Resolute

My New Year's post is over at My First Kiss.

But right here, right now, I want to thank each and every one of you who stop by to check out my pictures and incessant blathering.

I hope you'll stick around for 2007. I'm shooting to finish Everybody I Shot Is Dead finished this year. Reader encouragement is most appreciated.

This is dedicated...

Everybody I Shot Is Dead will be dedicated to four people. Although not musicians per se, all four are rock stars in their own right. And each of them played an important part in helping me realize my rock'n'roll dreams.

Today is the 12th anniversary of the death of one of my dedicatees. She was the coolest of the cool. She was also kind enough to save my ass on more than one occasion.

Maureen Starkey
8/4/46 - 12/30/94

I took this photo in 1977 by the lake at Friar Park. Yeah, that would be George Harrison's house in Henley-on-the-Thames. Of course, I'm saving the full story and more pictures for the book.

If you want to pay tribute to Maureen, pull out your Beatles White Album and listen to The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill. She sings back-up.

Dennis Wilson

He died 23 years ago today.

12/4/44 - 12/28/83

Listen to Good Vibrations and keep him in your thoughts.

Season's Greedies

Converting Sucks!

Last night I wrote a scathing post about the suckiness of Blogger because I've been having a shitload of trouble since I converted this blog over to the new version. I saved the scathing post as a draft to upload later today because I didn't want to take any focus away from Maurice Gibb's birthday post. Happy Birthday, Maurice!

But today, I finally solved the second biggest problem I was having...it had to do with editing my links, since my first huge problem was the disappearance of my access to my MY FIRST KISS blog (as in, I had no access to post...and still don't) and having recreated that blog over at Wordpress I needed to edit the link from here to there instead of the now dormant and inaccessable Blogger version. (nice grammatically structured sentence, Chesher) (thank you for noticing)

What did I learn today? There was another step to upgrading this blog that they neglected to point out. And their Help Center is not structured for people who think logically. But I am such a genius, I finally cracked their secret code and fixed the links on the sidebar. Yeah technically challenged me.

If you're too lazy to find the link over there, just click this one:

MY FIRST KISS

If you are one of my awesome readers that has linked to My First Kiss on your blog, please edit the link. And my apologies for the trouble. I'd post the move on the Blogger version of My Firsst Kiss, but I can't access it. Can't even delete the damn thing. I now know what it feels like to be tied up and ______ (fill in the blank). I hate Blogger.

Sorry for the rant and thanks for reading. I now return you to our regular broadcast.

Another Birthday

Happy 57th Birthday, Maurice!

12/22/49 - 1/12/03

We miss you.

Two Birthdays

Happy 60th Birthday, Carl!

Carl Wilson
12/21/46 - 2/6/98


Happy 66th Birthday, Frank!

Frank Zappa
12/21/40 - 12/4/93

Odd fact: Frank was born on Carl Wilson's birthday and died on Dennis Wilson's birthday.

HELP!!!

I'm going insane. Can someone help me? Please?

Several people contacted me saying they were having trouble posting comments on this blog. So, yesterday, I finally decided to switch the blog to the new version. Now Blogger requires me to sign in with my gmail account. No biggie. Except for some reason, I can't access my new blog. This blog is the only one that shows up on the Blogger Dashboard. When I try to sign in with my username for My First Kiss it sends me to window and signs me in under the gmail username and then opens up Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

If you are reading this and have any technical knowledge (read that as: if you happen to be a closet hacker), I am begging for your help. Pretty please. Don't want to out yourself in the comments section? Email me.

Hank Snow

May 5, 1914 - December 20, 1999

He's singing in heaven but his legacy on Earth is alive and well here.

Paul Butterfield

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAUL

He would have been 64 today, December 17th.

Four things Paul Butterfield wants you to do to celebrate his birthday:

1. Crank up a Butterfield CD. Currently playing on my itunes: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, East-West and Paul Butterfield's Better Days.

2. Visit his My Space site : Paul Butterfield (you can hear Born In Chicago there).

3. Join the Paul Butterfield Fund and Society yahoo group, run by Paul's son Gabe Butterfield and the lovely Salli Squitieri. They have lots of info for blues fanatics and do great work in the blues community.

4. Sign the petition to get Paul in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Ahmet Ertegun

Who knows where music would have been without him?

Ahmet Ertegun
1923-2006

Classroom In A Book

I just finished Lesson 1 of 13 in my Adobe GoLive Classroom in a Book. The book said Lesson 1 would take 2 hours. I think it took me 4. But that includes driving to Starbucks for a refill, checking email and watching TV. Focus problems here?

What made it even worse was that I should already know this program. After all, I built my company site for Chesher Cat Productions. Using GoLive. So, why am I finally going through the 13 lessons now? Well, first off, I haven't updated my site in so long I've pretty much forgotten how to do it. And secondly, I have internet plans that requires extensive web building knowledge. Like putting up video clips. And interactive secure purchasing features.

