Ottawa Senators Meet and Greet

On Friday we had tickets to meet the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. We were given four tickets, so Diane, France, Christie and I made the drive to Kanata.

Outside of Scotiabank place was a variety of interactive games for kids. There was also a used equipment sale. I thought for sure I would have seen Doug looking through the used jocks. No luck though.

Once inside, we received a map of what sections the players would be in. To our disappointment, there was no Kovalev, no Alfredsson, no Fisher, and no Gonchar on the list. Balls. What a huge disappointment.

So, we immediately went in line for Jason Spezza. He ended up with the longest lineup, which was great to see after the rumours that he might ask for a trade during the summer. When we approached him, he signed my photo, and I told him that I was glad that he was playing here this season. He thanked me. France and Diane also got a photo signed for me.

After we met Jason Spezza, we tried to go see Pascal Leclaire. When we arrived to his section, the usher told us that there was no more space in line. I couldn't believe it. There was still an hour and twenty minutes left in the autograph session and they were already cutting off lines. I don't think the usher realized how fast the signing would be.

We next went in line for Milan Michalek. He is a really great guy who is very polite. He signed a photo for me and I grabbed a picture. France got a photo signed for me also.

We then decided we would go and meet Chris Neil, but when we arrived, we found that his line was huge. We left and went to go and meet Matt Carkner.

I think Carkner had a tiny thing for France. When she handed him a photo, he asked her if she liked him better with curly hair or with short hair. She told him curly. I can't wait to see if he grows his hair again.

Finally, we decided that we would try for Pascal Leclaire again. We got in line and were fortunate because the line was cut off a few people after us. The girls spoke to him in French and he signed photos for us and took pictures as well.

I guess I can say that I was a bit disappointed with the evening. It was great to be able to meet some of the guys, but all of the guys you wanted to meet weren't there. Stay tuned though, I suspect more training camp encounters will occur.

Appetite for Destruction

Slash is widely considered one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. He recently landed on the top of the charts with his first true solo album, SLASH, which debuted as #1 Rock Album and #3 overall on Billboard's coveted Top 200 charts, in addition to going #1 in more than 13 countries.

Slash has received countless accolades and awards including a 2007 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his idols Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. An original member of the iconic rock band Guns N' Roses, Slash helped the band create signature sounds like the guitar riff of #1 hit "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Welcome To The Jungle". The band dominated the 1980's and 90's music scene selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and ushered in a decade of hard charging rock music.
After leaving the band, Slash went on to critical acclaim in his personal project Slash's snakepit, and global success with supergroup Velvet Revolver. he has been widely sought after by the biggest musicians of all time, performing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Ray Charles. Slash is one of the marquee playable characters in Guitar Hero III, has two signature Gibson guitars in his name, and authored his own top-selling biography Slash in 2007.

On Saturday, Slash was in Belleville performing at the Empire Square Live as part of the Empire Anniversary Celebrations. Steve and I decided to head down to see if we could meet him.

As you know, outdoor venues are very tough for meeting people. There are large, fenced-off areas and the only real hope of meeting someone is to call them and they come over. Knowing that Slash was a pretty decent signer, we decided to give it a chance anyways.

When we arrived, we saw that the buses had already arrived. The security guard told us that Slash had gotten off of his bus roughly ten minutes after arrival and was inside the building. We didn't really have a chance of meeting him before, so we grabbed some food and shot some pool.

Once the concert started, we went outside and stood on the street. Because it was an outdoor concert, we were able to hear the whole show and watch it on the jumbo screen. It was great. I was even impressed that they played Sweet Child o' Mine and then played Paradise City as an encore. The guitar riffs were amazing.

After the show, Steve and I situated ourselves beside the gate close to the bus. Soon other fans started to join us. The problem with the fence was that there was a green cover that didn't allow you to see through the fence very easily. It's great being tall though; I was able to see over the fence if I stood on my tip toes.

When Slash arrived he looked a bit like Bret "The Hitman" Hart. He had a backwards hat and shades going on. He started to walk towards the bus and we were able to call him over. He said it felt weird that he couldn't really see us. Slash scaled the fence to see how many people were there and then decided it would be best if he stayed on that side of the fence.

