Cameo

There is a website called Cameo where you can pay for personalized messages by celebrities. This is an absolutely brilliant idea. The phrase "absolutely brilliant" should only be said in a British accent. Anyway, I've explored the website a little lately, and I can probably spend many more hours there. Here's what I found so far.

The first item I searched for was Pittsburgh Steelers. Naturally, Hall of Famers like Jerome Bettis ($300), Rod Woodson ($175), Dermontti Dawson ($100) were the most expensive. I feel like Arthur Moats ($25) and my new favorite player Zach Banner ($35) are bargains. I also believe that either Merril Hoge ($60) isn't charging enough or Xavier Grimble ($60) is charging too much. As a bit of a tangent, a few weeks ago, Steelers Depot posted this quote from Terry Bradshaw on Twitter, "The most money I ever made was $300,000. And back then you were paying fifty cents of that to the government, so add it up. Everything I had, I had to borrow money. I even mortgaged my NFL contract to buy a ranch and a tractor and a cutter to cut hay. Why did I mention this? Bradshaw is charging $500 for a Cameo!

You may remember the song "Say Hey I Love You" by Michael Franti and Spearhead from about a decade ago.



I'll admit that I only know Franti from this song, so I was surprised that a Cameo from him is $175 while one from Mya, who may be best known from batting lead-off in Lady Marmalade, but who also appeared in movies and Dancing With The Stars is $150.

Flavor Flav was a member of Public Enemy and starred in the reality television dating show Flavor of Love. When I first drafted this post, a Cameo from Flavor Flav was $350. Apparently, there is now a sale on getting a message from Flav as the price is $250.

Let's say that you want to get a message from a former world leader. Well, you're in luck! Just get a Cameo from former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox for $255. Want to get a message from a former state leader who served time in jail? You're in luck again! Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is on here for $80 (or slightly less than a Merril Hoge / Arthur Moats combo). By the way, if Donald Trump loses in November, I can easily see him charging $1000 per video, and if that happens, I hope someone has him say "person, woman, man, camera, TV" over and over again. (This statement makes more sense when you watch the amazing rambling that starts around the 2:30 mark of this video.)



Pittsburgh Pirates fans! I know there are still some of us out there. 2018 first round draft pick Travis Swaggerty could be a bargain at $15. Former Pirate Aramis Ramirez is definitely a bargain at $15. 2020 opening day starter Joe Musgrove is $50. Trevor Williams was $25 and Cole Tucker was $50, but they're now both temporarily unavailable. Maybe they're too busy with the start of the season. Actually, if Musgrove has a bad start on Friday, I'm blaming it on the fact that he's too busy being on Cameo and not spending enough time watching videos to prepare for the game!

Andrew McCutchen is on there for $150. I mention this for all of the Penguins fans out there. Cutch was an MVP for the Pirates. Alex Galchenyuk played a whopping 45 games for the Pens this season before getting traded in February to the Minnesota Wild for Jason Zucker. In his 8 NHL seasons, Galchenyuk has 108 goals and 147 assists. That's not bad, but Galchenyuk has never been an all star. I mention this because, although his Cameo is temporarily unavailable, it costs $180 to get one from him. There's no world where anything associated with Galchenyuk should be worth more than anything associated with McCutchen. He's just so cool.

Otherwise, the Penguins are vastly underrepresented on Cameo. George Laraque is available for $70, Frank Corrado who played 7 games for the Pens is there for $10, while penguins at the Philadelphia zoo is listed at $40. Sadly, it doesn't appear that the penguins actually talk much in the videos.



Finally, I noticed that there is a category for bloggers. And there are 768 bloggers listed! 768! This can't be correct since there are only about 100 active bloggers still writing. Maybe this is the way that I can finally make big money from my blog. How much would you pay for me to make a video wishing you a happy birthday or anniversary? I mean, I know that priceless is the likely answer, but how about $2000? Maybe $1000? I mean, the most money I ever made was $300,000 before taxes. I borrow money and even mortgaged my blogging contract to buy a ranch and a tractor and a cutter to cut hay, so I think I'll start asking for $500!

One more finally, finally. I can't have a post about Cameo without including this song.



Although this post was not sponsored by Cameo, I really wish that it was. Maybe the company will see this and let me send a message for free. I mean, it wouldn't be at the Terry Bradshaw or Flavor Flav level, but someone from Below Deck Mediterranean would be fine.

The Moose Runs For Office

My eight year old son, The Moose, is running for his third grade classroom Student Council Representative. The Student Council is made up of two representatives from each classroom and meets once or twice a month to improve the school and community. I have no idea what that means. I mean, I know what it means, but I'm not sure how they accomplish this. I'll share his platform and portions of his speech momentarily, but it's nice to see him following in his father's footsteps.

