Cross Encounter

Vintage Vinyl in Fords is the best music store in central New Jersey. They have a great selection, reasonable prices, and a great atmosphere. There is always some form of dirty guitar rock, grindcore, or some obscure music blasting throughout the store. And the employees, with their multi-colored hair, facial piercings, tattoos, and carefree attitudes, look so appealingly rebellious that I often feel like quitting my day job after spending just a few minutes in the their presence.

I try to visit the store at least every few weeks; the trips are often unplanned. On Sunday, with some time to kill and extra cash in my pocket, I decided to treat myself to the wonderful Vintage Vinyl experience.

The store was pretty busy when I arrived. I said hi to the folks behind the counter and got on with my normal routine. I checked out the new releases and then the rock and pop section. I randomly looked through a few rows of CDs and finally decided that it was time to pick up the Franz Ferdinand CD that everyone had been saying such great things about. FF in hand, I headed for the classic rock section, and walked past a guy who looked a lot like comedian David Cross. Instead of doing a double take, I positioned myself on the opposite side of the display rack that he was standing at. With a clear shot of the guy, I was able to confirm that it was in fact Mr. Cross.

I’ve been a fan of David Cross for quite sometime. He cracked me up in Scary Movie 2, and I’ve enjoyed his work in just about everything else that I’ve seen him in as well. I decided that I wasn’t going to approach him though. He was just another guy shopping at a record store on a Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t going to ruin his day by drawing attention to him.

A few minutes later, I was over in the video section when I noticed that he was a few feet away from me. I flipped through a line of DVDs, and was surprised to find a documentary about a stand-up tour Cross had gone on a few years earlier. A perfect icebreaker.

I held up the disk and said, “Hey, is this any good?”

He glanced at it. “No,” he said. He looked back at the videos that he had been scanning through. “In fact, you should probably steal it, and take it home and burn it.”

I laughed and put the DVD back. “So what brings you to Jersey?”

“Just passing through after visiting my girlfriend’s mom.”

I nodded. “Big fan,” I said.

“Thanks.”

As I approached the register with my purchases (the aforementioned Franz Ferdinand and Let it Bleed by the Stones), I realized that I had just had a pretty cool celebrity encounter. I was able to talk to the guy without coming off like a fan boy (something that I have been guilty of in the past). And I guess that’s a sign that I’m maturing. But it’s probably just that I didn’t want to look like a geek in front of all the hip folks who work at Vintage Vinyl.