The time we met one of the West Memphis Three

Hearing about Damien Echols doing an appearance and signing was strictly luck. We had just watched part of Paradise Lost: 3 and I had just happened to see a tweet from Changing Hands Bookstore in Arizona. Damien had done a signing there the night before and Changing Hands provided a link for the rest of his tour stops.

I clicked on the link in the tweet at the same time that I got an email from Book Soup with a list of events. Damien's was the first listed. Hubs called to make sure that tickets were still available. They were.

We got up to UCLA early. The event started at 7, we got there just after 5 and there already people lined up. Book Soup was still putting together their table, so we got in line and proceeded to wait. Both for will call and entrance into the theatre.

Book Soup came through the line before 6, giving out vouchers and tickets. At the time of the order, we had only purchased one book. We quickly added another one.

Damien and Dave Navarro [the moderator] got on stage around 7:15. They started talking about the book, only briefly touching on the case and focusing mostly on how Damien coped with being on death row.

The thing he missed the most is the rain. There was a kitten that was kept as a pet and passed around from cell to cell to keep it a secret from the guards. Damien still has no idea how it got inside.

Being locked in solitary on death row for over 10 years, Damien started to lose his eyesight. He had trouble focusing on things further than 4-5 inches in front of him. It also left him sensitive to camera flashes and bright lights in general due to not seeing sunlight.

He had to enter a plea of guilty to be released. After the DNA evidence was released and proven not to match Damien, Jason or Jessie, the state prosecutor said they could drag on the new hearing, leaving the men to stay in jail for 5-10 additional years.

Damien said that it was now up to the three of them to promote the truth, that the state was not going to change the record as Arkansas shows the case as closed. He doesn't like to talk about what happened, but he is aware of his new found celebrity.

The talk ended after about and hour and we were all herded outside, to the courtyard to where the signing table was set up.

They had a handler to hand the book to Damien. When I got up to him, he shook my hand [and every single person who had attended]. I thanked him for spending his time and he thanked me for attending. There wasn't personalization, but he did take pictures.

While Damien Echols is soft spoken, he is extremely  articulate and somehow after surviving the horrible ordeal, remains a truly humble person. His story is amazing and inspiring.

If you're not familiar with the WM3, briefly, they are Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley who in 1993, were arrested and wrongly convicted for the murders of three eight year old boys.

They spent over 18 years in prison before being released in August of 2011.

For detailed information, check out: http://www.wm3.org/

The time we saw people from tv

I'm always hesitant about going to a signing at Book Soup. The first time we went, it was a complete clusterfuck, but the second time was really good. I guess you just don't know wtf is going to happen when it comes to organization and that's what really bugs me.

When I first saw the announcement for Shorty Rossi, I could have sworn the start time was 2pm. When we got to the bookstore, turns out it started at 4. We bought the book and headed out to kill some time by buying lunch.

We ended up eating at Coney Dogs about a block away. Amazing food. And it had the added bonus of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepherd showing up. My husband asked if I wanted a picture [I totally did], but when Kristen came out of the bathroom facing the very small handful of people eating, she gave the stink eye. On my way to the bathroom, I passed Dax. He was nice, smiling and saying hello. Needless to say, we didn't get pictures. My husband spent the rest of the afternoon saying, "XOXO, she's a bitch".  I couldn't stop giggling. 

When we got back to the bookstore, it was just after 3 and there was a small group of people outside. We asked the employees if that was the line. We were told that we could hang out inside since there was no "official" line. And then in true Book Soup fuckery, they came back to everyone after 20 minutes and said they decided that it WAS the line and we needed to go outside.

After about 30 minutes of standing outside, they let us in just after 4pm. We were able to sneak around the entire bookstore and get front row seats on the side of the podium.  Shorty came out with his assistant/friend/driver Steven and his service dog, Hercules.



Shorty immediately went into talking.  We got a condensed version of his entire life, from where his was born, to his teenage years, to his jail time served, to his start in the entertainment industry and the start of his show "Pit Boss".  Of course, he spoke about the rescue work that he's done with pit bulls and the advocacy of the breed.  After seeing a reality show, it's hard to know what is scripted and what is real.  However, Shorty is an excellent storyteller and extremely well spoken.

After speaking for about 30 minutes, Shorty started a Q&A session.  I asked if he ended up adopting Athena, one of the puppies that he rescued on a recent episode of the show.  His answer was to keep watching the show, that he's constantly getting asked for spoilers and he refuses to give them.  Later, someone asked another question regarding his dogs and he almost slipped with how many he had.  He started laughing and looked at me, pointed and said that I almost got my answer.

After taking questions for another 30 minutes, the signing started.  Since we were on the side of the podium, we were some of the first in line.  Shorty was sitting at a table in one of the alcoves in the store.  He even had someone there who was willing to take pictures for you.  My husband and I got a picture with him, then he shook our hands and thanked us for coming. 

After the hearing all about the endless work he does with various rescues, I contacted one to see about setting up some volunteering.  As for Shorty, what you see on tv is definitely what you get.

The time Kurt Loder bowed down to me

Kurt Loder represents pretty much the entire span of my teenage years.  Growing up, Mtv was always on [you know, back when they actually showed videos], so Kurt was my source for any sort of news, music related or otherwise.  I mean, he's the one who told me that Kurt Cobain was dead, so in my opinion, he's golden.  You can imagine my reaction when I saw that he was doing a signing...

We got up to Book Soup and purchased the book.

