I'm Close...

...too bad close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

After not being able to locate Scanner Dude last Sunday (a bad day), I found out he'd been working on my scans and had a stack for me on Monday (a good day). So, I'm frantically going through them, cloning out any remaining bits of dust and retarded pixels, and placing them into the Quark layouts so Scanner Dude can do a few test proofs. I wasn't holding out much hope for some of the color - especially Marc Bolan - because they didn't look that great on my monitor. But Scanner Dude said they looked good on his and they would proof well. Okay.

Got them back on Tuesday (a bad day) and the black and whites looked great, while the color sucked ass, just as I thought they would. Scanner Dude couldn't figure it out. Maybe it's your slides...after all, they are kinda old. "Well," I respond, "they look just fine on my inexpensive Epson flatbed so I don't see why you can't get them to look great on your ultraexpensive drum scanner." Not one to back down from a challenge, Scanner Dude says not to worry, he's going to figure it out.

Also on Tuesday, or maybe it was Wednesday (making it two bad days in a row) - yes, it was Wednesday, Scanner Dude sends over more scans, including re-dos of my troublesome Keith Knudsen color shots. Guess what? They suck ass, even worse than Marc Bolan. I call Scanner Dude and tell him. He doesn't know why they suck on my monitor because, again, they look fine on his. I told him I put his scan next my scan and his is so bad, I might have to use mine if he can't fix it.

Here's a portion of his and mine so you understand what I'm talking about:

Scanner Dude's scan

My scan

So, I email him my scan and let him know he's a loser if he can't at least make his as good as mine, and it better be better.

I also decide on Wednesday (let's call it Black Wednesday) it's time to call the Printer Dudette and let her know that I'm not going to be there with my files on Monday as I had planned. Although it's not the end of the world, and it probably won't delay the delivery of the book (October '07, folks) the call was really tough to make because in all my years of advertising this is the first time I have missed a deadline. And that pisses me off. Not to mention having to redo the placement of the scans over and over again.

On Thursday Scanner Dude calls and says he figured it out and that he ran a test proof of the Keith Knudsen photo to prove it. He came running over with that and more scans last night. He was right - the new scan looked good, even though the color hadn't been balanced yet. What had gone wrong, you ask? The monitor he had been working on had a calibration problem, so when he put the scans on it they looked too hot - cartoony, he said - and he balanced them until they looked right...on his monitor. Aaarrrggghhh! Guess I've been overworking him.

Now, we are more or less back on track and I'm being over-optimistic in setting a new lofty goal-slash-deadline of Thursday. I really shouldn't write that down because chances are I won't make that one either. There's so much time-consuming work left to do. For example, I'm utilizing a lot of film strips in the design so I can present more photos without the layout looking yearbookish. But when Scanner Dude spins the strips, since they're negs the image has to invert, making the sprockets black. Which means I have to retouch them back to white and also clone out the lubricant they use that coagulates on the edges of the strip. For a five frame strip, it take an hour plus change.

Before...........................After

And to add to the pile, I re-read one of the text bits and it sucked - I'm not telling which one because I don't want anyone searching it out to see if it still sucks - now I have one more reader going through all the text and being brutally honest with his 'suck meter' as well as catching more typos that three of us missed. So, I have a little rewriting to do, not to mention I still have finished the last two musicians and the last two dedications.

I think it's time to start a betting pool and see if somebody can nail the date and time I'm ready to go to the printers - meaning when the last approved proof is spit out of Scanner Dude's proof printer. Think of it like a baby pool. And the winner (closest to the date and time) gets a free book (FOB Los Angeles - meaning you have to pay the postage if you live outside of L.A.).

I had no intention of turning this post into a contest, but what the heck. And there's no way I can put the fix in, because I don't have a clue when this baby is going to be delivered. Although I can say I'm getting tired of being pregnant, so a scheduled C-section isn't out of the question.

Place your guess in the comments section of this post. No need to divulge your contact info...I will announce the winner when it happens and the winner can email me. One entry per person by noon on July 4th. In the meantime, I will not update my progress, so there will be no point to waiting until the last minute to enter. As a matter of fact, your best guess might be taken by someone else if you don't enter early.

Good luck!

My Bad

Turns out scanner guy was at his shop yesterday and worked until 4 this morning. He didn't hear the phone when I called because the ringer was turned down and he was wondering why he hadn't heard from me.

So he stopped by this morning with the remainder of the color scans and a bunch of black and whites. I put Marc Bolan's section together since his color shots are the most troublesome for me at the moment and scanner guy will output a proof for me tonight. The Bolan black and whites kick ass. The color shots are great shots, but I have to see how the scans proof to see what adjustments need to be made to the color.

Once I see the Marc Bolan section proofed, I will know what adjustments are needed on the rest of the scans and can move full steam ahead on the rest. (She said, optimistically.) I only have two musicians left to write about and four dedications. Trying to finish them all by end of day tomorrow. May need to pull an all-nighter tonight just to get a grip on the enormous amount of work left to do.

Despite all my complaining, let me say... I am having a great time doing this book. It is incredibly rewarding every single day and I can't wait for people to see it.

