Something lodged in ignition!

Hi All
Here's my crisis with my 2000 e39
I think a piece of lint or other debris from my pocket rode my key into the ignition keyhole and was jammed down into the mechanism. Now the key will not work. I can't turn the key at all, and the car is completely useless. The steering and auto trans are locked up.
I felt some obstruction when I inserted the key and when I pulled it out, there was a bit of lint on the end. I assume the rest of the lint is in there preventing electrical contact.
I can't see what's in there, but I've tried picking it out, but no luck so far.
I'm assuming I'll need to get it towed and then suffer an expensive cleaning/repair/replacement.
Any thoughts?
How long would it take a trained mechanic to fix this? Is it even fixable?
Anyone know of any web-based tutorials on how to disassemble the ignition? I'm by no means a mechanic, but I've done a few repairs and am willing to try to crack this thing open and take a look.

Going to the store now to buy some canned air and also will try to manufacture a mini-vac with a canned-air straw, duct tape and shop-vac.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

The electrical contacts are in the ignition switch that is on the other side of the key barrel, so electrical contact isn't your issue. If the lint is your issue, it is probably preventing the key from going in all the way, try and suck it out with a vacuum.

Success!
It seems the combination of canned-air blasting, newly-constructed micro vac and digging for an hour with a bent wire did enough for me to get the car started. It requires pushing hard on the key, and then turning, but it seems consistent enough for now.
Not sure how much I want to spend on a new ignition assembly... or how long my remedy will last.

wow. good luck with this one.

You may want to pull the lock cylinder out and try cleaning it out with it out of the steering column. Do you know how to get it out?

... and lube the tumbler with TriFlow.