FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: yesno on July 09, 2008, 02:28:35 AM
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Who are you only one or two degrees of separation from?
I've got:
Thomas Dolby
Tom Scharpling (in a way that has nothing to do with any FOT and which preceded my Best Show fandom)
2 or 3 Supreme Court justices (if people I know through school or professionally counts)
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Probably a lot. I have an uncle who is a hotshot in the Cali movie scene. Or at least was.
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Dick Cheney
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-I slept over at Howard Cosell's house a few times as a kid (I am friends with his grandson)
-Fugazi slept over at my house in late 1990 or early 1991...can't remember which
-I had Easter dinner with Christopher Plummer..he is friends with my friend's mother
-My friend Polly's family was friends with the Bushes (ugh) before they became staunch republicans (phew)
Does it count that I threw up on a granddaughter of Charles Lindbergh at a high school party?
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Does it count that I threw up on a granddaughter of Charles Lindbergh at a high school party?
How could it not?
That is awesome.
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Does it count that I threw up on a granddaughter of Charles Lindbergh at a high school party?
Which puts you within friend of friend spitting distance of... certain elements.
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I once did acid with the daughter of Kurt Schmoke who was a friend of a friend. Only people from Baltimore could even remotely begin to care about that. Maybe.
And also, I'm like 2 degrees from John Kerry.
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Tonya Harding. Really not that bad a person but definitely mixed up with the wrong crowd.
One dear friend is the undisputed Carnauba wax king of Cleveland -- highest gross sales the past 4 years.
I have a friend of a friend who is a skipper for Jimmy Buffet. They met way offshore in the Atlantic where there is supposedly a great place to surf, miles from land, because of the ocean currents.
I want to hear details of Jon's Fugazi story, please.
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The best friend of my one buddy is randomly friends with Alec Baldwin. Apparently he texts this guy often about how much he hates Kim Basinger.
Tonya Harding. Really not that bad a person but definitely mixed up with the wrong crowd.
It was pretty awesome when she whomped Paula Jones on "Celebrity Boxing".
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Oh yeah and I know a guy who lived on Woody Harrelson's "farm" in Hawaii.
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-Adam Sandler
-Jon Stewart
-Dave Chapelle
-Robert Smigel
-Edward Albee
-Mike Watt
-Meryl Streep
-John Turturro
-The Coen Bros.
-Ted Kennedy
-Gregory Corso
-Amy Goodman
-Alejandro Jodorowsky
-The late Edward Said
I'm probably the most excited about the last three.
Jon, it would be even awesomer if the granddaughter you puked on was the daugher of the missing Lindbergh baby, and your magic vomit somehow revealed this.
Erika, I'm excited about the Kurt Schmoke thing, but I'm a political junkie. Legalize it!
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jeff buckley
william eggleston
andy earles
i wish i was one, if not all, of these people at some point.
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Jodorowsky - cool!
I got a lot of Swedes on my list. Perhaps not that impressive. The arts & culture scene here is not that big (although not as small as, say, Iceland). Among them:
Benny Andersson (uncle of friend plays in his band)
Lukas Moodysson (friend is his colleague)
Harriet Andersson (friend wrote a book about her; one more degree to Ingmar Bergman)
Robyn (friend of friends)
Also:
Sam Shepard
Barbara Kopple
David Gordon Green
Guy Maddin
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All of the New Kids on The Block... this sort of thing happens when you live up in Dorchester.
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Not too shabby, Martin!
I actually know the woman who translated The Holy Mountain into English - she translates a lot of Spanish-language plays these days. I went to her house to chat with her about Jodorowsky and heard some good stories.
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I bet there's tons of Jodorowsky stories.
One more:
The Super Sonic Rascals (one of my best friends dated Jim O'Rourke for a good while)
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Because Canada has a small population, and the arts & culture scene is correspondingly small, with some thought I could probably come up with a connection to most prominent Canadian pop musicians/actors/etc. Off the top of my head, these people are within one or two degrees:
Sloan
Peaches
Adrienne Clarkson
Sarah Polley
Alanis
Don McKellar
Arcade Fire
Wolf Parade
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I guess I'm also only a couple/three degrees from most of the bands on a few labels that happen to actually know my connections (Rephlex, Homestead).
Also, three degrees from President George W. Bush.
