Somebody Someone Totally Still Knows

January 23, 2013 7:10 PM

Someone on We Are The Music Makers on Reddit found this interesting comment from 2008.
posted by spiderskull to MetaFilter-Related at 7:10 PM (330 comments total)

Whoa, I totally missed this at the time. That's pretty amazing.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:16 PM on January 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

Friend of a MeFite^TM doesn't have the same ring as MetaFilter's Own^TM, but it's still pretty keen.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:28 PM on January 23, 2013

Now it turns out Gotye's Metafilter's own (Somebody!) ...
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:35 PM on January 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

zomg.
posted by jonathanstrange at 7:48 PM on January 23, 2013 [13 favorites]

Eh, that's Australia for you. Its tiny. Used to see Wally drum in The Basics back when they were a decent Beatles via Police type band. I've got some notebook that mentions how I saw The Temper Trap in some club and they were dreadfully boring.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:53 PM on January 23, 2013

But I probably dismiss them 'cause my heart's a mess.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:54 PM on January 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Can I just say - I got way more starstruck and excited about having mathowie tweet a link to one of my comments than I've *ever* been from knowing boring old Wally?
posted by jonathanstrange at 8:06 PM on January 23, 2013 [50 favorites]

So everyone knows him because it's a small place? Reminds me of a story of some Icelandic guy traveling outside of Iceland, and being asked if he knew Bjork. His response was always "Of course I knew Bjork. Everybody there knows Bjork. There are only 300 thousand people there!"
posted by benito.strauss at 8:11 PM on January 23, 2013 [7 favorites]

Eh, that's Australia for you. Its tiny. Used to see Wally drum in The Basics back when they were a decent Beatles via Police type band. I've got some notebook that mentions how I saw The Temper Trap in some club and they were dreadfully boring.

Uh huh. So you're trying to say that you know Goyte?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:19 PM on January 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

Well, used to.
posted by and so but then, we at 8:21 PM on January 23, 2013 [27 favorites]

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy
posted by Splunge at 8:27 PM on January 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

god just reading the headline puts the song in my head. fuckgetitout
posted by Think_Long at 8:27 PM on January 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

So everyone knows him because it's a small place?

Yeah knows him or knows of him or knows somebody who knew him. Besides he was kicking around the local music scenes for ages in The Basics and than solo. I've got a friend who claims she told him not to record SYUTE because it was sexist, but she also claimed Augie March ripped off One Crowded Hour from her, Wolfmother wrote Mother and Jet wrote She's A Genius about her, and Dallas Crane wrote a song about her.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:31 PM on January 23, 2013

sexist? interesting. people see all sorts of things really, so i'm not surprised i guess that someone has that opinion - but i could see that song being about a couple with any gender pairs - and also i always thought it was a little interesting because to me the trope is that the man disappears without a trace/goes cold and the woman is the one that wants more friendship and explanation and what not - but personally, i've found the genders to not much matter when it comes to clingy/standoffish in relationships/breakups. as overplayed as it is, i thought the song did a good job describing the mid 20s breakup.
posted by nadawi at 8:51 PM on January 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

Oh, is this where we talk about MeFites and their close proximity to musicians of note? Then I would like to give a shout out to Optamystic who is mates with current One Direction songwriter and Grammy nominee for song of the year Ed Sheeran. In fact, Optamystic was kind enough to have Ed call my teenaged niece after a recent concert to say hello and to thank her for being a fan. She called me afterwards in tears to thank my and my "internetty friend." It was such a cool thing for him to take the time to do that for her.

(Also: he introduced me to the music of MeFite armoured-ant--also known as Antonio Lulic, who is my current favorite musician, in both the MeFite and Non-MeFite category. Seriously, go buy his stuff!)
posted by ColdChef at 8:54 PM on January 23, 2013 [14 favorites]

If there's any justice in the world, in a year people are going to point to photos of me with Wil Wagner and be amazed that I knew The Smith Street Band before they was on the cover of Rolling Stone and Uncut and won a Grammy for Best Rock Song.

I kinda know The Vines. Nice guys, usually. So is Natalie Imbruglia's little sister.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:02 PM on January 23, 2013

I once got hugged from behind by Tammy Faye Bakker.
posted by The Deej at 9:08 PM on January 23, 2013 [7 favorites]

I totally once had a bbq in a cemetary with Steve Bracks.

True story.
posted by jonathanstrange at 9:12 PM on January 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait, wait - One Direction doesn't write their own songs?!@?!?!!
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:18 PM on January 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

I was once in the catering line at work behind Joan Jett, but I was too shy to talk to her.

A sorta famous star of a cable TV series' dog once peed on me.

Jeff Goldblum used to hit on me sometimes.

The actress who played the Borg Queen once complimented my graphic design skills.

That's all I got.
posted by Sara C. at 9:21 PM on January 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

What is it with Redditors and their dependence on Imgur? "I know, I'll take an all-text post in a forum, screencap it, compress it to a JPEG, upload it to an image site, and link to that!" Are there lots of people who simply won't follow unknown links anymore?
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 9:23 PM on January 23, 2013

Imgur has some deal with Reddit, and they'll host material that other sites might be unwilling to for moral reasons.

I was at an awards show where we lost Katy Steele, who beat out her brother (pre-Empire of the Sun) and Nick Cave for Best Dressed.

Is Catcall famous now? I used to follow around her punk band. Are Royal Headache famous yet? I'm friends with the lead singer, who scored my other friend's short film.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:26 PM on January 23, 2013

Jeff Goldblum used to hit on me sometimes.

Please elaborate! I mean, who doesn't want to get hit on by Jeff Goldblum?
posted by spiderskull at 9:27 PM on January 23, 2013 [7 favorites]

I gave Rozz Williams a towel, once.
posted by boo_radley at 9:27 PM on January 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

Neville from The Specials once heard me drunkenly singing "Do Nothing" and he yelled at me from across the room: "You're singing it wrong, you cunt!"

Also, there's another Mefite who's friends with Gotye, but it's not me so it's not up to me to say who it is
posted by bunglin jones at 9:32 PM on January 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

Oh, is this where we talk about MeFites and their close proximity to musicians of note?

Oooo, will this be a sequel to one of my most favorite FPPs?!?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:34 PM on January 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

My high school English teacher once stepped over Nick Cave having sex.
posted by jonathanstrange at 9:37 PM on January 23, 2013 [6 favorites]

My high school English teacher once stepped over Nick Cave having sex.

STORY. TELL. NOW.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:38 PM on January 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

From my hazy memory (high school was awhile ago now) it was at some party and Roger stepped over him to get smokes.

I think that was the extent of the story. This is the thread for boring claims to fame, though, so it was only fitting that the story is actually pretty boring too.
posted by jonathanstrange at 9:42 PM on January 23, 2013

Who with? Lydia Lunch? PJ Harvey? Kylie Minogue? Mick Harvey?
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:44 PM on January 23, 2013

Finally, somewhere I can pull this one out.

In the course of my job I meet some celebrities. Last year, just before the current season started, I met Michael Weatherly (NCIS), and his son. It was one of the only times I've pulled out the star-struck card, because NCIS is one of my biggest guilty pleasures. Totally fawned over this actor and professed my great interest in his character's story arc. He might have been a little uncomfortable about the whole thing, but that might just be because I was supposed to be a bit officious. Usually being officious doesn't involve swooning.

Anyway, part of my duties include sealing an envelope with an official seal, and kids love it when I get to this part because I take a stamp and just wail it all over an envelope. It's the most exciting thing that happens, and usually they're totally bored up to now. Over the years I've developed a bit of patter during this (otherwise slow and boring part of the process) that involves a basic history of seals and secure communication. I get to mention Kings and Queens and how they made sure their letters got to where they were going without snoops getting their thief eyes all over it. This usually involves explaining what a signet ring is. The kids, they eat it up. It is fascinating after all.

Fast forward to the Holidays episode of the current season, and sure enough the emotional crux of the plot revolves around Weatherly's character's father giving him the 'family ring'. They even call it a signet ring at one point. So what I'm getting at here is Michael Weatherly knows it when he sees it, and I had some of it.

Some small part.
posted by carsonb at 9:55 PM on January 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

no no, other Nick Cave, it was with someone in a soundsuit
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:55 PM on January 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

A good friend of mine directed Wally's first music video. Australia: so small.
posted by crossoverman at 10:08 PM on January 23, 2013

Can I just offload how hard it was for me to not tweet jonathanstrange some silly question about mefites the world over wondering if he still remembers his old mates or if she was just someone he used to know... when I realized, surely some mefite has Meta'd this. Sure enough.
posted by FlamingBore at 10:11 PM on January 23, 2013

Jared from Subway gave me a mountain bike on the 7:00 news outside my college one morning. I told him "I love your work."
posted by klausman at 10:16 PM on January 23, 2013 [5 favorites]

I've seen Neil Hamburger's secret identity.

I served Crispin Glover tea. Two years later he yelled at an employee of a theatre while the owner was giving me drinks and being anti-Semetic to my friend's brother.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 10:18 PM on January 23, 2013

Incidentally, that comment still says "[1 favorite +]" even though it's up to 9 already. Mayhap there's a cache somewhere that needs busting.
posted by teraflop at 10:19 PM on January 23, 2013

I once awkwardly stood between David Bowie and Bryan Adams at a Thanksgiving dinner.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:20 PM on January 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

I really ought to be Mefi's own by now. Hell, I've got 7 times as many listeners as this guy, who's won a Grammy and is supposed to be a Big Celebrity in my area.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:28 PM on January 23, 2013

Jaleel White once tweeted that a web thing I made was dope.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:28 PM on January 23, 2013 [13 favorites]

The actress who played the Borg Queen once complimented my graphic design skills.

I'm really hoping her upper half hove into view suspended by a mass of cables before she said something about incorporating your typographical distinctiveness into her own.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:31 PM on January 23, 2013 [9 favorites]

I once met the guy who's now famous for that Larp Trek comic everybody's talking about.
posted by koeselitz at 10:38 PM on January 23, 2013 [6 favorites]

I once stumbled upon an old forum thread (can't remember the site) in which Owen Pallett was totally geeking out about some new synth he'd bought. It was pretty funny.
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:00 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I demanded David Arquette give me free beer and he actually did. Since then I've been a big fan.
posted by mannequito at 12:44 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

There's a DJ (I think he/she is a DJ) in Australia that goes by/went by "Digitalprimate." I occasionally get emails to him or her. I think it's a him. I recall looking it up once, long ago....

I've often thought about retiring the whole digitalprimate thing (hell, I started using it in 1996!), but here and on one other board it's my central identity. Anyway that dude/dudette could have the coveted gmail address if I ever did.
posted by digitalprimate at 12:56 AM on January 24, 2013

My boring famous-person story:

I was on a beach in Bali in 1999 and Carla Bruni sunbathing nearby asked what I was reading and we had a little conversation in which she was totally blown away that I had no idea who she was.
"I'm quite well known in Italy and France".
"Oh yeah? What for?"
"I'm a supermodel and singer."
"Yeah, right."

I almost didn't even bother to look it up later, because it seemed a bit implausible.
posted by lollusc at 1:14 AM on January 24, 2013 [9 favorites]

actually the united states is quite small as well which is why I know beyoncé, sting, shahrukh khan, chaka khan, and the bassist from vampire weekend
posted by threeants at 1:27 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's cheating because I used to be a music journalist, but...

Valerie Scroggins from ESG once told me I was the most polite young man she'd ever met. Awestruck by my proximity to genius, I said "Well, you're very polite too!" and all the Scroggins sisters laughed and laughed.

Lee Perry borrowed my lighter to light a joint, which he later passed to me. The joint was really quite strong.

Derrick May once put me on hold, claiming he had some business to attend to, but he didn't put me on hold properly, and the business turned out to be ordering chicken from a local restaurant. He was very rude to the chicken restaurant person.

Chuck D asked me to hold his sandwich while he signed a cassette of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back for a fan, then made a rueful face at me when it turned out that said fan wanted him to sign cassettes of every Public Enemy album and single. I think it was a cheese sandwich.
posted by jack_mo at 1:31 AM on January 24, 2013 [10 favorites]

taken at a little house party i threw together
posted by threeants at 1:39 AM on January 24, 2013 [12 favorites]

I was once in a room with all of U2

and approximately twenty thousand fans.
posted by zippy at 2:14 AM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I ran through the halls of the high school that John Mayer sings about running through.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 2:16 AM on January 24, 2013

Derrick May once put me on hold, claiming he had some business to attend to

I once got weed delivered for a famous german techno dj at an afterparty, although he bailed before my friend showed up with it (who to this day doesn't believe that he was actually there).
posted by empath at 2:41 AM on January 24, 2013

Small beer, but Tim Freedman (his band, The Whitlams, were big in Australia in the late 90s'/early 2000s) once asked me to tell my editor that he was A FARKING AAAAAAASSSSHOLE.

Not a musician, but I shared a very large joint with Arj Barker a couple of years ago. Like, well, pretty much everyone at that festival.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:50 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I went to a Mojo Nixon show and afterwards wound up at an afterparty with Skid Roper at the local Motel 6 (although I guess Mojo had cooler places to be; maybe a meetup with Jesus at McDonalds at midnight or something, I dunno).
posted by drlith at 2:53 AM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

Gerard Way once puked on me and a friend's shoes at a diner in NJ around 3 AM. He also used to submit comics-- "The Adventures of Silly-Ass Man"-- to said friend's 'zine, "THe Mongoloid Moose".
posted by ShawnStruck at 3:24 AM on January 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

There was this one time when I... no, never mind, I got nuthin'.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:32 AM on January 24, 2013

I parked Tiny Tim's car, and shook his hand (when he was still alive).
posted by HuronBob at 3:33 AM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I stood behind Dolly Parton in the line at the pharmacy once. But I didn't know it was her until the clerk told me b/c she didn't have her wig and makeup on.

