Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Okay, so while procrastinating I noticed that Jesse Spencer (Chase from HOUSE) was online on Twitter, and considering I picture him as my main character in Waiting for April, I thought I would try my luck and send him a message - AND HE RESPONDED!!!

So while I'm still hyperventilating (30 minutes later), it got me wondering - how many of you have been able to talk to your idols?

*replaces paper bag to mouth*

Jaime, you're too cute! (I finally understand who you meant about Scott now. I hadn't heard of Chase before...and hadn't had a chance to google him)

I've met a few. Most of which have been athletes. But the one I got most excited about was Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block. When I was thirteen I was convinced that I would never love another man as much as I loved Jordan Knight. The first time I've met him (been lucky enough to do it a couple times ... no, I'm not a stalker!) I got so freaking nervous I thought my legs were going to give out from under me. Luckily they didn't though. That would have been too embarrassing for words!

Fun topic!

Carl Sagan, the late author/professor was not an idol of mine, but I did get to meet him when I did some carpentry in his home years ago.

I was a seat filler at the CMA awards for three years, so I got to meet and see pretty much every country singer alive. :D

Vince Gill was moving his daughter onto my hall my freshman year in college and Amy Grant and he stopped by my room to look at my desk.

Brent Musburger interviewed me for ESPN. Does that count?

Umm...that's about it. Oh! Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey ate at the table next to us at Ruth's Chris. Exciting stuff, huh?

gonzo2802 wrote:Jaime, you're too cute! (I finally understand who you meant about Scott now. I hadn't heard of Chase before...and hadn't had a chance to google him)

I've met a few. Most of which have been athletes. But the one I got most excited about was Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block. When I was thirteen I was convinced that I would never love another man as much as I loved Jordan Knight. The first time I've met him (been lucky enough to do it a couple times ... no, I'm not a stalker!) I got so freaking nervous I thought my legs were going to give out from under me. Luckily they didn't though. That would have been too embarrassing for words!

Jeeaaallouss! Though I was a Joey girl, myself.

LOL Gonzo!!! I was supposed to marry Jordan Knight!! (too funny)

I've met a ton of celebs when I was in marketing and PR. It was a nice ride, but now I am a mom and a writer ;)

Gosh, I just realized how boring I am. I'm an industry groupie so I got all flushed over meeting Harlan Ellison, Donald Maass, Lisa Rector, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I'm hoping to meet Jennifer Jackson and Colleen Lindsay. Later I gush about them to friends and family, who listen politely, then ask, "Who is he again?"

I don't think I've met any idols (unless you count when I was obsessed with Toad the Wet Sprocket in early college and jumped in their van). I made a total fool of myself in front of Robert Downey Jr. while trying to make him a cappucino at the Chicago Coffee place I worked at. Mike Judge was a regular at the coffee place I worked at in Austin. He brought in Stephen Root once, which was cool at the time, since I loved News Radio. I always loved Richard Linklater but I saw him so much in Austin that it stopped being a big deal. I used to go to the Austin Film Festival Writer's Conference and listen to a bunch of cool director and screenwriters, but I was always too shy and too wary of seeming like a schmoozer to introduce myself.

I don't really care about actors much, but I'd love to meet:

Win Butler & Régine Chassagne
Wes Anderson
Spike Jonze
Jane Campion
Megan McCafferty
Zach Galafianakis

In my previous career I was fortunate to not just meet a lot of famous people but to interview them. Only been star-struck once, and it was a very brief session. It was my first paid gig, so it was a big deal on two counts. Back in 19 and 94 I did a story about Michael Jordan when he played baseball for whatever weird reason. I remember standing outside the clubhouse door after a game with about 50 news people waiting to see if he would come out and answer questions. He did, and I happened to be about two feet from where he popped out. I remember thinking - holy @#$%!, Michael Jordan is two feet away from me. Got to ask him a few questions then he got the hell out of there.

Although I can't deny its lure, the whole idea of fame is bizarre to me. As a writer, trying to crack the defenses that fame can build around a person has always been a struggle. It's difficult enough to figure out the real insights, fears, strengths, etc. of a normal person. When you're trying to do that with a celebrity, it can be pretty much impossible. At the same time, just because it's the way I'm made, I want to be respectful of a person's privacy. Any person, not just a celeb. I know how much I value my own privacy and time and freedom. When you're famous you can pretty much chuck all that out the window. I could never actively seek fame, but like I said, I clearly understand why others would.

