There was an one evening where Steven Van Zandt had an event. Plus Metallica was in town. But didn't think Van Zandt was worth effort and of the current members of Metallica I only needed James Hetfield who is basically in the Ringo Starr realm as far as combos go.
But two days prior I managed to get flights for Lars, Kirk, and James. As it turned out all three were set to go into different airports and all three were coming in around the same time. Essentially, it was impossible to do them all. You had to pick one (as I found out later Robert came in at a different time in the same place as Kirk did, but most people don't factor Robert in all of this). You have to believe they explicitly set up the flights like that to hinder combo hunters.
So out of the three, I needed James. I consulted a Master on how I can best approach this, he advised to make it look random. So I decided to try the Frank Oz route (sans items to get signed of course). The evening before I planned out my quest. Woke up the next morning ready to attempt what was most likely a fool's endeavor. But the James airport was unfortunately the one furthest from me of the three. So before going I had the good sense to double check the reservation to make sure it's still valid. Turns out he is not supposed to fly there anymore! He now has two different flights into the same airport as Lars (the one closest to me). One flight came in shortly after Lars, and one came in 5-6 hours later.
Now the landscape changed. I trashed the paperwork that was needed for my original plan and made some new plans. The good: now I can virgilize Lars Ulrich and Judy Collins (she happened to be coming in on the exact same flight as Lars) plus this is the airport closest to me. The bad: There were two James flights so who knows if he could come on the first or the second. I potentially had a 5-6 hour wait.
So I go there and run into both markedout's adelta plus one other guy. They were essentially playing minion to a Master who decided to try for Kirk at the other airport. So the Masters would get Kirk while they were sent to get them Lars.
As we go into prime position for Lars (which would also be the perfect place to wait for James) I find out that now James is scheduled to come in at the later flight PUNCH! So now my efforts here are for nothing. But I was here already so I had to make the best out of it.
We see Lars and he says he'll do it but gets us out of position for James. While waiting for Lars I get Judy Collins to sign two 8x10s and she says "who is that woman it's not me". I had no reason for another photo op as she had hat and shades. Lars signals for us to follow him and he is a machine signing and taking pictures. Since he had a cap on and some facial hair, I had no reason to get that downgrade shot. Instead I got him to sign my Metallica CDs one of which was signed by Kirk. I would have gotten better stuff to get signed but going for Lars was a spur of the moment kind of thing so I just went with items I already had in stock.
Since Lars got us out of position, adelta in his infinite wisdom wants to try and make Kirk (then go to Van Zandt event and come back for James). But as I explained to him I've done that drive 1000 times and there was no way we'd make Kirk in time. He was still determined we could. I drive them and sure enough I was right as we missed Kirk by 10 minutes. Apparently he begrudgingly did one per and had shades on plus his hair tied back. So the photo op would have been a downgrade for me.
adelta gets word that Robert was about to land so now he his hyperventilating as he didn't want to miss Robert. Since I have a Robert shot that's not even worth paying for parking to get. So I drop both at the airport as I head to the Steven Van Zandt event to get parking. Since I was out anyway may as well do the event.
We all wait. And to all our shock David Duchovny is nice as can be doing autographs and photo ops with all who asked. I already had a photo op from NYCC which I split with the infamous Josh Greenberg a few years ago. So I had no reason to get a shades downgrade. Therefore I concentrated on autographs, of which I got two! Wow those are like $90 convention values each! How awesome! One of them has Gillian on the cover so that will probably forever remain incomplete as I won't be paying to get it signed and she isn't easy on the street.
Judy Collins came but had hat and shades so no need for the photo op. I got records signed.
Taj Mahal (blues singer) was a dick and did nothing for no one.
Got photo ops with Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Shawn Colvin who sings Sunny Came Home (she removed her shades for us), and Esperanza Spalding.
Now the main reason I'm here is Van Zandt. But we also had to leave to make the James flight. What to do? Do we wait to get him then rush over? Do we bail now and then return for exits? I had actually hoped not to be there for exits. Dammit where the hell is Steven!
Before going through all the motions on James, I remembered how the reservation changed twice in one day, so I had the good sense to check if the reservation was still valid. As it turned out, the reservation was now completely invalid! Wow! That made my decision. Again, they probably purposely did all that to mess with graphers (and it worked as we never found out how James got in).
I stayed and minutes later Van Zandt comes and does it for everyone who asked. I had nothing to get signed as this event wasn't in my original plans, but I got a photo op.
After this success, me, the grapher who I helped get Olivia Newton John, and one other grapher went for dinner. The one I helped bought me a $10 Turkey Sandwich as a "thank you for saving me from PA" gesture. After the shooting the breeze and eating I happily head out as others wait for exits. Turns out David came over again and I could have had some get if there names like Ben Carson. But honestly going home early was better.
Steven Van Zandt
Full list of photo ops that day
Lars Ulrich and David Duchovny autographs
Judy Collins autographs
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