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A year, at least, starting in January 2005. Working the Olympics and then both political conventions and then doing a book tour with Ridley Pearson for their new Peter Pan book has apparently taken its toll. Whether or not he returns in 2006 will probably depend on how much he enjoys the year off...
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I think it's a good idea. The quality of his columns has gone down - yours are much, much funnier, Chris.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Ask Goody Scrivener about Dave Barry. She's got an absolutely great story to tell about Dave Barry, Stephen King and their band, and her experience....
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You know, I don't blame him. I can't IMAGINE trying to mass-produce humor daily, year in and year out, for 20 years. I mean, after awhile wouldn't it cease to be funny to you, the writer?
Like I used to be heavily into photography -- really wanted to do that as a living. Then I worked for a newspaper where I worked everyday in taking whatever shots they told me, and developing and printing, and writing the stories to go with them, etc. And I really burned out. Photography ceased to be fun, as did writing.
Now, after several years away, I'm doing a little more photography again, and a tiny bit of writing. But doing it for a living really killed the enjoyment. I don't see how Barry kept it up all this time.
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You know, I will miss his columns, but I'm grateful for all that I have read by him since he joined the Tropic Magazine staff way back when, and for his books, and so forth. I wish him well, and while I will hope for his recharged return, or for more non-column-based books, I do not begrudge him a well-earned rest.
BUT if he stops helping out with the Herald Hunt . . . Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Okay, my Dave Barry/Stephen King/Ridley Pearson/Scott Turow story (although Dave doesn't have much of a part, understandable given the rest of it). This is a repost of a message sent to the Skemers newsletter the following day with some edits for spelling/pucntuation/expansion/deletion. Hopefully the forum won't gag on post length.
N.B. This all took place on Halloween night, 2001. Don't know if that matters to anyone, but there it is.
HE KISSED ME!!!!!
Yes, you heard that right, Stephen King kissed me!!!
Okay, okay, lemme start at the beginning. <VEG>
We had 6 of us all getting together from various places in the Midwest. I was the only true local in the group. We met up at the hotel where we all were staying, went to dinner (early lunch?), then to a bookstore and then finally tried to go to the club that was reserved for the VIP event.
The VIP party was scheduled to start at 6:30, but because everyone but me had tickets on will-call and the email confirmations from Ticketweb said that those tickets had to be picked up an hour before the event, we arrived at about 5:15, a little more than an hour early. The staff at the club had absolutely no idea what we were talking about beyond knowing that their facility was being used for an event. In fact, the one woman in the office was rather snippy with us. We finally got someone that was setting up tables to confirm that the executive director for Chicago Scores was coming a little later and would have the information.
Since we felt like we weren’t welcome to be there yet, we left the club and went looking for drinks. We found a bar that was pretty empty and sat talking for about 45 minutes. We returned to the club at 6:15, and discovered that Artavia still hadn’t arrived, but other Scores people were there and knew the information would be coming later and told us not to worry. We chose a table in one room that had enough space for all of us and out bags full of books, got some drinks from the bar and got comfortable. We talked to a couple people that were there, obvious SK fans by the books they brought, and then a woman came up to us asking if we were the Skemers. We all laughed and said yes. She then pointed to Craig and said “you’re Mr. Golf, right?” Needless to say, that was a surprise. And then she asked, “which one is QueenJAKL?” ACK!!!!!!! LOL (editorial note: this was my AOL screen name at the time) Turns out she’s been lurking on the boards and actually found out about the event from us!
Steve and the other authors arrived at about 7:00. They first went into one of the other rooms to meet people….. and then Steve came into our room and sat down at a chair about 5 feet from our table!!!!! The line for autographs formed almost instantly, and since we were so close, we got in very quickly. He asked that we bring just one book at a time so everyone would get a chance, and said we were free to get back in line with another book if we wanted, but he wouldn’t guarantee anything. Each of us were armed with cameras and took pictures of each other sitting with him while he signed. Most of us asked him questions, and he shook almost everyone’s hand when he was done with their book. I had Talisman and Black House for myself, and Craig asked me to take up his Japanese Riding the Bullet. He signed RTB and Black House, and then STEPHEN KING KISSED ME ON THE CHEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kev and Craig both got pictures of me with him, but didn’t get the kiss on either of the digital cameras. I don’t know if anyone else got the kiss on the film cameras. My heart is still pounding! (editorial note: nope, no pictures, much to my dismay)
After all of us got our first pass in line, I saw Mitch Albom, so I grabbed by copy of “Tuesdays with Morrie” and got him to sign that for me. Very nice guy, very cute. Then I noticed Amy Tan, so I went over with “The Joy Luck Club” for her to sign. Her husband was with her – even after breaking his collarbone stagediving the night before, more on that later – and seemed to be doing well. She also had her two puppies in a duffel bag at her hip. Such little cuties!