Also I deposed Conway Twitty.
posted by Cocodrillo at 3:58 AM on January 24, 2013 [6 favorites]

I once stapled six pieces of bacon onto six university degree certificates, and then stapled each "baconned" degree together into a long "thread" of bacon-degrees, and then I stapled one end of the bacon-degree-thread to my own face, and then I stapled the other end of the bacon-degree-thread to a person named Kevin, and then I said to him, "Hey! I'm only six bacon degrees away from Kevin!"

Unfortunately the so-called "rules" of English grammar precluded that statement from forming an actual joke, and I was arrested for aggrevated stapling and put in prison. But while in prison, who do you think I met in that tiny, dank prison cell? That's right! I met my death, because the staple holes in my face became infected with rotten bacon bacteria.

But, who do you think I met in the afterlife??? That's right, no-one - because only endless oblivion awaits us after our death. Although there is free wifi. And that's how I can post this very comment from beyond the grave. So if you every see Kevin Bacon please creep up behind him and yell "Boo!", from me.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 4:03 AM on January 24, 2013 [39 favorites]

I don't have anything for now, but later on you will all be able to say we once were in the same thread.
posted by Dr Dracator at 4:41 AM on January 24, 2013

Also I deposed Conway Twitty

What was he king of, and what are you king of now?
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:43 AM on January 24, 2013 [14 favorites]

I once fixed David Byrne's toilet.

And, I once met John Popper (before-he-was-famous) at a hardcore show in Providence, R.I.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:00 AM on January 24, 2013

Speaking of Kevin Bacon, I met him at a party once and blurted out, "I'm a great admirer of your father!" who was one of the heroes of my profession. See: Edmund Bacon. We proceeded to have a nice chat about city planning. One of his sisters joined the field too. NB: When other party-goers asked me what we were talking about, it was fun to tell them he was asking me about my job.
posted by carmicha at 5:08 AM on January 24, 2013 [17 favorites]

I have chatted with Allen Toussaint. And I used wave at Paul Newman every morning when he was shooting a film next to my house. And probably some more that I bet would totally blow your minds, but my memory sux.
posted by taz (staff) at 5:21 AM on January 24, 2013

Also I deposed Conway Twitty

What was he king of, and what are you king of now?

Sorry -- I took his deposition in a legal proceeding. I was a baby lawyer and he was a very nice guy.
posted by Cocodrillo at 5:34 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Australian-not-musicians-filter: I met Cheryl Kernot after her defection to the ALP, and she was one of the rudest bitches I've ever had the misfortune to have to be nice to.

Australian-two-outta-three-are-not-musicians-filter:I met Paul Kelly, Paul Kelly and Paul Kelly at an exhibition at the National Film & Sound Archives in about 1999. Paul Kelly and Paul Kelly were lovely, but Paul Kelly took off as soon as the official business was done.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 5:37 AM on January 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

I have played darts with Bones Hillman (bass guitar player for Midnight Oil), and have his personal cell phone number in my contact list. I once accidentally elbowed Peter Frampton in the ribs. I also once passed Geraldo Rivera on a NYC sidewalk. (I was eating a chocolate croissant at the time. He was not.)

However, all of this pales in comparison with a friend of mine, who once accidentally punched Keith Richards in the stomach. (This was in the mid 1980's. It's unknown whether Mr. Richards was sufficiently coherent at the time to be aware he'd been punched in the stomach.)
posted by MexicanYenta at 5:40 AM on January 24, 2013

I met Michael Weatherly (NCIS), and his son. It was one of the only times I've pulled out the star-struck card, because NCIS is one of my biggest guilty pleasures.

In that case, carsonb: I've actually worked with Cote de Pablo. I was the assistant stage manager for some really weird musical that was in development (think, like, what Twilight would have been like if Abby Sciuto's character replaced Bella), and she was the lead. It was one of her very first gigs in New York. Then six months after it closed she ran into me on the street, and not only remembered who I was (I was this tiny backstage peon), she was visibly pleased to see me, gave me a big hug and spent about 20 minutes asking how I was doing and catching up. So not only is she hot (hell, even my FATHER has a celebrity crush on her), she is tremendously, tremendously nice.

...Also, Cote's big torch song from that show ("I Don't Believe It Anymore") gets used for all sorts of fan-made NCIS Ziva/Tony tribute videos on Youtube, which is beyond surreal for me.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:43 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I have a few stories about seeing bands in bars...

Once, I gave some art I made to my favorite little burrito joint, and they told me that Jim "Sonny" Sonefeld's daughter was petrified of it and she ate outside rather than being in the same room with it. I took this a great complement.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 5:44 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once rode in an elevator with Nina Totenberg. She asked what floor; I said roof.
posted by rtha at 5:45 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

However, all of this pales in comparison with a friend of mine, who once accidentally punched Keith Richards in the stomach. (This was in the mid 1980's. It's unknown whether Mr. Richards was sufficiently coherent at the time to be aware he'd been punched in the stomach.)

Huh! A college friend of mine claimed to have been punched by Keith Richards.

However, the story is a bit apocryphal; there were these five guys who were all roommates and all threw awesome parties my sophmore year, and on Halloween they decided to all host a party and dress up as The Superfriends. And at about 2 am the guys dressed as Superman and Robin went out on a beer run - despite being a little drunk themselves, and despite being dressed as Superman and Robin. They didn't get back until later than anticipated, and came back with a story about having run into Keith and a couple bodyguards as he was coming out of a bar; they tried to talk to him, but apparently said something that pissed Keith off and Keith took a swing at one of them and the bodyguards bundled them off. So they'd stopped to get a cop, but the cop claimed that he couldn't do anything because there hadn't been any witnesses.

Their state of inebriation makes all this somewhat doubtful, though, and I'm also sure that the cop's claims to not be able to do anything may also have been influenced by my friends being dressed as Superman and Robin.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:50 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

OMG the deej, that is scary!
posted by headnsouth at 5:50 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was once in a room with all of U2

and approximately twenty thousand fans.

I thought I saw you there!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:58 AM on January 24, 2013

Nevermind all these brushes with fame; might I point you towards the almighty Lame to Fame? Your most tenuous, least bragworthy links to celebrity? Extra points will be granted if the person is an unexceptional celebrity themselves.

As is the fashion, I will go first, and will also set the bar high, as my Lame to Fame is lame as shit and is also true:

My ex's grandmother's hairdresser was Bam Margera's mom.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 5:59 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Alright - my mother had the same piano teacher as Peter Tork.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:00 AM on January 24, 2013

I move in the same circle of friends as Al Sparhawk from Low (my wife did the principal artwork for the Drums and Guns album), as well as the boys from Trampled By Turtles. TBT came in and did a song for a benefit album I produced years and years ago way before they where famous. Met and talked with Greg Brown, and Leon Redbone. Stage managed Drew Carey once back in the early 90s. Worked with Bobby Mcferren twice when he was guest director/conductor of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Have NOT smoked a joint with Joe Strummer like half the world seems to have done.
posted by edgeways at 6:01 AM on January 24, 2013

Stephen Seagal rode in my family's minivan in order to see a demonstration of my father's rail gun. He was doing research for a movie.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:04 AM on January 24, 2013 [7 favorites]

I think I once made an eavesdropping David Byrne laugh with a terribly cruel joke. I was at a huge book conference with a colleague and I was in an art publisher's booth and came across a book they were going to publish about the later work of Willem de Kooning. But the book in the booth was just a mock-up. When I opened it, it had an introduction, but all the rest of the pages were blank. I turned to my colleague and said, "Maybe he forgot to send them the paintings." She snorted a bit, but I also heard a suppressed snicker to my right and looked up, and it was David Byrne, clearly pretending he was looking for a different book, grinning.
posted by Toekneesan at 6:06 AM on January 24, 2013 [8 favorites]

Rereading my comment, I feel the need to point out that my dad is a happily married man and that Nothing Happened.

Except explosions.

Wait.

oh god
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:08 AM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I would like to hear about your father's railgun, with or without Mr. Seagal.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:24 AM on January 24, 2013

I'm a member of a community Weblog on which a pretty well known Portuguese author used to post.
posted by ODiV at 6:30 AM on January 24, 2013 [9 favorites]

I peed beside Don DeLillo.
posted by escabeche at 6:32 AM on January 24, 2013

Has anyone here actually read Miguel Cardoso's books? What are they like?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:33 AM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I was reading this 'Twitter Wit' book that was pretty underwhelming, but kept me reading on a break. I finally find a funny one and then I see it's by 'mathowie'. I laughed more at borrowing a book of internet tweets only to find funny the man whose site I read daily than I laughed with the rest of the book.

Well, not all of it. I dropped it.
posted by ersatz at 6:39 AM on January 24, 2013

Stephen Seagal rode in my family's minivan in order to see a demonstration of my father's rail gun. He was doing research for a movie.

I think the fact that your father is infamous Silver Age supervillain Professor Armageddon is the more interesting part of that story.
posted by griphus at 6:49 AM on January 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

Years (and years and years) apart, I went to the same high school and college as Robert Anton Wilson, and spent a lot of time getting hammered in his old neighborhood.

Also Eugene Hutz used to drop by the punk shop I managed on a semi-regular basis and we'd just hang out there and be cool guys. Also, at that shop, the drummer from Bad Brains threatened me with violence. And I once told Jared Leto to pull his pants up.
posted by griphus at 6:52 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

This may be a comment interesting enough for the sidebar.
posted by klarck at 6:52 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

My brother's niece is married to one of the guitarists from Dropkick Murphy's.

I once rode an elevator in a hospital with Steven Tyler. Judging by the floor he got off at he was in for a very uncomfortable procedure.
posted by bondcliff at 6:57 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

A drunk, 40something crustpunk once tried to get some cred going by telling us he played with Murphy's Law. Him and every other human being alive.
posted by griphus at 6:59 AM on January 24, 2013

Ooh. Brushes with celebrities stories - I have one of those, and it's lame.

I saw Michael Cera at the Toronto airport once. I didn't want to bother him, but I did turn to my son and say, "That's Michael Cera!" My son approached him, shook his hand, and told him how much he "loved him as Scott Pilgrim." Beyond that (including that, actually) I have no good stories to tell. I don't think getting a book signed by Ray Bradbury counts. It's not like we chatted - he just asked my name and wrote a quick line and then I moved on. Though I was completely in awe, because oh my god, RAY BRADBURY.

I got so upset when I heard that in Stephen King's early days you could send him a book and he'd sign it. Sure, I was only a young kid then, but I wish I'd KNOWN. Now it's impossible to even be in the same room with him unless you're a lucky college student or a Somebody with Connections.
posted by routergirl at 7:02 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Oh, ok, I'll play, but just one.

In the mid 80s when I was a senior in high school, one of my best friends ran a scam he'd successfully run several times in the midwest before moving to my town down south. We got tickets to two Pat Metheny Group shows in different cities. He then called their tour manager (his brother was a working musician and knew how to contact them), and told the road manager, "hey this is the president of the [state] PMG fan club, and we still haven't gotten our back stage passes for the shows; do you know where they might be?" Sure enough, a week later we had them in the mail.

So we go back stage after the first show. Pat comes out, wearing his trademark shorts and legs as large as a wild beast. Said hello to us, but was mostly caught up with the other fans. Then Rodby comes out, and we talk quartet music with him for a bit. Then the elfin Mayes came out. We wound up talking Faulkner to him for nearly an hour. We told him we were going to the next show too. He invited us to the sound check.

When we got to the next show, in the afternoon, before the sound check Mayes let us play with his synclavier (Pat's tech did all his synclavier stuff) for about 15 minutes. We listened to the sound check, and at the end he handed us two tickets. We reminded him we had tickets already, and he said, "so, sell 'em." The tickets he gave us were dead center five rows back.

Cool dudes all around. Shame they are all better with their solo endeavors nowadays and that the group is strictly commercial.
posted by digitalprimate at 7:04 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I have this weird thing with Project Runway...my wife's boss used to work with Tim Gunn, two-time contestant Elisa Jiménez's father once called me to give me the details of a close friend's suicide, and I hired Seal's long-time drummer to play on my latest project.
posted by malocchio at 7:05 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Jaleel White once tweeted that a web thing I made was dope.

Olafur Arnalds, an Icelandic musician known for pretty classical thingies, once tweeted a link to my high school production of David Ives' Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread. To this day I have no way of knowing how the hell he'd have stumbled across that.
posted by Rory Marinich at 7:07 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Donna Douglas (television's Elly May Clampett) was at my parents' wedding. She's attended a few funerals I've conducted, but we've never met.
posted by ColdChef at 7:07 AM on January 24, 2013

I was once in a room with all of U2

Me too...

and Hanson was there bopping along right next to me.
posted by kmz at 7:24 AM on January 24, 2013

I met Dave Grohl once.

I also worked on the road crew for Def Leppard on tour in 1991. That was a surprisingly mundane experience.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:25 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

"That's Michael Cera!" My son approached him, shook his hand, and told him how much he "loved him as...

Mark Zuckerberg."

Come on!

Or if he didn't have the guts for that he could have at least gushed over Year One.

I don't know what it is about Cera, but I keep wanting to put him in awkward situations. It feels like that would be his natural habitat.
posted by ODiV at 7:28 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I once stumbled upon an old forum thread (can't remember the site) in which Owen Pallett yt was totally geeking out about some new synth he'd bought.

Owen Pallett used to post a bunch on ILX. Maybe he still does. I remember getting into an argument with him on there about a comment Regina Spektor made comparing The Strokes to Mozart. He called me a sexy, sanctimonious Brit. Oh wow here's the comment.

