Who?

Went to a little party held at the Samsung "We're not Apple!" Experience store this evening. Not a bad way to wrap up an evening: free drink, free air conditioning (because, somehow, it's tropical in NYC in October these past few days), free chance to ogle some nice techy equipment -- and a chance to equally ogle Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, who were present to announce a DVD set featuring live performances of "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia," plus some interviews, live clips and so on. (And, on your way out, a free copy of said DVD.) So, an all around swell evening. (Spotted: Ian Buchanan, who played Duke Lavery on "General Hospital," and shut up; a guy who I've seen in a million character parts who reminds me of Wallace Shawn yet is not Wallace Shawn; and, somewhere hiding in the back apparently -- Mike Meyers. And dozens of regular schmoes like me. An interesting collection of humanity.)

There is a point: Townshend strolled right in through the crowd, with a few bodyguards not having to really do much bodyguarding, went right up to the podium and hung around with some of the more official looking people. This is the genius of the band: He's the writer, he's the windmill guitarist, and off he goes like nobody even realizes that. Which of course they do; at least half of the room are Who fans.

Which they prove when Roger Daltrey strolls through, on the same course, a few minutes later. He's smaller and a lot less head-hairy (though far from losing it) than I'm expecting; I suppose the smaller part should be a given by now, they're all smaller than you expect, but I keep thinking he's going to have "Tommy" hair or something. Er, no. Anyway, I'm standing behind a low glass partition, raised up about a foot on the far side of the store, so I get a good look down on the group. He almost makes it to the stage area, then backs off and starts talking to people. And people take pictures. And everyone is suddenly taking pictures, with cell phones, with digital cameras, officially by asking and unofficially by just snapping, and surreptitiously by sneaking one in, and one woman next to me leans over the glass partition and even gets an autograph. He's eating it up in a generous, kind way and even stays in the audience when the presentation begins, thoughtfully pressing a finger up under his nose while the Samsung chief does his meandering introduction.

But there I am, looking at this whole spectacle and thinking: Cheez, that's a practiced professional. I can't imagine how I'd stand it with dozens of people clustered around me, all asking for something at once, all grabbing at me (not necessarily all at once), asking, poking, pestering, lights flashing. You hear stories about how "Jesus, [fill in your actor/musician/whoever] was such an asshole, he wouldn't even let me [take his picture/kiss his cheek/sign a paper for my kid]" and you can completely see how Daltrey could do this for probably hours and then, when he finally had enough and told one guy "Look, we've got to cut it off" -- that'd be the guy who'd go home and say that shit. Okay, 30-odd years in the limelight means you get a few chances to practice with the crowd. (And we all know The Who have not always had good luck with crowds.) But I just sat back and watched it all happen, completely impressed that he stepped on not one toe or hurt not one person's feelings and just hung with the group.

Classy.