Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine

My workout playlist on my iPod consists of about 50 songs half of which are Rage Against the Machine. Every time Guerrilla Radio comes on I always end up putting the song on repeat and listening to it 2-3 times before moving on.  So needless to say, I thought it was pretty cool when I got the chance to meet Zach de la Rocha on Wednesday.  

I didn't know he was going to be there, it was just one of those Hollywood surprises.  I was just sitting on a lawn chair when a buddy came up and told me he just saw Zack walk down the sidewalk a block away. I grabbed two pickguards I keep in my bag and a microphone I keep in my bag and we headed in the direction he saw Zack walking.   We found him a few blocks away and he signed my microphone and a pickguard for me (I gave my second pickguard to my buddy because he didn't have anything along).  About as cool of a surprise as you can get, go from sitting in a lawn chair hanging out to getting a great musician on two cool items. 

Chicago the musical closing night

Well I went on opening night, so I figured why not go on closing night too.  Chicago the musical staring Christie Brinkley was on it's last night in Hollywood and I drove in to try to get a few more Christie autographs.  It turned out to be a worthwhile trip, and I walked away with two more Christie signed photos.  She was just as nice and friendly as the first night and gave a full every letter autograph on both my pictures. 

 Below: Christie signing my 12x18 photo.

 Below: Christie signing my 11x14 photo. 

 And here are my two signed photos.

Happy Endings Q&A

Thursday there was a Q&A for the ABC show Happy Endings and I decided to graph it in large part because there wasn't a ton of other stuff going on that day.  One of the main reasons I was hesitant to do it was Elisha Cuthbert was not going to be there so it would be impossible to complete any cast items.  But five of the main six isn't so bad so I decided it was worth my time. 

I ended up doing pretty well.  The whole cast was cool.  Everyone signed, and everyone was pretty nice about it too. 

Zachary Knighton signed both my two cast 11x14s.

 Damon Wayans Jr also signed both my cast 11x14s.

Adam Pally was cracking jokes and signing my cast 11x14s at the same time.

Eliza Coupe signed my two cast 11x14s and I had two individual 11x14s along of her as well, she signed those too.

Casey Wilson seemed like a genuinely nice and funny person.  She was really good about signing and  also about interacting with everyone.   I had two individual 11x14s and my two cast 11x14s along for her and she signed them all.

Here's my finished cast 11x14s. 

Elisha Cuthbert please go to an event soon and please sign. 

Chernobyl Diaries Premiere

On Wednesday night I graphed the premiere of Chernobyl Diaries.  While it's not a big name movie or cast, I think it will be good and probably have a good following if nothing else because Oren Peli (who was the mastermind behind Parnormal Activity) is the writer and producer of the movie. 

Well I ended up doing really well, but it was not easy.  Some of the cast made me practically herniate my vocal cords by making me scream for them all night.  But I ended up getting the main 7 actors, the director, and Oren on my two cast pieces (one 11x14 one 12x18).  So at the end of the night I walked away pretty happy.  Here's the finished cast pieces. 

Here's the setup for the red carpet. 

The first autograph I got on the night was a surprise, Jason Mewes.  He came as a walker but did the carpet, and I had my Fanboys cast piece along so I added him to it.   

Every single graph on this was from someone who showed up as a surprise to an event I was at. 

Then the cast started coming in.  And I have to say not one of these actors were all that cool tonight.  Sometimes you call an actor over and they sprint over and are all smiles and thank everyone for coming out and they sign for a long time and they take pictures with anyone who asks.  .  . yeah not so much with this cast.  The longest anyone signed for was about two minutes and no one stayed long enough to do photos with. 

Jonathan Sadowski was the first to sign and he might have been the nicest of the cast.   But even he didn't sign all that long.  At least he came right over when we called him so I give him credit for that. 

Nathan Phillips was not having it, we called him and he even made a motion shaking his head "no".  He then stood about 20 feet in front of us for five minutes waiting with his hands in his pockets doing absolutely nothing while he waited for the group photo.  Finally he caved and came over for about 30 seconds and signed and then walked back over to wait.  He didn't sign leaving the theatre either. 

Dimitri Diatchenko came right over when we called and signed for about a minute. 

Oren Peli came right over when we called him too.  He was decent and signed for most of the crowd. 

Olivia Dudley didn't sign for long, but I'll give her credit as soon as the crowd started calling her she walked over.

Devin Kelley ignored us and ignored us some more on arrivals.  I called her over and over again.  Then she left the theatre after the movie and stood out front for about five minutes and we called her over and over again and she still ignored us. Then she went to leave and luckily for us her car happened to be the one towncar that was parked behind us so she had to walk directly in front of us. She finally caved and took my sharpie and signed.  I think the only reason we got her was because her car was parked behind us.

Jesse McCarthy was the best about talking to the crowd.  We called him on the way in and he said "I gotta get in I'll get you after".  Well when he came out after the movie he was standing around and we called him.  He looked over and shook his head "yes" and gave us the "one minute" finger. Well a few minutes later he did come over and signed, true to his word. 

I was a little perturbed by this experience, Ingrid Bolso Berdal was the last cast member we needed to complete our posters.   We called her on arrivals and she acted like she couldn't hear us (but she could).  Then she came out of the theatre and stood around for ten minutes in the front talking.  We called and called and again she ignored us.  Then her town car pulled up and she started walking towards it, we started frantically screaming at her "No you're the last person we need" "Ingrid please" "Please".  As she opened the door to the towncar someone (maybe her publicist) stopped her and pointed our way and seemed to tell her to come over.  He told the towncar to circle the block and Igrid walked over.  She took my sharpie and signed a good amount, but what bugged me is she acted like she had every intention to sign all night.  She was saying things like, "Of course I'll sign your cast shot", "Don't worry guys I'm going to sign for everyone".   I hate when celebrities do this.  You ignored us all night.  You tried to leave.  Then someone tells you to sign and you walk over all happy go lucky like you had wanted to sign all along. I hate that. 

Director Bradley Parker was cool though.  He came right over when we called him.  

So while the actors gave he headaches, I did walk away with some pretty cool cast pieces. I'll probably be checking the movie out this weekend and hopefully it's really good.