It was perfect. We were able to hand vinyls and other merch over the fence for him to sign without him knowing who was handing it over.

I think the vinyl record looks really amazing. It would have been nice to get a picture with him, but I'm happy to settle for the sweet autographs.

The House on the End of the Street: Follow Up

I finally ran into Max Thieriot.

Max Thieriot appeared in two short films before being cast in his feature film role, in 2004's Catch That Kid alongside Kristen Stewart and Cordin Bleu. He was subsequently cast in 2005's The Pacifier, playing one of the family members protected by a Navy Seal played by Vin Diesel. Thieriot appeared in The Astronaut Farmer as well as in the feature film version of Nancy Drew. In 2008, he played a younger version of Hayden Christensen's lead character in Jumper and appeared in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. In 2009, he co-starred in the erotic thriller Chloe. He will appear in Wes Craven's My Soul to Take.

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, he is in town filming the horror-thriller House at the End of the Street. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet him on set.

I saw Max getting into a car to head to set and asked him for a couple of signatures.

He was really nice about it. I also asked him if I could get a picture. He said no problem. Just for the record, he was standing on a curb; he isn't really that tall.

When asked how he liked Ottawa, he said that he liked it but that it was really hot (temperatures reached 40 degrees this week). He seemed like a really cool guy. I will go and see his movie coming out later this year just to support him.

The Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is the highest order administered by the Governor General-in-Council in the Canadian system of honours, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. The three-tiered order was established as a fellowship that recognizes the achievement of outstanding merit or distinguished service by Canadians, through life-long contributions in every field of endeavour, and who made a major difference to Canada, as well as the efforts made by non-Canadians who have made the world better by their actions. (wikipedia)

Friday was the 18th Order of Canada ceremony for Governor General Michaelle Jean and also likely her last, given she's leaving the post at the end of this month.

Canadian hockey great Mario Lemieux was invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada Friday, along with Burton Cummings of Guess Who fame, former Manitoba Premier Gary Filmon, former NDP leader Alexa McDonough, movie mogul Ivan Reitman, former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, and singer Ben Heppner.

This was my second time meeting Mario Lemieux.

FLASHBACK

My first meeting with Super Mario was in Toronto at the Sport Card Expo in November. This was one of the few autograph signings that I actually paid for. Craig, who happens to be a huge Penguins fan, and I headed down for the signing.

We both bought 16x20s of Mario and Patrick Roy with hopes of getting Patrick to sign the photo as well.

We were in line for Mario and all I really wanted was a photo with him, more than the autograph. I ran over the scenerio with Craig. He would go first, I would take his picture, and then I would hand him the camera and he could take my photo with Mario. I told him that I would talk to Mario, shake his hand and then head off. Craig told me not to worry, that he would take seven photos.

So, we headed up, Craig handed Mario his photo, and I took his picture.

I then handed Craig my the camera. I handed Mario my photo, told him (in French) that I wanted to thank him for everything he has done for Team Canada. He told me that it was his pleasure. I shook his hand and, as I was about to walk away, Craig told me that I needed to lean into him. Needless to say, I had to keep the line moving and Craig didn't take a single picture.

This is what I ended up with.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset. The autograph did look nice though.

BACK TO THE PRESENT

My meeting with Mario this time was a little less eventful. He got off a bus with a bunch of other people, and I asked him to sign my photo. I got a bit of a scribble that looked like ML and he was signing as he was walking.

Soon after Mario walked into the hotel, Burton Cummings exited the hotel. Steve approached him with some LPs and Mr. Cummings was pretty impressed with them. He told us he had to do them quickly because he had a dinner to go to. Fortunately, quick for him meant not being able to stand around and talk for a half an hour. He signed all our things with a great autograph and let me grab a photo with him.

A couple of minutes after, Mario walked out of the hotel with his wife and headed towards a cab. As he opened the door, I yelled his name and when he turned I asked him if I could grab a photo. He told me sure.

I thanked him for the photo and congratulated him. He told me you're welcome, and thank you. Even though I got an autograph that wasn't nearly as nice as my first Mario autograph, I was happy to finally get a good picture with Super Mario.