Back

i honestly don't know where to begin.


for the past four days - give or take 12 hours - i was running around the dismal city of houston having the time of my life, despite the lack of a single minute of real, catch-your-breath downtime. things were so hectic, but ultimately so satisfying, that by the time i was officially off the clock, after an unbelievably frantic final hour of work, all i could do was sit in my fairly-decent seat at the toyota center during the first quarter of sunday's nba allstar game with a huge shit-eating grin on my face while my hands were shaking in my sweatshirt pockets.

i am still so tired that i feel like anything i write here is still going to kind of miss the mark in terms of capturing what went on. i'm also a little worried that this is just going to sound like one starfucker's journey into the heart of darkness or, even worse, a laundry list of the folks i dealt with over my time on the job. that said, let me warn you right now. cover your feet. because i'm about to do some major league name dropping.

i'll spare you the blow by blow rundown of everything we had to cover - but i do have a couple of moments that i happen to think were either cool, odd or a little bit of both.

like shaquille o'neal complimenting me on my name.


on saturday, i produced a shoot in which shaq and his very lovely wife shaunie interviewed each other. they were playful, candid and i couldn't have asked for it to go any better than it did. when it was over, shaq hung around for almost 25 more minutes than he needed to - i imagine to decompress and stay away from the thousands of people who seem to follow him wherever he went. we got to chatting about what he and shaunie had just done when he noticed my name on my nba credential. "that's your name, huh?" he said, repeating it back to me. "that's a strong name."

(and no, i didn't tell him about the last time he and i spent a few intimate moments together.)

i was also fortunate enough to bear witness to one of the weekend's more unique moments - which occurred when desperate housewife eva longoria met desperate former president george herbert walker bush courtside on sunday night.


and that happened only moments after the former prez walked onto the court following his phalanx of secret service agents and for some reason made a bee line directly to yours truly. seriously, he steps out from the bowels of the toyota center and before he does anything else, or greets anyone else, for whatever reason, he stops, sees me standing to his right, looks me dead in the eye, extends his hand and says hello.


despite what i think about his politics or the politics of his son, for little jaded old me, it was still a cool moment. you don't really get to meet former presidents everyday, no matter what you do for a living. and the fact that we actually had something to chat about for more than just a blink- the fact that his nephew and i are close friends - felt kind of good.

the rest of the moments i thought were kind of cool may not appear to be much compared to the stories above, but when you spend so much time over so many days dealing with so many boldface names, you kind of find a little more in the subtler things. i mean, at least i do.

like the look on my buddy peter's face when he found himself working alongside new york knick legend john starks at an nba sanctioned habitat for humanity event.

or the look on harold ramis' face at the same event when he realized that he didn't really know the first thing about working with a hammer.

(give the man credit for trying. and for 'groundhog day'.)

or when i saw ice cube turn from ubercool movie mogul/rap star into concerned father backstage before the celebrity game on friday night. little cube and mama cube were standing to my immediate left in the gangway that lead out onto the court. at the time, there were like 40 people smooshed into a space that should have held half as many. the music was deafening, there were people yelling, fans leaning over the railing shouting, camera crews jockeying for position...and there amid the maelstrom, little cube - who can't be more than 5 - was getting overwhelmed. the tears came, followed by the screaming, followed by the burying his head into his mom's leg in terror. when the crying began, cube was probably about 25 yards away, separated from his son by a couple of dozen people and nelly's jewelry - but as soon as he heard the unmistakable noise of his kid crying above all the noise, he got a really serious look on his face and barrelled his way through the throng to comfort his son. it was really nice to see.

i've got a few more things to share - but i am way too tired to do it tonight. more tomorrow.