| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.216 |
So, who in this tawdry world would you swoon upon meeting? (Alive or dead is fine.) [cue the cool kids saying, "Nobody - hero worship is for yoofs"] But come on, who would it be? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.216 |
Me: Beethoven. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
Mickey Rourke. Charles Bukowski. (Hmmm...there's a theme, here; all my heroes are assholes) Oh, hang on: Stephen King. Phew, I broke the trend. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.216 |
Mine was an arsehole, too, mate. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Michael Chabon and Penelope Fitzgerald. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.51.242 |
David Cronenberg. Dario Argento. Peter Cushing. Christopher Lee. I nearly did swoon when I met Horst Jansson and John Carson, but I'm just a giddy little fangirl at heart.  | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.51.242 |
I'm presuming it's ok for girls to post here too?  | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.51.242 |
Wow, let a girl in the room and everyone goes silent.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
That's because we're all staring at your boobies. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.51.242 |
But I'm in drag. That's how I got in here. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.57.88 |
David Gilmour Pat Metheny Peter Gabriel Kate Bush Siouxsie (I guess a spark still lingers down below) Natalie Portman Lady Gaga (funnily enough she reminds me of a woman I revered in my younger days - Liza Minelli) Note: last month I went to see Return To Forever and managed to shake hands with jazz greats Stanley Clarke and Chick Corea. The latter exchange was funny, because Chick wanted to high-five me and I completely missed his cue. We both had a good laugh at that. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Frank Zappa Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy David Byrne Alfred Hitchcock Ramsey Campbell loads of people... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.30.56 |
J. G. Ballard - well, I did meet him many years ago and was struck dumb. No doubt he took me for a rude bugger. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Okay, here's my confession. When I went to my first convention, at the tender age of 17, I ran up to Ramsey and said: "You're Ramsey Campbell aren't you? You're the reason I'm here!" To Ramsey's credit he didn't run screaming. | ||
| Greg James (Greg_james) Username: Greg_james Registered: 04-2011 Posted From: 62.244.179.50 |
Johnny Cash and Thomas Ligotti would be two of mine. Not sure if I'd swoon, I'd probably just forget how to use words with my mouth. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Greg, you do know that Johnny Cash is sadly no longer with us? Of course, that doesn't have to mean you couldn't get to meet him. As some of you can attest, I'm oddly unfazed by the presence of genius – not because I don't respect it but because when I see a person, I don't immediately think of what they have achieved because that's in the background. And I notice physical details – I'm very superficial in that way. I remember being asked by a fellow-activist what I thought of a speech we'd both heard by Salma Yaqoob, and I said "Her microphone technique has really improved." I wasn't being flippant or dismissive: I actually meant it. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Sorry Greg, I forgot that 'alive or dead' had already been stipulated. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Jeff Stryker. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.137.168.78 |
I'm the first one here to agree 100% with someone else on this thread: i.e. with Beethoven | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Stravinsky for me, Des. Who the hell is Jeff Stryker? The firewall in here won't let me access anything about him. Should I have asked...  | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Stryker | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.216 |
He was in the Bay City Rollers. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.137.168.78 |
Stravinsky didn't do any late string quartets.  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Tried Wiki, Frank, and ACCESS DENIED is all I got <gulp>... Perhaps our CEO just doesn't like tartan?! | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
For fan boy moments, one of my faves is still when Omid Djalili said that he thought one of my jokes was brilliant. This was when I was still doing stand-up. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Steve - according to Wikipedia he's an all round porn star, and when I say all round, no inadvertent pun intended, he has done straight, bi-sexual and gay. (This thread is about to go way off track). | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Erm.. thanks, Frank! If I'm not here tomorrow you'll all know why. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
(: You realize somebody's going to egg you on to compile your top twenty all time porn films, you do know that, don't you, Stevie? | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.51.242 |
That was about to be me, Frank, but you beat me to it!  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.33.242.34 |
