Top Ten List

The Top Ten reasons I haven't been posting as often as I should:

10. There are two movie posters I have to design and complete printing on a catalogue by October 30. One poster is for Beyond Loch Ness. I did my required two comps and then realized the second one was eerily similar to another design I had done for the same company a couple of years ago (although I have no idea what movie). The second one is Termination Point with Jason Priestley and Lou Diamond Phillips. I haven't finished that one yet - even though it's due tomorrow - because they sent 5 DVDs of stills for me to wade through. That's about 3000 photos, mostly repetitive. Aack!

9. Take tomorrow's schedule, for instance...(a) drop car off to the mechanics (last time I took it in was 15,000 miles ago...oops), (b) pick up rental car, (c) drop an advance copy of the book to my publicist, (d) stop by photo lab doing the prints for the gallery shows and tell them I don't like the test printings and discuss the possibly of them just doing the color but on a different paper, (e) stop by two other labs to discuss the possibilities of them doing the black and white prints (old school style) for the gallery shows, (f) call scanner dude and see if he can whip out two large prints for a TV show I'm taping on Wednesday (even though they're in the midst of moving to a new building), (g) make an in-person sales call on Virgin, (h) make another stop to pick up my tickets for the Elizabeth: The golden Age premiere, (i) get back to the office to do the regular work.

8. Read my book in preparation for a Tuesday morning radio interview. It's for the Young & Verna show and will be geared to the country people in the book, but the guy that's interviewing me also wants to do a second interview geared to the rock musicians as well. I think it all goes through Westwood One and the interview[s] could end up on hundreds (300 - 500) of radio stations, including the Armed Forces radio. No idea when and where it's going to air, but if anybody happens to hear me on the radio please let me know when, where, and on what show.

7. Prepare for the TV interview on Wednesday. I'll be on Joan Quinn Profiles. It's a national cable show and important because it's not only a respected author interview show with the die hard book-buying public but we will also use the tape to show that I don't look and sound like a complete dufus on TV. Problem is, it's a small show so I have to provide the show and tell - blow-up prints for the set and mounted pages from the book that Joan can hold up as I talk about the book. And there's no make-up person so I have to find someone. And I have to mentally prepare just like I do for every interview.

6. Thursday morning I am flying out of Burbank to Seattle, picking up a rental car and driving up to Vancouver. Why wouldn't I just fly right into Vancouver, you ask? My Canadian passport renewal is still being processed (watch...it will arrive in my mailbox on Wednesday) and as of tomorrow, October 1st you cannot fly to and from Canada without a passport. However, you can drive across with a driver's license and green card. Go figure.

5. Thursday and Friday will be spent hunting down a gallery or space I can rent and turn into a gallery for my show. This is last minute because I just found out the gallery I will be showing at in L.A. can't do my opening until at least mid-November. So, I've decided to try and launch the book with a blow-out party in Vancouver, where about 85% of the pictures in the book were taken.

4. Also on Thursday, Friday and Saturday I hope to catch up with the record reps (now all doing other things) that I worked for up there and haven't seen in a million years. Oh yeah, and also line up some publicity and meet the sales reps that work for my Canadian distributor.

3. I will return to L.A. on Sunday evening and catch up on all the work I missed while away (hopefully most of it will be taken care of by my trusty assistant that came on board a week ago) and finish up the movie art before I leave for Austin, Texas at 7am on Wednesday morning.

2. I will spend five days in Austin attend the Austin Film Festival (aka drinking in the Driskill bar) and also doing whatever I can to pimp my book. I have a couple of meet and greets lined up and am trying to get a meeting with the SXSW folks in hopes of doing a gallery show during their festival in March '08 (anybody reading this have a direct connection to the top people at SXSW?). Would also like to do some press while there.

1. All the other stuff I have to do that should have been done yesterday...or last week...or last month...things that don't have a specific deadline, including but not limited to getting in touch with more family members of the musicians in the book, contacting associated record companies, move on our online campaign, create a pitch for something to do with the book that I can't tell you about...and...breathe.

Okay, that wore me out. G'night.

The Book

As you all know, I received an advance shipment of fifty books on Monday.

Thought you all might like to see it. Here are the boxes that arrived via FedEx from Hong Kong:
And here they all are lined up in the bookshelf:
But they didn't stay long...33 of the 50 books immediately went out on request to some major media mavens, such as Newsweek, People, Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly. Hopefully, all who requested books will write something cool, and not just give it away as a Christmas present.

Oh, and one went out to an entertainment executive interested in something to do with the book that I can't talk about yet. But I can say it garnered my first written review via email:
"The book is fucking gorgeous. Congratulations! J."

I think I'll just leave it at that.

Holder Tonight

Here is the radio interview that I did on Holder Tonight out of Montreal on September 18, 2007.

Hopefully it works without too many glitches. Not sure how long it runs or if they left in the commercial break. I do know it takes a while to load...you might want to make coffee (or a margarita) while it's loading. Once it's fully loaded you can skip back and forth. And come to think of it, if you're fully loaded it might sound really good.

If you get through the whole thing feel free to comment.



Stay tuned... More interviews and press to come.

Monday, Monday

Once again I have been remiss in keeping up with the blog. I suppose most of you think I've been basking in the glamor of my impending book release...doing interviews...hanging with the Hollywood legends...turning down lunch invitations...lounging by the pool...drinking margaritas...

...if only.

