I am going to give you the best Beatles autograph story ever, and one of the worst. First, I’ll start with the best. Years ago, I met a guy at a party at a fancy mansion in L.A. He was one of those old dudes, that had all white hair, in a long ponytail. You know the type. But he was really interesting, and a great storyteller. And he was the kind of storyteller where you believed what he was saying, because the stories weren’t over-the-top. We talked for a…

There’s a popular story where music journalist Jon Landau saw Bruce Springsteen perform before his first album was released and wrote, “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”

I’ve seen the most impressive autograph collector in the world, and...his name is Steven. …

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…

Joe Jackson is amazing. What’s baffling to me is, if you Google his name, he’s third on the list of famous Joe Jackson’s. Now, I have no problem with Shoeless Joe Jackson being ahead of him. That’s a guy that should be in the baseball Hall of Fame, but the “Blacksox Scandal” ruined his career;…

Well, last week was the Bruce Springsteen stuff. I found out I was the only person at the L.A. show that wanted his autograph and didn’t get it. One person had his arm signed. I’m not sure why. Perhaps he’ll get it tattooed. Another kid got lucky. He held up a sign asking for a note from Bruce for his…

If you’ve ever used the expression “it happens in three’s” regarding celebrity deaths -- you’re an idiot. Unless three people died within an hour, it never even makes sense when people say it. And what qualifies as one of the three? George Kennedy might be a household name to us movie lovers, but not…

I’ve never understood the fascination with famous folks cars that go for sale. Sure, the John Lennon, psychedelic 1965 Rolls Royce was sweet. I would buy it if I had the means (I said that in my best Ferris Bueller voice).

Another 1965 car, a blue Bentley, was once owned by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. He mentions the “acid-fueled journeys” in it in his…

Here in my hometown, there’s been a neat little discovery. For a music lover like me, it would be the equivalent of another discovering that nice painting your great grandmother always had hanging in her living room, was actually a Monet.

A music studio in in San Diego, Marc Intravaia’s Sanctuary Art and Music Studio, had a 1962 Gibson J160e guitar. They played it…

It was always fun listening to former prosecutor and bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi on various talk shows. He died at 80, and I couldn’t help think it was after hearing this latest bit of news: there’s an autographed copy of the White Album signed by the Manson family.

For those that don’t know, Bugliosi was the guy that successfully prosecuted Charles…

So, as the week is about to start, thought I’d write about some of the thoughts and stories popping into my brain. It’s almost 1 a.m., so forgive me if it’s not as clever as it seemed late at night, right before bedtime.

Since the guitar George Harrison played (I wrote about it a few weeks ago in a blog) recently went at auction for almost $500,000, I couldn’t help but…

I thought about doing a blog with a bunch of jokes that came to mind. Since the announcement was made about Tom Brady being suspended for four games for deflating footballs against the Colts, I immediately thought about Pete Rose and autographs. There was the time an entrepreneur got Rose to sign a number of baseballs with the inscription “Sorry I bet on baseball.”

The…

Well, Joe Cocker is up where he belongs – at that big rock stage in the sky. I have to admit, I’m only lukewarm on him as a performer, but as a rock star he was always a class act with the fans.

When I was in my early 20’s working at my first radio station, I brought some contest winners backstage to meet him. It was my first time being backstage at a concert, and…

My favorite ‘60s band is The Doors. They’re closely followed by The Beatles. Yet one thing I’ve found when I became a movie critic 25 years ago was…there’s nothing interesting about asking somebody their favorite movie or favorite band. You always hear the same answers. I like to ask people the movie they love that everyone hates. When it comes to music, I like…

You know how each year at the Oscars they show the guys that counted the ballots walking up the red carpet with the suitcases? I seem to recall a time when those suitcases were actually handcuffed to their wrists.

In movies we get the occasional scene with somebody carrying a suitcase that’s cuffed to their person…only to have the bad guy chop off their arm and carry…

There’s a documentary out called The Trials of Muhammad Ali. It wasn’t all that interesting, but as a movie critic, I have to see all the movies. If you’re a fan of Ali, I’d suggest the documentary When We Were Kings.

There was an autograph story that was told in The Trials of Muhammad Ali that I thought I’d share because it was so…

I was reading a newspaper in San Diego and saw the most beautiful picture in the world. No, it wasn’t a sunrise over the beautiful beaches in La Jolla. It wasn’t one of those double rainbows some freak out over. It was the handwritten lyrics to the great Beatles song She Said, She Said from the Revolver album. It included a few lines that didn’t make it into the song, and some words crossed out. All of it in John Lennon’s writing! That song, along with the lyrics to In My…

It’s always a lot of fun to read about the collectables that come up in various auctions. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap our minds around the prices these things sell for. For example, we just came off the topic of the Beatles signed Sgt. Pepper album selling for well over $200,000…and now something sells for $231,000 at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles recently. And what was the item? A phaser gun Captain Kirk used from the second pilot of Star Trek in the ‘60s. They…

So what are the latest cool items popping up in auction? Well, a foot long, nearly 9 inch in diameter egg. Perfect present for Easter, if it weren’t expected to fetch $45,000 at Christie’s auction house in London. You won’t want to color it in pastels either. It’s a massive fossilized egg that was laid on the island of Madagascar by the extinct elephant bird (imagine one of those messing up your windshield).

These birds resembled ostriches and could grow up to 11 feet high,…

I didn't post a picture, because, well...we all know what that beautiful gatefold looks like when it's opened up to show the Fab Four. But wait, it gets better! This signed album has all of The Beatles signing in the yellow section, not over their black hair. That means they're all very legible. They all signed by their respective heads (not that that matters), and best of all...John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the ones sitting closest to the middle section that folds, don't sign over that…

I had a doctor friend in San Diego call me once and say “Dustin Hoffman just showed up. He’s here visiting his brother who is in the hospital. If you want his autograph, hurry up and get here.”

I grabbed my Graduate album soundtrack and headed over. I pulled into the parking lot before I said to myself – what are you doing? This guys brother could be dying, and I’m gonna show up with an album for him to sign? I turned around and left.

Here’s how…