Snoop Dogg

Last Year

Last year, I had the opportunity to meet the legend Snoop Dogg. He made an appearance at the Tilly's in Santa Monica. I went the day before to buy the Neff t-shirt and our wristbands to meet him. Snoop was cool to all his fans. Tilly's had a professional photographer their to snap photos, which they later put on their website. This helped move the lane faster. I think more autograph events should use this method. The security for the event said no autographs, but Snoop was classy and signed for anybody that asked. Since I already got a ball signed by him at an all star event, I decided to respect the event and not ask. All I really wanted was a photo op and a chance to meet Snoop. This was a great event that ran smooth. Thanks to Snoop, Neff and Tilly's.

This is the shirt we had to buy

 

 

Me and Snoop

 

Betty White

 

 

 

 

Last December, I had the honor to meet the legendary Betty White. Another fun fact about me is that my favorite show of all time is The Golden Girls. This was one of my favorite signings I have ever been to. It was a book signing at the Santa Monica Barnes & Noble. She was their to promote her book "Betty & Friends, My Life at the Zoo". Betty was amazing. I had her sign the cover of my book and it turned out great. This was bittersweet for me since, I would have liked to meet all four of the Golden Girls, but sadly Betty is the only surviving one left.  Also Barnes & Nobles prevented people taking pictures with her and no outside items to be signed. But the opportunity to meet her was good enough. Thank you again Betty White.

Betty signing copies of her book

 

Me waiting to meet Betty

 

 

Golden Girls

Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin has helped bring the Clippers out of the Laker's Shadow in Los Angeles. I am still a Laker Fan, but I love watching Blake and the Clippers play. I have been lucky enough to meet Griffin three times. I met him at the Upper Deck store in Huntington beach during his rookie year. It was a paid signing, but it was worth it. I had him sign a basketball. I got another ball signed when he made an appearance at the Kia booth at the LA auto show a few months later. This ball I had Baron Davis. This is a piece I want to get framed with a picture of Blake dunking over the Kia. The third and last time I met Blake was the picture above. This was from his meet and greet at the grand opening of a Microsoft store. He was nice all three times. He is very good to his fans.

Freddie Roach

The Wild Card Gym in Hollywood for me is the mecca of boxing gyms. The aura of greatness streams from wall to wall. From the outside it looks like an ordinary building. On the inside some of the best boxers in the world call this place home. Fighters like Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, JC Chavez Jr, Peter Quillin and many others. Other athletes and celebrities outside of boxing come here to be inspired and workout. The man who makes all this possible is trainer Freddie Roach. This man is not only a great trainer, but also a big heart. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He welcomes everybody to his gym. He takes time to stop and talk with fans. He has never turned down an autograph request. Unfortunaltely, Parkinson's disease has slowed him down, but it won't let it stop him. He is still one of the best trainers in boxing. He has gone through a slump as of late, but I believe he will make it back to the top of his sport. Roach is the definition of class. I wish him all the best and success. Ive met Freddie several times. I'm a member at the Wild Card Gym and hopefully my little 5 year old brother will be trained by him one day.

 

 



Me and Freddie Roach

Kurt Rambis

Back in May, I had the opportunity to meet Laker Legend Kurt Rambis. He made an appearance at the Hollywood Park and Casino in Inglewood. It was kind of neat to meet him at a place right across the street from The Great Western Forum, where Showtime was born.  Rambis teamed up with ESPN for a meet and greet with fans before a Laker game. I love going to ESPN signings at the casino, because they give you free food. I went to the Norm Nixon signing there as well and they always treat the guests great. Kurt was another nice guy. He signed a warm up jersey and a Laker Poster for me. I took a picture with him, but the camera was broken. This is the same camera that messed up my Freddie Roach. I guess I didn't learn my lesson (lol). Ive since bought a new camera to prevent this mistake from happening again. At this event I also won free LA Galaxy tickets, which in itself was an awesome experience. I got to see Beckham and Donovan both score goals.

Upcoming Signing

Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy

 

 

Book Signing

Barnes and Noble

The Grove in LA

Jan 14, 2013 

7:00 pm

Ke$ha

This is kind of a weird story. About a  year ago I had won Movie Premiere tickets from a radio station. I can't even remember what movie it was and what radio station I got them from. All I remember was The Rock was the star of the movie. We arrived in Hollywood to find a giant line of people waiting to get into the premiere. It turns out the they gave out way more tickets then they had seats, so many people were not able to get in. So they formed a line for a chance some extra seats became available. I decided against waiting in line, so me and my friends started heading back to the car. We took a short cut through an alley back to the backing lot. When we I noticed what looked like a concert being held in an outdoor venue. Which I later found out is the back lot stage for the Jimmy Kimmel Show. The view from the alley was amazing. It was like having backstage passes. We decided to stick around to see who was going to perform. This was around the time Ke$ha just hit the mainstream with her hit "Tik Toc". After her performance she exited the stage and walked right by us. She was nice enough to stop and take a picture with us. I didn't have anything for her to sign, but it was a pretty cool experience. She is very pretty in person!

Puppet!!!!