One Week

That's it. That's all the time I have left. We're talking wing and a prayer here, folks.

I have two musicians left to write about and still need to finish up the five dedications. That's not so much. I can definitely see the light at the end of that tunnel. My big problem is that I haven't placed the high res scans yet...well, maybe I've done 10% of them. I was going to work on it at my scanner guy's place yesterday afternoon and all day today. 'Cept he's gone AWOL. I've called him at least ten times today but nobody was there.

So, tomorrow I am going to show up at the place - it's a workday so there will be people there - and under the auspices of needing to look at the original slides in order to redo the color corrections that I'm not happy with (which is true, btw), I'm going to park my ass there until he's finished with my job. (I'm afraid to count how few final scans I've received from them). And whatever's not working out, I will rush my originals over to the other scanning place. I've worked with this guy for many years but I'm losing faith in his broken promises, and there's just no more time left to screw around.

I also need to find an attorney to consult and make sure I take care of whatever things in the text need to be cited. I'm mentioning song titles in the text and have yet to receive a definitive consensus on whether I need to list credits to the publisher, copyright holder and/or record company. And it's always good to have an attorney look over things before they go to print, just to lessen the chance of getting sued over a misspelled name or something.

Yup, it's definitely a wing and a prayer time.

I'm expecting a few sleepless nights over the next week, but it will be worth getting the book finished. Although, it's a little on the bittersweet side. I'm really getting used to living with my dead rock stars. They're beginning to feel like family.

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

As this blog is my witness, yesterday I was writing the text to go with my Harry Nilsson pictures. It was a tough write because there was a lot to say in very little space, but I finished it. And it started me wondering what really happened to that last album he had finished the vocal tracks on just days before he passed away. I thought about trying to get in touch with my friend who I knew Harry through, but then I was thinking, there's really no time to do that. And besides, I was pretty happy with how the text finally came out. Then last night Harry was in one of my dreams but I've been so tired lately, I'm not remembering the details of my dreams when I wake up. But he was definitely present. I know, I know, it's not uncommon to dream about someone when you've just been focused on them for seven hours.

Today I had appointments with both companies that are doing the scans for the book. While I was driving there I got a phone call from one of my movie clients asking something about a previous job I'd done for her. A couple of seconds into the call she said my voice was garbled. We hung up and she called me back. It was still garbled, even though I could hear her perfectly. Then I got another call and the same thing happened. Okay, I need to get my cell phone fixed.

After all my meetings over the hill, I dropped by Sprint - the store near my house where I knew they had while-you-wait repair service. I go in only to find out they closed the repair counter down because there wasn't enough traffic. They gave me a piece of paper with listings of a bunch of repair places and circled the second one of the list. I don't know why they picked the second one when the first one was as close, or closer.

I drove the 3 miles East on Ventura Blvd and pulled into the parking area that was overflowing with cars from from the local gym, thinking I really need to go to my gym. Fortunately, there was a reserved spot open in front of the cell phone repair shop. (Of course there was...I have a parking fairy, but that's another story). I walk in the shop and notice two guys sitting behind the service counter. The guy on the right asks what he can do for me before I even reach the counter. The other guy was online and talking to a guy leaning on the side of the counter. I tell the guy helping me that the mic is not working on my phone. He asks to see it and immediately informs me that he probably doesn't have the part, but he'll look it up.

How am I doing at dragging this story out? Pretty good, eh?

So, while he's tending to that, the other guy turns to me and asks if I know how to spell the name of the restaurant "Pasche." I gave it a shot - P-a-s-c-h-e - but they didn't think that was right and my guy was ready for me with my prognosis so I turned back to him. He said they didn't have the part and couldn't fix my phone. Shit. But the store in Encino could probably fix it since they were a corporate Sprint, whereas these guys were independent and weren't provided with a lot of older (2 years) parts. I then go out to my car to get my list to confirm with him which store it is.

When I come back in the other guy happily reports that they found the restaurant. It's P-a-c-e. "Oh, Pace," I say. Yeah, but it's called Pashay. Does it have an accent on the e, I ask? He shows me on the screen. Yes. And then calls the restaurant. While my guy is calling the other Sprint place to make sure they have the part, I overhear that last part of the other guy making a reservation. I thought he was doing it for the other customer. I wasn't paying much attention until, out of the corner of my ear, I heard him spell N-i-l-s-s-o-n and say it was for four.

I glanced at him and when he hung up the phone I made some smartass comment like, "So, I'm invited to dinner?" as the spelling of the name sunk in. How odd, I thought, as he joked back, "Sure, dinner's at 7:30." Then I mumbled, "You don't happen to know Harry. do you?" "Excuse me?" "Sorry, I just heard you spell Nilsson. Just wondered if you knew Harry."

"I'M HIS SON."

"No shit." As I looked at him a little closer. Of course. He looked a lot like him.

"Yup. Harry Nilsson is my dad."

I immediately went into my "Oh my God, you're not going to believe this but I'm doing a book and your dad is in it..." spiel. I don't think he believed me at first, until I started filling in the details with evidence that I did actually know his dad. And then he had lots of questions, as did I...like "whatever happened to the album he was working on when he died?"

