Soundtracked

Lists, Day 15: Important People I've Met.

I almost left off "important" when making this list...because 1) the people I deem "important" may not be important to other people who read this; and 2) leaving it off would just be "people I've met", and that's kinda dull (no offense, people I've met ). So, maybe you won't know most of these people, but I'll try to include some useful info about them so you can maybe ascertain their worth to be greater than yours or mine or something. Also, now that I think about it, I haven't met too many really famous people. I probably need to get out more; preferably someplace where superstars hang out.

1) Doug Flutie  : He was a college football star known for a game-winning Hail Mary pass, and wound up quarterbacking for the Buffalo Bills at one point. He is exceptionally small for playing a sport dominated by men well over six feet and 250 lbs....he's seriously maybe 5'7" and couldn't have weighed more than 180 when I met him. He came into my store after practice- in December, wearing shorts and some weird long heavy coat- looking for portable DVD players. This was maybe back in '99, when that was still a relatively new thing. I looked at the entire company's inventory and we only had five total, but he wanted seven. And we were just a tiny offshoot store, so trying to find and roundup even the five throughout the company might've taken a couple days. But he wanted them then, there, and now, and was ready to drop serious cash for them (he was an NFL QB, so of course he would)...probably over $2k at the time. I had to let him walk, and he was kinda a dick about it. But there's nothing funnier than a pissed off, rich, short dude.

2) Martin Biron  : Marty used to be the starting goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, and now he's an analyst for some network I think. Funny dude though...chatty, and didn't seem too bright when I met him. He was just a young kid, super thin, gettin' outta this huge Cadillac SUV thing with a computer tower our company sold him (I met a lot of local athletes and celebrities when I worked at The Advantage Company). He seriously had no clue how to use his computer...this woulda had to be around 2000.

3) Erno Rossi  : He wrote a book about Buffalo's infamous Blizzard of '77, White Death. Seemed like a nice guy...of all the authors I've met that have done book signings at the bookstores I've worked in, he's the one I've probably talked to the most (which isn't to say I spoke to him that much...he mainly talked about himself and his book, which was kinda annoying). And no, I haven't read it, but I probably will someday.

4) Danny Neaverth  : "Danny moves your fanny in the morning!" That was the tagline of his ads...he was the morning DJ on the oldies station we always listened to growing up. He also did afternoon weather for one of the TV stations. Funny guy. When the station would play softball games, my mom would take us to watch and we would talk to all the personalities...and one morning after, he said hi to us over the air. It made our day...I was probably in elementary school, so it was a big deal.

5) Brad Riter  : He used to host Sabres pre- and postgame shows on the radio (I think...I know he was on WGR for awhile), and now he does Trending Buffalo...a mix of sports and social commentary. He was a customer of mine when I ran a Walgreens photo lab...I helped him out a bunch of times, and he was super friendly. I think it started with his wedding pics, or pics of his first kid, or something...something important that he was having a hard time getting help with. Make things easier for people, and they will always come back to you.

6) Rob Ray  : "Rayzor" is a former Sabres enforcer, and now he does color commentary on Sabres games. If you like hockey fights  , then this guy is friggin' legendary. At one point I had not one, but two autographed Rob Ray jerseys, and I took my little brother to meet him and get his picture taken with him when he was doing an autograph signing at one of the malls. Nice enough guy, but he seemed like he didn't wanna be there.

7) Rick Jeanneret  : Speaking of Sabres broadcasters, dude's the premier play-by-play man in the NHL, hands down. I don't care who ya got, Brother Nature . RJ reigns supreme. No one can match his energy and intesnity   behind the mic (and that clip is old enough that it doesn't feature one of his greatest calls...the 2006 OT series-clincher against Ottawa, "Now do you believe...these guys are good! Scary good!"  . I won a t-shirt from a local radio station for imitating that call the next day ). But to me, he was just an old guy wandering the aisles lost at Walgreens. I didn't even recognize him at first, until he started talking..."I'm about to catch a flight to Montreal, and my wife sent me in here..." and I forget what he was looking for, but he was totally not in that section of the store . Hockey will never, ever be the same for me once RJ drops the mic for the final time.

Rayzor and RJ...calling Jack Eichel's game-winner
in OOOOOOOOOVERTIIIIIIIIME!

8) .moneen.  : You've heard this story a gang of times already, the one where I met guys in a band called Moneen. I'm not telling it again; you can reread it here ("Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?" ) or a few other places in a few other blogs. tl;dr: They are the sweetest dudes ever, and the singer signed mine and DMFM's vinyl copy of The Red Tree  .

9) Slug from Atmosphere  : Another story I've told too many times before (one of them can be found here:"Trying To Find A Balance" )...Atmosphere came to play a show in Buffalo. While we were waitin' in line outside the venue, Slug walked up the line and said hi to everyone. Of all the shows I've ever been to, I've never seen anyone do that before (maybe I wasn't payin' attention though). I got to shake his hand and get my picture taken, and thank him for entering my life or some other fanboy shit.

10) Kirk Fucking Cameron  : The star of eighties sitcom Growing Pains  . If you want me to think you're an asshole, come into my store five minutes before we close on a Saturday, stay for a half hour asking dumb questions, and don't buy anything. His wife grew up in the same town as me, about ten minutes down the road from the Stereo Advantage. He held up thirty people's lives because of his "Don't you know who I am?" bullshit. Seriously. And he was on some "Praise Jesus!" tip as well...not what a bunch of teens and 20-somethings wanna hear before gettin' wrecked on a Saturday night. Fuck him. Really.

Bonus Local Celebrity!

11) Don's mom from Airport Plaza Jewelers  : For real...by the airport there's this little hut (I don't know what else to call it) in a plaza parking lot (they've since also expanded into one of the stores) that buys jewelry and shit. And they have some of the most bizarre commercials and marketing gimmicks goin'. You can drive by and there will be people in chicken costumes waving mannequin arms and legs, because "At Airport Plaza Jewelers, you don't have to pay an arm and a leg!" And it turns out sometimes it's the owner's mom, Barb, in the chicken suit. She's legit the sweetest old lady. She drives a bright yellow VW Beetle, and would come up to my Walgreens photo counter asking for help with her Tracfone. Every couple weeks. She'd buy a new card for it, and we'd add it to her phone. She had thousands of minutes on it that she never used. But she'd bring us homemade cookies and stuff all the time, so we did that for her even though we weren't supposed to.

Yeah, I know...you probably haven't heard of most of these people. But I have, and it's my list, so whatever. Like I said, I haven't met too many really famous important people. I'm just not really into that whole celeb-chasing thing.