I don't necessarily stand by any of the things I posted on forums in 2006. The Strokes don't really sound like Mozart though. Also I am sexy and sanctimonious but not British.
posted by ludwig_van at 7:49 AM on January 24, 2013

I've met and or played music with a pretty large host of semi-famous and famous musicians over the years, but I think I've told all those tales here, long since. A short list of names as they occur to me: Iggy Pop, Joey Ramone, Tom Johnston of the Doobie Bros. (was very encouraging to a very young bass-playing me) Robbie Hunter (Grace Slick walked through the room & said hi), Iain Matthews, Stevie Ray Vaughan & his older brother Jimmie, did some sessions with the drummer from Duke Jupiter (one-hit wonder, but he was a superb player). T-shirt clients over the years included Asleep at the Wheel, Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Robert Earl Keen, Jim Lauderdale, Joe King Carrasco, that list goes on.

Had some close brushes -- the drummer in my current band has met William Shatner who was drunk but super-nice, and here's a crappy lo-res photo of Neil Young wearing a shirt I printed in my garage in the 80's.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:07 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Not-edited to add: Ronnie Lane (I've held his bass!), Mike fucking Keneally (which gives me an Andy Partridge number of 1!) and I've exchanged emails with Dave Gregory about string arrangements.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:12 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Not one, but two of my friends have stories of being aggressively hit on by R. Kelly. But I assume this isn't rare or special in any way. Probably 1/3 of the population of Chicago has been hit on by R. Kelly at some point.
posted by naju at 8:13 AM on January 24, 2013

Your most tenuous, least bragworthy links to celebrity? Extra points will be granted if the person is an unexceptional celebrity themselves.

I scratched my balls in an elevator with Brad Linaweaver.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:17 AM on January 24, 2013

My brother once went out for beers with Moe Berg. You wouldn't know him; he's from Canada.
posted by never used baby shoes at 8:22 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I sat near David Byrne at the San Francisco airport. He was on his laptop and talking to bandmates, though, so I didn't go up and gush.

Joe Paterno said hi to me once. I felt less conflicted about this at the time.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:31 AM on January 24, 2013

I was once mistaken for a Mexican writer at an Australian uni campus. Maybe it was because they were expecting him, and I was brown.
posted by dhruva at 8:33 AM on January 24, 2013

Yvonne Craig (60s-era TV Batgirl) once took my silk tie in both hands and stroked it repeatedly while complimenting it, and asking where I'd had it made.

she was in her late 50s and I was in my mid-20s, but that didn't make it awkward; what made it awkward was that it was an off-the-rack Sears tie.
posted by davejay at 8:33 AM on January 24, 2013

I saw Earl Campbell "sing" a verse of Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys at a local bar called Donn's Depot.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:39 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Wow, there are an awful lot of David Byrne mentions in this thread. I don't want to sound paranoid but I think that guy might be stalking us.
posted by Toekneesan at 8:47 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I stood in line behind most of REM once.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:09 AM on January 24, 2013

Wow, there are an awful lot of David Byrne mentions in this thread. I don't want to sound paranoid but I think that guy might be stalking us.

Actually, if you live in NYC below Midtown, sooner or later you'll probably see him. He gets out a lot.
posted by digitalprimate at 9:10 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I saw Gene Wolfe once at a con in Baltimore. He spoke at length to a small room full of nerds that smelled like utter death. He's a large man with a shaved bald head and a bristly mustache, very well dressed unlike 100% of the other people at the con. I asked him something about Peace vs his Wizards books which had just come out. He made some very strange statements about politics and some very wise statements about art. I shook his hand afterward and said that the BOTNS was the best thing I'd ever read. He smiled, a little, then wandered away. I've met a lot of famous literary writers and been like ehh around them mostly, but maybe because he's so opaque and iconoclastic, I felt like I was sharing a (smelly) atmosphere with TS Eliot or something.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:18 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was once taking a leak, and the urinals on either side of me were taken up by Dallas and Travis Good.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:20 AM on January 24, 2013

Oh, and I spoke with John DeChancie at a con in Cleveland once.

John DeChancie (the author), not John de Lancie (Q).
posted by Chrysostom at 9:21 AM on January 24, 2013

Oh and I totally cursed out John Lurie and called him a liar (turned out he wasn't and I apologized for my behavior)
posted by edgeways at 9:22 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I lived in the same apartment complex as Miss LaVelle.
posted by buzzman at 9:22 AM on January 24, 2013

I met a bunch of comic book artists at a fundraiser/launch party at the sadly-now-defunct Words and Pictures museum, but I don't know if that counts as I paid to get in. I did start an argument about Kirby's design chops, tho.

I hung out with Taylor Mali, Kyria Abrams, Beau Sia, Wammo, Saul Williams and Sage Francis a few times, back when they were slam poets.

I once kicked the band 7 Mary 3 out of a strip club in Daytona Beach (I was working security, and it was closing time.)

Oh! This is the best one - I went to Barnes and Nobles in Warwick, RI with my girlfriend, and the two guys from Ghost Hunters were there (Grant's Bently was parked out front). I had to play it cool, because I didn't want her to know I watched the hell out of Ghost Hunters. I didn't even get a chance to demand they bring Brian back onto the show.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:31 AM on January 24, 2013

Oh! I also once yelled at Vint Cerf because my DSL service was terrible.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:33 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once showed Gene Siskel where the soda machine was.
posted by macadamiaranch at 9:34 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

A high school friend of mine had Michael Jordan's personal phone number, obtained as part of my friend's job for some company. My friend would call Jordan every January 1st a bit past midnight, and wish him a happy new year.

I was in the car with my friend one New Years Morning when he called Michael Jordan, who was sleepy, but polite for being called by a drunk 20something kid he didn't really know.

Then there was the time or high school movie class teacher had Jeff Bridges come into the class to talk about acting. We watched clips of some of his movies, and no one was too impressed. The one clip I remember was from Starman, and this was a few years before The Big Lebowski. The only person really asking any questions was the teacher's daughter, who wasn't even in our class.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2013

I once showed Gene Siskel where the soda machine was.

I showed Jeff Goldblum where the elevator was in a theater complex.

And I have been regretting ever since that I did not stop him as he was boarding and ask, "incidentally, Mr. Goldblum, what was that watermelon doing there?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:45 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Bill Murray and Jim Jarmusch once smoked some marijuana that I grew.

Woody Harrelson was several times a dick to my dad.
posted by St. Sorryass at 10:08 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I have a friend who had to take sides in Troy Aikman's divorce (and was talking to him on the phone when this happened)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:14 AM on January 24, 2013

Dar Williams came by an otherwise closed restaurant after a show to drop off some signed CDs to about ten of us who had won tickets/dinner from a radio station. Her and her cello player decided the food looked good so she sat down right next to me to eat with us. We talked about living in Westchester county and music (and the food, which was quite good).
posted by mikepop at 10:19 AM on January 24, 2013

Philip Glass faxed me some hand-written sheet music once.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:24 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've been seen naked by Björk.
posted by sonika at 10:26 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I guess I get quite a few "Lame to Fames" through my husband. One of his ex-roommates gave Dave Grohl's mom a ride home from a party. And he used to be co-workers with the much-maligned dad of Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden.
posted by drlith at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2013

I smacked Pat McCurdy in the mouth with a bag of Skittles and almost broke his tooth. And at an Arizona hotel breakfast I complained to B. B. King about the Chicago weather.
posted by eamondaly at 10:28 AM on January 24, 2013

A blank piece of paper came through my fax machine once. I can only assume it was John Cage sending me the score for 4'33"
posted by carmicha at 10:28 AM on January 24, 2013 [15 favorites]

Juliana Hatfield rolled her eyes at me once. I totally deserved it.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:31 AM on January 24, 2013

In college, I was friends with a girl who dated Weird Al and is credited as the one who convinced him to become a vegetarian. I talked to him on the phone once.
posted by Melismata at 10:34 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Man, living in LA makes this not even fair, between working at Hustler (where we got an average of two has-beens a week) and then canvassing, where I met Tim DeKay and Len Wein back to back (Wein drew Swamp Thing for me as an autograph! OMG!).

But I do have Jane Lynch's cell phone number, since her wife is on our board.
posted by klangklangston at 10:45 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Oh I've met Greg Nog a couple times too.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:47 AM on January 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

"In college, I was friends with a girl who dated Weird Al and is credited as the one who convinced him to become a vegetarian. I talked to him on the phone once."

OK, claim to lame: I have met two different women who both claim that Weird Al only accepts oral sex from groupies and that he gave them throat herpes. (And I've met a guy who had heard the same story from his ex-girlfriend, who may have been one of the aforementioned women but we couldn't figure it out.)
posted by klangklangston at 10:47 AM on January 24, 2013

I heard that was Rod Stewart.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:59 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Weird Al has female groupies who want to suck his dick?

Man, the world is such a weird place.
posted by Sara C. at 11:10 AM on January 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'll bet he hums a few bars of "My Bologna" just to "set the mood."
posted by octobersurprise at 11:15 AM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Maybe they're just pretending they're sucking Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, Robert Palmer, or James Brown's respective dicks, only funnier.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:17 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Jane Siberry and I once flirted at a law school conference. She sent me a personal email, and I replied, spelling her name wrong.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:19 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I remember asking other friends why they'd broken up, and the answer was "well, he really was weird."
posted by Melismata at 11:20 AM on January 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

One of my Facebook friends was once married to Alan Tudyk's brother.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:28 AM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

My brother once went out for beers with Moe Berg. You wouldn't know him; he's from Canada.

Are you sure that wasn't just a cover story?

I once drove the members of Night Ranger around Augusta, GA in my mom's minivan.
posted by TedW at 11:30 AM on January 24, 2013

Pilgrims will come from all of the world to genuflect before The Cable-Knit of Tammy Faye.

Well, I would.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:38 AM on January 24, 2013

I once drove the members of Night Ranger around Augusta, GA in my mom's minivan.

Motoring!
posted by octobersurprise at 11:41 AM on January 24, 2013 [18 favorites]

I had Thom Gunn introduce me to John Ashbery as a "really talented poet" at a reading/signing. (I'd taken a workshop with Thom the semester before). I really regret that I'd only brought a Selected Poems to be signed, because I reckon he could have filled my last name into the dedication for Flow Chart (my first name is David, the dedication for Flow Chart reads "for David").
posted by juv3nal at 11:44 AM on January 24, 2013

Okay, I was responsible for introducing MetaFilter to Gotye in December of 2011 in a post primarily about a whole different song/video of his (but acknowledging his cool use of animation of varying styles). After that, in irc, jonathanstrange told me her "Tales of Musical Wally" and I asked her to pass on a suggestion for him to play the theater at Cal Poly SLO when he tours the U.S. (hey, it's an important venue; William Shatner did his one-man show there last weekend).

You can't have lived in L.A. for 44 years as I did without a few "brushes with fame" (three of which occurred in the Express Line of a certain supermarket near Marina Del Rey), but sadly, nothing with actual music stars, in spite of a few years in the Radio Biz.

Casey Kasem, longtime host of American Top 40, did yell at me on live TV (it was a PBS fundraiser doing a live auction and volunteer me was on the phone with a bidder who was 30-seconds behind everything, and every time I yelled out a bid lower than the current bid, his patience wore thinner until he shouted at me "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP" for all of L.A.'s Public TV audience to hear). Casey's wife, the lovely and taller-than-him Jean Kasem, best known for the Cheers-spin-off "The Tortellis", apologized to me backstage later.

I did some work for Gary Owens, "Laugh-In" announcer/character and the original voice of Space Ghost AND Powdered Toast Man. When I was selling jokes to disc jockeys, he gave me an endorsement in a trade paper that I was "funnier than Jack Lord and Lorne Greene combined".

And years before I worked/sidekicked for him, Dick Whittington did have the last interview with Nat King Cole, via phone from his hospital bed where he was dying of lung cancer. And during an in-studio talk with Harry Chapin, Harry pulled out his guitar and did a song he "had just written and not recorded yet"; it was "Cats in the Cradle" (causing Dick to make the only logical reaction - yelling "Stop the show! I gotta go call my son!") One-degree-removed, sure, but by the time I worked for him, his show was all-talk and nobody in the music biz bothered with him.

But speaking of Wierd Al, when I was scouting colleges, I did tour the college radio station at Cal Poly SLO where he recorded his first songs (two years BEFORE he did) and even stopped at the mens room down the hall where he got the echo effect for "Another One Rides the Bus". One of my great regrets was missing out on that "brush with pre-fame" (And yes, it was one of the reasons I moved up here 30 years later). I did meet with the legendary Dr. Demento (who officially discovered The Weird One) and in conversation, discovered that I owned a novelty record he did NOT have, which I immediately lent him - he taped it, returned it in a very secure mailer, played it on his show and it made the Top 10 Requested list several times. So proud for something that was NOT my own creation.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:53 AM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm probably going to forget one in this process, but here goes: brushes & lame, all together...

Watty from Exploited offered to let me and some friends drink from his (whisky?) bottle during intermission at their show at Powertools in Houston, '87-ish. I was straight-edge at the time. ARGH. The band actually talked to us for a little bit because we hung out and weren't obnoxious.

I was an extra in a minor Victoria Principal TV-movie (sidewalk traffic, probably not even identifiable) and got to watch her hair get brushed over and over again in the relentless Albuquerque breeze.

Once irritated Neil Gaiman...mere hours after I offered him candy containing wheat during Passover. He was one of my writing heroes at the time, of course. Still stings a bit.

Used to eat breakfast at the same joint favoured by Reverend Horton Heat, and he was known to my family as a nice guy who did not get made when my unmannered toddler niece stole food off his plate.

