I was behind George C. Scott at the DMV once.
Jammies used to play hockey with Taylor Kitsch but I never crossed paths with him.
It's strange seeing tourists at the Mall of America. Like, I'm just here after work to see a cheap movie, maybe have some pizza at Sbarro and look at the LEGO store, and you're running around dressed all fancy taking pictures and carrying around 5 bags from various lifestyle brand outlets. Weird.
LA is fun. Dress fancy although the premiere will be full of nerds so who cares. The Cat & Fiddle, down the street from the theater, is Morrissey's favorite restaurant in LA and makes a mean scotch egg. Remember, celebrities are completely unlike you and I; if you poke at them vigorously you might learn that some are incorporeal.
Yay Heebie, have fun.
I don't think I've met any celebrities, but my cousin is an academic who is sufficiently well known that most of the people on unfogged would know his name.
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I've was just thinking, I've been in a bit of a funk for the last two months or so, and I might be getting out of it, which would be nice. Going home from work today, it felt like the first day this year when work hadn't felt just a little bit torturous.
It hasn't worried me, because I do feel pretty comfortable, generally speaking, so it felt like an internally generated bad mood, rather than a sign that my life was actually the cause of distress.
I haven't been in too bad a mood, but notably crankier and grumpier than usual, so it would be nice to feel more positive, and hopefully that's coming.
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An actor friend of mine from when I lived in LA now has a weird sort of minor fame, including internet celebrity and a fair bit of fanfic being written about him. It's hilarious but not really surprising.
Nice. When is it again?
Start training *now*.
Come on NickS you can't leave it at that. Drop some hints.
Come on NickS you can't leave it at that. Drop some hints.
He's a political scientist in his 40s.
Hooray! Definitely go all touristy and take photos of yourself with lots of people. Some of them will be famous. Also the lookalikes are right outside the theater for the premiere, so you can get your picture taken with Darth Vader and Captain Jack Sparrow and Superman, one of whom might stab the other or you if it's a slow night.
12 seems like it may have actually been enough information. Go figure!
10 to 8. HOW'S THAT FOR A TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE
My favorite celebrity encounter remains Daryl Hannah.
Mrs. K-sky grew up here. P.J. Soles babysat her once, which is the only celebrity story she tells with any affection.
Awesome! You can probably take photos the whole time, they will be expecting tourists, unless you can't. Dress nicely but no need to go super formal at all, it's not the Oscars.
I've never been to LA. I don't think I've ever even met a celebrity
I like how this seems to imply that it's more likely for one to have met a celebrity than to have been to LA.
I'm trying to remember if I ever met a celebrity. I think somehow I haven't.
Anyway, we should do some kind of formal meet up. The lodging offer in the previous thread stands as well, if you need it.
Also generally meeting celebrities is super disappointing, though they sure can be charming sometimes and this is a true fan service event so who knows.
There was this weird thing I went to the summer after high school where there were lots of famous people and my trip was personally paid for by Naomi Judd and I was supposed to have lunch with her but she didn't show. And I met a few of the supposedly famous people but I think all the ones I actually met, as opposed to just hearing them speak, were scientists. I'm trying to remember who the actually famous people who were there were. Lauryn Hill, for one.
I like the random encounters with character actors the best, like the time when Wynn Duffy from Justified was chasing my kid.
Re what to wear, the e-mail I got a couple months ago said "The suggested ATTIRE is also still being determined, but we'll be sure to give you more advice about this at least a month before the premiere." But even though it's now less than a month to go, I'm pretty sure I haven't heard anything more, unless I missed an e-mail.
You should obviously wear the sweater that Duncan and Logan and Piz all wore.
Or you could wear official LoVe-themed clothing.
like the time when Wynn Duffy from Justified was chasing my kid.
That would be badass. I'm a fan.
That's one weird looking dude. Gere Burns IIRC.
There was this weird thing I went to the summer after high school where there were lots of famous people
Heh, I went to the very same thing. Well, a couple of years before you; 1998. Have we talked about this before? Surely we must have. I remember having my picture taken with a few CEOs of evil resource-extraction companies, and sitting with this guy and his family for the Quin/cy Jones-directed figure skating performance, or something. And I'd just recently received the last of my college rejection letters, going 8 for 8, making the whole thing a pretty surreal experience of imposter syndrome.
A family friend is an extremely successful playwright (Tony, Pulitzer) and I think is perhaps going to be actual (as opposed to New York) famous because he's also an accomplished actor and is now on H/omeland. Other than going to his birthday party when I was four and he was somethingteen, I have had two brief conversations with him. Last time he was in NYC he said I should call him and we should catch up but I took it as probably just him being polite and only texted much later and didn't hear back from him.
I think that's my only one. You see famous people in NYC not infrequently. I Have a list, if I think about it.
Yay! It'll be fun and you'll have a great time!
15: he plays an angel on a syndicated television show.
I like how this seems to imply that it's more likely for one to have met a celebrity than to have been to LA.
For most people in the world, that's probably true.
H-G: Wear a Bruno Mars fan outfit and pretend you thought it was going to be a concert.
Both 12 and 31 are completely opaque to me.
For most people in the world, that's probably true.
Really? I didn't think there were very many celebrities to go around. I'm too lazy to do an estimate of the relative probability.
34: with 31 at least that means you definitely don't know who he is. 12... there aren't that many famous political scientists (Wikipedia has a list) and they're mostly old.
I've met [or in some cases, know very well] quite a few musicians that people who like Scottish indie music * would certainly know. I've also told my Alex Chilton story a few times. But I don't think I've ever met anyone properly movie-star famous. Seen them in the street, yes. Had conversations with, no.
* B&S, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, The Vaselines, etc
Really? I didn't think there were very many celebrities to go around. I'm too lazy to do an estimate of the relative probability.
Every country (OK, maybe not Bhutan) has its own celebrities. Only America has LA. Hell, if you don't count LAX, I've never been to LA and I'm American. Whereas I've met a bunch of celebrities.