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I want to hear details of Jon's Fugazi story, please.
me too!
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Sarah Polley
She's one of my favorite actresses. I really liked that alzheimer's movie she directed, too.
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I went to grade school with the little round boy who was friends with Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show.
He would leave art class to go shoot episodes.
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I really liked that alzheimer's movie she directed, too.
What was that called again?
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I really liked that alzheimer's movie she directed, too.
What was that called again?
Away From Her
(I may be wrong. I haven't seen it, and didn't check imdb.)
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I went to grade school with the little round boy who was friends with Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show.
He would leave art class to go shoot episodes.
PETER!?! the "husky" boy? now THAT is awesome.
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I really liked that alzheimer's movie she directed, too.
What was that called again?
Ha!
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I really liked that alzheimer's movie she directed, too.
What was that called again?
Ha!
D'oh! That one flew right over my head.
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I went to grade school with the little round boy who was friends with Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show.
He would leave art class to go shoot episodes.
PETER!?! the "husky" boy? now THAT is awesome.
Yup. Little-known fact -- he's a member of this board..
(He posts as KickTheBobo)
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Jodorowsky - cool!
I got a lot of Swedes on my list. Perhaps not that impressive. The arts & culture scene here is not that big (although not as small as, say, Iceland). Among them:
Benny Andersson (uncle of friend plays in his band)
Lukas Moodysson (friend is his colleague)
Harriet Andersson (friend wrote a book about her; one more degree to Ingmar Bergman)
Robyn (friend of friends)
Also:
Sam Shepard
Barbara Kopple
David Gordon Green
Guy Maddin
What's with all the Swedes?
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Depends on where you draw the lines between friends, professional aquaintances and people you've simply met at one time or another.
It's too many to try to list, to be honest. Everyone knows everyone knows everyone.
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when i was living in austin, i had one friend who owned a label, one friend who was a booking agent, one who booked the bands at the club where everyone i liked played, two friends who were music writers, and a handful of friends who are now in successful bands, so i was one degree away from a lot of people. i'm not bragging -- austin is just really small and the austin indie rock scene is even smaller.
but the only one i cared about was jeff mangum. i almost met him once and was totally panicking that i would just start shrieking! luckily for me, he ended up not coming to town that time and then i moved a few months later.
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but the only one i cared about was jeff mangum. i almost met him once and was totally panicking that i would just start shrieking! luckily for me, he ended up not coming to town that time and then i moved a few months later.
My wife is obsessed with him. She pointed this out to me once, from Wikipedia: "Mangum appeared nine times on New Jersey's WFMU to play tape loops and other recordings in the fall of 2002.[2]"
You may have known that already.
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I've never even set foot in Texas, but a hundred bucks says someone I knows someone you know Joanna, just because that's the way it is.
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Joanna, we have some Austin people in common, right? Or did you just used to go to Salvage Vanguard a lot?
Angstrom, I don't know if you care, but I gave myself a couple of ground rules: my first degree (my friends) could only be people that I actually hang out with socially, and the second degree had to be people they've spent extensive time with - no meeting at a party or anything. (Predictably, they're almost all actors). If I included all the people I've met cater-waitering, the list might never end. To that end, I can say that George Bush Sr. is super-charming, Barbara Bush is a bee-yotch of the first order, Art Garfunkel is kind of cool, and Jann Wenner is scary, especially when you've been sneaking margaritas in his kitchen all night.
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I only included actual friends, and work friends if we've gone to social events together and are super friendly.
Otherwise, my list would include Larry Flynt.
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Otherwise, my list would include Larry Flynt.
He's on my list if I include people my dad has worked for.
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Lou Gramm of Foreigner.
Seth McFarlane of Family Guy.
That's right, the finest of all media.
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There's one guy I know who got briefly famous as a fashion designer, so that technically puts me 2 degrees from Chloe Sevigny. In fact, that put me 2 degrees from her one time at a bar, where I was really drunk and trying to talk to this guy about painting while Chloe Sevigny was on the other side of him being like "Why the fuck are you even pretending to almost talk to this douche you know from college, keep talking to me!" and then he politely blew me off. They're buddies or something. The connection of this dude probably hitches me up to a whole night's sky worth of coke-addled stars (like probably Harmony Korine), but I don't really know who they all are.