My mom went to high school and was in drama with JoBeth Williams.

A member of ZZ Top changed my diaper in the commune that was my first home.

Kurt Russell is one of my mom's cousins, and, thusly, one of mine. She had a picture for a long time of him in front of a huge selection of trophies, smiling like a little king. And another from a family reunion with a recognisable uncle from our East Texas side of the family.

Helped Toby Froud (baby in "The Labyrinth", son of Brian & Wendy) convince his parents to let him get fangs at a regional convention his family was kind enough to bless with their attendance. Such a great kid, and it's clear he's grown into an awesome man.

Shook hands with John Travolta when he thanked me after I took point on visit logistics when he dropped into said convention to randomly and suddenly promote that corny Scientology movie. He seemed like a really nice person, actually, and I was strangely sad for him. Also: I had no idea he was so tall! His "people" acted like they were Secret Service agents and changed the panel plan (again, all spur of the moment) five different times, each less satisfying for the fans than the last. We had to disarm people of even peace-bonded weapons for them to proceed through his meet & greet.

Chuck Norris came in to pick up the script copies made at the Kinko's in front of the train tracks where they filmed many "Walker, Texas Ranger" scenes one time, and while everyone else was star-struck, I just helped him get what he needed and let him move on. He was nice enough, for a complete nutbag jerkface. I had no idea of all that at the time and thought it was a really human move for him to not send the PA or whatever.

Actually can't list all of the musicians, authors, and artists I've met who have gone on to some notoriety...because I'm terrible with names and always forget in the clutch. This is the clutch. And I definitely know that some fell out of my head while I tried to get these down, dangit. All super minor, but all treasured, and will come to mind over the rest of the day to haunt me, I'm sure.
posted by batmonkey at 11:58 AM on January 24, 2013

I peed beside Don DeLillo.

Unbeknownst to you, Thomas Pynchon was at the very next urinal.
posted by tigrefacile at 12:02 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

At an LA MeFi meetup at the Farmer's Market, I saw Jeff Garland, Tom Lennon, and Aimee Mann (all separately) in the space of about five minutes. But seeing scody again was better than seeing all of them put together.
posted by ColdChef at 12:06 PM on January 24, 2013 [8 favorites]

better than seeing all of them put together.

Great. Now I'm suddenly picturing those celebrities having a three-way.
posted by ColdChef at 12:07 PM on January 24, 2013

I'm picturing them as Voltron.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I once bought Will Oldham a tequila shot at a Mekons gig.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I feel like I should have a good story for this, but I think almost all of my celebrity-meeting stories aren't really 'in the wild.' Like when my ex was involved in theater stuff, I usually saw shows for free by being the seat filler in the spare seat next to the famous person so said famous person wouldn't end up sitting next to a crazy fan... which is how I sat next to Noah Wylie at the height of E.R. fame and a bunch of even-less-important-but-still-gave-money actors. (Randomly, during this time but not in my unofficial capacity of celebrity buffer, I also sat next to Mel Gibson when he came to see Gary Sinise did One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.)

Speaking of Steppenwolf, I bumped into John Malkovich coming out of the theater right shortly after Being John Malkovich came out and I was super obsessed with it. Total mindfuck
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Seems like I brought it up before, but when i worked at Xalapeño Charlie's, we were right across the street from 2 large-ish venues, and I cooked food for John Doe & Excene Cervenka, Billy Gibbons (more than once-- he was in several times) & most of Peter Gabriel's band, including Tony Levin, one of my absolute heroes. I'd guess there were more I was unaware of, but those for sure.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:14 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I gave Boy George a stern talking-to when he was rude, once.
posted by 41swans at 12:22 PM on January 24, 2013

Friend of mine worked at a Vegas casino and was on his dinner break at the buffet. Got talking to another guy in line about music. The guy turned out to be a member of Kansas -- who my friend had never heard of, since he only knows about classical music. They ended up having a nice dinner together and a long conversation about classical music.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:23 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

My roommate played drums for Jello Biafra until 2011 and was a road drummer for Ween, so he has some of the best rock stories I've ever heard. Also, Teller (of Penn and Teller) was his high school English teacher. He saw Teller on MUNI in SF once and they struck up a conversation; a woman sitting nearby was flabbergasted, apparently at seeing Teller wax loquacious.

I gave piano lessons to the child of a famous pop star but can't really talk about it because of a non-disclosure agreement. There are a couple LA Mefites who'll vouch for me regarding that bizarre and totally awesome tale.
posted by the_bone at 12:28 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Kathy Valentine's mother Margaret used to manage one of my bands, and I worked with a guy who claimed that Kathy wrote Vacation about him.

I follow Neko Case on Twitter & have re-tweeted her on occasion.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:28 PM on January 24, 2013

My ex-girlfriend's sister dated Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) for a few months after meeting him at a Halloween gig we played at that he MC'd. He was a pretty great guy & fun to party with.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:34 PM on January 24, 2013

Going back over that thread Sonika linked to, I found this from kittenmarlowe:

"Barry Manilow sang at one of my cousin's weddings once. Apparently we are related to him. I asked my mother, "Why didn't I know that?" She said, "We don't really like to talk about it.""

This is pretty much exactly my wife's relationship with Kenny Chesney.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:35 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

My uncle was Roberta Flack's pianist for like fifteen years. He was a child prodigy who appeared on a bunch of TV shows in the fifties and also did music on commercials for a long time (my mom is estranged from her sister, though, so I haven't seen him forever. Nice guy, though. Does a mean Donald Duck impression).

I've met a lot of big time YA authors and some SF people now but it doesn't feel particularly meaningful because we're all dorks.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:37 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

the intimate details of my close encounter with Ryan Lochte
posted by elizardbits at 12:43 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Meryl Streep asked me if I was old enough to drink champagne.
posted by sweetkid at 12:47 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I once used a changeroom at the Levi's store on Lex just vacated by Linda Evangelista.

She and I went to the same high school, though not at the same time. On her grad photo, she has huge Mall Hair.

I later worked with someone who played softball with Linda Evangelista's brother. Apparently, he's the hawt one of the family.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:51 PM on January 24, 2013

Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes was friends with/dated my college roommate when they were in high school. I talked to him on the phone briefly a few times.

My ex-husband and I had an argument that somehow ended with him wearing a huge neon-pink towel on his head, but he chickened out and left it in the car when we went to Lennox Mall in Atlanta. Just as we were about to go inside, Madonna and Dennis Rodman threw open the doors (literally threw open, they almost bounced off me) and walked out right past us. We always lamented that he wasn't wearing the towel still, because then they might have remembered us...
posted by gemmy at 12:53 PM on January 24, 2013

Not me, but my aunt knows Mick Jones from Foreigner. I think his daughter went to the school where my aunt used to teach.

Anyway, I was talking to my uncle one day and he casually mentioned that my aunt had met Mick Jones a few times and I was like "No way! That is so cool! How come you never told me that before?"

That really confused him until he realized that I thought he was talking about Mick Jones from The Clash.
posted by mcmile at 12:59 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I knew the drummer from [famous rock band] in high school but I can't talk about it because the main story I have involves him tripping on mushrooms during marching band practice.
posted by naju at 1:02 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

OK, claim to lame: I have met two different women who both claim that Weird Al only accepts oral sex from groupies and that he gave them throat herpes.

If this isn't true, I really hope Weird Al defends his reputation, perhaps in the form of a parody song. My vote is for "Somebody That I Used To Blow".
posted by dubold at 1:07 PM on January 24, 2013 [13 favorites]

The drummer in one of my high school bands dated Fastball's drummer's sister.

Austin wasn't a very big town back then, though.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:19 PM on January 24, 2013

"This is pretty much exactly my wife's relationship with Kenny Chesney."

That's kind of a shame — Kenny Chesney's actually really nice. Or was to a bunch of us in Nashville on a music internship; we met a bunch of song runners who worked with him and he and some other pop country woman came down and performed. On that same trip, I worked as a seat filler and sat next to Alan Jackson, who was wearing a full leather suit which I could only imagine was incredibly hot.

(We also had writing sessions with Big and Rich, and they ended up turning one of the other groups' songs into a hit.)
posted by klangklangston at 1:19 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I saw Robert Plant at the local bookstore last year. He was browsing the mythology shelves.
posted by mattbucher at 1:21 PM on January 24, 2013

Years ago, when NBC still broadcast his show, David Letterman used to have an occasional segment called Brush with Greatness featuring people from the audience. One guy mentioned seeing Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady) driving another bumper car at an amusement park. The guy claimed that he and his friends ganged up on the hapless D-lister, cornering him while they took turns ramming his car.
posted by carmicha at 1:39 PM on January 24, 2013

Dave McCormack gave me Darren Hanlon's number. I called him at 3am to challenge him to pinball but he never responded.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 1:45 PM on January 24, 2013

Edited to add: After watching this scene in which Barry Williams is clearly (and admittedly) baked, I can kind of see it.
posted by carmicha at 1:48 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I have been regretting ever since that I did not stop him as he was boarding and ask, "incidentally, Mr. Goldblum, what was that watermelon doing there?"

I really wish you had done this if only so he could have turned and, as the elevator doors slid closed, said with a slight smile, "I'll tell you later."
posted by adamdschneider at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2013

Maybe I should get a pseudonym.

Too late! You're already World Famous! (sorry, couldn't resist...)
posted by hapax_legomenon at 2:01 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I used to live above Simon & Bronwyn Bonney (nee Adams) from Crime & the City Solution. Never saw much of Simon, but Bronny used to drop in to borrow some eggs or sugar or chat about things like whether or not I thought Nick Cave would mind if she eBayed some marked-up manuscripts of And the Ass Saw the Angel, because she needed a bit of extra money for the electricity bill.

It's strange, seeing musicians in a regular domestic context. They're exactly like anybody else, only with random stashes of Nick Cave memorabilia.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:22 PM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I once got in a fight with Martha Stewart in an elevator. There were no witnesses.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:22 PM on January 24, 2013

I once sat around a room debating whether a literary/art/web thing should be called "Kvass" after a bread-flavoured soda with Paul Banks from Interpol, among others. It was not called Kvass.
posted by Diablevert at 2:36 PM on January 24, 2013

Speaking of Kevin Bacon, I met him at a party once and blurted out, "I'm a great admirer of your father!" who was one of the heroes of my profession. See: Edmund Bacon.
I went to a symposium or some sort of special event for Edmund Bacon in Philadelphia around 1991, honoring his career and I saw Kevin slink into the back of the auditorium with his sunglasses on to attend the event. He was slouched way down in his seat in the back and the whole time I was thinking how funny it was that the entire 500+ people in the auditorium (all city planners and academics from Penn) were WAY more star-struck at being in the presence of his father and probably couldn't care less about Kevin.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 2:37 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

On preview, Martha Stewart once mistakenly left a message on my friend's voice mail. I listened to it. Also, my godfather's wife works with either Ben Affleck's or Matt Damon's mom, I think Affleck's.
posted by Diablevert at 2:38 PM on January 24, 2013

I had lunch with Isaac Hayes. Twice.

Also My mom had a short stint as Nina Simone's PA when she lived in France.
posted by ramix at 2:50 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Diablevert: “I once sat around a room debating whether a literary/art/web thing should be called 'Kvass' after a bread-flavoured soda with Paul Banks from Interpol, among others. It was not called Kvass.”

Hey, I once met one of the guys from Interpol, too! I didn't catch his name, though. Honestly he seemed really bored. I get the feeling working at a customs kiosk in the Madrid airport isn't all it's cracked up to be.
posted by koeselitz at 2:54 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once got in a fight with Martha Stewart in an elevator. There were no witnesses.

Martha Stewart insulted the town next to mine in a double page New York Times Magazine spread, but I missed out on meeting her and all the other CT celebs like Paul Newman. Except Don Imus - I'd go trick or treating at his house. And Gene Wilder, who was very unfunny in a series of Chekov plays in a theatre next to my dad's resturant.

In the Rowland S Howard obit thread, there was a heartbreaking story about him. Does anyone remember that?
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 2:54 PM on January 24, 2013

Hey, I once met one of the guys from Interpol, too! I didn't catch his name, though. Honestly he seemed really bored.

They're like that on record, too.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 2:55 PM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

At tad late, but I once served champagne to Alexei Sultanov, the winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1989. Woo.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 3:00 PM on January 24, 2013

I once sat around a room debating whether a literary/art/web thing should be called 'Kvass' after a bread-flavoured soda with Paul Banks from Interpol, among others. It was not called Kvass.

In high school, my friends had a black metal band and were looking for a particularly grim name. For a brief few days they were known as BAKLAVA until the keyboardist got over his cold, showed up to practice and explained that in his absence they had named their band after a delicious Turkish pastry (pastries are not grim.)
posted by griphus at 3:01 PM on January 24, 2013 [7 favorites]

Some of you have been in a room with me, which is pretty impressive. For you I mean.
posted by Justinian at 3:11 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

My husband and I once followed Ben Stein for several blocks in NYC till he went into what I can only assume was his building. I was a huge fan at the time (heyday of Win Ben Stein's Money), but I think I'd be less enthused these days.

