RAMONESFOREVER.COM: WARPED TOUR SAN DIEGO 06-07-06

July 6, 2006 I attended the 2006 Warped Tour in San Diego. On May 31st, I received an advanced notice from Arturo Vega that he was going to be a vendor at this year's tour. I live just a few minutes away from the venue and I told Arturo that I would stop by just to see him. Therefore I took the day off and bought a ticket not to see any band, but only to see Arturo. He is a very nice person and has been very kind to me. I wanted to take him a gift, therefore I put together a nice Ramones live collection of bootlegs for him on CDR. I took one recording for each year starting from 1976 through 1996. Twenty years of live fun on 20 CDR's.

My brother and I arrived at the venue without tickets. We saw many ticket lines and we decided to go to the front of the line and cut. It worked and we were now inside, looking for Arturo. There were thousands of people and many tents. In the far distance we saw "RAMONESWORLD.COM" We went to the large tent and saw Arturo. I went up to him and said "Senor Vega". We both speak Spanish and we greeted each other and spoke in Spanish the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there with him. I gave him the 20 bootlegs on CDR. It was great to see his reaction when I gave them to him. They brought back many memories.

We took a look at Arturo's great display of Ramones original memorabilia and official merchandise. His setup reminded me of the merchandise tables at the Ramones shows I attended. He had tons of merchandise for sale, ranging from shirts, hoodies, belts, pins..etc. I really liked his original memorabilia section. There were so many rare items there. Here is a quick list of items: Joey's on stage pants and glove, Dee Dee's bass guitar strap and lyrics to "Highest Trails Above", Johnny's on stage pants, shirts, shoes, receipt for first guitar purchase, passport, Tommy's lyrics to "Blitzkrieg Bop", CJ's 2001 MTV Music Award (see picture of me with it), first ever Ramones shirt from 1976 and tons of backstage passes. It was unbelievable to see such great memorabilia, I only wish that they were mine.

We spoke to him on and off for a long time. He was busy selling. We spoke about old times with the band, Joey's additional songs not on his solo album, watched live bootleg concert dvd's, etc. We also spoke about him assisting me with my website ramonesforever.com. It was in 2004 when he mentioned to me that he wanted to do something with my site. He told me that he would like to first start with writing the introduction to my site. I feel honored to have him even want to contribute to my site. I was glad that I was able to spend time with him. I feel that he truly knows that I am a big fan and big collector. I explained to him that at the moment I had over 1300 Ramones bootlegs and over 80 shirts, plus tons of other memorabilia. I have the feeling that this is only the beginning of some great contributions by the 5th Ramone.

Thank you Arturo.

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This is me holding CJ Ramone's actual MTV Award presented on September 6, 2001 by U2.

This is me with the legendary Arturo Vega. "I tell you, we are almost best friends...at least in my mind we are".

He said that he would start with writing the INTRODUCTION to my site. How cool is that!

I was speaking to Arturo's sidekick Mick Punk on how he became involved with ramonesworld.com.

This is my brother with Arturo Vega. Check out the great design on that shirt. I designed the shirt and gave one to Arturo.

He did not trust me with taking just one photo...he thought that I would mess up the picture.

Dee Dee's lyrics for "Highest Trails Above" and original Winter 1978 Tour Shirt.

Photo of Dee Dee wearing the shirt that inspired the shield on the Ramones logo.

Original concert ticket for the final show (show #2263) autographed by CJ, Dee Dee, Marky, Johnny and Joey.

Tour passes from Hollywood 1980, CJ's actual Lollapalooza pass and Japan 1990 tour.

Johnny's handwritten speech that he read during the Ramones induction to the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame on March 18, 2002.

Johnny's on stage shirt worn 07/14/98 while performing KKK Took My Baby Away with Pearl Jam.

This flag designed by Arturo Vega was supposed to be the cover of the Greatest Hits album released in June 2006. The record company wanted to save money and printed a simple black & white.