional shows. I actually know the other guy a lot better, though.
I occasionally exchange commentary with a high-school classmate who is reasonably well known in jazz circles: George Colligan - Wikipedia.
Less certainly: I don’t have an email address, but I believe that some folks that I am in contact with would be able to pass a message to Edward Norton, who I knew in middle school.
Former New England Sports Nework SportsDesk host Cole Wright was one of my best friends when we were kids, I could probably shoot him an email and hear back.
Lady Lacha is e-mail friendly with Ina Garten. My claim to fame would be my uncle Tom, who was an astrophysicist for NASA, and who went to Stockholm (along with the rest of his team) to help his boss collect the Nobel Prize for Physics a few years ago.
Hmmm…certainly there isn’t anyone I casually email currently, but there are a couple that if I sent a “hey, it’s been ages, I just felt like re-connecting and saying hello” email/Facebook message/friend request to, they’d respond.
I went to high school and was on the track and cross country teams with Anais Mitchell, who is popular with the “Lillith Fair” type of crowd. She often tours with Ani DiFranco.
In college, I was an editor for a student-run magazine (not the main school paper, but a secondary, smaller publication,) and Tyler Hinman, who was a student at the time, wrote our crosswords. I understand that he’s fairly well known in the crossword circuit, having won several titles and designing challenging puzzles.
Beyond that…eh, I could probably start emailing Bernie Sanders and get real replies, not just ones from his staffers, since my girlfriend WAS one of his staffers and knows his REAL, private, email address. He’s friendly enough that I don’t think he’d mind if I started emailing him out of the blue, so long as I kept it relevant to political things and whatnot.
Leo Cohen: He is quite a character
Tommy Disney: niece sons cousin or something to Walt
Roger Bernson: roadie to Hulk Hogan in the 80s
Club Soda Kenny: roadie/bodyguard to some comics in the 80s
Ben Tssaud: His father was a great art director (AD)
Louie Palmer: pretty famous juggler, at least he is famous in my neighbourhood. That boy can juggle
Monica Henderson: not famous at all, but one day she will be an amazing teacher. So maybe the do a film on her life. Something like Dangerous Minds. Just saying…
Marco Rubio would know me if I e-mailed him, and occasionally responded in person when our paths crossed indicating he did indeed get my message. Course, that was before the election.
Jerry Brown, Joan Baez, and Skip van Leeuwin. How’s that for a mixed bag?
I met Jerry Brown in a bar in Oaxaca about twenty years ago, traveled with him to introduce him to the Bishop of Chiapas and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas in Michoacán, and stayed at his house in Hollywood a couple of times. Sent him an email to congratulate him on his victory, but haven’t got an answer yet. I Imagine he’s kinda busy…
Met Joan at Club 47 in Cambridge in 1958. (She even mentions me in her book, and always got my mother and sister good seats at her concerts) I don’t have her personal email (does anybody know it?) so I can’t send her a message, but I suppose she would remember me.
Van Leeuwin, also known in those days as van Lunatic for his, er, unorthodox riding style, was the best TT motorcycle rider of all time. Met him when he wanted to get into the music business in LA, hung out for a while, keep in touch now and then.
I forgot to ad Graham Hill. On my honeymoon to Mexico in 1966, we got upgraded to First Class and found ourselves sitting next to Hill. His ride didn’t show up at the airport so we offered to take him to his hotel, got invited to the Mexican GP with pit passes (Somewhere I still have a picture of Chris Amon sitting in his car, almost twisting his neck off to ogle my new wife in a miniskirt…) But I can’t email him, since he’s been dead for a while.
