Laraine Newman
Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
Sometimes it boggles the mind that so many mediocre celebrities command such high prices and long lines, while other legendary performers like Laraine Newman could be charging so little, be so nice, and be so accessible. I was going to call this posting Connie Conehead, but I didn’t even want to hint at a title that sounded demeaning – because Laraine Newman was not only one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live, she was truly one of the nicest and most down-to-earth of any celebrity that I’ve ever met. Read the rest of this entry »
Little did I know that the Afghan Whigs concert that I saw at Bogarts in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 25, 1999, would be their final public performance for more than a dozen years. Neither did the band, according to bassist John Curley during a conversation we had. After the tour ended for their album 1965, they went into the studio and in his words, “it just wasn’t happening.” This left a long void for the fans of the band, of which I was quite a big one. My ex-wife Lisa had introduced me to them almost right after we met, and after working my way through their albums Gentlemen and Black Love, I gradually started becoming quite fond of them. 
At the Hollywood Show in Burbank held on October 8, 2011, was a reunion of the gals who had played Angel, the avenging streetwalker from high school, in the first three entries in the series. If you were a fan of the films (which I was not), it might have been cool to meet Donna Wilkes, Betsy Russell, and Mitzi Capture (listed in the order in which they played the role). Turns out, I had an interest in two of the three for other reasons (see the Betsy Russell posting 
John Diehl is a local boy from Cincinnati who has a very long list of credits in the film and television industry. His most prominent role was that of Detective Larry Zito in Miami Vice, and he had roles of varying sizes in such films and shows as Escape from New York, Falling Down, The West Wing, Gettysburg, and ER. It’s actually amazing that amidst all of the work he’s getting that he even had time to appear at the Hollywood Show on February 11, 2012. 
What a fabulous room. Are all these your guitars? This place is bigger than our whole apartment. Can I get a drink of water? Look at this tub. Wanna take a bath? Hey, are you feeling ok…? Any Pink Floyd fan worth their weight in salt will then follow these lines up with singing… Day after day, Love turns grey, like the skin on the dying man… However, I will go one even further and follow it up with, “hey, I met that chick.” At least I met the chick who starred as that groupie delivering those lines to Mr. Pink Floyd in Pink Floyd: The Wall.