Show me the FUNNY!

A long time ago working a cafe job in SF I had the rather odd but regular chance to serve Robin Williams. He'd been performing irregularly (does he ever perform any other way?) at a place called the Holy City Zoo on Clement St. and I was working a pizza joint a few blocks away. He was always pretty nice, made a couple of the same jokes, and once broke up a fight in the bathroom using pure force of character, a very loud voice, and much humor.

Having moved to the boonies, I don't expect these kinds of celebrity sightings/encounters to happen any longer. But then some days are odder than others.

The other morning I started on the way to shoot a couple in San Andreas, when I had to pull over. The road was blocked...by a cattle drive. So I did what I do...pulled over and shot the cows and the cowboys. As I usually limit this sort of thing to a camera, the cowboys did not shoot back. Neither did the cows. I was late to my location, but had a good story, good pictures, and a new lesson on how to budget time in cattle country.

Having thought that would be the most surreal part of my weekend, imagine my surprise when less than 24 hours later I ran into Will Durst at Starbucks. He was very nice. Just like the cows, I stepped aside and shot him as he went by. That's what you get for being nice to me.

For the record he left far less manure in the road than the cattle, and though he seemed to be accompanied by his agent/manager/handler/whatever, he required no herding. Well not much.

Mr. Durst's recent blog entry on sfgate.com on the subject of 'staycations' brought about many suggestions in response from his readers to which I should add my own:

Sit in cafes in little tiny mountain towns and wait for celebrities to walk by.

Shoot them.

(just cameras of course...I don't want to read about you in the papers)

This shot of Mr. Durst was posed, though it looks like a grab-shot a paparazzi might do. Like I said he was really nice. Life is more than a little surreal. Thank god for that.