And when I say bunch, I mean handful.
Working in a bookshop in Oxford (England) is a great way to rub shoulders with celebs. If you haven't been gratuitously insulted by Iris Murdoch, had Erich Segal attempt to bargain down the price of a cheap second hand text and been winked at by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, you haven't lived!
On the other hand, in Oxford, Ohio, P.J. O'Rourke is about the best you could hope for.
Had no idea Nick is related to Condoleezza Rice.
Chris Y, hate to break it to you, but those aren't celebrities.
One of my cousins who lives in LA has hilarious run-ins with celebrities, which I know about because she documents them on Facebook. Oh look, here's a picture of my cousin with David Hasselhof, whom she ran into at 2 in the morning admiring a billboard with his own picture on it. Oh huh, here's an entire album of the time my cousin went bowling with some friends and one of them brought Flava Flav along.
I was once asked to not stand so close to George Clooney.
The exciting taco bar story is still the only story I have.
For this thread, that's very relevant.
I was once asked to not stand so close to George Clooney.
Sting asks me the same thing quite often.
48: Which one of you is the young teacher?
42. No, mainly they're authentically famous or important. I think Segal counts as a celeb though, as the writer of an Oscar nominated screenplay, even though as a scholar or Roman comedy he was trivial.
I suspect Halford is not going to classify screenwriters as celebrities, either.
Content Provider (First Class) is the proper classification.
The classes go from First to 27th (blogger or poet who doesn't rhyme).
Surely under Halfordismo screenwriters will occupy a position of high status, like peasants under Maoism or scholars under Confucianism? They are creators of intellectual property, the protection of which is one of Halfordismo's core aims!
The protection of capital is one of the core aims of capitalism and it hasn't been an unqualified boon for those whose labor creates the capital.
Creators but not owners of IP -- more respected artisans than a high-status class themselves. The screenplay is only truly created by the financial incentives, which belong to the studio. The screenwriter is merely a necessary tool.
I went to college with one of the Yes Men.
An ex of mine was babysat by Richard Ramirez. I don't know if he really counts as a celebrity.
Whereas the actual celebrities carry the financial incentives with them like crowns wherever they go, and are rightfully fêted as kings as queens.
there aren't that many famous political scientists (Wikipedia has a list) and they're mostly old.
I haven't looked at the list, but I don't know if my cousin would be on it.
It's funny, thinking about why I hesitate to offer his name, one reason is just that I feel like a bad cousin, since I don't talk to him very often. *shrug*
If that's too identifying, is he bigger than a bread box that is the same size as Phil Converse.
Actually, he is on the wikipedia list of notable political scientists. So there you go.
I think Halford's "those aren't celebrities" makes a very useful distinction. The "famous" people I know or have been in the presence of are all like ChrisY's. Most fit into the subclass "Chicago/Midwestern Intellectual whose books have from time to time received (fleeting) national attention."
I know that movie and music stars come here all the time and often overlap the spaces I frequent. Maybe they draw crowds, or are constantly recognized. I guess I'm oblivious.
63. I think Iris Murdoch's books received more than fleeting (inter)national attention. Apart from being played by Kate Winslet in a movie that won an Oscar (KW was nominated but didn't win).
I need to go dig up the link to the photo of the back of my head on a paparazzi site from when I was talking to a celebrity.
"People of Walmart" really isn't a paparazzi site.
And talking to a celebrity who is on a TV screen doesn't really count.
And yelling doesn't really count as talking.
Anyway, if we're phoning in famous academic relatives, I'm royalty.
And yes! I'd love to have a meet-up in LA. Can you local folks do the Tuesday, the 11th?
I've decided that probably NickS's cousin either works within a short walk of my home, or coauthored a book a few years ago that's sitting on my shelf but that I never got around to reading.
In my lexicon, "celebrity" is almost entirely derogatory, meaning "someone who is famous for no particular reason." Your typical celebrity will be hired to pad out television panels because hiring four people who are genuinely well known or expert would cost too much. They might have been famous long ago for playing the electric violin on Desolation Row. Also, people on sports shows who fill in the down time, who were never all that good when they were playing but are well liked by the reputable journalists. Younger celebrities are typically about to have a hit song but don't, or something goes viral on TouTube and is dead in the water two weeks later.
To be a celebrity, you have to give yourself airs beyond anything you merit.
The definition of celebrity used to be simple: how close could you reasonably expect to sit to the court with gifted tickets at a Lakers game? In 2009 Iris Murdoch is sitting in the 300 seats with the cholos, literary merit be damned. I guess maybe Exchequer gets closer but come on that's for having power over money, not fame, two different things. Unfortunately the last two years have upended this classification system and thrown the world into chaos.
When I first started posting here, in 2008, I think I could legitimately call myself a minor, C-list blogger. Since then, I've properly run the blog into the ground and expect to have no name recognition anymore.
Actually I guess Iris Murdoch was dead in 2009. But hypothetical zombie Iris Murdoch isn't getting close to 2009 courtside.
Since then, I've properly run the blog into the ground and expect to have no name recognition anymore.
Haven't both Brad DeLong and Andrew Sullivan quoted you (and gotten your name wrong)? That's got to be worth something.
I think of DeLong as a friend of the blog, true. He used to comment here, IIRC.
expect to have no name recognition anymore
Well, if you will blog pseudonymously, this is what happens...
I went to college with a future star Repub politician. He was already pretty damn conservative back then, but not insane. I'm pretty bad at recognizing celebrities, but I'm pretty sure I saw the Talking Heads dude at an East Village cafe once. Other than that I somewhat regret not introducing myself to possibly the biggest star in Polish rock history when I saw him, bedraggled but happy, sucking down cigs outside a side entrance at JFK (five cigarettes in about fifteen minutes by my count), clearly having just arrived in NYC and meeting up with a bunch of other aging punk/rocker types. I was doing my best to store up on nicotine before my flight, and was playing fly on the wall with someone relaxed in the knowledge that no one here would recognize him, let alone understand what he was saying. Not sure if he would have been happy at being recognized by a (sort of) American fan, or distressed at not being anonymous.