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but the only one i cared about was jeff mangum. i almost met him once and was totally panicking that i would just start shrieking! luckily for me, he ended up not coming to town that time and then i moved a few months later.
My wife is obsessed with him. She pointed this out to me once, from Wikipedia: "Mangum appeared nine times on New Jersey's WFMU to play tape loops and other recordings in the fall of 2002.[2]"
You may have known that already.
i did. i think it was during one of those interviews where he was asked if neutral milk hotel would ever make another album and he said there was already enough material for a whole other album, but he would never release it. and then i shot myself.
Joanna, we have some Austin people in common, right? Or did you just used to go to Salvage Vanguard a lot?
i don't know if we have anyone in common but i'd be willing to bet. austin is smalllllll.
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but the only one i cared about was jeff mangum. i almost met him once and was totally panicking that i would just start shrieking! luckily for me, he ended up not coming to town that time and then i moved a few months later.
interestingly enough, ive been thinking about him for the last four days.
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My aunt is friends with the mother of the lady who does the voices of Amy on Futurama and Minh on King of the Hill.
That's about all I've got.
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That's about all I've got.
What? That's that's like pulling a swordfish out of the ocean with your bare hands and saying "this is all I could come up with."
HOLD IT UP OVER YOUR HEAD.
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What's with all the Swedes?
They're my countrymen?
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What's with all the Swedes?
They're my countrymen?
Ha, ha. I make yoke.
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What's with all the Swiss?
Funnier!
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What's with all the Swedes?
They're my countrymen?
I don't know how famous he is outside the New York restaurant world (he's been in some glossy mags and on TV food shows a bunch), but I used to play pick-up soccer in NYC and would see and play against Marcus Samuelsson -- he's the chef / owner of this highly rated, incredible Swedish restaurantcalled Aquavit. He did your country proud on the soccer pitch. Wow -- he was good.
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He's as famous as chefs go, I suppose. Haven't tried his food though. I've actually read about his soccer team, apparently it's a bunch of Swedish expats.
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Oh, I almost forgot my near-uncle Ron Jeremy. I've already told the story on these boards, so I won't bore everyone with it, but basically I had Christmas dinner with him in something like 1981 or 82. I would have been 10 or 11.
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This is the only thread on this message board that makes me (and my friends) seem like losers.
Until when hitting preview I remembered that my list could include Bjork and Matthew Barney.
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This is the only thread on this message board that makes me (and my friends) seem like losers.
Also your friends' friends!
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Susan Sarandon is a friend of a friend of my mom and dad. And a friend of mine played cello for Nirvana on their last tour through Europe.
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NAME-DROPPING THREAD!
- went to college with actresses Judy Greer, Shayna Ferm, and screenwriter Zach Helm.
- once played Robin Cohen's husband in a high school play - she was the topless crew-member from The Life Aquatic.
- still friends with Maia Brewton (the little girl from Adventures in Babysitting and Parker Lewis Can't Lose)
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Oh, yeah, Bjork and Matthew Barney for me, too - a friend of mine was in charge of putting the wetsuits on the horses in one of the Cremaster films.
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What's that credited as? Animal wrangler? Horse wardrobe?
I guess there's potential for lots of weird credits on those films.
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Susan Sarandon is a friend of a friend of my mom and dad. And a friend of mine played cello for Nirvana on their last tour through Europe.
Was that her on their Unplugged special as well? (Your friend, not Susan Sarandon)
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What's that credited as? Animal wrangler? Horse wardrobe?
I guess there's potential for lots of weird credits on those films.
That's a good question. I never asked him. Evidently there were separate horse wranglers there - he had never worked with horses before and was terrified to put wetsuits on them.
He has a great story about Bjork leaping into the manure pile and rolling around. Everyone was like, "Matthew, does she know what that is?" and he was like, "oh yeah, she knows."
He says Barney was an incredibly cool guy, which makes me feel a little bad for not liking his work even a little.
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Susan Sarandon is a friend of a friend of my mom and dad. And a friend of mine played cello for Nirvana on their last tour through Europe.
Was that her on their Unplugged special as well? (Your friend, not Susan Sarandon)
Nope, I think that was a dude...or someone else. She only went on them on their last tour, and was actually slated to stay with the band, but then Kurt died. She says he was a wonderful and intriguing person, and she got along with him best out of all the band members. So sad he had to die so young.
