Next Up On My Wall: 3 Autographed Samantha Fox Posters

Here is a post lifted from my Collectibles blog...

I received this cylinder in the mail two weeks ago and have been waiting to make good use of it ever since:

Yes, that's direct mail from Samantha Fox, my favourite lead singer of the 1980s, my favourite pop music queen, my childhood crush obsession, the lone ''non-rock'' patch on my teenage jean jacket...

I contemplated having its contents laminated, but because they are of ''unusual'' (read: British) dimensions (12x16.5 inches), I would have had to do so on larger-than-the-poster canvasses; it took me a long time to find ideal-sized and affordable frames... until last Sunday.

And so:

Oh, yes, these are going on my wall.

She sells unsigned versions of these at 10 pounds apiece ($20 U.S.), and signed ones for 30 each ($60 U.S.). I got them for much, much less than that - because I'm a musician, proved to be a true fan, did my best to attend every single one of her performances in my part of the world... and took advantage of a sale on her website. 1+1+1= oh yeah.

There are days where I regret some of the choices I've made in my life, like foregoing on a hockey career to pursue my education, or choosing the least faithful out of two possible ladies as a long-term companion, or leading a relatively unhealthy lifestyle without the trade-off of at least feeling like it was worth the damage done.

But there are days where I tell myself that every choice I've made has led me right here, and there is no way I could possibly want to trade that away. This is one of them:

There is a God - he just hasn't made me a photographer. BEST BLACK DRESS, EVER; ALL-TIME GREATEST USE OF WIND. I even noticed the shoes, and I'm neither gay nor a lady! Oh, and superb signature. I nominate this as the greatest piece of human history ever created.

There is also this sexy bustier shot, which I had a blown-up poster of (unsigned) earlier in my life:

And this one, showing a rather large tattoo I had never noticed on her before (let me reiterate that I've seen her perform live and state for the record that I've met her maybe 5 years ago when she came to town to play an outdoors show at out Gay Pride festival):

Another cool black dress, the like of could have been worn in a sexy, almost-goth fashionable wedding à la November Rain, the epic 1992 Guns N' Roses video. I volunteer to be the groom.

This Week's Top 10s

Top 10 Songs:

10. ARABELLA, Arctic Monkeys (2014)
9. UNCONDITIONNAL LOVE, Against Me! (2014)
8. BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY, Timber Timbre (2014)
7. ORDINARY LOVE, U2 (2013)
6. FOR IT ALL NOW, Outernational (2013)
5. HIGGS BOSON BLUES, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2013)
4. BIG SHOT, The Pack A.D. (2013)
3. SHARP, Red Mass (2014)
2. DEMON, Kandle (2013)
1. SWEATPANTS, Childish Gambino (feat. Problem) (2014)

Top 10 April Returns From My Collectibles Blog:

10. DARRYL SUTTER (2 items)
9. JACOB MARKSTROM (3 cards)
8. JOEL OTTO (4 cards)
7. RÉJEAN LEMELIN (4 cards)
6. EDWARD PASQUALE (6 cards)
5. STÉPHAN LEBEAU (6 items)
4. SCOTT MELLANBY (6 cards)
3. CHARLIE HUDDY (7 items)
2. SVEN ANDRIGHETTO (8 items)
1. ROBERT MAYER (10 items)

R.I.P. Cassandra Lynn Hensley

(reposted from my collectibles blog)

R.I.P. Cassandra Lynn Hensley, who died two nights ago following an evening where cocaine and champagne were consumed after a time of not feeling well. She was 34 and leaves behind a daughter.

I didn't know the February 2006 Playboy Playmate Of The Month, but I do know models who did, and this has come as a shock to two of them in particular.

Her Twitter account still updates with her automatic daily horoscope, and the one published just hours after her death turns out to be eerie in retrospect:

Unspoken obligations prevent you from doing what you wish today. No matter what you do now, you might not feel completely fulfilled. Working harder isn't the answer, but neither is escape.

As a tribute, here is a card I got in a box of Benchwarmer's 2006 Holiday cards, an autographed insert (#15 of 16):

Model Citizen

As an ''old'' guy in my early 30s, I remember the days before the internet, where it was virtually impossible for a guy in Winter Wonderland to come into contact with California a top model who will fact-check his blog post herself.

This is exactly what happened to me when Kirsty Lingman (also known as Kirsty Lingman Santos) did so on my Collectibles blog.

There is no time like the present.

Blogger's Jinx

Read this.

First you'll think ''geez, is he a psychic''?

Now re-read his last 2 paragraphs. And hope all the people he's mentioning aren't getting jinxed!

My Collectibles' Posts This Past Month

In case you missed it, I talked about 3 NHLers on my Collectibles Blog this (slow) month:

Derek Roy, of the Buffalo Sabres
Pat Falloon in his Junior days with the Spokane Chiefs
Ted Drury, sporting Team USA colours

Soon I'll make my predictions for the upcoming NHL season.

Do You Like Contests?

(edit: the contest is now closed)

Do you like contests? I sure do.

And if you've ever read my collectibles blog, you'll notice I particularly enjoy entertainment and sports memorabilia.

This blog I've just started following has both, for the time being - a contest in which the prizes are sports collectibles.

And I encourage you to enter, but I would prefer if I were the winner. Tough conundrum, eh?

But contests are fun. Enjoy!

(the picture is from a mailing I received from NHL superstar Ryan Smyth, a.k.a. Captain Canada)

February's Collectibles

Here's a recap of the people I featured on my Collectibles Blog (and the item it stemmed from) in February:

Brian Gionta: 4 autographed hockey cards
Shea Weber: a swatch card
Jude Millien: autographed comic book
Shawn Horcoff: 4 autographed hockey cards
Max Pacioretty: a swatch card
Roberto Luongo: an autographed picture
Mike Fisher: 4 autographed cards

An author, 4 team captains, an alternate captain, and a promising young powerforward. At least February wasn't a complete loss.