78: My impression is that (a) he reads the entire internet daily, and (b) that includes our comments pretty completely (hi, Brad!). He's linked things from pretty deep in the comments in I think the last few years sometime.
Alex Ross once quoted my opera blog, but the line he quoted was me quoting someone else so it was like the most exciting moment of my life until I realized it totally wasn't! The NYRB also mentioned my opera blog but it was a really fucking specific article, like about classical music blogs.
I think of DeLong as a friend of the blog, true. He used to comment here, IIRC.
He even impersonated a hedgehog . . .
One of my best friends from high school started and starred in The State and related ventures. Another is a pretty famous writer/director. A third was a lesser rock star once upon a time. And I knew lots of famous musicians when I served my time as an agent. Not a one of them had a sloth, the losers.
Also, I'm in Pennsyltucky at the moment. LA feels very far away.
One of my best friends from high school started and starred in The State
Really? Who?
You're having sex with a fundamentalist Christian female prison inmate? Points for honesty, but maybe finish first before commenting.
Am I allowed to play this game? I've:
-Interviewed 2 out of the 3 most famous cyberpunk authors
-Interviewed 2 famous indie movie directors
-Interviewed a few well-known actors
-Met a bunch of relatively well-known politicians
-Gotten yelled at by a certain jackass documentarian
-Gotten drunk with an alcoholic NBA player who later died while DUI
-Gotten a Snickers bar from a grandson of a US president
-Came very close to sleeping with someone who slept with a famously bisexual British stage and screen actor
-Met the first drummer for a famous Northern Ireland punk band, who was in a show at the venue I ran
-Hosted a prominent lefty SF author and former New Left activist in my own home
-Went to Jr. High and HS with a famous reality-TV interior decorator
I went to the theater last night with a Best Actress Oscar winner.
If blog-famous counts then I'll admit to being acquainted with Moe La/ne of Redstate and his eponymous blog. Also Rand Sim/berg, who is less famous but still famous enough to be sued by Micheal Ma/nn for defamation.
I know or have met literally no one seriously famous at all, ever.
Lots of people used to comment here before going on to become famous bloggers. We're the Night Court of blogging.
that includes our comments pretty completely (hi, Brad!)
If that's true... was that you I nearly ran into at Alca/traz and Col/lege yesterday, Brad? (You or your doppelganger were wearing a salmon-colored shirt. I was in jeans and a black hoodie.)
89: I mean, it wasn't just the two of us. It was a group of about 8 or 10.
I met Don Meredith when I was a kid (and my dad played a round of golf with him). Probably between his last season with the Cowboys and first season with Cosell, so I don't know where you'd put him courtside at a Lakers game.
Delong came to a Cambridge meetup with Sifu and me and I forget who else when he was at Harvard for business. Very entertaining.
Oh I so want to know what 89 is about!
22: I think my favorite celebrity story is still from the first time I went to LA, when my friend* and I had just been talking about the fact that I hadn't seen any celebrities yet, and we turned a corner in a bookstore and there was Jeff Foxworthy, sitting at a table waiting for people to show up for his book-signing and looking small and pathetic and lost. We burst into peals of laughter (my friend and I, not Jeff Foxworthy, whom I still feel a little bit bad for).
*This was my main frenemy, a person who is a strange attractor for both crazy people and celebrities. I can't even remember all of his goofy celebrity stories, but he had even met Michael Jackson on more than one occasion, and had an ongoing series of negative interactions with Shelley Winters.
91.1: It's remarkable how far under my skin he manages to get even now. Probably because he seemed like a good guy for a while (before the '04 election).
100: Right, he was one of the founders of Obsidian Wings, but left pretty early. I don't read his material generally but on the occasions when I do I really wonder what happened. He's turned into just another right wing blowhard.
My sister and her husband do VFX in LA. I asked once whether they worked with/met famous people (he is more successful than she is), and they said no. But, they've been to the not-quite-Oscars where they hand out awards for stuff like sound engineering. She was out sick the day Tom Hanks visited her workspace (she was doing effects for a documentary he was narrating). He says Topher Grace is very nice.
I think they're pretending they're so over fawning about celebs, although they might truly not care.
Smearcase:
Classical music is another subculture, isn't it, where people who are in a sense genuinely famous, in that they are known and appreciated very widely, can nonetheless walk the streets anonymously?
It's much, much easier to get close to Rene Fleming than a Lakers game. My daughter's Joshua Bell anecdotes from Interlochen are incomprehensible to many intelligent people who've never heard of him.
An attorney in my office used to be a fairly prominent figure in the left blogosphere. He co-blogged with the blogger who is set to take over the world.
I'm actually incredibly bad at recognizing famous people. Most I've " met" professionally, which is a very different thing than socially, where I'm not even close to approaching the zone of knowing famous people, except maybe a little through my wife. . I've had a few experiences at parties where I've been like "who is this incredibly boring person who people are just letting ramble on" and then it turns out to be some well known actor or actress.
Roseanne Cash came into my workplace a couple of months ago looking for something to put on her next album cover.
I have others but they mostly involve a past life, so to speak, that had a very unpleasant ending.
I have almost no significant brushes with celebrity. In eighth grade or thereabouts I did a phone interview with my then favorite author, Robert Asprin. I got autographs from Billy Bragg and George Winston following concerts. I once stayed at the same hotel as Simona Halep, currently ranked #10 in the WTA, and almost walked into her during breakfast.
Other than that, I took a class taught by Obama, if you consider him a celebrity, which would probably be stretching the definition.
LA people - if you go to the Ivy, are you really likely to see some celebrities, or is that just hype?
I have others but they mostly involve a past life, so to speak, that had a very unpleasant ending.
Barry Freed is VW?