I was going to ask: hands up everyone who knows who Jeff Stryker is and why but I see I've been beaten to it. My favourite / only Jeff Stryker story is when he met John Waters | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Before we go off track and start talking about well-endowed porn stars, can I add my swoon-worthy people to the list? (as a fangirl, not a fanboy) Boris Karloff Peter Cushing (hands off, Kate, he's mine, mine I tell you! ) Christopher Lee Rod Serling And I almost do swoon every time I go to a Jethro Tull concert and hang around the stage door afterwards to get Ian Anderson to sign something for me. For anyone here who doesn't know, I really AM a first rate fangirl. I collect autographs, go to Doctor Who conventions, do all that kind of silly stuff. I didn't do it when I was a kid - it's my second childhood and I'm loving it. Oh, Doctor Who people who make me (or would make me, if they were still alive) swoon: Sylvester McCoy (love him to bits) Tom Baker Roger Delgado Ian Marter Nicholas Courtney Terry Molloy And then, of course, there are you writers. Ramsey always leaves me completely tongue-tied for starters ... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
I've met several famous people now and as a general rule it doesn't faze me. The closest I've come to being rendered speechless by a famous person was when I met Lemmy backstage at a Motorhead gig. He came over to me and said hello and shook my hand and it was difficult for me to just say "hello, good to be here" instead of dropping to my knees chanting "Lemmy you are my God". pete doherty is stinky when you meet him close up. Not pleasant to be near at all. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
I'm more likely to get tongue tied if I meet a complete stranger that I fancy than if I meet someone famous. Job interviews can really throw me as well. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I once offered to buy Jonathan Richman a pint and spent a happy half hour waffling drunken fan stuff to him in a pub in Belfast... mostly about his then new album, 'Jonathan Goes Country' (1990), the early days of the Modern Lovers, Jerry Harrison, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol & The Velvet Underground. He was a lovely, lovely guy! If I'd been sober I'd have lost control of my mental faculties... weird that. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
>>I've met several famous people now and as a general rule it doesn't faze me.<< I actually quite *like* that fangirl/boy feeling - the little shaky feeling inside that you get when you meet someone you really admire. Re my autograph hunting exploits, the ones I tend to remember most fondly are the ones where I got that shaky feeling when I was least expecting it. Two who immediately spring to mind were Eric Sykes (I felt so proud to shake his hand and be the butt of one of his jokes - a comedy legend from a bygone era) and Michael Parkinson (don't ask! I've no idea why he made me go a little shaky, I wasn't expecting it at all, but he did! ) | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
I got that near Pete Doherty, but I think that was just the smell... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
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| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Stanley Kubrick, JG Ballard, William Burroughs... Most of mine are dead, with the exception of David Lynch. And you know what? I reckon he'd be lovely! | ||
| James Armstrong (James_armstrong) Username: James_armstrong Registered: 10-2010 Posted From: 86.150.88.179 |
Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese, Robert Deniro, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Ackroyd, Thomas Ligotti. I'm socially awkward at the best of times - I'd probably disgrace myself if I was to actually have a conversation with any of the above. | ||
| James Armstrong (James_armstrong) Username: James_armstrong Registered: 10-2010 Posted From: 86.150.88.179 |
How could I forget Derren Brown and Larry David?! Both are heroes of mine that would most likely turn me into a stuttering mess. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.185.19.75 |
John Cleese. Liszt. Stephen King. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Illya Nickovetch Kuryakin. (I bet you had to Google that, Fry.) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.185.19.75 |
Not so, mate. Not so at all. I asked Jeeves. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
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| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
So, who in this tawdry world would you swoon upon meeting? (Alive or dead is fine.) Pretty much anyone I met dead, would make me swoon, and/or recoil in abject horror. Unless it were Jesus, who's supposed to do that. (Hmm... Jesus mentions the eating of flesh, drinking of blood... he rises from the grave... if someone wanted to do the most blasphemous and controversial horror novel yet, it'd be entitled, JESUS CHRIST: ZOMBIE.) | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Too late. I seem to remember the first issue of Raw Nerve (way way back in the day) featured a zombie Jesus. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Is that a comic? Short-story? I mean a novel, that's an alt-history. Or perhaps it's written as a mock gospel, a recently uncovered THE GOSPEL OF MATTHIAS, that tells a very disturbing story indeed, and that was suppressed by the Church for millennia... and that, early on, contained strange followers indeed.... | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
I have another few: David Bowie, Lou Reed and John Cale. In fact, in Reed's case I think I'd be actively scared to meet him... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 121.90.75.49 |
Orson Welles, Shakespeare and Da Vinci. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
