I have always enjoyed celebrity book signings. It is the simpliest and most guaranteed way to obtain an autograph. In the real world of collecting autographs, there isn't often much that is a sure thing, but attending a celeb's book signing is as close as it is ever going to get. In this world we live in of fans wanting autographs, very tough economics, and the cancer of fake signatures over taking collectability, I simply cannot understand why a celebrity will not allow one item of…

I will confine my frustration to just Rock and Roll autographs since that is my area of what I collect. I am so fed up with what seems to be every gallery I walk into, every internet website I visit, and the increasing amount of horror stories regarding the signed garbage that is currently in circulation for sale. From those 9 Led Zeppelin signed LP's I saw last year in Las Vegas to the current conversation on another blog here regarding The Rolling Stones fake autographs and at every corner…

Tom Dreesen is one of the most under-rated comedians of all-time. He and I have stayed in touch after I interviewed him for Autograph Magazine, and I feel blessed to have heard so many great stories from him over the years.…

A pretty funny and interesting documentary out right now. It's about a guy (John Rebney) that made some Winnebago commercials/instructional videos, and the outtakes became a huge internet sensation.

This because he was fond of getting mad and cursing. It was summer, and 100 degrees in Iowa, where the filming took place.

Anyway, at a film festival, he is asked to take pictures and sign autographs. But what is funny is, his best friend is driving him there, since…

In the Sunday morning paper (Parade section), they had an interview with Zac Efron.

Now, these are interviews I usually skip. I don't care about these young actors talking about Twilight or High School Musical, or getting slimed on Nickelodian.

But I got done playing racquetball, and it was the only section of the paper I hadn't read. The story was about his top 15 things to do in the summer.

He

Every time I'm in Las Vegas, I happen to walk by Pete Rose, singing autographs in one of the sports shops in Cesaer's.

There's usually never a crowd (I'm guessing with prices around $50, that's probably why).

Well, he usually also sells his autograph a few doors down from the Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, New York, during the induction weekend. This year, he's been absent.

The store he usually works in have been saying that Rose had "prior…

I did a story for Autograph Magazine years ago about people getting musicians to sign their body and then having those things tattooed on them.

Well, I was reading a Spin Magazine from a few months back, and it had a story on Steve-O, one of the crazy dudes from Jack Ass.

He ended up on Dancing with the Stars, and also in a mental hospital. This after drug addiction and crazy behavior got his friends worried.

Anyway, the story was a good read, but…

You heard about this tragic event involving a firefighter on Tuesday, right?

No, he didn't fall of a burning building.

During an Indians/Rangers baseball game, he tried to snag a foul ball and fell over the upper deck railing, and fell 30 feet onto the seats below him (my first question is...when you're at the railing, aren't you aware of how dangerous that can be?)

He injured four fans below him, and broke his ankle and got a skull fracture, but is…

I'm watching Jimmy Kimmel Live a few nights ago. He's quickly become my favorite late night host. He's got a great interview style, and great wit.

He had Ashley Greene on, who is one of the young starlets from Twilight. Now, when there's a guest like that, I end up reading a newspaper or magazine, while it's on the TV. I figure, they're going to talk about a project that I didn't see or don't want to see, so why not catch up on my reading?

I hear her talk about…

Some interest auction notes recently…

With Michael Jackson dying, the auction that happened before his death, certainly didn’t get the numbers the items did afterwards.

On the anniversary of his death, the crystal studded glove he wore on his Victory Tour in the mid 80s, went for almost…

The other night, David Letterman did a bit before Kevin James (King of Queens) came out. He's done it a few times before, but not recently. He talks to the ghost of Bob Hope. And who ever does the voice of Hope, nails it.

This time, when Hope was signing off, he asked Letterman to get Kevin James to sign his DVD of Paul Blart. I literally laughed so loud, I woke up my girlfriend up.

On TMZ, speaking of Kevin James, they showed all the cast members of Grown Ups…

The last song on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band record was A Day in the Life, written by John Lennon. It's considered by many the best song on the album.

In Rolling Stone Magazines list of 500 Great Songs of All Time, it was #26. And, in terms of handwritten lyrics, it's probably #1.

An American collecto paid $1.2 million for it at the Sotheby's auction. They had estimated it would get between 500,000 and $800,000.

It's on a…

James Copley Library in La Jolla (San Diego) sold a lot of their collection. It was purchased in the 60s and 70s by Copley, who liked museum quality books, letters, and documents. The Union-Tribune showed photos of Mark Twain from the late 1800s that were valued at around 3K, and that didn't impress me much.

The story talked about an early printing of the Declaration of Independence, whi was valued at $600,000. There was a chair Abraham Lincoln sat in when he learned he'd be…

I don't know the actors name, but he's the fat dude who played Hurley on the TV show LOST. He was on Jimmy Kimmel Live (who was a big fan of Lost), and he was shown one of the dolls that was made of him. He talked about how cool it was to have a doll designed after him. They made fun of the stuffing in the stomach to make it appear fat.

He then mentioned how shock rocker Marilyn Manson asked him to autograph one for him. He said, "I didn't know what to write on it. I think I…

I was at a party in Encinitas (15 miles north of San Diego), and I met an entertainment attorney. One of his clients was The Beach Boys. Another was Barbara Streisand. He had some great stories about hanging out with them in the studio and having them call his dad on his birthday, etc.

Well, in the San Diego Union-Tribune today, there was a story about an 8th grader at Notre Dame Academy in Carmel Valley (here in San Diego). This 8th grader is the daughter of Beach Boy Mike…

As part of the promo release for his newest album, "Thank you Mr. Churchill", Peter Frampton appeared at an in store Q&A session, and even played a bit of guitar, at the Hollywood Guitar Center on Wednesday May 26th from 7pm -10pm. It a nutshell, it was a blast!!! As part of the continued "SESSIONS" celebrity serise by The Guitar Center, the crowd of less than 200, including press, squeezed (I mean squeezed) into the area of side room stage, and was treated to a night of pure and very…

This past weekend at ComicCon in Anaheim I was able to mingle and talk with some of the coordinators who represent the artists that appear at such conventions and sign autographs. Inside info, is always a treat to chat about and learn from. The subject of actor James Arness came up. I don't ever remember him appearing at any conventions at least here in the L.A. area that come to mind, but for a few years now he has maintained a reliable web site where he sells REAL personally signed…

A question that is constantly raised and constantly debated, is when all the discussion ends and the dust settles, at the end of the day does any celebrity really ever owe an autograph to those that request it?

We all know the argument, and we all know the value of signed items. We all see the demand and we all see the scams. We all know about Ebay, and so does the celebrity. We all see the increasing number of autograph style conventions, and we all see the amount of…