I'm actually incredibly bad at recognizing famous people.
I was wondering this, about mcmc and DFW - would I actually recognize an author out of context? I don't think I would.
I'm very bad at recognizing anybody out of context.
The facial recognition part of my brain is Bayesian.
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I just discovered that if you click on the hearts on today's google doodle you hear a story. The heart I had picked at random was "4ever yours", and it was touching -- I think I'm going to stop after that one, because it is lovely.
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I took a class taught by Obama
Con law? Without knowing for sure I'd expect his views to be pretty conventional.
The best and cheapest (free) way to have good odds of seeing a celebrity in LA, especially a younger one, is to go for a hike in Runyon Canyon in the morning, which is fun and pleasant and a nice way to see the city anyway. So I always suggest that as a tourist activity. But just don't be an ahole and bother them.
109: Yes, but DFW in an AA meeting is in context. It's like seeing Paul Lynde in the middle of Hollywood Squares.
The facial recognition part of my brain is Bayesian.
That's fantastic; I'm tempted to steal that and use it as part of my e-mail signature, but that's probably a bad idea.
Neil Gaiman is pretty recognizable, although much tinier than you would think. Looks exactly like his author photos though.
On the subject of blog-famous, Sully has been showing up with alarming frequency (well, ok, twice in as many months--so far) at my neighborhood bar.
And lest this thread end up completely Allen-free: I grew up with the kid who played Young Alvy Singer.
More relevant to the OP: my brother and sister-in-law--who most definitely do not ordinarily move in celebrity circles--went to the Grammys and some pre/after-parties a couple weeks ago, and from the sound of it they just shamelessly took photos and acted like star-struck rubes the whole time, but it was totally fine and they had a blast.
I spoke briefly with Alina Cojocaru last night, because she had set a ticket aside for my date.
Good thing I was properly attired!
155: Or Paul Lynde in an AA meeting.
On awards ceremonies: A professional contact is the sister of someone who was going to the Oscars last year as a nominee for one of the big technical awards, but then he got hit by a car or something, so she had to go hang out by his hospital bed instead. At least she was already planning to be out of town (although, since she's independently wealthy, it probably wouldn't have made that much difference.)
Humorous story from my favorite bar tender: Tommy Stinson was in town, barhopping with all the old Mpls punk rock celebrities, and came up to ask if he could put a playlist from his iPod on the PA. Bartender replied: "Dude, this is a punk bar in Minneapolis, and you're Tommy Stinson, you can do anything you want."
Certain drummers of minorly famous all-women Mpls. punk acts are absolutely inescapable. Like a bad penny or something.
...and they Will. Not. Shut. Up. about Thurston Moore.
I am so goddamn excited about this. Eeeeeee!!!!
I once walked past a very famous and well loved actor on the street and wondered why they looked like they'd been sobbing/hit by a truck, only to get home and read that their (also very famous) spouse had just died. I had clearly run into them walking home from the hospital. It felt so sad and intimate that I didn't tell anyone at all about it for years.
113: Yup. There was not anything particularly noteworthy about the class at the time, although I probably would have paid more attention and been more on the lookout for good anecdotes if I had known he'd be president one day.
124: Tommy Stinson asked me for "change for the pop machine" when I was 15 (making him what? 18?). That was my first exposure to the MPLS accent, and "change for the pop machine" is quite a vehicle for that.
I was the Latin tutor of the girl who played "young Brooke Shields" in the Blue Lagoon. She was older than me and I think we met once or twice before she pulled out of school to go act.
I apparently at a young age answered the phone for Jackie Onassis in her capacity as editor for a book my mother was involved with.
I guess I also know a couple of moderately to very famous people through being their kids' occasional Sunday school teacher, which is just a weird relationship for about 100 different reasons, including that I'm incredibly bad at teaching Sunday school.
91 (a) he reads the entire internet daily
And also writes it. What's in that coffee, anyway?
134: I'm sure, but I think I'm worse than most at the image processing part.
90: yeah. We used to party together (along with a big crowd) a lot. You know he's from Somerville?
I felt so validated when I did genuinely badly on that facial recognition test. It's not that I don't care, I'm just really bad at it!
I still can't believe Tweety is friends with Michael Landon.
It's much, much easier to get close to Rene Fleming than a Lakers game. My daughter's Joshua Bell anecdotes from Interlochen are incomprehensible to many intelligent people who've never heard of him.
Hey, I know who Joshua Bell is, he's the guy who performed in the subway station for that Washington Post article.
I used to have weird moments of star-struckness around various jazz or free-jazz luminaries. Hey, Peter Brötzmann just walked past me! I'm sitting ten feet away from Misha Mengelberg! Darren Johnston (not a luminary on a par with the others but still) is right there! Fred Frith is in the house!
I think that's the only kind of famous person I've ever met, actually.
You must take lots of celebrity pics and then post them to the flickr pool.
For inspiration, this is what I did when I met Scarlett Johansson.
Hmm, I don't think I've really interacted with anyone famous. I've seen several famous people:
Neil Young (movie theater bathroom) I know, I know.
Toni Colette (Albuquerque Whole Foods)
Scottie Pippen (Walking in Evanston)
Chris Matthews (Just a few weeks ago at the airport)
Zizek (On a motherfucking plane)
Habermas (Took a class with him; remember nothing)
Ian Buchanan is you'll recognize once you google famous. We were at the same thanksgiving dinner once. A cutting wit, that man.
There might be a couple of others, but really, it doesn't count unless you've slept with them.
109: I certainly wouldn't have recognized DFW if the writers hadn't all been whispering, "Hey, that's DFW!" This was probably three decades ago.
Helpy-Chalk, that's awesome.
Oh, Mike Royko, at a restaurant. I am perhaps old.
I drove past Mr T in Lake Forest, I think. I am not 100% certain it was Mr T, but he was a large black man with a mohawk driving an open-top Excalibur-looking car in Lake Forest.