That same trip to NYC we were sitting on a bench in Central Park and Matthew Broderick walked by wearing a softball/baseball uniform, with someone else in the same uniform. I smiled and waved, which is as far as I go with brushes with celebrity.
posted by altopower at 3:42 PM on January 24, 2013

Oh, and my husband saw Tim Robbins at the Apple Pan in LA. Tim most emphatically did not want to be seen.
posted by altopower at 4:16 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Apple Pan is a great place to pretend not to recognize famous people. I still treasure the "don't you dare" scowl I got from John Lithgow there.
posted by RogerB at 4:46 PM on January 24, 2013

I once opened for The Grim Pastries.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:47 PM on January 24, 2013

I opened a pack of Tastykakes that were pretty depressing once.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 4:49 PM on January 24, 2013

My husband bought cheese at a deli in New York one time. He was wearing a cap, his beard, and a flannel shirt. The guy at the checkout said "Here's your cheese Mr Seymour Hoffman" and handed some cheese to Casey, who looked at Phillip Seymour Hoffman standing next to him also in a cap, beard and flannel shirt and the checkout guy got confused. PSH and Casey shared this look that said "yeah, that's fair, we do look alike" and went their different way (with their correct cheeses).
posted by jonathanstrange at 4:50 PM on January 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

My son went to high school and had some classes with J. Cole. (They graduated the same year.) He claims Cole hates him because they always had to grade each other's quizzes in class and my son was a rather strict grader.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:10 PM on January 24, 2013

ColdChef started it, but I just came in here to say that I'm mates with Luke Concannon who employed Ed Sheeran as a guitar tech. First time my daughter met Luke, she played him "The A-team" on her guitar and he smiled and said "Oh you know Ed's stuff?" These two gentlemen are lovely, lovely men.
posted by salishsea at 5:21 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

I carded Madonna (much to the dismay of her entourage -- but she herself was amused).

John Waters tried to hit on me in a bar.

I shared an elevator with Chicago (the band) in Berlin (the city).
posted by trip and a half at 5:45 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once opened for The Grim Pastries.

I liked their earlier stuff, when they were still called Dönüttz.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:49 PM on January 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

I did major appliance servicing for Wilf Carter.
posted by Mitheral at 5:59 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I just saw the guy who plays Abed on Community in a coffeeshop in Pasadena.
posted by Sara C. at 6:09 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

This little gem is still the best Metafilter music-related story.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:13 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

My pediatrician was Heidi Fleiss's father. He was apparently a really nice guy, according to my parents. I was too young to really judge that for myself.

And I once stood by while some kid who got invited to Tom Hanks's kid's birthday party got his hand stuck in a thing and Rita Wilson looked annoyed. Really annoyed. I was a tad frightened on behalf of the kid. And myself.

Oh, oh, oh, and I escorted a kid (who hosted a children's news show on Univision) around Disney's California Adventure, and made sure she didn't drink anything alcoholic. That was fun. A model... Tyra Banks, maybe? Anyway, a model, very tall, shared a cocktail table with us for a good fifteen minutes.
posted by SMPA at 6:15 PM on January 24, 2013

If anyone is actually a GOTYE fan, this was just announced:

Somebody that you know as Australia’s biggest artist today is heading to Sydney for 2SER and Groovescooter’s Q & A event In Conversation – Gotye.

Gotye will be In Conversation talking about his music and spectacular rise around the world with 2SER’s Paris Pompor on Thursday, February 14 at 7pm at The Green Room – 156 Enmore Road Enmore.

posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 6:27 PM on January 24, 2013

mr_crash_davis, thanks for sharing that one. I wish I could have seen John Fogerty's face.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:32 PM on January 24, 2013

I once had a conversation with Stephen Malkmus about urban planning while Spiral Stairs gave me a "high-tech Japanese multi-vitamin" (not a euphemism).
posted by hot soup girl at 7:07 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm actually friends with a rather well-known musician (I'd guess 80% of you would have heard of him). But it's too weird listing him as a "I know a famous guy" example. Because he's just my friend's husband. I knew him for ages before someone told me who he was. (He's the sort of guy you will have heard of, but probably wouldn't recognise or be able to describe without looking him up). And he might read this and be mad that I am bragging about him, since he's the sort of self-effacing guy who never mentions his fame ever.

So no, I won't tell you.
posted by lollusc at 7:28 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's Bono and Kanye in a Disney bodyswap film.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:31 PM on January 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Gotye will be In Conversation talking about his music and spectacular rise around the world with 2SER’s Paris Pompor on Thursday, February 14 at 7pm at The Green Room – 156 Enmore Road Enmore.

Sorry, that night I'll be at the Enmore Theatre (Enmore Road, Enmore) seeing Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:36 PM on January 24, 2013

Sorry, that night I'll be at the Enmore Theatre (Enmore Road, Enmore) seeing Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Hopefully they'll play loud enough to scare all the GOTYE fans away.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:37 PM on January 24, 2013

Or at least deafen them. A little too late though, considering the earworm has already burrowed right in.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:40 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once almost got arrested by stealthy bicycle cops for smoking a post-concert joint with half of Collective Soul on the street in Lawrence, KS. Fortunately for all, one of the other people we were with managed to disappear it into a storm drain.
posted by jferg at 7:51 PM on January 24, 2013

Oh, and I also used to live downstairs from Iris DeMent. She had get-togethers with fellow local musicians about once a month which always made for an enjoyable afternoon in our apartment due to poor soundproofing.
posted by jferg at 7:53 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I shook Dar Williams' hand when I was in college and really high. I had no idea who she was but I was hanging out with these folkie people that night and they seemed to think she was cool so that was good enough for me.
posted by mcmile at 8:06 PM on January 24, 2013

FOOOOGEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRTTTTTTYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! *shakes fist at sky*
posted by miss lynnster at 8:11 PM on January 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

Felicia Day hugged me once.

I slept with somebody who slept with somebody who slept with Ani Difranco. (And I actually met Ani through that person and had a brief, incredibly awkward conversation with her.)

Vanilla Ice told me he liked my tattoo.

I once delivered flowers to Michael Jordan's wife. Not from him. And not really to her, exactly, since they had a security guard. But I got to drive through the big gate with the number 23 on it.

My mother's old college roommate is really good friends with Hillary Clinton.

I feel like I've told all of mine before, but hey, this is That Thread again. All of my recent encounters don't make good stories, really - like, I met a bunch of SF professionals at Worldcon, but so did everyone else who went to Worldcon. And you can hear me say, like, five words in a video chat with Tobias Buckell that we just finished an hour ago (I am the one who didn't have video set up) because I happened to chip in early to the Jay Lake fundraiser, but that's also not really chance. (Although it is kind of sad that we weren't broadcasting the whole time, because you lose the gradual progression of Toby's drunkenness, and he's sort of rambling right off.)
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:45 PM on January 24, 2013

I slept with somebody who slept with somebody who slept with Ani Difranco. (And I actually met Ani through that person and had a brief, incredibly awkward conversation with her.)

She has recorded a few of her albums at a studio in south Austin, and you just now jogged my memory -- we were finishing up some mixes there, & she arrived early for a mixing session that evening, & hung out on the couch for about 15 minutes while we wrapped up. She was amazingly nice & normal. Also struck me as incredibly sharp. She was apparently engineering & mixing her stuff by herself.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:30 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once kicked a soccer ball around with Frank Turner, and then the next year I hung out with him for 10 minutes and hugged him at a pub. Sure, that means nothing to most of you. But BOW BEFORE ME, ENGLISH PEOPLE, FOR NOW I AM YOUR KING!

I kinda know a band that knows Bob Dylan.

I waited 2 hours outside of a venue to meet Brian Fallon from Gaslight Anthem just to tell him that he made me proud to be from New Jersey.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:35 PM on January 24, 2013

I'm not British, but the Frank Turner story is the best. I love his music sosomuch, and would like to give him hugs.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:06 PM on January 24, 2013

I saw Derek and the Dominoes in 1971 and was blown away by the band. Last year I found out that Bobby Whitlock is a member of the food co-op I work at and now I see him in the aisles often.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:13 PM on January 24, 2013

I'm not British, but the Frank Turner story is the best. I love his music sosomuch, and would like to give him hugs.

My hobby is hugging musicans I like after shows. Pink Eye from Fucked Up and Patience from the Grates - best sweaty hugs.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 10:18 PM on January 24, 2013

I ate Neal Stephenson's cupcake.
posted by redsparkler at 10:26 PM on January 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

I worked in a project that had me in a room with three other people with a combined net worth of over 50 billion dollars.

No names due to NDA, they are pretty famous but they were some of the most intelligent, well read, hard working and open minded people I know. They even were very kind to me and my family.

It will suck when the revolution comes and they are first against the wall.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 11:36 PM on January 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

I was walking across the pedestrian bridge from Red Square at the University of Washington to 15th Ave. Two men were walking the opposite direction. One looked JUST LIKE Alan Cumming and I did a double-take and stared hard. The maybe-or-maybe-not-Alan-Cumming person lifted an eyebrow and twitched a smile at me (two more marks in the maybe-Alan-Cumming column). I stared harder and walked on.
posted by librarina at 12:13 AM on January 25, 2013

Ice-T once retweeted a tweet of mine.
posted by nile_red at 2:41 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once got kicked out of an elevator by Joe Biden. It was the Senators Only elevator, but I was in a hurry, so I tried to sneak in behind the group of 7 or 8 cute female staffers/interns who he took into the elevator with him.

Now I'm confused - did you actually meet him or is this from the Onion?
posted by Dr Dracator at 3:15 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I ate Neal Stephenson's cupcake.

David Strathairn ate a cupcake I'd baked, came back for a second one and told me they were very good.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:09 AM on January 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

> David Strathairn ate a cupcake I'd baked, came back for a second one and told me they were very good.

Sigh.
posted by hot soup girl at 4:55 AM on January 25, 2013

I EAT YOUR CUPCAKE!!!!!!! I EAT IT UP!!!!!
posted by The Deej at 6:40 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

A few years ago, my parents went a guided tour of southern Mexico; one of their tour-mates was a member of Monty Python, "the one with ears that stick out". Outside of (probably) being familiar with the group by name they were/are ignorant of their work, as far as I know.

My other claim-to-lame is that I used to socialize a lot with a girl whose cousin made an album which Beck produced at least one song on, circa 1998 or '99.
posted by mr. digits at 6:47 AM on January 25, 2013

I once had lunch with Quine. at an awful chain Japanese noodle place. he seemed very absentminded and I can never remember if he put sugar in his soup or soy sauce in his tea but it was one of the two. also, Akihiro Kanamori was there.

oh and ran into a very dejected-looking Kylie Minogue in Hamburg late 80s or so.

I think that's all I got.
posted by dorian at 6:48 AM on January 25, 2013

Alan Ruck kept an eye on my brother and I for a few minutes while my mother got stuff from the car. Mom was a grad student, Alan a lowly undergrad. Chambana. 1979?

When I worked at the downtown Tower Records in New York I sold CDs to Spike Lee and that kinky haired girl from Neutrogena commercials, back to back. 1991

I nodded at Geraldo Rivera (how could I not nod?) on 56th street and he shot me with a 'hey, guy' gun. 2001

I took a Polaroid of Janeane Garofalo on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral. 2003
posted by dirtdirt at 6:54 AM on January 25, 2013

oh! one time I yelled "Doogie!" at NPH across a crowded subway car.

all he said was, "please don't call me Doogie."
posted by dorian at 7:02 AM on January 25, 2013

David Strathairn ate a cupcake I'd baked, came back for a second one and told me they were very good.

An acquaintance of mine worked at a bakery on S. Congress back in the 90's & John Travolta came in, ordered a cookie, took one bite, tossed it on the counter & declared in a loud voice "This tastes like ASS!"
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:10 AM on January 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

One time in downtown Manhattan in the middle of a torrential summer downpour Robert De Niro and I both hailed the same cab and he let me take it because I was carrying a ton of stuff.

I mean it might have been the wet t-shirt but I prefer to imagine it was motivated by a gentlemanly nature instead.



on preview: she should let him deliver the baby

what, like, to Satan? in exchange for the VP nom?
posted by elizardbits at 7:41 AM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

My brother used to work as a fishmonger at Pike Place Market in Seattle. (NOT the fish-throwers; "it bruises the flesh.") He would report his celebrity sightings all the time, but they definitely had that sort of Ed Glosser: Trivial Psychic air.

"I told Richie Havens how to get to the coffee shop. He thanked me with a 'Namaste' sort of gesture. He has ENORMOUS hands."

"Fred Schneider came by today. He was dressed all in black except for his red Chucks. He looked sad."

But this is kind of par for the course for a guy whose girlfriend's stepdad is some sort of estate manager for Michael J. Fox. My brother has his old iPhone. They sometimes go to Martha's Vineyard and stay in the family's house, but (I'm not entirely sure of the logistics here) in 2011, right after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, the house had just been sold to Cam Neely's family. So my brother et. al. were there while the Neelys were too.

Which brings me to one of my favorite celebrity tidbits: the fact that the Neelys are a paper towel family.

"[Stepdad] was going to the store, and he asked if the Neelys needed anything. And Cam said, 'Oh, could you please grab some napkins?' and Mrs. Neely said, 'Cam, please! We're a paper towel family!'"
posted by Madamina at 7:51 AM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

The Indigo Girls used to stay in my apartment in Charleston back before anyone had ever heard of them. They played regularly at a bar called Cafe 24 where my roommate worked and she got friendly with them and told them they could crash with us rather than in their van. So they did that quite a few times. They watched my 3 year old daughter for an hour or two for me once; she doesn't remember it but every so often I have heard her saying "Well, the Indigo Girls were my babysitters, so, you know. . . " implying, I guess, that we come from Cooler Places.

Chris Robinson is a good friend of my younger brother's so I have met him and once here in Asheville we got to hang out backstage with him during a solo show. I was friends - and by friends I mean we went to the same parties and smoked a lot of pot together - with Kevin Ayers in Spain when I was a teenager. In lamer celebrity news, I saw William Burroughs eating Fritos at LaGuardia once and I saw Richard Butler from the Psychedelic Furs at a bar I used to frequent in Soho. My boyfriend wanted to go up to him and say "Do you know how many times I've had sex to the sound of your voice?" but I dissuaded him which, in retrospect, was kind of dumb. Jeff Beck once told me I was pretty at a bar on St. Marks and I think that's all I got.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:58 AM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Indigo Girls used to stay in my apartment in Charleston back before anyone had ever heard of them.

