Author: Joey deVilla

Categories
Music

Brief Encounter with a Rock Star

Joey throws the horns with his accordion at Queen's Park, May 1999.
Throwing the horns at Queen’s Park, May 1999, on the first day I took the accordion out on the street.

While waiting to pick up my sister and her family at Pearson’s Terminal 1 last night (and oh yes, is Terminal 1 so much nicer than the skank-o-riffic Terminal 2), I noticed a young woman holding up a sign right by the doors leading to the baggage claim area. This wasn’t noticeable in itself. There are always a half-dozen or so folks with signs like that; some with names of people, others with names of tour groups.

What made this woman’s sign unusual was the name on it: Paul Stanley.

The KISS guitarist? I thought. Of course that would be the first thing that came to my mind. I’m a former solider in the KISS Army (I filled out a form at the age of 10 and got a small kit including some stickers and buttons plus an announcement of their upcoming movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.)

Ten minutes later, Paul Stanley emerged from baggage claim. He was actually looking good — pretty healthy, wearing a black blazer, black shirt, black scarf, jeans and dress shoes. He looked more like an architect (of either buildings or software) or ad exec than a rock star, and nobody seemd to know who he was.

Naturally, I “threw the horns” at him with a silent nod and a smile, and got a nod and smile back. Then, the young woman walked off with him, presumably to a waiting limo.

Welcome back to Accordion City, Paul.

Related Reading

Accordion vs. Rock Star An entry in which I encounter various rock stars, armed with my accordion. Hilarity ensues.

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods

Make Your Tips Stand Out with Origami Cash!

I’m going to have to learn how to leave tips that scream “Accordion Guy appreciates your service!”, like the one in the video below:

Other interesting cash origami can be found at this article on the Personal Finance Advice blog.

Categories
funny

A Photo Chock-Full of Unintentional Symbolism

George W. Bush leaves Porker's barbecue, whose slogan is 'We Don't Squeal'.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Categories
It Happened to Me

The Best Line Uttered at My Cousin Rafy’s Wedding…

…was uttered by Rafy himself, at his speech:

Tonight is the greatest night of my life…because I’m gonna get laid.

Congrats, Rafy and Bernadeth!

Categories
Uncategorized

The Meaning of Life, in a Place You’d Never Expect

'The Meaning of Life' Monty Python graphic.

[via Kottke] Do you sit up late at night wondering what the meaning of life is? You’re in luck: there’s a Wikipedia entry.

Geeks Make Good Lovers / Awkward Things I Say to Girls

Joey and Wendy

Over at a blog named Awkward Things I Say to Girls, there’s an entry titled Why Geeks Make Good Lovers. The reasons provided by the author:

  • Geeks don’t sleep around.
  • Geeks are good at the things they try.
  • Geeks are not interested in status.
  • Geeks haven’t formed bad habits.
  • Geeks can concentrate.
  • Geeks have excellent finger dexterity.
  • Geeks have imagination.

I’ll take issue with a couple of items in the list (for example, geeks do have bad habits. They’re just different from those that the popular kids have), but it’s an interesting article nonetheless. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Better still, go check out the rest of the blog, which the author describes as:

About the Blog

When the shattered remains of a once-promising conversation with the most recent cutest girl I’ve ever seen are strewn disasterously [sic] about the floor, I pick them up, scotch-tape them together the best that I can, and post them on this blog for your enjoyment.

Categories
Uncategorized

rubynerd[:blog]

I’ve decided to take a more active role in the Ruby and Ruby on Rails development communities. The first step in that role is starting a Ruby-specific blog at blog.rubynerd.com:

rubynerd[:blog] logo.

The blog will cover news and announcements related to the Ruby programming language, as well as my own contributions to the body of documentation about it.

As for articles, I’ve already posted three: