The only thing I ever knew about Lake Charles, Louisiana...were the lyrics from the great song by The Band, “Up On Cripple Creek.” Now the other thing I know about it, is that the town was ravaged recently by Hurricane Laura. It left 16 dead and many with destroyed homes. …

We’ve all gotten cool stuff in our mail box. But four weeks ago, auctioneer Andy Stowe saw something sticking out of his mailbox at his office in Bristol, England. It was a large envelope with a pair of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous, gold-rimmed, round glasses. There was a note saying they were Gandhi’s, and a gift from the guy’s…

If you want to read my story on him...here it is:

https://fox5sandiego.com/entertainment/at-the-movies-blog/wilfred-brimley-dies-my-favorite-films/

I always crack up when something sells for way more than it should, or if someone asks for more money than something is worth. The current example of this are the lyrics for the Don McLean song “Vincent.” The company Moments in Time is asking $1.5 million for them. Here’s the problem with that asking price. McLean is a one-hit wonder, and these aren’t even the lyrics of that one hit (which would be “American Pie”). The lyrics for The Beatles “Hey Jude” sold…

I’m a big Nirvana fan and I love collectables, so I was very interested to see that the 1959 Martin D-18E guitar he played on the MTV Unplugged show, went up for auction. This Unplugged concert was about half a year before Kurt Cobain killed himself. 

There was a rather lengthy…

Okay, so...maybe that headline of that was a little fib. The card actually sold for $922,500. And of course, we now know that it won’t be long until a card sells for more than the famous Honus Wagner card. It’s amazing to think a card from 2009, which isn’t that long ago, could warrant such a price.

It’s a Mike Trout Red Refractor Autograph, that was graded 9.5 out of 10. The price realized for this rookie card was…

I got a phone call from a friend I’ve been going to movies with for 25 years. I met him when he managed a movie theatre and I was a teenager who had a buddy working for him. We started playing racquetball together and, upon realizing I loved movies, our conversations after games usually revolved around actors and films we liked. I hadn’t heard from him in a month, but he called and said, “An actor we both love died.”…

Who’s that knockin’ on my door?!!!!

I’ve always been a fan of Rod Stewart. Even when he dipped his toe into disco sounding songs in the late ‘70s. He’s also been a good autograph signer, if there aren’t a billion people around.

Here’s a classy move he pulled off recently. A nursing student named Natasha Jenkins was in a coma for 22 days from Covid-19. She did a video on…

Back in the day when you could go into a diner and put a quarter in the jukebox and hear your favorite ‘50s or ‘60s song, and Autograph Magazine was in newsstands...I wrote about the day I met Little Richard. That was probably 15 years ago, so I’ll write a much shorter version of that story, since I woke up to find he has…

I wrote the story before about how he wouldn't sign autographs for people that had to sit through his horrible "Citizen Twain" play/movie, even though they paid $100 for the "meet-and-greet" (and they couldn't talk to him, as the surgery rendered him without a voice).

He would sell you a signed picture for $75, he just wouldn't sign your items. Well,…

More than five years ago, I wrote a story here about quarterback Johnny Manziel (remember him?) being paid to do an autograph signing. We know athletes do them, but he was a collegiate athlete at the time and the NCAA got involved, and it got ugly. Well, today it was announced that college athletes can earn money from the use…

We all know Tom Hanks’ body of work. He’s done a lot of great movies (and I even remember him in an episode of “Happy Days”, fighting the Fonz; and on “Taxi”, getting stoned with Christopher Lloyd and staring at a lava lamp).

I knew of his love of typewriters because he was in the…

I think Willie Nelson is a great songwriter, but I can’t deal with his voice. 

I met him a few times. One time before a concert in El Cajon, and there was a crowd of about 50 people. He stopped to sign autographs for all of us, even though his manager kept saying they were running…

I’ve done stories before about the lame “meet-and-greet” prices musicians charged to meet with fans before or after concerts. Most of that stemmed from the fact that they would be expensive, and sometimes you weren’t allowed to get an autograph or a photo with the artist.

This one takes the cake, though. With all the Covid-19 and other charities celebs have been working with lately, many of them are offering up…

Perhaps you think it’s a bit harsh of me to state that Spike Lee is an idiot. But it’s a two-part thing. The first is that I wanted to continue in my series of idiots (Tori Spelling being the first). Sure, Lee has a bit more talent than Spelling, but he’s just as big (although shorter), if not bigger, an…

My wife gets on me so much for calling people "idiots." So, I'm going to make sure she doesn't see this blog post.

The first time I "met" Spelling, as at a show in Los Angeles. I was with Steve Cyrkin, who had a booth set up at an autograph show. He was trying to drum up some subscriptions to Autograph magazine, and I happened to be in town because I…

"Sweet songs never last long on a broken radio."

For me, Prine was in the category I have Bob Dylan in. Both are amazing songwriters, which voices that weren't my favorite. Yet they both have such strong lyrics, you can overlook the raspy vocals.

I was saddened to hear that Prine, at 73, passed away from complications due to the…

I figured during this pandemic, I wouldn't be getting any autographs. But I got one I totally wasn't expecting.

A guy that I played racquetball with for 20 years, used to manage a movie theatre. He has a lot of interesting items from his days running it. One of them was an original Star Wars movie poster, when the film had a different title (I forgot…

I’m not sure how auctions are going to be hurt by all this coronavirus stuff. I was thinking they might see a spike, while everyone is stuck at home, trying to find things to do. Nothing like bidding on autographed items while stuck at home, right?

Basketball legend, and controversial commentator, Charles Barkley is selling lots of memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career. Now usually when people do this, it’s…