I was initially planning to hire someone to help out with my retail site but I didn't find anyone. As usual, I'm on my own. My once-a-week (now once-every-other-week since he got a job at the DGA) assistant has just about finished inventory on my Starart stash. The idea is to build a virtual Starart store and sell what's left of the stash. Lots of art prints. A few of the original books that were for sale in bookstores. And some of the Limited Edition leatherbound books that were numbered and signed by the artists. I also have someone digitizing my video and audio tapes from way back then - including my interviews with the artists I did for the text part of the book, my appearance on Merv Griffin (with Jay Leno sitting next to me) and a bunch of video with the artists from the gallery shows. These files will be edited into clips and posted on the Starart store site for your viewing and aural pleasure.

There will also be a virtual store for the Limited Edition series of my rock'n'roll photography (Tom Waits will be the initial offering). I'm still figuring out the best way to structure the releases - number of prints, sizes, etc. And, I'm doing the 13 lessons which will hopefully teach me how to set up the credit card deal and shipping info and all that other important technical stuff that I have no clue about. As it stands now, the Chesher Cat site is simple, simple, simple. Nothing moves. No bells and whistles. Just point and click. Quick and easy. And unaccommodating for my future endeavors. The rest of the lessons are supposed to take an hour each. Maybe I'll be done and building by Christmas.

Wish me luck. Or if you have any experience with retail sites and want to give me advice, I'm all ears. Really. Any and all input is appreciated.

Huh?

Can anybody explain this email I got today?

Dear blog author:

We recently came across your site, everybodyishotisdead.blogspot.com , while searching for bloggers who blog about the NBA.

A small group of us have started a new site called NBA Bloggers . Our intent is to bring basketball bloggers closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community.

Would you be interested in joining NBA Bloggers ? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign up page to get the ball rolling. We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavour.

If you do not feel that your blog would be a good fit for NBA Bloggers but like to read about your favorite sports team, come visit us for some great content from our growing list of blog authors. You can also check our FAQ Section to learn more about NBA Bloggers

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you on NBA Bloggers .


Craig Cantin
NBA Bloggers


Have I ever mentioned the NBA or basketball?

Um....no.

Oops. Until now.

Blue Oyster Cult - Backstage

These are the formerly lost but newly found BOC backstage photos as requested by new reader, Chris Baker. I could not deny him (I hope you are a guy, Chris). He's seen Blue Oyster Cult 70 times. Since I misidentified or could not identify the members of the band in the live shots, I'm counting on Chris to pick me up on these shots. Of course, then I'll edit the post so I don't look like such an idiot.

Okay...that's Eric Bloom on the right and Frank Gigliotti from CBS Records
on his left. Don't know who's on the far left.

Help me here, Chris.

Ummm...

...and...

Ha...I know this one...Eric Bloom being interviewed by Tom Harrison.
Can't remember who Tom was writing for then, but I hear he's still going
strong with the Vancouver Province. Check out that reel-to-reel he used.

Anybody know what Eric is showing Tom?

Sadly, crappy eats on the table.

I'm guessing he doesn't know who he is either.

Chris: If you can ID the girls you get bonus points.

And if you talk to Albert, I'd be interested to know if he remembers coming to my house. Hopefully, his memory is better than mine and he can fill me in on what really happened. Whoever was recording was also really happy we were on the final approach path of the airport. I wonder if any of his audio tapes still exist?

The previously posted live BOC shots are here.

A Scanner Demon

Going wild on scanning. It's really fun, especially with the black and whites. I keep finding wonderful surprises. It's like Christmas every day. And today was no different.

I scanned my Papa John Creach negs (tell me you know who he is). I surprised myself with a couple of very cool backstage shots of him. I need to figure out where I shot him. Looks like a club.

Then I did my Marc Bolan black and whites to add to the color slides I scanned previously. I have some great shots of him. I'm guessing T-Rex headlined with Blue Oyster Cult opening because...surprise...the negs had backstage shots of BOC, then live shots of Bolan, then more backstage of BOC. Let me know if you want to see the BOC backstage stuff and I'll post some. I have live BOC photos posted here, in case you missed them back in April. Is it true that nobody reads blog archives?

I wish I'd been more organized with logging who I shot, when I shot them and where. I have this three-page list that I hand-printed way back when, but it's nowhere near complete...even within the list. And my memory? Well, we can forget about that.

When It Snows

I'm scanning my Hank Snow black and white negs today and at the bottom there's a neg strip with two images on it. In glancing at it I thought it was a couple of backstage shots of Hank Snow. So, I scanned it.

Not Hank Snow. Nothing to do with Hank Snow. Not the same job, not even the same record company.

Here's the best of the two pics:


Shot in Vancouver at the C-FUN radio station. Are they still around? Totally did not remember doing this until I saw the picture. That cool shot of Chuck Berry is also mine. One I'm planning for my Limited Edition Print Series.

The girl on the right is/was my client, Monica Netupsky. She worked really hard for a record distributor that handled a lot of the independent labels. She's also in a backstage photo of the Al Stewart band that I posted a while back. I really liked Monica. We became good friends. She had the biggest record collection I have ever seen. Walls and walls of vinyl in the basement of her parents' house in North Vancouver.

Monica gave me the one contact I had when I moved to Los Angeles. I owe her. I'm really sorry I lost touch with Monica. If any of you know who she is and where I can find her, please let me know.

Now, back to scanning Mr. Snow. Appropriate for the season.

Let it Snow
Let it Snow
Let it Snow...