He was as freaked out as I was that I had just been writing about Harry yesterday. We talked about a bunch of stuff and I gave him a postcard on the book. We exchanged information and I told him I'd be in touch so he could see the pictures. And that I'd give his family a print when I got them done and then I left...

...TOTALLY FREAKED OUT.

I mean what are the chances that he'd spell his name on the phone when I happened to be standing there? Hell, what are the chances that Harry Nilsson's son would be behind the counter at a cell phone store I was sent to to get my phone fixed?

Especially since I'd run into the woman who is directing my movie at the scanners earlier in the day. And we had a long talk while she looked at the mock-up of my book. She also had some good news about our movie and we discussed how great things were working out for both of us. I made a comment about how cool it was that things and people were just connecting out of the blue for us and that it was a sign that we were going in the right direction.

So, I'm guessing you think the story is over now, right?

It's not.

I got in my car and as I was leaving the parking lot a song came on the radio.

It was One by Three Dog Night. My all-time favorite Three Dog Night song. They don't play it much on the radio anymore.

Do you know who wrote One?

Harry Nilsson.

And what could be weirder than that?

Someone called my cell phone as soon as I got home. The caller could hear me just fine. Then someone else called. That caller could hear me just fine. And then someone else, and someone else. There's nothing wrong with my phone.

Hi, Harry. Thanks for visiting. Feel free to stop by any time.

Nilsson, Badfinger & Schmilsson

I'm trying to finish writing about Harry - don't know why, but it's hard to organize everything he did and who he was in less than a page.

I also have to finish Badfinger which is very tricky because their story is a convoluted tragedy, making it tricky to condense.

Whenever I mention Badfinger, people seem to have heard of them but can't remember any of their songs. Same thing goes for Mr. Nilsson. And since there are forever intertwined by Without You I thought I'd share these With You.

Harry Nilsson's hit version of Badfinger's Without You:


Badfinger's version of Badfinger's Without You:


And finally, a little Schmilsson that will hopefully put a smile on your face:

Tick, tick, tick...kaboom!

I feel like I'm in a video tape movie where the time is on fast forward but I'm in real time desperately trying to keep up. I have several more travelblog posts to finish but with my giant looming deadline casting a dark cloud over the sunny California horizon I'm full throttle (make that slow throttle) on finishing Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Sometimes I wonder if I'm stalling because I don't want this experience to end. Once the book is finished, I'm going to miss living with my dead rock stars.

Nah, I'm just a slow writer. I'm four lines away from finishing Keith Knudsen's text. I have yet to complete Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys, Peter Wood, Harry Nilsson, Badfinger, Terry Kath, George Harrison, Maurice Gibb, Tim Buckley, Marc Bolan, Alex Harvey, the five dedications and my story. And I haven't even started the Grateful Dead, Lowell George and John Denver. I also haven't placed all the high res scans, nor have I done the new cover. Yes, I am completely revamping the cover.

I'm assuming my readership would prefer I finish the book before I continue documenting yet another failed sexual exploit and my other excellent New York adventures.

NYC Travelblog #4

Saturday Night...

Friday night I went to the theater. After another long day of blabbing and walking at the expo, Saturday night started with party at a restaurant/bar - somewhere around 59th and Madison - hosted by the company that is printing Everybody I Shot Is Dead. They served drinks and buffet food (the ravioli was killer) and people who worked for their various companies plus authors, clients and other guests. The company contracts printing in China and they also have two publishing companies, including one that does music/art/photography oriented titles.

I spent much of the evening chatting with a girl who lives in the Bay Area and handles books created by the environmental non-profit she works for. Then they did a bunch of patting themselves on the back and honoring the authors of the new books they have coming out this Fall. So, I took the opportunity to meet a couple of other music photographers. One who tagged along with Elvis for a year while he was on his rise to the top and came out with a beautiful book called Elvis at 21: From New York to Memphis. The other was a guy who shot pictures of John and Yoko and has a book called John and Yoko: A New York Love Story coming out this Fall.

As the party was nearing its end, a friend of the girl I befriended showed up and the three of us had a drink at the bar. Her friend used to work for the Grateful Dead so we had some stories to share. Turned out he attended the San Francisco gallery opening we had for my previous book, Starart. The world continues to shrink.

By 10pm I was on my way back to my hotel to prepare for the arrival of Chris Parker. He had a gig in Connecticut, a couple of hours out, so I assumed he'd show up no earlier than midnite. I had spent the whole day sweating it out at the convention center and then went straight to the party after a quick stopover at my hotel and had planned to shower and do my best to transform into something presentable before he showed.

Turns out the maid service didn't clean the room on Saturday so I had to deal with that as well. Then, right when I was about to hop in the shower my cell phone rings. It's Chris Parker and he's three blocks away from my hotel. He'd be in the lobby in ten minutes. Great. Two minutes to recover from the shock, four minutes to faux-tidy the suite and four minutes to wash my face and apply the necessary layers of make-up to disguise my fatigue. Then a race down to the lobby to escort my cute drummer to my boudoir...