I was remiss in keeping up with the blog because I was labeling, stamping, stuffing, sorting and bundling 1700+ envelopes with Everybody I Shot Is Dead brochures. What a freaking nightmare! The mailing went out to independent bookstores and record stores throughout the U.S. to let them know about the book and that it is available to order from my wholesalers. It sounded easy enough before I/we (I had a part time helper) started. I mean, how hard could a 1700+ mailing be? I took a two-hour required class at the post office to learn the ins and outs of doing a bulk mailing...and as it turned out, sorting the envelopes to meet the requirements that saved 46¢ on each piece mailed was the easy part. It was the sticking of the address labels, return address labels, stamps, inserting the brochures, removing the flap backing and sealing the envelopes that was the bitch.

I managed to get to the point where I could return label and stamp 30 envelopes in 4 minutes. That would have been about 4 and a half hours of work (well, quadruple that to include addressing and stuffing) for the whole shebang providing I could keep up that pace. Which I couldn't. Unless I wanted to develop a severe case of carpel tunnel. Anyway, the job seemed to go on forever and I was never so happy as when I dropped the final 12 sacks of envelopes off at the post office. Hopefully, enough stores will order and sell enough books to make the whole exercise worthwhile.

Alright. Enough about that...it's over...forgotten...and not what this post was meant to be about. This post is about tomorrow. MONDAY. I believe I have written about Mondays in the past. Mainly about how I don't like Mondays. How I never seem to get positive results to anything I try to do on Mondays. Anything that requires dealing with other people. I believe it's because everyone hates Mondays. Maybe because it's the beginning of another whole 5 days of work (which is meaningless to me since I generally work all seven). Or maybe because people have trouble shaking the residue of the weekend (which is meaningless to me since I am rarely bestowed with weekend residue). Or maybe their football team lost, setting a negative mood for the start of the work week (okay, I do watch a little college football but since I didn't graduate from college I don't have a team). Whatever the reason, several months back I decided never to schedule important things on Mondays. I never set important meetings on Mondays and I never make important phone calls where I am in need of a favorable response on Mondays. I just don't do it. Why take the chance?

Any of you ever hear the phrase "never say never"?

There is something important scheduled for tomorrow - MONDAY - that I had no say in scheduling. Something I cannot change. It has to happen tomorrow. Nothing I can do about it. Except HOPE. And I am hoping. Hoping beyond all hope that this particular something won't fall into the Monday Negative Abyss where all things go wrong category. Where I am denied what I want only because I wanted it on the day called Monday.

This Monday...September 24th, 2007...is the day I am receiving the advance copies of Everybody I Shot Is Dead. The actual printed and bound copies sent directly from the printer in China. Tomorrow - MONDAY - is the first time I will gaze upon, touch and turn the pages of an actual finished copy of the book that has been two years in the making. And I have to look at it and approve it so they will ship the rest of the 9,950 books on the hopefully-not-so-slow boat from China. Why couldn't they have sent it out Thursday so that it could have arrived on the beautiful day known as Friday? Why does it have to come on MONDAY? Why? Why? Why?

Wait a second. Nevermind. It's all going to work out. I got it. Since I haven't heard directly from any of the 48 musicians in my book lately, I have to assume they have been in China these past two months overseeing the printing and making sure the book turned out perfect. That makes sense, right? And then they all flew back on the FedEx plane with the books and are now on the FedEx truck hovering around the six or so cases, making sure they arrive safely on my doorstep...fighting the evil Monday goblins all the way. Right? This is excellent. I'm fine now.

The book will be perfect.

The book will be perfect.

The book will be perfect.

Legends

Edit: 9/18/07

Okay...Julie Newmar, Jack Klugman and Rose Marie have been identified.

I know I said you didn't have to name Alison (the blonde in the print dress) but I changed my mind. 'Cause she's actually pretty famous too. You have her first name already. And I'll give you one more hint: think long running television series that began in 1974.

And if you can come up with what these four legends and I all have in common, you'll get extra brownie points. Hint: The event was a book signing for Jack Klugman's book, "Tony and Me."

As soon as someone names the legends in this picture I will tell you the story behind it:

Now I gotta go be on the radio.

Back On The Radio

This coming Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I will be interviewed on Holder Tonight which broadcasts from Montreal on CJAD and CFRB in Toronto.

But thanks to modern technology, EVERYBODY GETS TO LISTEN online here.

The show airs midnight - 3AM EST.

I will be on at 1:30AM EST. Which for my neighbors here in California is the more civilized 10:30PM PST.

But I really hope my East Coast readers will go the distance and stay up.

The show's host, Peter Anthony Holder, does do call-ins on his show but I'm not sure if he's taking calls with me. I'd love it if he would because it would be so cool to hear the voices of my blog readers!

But even if they don't take calls, please tune in.

'Cause there will be a quiz the following day.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise...

A USA Today headline:

Not just cliche: Rock stars more likely to die young

It's true. And there's a UK research study that has the scientific research to prove it.

You can read the layman's version at any one of these million google links.

If you want to check out the actual research paper you can download it here.

Me? Well, I immediately emailed my publicist to see how we can parlay this widespread news into publicity for Everybody I Shot Is Dead. I also emailed the main author of the paper to let him know that I'm pretty sure my book will confirm his findings...but with pictures and stories instead of charts and graphs.

Now I am sitting here wishing this story broke closer to the release of my book, but also hoping the news of my book will cast as wide of a net.

I'm doing all the work necessary toward that end.

And crossing my fingers, just in case.