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- still friends with Maia Brewton (the little girl from Adventures in Babysitting and Parker Lewis Can't Lose)
THOR!
what happened to her? does she still act?
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Unfortunately, I got nothin' for this thread. I met Elijah Wood (http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v12/12/37/5201706/n5201706_30336841_6334.jpg) once?
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Unfortunately, I got nothin' for this thread. I met Elijah Wood (http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v12/12/37/5201706/n5201706_30336841_6334.jpg) once?
he was standing, wasn't he?
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- still friends with Maia Brewton (the little girl from Adventures in Babysitting and Parker Lewis Can't Lose)
THOR!
what happened to her? does she still act?
Nope, she gave it up when she went to Yale. Now she's a lawyer and mom in NY.
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He says Barney was an incredibly cool guy, which makes me feel a little bad for not liking his work even a little.
I think there's no shortage of nice, cool guys doing work that isn't particularly good.
That said, I've only seen the DVD version of Cremaster, and I thought it was pretty amazing. But you don't have to like everything. F'r'instance: I don't much like Radiohead.
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but the only one i cared about was jeff mangum. i almost met him once and was totally panicking that i would just start shrieking! luckily for me, he ended up not coming to town that time and then i moved a few months later.
My wife is obsessed with him. She pointed this out to me once, from Wikipedia: "Mangum appeared nine times on New Jersey's WFMU to play tape loops and other recordings in the fall of 2002.[2]"
You may have known that already.
I Know Where Jeff Mangum Lives
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Hey, the guy with the dumb mustache in this insipid video works at the Trader Joe's I go to. Do I get a ribbon?
Nothing?
[youtube]-a3O8rsGl5o&hl[/youtube]
Ugh. This video makes me want to cut off my legs.
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Oh yeah, Junk and I have a friend in common.
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but the only one i cared about was jeff mangum. i almost met him once and was totally panicking that i would just start shrieking! luckily for me, he ended up not coming to town that time and then i moved a few months later.
My wife is obsessed with him. She pointed this out to me once, from Wikipedia: "Mangum appeared nine times on New Jersey's WFMU to play tape loops and other recordings in the fall of 2002.[2]"
You may have known that already.
I Know Where Jeff Mangum Lives
then we are definitely meeting up at Gonerfest.
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Hey, the guy with the dumb mustache in this insipid video works at the Trader Joe's I go to. Do I get a ribbon?
That's funny, a member of the Butchies works (or at least worked) at the Trader Joe's I go to.
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I hung out with Chelsea Clinton at Stanford (I'm not braggin'). She has her mother's legs.
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I actually am less than six degrees from Kevin Bacon. My friend goes to camp with his daughter. I guess I'm a few degrees from the Clintons and Joe Lieberman too.
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My friend from college went to hs with Natalie Portman, she was a year above him, I think.
He told me she used to do the lighting for their plays and dances. I asked him once how strong her lighting game was, so to speak, he said "eh, it was alright"
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There's one guy I know who got briefly famous as a fashion designer, so that technically puts me 2 degrees from Chloe Sevigny. In fact, that put me 2 degrees from her one time at a bar, where I was really drunk and trying to talk to this guy about painting while Chloe Sevigny was on the other side of him being like "Why the fuck are you even pretending to almost talk to this douche you know from college, keep talking to me!" and then he politely blew me off. They're buddies or something. The connection of this dude probably hitches me up to a whole night's sky worth of coke-addled stars (like probably Harmony Korine), but I don't really know who they all are.
I have tried to dance with Chloe several times and (I don't know why, but) she won't even give me the time of day. She's always in a grumpy mood.
Also, I have connections to similar / probably the same people Junk.
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My friend from college went to hs with Natalie Portman, she was a year above him, I think.
He told me she used to do the lighting for their plays and dances. I asked him once how strong her lighting game was, so to speak, he said "eh, it was alright"
When I was in high school my friend's brother that went to NYU claimed that he stalked her all freshman year.
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I always knew that Natalie Portman's lighting chops sucked.
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A few:
Jackie Onassis frequently had dinner at the house of a friend of mine.
George Segal's daughter, Alix, was my intern once upon a time (I'm gambling that fathers count as friends). I liked her a lot. I only figured out who her father was because of the occasional, casual reference to details about her past (her buddyship with Jodie Foster, for example).