An employee of mine got on the list of crash pads for SXSW back in the early 90's & Green Day stayed at her place for 3 days right about the exact time Dookie was really taking off. She was utterly INSUFFERABLE for about a month.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:03 AM on January 25, 2013

Also, back in the early '80s, my mother was Jill Biden's piano teacher.

"I got this phone call one day saying, 'This is So-and-So, from Senator Biden's office. I am sorry, but Mrs. Biden won't be able to make her lesson tomorrow. She and the senator will be attending a luncheon with the president of China.' And I said, 'Look, if she didn't practice, she should just say so...'"
posted by Madamina at 8:07 AM on January 25, 2013 [9 favorites]

In the early 90s, my French pen pal came to visit the U.S. for the first time ever, and we went to New York City. Growing up, she had some stereotypical impressions about the city, full of movie stars and the Statue of Liberty (I lived in a suburb of Boston, and she marveled at how quiet it was. "I thought all of the US was loud and crowded like New York City!" she said), but recognized that they were just that, stereotypes.

So as we drove there, I jokingly promised that we'd see at least one movie star. For the next two hours, we pondered and drooled over who that might be. Frank Sinatra, perhaps? Harrison Ford?

Sure enough, at the end of the last day we came out of the Met to find a movie being filmed, with ... Fabio. We watched Fabio walk up and down the same sidewalk ten times. To this day, we laugh hysterically over how she went to NYC and all she got was Fabio.
posted by Melismata at 8:11 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

My brother used to work as a fishmonger at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

I worked at Left Bank Books right near there and sold a Che t-shirt to Flea once. He is quite short.

I was part of the group that gave Adrian Brody his Burning Man orientation but not, alas, the one that got to spank him with a riding crop.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:31 AM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

My mom drove DEVO too and from a few gigs in the late 70s.
posted by The Whelk at 8:39 AM on January 25, 2013

I worked with a guy who purportedly saw Wendy O. Williams at the laundromat, & I know a guy who got to go in the limo to pick Romeo Void up at the airport.

I'm practically famous!

Another old friend (would have been in his mid-sixties by now were he still alive) & roommate from the 80's claimed to have slept with Janis Joplin.

When I was 5-6 years old, I was babysat in the afternoons after school by the wife of one of Blood Sweat & Tears trombone players -- until the day I came over & the place was full of guys in suits. They'd had a 1/4 lb. of pot out on the kitchen table when the narcs arrived, according to my mom. I don't remember much, but they took me downtown until they could find my mother that afternoon. It's the only time I've ever been in police custody.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:58 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I worked at a Burger King on the Mass Turnpike for a few years and we'd get an occasional tour bus or celebrity on their way into the city. Among the people I have either sold hamburgers to or made hamburgers for: Ric Ocasic / Paulina Porizkova, King Kong Bundy, Carly Simon, Yeardly Smith (this was before The Simpsons, I recognized her from The Legend of Billie Jean, which is an awful, awful movie. FAIR IS FAIR!), Roger Clemens and a few other sports guys that were probably famous but I would have had no idea who they were at the time, Motley Crue and few other bands who, like the sports guys, were probably someone at the time. Also a really attractive woman came in and said she had just been in Penthouse. I wish I asked her her name but at the time the best I could manage to say to a girl was "ubba ubba gubba duh" so I'll just go ahead and pretend she went on to star in several direct to VHS movies and a few softcore porn films.

My mom worked for Kurzweil Music back in the 1980s so I knew all about "Ray" way before he was that guy that people think is either brilliant or crazy or both. To this day she claims he stole a joke from her and used it in a presentation without crediting her. She was the receptionist so she got to deal with Stevie Wonder and Ian Anderson and/or their people, among other music-type people.

Also a friend of mine made it to the semi-finals on last seasons America's Got Talent.
posted by bondcliff at 8:59 AM on January 25, 2013

I got kicked out of the Terry Pratchett section of a Barnes & Noble in NYC so a VIP (as the security guard said) could walk by. It was what's-her-face who played Samantha in Sex and the City, and nobody cared.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:10 AM on January 25, 2013

Weirdly, I'm sort of sure I saw Toby McGuire in the subway yesterday. The weird part is I think he was staring me down.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:11 AM on January 25, 2013

I sold Tracy Chapman vegan pasta a few times when I worked at Whole Foods.
posted by rtha at 9:14 AM on January 25, 2013

I once was Ramtha's cashier.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:16 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I ate Hamburger Helper about five feet away from Micheal Pollan. It was a small room. There was only one other person in it, and I spent the whole meal desperately hoping he wouldn't ask me about it.
posted by redsparkler at 9:28 AM on January 25, 2013 [9 favorites]

I've told my Michael Jordan story before.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:04 AM on January 25, 2013

In high school, my girlfriend's father was in the same Gurdjieff group as Richard Lloyd from Television, so I ended up having family dinners at their house with Richard Lloyd on a semi-regular basis. He was nice and kind of New Agey in the way that a lot of aging ex-punks are (or I guess proto-punks, in this case). I didn't really care about Television that much then, but as a guitar player I'm kicking myself over it in retrospect.
posted by invitapriore at 10:57 AM on January 25, 2013

I still love Admiral Haddock's story about his encounter with Andre the Giant.
posted by Kabanos at 10:57 AM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah I'd say Haddock's story beats out most if not all celeb stories. Blue Blistering Barnacles already
posted by edgeways at 11:16 AM on January 25, 2013

I got to shake Lee Ranaldo's hand when he was touring on his solo album last year. Not that hard a feat, really, but I thought it was cool.

A friend of mine gave Neil Gaiman some cough drops at a signing of his several years ago.

I was having brunch in a trendy coffee shop in Nashville last spring when Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban walked in. They ended up sitting just a couple of tables behind me. I had no desire to be That Guy, so I just resumed eating. I did, however, get to witness some no-name radio DJ try to badger them into an interview before Mr. Urban gave him the polite shove-off. The two of them left a few minutes later. At the time, I couldn't help but find the whole thing hilarious.
posted by pianoblack at 11:21 AM on January 25, 2013

My aunt babysat Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen when they were <5. Most of my family is very fundamentalist and so sharing this info is very conflicting for them. On one hand pride,on the other abject horror.
posted by M Edward at 11:46 AM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

My dad and I were in the Omni Shoreham in DC once and a vaguely familiar-looking guy walked past us in the lobby. "That's Dick Gregory!" said my dad.

Here in town we had a smoothie stand that named all of its smoothies after left-wing activists. They had a Dick Gregory smoothie, as well as an Orange Gregory. (The joke, of course, was that if the Orange Gregory is made with orange juice, what is the Dick Gregory made of?)

"Go over there," said my dad. "Just do it! Tell him your favorite smoothie is named after him!"

I refused. My favorite has always been the Adelle Davis.
posted by Madamina at 11:52 AM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've been to Edward Albee's house on numerous occasions, but never actually met him.
posted by Sara C. at 11:55 AM on January 25, 2013

Last year I had dinner and drank margaritas with John Schneider, by which I mean he was eating dinner and I was drinking margaritas.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:15 PM on January 25, 2013

In 1965, when I was in 7th grade, our glee club went on a field trip to the newly opened Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles to hear the combined LA Philharmonic and LA Master Chorale, with Jack Benny as special guest. As I recall, it was a special matinee for schoolkids.

Out in the lobby, Tommy Sands was getting mobbed for autographs. His wife, wearing a turban hat, smoking and looking bored to the point of irritation, sat nearby.

It would be within a year that they got divorced, and she released her single, "These Boots Are Made for Walking."
posted by Short Attention Sp at 12:23 PM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

Oh, actually, my favorite celebrity encounter doesn't actually even consist of me meeting the guy, but my mom's voice teacher was an old, old man named Victor Powell who lived in a little cottage in the woods down the street from Bill Murray's house in Orangetown, NY, where I grew up. Anyway, Bill Murray and Victor were actually pretty good friends, and so Bill Murray threw Victor a party for his 96th birthday at his house, although Bill was off somewhere filming and so his wife was there to host us instead. The real point being that Victor was an interesting guy, a stunning pianist whose body had obviously given up years ago but was being dragged kicking and screaming onwards through life by the man's passion for music, and he was a guy who by all accounts ran his lessons with an iron fist, though never inhumanely, and he had a succession of like six corgies throughout his life that were each named Cory, and so in conclusion I would have loved to be a fly on the wall with Victor and Bill Murray hanging out.
posted by invitapriore at 12:42 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I sat next to Jason Mraz on a train before he became famous. He gave me a little card that said "Jason Mraz, Troubadour".
posted by chavenet at 12:42 PM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

I saw Chloe Sevigny in the bathroom at LAX.
posted by sweetkid at 12:44 PM on January 25, 2013

I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the Queen.
posted by gauche at 12:45 PM on January 25, 2013 [5 favorites]

Also, after Victor died, my mom went to his house to take a few pictures of the place for posterity because it was due to be torn down and replaced with something awful shortly thereafter. She got the photos developed that day, and quite inexplicably he appears in one of the photos of the living room, looking out of the sliding glass door onto the forest and the Hudson River. It's not a case of an old reel being reused because that photo appears in the middle, after photos that she definitely remembered taking earlier that day. I still don't know what to make of that.
posted by invitapriore at 12:47 PM on January 25, 2013

Hey, that reminds me of the time that I didn't step on a spider because it could've been Lon Chaney Sr.
posted by mr. digits at 12:47 PM on January 25, 2013

My dad and I were in the Omni Shoreham in DC once...

A few years ago I was there and ran into David Costabile, AKA Gale Boetticher on Breaking Bad.
posted by Beardman at 12:58 PM on January 25, 2013

When I worked in rare books at the Strand I helped John Waters locate some vintage Japanese pornography. He put his hand on my shoulder!
posted by Beardman at 12:59 PM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

I also met the Strokes in 2003 and hadn't heard of them. Get off my twenty-two year-old lawn!
posted by Beardman at 1:03 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

John Waters officiated at my friend's wedding. Alas, it was on the other end of the country and I was unable to attend.

What a coincidence! I've never met John Waters either!
posted by The Deej at 1:19 PM on January 25, 2013 [5 favorites]

Not necessarily my top five, but five of my funniest and/or strangest, in no particular order:

- Had to step over/around a passed-out Elliot Smith to get to the bathroom in a dive-y Portland bar (Club 21, if it matters) some time in the mid-90's (pre- his big breakout).

- Played doubles badminton against Art from Everclear. My partner was some guy from Beck's band, and Art's partner was a little kid. We let them win, I swear.

- Watched Conan the Destroyer with the dudes from Bush. They were every bit as douchey as you'd suspect.

- Was shopping at B&H at the same time as Alberto Fujimori in the summer of 2000, not long before the time he had to flee Peru. He was fascinated by the overhead conveyor belt thingies that carry your merchandise to the register. He had a bunch of giant, very serious-looking bodyguards.

- Smoking outside work (near Astor Place), I made eye contact with and nodded to some guy I sort of recognized, who I thought was maybe a math teacher from my old highschool, or maybe an old friend of my parents, or something, but whose name I couldn't remember. He said "Hey", gave a little wave, and went into the furniture store next door. My friend turned to me and said "Dude! Harrison Ford just said 'Hey' to you! Do you know him?" Yes, I somehow managed to fail to recognize Han Solo. WTF.
posted by dersins at 1:24 PM on January 25, 2013 [8 favorites]

pre- his big breakout

We went to college together. "Who is that weird creepy dude in the hat lurking around the music building?" we'd always ask. He was the first person I think I'd really met from Vermont and his address in the Frog Book (our version of the facebook) was a PO box which I thought was cool at the time and now I know is sort of normal around here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:38 PM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

1) Naima from American Idol is in a shitty reggae band with my ex-neighbor, who harrassed and threatened me for months after I called the cops because he was regularly having fully amplified band practice from midnight to 3 AM as well as dealing mass quantities of weed out of his apartment. Almost all of their band's songs are about weed, 4/20, ganja, "the herb," Jah, irie vibrations, &c. Because, like, dude! Weed!!!!!

2) All-time favorite: A clearly disgusted Damien Rice sniping at me and my paramour, mid-embrace: y'know you should really get a fookin' room, ferchrissakes! I'd actually specifically gone to the show to see Damien Rice, except somehow instead of seeing him play, I ended up spending most of the night backstage making out with a dude from the opening band, and then that dude ended up getting way more famous than Damien Rice and, I think, winning an Oscar. Or a Grammy? I always get them confused. Anyway, Damien -- can I call you Damien? I am sorry.
posted by divined by radio at 1:46 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hey, I sold John Waters some books too. He came to my store to do a signing and then asked what we had on Fin de siècle France. He bought every book I could find. And yeah, I think he was also kind of flirting. He really seemed to like me, though it may have been because I asked him to sign my unused Odorama card, and he hadn't seen one in years. It's very possible he simply missed the smell of Divine's farts and it had nothing at all to do with me.
posted by Toekneesan at 1:47 PM on January 25, 2013

Moe Berg of the Pursuit of Happiness bought my wife and I a beer. Ice-T approved of my sister.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:22 PM on January 25, 2013

I knew jonathanstrange knew Gotye before it was cool to know that!

does that count as a celebrity affiliate?
posted by Phire at 2:39 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

A few years ago I was swimming at night at Barton Springs. A friend of mine was sitting on the edge of the pool with another guy and called me over to answer the man's questions about the pool. I talked to them both for about an hour while treading water the whole time. I found out the next day that I had been talking to Owen Wilson and I hadn't recognized him.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:51 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

My husband M. was a touring garage-punk drummer who occasionally did gofer errands for a promoter friend during shows.