I've corresponded a bit with Dennis McKiernan; I didn't push it, but he was amazingly nice. I've bumped into Johnny Depp on a London street in the nineties, though I didn't say anything to him. I met the actress Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; she came into the embassy in Beijing for a visa.

As a diplomat I have met a lot of politicians - Presidents Clinton and Nixon, VP Al Gore, Secretaries of State Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton. I've met some heads of state, such as the Presidents of Iceland and Croatia, and loads of lesser such luminaries.

I have met many chess celebrities. I've played games against several world champions, such as Gary Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Viswanathan Anand. I have met Boris Spassky, and basically hundreds of other famous grandmasters, and even played against a few more, such as Nigel Short, Aleksander Wojtkiewicz, Throstur Thorhallsson, and Vidmantas Malisauskas. I figure most of you won't know many of these folks, though. Oh, I nearly forgot that I knew World Junior Champion Tal Shaked pretty well back in the eighties.

Good Lord, knight tour, please relay what it was like playing chess against Kasparov, Karpov and others who you correctly state I've never heard of. Throstur Thorhallsson sounds like a chess master and/or a professional strongman competitor. With a name like that you could win every mach on pre-tournament intimidation stories alone. Hire someone to start spreading rumors - last guy who said "check" against Throstur was in the hospital for three weeks and they still couldn't extract one of the rooks.

When I was in high school I went to this summit where high school students got to meet with VIPs and it was seriously incredible. Didn't even seem real (and I now jokingly call it Celebrity Camp). I met and talked to George Lucas, P. Diddy, Colin Powell, Morgan Freeman, Robert Zemeckis, Amy Tan, Andrew Weil, Dale Chihuly, Carol Shields, Quincy Jones, Michael Dell, George Tenet, Tom Clancy, Stephen Ambrose, Wesley Clark.... I could go on and on. I was chosen specifically because I was a kid from a rural background, so this was just a totally unreal experience.

I think the most amazing thing about it was that it taught me at a young age that celebrities and childhood heroes are just people. They worked hard, they're talented, we love them, but they're just people. It made dreams seem way more achievable.

Wow, Nathan. Just, wow.

Growing up in rural Australia, we didn't have anything like that. We still don't. We lose all of our stars to the U.S.! I can't imagine what it would have been like to have met George Lucas! Morgan Freeman would be fascinating, too. Do you feel that you've achieved your dreams now, being a highly sought after agent and now a published author (well, almost published)? :)

Jaime wrote:Wow, Nathan. Just, wow.

Growing up in rural Australia, we didn't have anything like that. We still don't. We lose all of our stars to the U.S.! I can't imagine what it would have been like to have met George Lucas! Morgan Freeman would be fascinating, too. Do you feel that you've achieved your dreams now, being a highly sought after agent and now a published author (well, almost published)? :)

I think it's more that they all just really went after the things they loved and did the best they can. That's what I learned. I don't really have benchmarks, but I do try as best I can to emulate the way they really pursued the things they loved with everything they had.

Colonel Travis wrote:Good Lord, knight tour, please relay what it was like playing chess against Kasparov, Karpov and others who you correctly state I've never heard of. Throstur Thorhallsson sounds like a chess master and/or a professional strongman competitor. With a name like that you could win every mach on pre-tournament intimidation stories alone. Hire someone to start spreading rumors - last guy who said "check" against Throstur was in the hospital for three weeks and they still couldn't extract one of the rooks.

Throstur is a Grandmaster from Iceland. He is quite big, but is very nice. I played a very nice game against him, which you could view here if you are so inclined - http://knight-tour-chess.blogspot.com/2 ... -rd-1.html

I knew I would get crushed by the world champions, so in those cases I just set myself a goal of lasting a certain number of moves. I set 30 moves when I played the first one (Kramnik), then 35 when I played Kasparov. I was surprised that my perceptions of how decent these people would be was so off. The big to-do between Kasparov and Karpov left me feeling that Karpov was just a stooge of the Soviets and Kasparov was the white knight, but in person Kasparov was rather superficial and brusque, while Karpov seemed warm and friendly.