My friend and longtime FSM art director Joe Sikoryak has been blogging his memoirs which I’ve been enjoying—and have anticipated the moment when we cross paths circa 1996!
He reached it and it was lovely to read. It happened pretty much as he recalls. Long story short: I had always done my own layout, and it was terribly amateurish, but Joe wrote me to gently but firmly say I needed help—and I agreed!
I was a little afraid to read his take on it because I could be a bit blunt in those days (I like to think I’ve mellowed?), so who knows what offensive thing I might have said?
But it was really very sweet and thank you, Joe, for telling your side of it.
It continues to be heartwarming to hear memories from people who felt truly alone in their love of film music, until they chanced upon my little rag in the 1990s (before the Internet became big) and were like, WHOA!!! That was exactly why I made it.
One time I met Bill Maher (at a Seth MacFarlane party, so much name dropping) and said, “You’re probably tired of hearing this, but I love your show.” He said, “I’m never tired of hearing it.” I feel that way about people’s kind words of the old FSM.
Joe and I got together for a long collaboration and friendship with many happy memories. Here’s one from our early days (1998? those are my old college glasses) where I think we went to some record industry event because I had gotten on their PR list, and thought, why not?
If this is the event I’m thinking of, I found myself passing by Howard Stern, who is an extremely tall man—and I didn’t say anything to him, but it was like I was being shoved up against him by the crowd. So that was amusing, invading Howard’s personal space. I remember him whining to his entourage, “Everybody’s yelling at me!”
I also remember seeing Christina Aguilera, who looked like a bleached-blond Barbie doll on her way to the bathroom.
There you go, Joe, and so proud to dignify your memoir with trivial celebrity anecdotes!