After that I went back into the SK line to get Talisman signed. I talked with several people in line about Skemers and about the books, one woman I think may have been a newspaper journalist because she had a slim steno pad and was taking notes in what sort of looked like shorthand. Very inquisitive, too. And of course I was rather tipsy from both the drinks and the kiss.
While I was in line the second time, I saw Dave Barry, so I jumped out quickly (with someone holding my place, of course, I had held his earlier) to get him to sign. At that point, he was standing talking with Mitch, who didn’t recognize the compilation book I had bought. So the three of us talked briefly about how the publisher re-released them to get his name on the shelves again and (as Mitch put it) “people like this young lady fell for it” My response was “I have to conserve space so I like having these sets” =)
The second time I got up to Steve, I teased him and said that “my friends didn’t get a picture of you kissing me”. He laughed and said “one to a customer.” Kevin was up a shortly after, and asked to have his book signed to his wife, which I guess Steve misheard as “Jenn” because he asked if that was me. Kev said, no, she’s a good friend of mine, and then Steve called for me to get my camera ready. When Craig and I were both focused on them, STEVE KISSED KEV TOO!!! From what Kev said, it was Steve’s idea. What a couple of goofs LOL.
After that, Deb told me that Ridley Pearson was looking for someone with a digital camera. I still needed to get his autograph anyway, so I grabbed the book and the camera and we went to search him out. We talked for a few minutes, he signed my book, and I told him I had a digicam and asked if I could help him. Turns out his assistant wants to get pictures from the concert up on his website right away. He had a camera but obviously couldn’t get pictures while he was performing, and didn't have someone with him who could run his camera. So I offered to play photographer for him =)
Finally it was time to go to the concert. We jumped in a pair of cabs, both of whom decided to go the sort of long way to the Park West. If we had walked, it would have been about a mile. But the route my cab took was probably double that. Idiot. The other cab took even longer!
The very front third of the theater is a dance floor, and the next third was reserved for VIP ticketholders. Very nice booths with tables, and waiters serving drinks at the tables for us. We grabbed two booths near the front, right in the center. We had about a half-hour wait until the concert began. Dave Barry came out on stage first and told everyone that if we didn’t get up onto the dance floor, the show was going to be no fun at all. Thank goodness, because I was wondering how I was going to get any decent pictures if I had to stay at the table! (did I mention earlier I was gtting to be pretty shnockered by this time?)
The concert was great!!!!! They aren't the greatest of singers - in fact, Dave starts out the show by telling us that "we are to rock music what Metallica is to fiction writing"... - but hey, we weren't there just for the music anyway. What they lacked in musical ability, they more than made up for in humor.
Amy and her husband: One of Amy's songs is "Leader of the Pack". She gets all dolled up in 50's vintage clothes, the guys get silly, and her husband comes out near the end riding a motorcycle (which is probably in neutral) onto the stage as the Boyfriend. Well, according to Dave (and seen in Rid's pictures of that evening), when they performed the night before in New York, Lou managed somehow to drop the bike and fell hard. He lay there hurting while the song continued. One of the guys, I don't remember which, maybe Rid but definitely not Steve, thought it would be funny to "kick" him while he was down. Not enough to hurt but enough for effect. Soon all of them were doing it. Turns out that he broke his collarbone when he hit... so Amy and Lou spent the night in a NYC emergency room and did a mad dash to get to Chicago in time for our show. Needless to say, they dropped the part about the bike and instead he just walked around with his collar and arm sling on over his leather jacket.