Imagine this suite much, much messier. Beds unmade, clothing and suitcases and papers strewn about. And now I've run out of time to blog so I'll have to finish this next time. Which is okay because it really took place in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

NYC Travelblog #3

Day 2 rolled around way too soon. I was already tired when I woke up. I took a cab to the Javitz instead of walking the 3 avenue blocks.

This time I was armed with my list and talked to as many people as I could about my book. I hung out at Google for a personal tutorial on their new Book Search feature. While there my tutor and I became subjects of the official expo photographer. It always pays to pick the cutest guy in the place to teach you (me) the ways of googleland. The photographer must have take twenty shots if he took one. Then I was accosted by a couple of women. Because I was wearing this:

The one girl said,"Where did you get that tee shirt? I have to have it." I had seven shirts made for the trip - some tees, some jerseys - and I got a huge response to them. Also for the title of the book in general. It was fun to overhear people's comments at the booth where my fliers were when they didn't know who I was. Things like, "Everybody I Shot Is Dead...what a great title." And with the shirts even when they had no clue, I'd hear "Did you see that shirt? Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Cool." One of the booths I visited had already heard about the book from some friend of theirs that brought them one of my postcards 'cause they loved the title and the idea.

The girls who were at the Google booth turned out to be freelance writers for the NY Times. I told them about the book and said I'd give them shirts if they wrote about the book. The girl that really wanted my shirt said she'd write about it whether she got a shirt or not.

So, as you can imagine, I'm very happy with the response I continued to receive on Day 2.

Last but not least, here's my Day 2 celebrity photo:

Next installment: Saturday Night.

NYC Travelblog #2

Um, where was I?

Oh yeah, the first day of the Book Expo. Hot and sweaty. There was no air conditioning on in the building on Thursday when everybody was setting up their booths. They turned it on for Friday but it didn't feel any cooler. Too many bodies.

I arrived shortly after the 9am opening. I put my flyers and postcards on one of the display tables at my printer's booth and started to make my rounds. Oops, I forgot all the pages I tore out of the catalogue with the companies I wanted to see circled. I decided to forego a new catalogue, they're too damn heavy to carry around and toddled off to Amazon. That took about an hour...the meeting, not the toddling. Three different Amazonians checked out the mock-up. All positive responses.

Then it was off to see the major wholesalers. One of the wholesalers won't distribute for publishers that only have one book. After I showed her the mock-up, she said they'd make an exception.

My other stops on my many mile walk included as many exhibitors I could find that had connections to foreign companies that were appropriate for distribution (Canada and the UK) and/or co-editions and translations. None of the end people were there but I was given excellent referrals.

My other stop on Day 1 was the five minutes it took to snap photos of the correctly identified celebrity (by Brett) LL Cool J.

I was dog-tired by the time I walked the three avenue blocks (much longer than street blocks for those of you unfamiliar with NY) carrying my heavy bag back to the hotel at the end of the day. But not to tired to hike uptown to the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridien (best burgers ever) followed by an evening at the theater to see Wicked (big thanks to Rick for that). Great show. I was especially impressed with the lighting and sets.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

More Chris Parker

Okay, I'm fucked. I was going to write this earlier and tell you that Chris Parker was coming over after his gig in Connecticut tonight. I figured he'd be here at midnight or whatever, if he came at all. Shit. He just called. He's three blocks away. The maid didn't come today. I just got back from a party. I was going to take a shower. Now I gotta make the bed.

Fuck.

Well there you go. There's going to be another Chris Parker hotel room story.

See ya'.

NYC Travelblog #1

I'm in my fourth hotel room. Started in the usual NY closet with a double bed. Fortunately, the TV was a split screen - the right side of the screen on the left and the left side was on the right. The front desk guy was going to give me a room with two beds but on a smoking floor. When my reaction was 'I'll check and see how bad it smells' he decided to give me another room with a double bed without telling me. When I went back down and told him I had wanted to see the double room he got kind of pissy and said it would be an additional $25. He finally gave me the key and an overling who had been eavedropping him apologized to me and said there was no charge. The room was better but there was no internet.

I decided not to complain, but then I got a call from the guy. He was suddenly sweet as pie and said if I wanted a different room he would change it the following day. Guess the overling had words with him. So, the next day he gave me a suite. A sweet suite. Two beds, a sitting area, a refrigerator and TWO bathrooms. In New York City. For the price of a closet with a double bed. The guy told me the only drawback was no wifi on this floor. But, it turns out there is wifi. Free wifi. In New York City.

This is the tail end of a line of at least 20 cop cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring parading through the streets for no apparent reason. They could have stopped and arrested the rat.


Yesterday I saw a guy on a bicycle get hit. He had a gash on his arm. Saw him again tonight walking on the sidewalk...no bike.

I stopped by the convention center yesterday (the show didn't open until this morning) to have my badge scanned and pick up my badge holder because I knew it would look like this today:

The convention center is hot and sweaty. Even inside there are way too many people:


I didn't see Harry but here's his bus:


But I did see this celebrity:


First person to name him doesn't get a prize. Just bragging rights.

