Living in Studio City, I spot celebrities all the time. Sometimes several in a day. I don’t really pay attention anymore, unless the circumstances are unusual, like when William Shanter, driving a black BMW SUV with a tall young blond in the passenger seat, made a right turn in from of me, forcing me to slam on my brakes. (The very next day I saw the guy who played Chekov on Star Trek come into Art’s Deli, with his toupee askew.) And it was fun to see Johnny Depp bump into Patricia Arquette in an antique store on Venture Blvd and observe the behavior of two stars interacting. Just twenty minutes ago, I saw one of my heroes walk by the Starbucks I was in: Johnny Ramone. Still wearing blue jeans and a denim jacket, black sneakers, and a Prince Valiant haircut. “There’s a guy who changed the world,” I thought to myself.

A few years back, I met Johnny. (He is friends with my sister-in-law). We all went to a Halloween party together. When I met him, I was wearing skull makeup. (Johnny was a clown with a long nose and a Pagliacci-style hat and outfit). I talked to him all night. I asked him what he was up to since breaking up the band. He said he kept busy by collecting movies on video for his library.

“What kind of videos?” I asked.

“Hara,” he answered.

“Is that some kind of Japanese genre?” I asked.

“Some, but they’re mostly from Italy,” he said.

“What are they like?” I asked

“You don’t know what hara is?” he replied.

“No.” Gee, I was feeling dumb.

“You know, scary movies,” he said.

It finally dawned on my that he had been saying “horror” all along, and I just wasn’t picking up on his east coast accent.

Later that night, my sister-in-law introduced Johnny to her friend, Slash (from Guns n Roses). (She told Johnny that Slash worshipped the Ramones.) But Slash was drunk, it was loud, and he didn’t recoginize Johnny in his clown makeup. But when he finally figured out who he was being introduced to, his heavy-lidded eyelides shot up. “Whoa!” They had a nice little chat.

A couple of nights later, I saw Johnny walking into Tower Records just as I was walking out. I said “Hi” and he mumbled hi and kept walking. He didn’t remember me! Then I realized he had no idea what I looked like because the first I met him my face was covered in Halloween makeup. So I told him who I was and he brightened up.

But today, I didn’t get up from my chair in Starbucks to say hi. I don’t really have anything to say to him, and he probably gets bugged enough as it is. It was fun seeing him, though.

(Please excuse me for this self-indulgent post) Discuss