Creed (I know...) was on tour for their first single, and already Scott Stapp was complaining about how the club was way too small (200 or 300). They had a ridiculous tour bus with a giant team of roadies.

Scott kept complaining about how the rigors of the road were so hard because he had a head cold. So he wanted to go back to the hotel (despite the presence of the giant tour bus filled with beds that was RIGHT THERE) before the band played. M dragged his bag out of their giant tour bus and got him and his trashy girlfriend in his Ford Ranger. But Scott didn't know which hotel, so they took the long way. (Took them three or four tries.)

"He had the nerve to say that being on the road is hard. He has a whole team to do the heavy lifting. All he has to do is get on the bus and roll to the next town and get out and sing."

M toured in a van with a board placed across the top, a foot from the ceiling, such that anyone skinny enough to take a nap up there would roll back and forth as the road curved. Also, see the bottom of this comment in the legendary Foul Bachelor Goons thread for a description of the "Why Do We Live Like This???" Tour.)

"He didn't seem like a Christian to ME!"
posted by Madamina at 4:16 PM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

M adds that he had a much better time driving the girl from GWAR to the tanning salon.

"She revealed to me that they were all into antiquing. It was pretty cool until she asked me where to get some crank."
posted by Madamina at 4:44 PM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'll go ahead and tell my friend's Jeff Goldblum story.

My friend is at a cafe in L.A. visiting her aunt and grandmother. To my friend's mortification, her hosts begin staring at a solitary diner across the room and saying, "HEY, WHAT'S HIS NAME? IS IT JEFF GOLDSTEIN? GOLDBAUM?"

Jeff Goldblum picks up his plate, and heads for the outdoor seating. As he passes my friend's table, he smiles and says, "Goldblum."

Coda: a little while later, my friend went out and apologized, and he was a total prince about it.
posted by Beardman at 5:03 PM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

When I was in high school, my friend's boyfriend, Mike, invited us to see his band play. We didn't think they were very good, but about 10 years later NOFX had a gold album.

I met Bill Cosby as a teenager in JFK; he asked my horse vaulting team and I (who were on our way to Germany) if we were tennis players, or what.

I got drunk with John Doe and Exene Cervenka backstage when I was 17.

I met Henry Rollins after a Black Flag show for which I had made the flyer.

I rode in a taxi with Mojo Nixon in San Francisco.

Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto was playing at our Oakland warehouse, and I got to introduce him to the turtle in our indoor pond. Jack was wearing black socks with his sandals.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:09 PM on January 25, 2013

Yes, I somehow managed to fail to recognize Han Solo. WTF.

I apparently stood in line at Jamba Juice next to Michael Richards for at least 10 minutes, according to my friends who couldn’t stop laughing and thought I was just trying to play it extra cool. I didn’t notice. It’s not like he stands out in a crowd.
posted by bongo_x at 7:18 PM on January 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

I will add that this was the mid 90’s, Seinfeld was not an unpopular show.
posted by bongo_x at 7:20 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once drank in a bar next to Mark Seymour (the singer from Hunters and Collectors).
I once walked past the members of Jet (which was apparently quite popular back in the day).
Geoffry Rush walked past me in the street once too.
I've lined up at the airport behind the Finn brothers (and possibly other members of Crowded House's reformed line up) and was next to Sharon O'Neil at the ticket counter (obscure?), and I got to see Gérard Depardieu stumble off a plane - I swear that man must have alcohol instead of blood.
I was trapped on a plane with the 1983 Australian cricket team. That went about as well as you could expect considering they were all completely hammered. To this day the smell of vomit haunts me.
I got to have a drink with Captain Sensible and Patricia Morrison once. That was nice. Unfortunately Captain Sensible was the one who was naked.

I also met and chatted to Pauline Hanson, but that's not something to brag about.
posted by Mezentian at 9:35 PM on January 25, 2013

My cousin played Janet in the same Rocky Horror touring production which featured Russell Crowe as Eddie. I said hello to him when I went to see her backstage after the show. This was before he was famous so whatevs, I'm just that hip.

I sat behind Rolf Harris while he was eating a meat pie and I deliberately raised my voice when talking to my friends about my latest starring role at the Ipswich Little Theatre so he could hear me. Seriously, I'm very hip indeed.
posted by h00py at 9:49 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh, I got another one, from before LA — I gave Apples In Stereo directions to a record store (including telling them why they didn't want to go to the one they were going to) and only found out who they were when someone in said record store flipped the fuck out.
posted by klangklangston at 10:07 PM on January 25, 2013

Okay this is long cause it requires context so sit back, have a smoke, whatever.


Because I am someone who is fundamentally broken inside I went on a crazy weight loss plan to fit into my Halloween costume which just happened to be a perfect reproduction of a WW2 US Army Officer's uniform . Actually, not even reproduction, it was literally cheaper to find actual vintage army surplus in my size despite having to ship some things from like Singapore.

So that's cool, and it's a total head to toe outfit too, shoes and all. So I wasn't going to let that sit there. No no no, I had shirts *made* for me for this. I was going to rotate elements into my everyday wardrobe. Because that's how I justified shipping fees and not eating bread for 20 weeks.

So Halloween comes and goes. I look great. And then I have to go the New York Historical Society because I am writing the kind of book that requires you to go to the New York Historical Society and it's really cold and I don't wanna show up in flannel but I don't want to bundle myself up cause I'll just overheat when I'm inside so I go through my closet and I find the wool shirt made for the Halloween outfit and the pants and belt and I think, yeah sure I can wear this. It's totally blank looking and really warm (wool!) and without the Ike jacket and tie it just looks casual. I put it all on, along with my leather jacket and canvas haversack, (look I told you, broken inside), and I walk down to the NYHS.

As I get there I notice something is off. There are like, Jeeps out front. And guys in uniform. As I got closer I noticed they're in anachronistic uniforms. And that wasn't a modern Jeep. In fact they kinda looked dressed like me. I didn't really process it (cause my brain was more on WTF GUNS JEEP WTF) until I rounded the corner into the building and was greeted by eight foot tall American flag banners and a trio of ladies in burlesque-uniforms singing "Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree" to an enraptured audience.

Turns out the Lobby of the NYHS was celebrating the opening day of the WW2 IN NYC show and had flown in the Victory Belles singing trope to re-create a USO show. Not to mention the many Veteran groups and supporters from the WW2 Museum in New Orleans in full field uniform to present artifacts and give information.

I look at a display case being pointed at by an enthusiastic docent in one of those little canvas caps. It's a haversack. The same haversack I have over my shoulder.

I quickly realize I have to get my research done before someone asks me to explain an exhibit. Also cause I was TOTALLY WEIRDED OUT.

So I do my research, I write in my notebook. I make references, and I walk out. The USO show is, thankfully, over.

I go to my favorite bar ever to talk to my favorite bartender ever cause she will really like this story of my strangest afternoon ever. She's an ex-broadway-showgirl from way back, hell ex-everything and knows everyone. Everyone! I get to the bar and I have my beer and I tell her the story. She laughs cause she's polite but then the guy next to me starts asking me questions about it. I don't know him, but he seems really familiar, which is usual the bar has lots of regular I don't know by name, it's popular with teamsters off their early shift which is cool so I get into a conversation about the exhibit and oh you forget the Manhattan Project means like, bomb stuff was made here in *manhattan* and the kosher meal bags for infantry men and all the time it takes me to finish my beer I keep trying to figure out how I know him.

Anyway I finish and pay up and I'm on the elevator back to my apartment before I realize I had a pleasant 10 min chat with Mark Ruffalo.
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 PM on January 25, 2013 [14 favorites]

I don’t know who Mark Ruffalo is, but the rest of that story was fantastic.
posted by bongo_x at 10:44 PM on January 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

I don’t know who Mark Ruffalo is,

He's an okay guy, but you wouldn't like him when he's angry.
posted by Mezentian at 10:49 PM on January 25, 2013 [6 favorites]

I joyfully shouted "Hail Satan!" at Michael Peter Woroniecki.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:12 PM on January 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mezentian: “I once walked past the members of Jet (which was apparently quite popular back in the day).”

Yeah, I remember those times. It was all the rage. Me, my friends, everybody I knew, we'd all stand in line for hours if it meant we'd get the chance to walk past Jet. Particularly if we could do it without stopping or acknowledging them at all.
posted by koeselitz at 11:15 PM on January 25, 2013 [4 favorites]

One of the ladies in my book club said she really fancied Mark Ruffalo and one of the other ladies thought she was talking about The Gruffalo. Much confusion ensued.

The name drop to beat all: I know that jonathanstrange & russm both know the Tim Tam genie.
posted by goshling at 5:25 AM on January 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once drank in a bar next to Mark Seymour (the singer from Hunters and Collectors).

I'd have to think Mezentian wins something here, as he's now doubled the number of people I know of who remember that band . . . . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 5:33 AM on January 26, 2013

I know that jonathanstrange & russm both know the Tim Tam genie.

ZOMG! Obscure 1990s advertising reference!

I'd have to think Mezentian wins something here, as he's now doubled the number of people I know of who remember that band . . . . . .

A band who have been forgotten by the bogans, but remembered by music fans.
Since it's Australia Day: The Slab. Talking To A Stranger. Throw Your Arms Around Me. If none of those songs talks to you, you can pretty much ignore Hunters and Collectors.
posted by Mezentian at 5:44 AM on January 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hey, Mezentian isn't kidding - January 26 really IS Australia Day!


re: H&C - I've always been partial to Everything's On Fire, Say Goodbye, and especially the impossible-to-find-on-YouTube Towtruck. (allmusic link)
posted by soundguy99 at 6:35 AM on January 26, 2013

I used to drink at a pub in SE London where Rick Astley's brother was a regular.
posted by goshling at 6:40 AM on January 26, 2013

Oh, man, how could I forget this?

One time last summer me and my wife went to Bishops on Alberta to get haircuts, and the sidewalk was a little busy and there were people hefting around camera and lighting equipment, and we were like "I wonder if they're filming an episode of Portlandia", and we went in and got our haircut and came back out and there were still people with equipment doing things and I was like "hey, what's going on" and someone was like "we are filming an episode of Portlandia".
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:23 AM on January 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

Lots of famous people at race tracks - I tend not to notice them usually. Some that spring to mind:

We raced in the same series as Frankie Muniz for a couple of years. He wasn't very good so we dubbed him 'Malcolm at the back'.

Some old guy pushed his way through our awning at a race (the team work area) while we were getting ready for qualifying - it's bad form and 'not the done thing'. It pissed me off because he got in the way so I said loudly "Who let that fucking old guy in?" just after he passed me. The team manager was laughing when he told me it was Paul Newman and he was cutting back to his teams trailer to avoid the press outside. Ho hum.

I was invited to dinner by a friend of my cousin when I was first in Canada. I was asked what my impression of Canadian TV was, as someone who grew up on BBC. I said it was pretty shitty and didn't seem to have much money. I them found out I was talking to a Gemini award winning actor who'd just completed a successful Canadian TV series in which he played the lead. He largely agreed with me though.
posted by Brockles at 7:29 AM on January 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

... as he's now doubled the number of people I know of who remember that band [H&C]

And now it's quadrupled.

Being on MetaFilter has been very hard on my self-image as "the obscure music guy".
posted by benito.strauss at 7:40 AM on January 26, 2013

and someone was like "we are filming an episode of Portlandia".

Did you party like it was 199x?
posted by Mezentian at 7:40 AM on January 26, 2013

"we are filming an episode of Portlandia"

Fact: Portlandia is pretty much a documentary.
posted by dersins at 10:50 AM on January 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is the coolest metatalk thread pretty much ever.

My parents own a restaurant in Seattle, where I would go for prom dates and stuff since it's pretty swanky. Back when Chris Cornell was still drinking and riding the Horse, I used to see him hanging around in there sometimes since it was apparently a good place for him to get smashed and get a ride home from one of the bartenders. I was fancied-up for some highschool event or another one night when he staggered up to me, tried to put his sweaty drunk hand on my breast (missed and got my collarbone instead) and slurred "Ohhhhh man you're a pretty girl, d'yah know..." I was stoned out of my own gourd too, so I just sort slipped under his arm and dodged outside , though I said "thank you" before I walked out (not that I was grateful, because hello that's creeeeepy, but it's sadly a teenage girl thing) .

Chris and my dad are still acquaintances, and he asks about me and my mom by name when they see each other, but I'm sure he doesn't remember a bit of groping me 16 years ago.
posted by zinful at 1:53 PM on January 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

I see Walter Mondale at church sometimes. He is very polite to al the people who want to talk at him about poltitical stuff.
posted by Area Man at 2:33 PM on January 26, 2013

Robert Cooper of the Pete Droge Band was a housemate in 1994. Nice guy.

I hooked up Kevin Bacon's motel room VCR. One degree, bitches.

When unknown-to-me Ben Stein called to make a reservation at said motel, I wanted to reach through the phone and punch whiny dude in the face. At check-in he let his five year old run riot in the lobby, including behind the counter -- while referring to him as "my angel from heaven." He turned out to be an OK guy and would refer to his "fabulous Hollywood acting career" in a funny, self-deprecating way. This was 1993 -- can't stand the guy now.
posted by wallabear at 2:37 PM on January 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

I hooked up Kevin Bacon's motel room VCR. One degree, bitches.

I'm pretty sure you only get the degree if you took the further step of dubbing a couple of seconds of yourself into the middle of one of his VHS copies of his own movies.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:57 PM on January 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

I need to re-read the rules, I guess.
posted by wallabear at 3:08 PM on January 26, 2013

Famous People I Have Met
By Chelsea Spear
Grade 16

Once my then-boyfriend and I passed Janeane Garofalo on the street in the East Village. Another time my present boyfriend and I walked past Matt Dillon trying to avoid being bro-ed down with by a bunch of bros.

