Cucumber Rob

Some of you know him through previous posts on my blog.

For those of you who have missed those posts, meet Cucumber Rob:

I'm glad his name isn't Richard. Or am I?

Anyway, I have plenty of New York/London posts to post that include CR but alas, I am still buried in bat shit (literally) and unable to get to them as they require a lot of photo editing and reliving the memories of the moment and such.

But something just happened that I am compelled (actually, kind of pissed off) to post. First off, when Cucumber Rob blew into town last Tuesday (bringing his miserable English weather along with him) he brought me a very nice gift. Then today, just when Cucumber Rob was fading into distant memory status, another nice gift shows up.

How could he do that? How am I supposed to take the piss out of him if he keeps bestowing thoughtful gestures on yours truly? How dare he? It's heresy, I tell you. Grounds for immediate arrest and incarceration.

The first gift he must have searched for far and wide. It's a triple CD set of the Led Zeppelin concert I shot in Vancouver on March 20, 1975. I mean who would even want something like that? It's so last century.

Then with the gift that arrived today came a card that said, "Thanks for putting up with my chaos and being such fun. See you next time. Rob" Puh-leeze. What kind of tactics are you trying to pull here, mister? Whatever you're doing, it's not going to work. You still can't park a car, Cucumber Rob. And don't think this is going to stop me from putting up those pictures of you with that---

Anyway, here's a photo that I took of the gifts from Cucumber Rob. If you happen to run into him (he's currently in Long Island and tomorrow he'll be on a plane back to Jolly Olde England) tell him the buttering up thing ain't gonna work.

(this photo taken with the latest iPhone scratch and sniff technology, so have at it)

Feel free to make a comment in defense of yourself, Cucumber. If you can't figure out how to find the icon that gets you to the comment section of the blog (Cucumber Rob needs a lot of assistance in these areas) you can email it to me and I'll post it for you. You do remember how to email, don't you?

Papa John Creach

Trying really hard to catch up on my life. Since getting back from the New York/London trip (which I still have more to write about) three weeks ago, I have been slammed with work. Mostly design stuff for the Cannes Film Festival. it was completely insane this year and seemingly never-ending.

Now I face a heavy schedule of re-organization, accounting catch-up (I have yet to deal with my '07 taxes) and pushing forward with book/photography business including preparation for a bunch of exciting events coming up in June (more on those later).

In the meantime, I fell short on celebrating Papa John Creach's birthday with you last Thursday - May 8th. As it happened, things got a little out of hand last week because Cucumber Rob dropped in from the UK. Being concerned for the citizens of Los Angeles county, I took it upon myself to shuttle Cucumber Rob around town - I can't even imagine the carnage that he would have left in his wake if I'd turned him loose on the streets in his faux PT Cruiser rent-a-car.

How does Cucumber Rob relate to PJC you ask? Well, one of his meetings I crashed was on Friday with a very cool dude named Michael. Michael has been and is involved on a management and production level with many of the major 60s and 70s Bay Area bands. I don't have to name them for you, do I? Just pick one and assume he was there.

If you've read my book, you know how much I loved shooting Papa and how I was taken with his warmth and elegance. After looking through my book, Michael told me a little story about Papa John that really reflects the beauty of the man. One time they were heading overseas for some tour dates - Papa John's first time out of the U.S. When they were asked to show their passports at the airport, Papa pulled out a xerox copy of his. Michael asked him where his real passport was and Papa told him he'd left it at home where it would be safe. He said his original passport was just too important of a document to be carrying around.

Papa John Creach would have turned 91 on May 8th.

This is one of my many favorite photos of Papa:


And Papa John playing live with Hot Tuna:

Butter

I missed another one. I'm still having trouble believing that it's May. Yesterday, May 4th, was the 21st anniversary of Paul Butterfield's death. I not only had the opportunity to photograph Paul, but by some stroke of luck I ended up hanging out with him and a few friends one night - I should say all night - several years later in NYC. It was an interesting night, to say the least. It's all in my book if you want to check it out.

Here's my favorite picture of him:



And here's some live Butter from Monterey in 1967:

Palm Springs Book Festival

Need something to do this weekend? How about a weekend getaway to Palm Springs?

