Ric Ocasek: My younger readers may be scratching their heads at this point, wondering who the hell Ric Okasek is. He was (is?) the lead singer for The Cars, the ubiquitous band from the 1980's that polluted our airwaves for seemingly the entire decade. It was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in August of 1992, and I stepped on his foot while viewing a very large organ (huh...organ). He was very nice about it, and accepted my profuse apologies graciously. I even caught a glimpse of Paulina Poriskova, his wife and supermodel, who isn't all that great in person. I thought she was some Long Island housewife when I first saw her until I put two and two together. OK, perhaps that is an exaggeration, but it IS true that makeup and stylists and airbrushing and photographers do wonders.
Andre from The Real World: Meeting a Real World cast member is such a cheesy experience, but that's what makes it so cool. If you don't remember, Andre was in the first season of The Real World (the long hair in the band). I met him at South Padre Island one Spring Break (can't recall the year, which shows it must have been a good time). His band sucked shit, but I told him otherwise as I didn't have the balls to be mean. He was nice, I'll give him that much.
Ian MacKaye: OK, maybe this one isn't known to many people. He's the singer for Fugazi, one of my all time favorite bands on the planet. Ian's always been known for his friendly manner, and so it wasn't too surprising that he was ever so nice and friendly when I approached him after one of their shows in 1995. I dorked out for a bit and was tounge-tied when I met him, and said something so retarded it haunts me to this day..."Thanks for making music that makes me happy." Despite my obvious lack of coolness, Ian smiled and shook my hand, giving me butterflies and leaving me swooning. Yes, that was a fine day.
Chris Cornell: Picture this...Lollapalooza...1992...New Jersey...I'm sitting in the crowd, minding my own, when all of a sudden this guy steps on my leg. I look up and who is it? Chris Cornell. OK, so I don't even like Soundgarden, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. I wondered at the time if it was karmic retribution for the Rik Ocasek incident, I mean, they happened within 48 hours of each other. I guess I'll never know.
Minnie Driver: I never actually met Minnie, but I was at the same party she was in London in 1997. She looked quite thin in person, and seemed to, uh, be enjoying herself. I don't care either way about her, so it wasn't that thrilling, but for the sake of completeness she is included here.
Bill Paxton: Maybe Bill Paxton isn't an A-list celebrity or anything, but he DID play Chet in "Weird Science", and for that I think he deserves some distinction. I saw Bill at Dobie Mall in Austin, Texas in 1998. He was there for some film festival or something, I don't know. I said to my sister, who was there with me, "Look, it's Chet!" He overheard and actually smiled at me. It's nice to see he's proud of what was arguably one of the finest roles in the 1980's.
Billie Joe of Green Day: My sister reminded me in my guestbook about the time my friend Ramsey and I met Billie Joe. This was a long time ago, I think in 1992, before Green Day was famous. We drove up to Corpus Christi, Texas to see them play at a Shriner's Hall, there couldn't have been more than 100 people in the whole place. We were trying to find a bathroom before the band started, and were acosted by this weird looking skinny guy who started talking to us. We were like "WHATEVER!" (since I talk like that all the time...not) and ignored him for the loser we thought he was. We had been listening to Green Day for awhile but did not know what they looked like. It wasn't until the band got on stage that we realized who he was. And you know the rest of the story...