Slovenians on a plane. The Habermas thing is the ultimate cool though. Even if you remember nothing. Or maybe especially because you remember nothing.
I met Pia Zadora when I was a kid. The ultimate nothing celeb if there ever was one. My grandfather played violin with her dad.
145 last gets it right. The rest is bullshit.
Oh, Mike Royko, at a restaurant. I am perhaps old
I'm older, and can remember trying really hard not to act funny on recognizing Royko, who was standing in a lunch joint sipping a coffee, probably waiting to meet somebody.
I could tell he knew he'd been recognized, but I thought the protocol was to try hard to act normal. His whole life must have been like that.
How was the dancing, nosflow? Would have gone with the boy if not for his breaking his foot and also mock trial competitions this week for the high school team I coach. Awesome to meet cojocaru! Agree v good thing you were nicely turned out.
Kochetkova shows up at the kid's dance studio from time to time, easily recognizable amongst swarms of dancers because of awesome shoes. Mark Morris seems to swan around regularly there as well when his troupe is in town, someone connected with smuin does some kind if bodywork he is into I think. Better half has chatted with him. Also last year better half ate dinner in London next table over from Liszt, but alas did not have a score on hand to ask for an autograph.
Once had morning coffee at same communal table as Peter Gabriel, didn't know it until after he'd gone, just felt sorry for whoever it was having their wits bored out of them by companion going on and on about some physics collided thing or something. Subject seemed vaguely interesting but interlocutor was a bore.
Mr Smearcase, what is your opera blog?
Royko probably could have gotten courtside, but only as a nostalgia gift from some ex-Chicagoan CEO since no one outside Chicago cares about the dude. I don't think Habermas could even have gotten a free ticket at all.
Speaking of the Lakers, in I guess 1984ish? I took Magic Johnson's order at the Turnpike rest-stop Roy Rogers that was my first real job. Sports-ignorant nerd that I was, I could tell he was someone famous by everyone else's reaction, but I hadn't the slightest idea who until he left and everyone started talking about him.
Oddest encounter with not-at-all-a-celebrity-but-nevertheless-sort-of-notable person was probably when I got berated by Ezra Pound's son for tripping over his umbrella in a restaurant.
154: Oh it hasn't existed for years.
149 reminds me that I ran into a Slovenian acquaintance on a plane a couple of months ago, and makes me wonder: are all Slovenian men roughly the size and shape of bears?
Also last year better half ate dinner in London next table over from Liszt,
Gruesome!
I yielded to Zdeno Chara so he could cross the street a month or so ago. He seemed pretty thankful.
Pfft, I've seen Habermas. I once saw Mark Strand buying risotto in Hyde Park (and also almost took classes from him, twice; each time undergrads were kicked out). He was pondering the options deeply, as I recall.
I'm sure Halford knows best about celebrity, but a test that makes more sense to me is what woud happen if this person decided that they wanted to appear on Dancing With the Stars. I'm thinking Habermas wouldn't have a chance.
162 isn't a bad metric at all.
161: I took a class *with* him. He came to all the meetings of a social thought class I took über die tragische Kunst.
No, it was lovely! BH stopped for a late night bite on his way back to hotel after concert at the Wigmore (3rd concert of the day, he kind of overindulged) and the couple at the next table were a nicely but conventionally dressed woman and a guy in breeches, long coat, high necked shirt and romantic swept straight back longish (for a man) hair - Liszt! BH said neither the couple nor anyone else acted like there was anything out of the ordinary going on, and Liszt's clothes were all very good quality, not like a "costume" or anything.
Classical music is another subculture, isn't it, where people who are in a sense genuinely famous, in that they are known and appreciated very widely, can nonetheless walk the streets anonymously?
Yeah, it's just very watery fame. I think there's a tiny population that would ever recognize you, and they mostly live in a few cities. You probably are not recognized almost ever unless you're at the top level of classical music sub-fame. The era of actual fame for classical musicians ended with, what, Bernstein?
BTW in the Cite de la Musique museum there are a collection of portable finger gymnasiums for romantic piano virtuosi, to keep their digits in shape while touring. Wonderful crazy things.
162: Please add an "l" to 162.
Also, I attended talks given by Czesław Miłosz and Joseph Brodsky when I was at the University of Michigan.
Also, my mother was friends with Yehuda Amichai back when he was a young unknown poet.
Yo-Yo Ma should go on Dancing With The Stars.
I think parsimon must be without power, since she hasn't complained yet about how unseemly all this bragging is.
Hope you're doing ok, parsimon!
165: I don't understand. Which Liszt could you be talking about aside from a disinterred 19th century one?
Clearly she's talking about that one, and saying that a man was dressed up as that Liszt.
Disinterred, cleaned up and dining in London! Awesome, n'est-ce pas??!?
152 - I was having brunch in Manhattan a few years back and my brunch companions kept looking over my shoulder to watch Josh Broslin host a series of breakfast meetings. One person would finish pitching whatever, thank Broslin, and leave, and another would come and sit down.
I once saw Mark Strand buying risotto in Hyde Park
His hair was perfect.
Wait, there are colonial Williamsburg/Hollywood-Boulevard-Spiderman-style Franz Liszt and Walter Benjamin impersonators walking around in public? I guess that's kind of awesome.
My NYC sightings, for the hell of it: Kiefer Sutherland (WV, street), Keanu Reeves and the mean doctor from Scrubs (UWS), Lou Reed (NYCO), Martha Plimpton (in the audience at various plays), Kathleen Turner (table over at Fiorello), Rufus Wainwright (oh everywhere), Ethan Hawke (Vatan, fancy Indian place), Fran Lebowitz (at a play), Steve Buscemi (Park Slope, in line at La Bagel Delight), Michael Imperioli (TriBeCa), and that one day I ran into Philip Glass repeatedly including in a revolving door ha ha you're very funny. I feel like there are half a dozen others I'm forgetting. Oh, the grey-haired guy on Mad Men, restaurant in WV. Ran after him with his umbrella when he forgot it.