My Dad lives in East LA, so I spent alot of time in Boyle Heights growing up. Their is a tremendous amount of culture and history in this city. I became a big fan of Chicano movies. Some of my favorites include Blood in Blood Out and American Me. So it was a big surprise for me one day last year, when I walked into Frank and Sons and saw Danny De La Paz signing autographs. For those of you who do not follow Chicano cinema, you probably might not know who he is, but for me this was huge. Danny portrayed two major roles in two pretty influential films. He played "Puppet" in American Me and he was the star in the movie Boulevard Nights. Frank and Sons is one of my favorite spots to go to for my Autograph needs (along with Michaels). And what a deal I got, for only 20 bucks I got to meet Danny and got a 16x20 movie poster of American Me. This is going to be a project to try to get the other actors to sign as well. I'm most interested in trying to meet the filmmaker and the star of the film Edward James Olmos. Danny was a great guy. This was a real treasure for my autograph collection.

Me and Danny De La Paz

Fight Night

Today was a great day of boxing. This was my first time watching a boxing match live in person and it did not disappoint. Every fight, was entertaining and thankfully all the fighters I was rooting for pulled off the victories. It was cool to see the fighters I met this past week at the Media Workout at the Ponce De Leon gym. The main event was a thrilling fight in which Amir King Khan won on a 10th round stoppage. Golden Boy Promotions put together a fan fest between fights, where you could meet some of the boxers. I brought along a couple pairs of Everlast sparring gloves to get signed by some of my favorite fighters.

Autograph Recap:   Adrien Broner- Glove

                               Peter Kid Chocolate Quillin- Glove

                               Robert The Ghost Guerrero- Glove

                               Leo Santa Cruz- Glove

                               Joseph JoJo- Diaz Jr. Glove

                               Referee Joe Cortez- Ticket

                               Paulie Magic Man Malignaggi- Ticket 

                               Andre S.O.G. Ward- Ticket

Also in attendance-  Canelo Alvarez

                               Sugar Shane Mosley

                               Freddie Roach and Pepper Roach

                               Oscar De La Hoya

                               Danny Swift Garcia and Angel Garcia

                               Danny Miracle Man Jacobs

Fan Fest

Adrien The Problem Broner

Leo Santa Cruz

Joseph Jo Jo Diaz Jr.

Robert The Ghost Guerrero and Peter Kid Chocolate Quillin

HOF'er Joe Cortez

Paulie Malignaggi

Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina Media Workouts

If you have not noticed by now I am a big boxing fan and Amir Khan is my favorite boxer. So when I heard he is going to make his comeback fight at the LA Sports Arena I made sure I bought tickets. The fight is being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, which always throws great events leading up to the fight. Oscar De La Hoya makes most of the events open to the public and also makes the fights free to watch on television. Oscar is always doing great things for the community. Fellow Boxing champion Ponce De Leon just opened a new boxing gym in the city of Montebello. Golden Boy held an event today to not only promote the gym, but also to showcase the fighters for this Saturday's Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina. Another surprise Golden Boy provided was a special toy drive. Anybody who donated a toy would receive 2 free tickets to the fight. I made the trip to Montebello to check out Amir Khan and the other fighters. It was a great event. All the fighters were great to the fans. Champion Abner Mares made a special appearance, I found out later he is good friends with Carlos Molina. Boxing reporter Elie Seckbach was also in attendance. He is one of the most hardest working reporters in the game. I want to give a special thank you to Oscar, Golden Boy and Ponce De Leon for this great event.

 

 

Autograph Recap: Virgil Hunter signed glove

                             Deontay Wilder signed glove

 





 

Me and Oscar De La Hoya

 

Me and Abner Mares

 

Me and Deontay Wilder

 

Me and Haroon Khan

 

My little brother and Amir Khan

Kendra Wilkinson

 

 

I had the biggest crush on Kendra when she was The Girls Next Door. I thought she was the hottest of Hugh's 3 girlfriends. So I jumped at the opportunity to meet her. I actually went to two book signings, both of which were at Barnes and Nobles. The first event I took my mom, because she is a huge fan of Kendra's new show with her husband NFL player Hank Baskett. They are both great people. Hank was nice enough to take a photo with my mom and Kendra spent time and chatted with her before the signing. I continued my collection of books signed on the cover. I'm not a fan of having book signed on the title page. Both times I met Kendra she was down to earth and genuinely nice.

Ice Cube

Back in 2004, I had the opportunity to meet Hip Hop Legend Ice Cube. I heard there was a movie being filmed at the 99cent store by my house. I decided to go along for the ride. I had no idea who was in the movie. When we arrived we found out that Ice Cube was in the movie, but wasn't sure if he was going to be in the scene that they were filming. They continued filming well into the night. I got to meet actors Faizon Love and Fedro Starr. Love is best known for his role as Big Worm in Friday and Starr is know for his role on Moesha and Dance360. Ice Cube arrived in a black SUV well after Midnight. He was another true class act. He stopped and talked with the small group of fans that came out to watch. While they started filming again. I went back to my house to grab something for him to sign. I found a Cd. Ice Cube signed it and added "Stay Cool" to his signature. It was a great experience to meet a Legend and also to get to see a movie being made. I saw the movie when it came out months later and it was neat to see the scene they were filming at the 99cent store.