Famous Encounters

[j$]

I went to high school with RJD2...

This would have been a better story if you went to school with R2D2 ...

[Caravan Ray]

I once played in a band that included Slim Dusty's son. And several years ago, while on a Santa Claus Pub Crawl - Daniel Johns of Silverchair apparently tried to chat-up my mate's wife (or so she claims). And David Reyne of Australian Crawl once threw me two-bob when I was busking in the Hunter St mall in Newcastle.

And I once got pissed and tried to talk the then-President of the Republic of Kiribati, Tebruroro Teato, into coming night-clubbing with me.

I also occaisionally see Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie near my office in Brisbane, and he usually says "G'day" because we wear the same type of hat (the Akubra "Cattleman").

And I've forgotton his name now - but I once had dinner at the home of the Indonesian army general who was the commanding officer in Dili, East Timor at the time of the 1991 Dili Massacre.

[erik]

I've seen Margaret Cho and Natasha Lyonne (on seperate occasions) while walking down the street and looped around both of them to make sure it was them. I couldn't think of anything to say other than "Hey! You are famous and funny/cute!" so, I opted to not be all starstruckerazzi.

I was an extra in a movie called "Without Consent" with the unbelievably-short Jennie Garth, and I would have had more completely unverifiable scenes in it (Hey! That's the back of my head! There's my shoulder! I swear!) but when they called me back for a second day of shooting, I had to tell them I had a final exam in some class that I was probably failing.

I've seen Bob Mould having coffee.

While working in a convenience store, I sold cigarettes to Gibby Haynes right before "Pepper" came out. The guy I was working with was all "Do you know who that was?" and I said "It looks like Gibby Haynes, except all skinny." Which of course, was exactly correct. I recieved no prize for my awesome powers of observance. I worked there with the girlfriend of the bass player for Trail of Dead, who was working at another store in the same local chain. When we found out that we were making less money than him (despite him being employed there for a few months and us for over a year) we both quit.

I saw KRS-1 discuss in detail, over half-empty plates of Chinese food, the utter importance of cell phones and voicemail to the success of his new, and at that point probably hypothetical, start-up company, which may or may not have had anything to do with music. He was quite adamant to his party that they all needed "like $400 cell phones" in order for the company to make it.

[HeuristicsInc]

My fiancee tells me that she went to school with Jimmy Fallon, and was good friends with his sister. Not me, but a famous person anyway.
-bill

[Niveous]

In an odd moment yesterday...

So I'm at the New Yorker hotel for the Ring of Honor show and who do I spot there (not for the show) but media-darling, American Idol castoff Constantine Maroulis. I get him to pose with me for a pic but my camera flakes out and I don't get it. But it's for the best, I don't need a pic with an American Idol contestant ruining my idea cred.

(Note- Constantine's band, Pray for the Soul of Betty, ain't half bad and doesn't do any crappy AI thoroughfaire)

[Tonamel]

Since I got to go to the Game Developer's Conference this year, I go to meet a few big names in the industry, including Warren Spector (Deus Ex, System Shock), Tim Shafer (Psychonauts, Monkey Island), The Fat Man (composer for 7th Guest, Zombies Ate My Neighbors), Tommy Tallarico (composer for Bard's Tale, Earthworm Jim), and I got to have an extended talk about Alternate Reality Gaming with Michael Land (Composer for LucasArts. Worked on Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, etc).

[HeuristicsInc]

Michael Land did the most excellent soundtrack for "The Dig". It's very evocative of the mood of the game. Cool thing is you can get it on CD.
-bill