my sister can now die happy
The place: UCLARadio.com's Ackerman Grand Ballroom studio.
The time: Roughly 2 PM to roughly 4 PM, this past Wednesday afternoon.
The occasion: Finally meeting Chris Jay and the truncated Army of Freshmen
Luckily I had a magazine, cos I felt totally out of place sitting in the studio, listening to these girls' show, waiting to introduce myself to a guy I had never met but felt like I knew fairly well. You following so far? Didn't start off so well, cos the three AOF dudes showed up helllla pissed cos it had apparently taken them 10 hours to get from Ventura (their home base) to LA (home of UCLA). When I say 10 hours, I might be exaggerating a bit. The point is, they were pissed and that threw me off. So, I sidled up to my recently-purchased Esquire magazine and waited for the moment to come. Bout halfway through the show, on break number 4 I believe, one Chris Jay sauntered leisurely out of the second studio booth and began intently examining UCLARadio.com's extensive music collection. Pause. Breath.
"Um, Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Hi, I'm...Elissa's brother."
This is the first time I have introduced myself to anyone in such a manner. "I am Elissa's brother, son of Francois, nephew of Pierre, the Comte de Saint-Germain..." Right. Luckily, Mr Jay lived up to his one-of-the-nicest-guys-like-ever reputation that had been previously provided to me by my sister. Elissa. I would categorize his reaction somewhere along the lines of:
1) Mouth agape
2) Eyes wide
3) "Whoooa! That's crazy!"
I provided the salient details...my name, what the hell I was doing in the studio reading Esquire on a Wednesday afternoon when, duh, my show is on Mondays 4-6 PM and Wednesday mornings 10-Noon (tune in to The Sports Nuts with Brandon Fletcher and Mikael Perreau on www.uclaradio.com ! ), and - in complete alignment with Mr Jay's agape mouth and wide eyes - how "crazy" it indeed was that we were meeting at this very time in this very place. He was excited, I was excited. AOF bandmate (later confirmed to be Dan) came out of the aforementioned second booth to Mr Jay's "Dan, this is Elissa's brother...Elissa, from Petaluma!" Again, precedent was set as Mr Jay actually used Petaluma as a tool to help Dan remember someone.
Jelly Bean gets mentioned here, as I hastily added, "She (my sister)'s usually hanging around Genevieve..." It was weird to say her real name. So, to recap, Mr Chris Jay and Dan now knew who I was, how I was related to Elissa, how Elissa and Genevieve were related, and that we were all in fact from Petaluma.
Warning, you're probably gonna hear my sister hyperventilating during this part. Even though I already knew (or could vividly picture) everything he was telling me, Mr Jay summed up my sister pretty well by saying, quite earnestly, "Man, she's great. She's always got this smile on her face, and she's always so excited about everything." Being careful not to overstep my embarass-me-and-you're-dead guidelines so carefully laid out for me by my sister, I responded by saying that she "loves you guys" and is always excited to see them. Complete absence of any frightening, stalkery details. Go me.
Continuing with the Chris-as-nicest-guy-ever theme, Mr Jay immediately proceded to ask me about my show (blush), what it was about, and did we "talk about boxing at all?". Again, The Sports Nuts, sports talk, and I'm not sure we've ever discussed boxing in any form. Not to be deterred by the dearth of discussion of pugilism on my show, Mr Jay made clear how "cool" it was to have a show at all, and that he would "totally check it out". I know you guys read for these details; that's why I put them in. Thus endeth the interesting, quote-heavy portion of the first time I ever met Chris Jay and the Army of Freshmen.
Addendum #1:
Chris Jay, to show hosts, following our initial meeting, "Hey, we know that guy's sister!"
Addendum #2:
Unbeknowest to me until later, Mr Jay was so inspired by our first meeting that he proceded to use valuable air time to discuss it, referring to me quite colloquially as "the sports DJ". We are sooo BFF now.
Addendum #3:
Chris, to me, upon re-learning my name, "Man, what IS it with your parents and the names?! I always confuse Elissa cos her name is spelled so differently!"
Addendum #4:
Chris, to me, in parting, "Hey man, you have to come check out our show sometime! It was great meeting you, tell Elissa we say hi!"
I will, and I did. Nice to meet you, Chris Jay and the Army of Freshmen.