Zero...

...is exactly how many hours of sleep I've had since I got up at 8:30am on Monday after sleeping for three and a half hours Sunday night.

Actually, I don't feel too bad, all things considered. Printing all the pages for the book was an arduous process. By yesterday afternoon I realized how long the process takes and if I didn't work on it through the night I wouldn't have finished. I kept slugging away at it and every time I counted how many I had left to go it seemed like there were close to one hundred pages.

I also had to trim every page by hand. This is what my office floor looked like when I was done:

The mock-up is all done and bound now. Full size. I can flip through the pages and it looks just like a book. And the best part is that all the different sections flow together. I was worried about that.

Just waiting for a load of laundry to dry, then I'm going to finish packing, go to sleep, get up first thing in the morning and board a plane to New York. I'm looking forward to seeing what the book industry thinks of the book.

I'm going to try and travelblog as the trip unfolds.

Night, night...

2:30 AM

Why is it that no matter what I do I always need an extra day or week or month to get things done? There's just never enough time. And in this case it's not like I'm pissing it away. It's 2:30AM and I just ran out of color ink. The color ink always lasts longer than the black...until now, when I need it.

I'm now counting down the hours before I get on a plane to New York and if I don't have a mock-up of the book, the trip is pointless. And tomorrow is Memorial Day. I hope Staples is open because I still have close to 150 pages to print. And trim. And bind.

My problem is I didn't get my scans back until 11PM last night. I spent at least two or three hours this morning transferring them to my hard drive and cataloging them. Then a bunch of them needed, or should I say need, adjustments. Which means opening them in photoshop and fixing them and then sizing them into Quark and then printing. Each page prints by itself because I'm printing two-sided and have to back the pages up with each other.

So, I'm hoping I can get it done in time to have it bound - just spiral binding and then taking the dummy along with it. I was hesitant on how it would look when I was glancing at the scans but the stuff I've printed looks pretty darn great. There will still be a ton of work to do when I get back (and while I'm in New York). There are scans that don't match the slides so I'll have to sit with the color people and beat them until they make them perfect. Plus, I have not finished the writing. Some of the mock-up will have fake writing but since people will just be checking out the book, they'll really be looking at the pictures. And the mock-up is not leaving my sight so I can direct them to read the ones that are done.

All right, back to fixing scans and placing the photos until I can't keep my eyes open....

Michael, Paul and Son

Now that Terry Kath has quieted down, Michael Bloomfield stepped up, asking, "Did you forget about me?" No, Michael. You will always be my number one favorite guitar player.

This is very cool footage from the Newport Folk Festival documentary. Great music with Paul Butterfield and Son House, and some interview clips that will give you a true glimpse into the sweetness that is Michael Bloomfield.

My Process

Time is running out...FAST. Next week I have to be in New York with the book in hand. One way or another, I plan to finish.

Part of my process for figuring out the chronological order and pagination for the book consisted of these:

Post-Its on my wall.

During the day I work in my office, sitting behind the desk for 10 or 11 hours straight. Then I carry my laptop the ten paces it takes me to get to my bedroom and work another couple of hours until my brain explodes. When I wake up in the morning I work for an hour or so in bed and then walk my laptop the ten paces back to my desk. Sound like fun? Actually, I do intend to get back to having some kind of a life once the book is put to bed and at the printers.

Anyway, the post-its are on my bedroom wall. Which I like because it keeps all my rock stars nearby. And which I don't like because it keeps all my rock stars nearby. I spend all my time with them and they are beginning to creep into my dreams on a nightly basis. Wait a second...the fact that I socialize with dead rock stars 24/7 was not the topic of this post. And could cause harm to my reputation as a semi-sane person.

What was it? Oh yeah, my process. So, the post-its, which you can probably read if you click to enlarge, have everybody's name on them. Except the first one on the top left is titled 'all about me' and represents the introduction I'm writing, along with the now 5 dedication pages. The bottom right corner of the post-its have the neg numbers if there were black & whites involved and the top left corner has the date. It might be hard to read because I used mostly red pen. There are fewer post-its than people in the book because several bands have more than on dead person and I just used the name of the band to save time and space. And now, as I finish the writing portions of each musician, the post-it gets a black star drawn on the bottom. I guess you can see I don't have near enough black stars. That doesn't mean I haven't started them. Lots of them are outlined and/or partially written. But no star until they're done, done.

Yesterday I started the real pagination...figuring out what the actual page order was going to be. It sounds simple because I've already laid out all the sections with their pictures but I still had to figure out the title page[s] and how I was going to handle my intro story along with the dedications etc. Plus there were certain ideas I had in my head as to what should be a right or left page within the sections. But since I am running it chronologically, I am kind of at the mercy of where things fall. So, I made the list of all the musicians and knew I needed an extra page at the back. I was hoping to have extra pages at the front to have a double title page and some blank pages to keep everything looking clean and simple. But by the time I counted everything up I had too many pages.

