About 30 years ago, San Diego had its first “Street Scene” which were these cool festivals they had going for about 25 years. They ended up getting a lot more contemporary bands (ie hip-hop and alternative), but the first one had a lot of groups I loved. And I was determined to get some autographs. Robby Kreiger of The Doors, was playing with keyboardist Brian Auger. I had…

In Poway, one of the surrounding counties of San Diego, a statue was unveiled of Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. It was a wonderful event, and the papers here covered it heavily. One of the things his son, former player Tony Gwynn, Jr. said, was how great it was to have his dad watching and filming his basketball games. I remember a few years when I coached youth basketball, and our team played against his. Another Padres player -- Gary Templeton -- also had a son on the…

I have a lot of autograph dreams. Over the years, I'd say I've had about 25 (that I can remember). Now, I'm not talking about an upcoming person I'm going to get. I've had so many times where I was going to interview somebody famous, or meet them at the venue...I didn't have a dream about that. I'm not sure why, but I only have dreams about getting autographs from dead celebrities. It's friggin' baffling to me. Not sure what Freud would say about that.

Last night, I had a dream that I…

I worked at a publication for years with a music writer/photographer that was always a blast to share stories with. He met a number of rock stars (mostly in the punk scene), and had some great photos and autographs. The best autograph in his collection came as a fluke. He was working a part-time job as a librarian and they were doing one of their book sales. We’ve all seen…

Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist of The Doors died the other day. As journalists that thought they were clever wrote, he “broke on through to the other side.”

Since they’ve always been my favorite band, I thought I’d do a story for Autograph relating to all my meetings with the various band members.

I had been a Doors fan from an early age. When I was…