I met SpongeBob Squarepants! My stepdaughter tried to reach in his pants. I think she was curious about his underwear. This may make more sense, if you watch the "Ripped Pants" episode.
I never wanted to brag, but I trained with the guy who was the martial artist inside Leonardo's turtle suit.
Oh and maybe the best, Christine Baranski at like a Tuesday night Billy Budd at the Met because girlfriend is an actual opera fan, not just one of the people who shows up on opening night to be in photographs that will be on page twelve million of the Post. People I saw at opening night: Mary Louise Parker, Martha Stewart, some guy from Project Runway everyone seemed to recognize, Marina Abramovic, Lee Radziwill (I asked someone), more Rufus Wainwright, etc etc this is not entertaining for anyone but me.
BUT what is/was yr opera blog smeary
173 et seq: okay. Fascinating?
Hmm, I don't think I've really interacted with anyone famous.
The racist energy bar dude doesn't count?
The era of actual fame for classical musicians ended with, what, Bernstein?
The exception that proves the rule--his fame was due to crossover, to the broadway musicals plus NYP plus compositions plus 'splainin stuff on TV.
Notoriety, even being on the radar for classical musicians seems to hang on these non-classical hooks. I for instance first heard the name Otto Klemperer, now a god to me, in the context of his being Werner Klemperer's father.
97: Delong came to a Cambridge meetup with Sifu and me and I forget who else when he was at Harvard for business. Very entertaining.
When did that happen?
The era of actual fame for classical musicians ended with, what, Bernstein?
It's like you don't even remember Y/a Y/a M/oo.
97, 189: Not sure when the Cambridge meetup was, but he showed up at one in SF a couple of years ago.
Oh, the grey-haired guy on Mad Men
This (I'm sure I've told this story here before) was probably the only times I've ever really acknowledged a celebrity in public without being introduced. I almost hit him with my car randomly while he was crossing the street, in costume, after location filming somewhere in my parent's neighborhood. He had to duck out of the way, so I apologized and then said something like "that's what you get for leaving your wife, Roger" and he laughed.
192: Ha! Who is his actual wife! And the ex-wife of George Clooney!
One of my former bosses got fed up dealing with a detour caused by a movie set. He was on foot, and I guess that he cut across the filming area, because he had a very brief encounter with Jeff Bridges who said: "Howdy!"
188: Hm, ok, for purely non-crossover fame I guess you have to go back to the acoustic era maybe? I'm not sure. But I do think there were some household names. Sills was on the cover of Time when it was widely read, right?
The blog was called "My Favorite Intermissions" after the very funny Victor Borge book I found in the university library in high school and stood in the stacks reading and laughing too loudly.
I always thought this was a cool idea for a CD.
194: They were always filming in TriBeCa and some production assistant tried to get me not to cross the street once to which I said in not the friendliest tone "I am going to my job" and crossed the street.
168: I went to a reading Brodsky gave at Harvard. He's probably the only person who ever got away with smoking a cigar in the Lamont Library. Also, my roommate at U of M was at his place for some reason and he tried to pick her up and carry her into the bedroom, but she was laughing so hard he got insulted and put her down again
But I do think there were some household names. Sills was on the cover of Time when it was widely read, right?
I think about this all the time. I think there was an element of uplift, of Networks and Newsmagazines having an agenda of cultural education. So Life would do a feature story about Bertrand Russell.
Wagner's pink satin underwear? Must have this book!
200: think it was in part due to cold war cultural competition.
There was that time I barreled right into Claire Danes and she into me as I was exiting just as she was entering the Religious Studies building at Yale.
197: My boss, however, was so excited about seeing Jeff Bridges whom he described as genuinely friendly.
If we count talks by academics you've been to, I have a ton-- Habermas, Zizek, Derrida, Kristeva are the first who come to mind. I've been at the theater with every single goddamned person in Berlin, which is not surprising since I spent a year and a half going 5-7 nights a week. I googled for where in the archives I might have mentioned being at a play with Blixa Bargeld, which I was sure I would have related in order to impress nosflow, but I didn't find it. I used to see Sebastian Koch (the playwright in The Lives of Others) making out with various much younger women at cafes all the time.
My best ever celebrity meeting/sighting is Patrick Stewart, who came into the shop I work in with his now-wife and bought lots of things. It was difficult containing myself.
Once got off flight from Paris at SFO and there was a film crew blocking the corridor towards immigration or luggage or something. Fellow passengers were obediently waiting but we barreled right through. Screw waiting for your stupid commercial taping! We just got off a fricking 9 hour flight! Sheesh.
As an eighth grader, I met and conversed with JFK Jr., who was a friend and coworker of a relative of mine I was visiting. He asked if I had a boyfriend, though not in a creepy way, and between my repulsion at the thought and being told afterward that he was the most beautiful man in the world and wasn't I impressed, which I hadn't been, and then lecture my relative gave me on the difference between cross-dressing and transgender identities and drag after a different relative and I were in the background of a documentary on, well, one of those subgroups, I went back home with the seeds of something planted I think.
There's also a classical chamber musician who hit on me three times in two years back in college whenever he came to our area, so I'm guessing he has a type.
That has to be the only JFK Jr. turned me gay story of its kind.
Patrick Ewing came into the People's Drug Store I worked in. He is very tall.
JFK Jr. turned me gay stories of other kinds are, of course, a dime a dozen.
43, 144: For the record, this is what I did when I met David Hasselhoff. (Link to Flickr pool.)
when I got berated by Ezra Pound's son for tripping over his umbrella in a restaurant
I once accidentally catapulted a forkful of rice onto Larry Gelbart's wife. She was very gracious.
212: You made a second copy of yourself in order to properly surround him?
70: Count me in. I'll propose Taix so Tweety doesn't have to, but when you guys find out where you're staying we can adjust for your convenience.
Ha! Who is his actual wife! And the ex-wife of George Clooney!
