The King of Sweden

Whilst growing up in Sweden, I would at times come across a beautifully framed photo hanging in a prominent place in someone's home with the person and THE KING. One would always stop and admire the photo of the smiling young girl handing THE KING flowers or nervously shaking his hand. When the opportunity presented itself of being in the same room as THE KING during one of his unofficial visits to Canada, a ruthless scheme of acquiring one of these photos for myself quickly took shape. Having read through the pages and pages of royal protocol specifying when to address THE KING as "his royal majesty", "your royal majesty" etc. the visit itself went off without a hitch. At the end, as gifts were exchanged and people were mingling about and the royal body guard was distracted for a moment, me and the photographer seized the opportunity and quickly moved in. In the commotion, royal protocol was forgotten and THE KING ended up being addressed as "sir", which is a no-no. He was pretty good about being ambushed, but do you notice the pasted smile and the tight grip around the roll of paper? Yes, I got my own photo of the King and I, and I can report that the photo is beautifully framed and prominently displayed in my parent's bookcase in Sweden for all visitors to admire...

Greg Keelor - Blue Rodeo

In 1998 my wife was working for a high tech company that threw a big awards night at Mont Tremblant in Quebec for their big acheivers. The company had the band Blue Rodeo perform a private concert for the invited guests.
Before the show, I was chatting with the manager and she asked me what I would like them to play, so I wrote a set list, and they actually played it!
It was the best concert I have ever been to. We danced next to the band as they played right in front of us.
Afterwards the band mingled with the guests and I got this photo with Greg.
I love the stain on his shirt!

Vladislav Tretiak

Hello Jim,
Here is my story.
Paraphrasing an old Soviet joke, one may ask: Who was Leonid Brezhnev? The answer: A politician during the times of Vladislav Tretyak.
Vladislav Tretyak has been a hero among all the boys growing up in the Soviet Union in 1970's. I was not an exception, of course. Even though I have never been interested in watching hockey.
Tretyak has always been in the news at all the tournaments of all levels: national, European, World championships, Olympic Games, and of course the Canada-Russia series.
So when he was to be decorated by the Governor General of Canada, I volunteered for an assignment. After all the medals and orders were given away, Vladislav Tretyak and Russian Amabassador stayed with the media for a short interview. That's when I used my chance to meet with Tretyak and shake his hand.
It took me to come to Canada to meet Tretyak. Small world.
Thanks to my friend Carlo for the photo.

Andrei Filippov

Paul McCartney

In 1986 I was working in London, England and I met a girl who was a huge Paul McCartney fan. Since I was a Beatle fanatic, we got talking and she told me that she had met Paul a number of times.
I was beside myself, of course I wanted to meet him.
She told me to go his office around lunch time and look for a sky blue Mercedes. On the third day, there was the car and and out popped Paul McCartney.

I really wanted to say something to him as the picture was being taken, so I said: "Give me your best Paul face."

To which he replied: "This is my face".

As you can see from the picture, he was very excited to meet me.
The rest is history.

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