Yes, I was a class officer during my junior year of high school (and also served in Student Government in college). How did I get elected an officer in my 450+ high school class? I still have no idea. I knew it made no sense to run for President or Vice President. The President during our sophomore year was (and still is) intelligent and very popular becoming Homecoming Queen during our Senior Year. She was also possibly the best soccer player I played against. I remember shadowing her in a game when I was probably 13 or 14 and was excited to hold her to one goal in our team's victory. I'm pretty sure that she's a doctor now. Our Vice President was known in the area for her acting, and she was the lead in our high school musicals. I believe that she also earned a Gene Kelly Award nomination during our Senior year. She continued in acting after graduation appearing in at least one Sex in the City episode and the film Failure to Launch. All I remember about the movie was that Terry Bradshaw was awful in it. Actually, was he naked in it? That's something I don't want to think about ever again. She's now a lawyer (the vice president, not Terry Bradshaw).

Anyway, I decided to run for class secretary. While I don't remember making any speeches or having any type of platform, I made a few posters that weren't very exciting. Somehow I won. I helped put together our homecoming float and organize the Junior/Senior prom (even though I didn't go). Apparently, this was not enough to get reelected during my senior year. Of the four class officer positions, the president, vice president, and treasurer were all the same all three years. The secretary was the same during my sophomore and senior years. I went down as a footnote only to be remembered if someone is looking in our junior year yearbook.

As for The Moose, he has a solid plan. He wants hour-long PE (physical education), music, library, and technology. I mean, it’s not like the teachers and school administration can extend times for specials in the middle of the year, but his third grade classmates don’t know this. He also wants longer recess with more gym equipment (specifically balls) and monkey bars. The extra physical activity makes sense since the kids will need to work off the calories from his plan of having cookies available for sale in the cafeteria every day. He also wants to have a school shirt day. I’m pretty sure the school already has a school spirit day, but I like the idea. Besides his platform, The Moose wants classmates to vote for him because he is friendly, likes sports, and wants to make the school a better place. He has my vote! Plus, I can guarantee that he won’t threaten, bully, or insult people on Twitter (or in person).

I'll let you know how he does. The Moose practiced his speech that he's giving to his class many, many times.

Update: Although The Moose did not win, he said that he finished 2nd out of 6 candidates. He was very pleased with himself and his speech, and I'm really proud of him for trying this. Now, I'll have to teach him how to lobby his classroom representative to try to extend PE, music, etc. and get cookies in the cafeteria every day!

Friday Video: Terry Bradshaw on Blossom

Terry Bradshaw. Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame quarterback. Television analyst. Author and singer. Bradshaw is all of these things as well as an actor appearing in films such as The Cannonball Run, Smokey and the Bandit II, and the awful Failure to Launch. Bradshaw also had television appearances in The League, Las Vegas, and Malcolm in the Middle. Perhaps hidden on his resume is Bradshaw's 1994 appearance on the television show Blossom starring Mayim Bialik and Joey Lawrence. Whoa! Here's Bradshaw playing Lawrence's coach and a video of the whole episode. Enjoy!

Enjoy your Friday and weekend!

Pittsburgh Heroes Invade Chantilly, Virginia

The sports memorabilia industry is a big business. Want to know how big? I have no idea, but I’m sure someone out there knows. Let’s just say that it’s more than $1 million (feel free to use your best Dr. Evil voice here).

This weekend, March 14-16, the Collectors’ Showcase of America invades the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Some of the “guests” scheduled to appear include Terry Bradshaw, Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Rocky Bleier, Ralph Kiner, Terry Hanratty, Donnie Shell, Andy Russell, Antwaan Randle El (he’ll always be a Steeler to me), Dave Parker, Mark May and Hines Ward. I did mention that this show takes place in the Washington DC area and not Western Pennsylvania, didn’t I?

Although tickets to the event are only $5, the big money to be made by the “guests” and spent by the attendees comes from autographs. Do you want Hines Ward to sign a jersey? That will be $139. How about an Alexander Ovechkin puck? $100. An autograph by Garo Yepremian? $30. (Are there really people who are willing to spend $30 on a Garo Yepremian autograph?) Although Joe Theismann may or may not sign your fantasy football league trophy named in his honor, Joe Greene will not sign any Coca-Cola memorabilia. In addition, there is no word on whether Terry Bradshaw will sign a movie poster of the terrible film Failure to Launch.

More information about the show is available on the Collectors’ Showcase of America website. In addition, it looks like there will be approximately 100 dealers at this event. I wonder if any of them would be interested in buying an autographed Sammy Khalifa picture.