I stole one page back from one of the musicians. It wasn't really needed. Then I started hacking off the front - there will only be one title page and fewer blank ones. And then I went through and did a L-R-L-R-L thing next to each of the names to make sure I accounted for all their pages. That worked out really well until I was putting a binder together with three hole paper representing each page and penciling in what/who was on each page. That process revealed two places where I had ended one persons section on an L and mistakenly started the next one on an L. Oops. Once I got that sorted out - it takes longer than you might think - I continued my writing and at the same time began adding the page numbers to the layouts.

Today, I ran into a problem. I finished writing John Fahey, followed by Hank Snow and then I moved on to Darrell Sweet from Nazareth. I opened up his Quark document and realized it was three pages instead of the four I had accounted for on my almighty excel list. Shit!! That screwed everything up. His pages are nearer to the front - starting on page 77 - and losing a page on him would shuffle everything that came after him and it would also screw up the end where I was putting the afterword and acknowledgments. Ultimately causing me to lose another page. I know that sounds weird, but trust me, pagination is a crazy thing because everything works in spreads and one page off means two pages off.

The whole thing pissed me off. I didn't want to try and figure out how to repaginate the whole book - lose another one at the front, add one at the back or whatever that was going to entail. Then suddenly one of my guys spoke up and everything was solved, even better than it was before. Yes, I am crazy...certifiable in fact...some of my rock stars make more noise than others. And they do it at different times. And it's generally in their own self interest, but occasionally it works out to solve a problem for me.

Lately, the noisy one has been Terry Kath. The kind of noisy where I wake up thinking about him and go to sleep thinking about him. It's like he's whispering in my ear, wanting me to look at his pictures. Wanting me to do more research. Wanting me make sure I give him the recognition he deserves. I don't know why...it's not like we were friends. I only met him in passing a couple of times. And I wasn't a huge Chicago fan (a bit too much on the horns) but lately he has made me take note of what an insanely incredible guitar player he was.

And he's not the only one that has done this to me. Almost all of them have whispered in my ear over the course of me putting the book together. Some louder than others, and some happy to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. I swear I'm not playing favorites. I really do love them all.

...it must be late 'cause I'm really rambling...

So anyway, Terry Kath stepped up and saved the day. Between Darrell and Terry were just 18 pages. After Darrell's 4, there were six for the four Blues Jam guys, 7 for John Lee Hooker, 3 for John Denver and then Terry's 6. The other annoyance I had before I caught the Darrel Sweet faux pas was the Blues Jam section started on a right-hand page. I wasn't all that happy about it because they each have two pages and I initially pictured their pages facing each other. The good thing about dropping Darrell's non-existent page was that they re-paginated the way I originally wanted them.

And that's when Terry screamed, "I'll take that extra page." As it turned out, that was the only solution that worked because as Terry's pages were, I had too much writing space to fill. I didn't know him well enough to tell a great personal story (although since he's been bugging me lately, I wish I had). I've been researching him and there's some interesting stuff but that space continued to be daunting to the point that I couldn't write anything. Except one opening line that I swear Terry coerced me to type: Terry Kath is the most underrated guitar player in the history of rock'n'roll. Nice one, TK.

....sidebar question: am I turning into the Jack Nicholson character in The Shining?....Is my book going to come out with every page filled with "Terry Kath is the most underrated guitar player in the history of rock'n'roll."?....

Now if you are still reading this gibberish I'm spewing forth, you must be asking, "If that's the case, how will giving Terry another page solve your problem?" Well, the second page that required me to come up with more words also has a film strip with four images in it. If I take out one of those images and make it a full page, I will need to make the now three image film strip taller so that it runs the runs the length of the page. And when I make it taller, it makes it much wider...lessening the space I have to fill with words. As it turns out, his was the only section that was in the vicinity that worked. And if his didn't work, I would be repaginating the whole damn book.

So, by Terry getting what he wanted, I got the solution I needed. Although if you were to ask him, I'm certain he would say he did it selflessly to make my life easier and that if it had worked out better to lose one of his pages he would have gladly stepped up and sacrificed. He was just that kind of guy.

Will I Make It?

It's crunch time...and I'm nowhere near finished the writing portrions of the book. To be honest, I'm a little short of half done. And I'm exhausted. Not so much from writing as much as from figuring out the dates of the shows. I think the dates are important and the book is going in chronological order of the dates I shot them. Seemed the only sensible thing to do.

I had some of the dates from a photo of my bulletin board with a bunch of backstage passes tacked to it. Then I did a lot of research trying to piece together tour dates of the individual bands. And finally, I started tracking down the record reps I worked for. So far I talked to two of them. The first one was to nail down the date for the Blues Jam. I had a picture on the concourse of Frank Gigliotti from CBS so I figured it was his show. Well, he didn't even remember being at the show. But he offered up the name of a promoter he thought might know so I tracked him down. He didn't know but he gave me the contact info for Tom Worrall. Tom was partners with my very close friend, Gary Switlo (one of my dedicatees), and they had the ticket agency that covered most of the shows at the time. They eventually sold out to Ticketmaster and Tom still works for them.

Anyway, Tom ended up emailing me a pdf of a bunch of handwritten accounting pages that listed every show they did in chronological order. It was amazing. All but ten of the shows were listed. Although I ran into a little trouble when some of the bands appeared twice in the same years. At least I had a rough idea of an order.

