Thank God for Camera Phones

This post is a follow-up to a couple of the stories we have recently run on Mr Science. This week, I have had the good fortune to meet a couple of superstars, directly related to our Mr Science topics.

We have done a couple of stories in the past on the science of music:

1. Can scientists predict your music taste, and
2. Music and Science on the brain

I was fortunate this week to meet one of my all-time favourite artists, Ben Folds, after his concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. I also managed to make a fool of myself in front of his wife, by commenting to my friend Laura, "You dressed up for Foldsie", and then when Mrs Folds, who was in front of us in the line, turned around, Laura said "Are you a Foldsie too?" meaning something like "Is your name also Folds?", whilst I exchanged smiles with her friend, who I thought at the time maybe liked me, but was clearly smiling at my stupidity. Then when we looked around from our seats a bit later, we commented when looking at the best seats, "That's where Ben Folds would seat his family, where Foldsie is sitting." It then sunk in that Foldsie was actually Frally Hynes, wife of Ben Folds and subject of many songs. Good one Marc.

We recently did a story on the science of soccer, and this week I had the fortune to meet the highest profile football player playing in Australia of recent years, and all-time great, Dwight Yorke. When a group of us wandered over to the local field for a game of soccer at lunch time, this big black 4WD pulled up, the window wound down, and the driver said, "Can we have a kick around with you, its your chance to play with a superstar." We were all thinking, "Who is this guy", until we looked passed him to the passenger seat, to see the diamond ear ring and gleaming white teeth of Dwight Yorke. When the 4WD finally returned, Dwight had changed into his sporting gear, and was accompanied by two lovely ladies and a minder, who went off to buy him prawns and whatever else he wanted. Dwight turned out to be a great guy just wanting to have a kick around before his long-hall flight back to English football.

Thank goodness for camera phones, otherwise I'd have no proof of these celebrity encounters (I have now got myself one too - these were taken by others - thanks to one of Dwight's lady friends, and to Laura's mum).