exhalations

Hivelogic amusingly describes chance encounters with interesting people. I'm tempted to make my own list:

Gina Lollobrigida, 1956 signing autographs in Disneyland. As an adolescent boy, I remember being impressed with the amount of cleave, and perhaps areola, that was on display, in Disneyland no less.

Eric Burdon, 1965 of the Animals, walking through an exclusive London nightclub where my friend Chris Shaffer had somehow talked his way in.

Bob Dylan, 1966 filming Don't Look Back in London, trying to film in Speaker's Corner and being told that it's illegal to film in this island of total freedom of speech. Dylan then hopped on a passing double-decker bus. I was standing next to him for much of the time and was tempted to follow him onto the bus but chickened out at the last minute. He was later seen at Heathrow Airport as we were seeing friends off to the States. I shamelessly chased him through the terminal.

Jimi Hendrix, 1967 and Mitch Mitchell waiting for Noel Redding at the Sacramento Airport. I was visiting some friends who had just returned from our Londong high school, sitting in the coffee shop awaiting my flight, when we heard Jimi's name called on the intercom, back in the pre-cellphone era. One of the friends kept asking Jimi for his autograph "for my brother" to which Jimi replied "Quite acting so funky". After about 20 minutes he piled into a stretch limo, minus Noel.

Eric Clapton and Cream, 1967 in another airport terminal. Don't remember where or exactly when, but he Eric was paged, and sure enough, he and the group showed up at the designated spot.

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young with special guest Joni Mitchell, 1972 leaving their limos and entering the backstage area of the Masonic Temple in Detroit. We had tried to get tickets but the show was sold out. We decided to try to sneak in and walked around to the back alley. After the celebrity encounter, we entered one of the entrances and found ourselves in the bowels of the temple, feeling a little like actors in an old Laurel and Hardy meets dracula film. After exploring a bit more we found an entrance into the theater. The seats we chose were of course later taken, so we spent the evening sitting on the steps in the balcony. It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen.

Steve Martin, early ‘70’s telling us what good seats we had for his performance at a small comedy club, before he hit it big.

That's enough for now.

posted by Bruce Wright at 9:01 PM #