I also got 4 cards from Alexandre Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks, but I'm still struggling to find the right words to it - I know, I usually never correct or edit myself, let alone come in with a plan before I start writing. But there are exceptions to every rule.

Word To VH1: Originality Is Allowed

(re-posted from my collectibles blog)

Just like the Yvette Nelson card I featured earlier, this superb Kiss Card is from Benchwarmer's 2007 Gold Edition set, and features Megan Hauserman, the 21st of only 24 models asked to kiss a card rather than autograph it. These cards are rare and quite valuable.


Since then, however, Megan has come a long way. She is pretty much VH1's go-to girl when it comes to Reality TV series, seeing as she's appeared in all of the following shows: Beauty And The Geek (Season 3), Rock Of Love (Season 2), I Love Money (Season 1), Rock of Love: Charm School, The Great Debate, Megan Wants A Millionaire, The Truth Commercial and, of course, Rock Of Love: Where Are They Now. So, really, it seems VH1 is really interested in finding this poor gal somebody to love. Unfortunately for them, it's been reported that she is currently engaged with one Anthony Scirpoli, of Cerca Trova Fashion, a jewelry company. I guess she found her millionaire after all.


She was rewarded for all her hard work in 2008, at the Fox Reality Awards by winning the coveted Best Awkward Moment trophy with Bret Michaels, for their moment in Rock Of Love 2.


Seriously, though, VH1 should branch out and try new people on their shows; it's becoming quite an incestuous relationship of spin-offs and sequels that never seem to end and just keep blending into one another. We know where this is going: they're trying to get Flavor Flav to hook up with Bret Michaels - not happening.

How I Used To Entertain Myself As A Child

(reposted from my collectibles blog at http://hellsvaluablecollectibles.blogspot.com/2010/03/peter-zezel-autographed-card.html)

I was always a fan of Peter Zezel. Well, not always, I didn't find out he even existed until the 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee set, but from the moment I saw his card, his name, his position, and his stats - I was fan. More so when I actually saw him play. I liked him so much that I'm willing to pretend he never played for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

What I used to do with hockey cards, in my parents' living room, in our apartment on the second floor of a duplex on Melrose between Terrebonne and Somerled, was take all my hockey cards, and hold drafts, separating all of my cards (from different years) and making new teams up, since most sets I had didn't have complete teams (say, all the Habs or all the Rangers).

I'd have favourites, of course, but I always tried to play it fair, letting the flow of the game - and the eccentricities of our carpeting - do their thing. ''My'' team, Les Nordiques de NDG, was always the one with Patrick Roy in nets, and was usually the only one who got the games where officiating was, shall we say, uneven. In the best of worlds, that Roy team would also have Al MacInnis on defense, but not always. But almost inevitably, it had Zezel at centre.

Each team would be comprised of 7 players (a goalie, three forwards, two defensemen, and a backup player in case of injury), and the puck was one that I took from my table hockey set. I kept full statistics of every game, that I wrote on endless sheets of loose leaf paper, then compile all the stats on other sheets, and actually hold 80-game seasons with full schedules that I'd pre-set by hand. And not just the easy stats like goals and assists, but also penalty minutes, powerplay goals (and assists), shorthanded goals (and assists), plus/minuses, empty-net goals, game-tying goals, game-winning goals, the first goal of a game, shots on goal, faceoffs taken and won, hat tricks... I was NHL 09 twenty years ahead of my time.

And many times, at season's end, he would be in the league top-5 for scoring, close to Wayne Gretzky, Peter Stastny, Mats Naslund, Brent Sutter and Brett Hull. He was even named League MVP a couple of times - yes, I even gave out all the awards, even the Rocket Richard trophy, 15 years before it even existed, known in my league as the Guy Lafleur trophy. Needless to say: Zezel was one of the very best players of the league that played out in my mind.

In real life, though he was a very good player, he was never quite as spectacular: four seasons with more than 20 goals, including one with 33, two seasons with 72 points (one with the Philadelphia Flyers and one with the St. Louis Blues), always among the league leaders in faceoffs won and reliable in his own end. All that, and a tendency to have as many penalty minutes as points. And two Stanley Cup finals as a Flyer, both lost to Gretzky's Oilers.

What I didn't know about Zezel (a Serbian name, originally, although he is a ''good Canadian boy'' from Toronto) was that he had hemolytic anemia, a rare blood disorder. It had messed with his health in 2001, and eventually claimed his life (after a spleen-removal surgery and subsequent brain hemorrhage) on May 26, 2009.

A few months ago, I saw a post on Sal's Autograph Blog, where he had purchased a Zezel-autographed card on Ebay, and mentions his small part in the Rob Lowe/Patrick Swayze film Youngblood (he even made fake hockey cards for his character in the movie, which you can find here). From then on, I was also on the lookout for a decently-priced Zezel card on Ebay.

I hoped it would be as the Flyers' #25, but I found this one instead: a 1990-91 Upper Deck (card #17). He appears as a Blues (even though the Blues sent him to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Geoff Courtnall in the off-season), but unlike Sal's card, which he signed in blue sharpie over a blue Blues jersey, mine was signed in black, which contrasts enough with his white uniform that the autograph seems clearer (and it looks sharp and great!), and the picture as well. And as Upper Deck was known to try to do at the time, the back picture features Zezel in the team's dark, away jersey. The best of both worlds.