When I was a senior in high school, one of PJ Harvey's band members came into the record store where I worked. I lost it, because PJ was/is one of my favorite musicians. He put me on the guest list. I ended up at the lip of the stage, and the guy who comped me in pointed me out to Peej, who waved at me.

Another time at the record store, Steven Tyler came in and purchased a stack of old blues records. I pretended not to know who he was and asked him if I'd know him from somewhere. "I'm Jackson Browne," he said back. He was with two gorgeous women, both of whom were his daughters.

Mara Wilson once re-tweeted something I tweeted. So that was nice. I also got into a Twitter fight with Dyna Moe while I was drunk. That was not so nice.

When I worked at a sandwich shop, I had to seat both Willie MacGinest and Jason Varitek, neither of whom I recognized because I am not into sports. My coworkers called me a "heathen" and an "infidel" for that, and then made fun of me because I freaked out when some guy with a mullet came in and ordered a corned beef sandwich. Spoiler: It was Roger Miller from Mission of Burma.

There was a local rock star who rubbed it in my face that she was hooking up with the guy on whom I had a crush. Said local rock star would later trash one of my friend's bathrooms. True story.

Rex Trailer once called my home. My mother was significantly more excited than I was.

John C. Reilly tripped over me and then called me "Sophia".

Boston area folks of a certain vintage may be amused to know that I interviewed Dave Herlihy of O Positive twice -- once when I was 13 and again last year.

I knitted a scarf for Elvis Perkins, who to this day calls me "Alpaca Queen". Justin Vernon (who had yet to meet Kanye West) was envious of El's knitwear and asked me to make him a hat. So I did. I also knit a hat for Paul Auster, though he has yet to wear it in a photograph.

There was also that time I was looking at a painting at MoMA next to David Bowie.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:46 PM on January 26, 2013

Er... you guys, Hunters & Collectors are like crazy famous.
posted by hot soup girl at 12:52 AM on January 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

I have sold sofabeds to Richard Ayoade, Michael Palin, and the dude inside Bollo the gorilla.
posted by hot soup girl at 12:57 AM on January 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

I once drank a full jug of bourbon and coke which was supplied to The Radiators backstage at Jindabyne Inn. All I did was flash my boobs and I got invited backstage (where they rolled massive joints on newspaper like it was a production line, and showed me photos of their wives and kids). And they graciously allowed me to drink the b & c. I still get a kiss on the cheek from some members when I see them.

Then on the way home to Canberra I went over the crest of a hill and promptly flat-spotted all four tyres due to the friggin' kangaroos sitting in the middle of the road, because heaven forbid the stupid bloody animals recognise oncoming traffic as a threat.

And then there was the time I was all frocked up in Kings Cross (Sydney), wandering around with my then-boyfriend, and I saw someone I recognised so I started to shout, "HI!", and then I realised it was Holly Valance from Neighbours and she didn't know me from a bar of soap. So I guess I kinda barked "Hu-". She looked at me like I was a fruit loop.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 1:21 AM on January 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Then on the way home to Canberra I went over the crest of a hill and promptly flat-spotted all four tyres due to the friggin' kangaroos sitting in the middle of the road, because heaven forbid the stupid bloody animals recognise oncoming traffic as a threat.

Most Australian Sentence Ever.
posted by Sara C. at 1:33 AM on January 27, 2013 [12 favorites]

Er... you guys, Hunters & Collectors are like crazy famous.

Well, yeah, I was exaggerating a bit for comedic effect, but (sadly) here in the U.S. (not that the U.S. is The Whole World) they never really "broke." Some airplay on college radio stations and a handful of "alternative/modern rock" commercial radio stations, but they rarely toured here, and in the late 80's/early 90's any band that wasn't Guns'n'Roses or Hootie & the Blowfish kinda had to spend a lot of time in small grody rock clubs to make any headway.

So in the U.S you had to be into fairly obscure music at the time to even notice them, and I don't think they're well-remembered here today; they just didn't quite get the "critical mass" of attention or popularity needed for more than a relative handful of Americans now in their 40's to say anything other than, "Oh yeah, those guys. . . . . I think I remember that song . . . . How did it go again?"

/end Hunters & Collectors de-rail.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:57 AM on January 27, 2013

Speaking of David Bowie, in 1981 my then boyfriend met somebody (Donald Douglas, I think?) who was also appearing in the Elephant Man on the train from New Haven to New York. They completed the NY Times crossword puzzle together and, when he learned that he (and I) had plans to see the play a week later, he invited us backstage. So flash forward a week and we're backstage and get to meet David Bowie. He bummed a cigarette from me (and I was so pleased that I could offer him a Balkan Sobranie) and then signed my Playbill with his left hand, explaining that he had smashed his right hand in a car door and it wasn't working well. So I have a really rare David Bowie autograph that I can't prove.
posted by carmicha at 8:46 AM on January 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

and then signed my Playbill with his left hand, explaining that he had smashed his right hand in a car door and it wasn't working well. So I have a really rare David Bowie autograph that I can't prove.

I would love to think that’s his way of not doing autographs and that hundreds of other people have a similar story.
posted by bongo_x at 9:30 AM on January 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ranjit Bhatnagar recently tweeted that one of my songs was his new jam.
posted by rodii at 10:51 AM on January 27, 2013

Heh I forgot a couple:

My then-partner and I were in Manhattan just Manhattaning about and met some guy who was fun and invited us to his flat for drinks and cold cuts and after we got there at some point we realized he was Christopher Lloyd.

Also I had dinner at a Washington DC restaurant with Exene Cervenka because I was dating a guy who was waiting their table and he just kind of set an extra place for me because he knew I was a fan and nobody would notice. And nobody did. Except Exene smiled at me in a kind of 'oh, and you're here, too, aren't you?' kind of way.
posted by trip and a half at 6:39 PM on January 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

Very late to the party, but here goes:

Almost bumped into Sylvester Stallone on the sidewalk outside a movie premiere... he was leaving the movie early.

Brought purchases out to the curb for Kurt Russell, who was wearing the oldest, most threadbare t-shirt and jeans ever, and yet driving his high-end Mercedes sedan. I think it worked. Nobody recognized him. At that same store, had the following come through: Seth Green, Tatum O'Neal, and Danny DeVito with his son.

Passed Ben Stiller in a hallway (work-related). He's tiny tiny.

Used to work in the same building that Henry Winkler kept an office in. I often was in line with him for lunch because apparently we have the same food court preferences. Super nice.

Seth Rogen was at the table next to me at a restaurant once.

One year in college Jaleel White was in the same dorm as me. Word was that he played basketball dirty and was a sore loser.

Wil Wheaton used to troll this computer club I was in. I have great distaste for him because he just showed up for the attention. (DUDE, you don't care about Linux AT ALL)

I once won a raffle and got to shake hands with Ray Bradbury. I tried to mutter something about how much I like his work but he was already very elderly and I don't think he heard me. To the coworker and some-time MeFite who invited me that night, thanks if you see this!

Hung out with Jon Kricfalusi and Lynne Naylor of Ren and Stimpy fame at a bar in Los Feliz (Los Angeles) around Halloween-time. Jon was dressed as a cow. I remember spots, and udders. I think the rest of Spumco was there but I didn't meet them.

I think I've mentioned this on MeFi before... Harlan Ellison once hassled me for donations outside of a Neil Gaiman book signing. Being poor at the time I said "I have nothing for you!" or something. Then I was like, wow, I just yelled at Harlan Ellison...

On the academic side... took a class with Bruno Latour. He was sweet and also introduced us to his father's excellent but not too expensive wines (Maison Louis Latour).
posted by halonine at 8:04 PM on January 27, 2013

More Australian music: Ms Ubu was besties in elementary school with the girl "Fontaine" who Harry in the Cat Empire was lusting after in The Car Song. She's apparently a real person.

Wikipedia has the most hilariously prosaic description of the song: In the song, Harry James Angus narrates his experiences as a struggling student who everyone insisted was "going to be a lawyer some day". However, rather than study or concentrate on an exam, all he could think about was playing music, playing basketball, or asking a childhood crush out on a date. In the latter part of the song, he meets one of his highschool acquaintances, who has indeed become a lawyer, and is now going out with the same girl. Implicitly, Angus feels that although he has failed to become a lawyer, he is better off, as he is doing what he loves.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:12 AM on January 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

God, Ubu, I haven't thought of that song for ages! Now it will pop up in my brain now and then, and the lovely Ms Ubu will always be connected to it.

May I say, best thread ever. Loved every single comment. Learned lots, laughed a bit, and have been sent down far too many Youtube rabbit holes.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 3:13 AM on January 28, 2013

5 years of therapy to forget them and you bring up the Cat Empire.

Let's just assume I know every minor Aussie musician without mentioning them all indivdually. Shogun from Royal Headache scored my friend's film, or so she claims. Apparently he won't let it be released.

My biggest missed connection is K$ha. The one month I didn't go to the Black Cherry rock and roll club she showed up, then went to my usual haunt, the Townie. On the one night I wasn't there. A few months later she went to a Gay Paris gig in Sydney I inexplicably skipped.

I stood next to Jack Black at a Fucked Up gig when they were both on tour with Foo Fighters. I think I might have mentioned that before.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 3:53 AM on January 28, 2013

I don't think I've heard of anyone Charlemagne In Sweatpants has nameddropped.
I own Hunters & Collectors first 4 albums. On vinyl.
Get off my lawn.
posted by goshling at 5:37 AM on January 28, 2013

I don't think I've heard of anyone Charlemagne In Sweatpants has nameddropped.
I own Hunters & Collectors first 4 albums. On vinyl.
Get off my lawn.
posted by goshling at 12:37 AM on January 29

OMFG! It's Gossling! She's like the indie Kimbra, who's the slightly better Sia!

I was at a poetry night ages ago where Sarah Blasko's ex-husband or boyfriend did a poem about getting dumped just as she was getting famous and seeing her poster everywhere.

If we want to name-drop old school, my best mate is friends with a few of the Hard-Ons and went to school with the son of a member of Radio Birdman and bought records from a guy from the Hummingbirds. My bass player knows some of The Angels from opening for them. Lindsey from Frenzal Rhomb comments on my Facebook and knows me and my brother's name, since I know his girlfriend from either The Dark Shadows or another goth band. I've performed with The Dead Rabids - I have no idea if they're famous, but it was at the Sando, and I've seen every great pub rock and at the Sando.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 11:38 AM on January 28, 2013

I've had pizza & BBQ with two members of The Church - an ex used to date one of them. Another ex used to live in a sharehouse where Frenzal Rhomb used to crash after gigs very early in their career - she & her housemates are given thanks in the liner notes of the first album (Dick Sandwich, from memory).
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:09 PM on January 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

One of the main guys from the Church was the guest judge at a poetry slam I entered. My poem was horrible, and he gave it a bad score.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 1:53 PM on January 28, 2013

I have an ex-wife who lived next door to Barry Oakley for a while & toured as a lighting designer with the Allman Bros, Jackson Browne, & The Eagles (I think). She fell off the rigging & spent 4 months in the hospital which kinda ruined her career as an LD.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:03 PM on January 28, 2013

I worked on a magazine with Brandon Blatcher, so I know his real name.
posted by klangklangston at 2:38 PM on January 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

One of the main guys from the Church was the guest judge at a poetry slam I entered. My poem was horrible, and he gave it a bad score.

If that was Steve Kilbey, colour me surprised - his "poetry" sets a new low in pop-star-turned-wannabe-poet standards, beating the previous record low bars set by Jim Morrison & then Jewel.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:14 PM on January 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Huh. I'm a Church fan, and I've always liked Kilbey's lyrics as lyrics--maybe because they don't really seem to be about anything, so they don't fight with the music. I imagine they might lie pretty flat on the page.
posted by rodii at 5:36 PM on January 29, 2013

Oh, I thought of a couple more (pretty lame) ones. Both Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby live in my small town-I've seen Mario and his wife out at brunch, and Crosby driving around town.

Lynn Swann lives nearby; I saw him out helping his kid do some kind of school fundraising during Swann's campaign for governor.

Catherine Heigl was filming some movie in Pittsburgh, saw her at lunch.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:18 PM on January 30, 2013

Okay, if this is still going on: I've met: Tiesto, Timo Maas, Crystal Method, Deadmau5, Eric Prydz, Markus Schulz, Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong, Ferry Corsten, Sandra Collins, DJ Dan, Micro, Christopher Lawrence, John '00' Fleming, Quivver (from Tilt), and a bunch of other DJs and producers that I can't remember right now :)
posted by empath at 9:21 PM on January 30, 2013

(So late to the party) - A family friend dated George Steinbrenner's son when we were in high school.

My son and his wife are good friends with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They were in the first video for "Face Down", Ronnie asks my daughter in law to have me make macaroni and cheese for him when he's in town.
posted by hollygoheavy at 11:04 AM on January 31, 2013

The woman who played the flute solo on the 1963 doo-wop song "So in Love" by the Tymes is a music librarian who I met professionally once or twice.

My ex-boyfriend's mother and her car are extras in the terrible movie Deep Impact.
posted by clavicle at 3:46 PM on February 4, 2013

I forgot to add to this thread that I worked in a restaurant with Dave Yow & Dave Sims from the Jesus Lizard, back before they moved to Chicago & got famous, although I've brought it up before. Those guys were a hoot. They were roommates back then, & they had a cat named Dave. I went to a party at that house, & when Dave answered the door, he said "Hello, I'm Dave, this is my roommate Dave, & this is Dave the Cat."
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:45 PM on February 4, 2013