Mordecai Richler's daughter, Martha, was an intern at the same joint.
My father was acquainted with William Mandel (famous, among other things, for saying to Senator McCarthy during a Senate committee hearing, "This is a book-burning! You lack only the tinder to set fire to the books as Hitler did twenty years ago, and I am going to get that across to the American people!"), who gave a rousing speech from our back porch in Columbus, Ohio, when I was four. As he spoke I sat at his feet playing with a three-legged dog (survivor of a lawn-mowing accident). (My father lost a job because of the whole business, and my mother still has the hate mail they received afterward. I really do need to ask her to dig that out for me sometime.)
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My favorite: Vin Scully, play-by-play guy for the Dodgers
(http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/07/04/PH2005070401226.jpg)
He's related by marriage to one of the distant cousins (my mother's side has 50 first cousins, so I think I'm technically related to everyone in the world). I tried for a long time to figure out how to guilt him into doing play-by-play at wedding. Imagine it.
[youtube]JhDsEa9sDpE[/youtube]
By the way, if you have not heard the Mike Birbiglia bit about the MVP awards and Eckersley, go do it now.
Also, if you have never seen this, it is genius:
[youtube]hb_xnCBJoKI[/youtube]
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Chuck Woolery.
Oh, yeah, and I knew Jul-ia Roberts when I was twelve at sum-mer camp.
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A few:
Jackie Onassis frequently had dinner at the house of a friend of mine.
George Segal's daughter, Alix, was my intern once upon a time (I'm gambling that fathers count as friends). I liked her a lot. I only figured out who her father was because of the occasional, casual reference to details about her past (her buddyship with Jodie Foster, for example).
Mordecai Richler's daughter, Martha, was an intern at the same joint.
My father was acquainted with William Mandel (famous, among other things, for saying to Senator McCarthy during a Senate committee hearing, "This is a book-burning! You lack only the tinder to set fire to the books as Hitler did twenty years ago, and I am going to get that across to the American people!"), who gave rousing speech from our back porch in Columbus, Ohio, when I was four. As he spoke I sat at his feet playing with a three-legged dog (survivor of a lawn-mowing accident). (My father lost a job because of the whole business, and my mother still has the hate mail they received afterward. I really do need to ask her to dig that out for me sometime.)
That's very interesting, Sarah. Unfortunately, none of those people could help you make it to the top of the page this time.
*malevolent laughter, followed by coughing*
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My friend from college went to hs with Natalie Portman, she was a year above him, I think.
He told me she used to do the lighting for their plays and dances. I asked him once how strong her lighting game was, so to speak, he said "eh, it was alright"
I once spoke to Portman's father on the phone.
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They didn't, but you did, Mr. L.
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I'm not-so-distantly-related to Omar.
Omar Bradley, that is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Bradley
(I have his ears)
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I once spoke to Portman's father on the phone.
Were you asking his permission to take her out on a date?
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I read a while ago that if you go back a sufficient number of years (fewer than you think-- I think maybe around 1000?), for a given person alive at that time, either every single person on earth is a descendent of that person, or that person has zero surviving descendants.
I'm sure there are isolated pockets here and there all the time to take into account, but it's quite believable at least for the mainline African/European/Asian peoples that are in constant contact.
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2 degrees and 28 years from Marshall McLuhan
2 degrees and 15 years from Vincent Price
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I just remembered that my mom was Rod Serlings nurse at the hospital he died at in Syracuse. Jesus, I'd forgotten about that.
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I just remembered that my mom was Rod Serlings nurse at the hospital he died at in Syracuse. Jesus, I'd forgotten about that.
what?!
cool.
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The funny part of that is that my mom hated The Twilight Zone. She thought it was too scary.
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Come to think of it, the friend that links me to Kevin Bacon through her camp also links me to a whole bunch of other people, ranging from Demi Moore/Ashton Kutcher to Andy Breckman.
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Paul Mazursky.
(http://www.homevideos.com/movies-covers/bobandcarol.jpg)
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Oh, once upon a time, I also knew George Roy Hill's daughter, Owen; David Smith's daughter, Candida; and Michael Straight's daughter, Dorothy. And, through William Weaver, Umberto Eco.
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I almost forgot, my roommate is Sheri Lewis's second cousin.
