The unexpected benefits of being a 1heckofaguy fan

[brightnow]

(The story is real, took me a little while to actually get to writing it down)

May 29, 2009 was one of the best days of my life. I woke up that morning, the proud owner of a plane ticket to Boston and a fifth-row ticket to Leonard Cohen's concert at the Wang theater that night. I landed at Logan International without incident and took the T downtown. My room was booked at the Courtyard across the street from the Wang. The rain had stopped and it was a pleasant walk from the Boston Common down to the hotel. One block away from the hotel I stopped to admire the theater's marquee sporting a portrait of The Man and announcing the two upcoming concerts, I took out my camera and snapped a picture. "That would be a great picture to start the concert report thread with" I thought, and a few minutes later, from the desk in my hotel room, I did just that.

The concert was marvelous, that's to be expected. What I did not expect was the message I received a few days later from Allan Showalter (AKA DrHeckGuy) asking for permission to use my photo on his site 1heckofaguy.com. I've been a fan of 1heckofaguy for quite some time as every Leonard Cohen fan should be; it is extremely informative and incredibly funny. Honored, I thanked the good doctor for noticing my work and equipped him with a high-resolution version of the picture. To this day, having contributed to 1heckofaguy.com is something I am very proud of.

Fast forward five months to the morning of November 3rd, when I arrived at the box office of the Durham Performing Arts Center to pick up a pair of front row tickets (!) for what was to be my last Leonard Cohen concert of the year. Not many people pick up tickets at 11:00am so the scene was relaxed and pleasant. The man behind the counter gave me my tickets and asked if I needed anything else. I thanked him and turned to leave, but then a thought crossed my mind: the marquee photo worked so well for me in Boston, why not try to repeat it? the lobby was lined with posters for many upcoming shows so I asked the man behind the counter (who turned out to be the venue's manager) to point me in the direction of tonight's show poster. He asked me to wait and went back to ask his staff. A few minutes later he came out of a side door holding the poster. "Here" he said "it turns out that we never put it up, I'm sorry about that. You can have it". I wasn't sure what to say, a few seconds of stunned astonishment went by and then I thanked him and took my free poster!

So take note guys: 1heckofaguy.com -- it's the place to go for rare Leonard Cohen recordings, exclusive interviews, hilarious puns and... free posters.

[MaryB]

Way to go Avi!!!

In Vegas, asking everyone possible about getting one of the posters, the end result was that they were the property of the promoter and they were to be returned to the promoter. If I remember correctly, all these posters were generic, no dates, showing World Tour 2009, and no venue. Did yours actually show the venue name and date?

Best regards,
Mary

(P.S. You're so right about Alan's site, so incredible and packed with information!)

[mutti]

I love Alan's site and think he is 1 heck of a guy!
Thanks Alan...
Leslie

[bridger15]

Avi, what a beautiful story and a wonderful idea starting this thread. I just have one question.
I recognize Allan aka 1heckofaguy/Dr HGuy in this photo, but who is the other guy?
---Arlene