Peter Straub, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Joe Walsh, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Clarence Clemmons, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Stones, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Socrates, Plato, Geoffrey Rush, Alec Guiness, Stephen Fry, Marilyn Monroe, and Milla Jovovich. Damn near did swoon when I met: Robert Redford, Ramsey Campbell, Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson, Dennis Etchison, John Skipp, Craig Spector, Peter Atkins, John Shirley, Berni Wrightson, the fellas from Nazereth, Foghat, and Van Halen. I laughed when I met George Bush, Sr. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I met Straub in Texas the other month. I was proud that I didn't just stand there like a startstruck teenager (like I did the first time I met Ramsey), and actually had a nice conversation with the man and his lovely wife. He was great; really friendly and chatty. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
The first time I met Ramsey I was so nervous it took thirty minutes of me pretending to read whatever was on hand in the bookshop, before my best mate practically forced me to the table to get my books signed. I must have been seventeen or eighteen. Needless to say, and not much of a surprise to the people here, he proved to be more than what I hoped, especially when he asked the manager of the bookshop to get a chair so I could sit down with him and chat about genre stuff. One of my all time fave moments. Though Ramsey managed to top even that memorable day. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 64.12.117.80 |
You lucky Zed, you. I missed a chance to meet Mr. Straub when the company I worked for in southern California wrapped up its contract about 2 weeks before he was to do a signing there. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Seems the best place to post this ... I spent last night in the company of the multi-talented singer/songwriter/musician Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Well, not just me and Mr Anderson, of course - there were lots of other people in the concert hall too (although I was surprised I was the only one hanging around the stage door afterwards for his autograph!). A truly wonderful concert (his solo acoustic tour) in a fabulous setting (The Grand Opera House, York). He played lots of old stuff which doesn't often get played live (eg. Mother Goose from the Aqualung album and The Poet and the Painter from Thick as a Brick), acoustic versions of the concert "regulars" (eg. Aqualung and Locomotive Breath), a bit of completely new stuff specifically for this tour, and also something I never thought I'd see him perform live ... The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles! For those who don't know, said Hare.. isn't really a song; it's a kind of spoken-word reading to music, an anthropomorphic tale about - yes, you guessed it - a hare who lost his spectacles. Anyway, I came home (after a strange detour along dark country roads I wasn't expecting to travel, thanks to getting lost and coming across a blocked road/diversion) with Tull music ringing in my ears and my heart all a flutter!  Oh, and to make things even better, I was speaking to a nice couple at the concert who told me that Tull are doing a Thick as a Brick tour next year, complete with video and all the theatrical bits you'd expect - the first time since it was released all those years ago. My ticket is now booked! | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.58.73.80 |
This is going to seem like brown-nosing but similar questions have come up before in party games with friends and they always know my answer is Ramsey. Even though most of them don't read horror or really know who he is outside of Matt's favorite writer. Next on that list would be M.R. James, William Hope Hodgson, Algernon Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft and J. Sheridan LeFanu. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.102.179 |
I met Carol Emshwiller, managed to keep my gushing to a minimum, and felt my knees start to go a bit wobbly. I'm afraid of meeting most of the people whose work I admire because I don't want to see their feet of clay. Maybe Trent Reznor; he seems to have his act together now. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
I was doing the first aid at a McFly gig (I got the phone call at 6:30 that night begging me because someone had dropped out, it wasn't entirely voluntary) and I saw a guy coming out from the stage door who bore a remarkable similarity to Shane Ritchie. I said to him, "Has anyone ever told you you look like Shane Ritchie?" to which he said, "There's a reason for that"... It was indeed Shane ritchie - this was when he was still in Eastenders first time round so what he was doing at a mcfly gig in Manchester is anyone's guess. In order to get back a little self respect, my reply was "You look taller than you do on the telly, You're only this tall on my telly..." while holding my hand about a foot apart. He didn't look very impressed and wandered off into the crowd without saying anything. I have also told Busted to get out of my way, and been in a lift with Jo Brand. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Did I ever tell you guys about the time I bumped into Peter Davison in the ladies loo at the Cavern Club? Or the time Sylvester McCoy stepped on my arm? Or the time Colin Baker criticised my hairstyle? Seriously, those are all true ... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.173.166.157 |
I'd love to hear the Colin Baker story, Caroline! After all, he never had the best haircut going! | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
If I get to FCon, Mick, I'll tell you. I guess it could've been worse - he could've criticised my dress sense! | ||
| Skip (Wolfnoma) Username: Wolfnoma Registered: 07-2010 Posted From: 216.54.20.98 |
Thomas Jefferson John Skipp |