The time: Roughly 2 PM to roughly 4 PM, this past Wednesday afternoon.
The occasion: Finally meeting Chris Jay and the truncated Army of Freshmen
Luckily I had a magazine, cos I felt totally out of place sitting in the studio, listening to these girls' show, waiting to introduce myself to a guy I had never met but felt like I knew fairly well. You following so far? Didn't start off so well, cos the three AOF dudes showed up helllla pissed cos it had apparently taken them 10 hours to get from Ventura (their home base) to LA (home of UCLA). When I say 10 hours, I might be exaggerating a bit. The point is, they were pissed and that threw me off. So, I sidled up to my recently-purchased Esquire magazine and waited for the moment to come. Bout halfway through the show, on break number 4 I believe, one Chris Jay sauntered leisurely out of the second studio booth and began intently examining UCLARadio.com's extensive music collection. Pause. Breath.
"Um, Chris?"
"Yeah?"
"Hi, I'm...Elissa's brother."
This is the first time I have introduced myself to anyone in such a manner. "I am Elissa's brother, son of Francois, nephew of Pierre, the Comte de Saint-Germain..." Right. Luckily, Mr Jay lived up to his one-of-the-nicest-guys-like-ever reputation that had been previously provided to me by my sister. Elissa. I would categorize his reaction somewhere along the lines of:
1) Mouth agape
2) Eyes wide
3) "Whoooa! That's crazy!"
I provided the salient details...my name, what the hell I was doing in the studio reading Esquire on a Wednesday afternoon when, duh, my show is on Mondays 4-6 PM and Wednesday mornings 10-Noon (tune in to The Sports Nuts with Brandon Fletcher and Mikael Perreau on www.uclaradio.com ! ), and - in complete alignment with Mr Jay's agape mouth and wide eyes - how "crazy" it indeed was that we were meeting at this very time in this very place. He was excited, I was excited. AOF bandmate (later confirmed to be Dan) came out of the aforementioned second booth to Mr Jay's "Dan, this is Elissa's brother...Elissa, from Petaluma!" Again, precedent was set as Mr Jay actually used Petaluma as a tool to help Dan remember someone.
Jelly Bean gets mentioned here, as I hastily added, "She (my sister)'s usually hanging around Genevieve..." It was weird to say her real name. So, to recap, Mr Chris Jay and Dan now knew who I was, how I was related to Elissa, how Elissa and Genevieve were related, and that we were all in fact from Petaluma.
Warning, you're probably gonna hear my sister hyperventilating during this part. Even though I already knew (or could vividly picture) everything he was telling me, Mr Jay summed up my sister pretty well by saying, quite earnestly, "Man, she's great. She's always got this smile on her face, and she's always so excited about everything." Being careful not to overstep my embarass-me-and-you're-dead guidelines so carefully laid out for me by my sister, I responded by saying that she "loves you guys" and is always excited to see them. Complete absence of any frightening, stalkery details. Go me.
Continuing with the Chris-as-nicest-guy-ever theme, Mr Jay immediately proceded to ask me about my show (blush), what it was about, and did we "talk about boxing at all?". Again, The Sports Nuts, sports talk, and I'm not sure we've ever discussed boxing in any form. Not to be deterred by the dearth of discussion of pugilism on my show, Mr Jay made clear how "cool" it was to have a show at all, and that he would "totally check it out". I know you guys read for these details; that's why I put them in. Thus endeth the interesting, quote-heavy portion of the first time I ever met Chris Jay and the Army of Freshmen.
Addendum #1:
Chris Jay, to show hosts, following our initial meeting, "Hey, we know that guy's sister!"
Addendum #2:
Unbeknowest to me until later, Mr Jay was so inspired by our first meeting that he proceded to use valuable air time to discuss it, referring to me quite colloquially as "the sports DJ". We are sooo BFF now.
Addendum #3:
Chris, to me, upon re-learning my name, "Man, what IS it with your parents and the names?! I always confuse Elissa cos her name is spelled so differently!"
Addendum #4:
Chris, to me, in parting, "Hey man, you have to come check out our show sometime! It was great meeting you, tell Elissa we say hi!"
I will, and I did. Nice to meet you, Chris Jay and the Army of Freshmen.