This was Originally posted on September, 15, 2008. But it happened on the 13th.
Hanging with Queenie
Current mood:Star struck
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
I left really early because I thought a lot of people were going to be there like at those wrestler signings I went to.
I was going to leave at 10 AM, but I got distracted and started watching Dinosaur King. I was going to pack my Garbage CD and my cassette, but I decided to pack light and only take the CD.
Before I left I put a lot of styling product in my hair. I used a flat iron to my hair flat on the bottom. The bottom of my hair has a mind of it's own and curls up on the bottom in a strange way. I wanted to weigh the top of my hair down. I wanted my face framing layers to weighed down and fall in the same direction. I wore my hair down. (don't worry this has relevance to something later in the blog)
I left early at like 10:30 AM. I thought I could make it to the store by 1PM or earlier. On the ride over there I kept telling myself that if I didn't want to go through with it. I could just go home. On the way over there I was bored and I was getting myself pumped by listening to Garbage music. I even got lost a few times trying to find the bus stops. I didn't know the area so I had no idea which stops were the right ones to catch a different bus at. I got lost finding at least one of the stops. I didn't realize how far it is by bus from downtown LA to West Hollywood.
When I finally got to the store I got lost again and I crossed the street on the wrong corner. I had to cross the street again. When I got to the store I saw the line wasn't as long as I thought it would be. I counted about 20 people in front of me. I thought I had a good chance of getting in and meeting Shirley.
The funny thing was that when I was waiting in line a bunch of people kept driving by and yelling things at us. They were yelling things like "nerds!" and "geeks!". I actually thought it was funny. I kept thinking "I'm here for Shirley." While I was waiting in line I was still listening to music on my MP3 player until I got bored. Then I started talking to the other people in line. I didn't want to admit that I had only been watching the show since about 5 days ago, and that the only person I was really interested in meeting was Shirley. This one guy I was standing next to was talking about all these different meet and greets he's been to. Personally the only ones I've ever been to were for wrestlers and those had a lot of rules. He wanted to know how we found out about this. I found out through a Garbage message board.
As we were waiting in line we kept telling each other things like "4 more hours." That one guy who said he went to all those meet and greets and he was naming all these different celebrities. He said he met Chris Elliot. The people he was talking to didn't know who he is. I remembered that he was in Cabin Boy and makes frequent appearances on Letterman. He also said it would be funny if Triumph the insult comic dog came to make fun of us in line. I would be so happy if he did. Hell I'd ask if I could get my photo taken with him. I would just tell Triumph that I'm a big fan of him and Shirley Manson. I'd like to see what he'd tell her. The people that hadn't heard of Chris Elliot had also never heard of Triumph. I only know about those 2 since I watch a lot of late night tv.
I kept talking about how much I liked that toilet scene. There were also some people going around with video cameras asking us who we wanted to meet and questions about the show. I hoped nobody would come up to me and ask me anything because I only started watching the show.
At about 2PM indie 103.1 came and was playing music. At fist they were playing some pretty current stuff that I didn't like. They would play a few good songs like a Death Cab for Cutie one and Bravery song. As it got closer they started playing Garbage songs and that was totally getting me in the mood. I was listening to them and swaying. At first I didn't even notice I was. At least I didn't sing. They were playing a lot of old Garbage songs like "Medication", "Only Happy When it Rains", "1 Crush", "Stupid Girl", and "Queer". They also played Shirley's solo cover of "Samson and Delilah". When people in line were asking what the name of that song was I blurted out the title. I felt a little silly.
When they let us into the store at about a little after 5PM. The event was from 5-7 PM. They were giving out bags with Terminator stuff in it. When I got my Garbage CD out ready to get signed somebody thought the store was selling Garbage CDS. I said I brought it from home. I was talking to the cashier and I asked if the store use to be in a different location. He said it was. I remember it didn't look like the same place it was at 10 years ago.
I hadn't been to Golden Apple in 10 years. The last time I went I was with my dad. We went to LA to go and look for record covers. I think that's what he calls them. They are those plastic covers you slip over the cardboard cover after you take the shrink wrap off the record. Anyway we were walking down the street and I saw a comic book store and I convinced my dad to let me go in. They use to sell a lot of cool Sailor Moon collectibles, mostly Canadian stuff. That's where I got my chibi Canadian issue Sailor Moon figure. I wish Sailor Moon collectibles were easy to get like they were in 1998.
I also told the clerk that I'm not even suppose to be here. I should be a home doing chores. He laughed. Then Garret Dillahunt came in the line and was mingling with the fans. I had no idea who he was or who he even played on the show. I was just like "Hi, nice to meet you." He smelled good, and some other girl in line near me said the same thing. So we both told him that. He said he just showered. He smelled better than all us stinky fans who waited in line all day. I took a picture of him. I really hoped Shirley would so the same thing. If she would have I probably would have rushed her and hugged her and not let go. She would have probably had to get some people to get me off her. He said he was going to sign stuff when we got to him.
The other people in line told me not to bother Shirley by asking her to take a lot of pictures and to sign a lot of stuff. All I wanted was for her to sign my Garbage CD. I thought I'd try it anyway. It wouldn't hurt right?
I was anxious. I thought I heard a Scottish accent, and it sort of sounded like her voice. I got out of line to take a peek at who was there. I couldn't get a good look to see if she was there or not. Then I heard her voice and saw the back of her head. She was only one of 3 people from the cast already there. So props to her for being there on time. I was asking around to confirm her being there and somebody in line told me "The lady who plays the new Terminator is here." and I said "Shirley's here! Alright!".
