Go Rebels

or

how to Meet Celebs in NYC

 

 

To all the non-Mariah fans (and I know there really are some out there, although it may be hard to believe) who just accidentally entered this page, DON`T LEAVE J You may want to read this.

Whoever is expecting to read a thrilling story about how we met Mariah at the first ever VISION - Internet- Fan-Meeting in NYC will probably be disappointed. But still DON`T LEAVE, you will surely like to read who else we did meet. J

If you have studied all the other links at the homepage you probably know by now how much fun we already had, although nothing that we planned really worked out.

It all started with the actual day of the meeting, Oct. 4th 1997 when we have been kicked out of SONY Music ("this is just offices"), sonystyle

sonystudio

 SONY Music Studios ("sorry, there's no supervisor today"),
MTV Studios ("no public entrance, no public...") been all over Manhattan multiple times (thanks to Rasberryīs excellent locating skills ;) ) and were finally so tired and starved that we decided to grab a little snack.
Since I just spent two lazy weeks in Florida I was able to watch MTV and therefore learned about that new restaurant in NYC that just recently opened and the owner was famous and one of R&Bīs and Hip-Hopīs number one producers ("Iīll be missing you" e.g.) Puff Daddy (Sean "Puffy" Combs).I thought it would be a great idea to go, plus it was at least a bit Mariah related...

Unfortunately Ras was the one to ask for the location in VIRGIN MEGASTORE and didn't reveal it to anyone else. By the time we got to 21st St. he already forgot if it was between 7th and 8th Ave. or 2nd and 3rd How hard could it be to find a new restaurant if you already know the name (number) of the street? So we walked and walked, starting at 8th Ave. all the street down until we reached 2nd Ave. not sighting any big neon signs or weird gangster rappers lingering outside a fancy restaurant. L

Finally I decided to ask someone (Ras btw. doesn't think asking would be such a good idea, you might actually find the places your looking for LOL), so I stepped inside a magazine store and tentatively asked if anyone knew about this new restaurant run by Puff Daddy. "Who???" 3 pairs of eyes stared at me as if I was retarded. "Sean Puffy Combs, Puff Daddy, the rapper, producer?" If looks could kill Iīld be dead by then. "We don't want to have nothing to do with blacks, get the hell out of here" was the friendly answer I received. Ras maliciously commented:" Guess that's what you get for asking.... wanna try again? There's a police office over there...." Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to be followed by a bunch of guys when you step into the police's office to ask for a newly opened restaurant you don't even know the name of to watch you blush?

What can I say, one of the younger guys actually remembered the name and told us to look somewhere between 6th and Broadway. And YES we found it, but it was totally different than we imagined it. It looks elegant from the outside, the name "JUSTINīS" in golden letters printed on a deep red velvet like awning and of course lucky as we were that day it was "closed for private party!" L justins
click here for more star restaurants!
planho After we got our reservation for Tuesday for the rest of the crew that would still be in NYC (Ras was brave enough to step right inside disregarding the bodyguards) we ended up like all good tourists going to "PLANET HOLLYWOOD" .
click here for more pics of the fanmeeting

Tuesday was the magic date for me, since I found out Janet Jackson would give a signing hour in VIRGIN MEGASTORE that day, and in order to be lucky enough to get at least a chance to go to that event you needed to be one of the first 400 to purchase a copy of her new album at the record store at Times Square Monday at midnight. To cut a long story short, I convinced Si and Steve to guide me at the three hour suspense telling them we could as well kill the night at Times Square talking and at least having the chance to buy Janet's album along with the free pass for the signing as opposed to sitting in some coffee-shop. Listening to R&B 24 hours a day (did I drive you crazy, Mack ? LOL) Janet is my second runner up, I've been her fan for years and I just didn't want to let that opportunity pass by without at least trying.... I think what really got them going was the suggestion that the least they could do with the album if we got it signed would be to auction it off in some Janet Newsgroup and sell it for a lot of money. On second thought, it might as well have been "British politeness", LOL

Shortly before midnight the impossible happened, a car drove by the crowd, the window was being pulled down and Janet waved to us. That was when at least Si (Simon Gregory, the initiator of the meeting [nickname: Alt.Sex. don't ask, you don't want to know....LOL]) got almost as excited as I have been all night already.

So we prepared for Janet at 4:00 p.m. and Justin's at 6:00 p.m. What a day!