The matron wife? Or the PYT?
Once when my mom and I were having dim sum at our favourite place Robert Duvall was at the next table. On our way out she leaned over and said, resoundingly, 'Keep Up the Good Work!' He said, 'I'll do my best, Ma'am'.
I am truly delighted to learn that someone was using the Har/vard research computing cluster to mine dogecoin.
Is that like bitcoin, but stupider?
218: I'd be surprised is nobody was trying that sort of thing. I bet it's not the only research cluster that's been tasked with something similar. My cow-orker is currently heating his apartment with a collection of machines mining litecoin. He's paid for his electricity usage and covered the cost of the machines.
I was an extra in that movie about the cigarette industry with some astoundingly short actor as one if the leads? Had forgotten about that, gookle says it was the insider/al pacino.
220: If it was bitcoin I would not be at all surprised, but I love that it was dogecoin.
221: I think they shot a little bit of that at my high school. Because Russell Crowe's character was my ninth grade science teacher, recently mentioned in another thread here.
215: phew. I'll wear my TAIX t-shirt that night in honor of it.
221: Apparently DQ uses a Vietnamese search engine.
I've probably told everyone I've ever met about the afternoon I had tea with Milosz at his apartment. One of the most amazing moments of my life.
Mike Wallace corrected my grammar at an airport, Jeb Bush asked about my high school's football team (we didn't have one--it was an arts school), and one of the members of War asked me to film him on stage with his camcorder.
I've now met a ton of celebs at cons; probably spent the most time talking to Heather Langenkamp. I'm not a horror fan, so I had never seen NoES. We spent about 45 minutes chatting about haircuts and politics. Apparently her dad was in the Dept. Of Energy under Carter.
I'm sure I've told this story before, but my ex's sister Beth was one of those Titanic superfans -- when she first came to visit us in LA, she'd already seen the movie 9 times. My ex picked her up at the airport and took her to a restaurant in Santa Monica. I met them there and they gave me the look-but-don't-look eyes to the table across the restaurant. Lo and behold, there sat Leonardo DiCaprio.
We had known that we had to bag a celebrity sighting during Beth's visit, but this was a jackpot and she was barely off the plane. He left and I ran down the block with a placemat and a pen. I stopped him and ask him to sign for her, and he said, "Sorry, I'm not actually that guy." I did not have the presence of mind to say, "Then would you fake his signature?"
A year later he started frequenting the art gallery where my ex worked, but everyone was over it by then. That was around the time that Viggo Mortensen had a show there; every time my ex would box up one of his artworks to ship, he would buy her a dozen roses. He had soon bought her more roses than I ever had. It was cool.
Yeah, I didn't even want to get into the academic stuff, as I figured everyone here would have better stories. I had a class with one of Edward Said's proteges on the day Said died, that was sad. Same prof introduced S. Rushdie, who gave probably the most pointless and asinine academic talk I've ever heard. It was basically just stupid after dinner remarks that he obviously thought marked him out as one of the great wits of the age.
My adviser once had to pick up Stuart Hall at the airport, when she was in grad school. She looked and looked, and couldn't find him, so finally he came up to her and asked her if she was his ride, and then said "You thought I was white, didn't you?" Harsh.
For the Chicagoans only, probably: I recently ran into a very well-dressed M/ke Mc/askey at the local snooty deli, and we chatted in line. He was extremely gracious, and made pleasant chit chat about my son, who I was holding, and yet, he really did have the air of a man who does nothing but bullshit. My dissonant thought was, "What a nice man, no wonder everyone hates him."
Way to go, Nat, you just killed Stuart Hall.
I was going to share that anecdote the other day, but now I'm glad I didn't.
My dissonant thought was, "What a nice man, no wonder everyone hates him."
Then he's well out of it.
There's a Stuart Hall other than the pompous disgraced soccer announcer?
I have enjoyed reading Smearcase's opera blog.
Oh my god, is this a thread explaining, celebrating, or detailing the famous people one has met? Aren't you people embarrassed to do this?
I'll back out now, no worries.
Aren't you people embarrassed to do this?
Not really.
I read this growing up, and have always appreciated the genre since:
http://www.amazon.com/Famous-People-Known-Kentucky-Voices/dp/081319069X
238, see 170.
Glad you're ok, parsimon!
241, 242: I had precedence! You should have waited!
I'm surprised that I'm so predictable, actually. Peace in any case.
Yeah, 243 was not so prescient. Alas, peep! (Also, your email is sending out spam, FYI.)
234,237: I debated posting it on the basis of cringe-worthiness but I guess I'm just racist.
246: Oh, sorry! I closed that email account a while ago. What should I do?
225 definitely cringe inducing.
Saving up Mr SC's blog for later, looks very enjoyable on first peek.
My underdog mock trialers have preserved their underdog status for another season, oh well. So so so want them to make it to the final at least once! Well, it was fun and many valuable lessons learned as per usual.
In my wife's old job, she met all the political celebrities. She has a picture of her standing between Kohl and GHWB* -- the latter was actually fairly nice, and hoped she'd come up to Kennebunkport some time. I didn't hear anything similar from when she went up to Chappaqua to do something with WJC. Met several time with Scalia, more with Rice, etc.
She got an email yesterday from Kohl's former butler -- unceremoniously fired after 43 years with the old man** -- looking for housing help/advice for his grandson who's going to grad school in NYC. She'd already told him she couldn't help him before I got a chance to ask you people.
* I've mentioned before that my mom's best friend from high school -- and they still see each other a couple of times a year -- is Jennifer Fi/zgerald. Through that connection I've met GHWB, but didn't make anything like the impression my wife several years later.
** His newish companion is apparently quite controlling, and has isolated him. Or something like that.
FB just suggested Valerie Plame as someone I might know.
(A former partner of mine knew her socially, but he passed away several years ago, and was never on FB.)
248: Nothing! Just hope your friends and family aren't dumb enough to click super obvious spam, I guess.
