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Friday, May 17, 2013

Bus Route Groupies: All the Kids are Doing It


It is an inexplicably light bus day, one of those days where you look around, note that more than half of the usual commuters are missing and frown slightly.

Perhaps today is really Saturday? Where are all the people?

But more importantly, why is Rob Halford in town; and why hasn’t he called me?

Because there he is, right up there at the next stop.

As has previously been reported, I used to be something of a metal head; and so you can (mostly) believe me when I tell you that no one was more surprised than I when Rob Halford got on the bus this morning.

What do you mean, who’s Rob Halford? Just the lead singer for Judas Priest and the screaming-ist, hardest rocking leather boy to come out of the 70s and 80s, that’s who!

So you can imagine my confusion when he boarded the 17C.

Yikes, poor Bus Rob’s looking rough though.  From its warm, dry interior, I watch as we pull up to the stop just before the river, watch him hot-box a cigarette as the bus slows, field-strip it and then tuck its tattered, stinking remnants behind his ear before boarding.

He’s not the first celebrity to be sighted on the bus, by the way. We also have someone who could pass for Bruce Springsteen and a woman who looks distressingly like former Vice President Dick Cheney, minus the good looks.

I write it down, right then and there, this near-brush with near-stardom – “Rob Halford is on the bus!” – in the little book I carry with me. I can now add this to a long line of hoi-polloi credentials that include the fact that I know a guy that bought the legendarily warted singer for Motorhead Lemy Kilmeister a beer, that I used to know the niece of the keyboard player for Chaka Khan, and a friend of a friend once relieved herself on Prince’s lawn.

You heard it here first, people:

I rub elbows with people who rub elbows with the stars.

29 comments:

Shelly said...

We never know who we are going to run into. I once bumped into (quite literally) Yvonne De Carlo in the produce section of our local supermarket. (She was there to appear in a play).

I took a deep breath and willed myself not to act star struck. When she apologized for bumping into me, I assured here there was no need to apologize, and, "I am so happy to meet you, Mrs. MUNSTER."

Idiot, thy name is Shelly.

Anonymous said...

The city bus...a portal into 'The Twilight Zone'.

Unknown said...

Ah, glimpses of celebrity....so inspiring!

Dawn@Lighten Up! said...

Fancy! Look at you, brushing bus elbows with the bus stars
Then again, I see Ted Nugent all the time in Columbus. Well, it's Ted, a hipster or a homeless guy. Hard to tell.

Pearl said...

Shelly, that is fabulous. :-) I probably would've called her "Mrs. Moses". :-)

Delores, oh, it is!

Eva, go forth, carry it into your day. :-)

Dawn, bus elbows with bus stars. :-) Why I oughta...

Watson said...

Pearl, you "name dropper" you! Well, I once pee-d on the same fire hydrant as the 35th litter mate of Rin Tin Tin.

joeh said...

I once gave directions to Helen Gurley Brown!

So I am not easily awed by other's celebrity encounters.

Leenie said...

There are millions of stories in the City of Lakes and Blizzards. This has been one of them.

Hilary said...

My elbow is starstruck! You'd enjoy chatting with my son. He has set up (audio and lighting) for many a band of all genres and has had drinks with several metal band members.. his good friend is the nephew of two now ex-members of Megadeth. He'd be happy to rub elbows with you, I'm sure.

sage said...

Maybe it was Dick, in drag. Was he toting a shotgun loaded with bird shot?

Pearl said...

Daisy, well it doesn't get any better than that! No one I've peed with is famous. :-)

joeh, ya just can't go anywhere after that, can ya? :-)

Leenie, nice. :)

Hilary, what a fantastic job. Would love to hear his stories!

sage, very funny! No, no guns on the bus. We only allow shovels. And baby strollers the size of Dobermans. And laundry and lunches and half-dressed teenagers. :-)

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
I will eventually be revealing some of mine... Meanwhile, am revelling in yours!!!

Keep nursing those wrists. Don't get to busy to fast. Hugs, YAM xx

jenny_o said...

The older I get, the more I notice that new acquaintances resemble someone I already know. I wonder if it's a sorting thing in the brain, or if there are only so many 'styles' of faces in the universe.

'Dick Cheney, minus the good looks' - hilarious!

Sioux Roslawski said...

What are you doing when you "hotbox" a cigarette?
Ignorant minds want to know...

Geo. said...

Here in California regular people are shy of buses because celebrities grab and autograph us.

ellen abbott said...

that's almost as good as the time I almost met Mick Jagger. Shared a plane with them for four hours and didn't even know it til I got off and saw all the screaming fans. For moi!? Alas, no, for the band who was riding in first class with the curtain closed the whole time and were allowed to deplane before they even opened the stupid curtain.

Kana said...

I would love to see a literal transcript of your notebook. Sans context, entirely un-fleshed-out: th enon sequitir secret pearls of Pearl.

Jono said...

Once rode in the same plane as Tiny Tim from Minneapolis to Philadelphia. It wasn't my idea.

Charlotte Ann said...

My girl friend's husband is the bass player for Sonny Landreth..they just played Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Madison Square Garden..he got to hang with Jeff Beck...did a gig with BB King....and all the other big players there...I was amazed..he just wanted to come home and be with his wife! lol...

Elephant's Child said...

I am honoured to rub elbows (in a cyber sort of way) with you.

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

I never run into anyone interesting at the bus stop..........not that I catch the bus very often.......

Tempo said...

Thats the secret for a good life after all...knowing the Right people.
..as for me..I know PEARL thats who.

Rose L said...

Unfortunately I do not know who Rob is. But I once had a close encounter with Davy Jones of the Monkees singing group. He kissed me and asked me for my number. *swoon*
I also got about 28 ft from Bruce Willis while he was filming the movie Bandits here in Oregon City *double swoon and pant*

Linda O'Connell said...

Ted Nugent did a rock concert on
the parking lot of a motorcycle dealership, across the street from my late mom's senior apartment complex. Some of the hard of hearing old folks thought their hearing loss had been cured.

River said...

Our buses don't get that exciting. supermarkets, though, we get minor celebrities in there. A well known radio personality shops at the one I work in and at a different branch I served sliced deli meats to a TV weather girl known for her collection of huge glitzy earrings.

chlost said...

Pearl, if I ran into you on a bus, it would feel like a celebrity encounter.
Many in my family have rubbed elbows with the "famous". My elbows stick close to my body. They could put an eye out....

Ian Lidster said...

I think the person who relieved herself on Prince's lawn is deservig of an award of some sort.
Otherwise, you really must do your Bus Book. And if you do, I want one. Did you ever see Mason Williams' Bus Album? After you'd extracted the record inside was a poster of a fullsize Greyhound Bus.

Belle said...

Okay, I have to brag. My daughter danced with a drunk Jon Stewart in Vancouver. My husband had drinks with Jon Bon Jovi. Rob Lowe smiled at me at the food fair in the San Francisco airport. My daughter and I waved to Sly Stallone while he was being interviewed. I'm sure he was thrilled. Okay. BUT, I've never, ever ridden on a bus with a rock star. That is very cool.

HermanTurnip said...

The last time Karin and I went to Maui, we could of sworn we saw Dog the Bounty Hunter zip past us in the opposite late on a Harley. I admit to getting more excited about this brush with fame that I should have.