I took about 100 pictures on two different flash cards (had to borrow Craig’s extra because I was running out so quickly). Tabby King was dancing up a storm behind the “girl singer” lineup – Amy Tan, Kathi Goldmark, Scott Turow and someone whose name I didn’t catch. Mitch was near the back on keyboards. Steve and Ridley were pretty much front and center on bass and rhythm guitars, respectively, and Dave was far right (as you look at the stage) on lead guitar. He sounded pretty good (or else I was too drunk to notice how bad they were). I had left my drink at the table and went back periodically to rest and delete and crappy pictures I had gotten. About ¾ of the way through the show, I realized that my glass was more full than it had been when I left the last time. Craig then told me that because I wasn’t drinking fast enough, he and Julie were finishing off my drinks and ordering me new ones. So while I thought I had been nursing the same glass all night, I probably had 3 or 4 in reality ::::hic::::, not including at the bar before the reception and the wine at the club! No wonder I was so goofy!!!! And no wonder most of the concert was a blur!
There was a lady there dressed as Carrie, complete with light pink satin gown, bond wig, and fake blood. Kev and Craig got pictures of each other with her – she “bled” on Craig’s white shirt LOL. They brought her up on stage for Teen Angel. He introduced the song by saying that they do the song because of the accident two years ago. Everyone on stage except for Steve wore haloes – and I got Mitch’s halo!!! – When Kathi Goldmark tried to put one on Steve’s head, he said “I don’t wear one because I didn’t die” big cheer, of course!!! (editorial note: this was 2 years and 4 and a half months after he got creamed on the side of the road near his home in Maine - he was still limping and in obvious pain at times) I swear, there were more King fans at the show than anything else! Anyway, “Carrie” tried to kiss Steve during the song, and he shrunk back making a nasty face, although I’m sure it was an act. I have a feeling that she was with either Scores or one of the performers, and it was probably choreographed from the get-go.
After the concert, we all cabbed back to the hotel. Deb decided to stay in for the night, but the rest of us went back out in search of a place to keep drinking. Unfortunately, at almost midnight on a weeknight, the options were nearly nonexistent. Kevin bailed out on us before we could find a bar because he still had to drive home so he could work today. Poor guy. =( We finally found a place that was open but by the time we got there and got seated and got drinks, I think all of us were just so tired and wasted that we decided to go back to the hotel and call it a night.
This morning we all met down in the lobby. Deb and her family left to go home, and the rest of us went back to the diner for breakfast. Hey, we knew where it was and now we were prepared for the confusion on the check! Much quieter breakfast than yesterday’s lunch had been, partly cause we were down two people, partly cause we were still wiped out, and mostly because we’d achieved the dream!!!!
After breakfast, Maria headed home on her own, and Craig drove Sue and Julie to the train stations and me to my office (cause I had to do a half-day today – ugh) I’ve done absolutely no work all day. I’ve spent the entire time either typing this or working on getting the pictures off the camera to email to Ridley Pearson for his website. Then this weekend I get to do my web site and email pictures to everyone in the group!
HE KISSED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (can you tell I’ll never get over that? Man do I hope someone got a picture of it!!!)
the aftershocks: Ridley had my pictures on his website (www.ridleypearson.com) for several months after the concert. I don't even know when he took them down, just that it was sometime in the year that followed. About two months after the concert, however, I received an email from Ridley that he or his assistant Heidi needed to talk to me. Sure enough, I hit the site's message board and a similar message from Heidi was posted there looking for me. So I shot an email out to Heidi and find out that Scott Turow (who if you didn't know is a Chicago attorney as well as a prize winning novelist - and yes he does still practice actively) wants written permission from me to use one of my pictures in print! Well, DUH! Of course he can! Next day I get an email from Scott with details. He is an alumnus of University of Missouri-Columbia and was involved in the literary journal while there. The journal is coming up on their 25th anniversary, and to commemorate the event, they are asking some of their more well-known alums to submit short stories about themselves. Scott chose to comment on his participation with RBR, and wanted to include a picture I took of him wearing a skeleton teeshirt and wild blonde wig and singing "wild Thing" by The Troggs. In return, I got a byline credit (in addition to him mentioning me - but not by name boohoo - in his story) and a contributor's copy, which of course he autographed for me. =) He also asked me to autograph a copy for him ... trippy, eh???
Three years later I'm still spinning over the whole thing, just not quite as madly as I was on November 1 LOL. I used to have a website with all my RBR pics online, let me see if I still have the HTML saved on my hard drive to repost it someplace.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I'd love to see the pictures, if you can still find them. What an awesome story, thanks for sharing it!
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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You ought to see her tell the story in person! She's so animated!
I almost thought maybe you should leave it as a landmark story for sometime -- but am glad you shared it here. I really loved it when you told me all about it.
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