Anyone have any good advice on writing cover letters? It's for a library job. As a librarian. I recently finished my MLS and there's a dream job just down the hall from where I've been working. Since it's a pretty big organization it has to pass the HR hurdle before it gets to the people who know me.
Would HR really make a determination on who is qualified? I'd think at most they'd just weed out based on big, obvious disqualifications. Obviously I have no idea though.
That's certainly what I'm hoping for. I haven't done this sort of thing in almost forever though and there is a big gap in my school/work history due to some heinous shit that happened to me (and that I've slowly but surely dug myself out of). On the plus side this is going out wide and I was with the organization till very recently (today actually, I could only keep my previous position while I was enrolled). I was very sad to leave but very excited by this position.
256: Send your resume and talk directly to the people who know you. Go through HR as well, but relying on HR and the formal hiring process only is a mistake.
251: "They live like two people who have been locked in a museum overnight by mistake" is a wonderful quote.
Open cover letters can be useful, but like all job advice, things contradict things.
What HR does depends a lot on the organization. Some HR screens will just take out the applications that clearly don't meet the required requirements (which as an applicant you may not actually know, especially given how some job ads are written). But some HR screens will try to do some evaluation and ranking even if HR doesn't have anyone who really understands what the job is. Though in the latter case that probably is something you can kind of tell if the job posting doesn't appear to be written by someone who understands the job - requiring things that the job, as described, won't involve or doesn't need, for example.
I've heard there are government jobs where HR runs some automated resume scoring thingy, so you're supposed to write in very particular ways to fit into that. There's a whole guide to making federal resumes, I think. And I'm sure there are companies that do this. But I haven't heard of that being used in regular non-government library hiring.
256: Do you know someone who could introduce you to the person who would supervise the position (or is key to hiring you)? Maybe your immediately prior supervisor? The way I've seen this is current supervisor sends e-mail to potential supervisor saying, hey, I wanted to introduce you to Presidential. S/he has been doing some nice work for us and was interested in your open position. Then, you send e-mail asking if there's a good time to drop by to chat about what the position entails (this doesn't work if it's a totally obvious job, but try to think of some good questions). This will let you do sort of a soft interview, which you can follow up with your resume by e-mail. This should spur him or her to ask HR to pull your resume for consideration even if you don't come up in a keyword search. Good luck!
261.3 is worth knowing as well if it is government/federal.
It's not federal.
My previous supervisor has been acting as the interim supervisor of this division. Only I'm not sure if she's going to be sitting on the hiring committee. I'm highly regarded by everyone I've worked with and well liked by everyone who knows me including some people in the division I'm applying to.
I guess I'm worried because I have a somewhat unusual history and I'm older than many applicants will be. On the other hand much of the job description appears to be written specifically for me.
Thanks fake accent that looks like a great website.
I think the only celebrities I've met were Neil Patrick Harris at the Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque (which is like the least surprising celebrity encounter ever) and Temple Grandin at the Syracuse airport (that one's less expected, although I wasn't very surprised since I knew she had just given a talk at Cornell).
I think the only celebrities I've met were Neil Patrick Harris
Wait wait wait.
Ok that's not as exciting to you as it is to me.
He was with a woman at the time, which led to some confusion later.
I think I've told most of these before. I feel like they're super identifying but the only people who'd be tipped off by them wouldn't care about my posting here.
Best was hanging out with Ed Norton at his apartment. We talked about socks and stuff like that.
Met Ira and Georgia from Yo La Tengo once -- we were on the same flight and then waiting for our luggage together. I ended up chatting backstage at a show of theirs a couple years later and Ira remembered me.
A birthday party for a roommate in Brooklyn: Betty Fussell showed up for the early shift (she was super nice), and much later in the evening James Iha was hanging out with the smokers on the roof.
Terry Riley recently, at a star-studded new music thingie with Smearcase. He was a good sport.
A few other minor encounters with celebrities in New York. One time at the Russian Baths with Jeremy Sisto -- my then-boyfriend got to see his ass in the locker room. Maggie Gyllenhaaaaal at Veselka. But in NYC those just-seeing-somebody encounters don't count. You have to talk about socks.
I told Howard Dean that anyone who wanted to move from Vermont to DC ought to have his head examined.
Ooh - related to the whole Veronica Mars thing, the reason that I started watching VM in the first place was Teddy Dunn (Duncan Kane) who I went to high school with and starred in a play that my best friend directed! I used to live in LA and I mostly tried to avoid noticing celebrities that crossed my path but it was super weird for instance when I was just happily studying in the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Woodland Hills and Jaime Lee Curtis walks in for example.
I never realized, until now, that Betty Fussell was married to Paul Fussell. That's an impressive lack of ability to connect the dots you have, Von Wafer!
Paul Fussell is an interesting marker. His book The Great War and Modern Memory was a landmark, just out and much talked about when I was a grad student. But although it jump-started my own interest in the literary figures discussed, his take on the war and its commanders was way out of date, sort of conventional for someone himself of the WWII generation. This was years after Alistair Horne's Verdun and Correlli Barnett's The Swordbearers had introduced an appreciation of the complex and often intelligent response of the war leaders to a mass audience.
I think his later 20th Century books--he was originally an 18th Century specialist--Wartime and Abroad were his best.
Paul and Betty's son wrote a strange memoir of his experience as a steroid-using bodybuilder
I just found out recently that the redhead from Dazed and Confused is Giovanni Ribisi's twin sister, and went on to a bunch of minor roles, but also to marry Beck and become scientologists together.
I just found out that Kristen Bell appears for a hot minute at the very end of Pootie Tang, Louis C.K.'s much regretted (by him, not me!) early feature. Apparently, the scene was originally more substantial but got cut after C.K. lost directorial control.
Occurred to me that Horne's actual title is something like The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916
The most famous person I've ever met is nosflow.
Actually, maybe it was Bave. Who's more famous, nosflow or Bave?