We were there a bit early because I drove.  I have a tendency to speed a little.  Okay, a lot.  Needless to say, we had some free time before it started.  I chose to spend that time talking [or freaking out] to the woman who worked there about how I just ran a red light,  the camera went off and I just knew it was going to be expensive.  Turns out, LA dismantled all of the red light cameras in September.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed for that to be true because it's a $486 fine. O_o

For this signing, they had chairs set up.  As mentioned before in another post, Book Soup is tiny.  There were about 10 chairs set up in rows of 2.  We took the second row of seats.

Kurt showed up on time.  He turned bright red when he walked to the podium after his introduction.

He briefly spoke about his background and then started talking about movie reviews.  After talking for a few minutes, he asked if anyone had questions.  When no one said anything, he looked to the Book Soup people and asked if the signing was going to start now.  The woman started laughing and shaking her head and then asked the first question.

From there, he really got started.

People asked him about bad movies he keeps watching [9th Gate], movies that he thought were unintentionally funny [someone in the crowd said Twilight, he said he wasn't the target audience for that movie, but "God bless the audience that is"], what his favorite movies are [LOTR, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind] and great, but underrated movies [In Bruges].  He is a huge horror movie fan and doesn't think remakes are necessary. 

When the Q&A was done, he went to the back of the store to start the signing.  I ended up at the front of the line. 

We walked up and he immediately thanked us for buying the book and coming to the event.  After I thanked him for having the event, he asked us if we were from LA [he lives in NY].  I told him we were from San Diego and he said, "You didn't drive all the way up here from San Diego just for this, did you?".  When I said we did, he was briefly stunned into silence before he said, "I bow down to you" and then placed his head on the counter.

My husband and Kurt talked a bit about In Bruges, as it's one of my husband's favorite movies.  He then started to sign the book and stated that his handwriting has gotten worse.

I couldn't be happier with it. 

The time I got all swoony over Butch with a book

Butch Walker has been one of my favorite musicians for years.  I found him on a website [Metal Sludge] that my husband read all the time.  He had done an interview and I liked the answers enough to click on the link for his own website.  One listen to the song "My Way" from his new-at-the-time cd Left of Self Centered and I was hooked. 

Flash forward 9 years and I get an email update that says Butch has written a book and will be doing a few appearances to promote it.  I started watching the Book Soup website to make sure it wasn't going to turn into a ticketed event....

On the day of the signing, we got up to Hollywood with plenty of time to spare.  And when that happens, only one thing can come of it: pizza.  Completely off topic, there is a little hole in the wall pizza place on Sunset that makes some of the best pizza I've ever eaten in my life.  If you ever have the time, make sure you go eat at Frankie & Johnnie's.

Stuffed with pizza and Coke, we made our way over to Book Soup.  I was thrilled to see their marque.

We had bought our books and checked to see if there was a line [there wasn't] before we went to pizza.  By the time we got back, there was about 10 people standing outside of the store.  We got in line and proceeded to wait.  After about 45 minutes, we were told that the signing time was going to be pushed back.  We ended up waiting almost another 45 minutes.

We were eventually led into the store.  There were a good amount of people there and Book Soup is tiny.  It's awesome, but tiny.  The guy who was leading us in told the people who were in the back that they could walk around one section of books to get to the other side of the podium area.  I was fairly irritated because the people who had literally just gotten to the store now had front row access to Butch.

One lady who was standing behind us asked the guy why they were the people who were being moved over there when we were all in line for 90 minutes.  The guy didn't seem to understand why she was complaining.  That, in itself, was very upsetting.  It's understandable that they were trying to accommodate everyone, but it seems like there should have been a more effective way.

Butch finally came out and instead of talking about the book, turns out he had his acoustic guitar and decided to do a little show for us.

He took song requests and played the upbeat ones that were happy to sing along to.  After playing about 5 songs, the Q&A session started.

There were a lot of good questions, but only one really stood out in my mind...

Someone commented on Butch writing a theme song for Coke.  He confirmed that it did, in fact, happen.  He was approached to write a song and accepted the job.  Titled "Open Happiness", Butch was able to get Cee-Lo Green, Brendon Urie [from Panic! At the Disco], Travie McCoy [Gym Class Heroes] and Patrick Stump [Fall Out Boy] to sing it.

When the Q&A was signaled to start, again the end of the line people had the advantage, as they were nearest to the section of the store where Butch would be sitting.  But, I'm not bitter or anything...

Now, we've seen Butch perform countless times.  I've seen him in Hollywood, San Diego and [in one spur of the moment day trip just for him] Vegas.  He's signed several things and we've gotten loads of pictures with him.  I even have a tattoo of something from one of his album covers.  However, nothing seemed to be as exciting to me as seeing him do a book signing. 

[I adore that he plays the guitar right handed, but writes left handed]

Maybe it's just me.... [That's clever because it's one of Butch's song titles], but he seemed a bit nervous.  Like he wasn't sure if the idea of interacting one on one across a desk was a good one. 

When we got up to him, I handed him my book, with it already faced to the title page.  He started to move the jacket flap to go to the very front of the book.  I asked if he could sign the title page.  He started to write on the page opposite of the title page.  I caught him quickly and gestured to the title page, asking if he would sign there.

He admitted that he had no idea what he was doing and signed the page I indicated, after turning his mark on the other page into a heart. He then wondered if he was upsetting people by signing wherever he wanted in the book, but claimed he needed to be able to spread out.  We all sort of giggled over it.

Now, go Google the shit out of Butch Walker and buy everything he's ever recorded. 

You won't be disappointed.