He used to get all these VHS's of unreleased Lambchop's Play Along episodes in the mail.
He's also related to Al Joleson (of Mammy fame) - I think.
(http://www.wttw.com/img/lamb.jpg)
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Bobby Neuwirth
Little Jimmy Scott
Carol Burnett
Victoria Williams
Bryan Harvey (RIP) and all those Gutterball folks
Wim Wenders
Don Fleming
Robert Quine (RIP)
Kenneth Star (mom took shorthand for him in the 80s)
Noam Chomsky (my father taught at the same school as him for a while)
Oh, yeah, and I knew Jul-ia Roberts when I was twelve at sum-mer camp.
I was at a theater camp with Helen Slater when she was trying out for the tv version of "Fame." She had all these fancy pictures of herself but said she would only give me one if I told people I was her boyfriend. The dude who ran the camp should have been arrested ... he invited me to his room one night, offered my champagne and screened a worse-for-wear VHS of Saturday Night Fever, deliberately stopping at a part where Travolta shakes his ass in the camera. "What do you think of that?" Disturbing, as I was just a youngster at the time.
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Ugh, that's totally tubular (I actually just typed that out). I had that happen a few times, but luckily I'm as clueless with guys hitting on me as I am with girls hitting on me, so I'm no worse for wear. One of the many great things about homosexuality becoming more socially acceptable is that scenarios like that are probably no longer necessary - nowadays it seems like everybody just knows.
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Bobby Neuwirth
Little Jimmy Scott
Carol Burnett
Victoria Williams
Bryan Harvey (RIP) and all those Gutterball folks
Wim Wenders
Don Fleming
Robert Quine (RIP)
Kenneth Star (mom took shorthand for him in the 80s)
Noam Chomsky (my father taught at the same school as him for a while)
Oh, yeah, and I knew Jul-ia Roberts when I was twelve at sum-mer camp.
I was at a theater camp with Helen Slater when she was trying out for the tv version of "Fame." She had all these fancy pictures of herself but said she would only give me one if I told people I was her boyfriend. The dude who ran the camp should have been arrested ... he invited me to his room one night, offered my champagne and screened a worse-for-wear VHS of Saturday Night Fever, deliberately stopping at a part where Travolta shakes his ass in the camera. "What do you think of that?" Disturbing, as I was just a youngster at the time.
And Lou Reed, right?
Addendum: I did not really know Ju-lia Roberts when I was twelve at sum-mer camp. That's a Liz Phair line.
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I went to college with Liz Phair (before she was famous), but I didn't even know who she was at the time.
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And Lou Reed, right?
Yes, and Moe, Sterling and Cale. But I thought that was obvious from the list of luminaries I listed. Plus, I'm still trying to live down the over indulgent name dropping I indulged it when my life was falling apart months ago.
Just to try to pretend that you didn't go out with Julia Roberts.
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Paul Mazursky.
(http://www.homevideos.com/movies-covers/bobandcarol.jpg)
I thought this was called Monkeys Monkeys Ted and Alice.
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I had a teacher who donated her first name to Sigourney Weaver.
And for Laurie, I know Richard Kern's girlfriend pretty well, and I've met the man himself a bunch. He's just as weird as you would imagine him.
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I had a teacher who donated her first name to Sigourney Weaver.
And for Laurie, I know Richard KernKind's girlfriend pretty well, and I've met the man himself a bunch. He's just as weird as you would imagine him.
Fixed!
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My grandfather blew Groucho Marx.
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Wow, Zeppo was your grandfather!?
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Actually, he was a little know MB called Sucko.
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And Lou Reed, right?
Yes, and Moe, Sterling and Cale. But I thought that was obvious from the list of luminaries I listed. Plus, I'm still trying to live down the over indulgent name dropping I indulged it when my life was falling apart months ago.
Just to try to pretend that you didn't go out with Julia Roberts.
You know, that actually just reminded me about one of my old professors who was tight with John Cale. I should shoot that guy an email and see how he's doing.
And this weekend I found out that, via my girlfriend from Michigan, I'm only 1 degree away from Ted Nugent. She's spent time on his compound and everything.
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When I worked at the employee's cafe at Opryland amusement park, Roy Acuff routinely pulled me off the hot food line and insisted I have lunch with him. He knew LBJ.
