What's your "Claim to fame"

[Tim McG]

I have met and spoken to Joe Sample on several occasions....once, if you can believe it, in grocery store in Mammoth Lakes, CA [where he lives and my family vacations].

An extremely personable man with a lot to say, musically, about Jazz. Last time I saw him, he put on an absolute clinic regarding the history of Jazz through his piano. Even called me by name.

I've met a few other Jazz folks....but this is the most notable experience.

Edited April 29, 2007 by GoodSpeak

[Tim McG]

Oh...and I've seen Miles Davis perform "live", twice.

Does that count?

[Matthew]

In August 1977, while sitting on the entrance steps of a Bayside Queens funeral home, I received a little pat on the shoulder from Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra while the man with him (Frank Tieri) handed me a $20 bill and said "your grandfather was a good man".

Is this some sort of weird, little known Italian tradition? Slip a kid $20 at a funeral? And if you're Frank, you can have a lackey do it ...

I've been to a lot of funerals and no one's slipped my anything yet......

[catesta]

In August 1977, while sitting on the entrance steps of a Bayside Queens funeral home, I received a little pat on the shoulder from Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra while the man with him (Frank Tieri) handed me a $20 bill and said "your grandfather was a good man".

Is this some sort of weird, little known Italian tradition? Slip a kid $20 at a funeral? And if you're Frank, you can have a lackey do it ...

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a tradition for kids to get cash from visitors at a wake. More like an old man trying to make a kid feel a little better in his own way.

Why Sinatra was there is a long story.

The $20 bill, which I still have was from Tieri who was my grandfather's close friend, do a little research and you'll see nobody (especially Sinatra) would have ever considered him someone's lackey.

[Dan Gould]

The $20 bill, which I still have was from Tieri who was my grandfather's close friend, do a little research and you'll see nobody (especially Sinatra) would have ever considered him someone's lackey.

I'll take your word for it, but the way you described the event, it sounded like the only thing missing was Sinatra snapping his fingers before the $20 was proffered.

[catesta]

The $20 bill, which I still have was from Tieri who was my grandfather's close friend, do a little research and you'll see nobody (especially Sinatra) would have ever considered him someone's lackey.

I'll take your word for it, but the way you described the event, it sounded like the only thing missing was Sinatra snapping his fingers before the $20 was proffered.

Nah, you got it all wrong.

Two guys that know each other come to pay their respects to a dead man, that man was my grandfather. One of the two men I knew, the other one happened to be Frank Sinatra. The one man I knew gave me a $20 bill, the other one gave me a little pat on the shoulder. Two completely seperate gestures by two people that happened to be walking together.

[rachel]

I sat next to Rob Reiner and his son at a Pacer/Detroit playoff game. Very cool guy.

I used to watch some guy friends play hoops with Isiah Thomas on Sunday mornings at a local elementary school gym.

About 20 years ago I was in Lexington, Kentucky to watch the Marion Giants play Kentucky's basketball state champs. We ran into Elizabeth Taylor and George Hamilton who were staying at the same hotel; they were in town for the opening of horse racing season.

[GA Russell]

Three times I have gone to a club, sat at the front, and have the entertainer come sit down beside me and chat between sets:

Bob Shane of The Kingston Trio

Vince Guaraldi

Mark Murphy

[7/4]

I sat next to the bald guy from Smashing Pumpkins at a concert at BAM a few years ago. (big deal, him and his girlfriend were snickering during the Terry Riley piece).

I passed one the guys from Spinal Tap on the street in the West Village once. (Michael McKean)

Same goes for Henry Rollins in the East Village.

Then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was walking down the stairs in Tower Records with some bodyguards and I was behind them.

Passed Weird Al and some staff guys from MAD Magazine on 52nd St once.

I saw Miles once too, but I don't think that counts.

I'll have more when I can dredge them up from memory...

[porcy62]

I watched the restored version of 'Johnny Guitar' in a theater with Monica Bellucci seated at my left.

Actually I watched more her then Joan Crowford and Sterling Hayden.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

In August 1977, while sitting on the entrance steps of a Bayside Queens funeral home, I received a little pat on the shoulder from Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra while the man with him (Frank Tieri) handed me a $20 bill and said "your grandfather was a good man".

I'll chime in and say that is a great story in that one sentence.

