I’m having a crap week so let me do some self-therapy and tell you about the time I met the great and powerful Jane Wiedlin, guitarist for the awesome and foundational girl band, the Go-Gos. 
You can read a lot, elsewhere, about the barrier-breaking and courage of these women, making strings of hits in the 70s and 80s. I was a pre-teen and I had a HELLA CRUSH on @janewiedlin, which in those pre-internet days meant staring longingly at photos on record sleeves.
It didn’t help that she played Joan of Arc in BILL AND TED. I should point out here that I’m kind of a cold-blooded theoretical physics type. I didn’t have many crushes and such, I mainly was building promitive computers and such.
The 80s end. I go about my life. I work on the Top Quark. I make some games. @Xbox happens. I inadvertently start to get really involved in the business structure of the game industry.
I ended up realizing that games needed to borrow some funding and IP models from other media, so that game designers could get some control and ownership of their work. So I started a division of CAA, at that time the most powerful talent agency on earth, to make that happen.
I was a super-behind the scenes finance and deal guy for a decade there, arranging money and distribution for lots of big games. One of them, which we had a REALLY hard time getting off the ground, was the seminal and amazing Guitar Hero, from @Harmonix
The only way we ever got GH to sell was by letting people try it. And when they did, they REALLY got into it. So, back when we were trying to get a distribution deal for it, we would always be putting development versions out for people to try.
At CAA, my team was across the hall from the Music Agents, who basically represented every legendary musician you could think of. So, in order to maybe drum up some new songs and artists for GH, for a year or so I ALWAYS had Guitar Hero running on a TV in my office.
And it worked. I ended up playing Guitar hero with everyone from Beyoncé (while Mr. Knowles watched with a frown) to Elvis Costello. And it was AWESOME. (Ask me someday about Elvis’ Pete Shelley story.)
So, one day I’m sitting at my desk, working on some financial shit (structured finance is HARD). In walks someone and fires up “MORE THAN A FEELING” on GH. This happened a lot, so I didn’t really pay attention. Usually it was another agent. It was ruining that song for me.
...and OF COURSE it’s @janewiedlin standing there. I was instantly 13 again; the utter shock and amazement and preteen crush humiliation exploded like a nuclear weapon in my brain. And so I sat there, flustered, unable to speak, like a rude potato.
I honestly don’t think I was able to sputter out more than a couple, sad sentences. Jane was super nice, and afterwards her agent told me, when he explaining my reaction, that she thought it was hilarious and charming. So, thanks Jane for being excellent. /ends