Several of the leftover bands belonged to Monica Neputsky, who I also tracked down by some miracle. She didn't have dates either but she suggested I get in touch with a journalist we knew who still works at the same paper. I emailed him and he's checking it out with their library.

But then tonight I had an epiphany. I remembered all those numbers that were written on the black & white neg sheets. I talked about those before when I was writing about Michael Bloomfield. And they came up again yesterday because I finished writing his text. I realized those numbers had meaning. Like a secret code. Even though I didn't keep track of the dates, the numbers did. Because I numbered them consecutively as I shot. Eureka!

For example, Michael Bloomfield is number 21. I know I shot him on January 12, 1974 because it was stamped on my backstage pass. And it was one of the passes tacked to my bulletin board. I know I shot John Lee Hooker before mid-February because I listed everyone I'd shot in a journal entry. But the neg sheet was number 82 so I knew it was from a later show. I shot Hooker at least three times. I finally placed it in late June because Darrell Anthony Sweet was number 73 and I shot Nazareth on June 12, 1974.

The Beach Boys were confusing. I thought I shot them in December 1974 but then their neg sheet was number 48/49, right after Zappa's 46/47 and he was on March 14, 1974. Then I started really looking at the pictures. In the black & whites they are wearing different clothes than in the color. Turns out I shot the b&w's at the March 17, 1974 show and the color in December. No wonder my brain hurts.

Then I got really confused with the Blue Oyster Cult/T-Rex show. Research found that they played Vancouver on October 21, 1974. But I know they came swimming at my house, which would have been impossible in October. Had I lost my mind? The neg sheet is number 107 and Harrison is number 112. I know Harrison was November 2, 1974 because it was the opening show for his Dark Horse tour and I also had a dated ticket stub on my bulletin board. How could they swim at my house in an outdoor pool in October? Well, I was using my other neg sheets of non-dead musicians in conjunction with the list I got so I could narrow done the dates. I have another Blue Oyster Cult sheet numbered 76. Hah! They played with Nazareth on June 8, 1974 and that means they were swimming in my pool on Sunday, June 9th.

And in all of this there was another odd revelation. I mentioned to Frank that I had found a jpeg of the T-rex/BOC review from the Georgia Straight (local music paper). He asked if Bob Geldof wrote it. When he said that, I instantly remembered the Bob Geldof that wrote for the Straight. I could see his face clear as day. I saw him on a regular basis. I could hear his voice. His English accent. Then it dawned on me. He's the same Bob Geldof that was in Boomtown Rats and does a bunch of things to save the world. Geez. He was still in Vancouver when I left. And I guess I never bothered to put two and two together by the time he got famous. I mean, who'd of thought I guy writing music reviews for a local Vancouver paper would suddenly become a rock star in the UK? Even though he looked exactly the same and had the same name. Duh. Sometimes I'm a total putz.

Now do you understand what this is doing to my brain? Two many numbers, too many lists, too much cross referencing, too much living in the past, not enough brooms to sweep away the cob webs, too much to do, too little time. Somebody save me...from myself. Anyway, they're all done now...everyone at least has a month and a year...except one. Stanley Turrentine. I only shot color, so there's no neg sheet number. And he played in a club that my friends didn't ticket. Any ideas on where I should put him?

Wet Proofs and Other Stories

Not much time for blogging these days. Everything is kicking into high gear and my deadline clock is rapidly ticking away the minutes.

First...thank you to all of you who have visited the store and especially those of you who have purchased books and prints. My portion of the proceeds is going directly into the production costs of Everybody I Shot Is Dead so your support is much appreciated. I do have one question...has anybody received their purchases? We haven't heard back from anyone and I'm wondering if you're happy with what you bought. Timo? Anyone?

A few weeks ago, I decided to get my printers to run two spreads so I could see how the printing would look on the actual paper with actual ink. And more importantly, I wanted to see if the scans from two separate vendors would be consistent. Especially on the black & white photos since they are actually printed in four colors. The profiles varied greatly between my vendors and I wanted to see which profile worked best. I picked the first two pages of Frank Zappa. The first page had his name, a black & white photo and some text. The second page was a full page black & white photo. The other two pages were to judge the color. I picked two pages of Carl Wilson. A full page photo and a page with multiple photos.

Earlier this week I received the wet proofs for the book. I don't know why they're called wet proofs because they were nice and dry when I got them. I was very excited to see the proofs. But shocked when I opened the package. The printing looked great. What's so shocking about that? Well, the two black & white photos looked exactly the same, even though they had different profiles. It was impossible. I called my production people. They checked with the color house and the printer. The color house insisted they didn't make any adjustments. And the printer said they didn't make any adjustments on the press. WTF?

Then there was the paper. It didn't seem to match the paper that was in the book I picked it from. I thought I might want to change it. Fortunately, I had already told Marc in production not to order the paper until I saw the proofs. Because once you order the paper, you're locked. Unfortunately, when I told Marc I was thinking of changing the paper he was informed the the order was already placed. Oops, somebody screwed up. Either way, Marc was on the hot seat. Luckily they caught the order before it was cut.