The father of one of my best friends, a graphic artist, has a dad who served on the White House Police force. Not the secret service; he worked an automobile gate into the grounds during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations. Agnew, Jackie O/K, Howard Baker and G Gordon Liddy all referred to him by first name, although his nametag only said "Officer Williamson."
One of my current friends, and the dad of perhaps AfK's best friend was city law director under Mayor Victor Ashe here in Knoxville. Victor was drinking buddies with W at Yale.
Dolly Parton once hit me with a trailer door, looked me in the eye, and said "Get out of the way, you little shit." The trailer was her dressing room, in 1977, for a Porter Wagoner TV taping; she had mounted herself into her 40 pound dress as instructed, and then was told that there could be up to a 2 hour delay until her part was shot due to some sort of lighting rig problem, so she was already mad. She disappeared into her trailer to mope, and hit me the next time she came out to whine some more about the injustice that was being done to her. Why was I there? I was one of the area sweepers, keeping the place clean. Dolly Parton, as you know, is a trashy-mouthed beloved national treasure, for reasons only God himself knows. But it's undeniable that she personally knows almost everybody in the music industry of a certain ilk.
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wow.
i can't believe i'm actually a little pissed she degraded you, dave. youve changed my whole perspective of her (which was generally speaking "okay").
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Dolly Parton, as you know, is a trashy-mouthed beloved national treasure, for reasons only God himself knows.
I'm sure God's reasoning has something to do with her ample bosom.
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wow.
i can't believe i'm actually a little pissed she degraded you, dave. youve changed my whole perspective of her (which was generally speaking "okay").
And you know what? I was never all that little.
I have forgiven her, though. Get this, she's got an east Tennessee pro-reading foundation that gives away a free book EVERY FREAKING MONTH to every east tennessee kid under the age of 5 whose parents sign them up. Last year they gave away over 4 million books.
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wow.
i can't believe i'm actually a little pissed she degraded you, dave. youve changed my whole perspective of her (which was generally speaking "okay").
And you know what? I was never all that little.
I have forgiven her, though. Get this, she's got an east Tennessee pro-reading foundation that gives away a free book EVERY FREAKING MONTH to every east tennessee kid under the age of 5 whose parents sign them up. Last year they gave away over 4 million books.
after she hands the kid a book does she say, "get out of my way, you little shit"?
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Black Hole, plus as an added bonus I just found out David Fincher is making it into a movie.
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Dolly Parton once hit me with a trailer door
When I lived in NYC, Dolly Parton walked by and totally oggled my wife. To qrote (quote-grote): it was tubular.
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I wish Dolly Parton would hit me with a door. Best I got is this one time Mike Golic sneezed in my hair. Didn't even stop to cuss me out, either.
Also once I crashed into Carl Sagan at a Waldenbooks.
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Dolly remains a god in my eyes. I love her so. I'm sure she was just pissed off about the other things. She shouldn't have said that to you though, dave. boo.
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The only thing I can really brag about is odd connections with former members of Neutral Milk Hotel.
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A friend of mine was in a TV movie directed by El Guapo from Three Amigos.
I used to know the R-U-N-N-O-F-T kid from O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The drum teacher of a friend of mine played on Soupjam Stevens' Illinois, aka The #1 Album Of 2005.
My mom was high school friends with Jay Russell, the Hollywood luminary who directed My Dog Skip and The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
Of course, being from Little Rock, there's probably some link between myself and David Gordon Green of which I'm not yet aware.
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Thought of one more. My friend's drum teacher was Glenn Kotche of Wilco.
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Thought of one more. My friend's drum teacher was Glenn Kotche of Wilco.
he's the smiley-est drummer. i love how he always looks like he's having the best time.
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Thought of one more. My friend's drum teacher was Glenn Kotche of Wilco.
he's the smiley-est drummer. i love how he always looks like he's having the best time.
I read that as slimiest and wondered what was slimy about having a good time.... and then I thought well, I bet people do a lot of slimy things in the name of fun. Not cool, Glenn Kotche. But, we're cool now.
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I just found out that a girl I went to high school/college with is dating Christian Bale's stunt double from Batman.
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Roy Acuff routinely pulled me off the hot food line and insisted I have lunch with him.
What did he talk at you about?
