Cool Stevie Mention

[gldstwmn]

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/7559775.htm

Party with a Vue
WELL-TRAVELED ROCKERS SIGN ON FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE GIG
By Jaan Uhelszki
Special to Mercury News

In 2001, the Vue's Jonah Buffa painted his face scarlet, rented a stretch limo and, with 11 friends, crashed Sheryl Crow's New Year's Eve party in the Hollywood Hills.

``That was the best New Year's Eve of my life,'' says the diminutive blond guitarist for San Francisco's pre-eminent garage rockers. ``We walked in, having gotten past security, and Sheryl Crow was standing at the door glaring at us. We all think, `No way is this going to work.' It was obvious we were crashing her party.

``But just when it seemed like we were going to get the boot, Minnie Driver spotted one of my friends, who works on the desk at the Mercer Hotel, and ran over to him and gave him a big hug. You should have seen the look on Sheryl Crow's face. But after that, there really wasn't anything she could do.''

Buffa, who resembles a young Brian Jones down to the flinty cheekbones, spent the night hobnobbing with the likes of Blythe Danner, Stevie Nicks, Robert Downey Jr., Heidi Fleiss and Marianne Faithful.

Buffa says he didn't know who Faithful was at first, ``until someone pulled me aside to tell me. She was so normal, and spent the night telling me about her sick mother in Berlin.''