Come see me at the Palm Springs Book Festival this Sunday!

The details:

Third Annual Palm Springs Book Festival

Sunday, May 4th 2008 (10:00am - 6:00pm)

Palm Springs High School
2401 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs 92262
Information (760) 564-3112

My panel is “Lessons I’ve Learned as a Photographer” at 1:00pm on the Arts and Letters stage, followed by a book signing at 2:30pm.

The two other panelists are former L.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti and famed jazz photographer Herman Leonard, so even if I suck it should be really good.

There’s more info on their website including a listing of all the attending authors and events.

Hope to see you there!

Steve Currie

27 years and one day have passed since T-Rex bass player Steve Currie was killed in a single vehicle crash near his home in Spain at the age of 33.

This is the one and only photo I took of him...but one of my favorites.

Here he is with Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn (also passed) at a UK show in 1972.

The Fest for Beatle Fans

Dateline March 28 - 30, 2008 (wow...I'm almost a month behind)

In all the 30+ years the Fest for Beatle Fans (aka Beatlefest) has been going on, I had never been. I probably could have participated with Starart since Klaus Voormann was one of the artists and there is a lot of Beatle related art in the book. But I didn't. And it turns out that Mark - the guy that runs/owns the Fest - attended the gallery opening of Starart on Klaus' invitation. What the hey?

We were up fairly early - ten-thirty is early if you didn't get to bed until 3am, right? - on day one of the Fest and on the road in our SUV to pick up the Everybody I Shot Is Dead display prints and books at Fed-X somewhere in New Jersey. That was easy-peasy with the help of my iphone GPS mapping feature. We arrived at the hotel in Seacaucus around 1pm giving us four hours to set up before the doors opened. Seems like a long enough time to set up one 4x6 table...maybe even long enough to catch some lunch and a beer in the hotel bar?

Wrong.

It turned out there was no wall behind our table as I had been promised, meaning I could not display any of my prints. So we had to hi-tail it over to the local Home Depot (thanks to iphone we found one in a jiffy) and pick up a couple of plywood panels to prop up behind the back table. of course we didn't cut them down enough so they had to be taken back for a trim. Then we had to get some white sheets to wrap them in and some bungee cords to hold them in place.

As the five o'clock hour rolled around and the throngs of Beatle fans stampeded through the doors, we were still setting up. It really pissed me off that our neighbor to the right showed up at 4:45 and was set up and ready to sell promptly at 4:59. Meet my neighbor:

Not in a million years did I think I'd ever live next door to a Munster. Even if it was only for three days. My close proximity to Butch made Rob (see the guy three posts down with the cucumber in his mouth) extremely jealous. Seems that cucumbers aren't his only fetish!

The three days pretty much blurred into one long stretch. Long hours, a lot of talking, meeting lots of very nice people, eating crappy food, selling some books and prints and tee shirts, eating more crappy food, meeting more nice people, talking and talking and talking.

This was our table. That's Tyler helping out a customer. I couldn't have managed without him.

We shared this delectable delight...two times...yikes.

Snack time.

My lunch on day two. It was very good. Thank you, Tyler.

Too many Beatles. They were everywhere. Why?

That's me onstage speaking about my many Beatle-related experiences.
The photo is not blurry...I am.
Never looked better.

Overall I had a really good time and as I said, met many wonderful people. It's nice to get out of my lonely lair every once in a while. I thinking about going to the next Fest for Beatle Fans. It's in Vegas at the end of June. I can drive there. And I can play blackjack. That might be fun. Oh yeah, Rob's going to be there. I can spend three days taking the piss out of him. That might be even more fun.

See y'all on the Strip.

Pete Ham Forever 27

Badfinger's Pete Ham passed away 33 years ago today, just four days before he would have turned 28. His is one of the more rock'n'roll tragic stories. But I don't want to dwell on that. I prefer to celebrate Pete Ham. His life. His music. His legacy.

Say a prayer for him and his family today. Then turn on and turn up some Badfinger tunes over the next five days.

Pete Ham
April 27, 1947 - April 23, 1975

To get the party started, here are just two of the many brilliant songs from Badfinger. Without You and No Matter What.