Hi fans,
I?m back from outside the waldorf? and so, so tired but I?m going to try to post.
It was a long day of waiting, w/fellow zoner paperrose and her husband but Johnny finally emerged. MYSELF, I?ll just start? only got glimpses of him. Only flashes. Close flashes? flashes that wow, flashes that stop the heart but flashes. HOWEVER, papperose has a GREAT story to tell. But I will let her tell it. It was a precious moment in a sea of chaos. Perfect? and hers and SO deserved.
The crush of autograph hounds ? descending on Johnny was like nothing I?d ever seen. Even a couple of the autograph hounds, themselves, were commenting, saying they?d never seen anything that ?vicious? (with him)? and that?s saying something. And by vicious? they meant the force of the siege. To clarify, people were NOT nasty with him?they were, however, hungry and devouring? and relentless. And, to me, this is always frightening.
But Johnny? Johnny was this calm force at the center of it all. I?ve been lucky enough to see him before? and this is what I remember so clearly? his calm, grace, fluid movement? somehow moving w/such control as the world around him breaks open, clanging and crushing, disorienting. The juxtaposition of his energy, to that of the crowd, is? startling. It startled me again.
Tonight, it was a crush right onto him?. a moving mass of bodies, pounding closer and tighter as he tried to move through the them. Photos thrust in his face, over and over, more photos, more thrusts? but when I did see him he was smiling? and present? and graceful?acknowledging people… moving through with an otherworldly calm. He heard voices (fan’s voices) calling out to him in the crowd (hello paperrose!!!) and fought his way to find that voice’s keeper. So incredible.
I was on the fringes of it all (I don?t have that pushy New Yorker thing down pat!) but the stories I heard from inside the sea? are incredible. Papperose?s husband was right in there too? w/an Iggy Pop shirt on? and in the madness had Johnny sign his shirt. In the center of this crowd? Johnny leaned in and went ?Niiiiiiiiice? wrote ?Iggy? over Iggy?s picture with an X at the end and signed his name underneath it. How present is that?? It?s unbelievable how Johnny moves through these crowds, how he sees the ?people? and not the mass. His has an extraordinary humanity? an empathy so acute, so genuine that for him, a mob (of people he knew were autograph hounds) were people? and treated like people. Deserving or not.
By the time this all occurred, I think it was near 1 in the morning. I?d met two incredibly sweet women (a long time fan and her friend)? and they too got right in there with Johnny? had wonderful, fleeting moments with him.
I snapped off a few photos but I?ve no idea how they came out. I imagine I just caught the sea of photos in front of him? and a black hat. I did see Johnny?s sister Christi real well though! She was standing right next to me, holding a pack of marlboro lights in her hand? concerned? reaching up into the crowd…trying to get to him but it was impossible.
Tracy Jaccobs was in the front seat of his car? she passed a begging person?s camera into the car to take Johnny?s photo. So to all who were worrying, I think it?s safe to say, she?s still his agent spin.
And?.now, I?m so tired I know I’m moving toward incoherent babbling so I?ll stop for tonight.
I was disappointed that I didn?t get to see him better than I did? but I?m so, so, SO happy for papperose and the fan I met tonight. There was some sort of karma working? the true fans? the ones whose hearts and souls were bound to this moment by magnetic force, found their way through and met THE MAN? at an almost impossible autograph hound center. THAT’S a beautiful thing.
this encounter is taken from the johnnydeppzone board
