A Little Help From My Friends

I'm reaching out for a little help from my friends. Since I consider every person who stops by my blog a friend, that means you. And you. And you.

I need to sell 150 copies of
Everybody I Shot Is Dead
in the next 6 days.

Here's the deal. You have to purchase the books directly from my website - don't worry about security 'cause all the orders go through Paypal and they don't let me see any of your personal information other than your name and shipping address. All the books will be signed by the author. Oh wait, that's me. Yeah, I'll sign the books and even personalize them to whoever you want if you put a note on the order.

And as a bonus, since this is A Little Help From My Friends, I will include a special edition 8.5x11 signed inkjet print of Ringo for your framing pleasure.
For those friends who already own a copy of my book, I hope you'll consider buying another as a gift for a friend or even your local library (and you can keep the print).

If you can't help directly, I would appreciate it if you could link this post on your blog or facebook it or send it to all your friends and ask them to send it to theirs or twitter it or viral it the old fashioned way - you know, just open your window and shout it out to the masses.

Click to check it out:
Everybody I Shot Is Dead

And I thank you very much in advance.

In The Jungle Known As Amazon

Look what they've done to my book:

37% off the already reasonably low retail price. And you can even qualify for free shipping. Those evil bastards. Don't they realize my book is worth so much more?

Okay. I'm kidding. As those of you who read this little blog regularly already know, I knew they were going to do this. That's why I priced the book at $60 instead of my original idea of $50-55. That's also why I offered the even lower price briefly on my website. Sure, I didn't give you free shipping (Amazon is far richer than I, unless I win the $330M megalotto tonight and the $93M superlotto tomorrow) but the books from Amazon are not signed by moi. That's gotta be worth something, right?

So, for those of you who want the book but don't want to shell out the extra $s for my autograph, run (don't walk) over to Amazon. and put in your order for several copies. And those who purchased off my site, feel free to complete your Christmas shopping early HERE.

A Simple Plan

I have so many projects on my plate. The new book, the old book, three film projects - one of which I am producing, a few graphic jobs...

Damn, it doesn't sound like much when I write it down that way. It must be the work within each project that creates the weight. For example, in the previous Starart post I listed some of the things I need to accomplish before the store site goes up. Still nowhere near completion, btw. The list for Everybody I Shot Is Dead is a hundred times longer, and so on and so on.

I am busy all day, every day (I have no life)...with seemingly no progress. That's been driving me crazy. Exhausted at the end of the day (meaning whenever I decide I have to nod) asking myself, "What did I accomplish?" Feeling something fell through the cracks. One of the balls hit the floor. And that ball always seems to be Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Or My First Kiss. Or...

A few days ago, I came up with a plan. A simple plan that any person with a modicum of organizational skill would have implemented in kindergarten. So, I'm a few years late. Okay, the plan. I use an electronic calendar that has a 'to do list' function. I put an item on it called "Write on Everbody" and then I selected the repeat every day option. In order to check it off each day I have to do something on the book...scanning, writing, designing or whatever. If I don't do something I can't check it off. And if I don't check it off it rolls over to the next day. Then there are two of them. So far, I've checked it off for the past two days. And I've already worked on the book today (but plan to do more tonight) so I'll check off another one.

It's both daunting and comforting to see that item on my calendar. On every square of every month for all eternity. It makes me want to get the book finished. Motivates me. Yesterday, I started looking through my old calendars (the pre-computer ones) in an effort to fill in the blanks of my past. I did 1977, then realized I had a second calendar for 1977.

Then I read one of my journals. It covered the first few months of 1979.


If you read this page you must be wondering what this could possibly have to do with Everybody I Shot Is Dead. I was actually in the gruelling stages of working on Starart that year. The Klaus mentioned is Klaus Voormann - one of the artists in Starart. Cynthia was his wife. Otto is their son. I was living at their house (in the basement, Kato-style). Keith was my very close friend Keith McKie . I had taken some promo pics of his new band while I was in Toronto looking at printers for Starart. Shadow was a former friend. The page is relevant to EISID. It identifies the date I shot one of the musicians. Harry Nilsson. He was one of the dinner guests.

I found another interesting story in those pages. It was an entry I made on January 19th. The story has stuck with me all these years. Every little detail. Emblazoned on my brain. Except the identity of the other person. I knew he was a musician but I couldn't have told you his name. Until now. Bruce Palmer. The bass player from Buffalo Springfield. He died of a heart attack in 2004. Even though I didn't shoot him, I'm 90% sure I'm going to put the story in EISID. Instead of a photo, maybe I'll draw a picture of him. Like I'll probably have to do for Canned Heat since I still haven't found my photos of them...even though I toured with them for three long weeks. Another story that needs to be told, with or without photos.

One more book accomplishment yesterday. I found some photos I took of a guy who looks an awful lot like another musician who is no longer with us. I kind of remember shooting him but I'm not 100% sure. I have a similar situation with another guy - I remember the shoot (it was a TV variety rehearsal) but I'm not sure on the singer. He looks eerily like the youngest brother G, but maybe not.

Sadly, my brain is made of Swiss cheese. Happily, I have calendars and journals.