As I was almost there trying to get a good look at Shirley which was hard to do. She kept moving around. As I was waiting some people from the Fox website were filming us and asking us questions. So they asked me what I liked about the show and I admitted that I only started watching it for Shirley. So they wanted to know what I like about Shirley. By coincidence I happened to be holding my Garbage CD because I was ready to get it signed. The funny thing was when I was asked to express my love for Shirley I was at a loss for words. I went blank. I did mange to say that she played a great toilet. I was rambling and I started naming Garbage songs. I felt like Francine in that episode of Arthur when his class is on tv and they talk about the planets.
Then I was talking to the cast. The first person I talked to was Brian Austin Green. Besides Shirley he was the only other person I knew the name of and recognized. I asked him if they were done shooting for the season, but he said they have only shot 10 episodes so far. I also asked him if he knew if it got picked up for another season. Last week Shirley was on the radio and said that she didn't know it the show was going to be picked up for another season. I told him that I wanted a photo of him, but he wanted me to take one with him. I declined. I told him it was for my myspace blog. The only person I was interested in taking a picture with was Shirley.
The bad thing was that she was at the end of the line. I was trying to take a picture of each of the 8 cast members. I only got about 4 or 5 of them. I got distracted towards the end of the line where Shirley was. I kept gawking at her. The funny thing was when I was talking to the cast at the front of the line I was trying to get a good shot of Shirley. The problem was everybody kept moving around; her, the other cast members, the fans. I took one really blurry shot with her in the back ground. She's the blurry person at the end with the red hair. I circled her in pink.
I think she noticed what I was trying to do. She kept looking at me suspiciously. I didn't want to be on bad terms with her before I even met her, so I stopped.When I finally got to Shirley I think the first thing I told her was I'm looking forward to hearing new material form her (solo) and from Garbage. I told her "I love you!" at least 3 times. I lost count after 3. I gave her the fan letter I wrote to her. I asked her a lot of questions. A strange one was how does she spell her middle name. Her middle name is Ann and it can be spelled 2 different ways, so I wanted to know the correct spelling. She said "It's A-N-N no 'E'."I also asked about her nickname. I hear it was "Queen Ann", but she said "Just call me Queenie". When I was talking to her I noticed there was a plate of brownies and cookies next to her. I could've pulled a Homer and said "Oh my God can I have a brownie!". You can see them in the photo. She was sweet and signed my CD I was talking to her while she signed it. She asked me what my name was and I thought she was just being pleasant because the other cast members would say "Hi, what's your name?" and then say "Nice to meet you (your name)." I wasn't really looking at her when she did that. She even let me take 2 photos. The first one I took was of just her. You can clearly see the plate of snacks next to her. I pointed them out.
Then I asked if I could take a picture with her, and she let me. Richard T. Jones who was sitting next to her took it for me. I told her to wait because I wanted to take my hair down. The only reason I was wearing it up was because it was so hot. My neck was really sweaty. If the day had been more mild I would've left it down, but that is a California September for you. At least it wasn't 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit. I was a little embarrassed that my hair looked a little greasy. Especially the top of it, but I was waiting in the sun for 4 and half hours. I also asked Shirley for a hug. She smelled good. I don't know if she was wearing perfume but she smelled a little fruity. After she was done signing my stuff I was just standing there talking to her. I told her "Nobody plays a toilet better" and made her laugh. I asked if she was going to contribute more songs to the show. I also said that the show should have a sound track and that she should contribute to it either by herself or with Garbage. She told me that I'm smart and that I should be her agent. I felt flattered. I just think that when I'm a fan of somebody I can think of ways to market them. I also asked if there were going to be more song references in the show after all those ones were made about toilet scene. I said it referenced "Androgyny", "Only Happy When it Rains", and "When I Grow Up". we were laughing.Then I got in trouble from the workers at the store for standing there talking to her. They told me to go and find a seat if I wanted to watch the episode. She is suppose to stay there I wasn't. When I walked out of the store. I was sort of in a star struck daze. I looked like this.
When I looked at my signed CD. I noticed that she personalized it. She wrote "(my name) lovely to meet you x". She put an "x" at the end of her message like she did on the message to the fans on the "Absolute Garbage" CD.I also locked all the pictures of her in my phone. I liked the photo I took of her so much that I set it as my phone's wallpaper. When I looked at the photo of her and me I noticed it looked like we were coincidentally wearing the same hair style. Actually I was trying to copy her hair style, but not the one she has currently. I didn't even know she was going to wear her hair like that. I was trying to copy the hairstyle she had back in 1998/1999 when she use to have a bob. Actually I got the idea when I was watching a video of Garbage on SNL from 1999. I thought "Her hair looks incredibly dated now. I should wear my hair like that nobody does now.". I don't want to have an ugly mullet , side bangs, or look like a raccoon died on my head. I though I should steal her hairstyle because the hack job bangs I have finally grew out and it's only taken them 11 months. Now they look like some face framing layers. Of course my hairstyle doesn't look exactly like hers. I think we have different types of hair. I noticed that she is holding up the fan letter I gave her in the photo. She's making a silly face. I didn't get a good look at her outfit.
I got home really late because I misread the bus schedule and of course I got in trouble for the little stunt I pulled. Maybe I should work at getting a driver's license. I would hate to get one at 39. I hope to get one by the age of 26.
I put up 2 photos in my room one of Shirley and I and the one of just Shirley. As a happy yet painful reminder of why you don't ride 3 buses into West Hollywood to meet a Scottish rock star.