Yesterday, I met with Roger (my local printer rep) to go over everything and sign our contract. Yup, yesterday was the day I signed my life away. We figured out the paper problem. The proofs were printed on were the right paper, it was just an older batch. After looking at more books Roger had, I decided to stick with my first choice. It really is beautiful paper. I was just going back and forth on it because I want to make sure the book turns out really, really great. And I'm happy to report, people who have seen the proofs are knocked out. Definitely impressed. Yay!!

When I got back from my Roger meeting, I received an email from Marc to sign off on the dummy so they could order the paper. For real this time. Set in stone. I took care of that and then got another email from him telling me I would receive a new set of proofs next week. Huh? Turns out the color house did manipulate my images so they would all match, even though they were told to run as is. Duh. They sabotaged my experiment out of the gate. At least I know I'm not crazy. Well, at least in this minor instance.

One more major bump in my week. My computer that I use for everything decided it didn't want to print anymore. I tried everything. I ran Disk First Aid, I reinstalled my printer software which I knew wouldn't work because I have two printers I use with OS 10 and neither of them were working. I could print on my old Epson 900 as long as it was from a program that used system 9 in Classic. I reinstalled the operating system and it quit half way through. And here I was faced with needing to print the mock-up for the book. No matter what, I knew this was going to be a giant pain in the ass. I made an appointment at the Mac Genius Bar. When I got there I heard the tail end of a conversation where the genius was telling a guy how to reformat his hard drive. I thought, that better not be me. It was.

I spent a day backing up everything on my computer - while I tried to write on another one - and then I erased my hard drive - no turning back. I'm nowhere near a tech genius. I didn't know what I was doing. The first time I moved some stuff back I ran into problems. I had to erase it again and start over. Little by little I figured it out. I had to install all my software from scratch. I had to find the files that restored my bookmarks and preferences and copy those over. I had to buy a new Quicken program because mine ran on 9 and for some reason I don't have classic anymore and don't have a clue how to bring it back in. My music still isn't back in my iTunes because it was on the computer when iTunes asked me if I wanted it to find my files. Don't know how to get it to do it now, other than manually. P-p-p-pain in my ass all the way around. However, I can print now and I'm getting back on track. I have to continue on a pace of three bios a day to meet my deadline. Hopefully, it's smooth sailing from this point forward.

Have a great weekend. I'll be here. Sitting at my desk. Or in my bed. Writing. And changing my mind. And rewriting. It's all good.

I Cannes

Been MIA for a while due to doubling my workload with a bunch of movie posters I had to do for Cannes. Finished today, other than a couple of deliveries and some invoicing (my favorite part).

I've also been without cable/internet for the past three days due to a tree falling on the main line. I really didn't realize how dependent I am on the internet. I was going back and forth to Starbucks at least five times a day. And it put us behind on fulfilling orders from the online store. So, if you're waiting to receive something and think we stole your money...no worries...your order will definitely be shipping tomorrow. Really sorry for the delay. It's been a real learning curve putting a store online and figuring out how our mini assembly line needs to work. I'm hoping all the kinks are finally worked out.

And now I'm really on the line to finish Everybody I Shot Is Dead - 23 days and counting...ack.

Gotta go.

Shop 'Til You Drop

It's finally up and running.

THE STORE.

When you enter the site, you'll see three sections that link to "store" areas.

Starart - Not only can you purchase from my stash (items start at $40 and run as high as $3000), but I also posted a video we made from clips of the gallery shows and my appearance on Merv Griffin (guess who's sitting next to me?). It's fun (and embarrassing if you're me) to see me geek out with the artists. What can I say?-some of us had been partying on the way to the show.

Tom Waits - The poster is waiting there for you to take it home at put it on your wall. So are the open edition and limited edition prints. If you have any disposable income (and like Tom) you should consider investing in one of the numbered and signed (by me, not TW) or open edition signed photo prints. There's a gallery interested in repping the edition and if I go with them they'll be selling them at double the price and I will have to do the same.

Everybody I Shot Is Dead - There's a link to the blurb on the book and you'll be able to buy the book (pre-order) in July. The perks for pre-ordering are a nice discount, the books signed, an invite to the gallery opening nearest you and getting the book before it hits the stores. I'm also tossing around the idea of a discount coupon toward the purchase of a limited edition print from the book...but don't hold me to that.

So, what are you waiting for? Go check out the store. Wander around, even if you don't want to buy anything. Then come back here and let me know what you think of it. Is it easy to navigate? Are the options clear and easy to figure out? And what what you thought of the video.

We didn't have a big budget to make a site with all the bells and whistles - and it was a real pain in the ass trying to implement all the shipping variables - so, at this point, we're just hoping that it's functional.

By the way, if you're on myspace, please stop by my Starart myspace and add me as a friend. I'm also working on a myspace for the new book/my rock & roll photography. I'll let you know when that's happening too.

That's it for now...gotta get back to the written portion of Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Freakin' Amazing Guitar Player

Terry Kath

Watch it all the way to the end.