Back in the sixties my best friend's Dad was one of Francis' body guards. The guy was HUGE!

found a shot of him on a quick google

[AllenLowe]

when I opened for him at the Stamford Center for the Arts sometime in the 1980s, I made a wrong turn and accidentally wandered into Ray Charles's dressing room. Boy did he look old and shrunken; the Raelets up close also looked tired and bored.

better NOT to see your idols up close -

[porcy62]

when I opened for him at the Stamford Center for the Arts sometime in the 1980s, I made a wrong turn and accidentally wandered into Ray Charles's dressing room. Boy did he look old and shrunken; the Raelets up close also looked tired and bored.

better NOT to see your idols up close -

Not in my case.

[DTMX]

Ran into Nigel Olsson (Elton John's drummer) when his solo hit Dancin' Shoes was on the American charts. He was standing in line at a hardware store in a podunk town in northern Georgia. I asked if he could break a five; he said that he couldn't. His was the first British accent that I had heard in person.

A few years later I changed the vent of a heating duct in the office of the manager of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He wasn't there, and neither was the band, but practically every inch of the floor was covered in empty beer cans. If I'd thought of it, I could have taken some of the beer cans and sold them at school - where they would have been revered as holy relics and possibly incorporated into some type of shrine.

[AllenLowe]

actually, I didn't tell the whole story about my meeting Martin Luther King at Coney Island in 1962 - we were talking, and he said, "you know, Al, I have this speech coming up in Washington that I have to make, but I'm just not sure I can do it - I'm just so tired and discouraged." So I looked him in the eye and said to him, "Look, Marty, you can't just do this like the everyday stuff - you gotta dream about it, don't let 'em get you down, you gotta have a dream, you gotta follow that dream." I don't know what happened after that, but it did seem to cheer him up -

[Kalo]

when I opened for him at the Stamford Center for the Arts sometime in the 1980s, I made a wrong turn and accidentally wandered into Ray Charles's dressing room. Boy did he look old and shrunken; the Raelets up close also looked tired and bored.

better NOT to see your idols up close -

I was in Boston's Logan airport a number of years ago and saw a guy who looked just like Ray Charles. He was sitting by himself, so I figured it couldn't be him. Then he pulls out this phone-book size braille magazine and starts reading it with his fingers. Then his entourage came over to join him and I realized it was Ray.

The magazine he was reading? Playboy.

[Kalo]

I sold wine to Saul Bellow (also Tatyana Ali, Ross McElwee, Peter Wolf, and Ran Blake).

When my band was busking in Harvard Square, Cornel West put a fiver in our hat after listening to me sing Prince's "Kiss."

I was a pall-bearer alongside Rafer Johnson at my uncle's funeral.

[Dan Gould]

when I opened for him at the Stamford Center for the Arts sometime in the 1980s, I made a wrong turn and accidentally wandered into Ray Charles's dressing room. Boy did he look old and shrunken; the Raelets up close also looked tired and bored.

better NOT to see your idols up close -

I was in Boston's Logan airport a number of years ago and saw a guy who looked just like Ray Charles. He was sitting by himself, so I figured it couldn't be him. Then he pulls out this phone-book size braille magazine and starts reading it with his fingers. Then his entourage came over to join him and I realized it was Ray.

The magazine he was reading? Playboy.

He really did buy it for the articles.

[rachel]

One of the guys who used to play hoops with Isiah Thomas on Sunday mornings at the elementary school is a cousin to Robert Davi, the character actor.

and even more obscure, speaking of Lynyrd Skynyrd, my best friend's sister-in-law is Gary Rossington's cousin..

Edited May 1, 2007 by rachel

[ejp626]

My wife and I scored free tickets to a showing of South Park The Movie in Chicago. We sat about two rows in front of Mancow Muller (a local radio personality) and his entourage. They clearly enjoyed the show, as did we. They actually behaved themselves pretty well once the movie started.

This is one for political junkies only. Back when she was a state senator, I emailed Lisa Madigan (the IL Attorney General) about some issue, probably the passage of a transportation bill. She actually phoned me back and since I was out, left a 2 or 3 minute message on my machine, outlining her position. I thought this was pretty cool and raised my opinion of her. This was back when answering machines still used tapes. I saved that message for quite a while, but I am sure the tape is lost now.

[Epithet]

I watched the restored version of 'Johnny Guitar' in a theater with Monica Bellucci seated at my left.

Actually I watched more her then Joan Crowford and Sterling Hayden.

Holy shit.

That needs more details.