Unfortunately there were a lot more than 400 people waiting for the signature of Ms. Superstar plus she was late and there was MTV waiting for an interview. That cut down our time to one hour only with a line of people waiting that ran through the entire store. How would she ever manage to do that? The signing instruction paper that we got earlier said, she would sign one item only and be in the store for two hours. Minus the delay that would only be one more hour for all these people. So we figured owning the free pass didn't guaranty the signature, but having waited for 5 hours in line now altogether, being so close to the achieved goal, there would be no way for me to leave that store without having Janet sign that CD for me! The guards were counting the crowd several times. Finally lucky I got beyond the rope and to the downstairs level, I thought " that's it, I made it, I'm so close now, I'm actually on the same level, now all I need to do is go there and get that autograph" but, I was wrong! There was another line! And it was already 6:30 p.m.! Anyway I figured just getting behind the rope actually was what it took to get the autograph. Looking behind me I saw my two friends catch up also. That īs when I started thinking about what I was actually gonna say to her. What do you tell her? She is not Mariah, that wouldn't have been a problem for me! This was Janet and that's what I needed to hammer into my head "this is Janet, don't you say Mariah, it's Janet..."( always wishing it would be Mariah *sigh*)
When I finally was close enough to recognize her I heard a hectic voice :" take all the pictures you want NOW, you won't have time when you're in front of her, hand me the item you want to have signed , when she gives it back to you, leave immediately!" Janet was trying all she could, she was so nice to her fans, she was not hectic at all, it was these guards of the MEGASTORE that wanted to get the procedure done. But I decided to quickly take some pictures and try to focus on her. (check out the autograph section for a pic of the autograph) jan1
for more Janet pics just click here
Happy, overwhelmed I found myself outside the store to wait for my friends. It was already 7:00 p.m. 7:00 P.M. !!!! The reservation, "JUSTIN ī s", and where was Ras ??? He wanted to meet us outside the store.......

Only 5 minutes later I saw them slowly approaching altogether, and Ras was smart enough to having called the restaurant to push back our reservation. He told us he could watch us over the screen on the upstairs level and of course couldn't resist teasing me, again! But hey, what can I say ladies, René Elizondo (Janet īs boyfriend)IS a babe! J

We found it this time, although it took us some unnecessary walks again (Thanks Ras! LOL) . None of us wanted to believe what happened when we stood outside the restaurant.

After having seen it only on the actual meeting Saturday I figured this would be sort of a stylish restaurant, so we asked Ras to under no circumstances wear the VISION shirt, that he opted to put on every time we saw him so far. That was in vain, as he arrived to meet us at the hotel before the signing we didn't believe our eyes... We figured he might not own any other clothes so his purpose in attending the meeting would be to receive a shirt of his own but when he saw the bodyguards outside the restaurant, he quickly took out a shirt blouse of his rucksack.(Unfortunately you will not be able to see him dressed up on the pictures , since he took it off again inside )

"JUSTIN īs" is designed after my taste exactly! It īs modern stylish, 8o% black audience , fashionably dressed people, very friendly waiters , perfection as a basic requirement (they won't lead you to your table unless they have enough menus for each ) for the entire restaurant (you should see the restroom ! )

puffy1 Si pointed at a guy some steps away from us and asked me since he wasn't too familiar with the R&B scene, if he could be ..... and he was! You guys, that was Puff Daddy running around in his restaurant making sure everything would be ok so people could be satisfied. Now that was definitely too much for me for one day! I still managed to eat, if only a bit, and the food is excellent, but I was just too busy watching Puffy. It was Ras who promised to get me a picture of him and me if I at least tried to get that plate done. I asked him "and how are you gonna do that? You can't just step up to him and say "Mr. Daddy, may I ...."..." We were laughing so hard. Well, I figured he could do it, when we were about to leave, like when I passed by him. Boy was I wrong! After all that I've seen Ras do so far I should have known better.
for more Puffy pics just click here
He tipped on Puffy īs shoulder and asked him.(later he told me he said:" Sean, my friend over there is dying to take a picture") Puffy pointed at me and put his arm around my shoulder when Ras took the picture. I was totally psyched, but this time I managed to speak, I asked him if he would possibly sign me a blank piece of paper (unfortunately I had only bought his CD that very day, but of course didn't bring it to the restaurant) which he gladly did. Ironically enough the only paper I had with me that day was the Janet signing instruction sheet. (check out my misc. section for a pic of the autograph)
I will probably never forget this day in my whole life! And I owe it to my friends that I made at the 1997 VISION Mariah Carey fan meeting! It's a great bunch of people, and even though you might get the impression Ras and I didn't get along, we have to prove you wrong! We did have our little arguments, but basically we do love each other as friends, right Ras? And hey, wouldn't it be boring without a little pepper every now and then??? group1
click here for more pics of the fanmeeting
Simon still owns the signed Janet CD and as he told me it has become one of his favorites now. J

Nobody really knows about Steve since he opted to remain silent and not take part of any of the conversations the NYC Rebels (as we call us) have had so far. Unfortunately he holds a lot of pictures that would help us embellish the page.

Rebels, we all share something very special, something that's hard to put in words, something nobody can take away from us and we all know it. I can't wait to see you guys again, we made some great friends, I love you all !

 
 

If you have any questions,comments or requests don't hesitate to send me an email