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A friend of mine was in a TV movie directed by El Guapo from Three Amigos.
I used to know the R-U-N-N-O-F-T kid from O Brother, Where Art Thou?
These two things are my favorite things of this thread so far.
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The only one that immediately comes to mind is being friends in high school with the girl whose aunt did the belches for Barney on The Simpsons. That, and my cousin produced a few of Sir-Mix-A-Lot's early albums.
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Get this, she's got an east Tennessee pro-reading foundation that gives away a free book EVERY FREAKING MONTH to every east tennessee kid under the age of 5 whose parents sign them up. Last year they gave away over 4 million books.
You can sign up for her free books when you have a baby. I live in Fargo so it's at least national. . . I think "Goodnight Moon" was the latest book.
I heard she also gave Porter Wagner back his entire catalog of songs when he went broke; she had been buying them up in order to help him out. I used to love her. But after this trailer story- I hate her. (please keep sending books, though)
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does morgan spurlock's girlfriend count?
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does morgan spurlock's girlfriend count?
99 cents.
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Hey Dave, what was Roy Acuff like? The story about Dolly Parton is awfulsome, but the fact that Acuff pulled you off the line to have lunch with you sounds way cool... can you elaborate?
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Hey Dave, what was Roy Acuff like? The story about Dolly Parton is awfulsome, but the fact that Acuff pulled you off the line to have lunch with you sounds way cool... can you elaborate?
Here's the deal.
I worked the hot food line at the employee's cafeteria at Opryland. Most of the people who worked in the park were teens-early 20s, and most of them went through the grill line, but the cafeteria maintained a hot food line at the request of park management. I got to be the "chef" one day a week when the old man Walter took his day off; I can't tell you how many stuffed peppers I made that summer.
So, Mr Acuff did a lot of the park's daytime shows. At 10, noon, 2, and 4, every day but Friday and Saturday, a member of the Opry, usually an oldtimer like Mr Acuff or Ernest Tubb, or Porter Waggoner would put on a mini-show. These shows were usually 6-8 songs, and lasted about half an hour.
Anyway, for whatever reason, he comes in one day, points to a few items he wants, then says something about how one of his grandkids was supposed to join him for lunch but something had come up. He wanted to know if I wanted to join him. My boss was behind me, and he said it was fine. Acuff said something like "he's still on the clock, though, he's tending to my needs." And basically, he just talked. He was very nice, very funny, and the thing I loved about getting to know him was that he seemed to have a real respect for everyone who spoke to him.
So that started it. Once or twice a week he would come through and drag me over to a table with him. He lived in a house on the other side of the river that was near the neighborhood where my dad grew up, and mostly he told stories, things that happened to him as a boy, current stuff that was happening in his neighborhood, almost all mundane stuff, really. He thought it was funny that I didn't like country music or Richard Nixon, but I was still a "decent enough boy." (This was early in the summer of Nixon's resignation, as I recall.) I was a quiet kid, and he would work to sort of drag stuff out of me. He loved my long story about my grandfather's exploits and death. I told him that one at least three times. The only specific stories I remember him talking about was how no one took him seriously when he ran for governor (he lost), and he talked about what a pain it was to get prepared for TV shows (lighting snafus, makeup, stuff like that) when he really just wanted to get on out there and get his songs "over with". I did try to ask him once about Hank Williams (who my dad loved), but he wouldn't talk about him outside of saying something like "so sad".
He had hatched this plan; he knew that I played guitar, and thought it would be funny if we stood up during lunch one day and did an impromptu song. He said that if I would learn Great Speckled Bird, we could do it, but he was afraid to do it cold without hearing me play it first, and it just never worked out.
Nice guy, though. A couple of times he came in with Minnie Pearl (she would always say "Call me Sarah".) Del Reeves joined us one day (an interesting guy who could not remember the names of all of his kids,) and the most surreal of them all, he came in one day with local wrestling legend Tojo Yamamoto, who I hated and feared as a small child, but who turned out to be downright urbane. They were friends because they lived on the same block.
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Great story, Dave. Thanks for telling it. You should write this up for Nashville Scene or some other pub that supports country music (it would have been great for No Depression (RIP)). It's nice to hear that he wanted to hear about you, and didn't just blather on about himself.
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no kidding, great story. where's the cozy fireplace and my cup of hot cocoa?