Sincerely, John Hughes: Have you ever written as a fan and gotten a response?
 

This is a great read. I suggest clicking the link and reading the blog entry.

Have you ever sent a letter or spoke to an author, artist, musician, politician and gotten a personal response?

For me, it was bumping into Micky Dolenz in the cafeteria at work. I didn't realize who it was when I was helping him figure out how to put money on the cafeteria debit card. When mine didn't work, he offered to buy me lunch. It was then that I realized who I was talking to. I let him know how he helped me out as a kid. From then on when I saw him in the lobby we'd wave or quickly chat. It was neat.

I once ran into Kevin Nealon in a Cincinatti bar. This was after SNL, before Weeds. He was just standing there, against the pillar, with a group of people around him, and being the 23 year olds we were, me and my friends figured it was a good idea to say hi. So we did: we walked up, said hi, we enjoy your work, shook his hand, and he obliged... just barely.

That's about the most personal attention I've gotten from a celebrity of any sort :p

I end up hanging out with bands quite often, actually. I suppose this is something more easily done in the punk scene, though.

Just last week, Total Chaos crashed in my front room...

Well which is it? Mass media mind control, or celebrities are people too!?!

I really liked that blog entry.

When I was in sixth grade, I wrote my favorite author of the time, Katherine Paterson, famous for such books as Bridge to Teribithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and my favorite, Lyddie. I let her know how much I had enjoyed her books, and asked her about the research she had done to write Lyddie. She sent me back a handwritten postcard with suggestions for additional reading on New England textile factory workers. My mom recently found it tucked in with a bunch of family pictures. I'm pleased to have it back.

In high school in the mid-80s, I became a big fan of the group Big Daddy, which was one of the first mashup groups. They pretended to be a 50's doo-wop group, and said that they had written the original versions of the songs that were current hits in the 80s. They got radio play with a combination of Sussudio and Runaround Sue.

I was singing in my high school a cappella group at the time, and there was a great cover of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" on their album. So, I wrote to them, said how much I liked their music, and that I wanted to get the sheet music for their arrangement.

I got back (1) a signed group photo, (2) a two-page handwritten letter, and (3) a cassette tape. The cassette tape started off "Hi (my name), this is Dave. Sorry about the quality of the tape, but it's all I had handy. OK, here's the bass part...", then he put each individual track down on the tape. I've lost the letter and photo, which pisses me off, but I still have the tape.

Moral: become fans of little groups. They really appreciate being noticed.

I met Maddox at a book signing...I think I've posted this before.

http://jzxproject.com/other/maddox_tempe/img_1297.jpg

The only letter I wrote was to Joe Bob Briggs when he was hosting The Drive-in Theater on the movie channel in the early-mid 90s. I can't remember what I wrote, but I do remember the letter I got back wasn't a completely generic auto-response. I'm still a fan of him and B-movies in general.

I write a email to Leo Laporte when he was hosting the Screensavers that he quickly read and responded to at the end of the show one night, if that counts. :)

I used to know Sir Mix-A-Lot growing up. I grew up in Port Orchard Washington, and he used to hang out on the strip in Bremerton Wa. about once a month (listen to the song Bremelo) He knew my name, but that was about the jist of it, he didnt associate with me, and he wasnt big yet back then. I knew Alice In Chains when they were performing at bowling alleys and skating rinks. Met them when they did a gig at my skating rink. I thought they sucked at the time, was shocked when years later I saw thier album went platinum.

My big letter thing is actually not mine, but my sisters. When she was in 7th grade, they were studying genealogy, and my sister did some research and found out we were related in some way to the queen of england. She wrote a letter to the queen, figuring nothing would come of it, but about 3 months later, we recieved a package from buckingham palace. In that package was an official genealogical family tree, showing the direct bloodline to the queen. We are 16th cousins twice removed, which doesnt really mean jack, a lot of people would have to die, tens of thousands in fact, before we came anywhere near being considered royalty or anything. My sister also got a handwritten note from Queen Elizabeth herself. Apparently, some bureaucrat got the letter and found it interesting enough to have the crown research it and trace our lineage, then they showed the letter to the queen and she found it interesting enough to include that note. My sister has it laminated and framed somewhere.

I got to eat lunch with Corey Haim while I was an extra on the movie Silver Bullet. I said "Wassup" to him, and he said "Hi". Yeah, now you are all jealous.

I have never even considered writing a fan letter to anyone.