Taking The Show On The Road Two

Whatever friendship Ellie and I had forged in our week-long pen pal relationship was cemented during our six and a half hour lunch at Lucy's. I liked her even more in person...as I said, we ate, we drank, we laughed, we cried. It doesn't get any better than that.

We continued to check in with each other, Although some of our correspondence waned slightly - mostly my fault - as I was super-crazed with wet proof corrections and all other pre-publishing nightmares and fires that needed to be extinguished with regards to the book. But when I called her from the airport in Phoenix, while on my way to the Austin Film Festival, and told her I really wanted her to come to the book/gallery opening in Vancouver...all the way from Florida. More on that later.

For now, I need to get back to where I left off on the Vancouver trip... Wednesday (one week ago today) started off with some calls, continued work on retrieving my email files and prepping for the impending show. Then I had a phone interview for a print article with Sarah Rowlands (which reminds me, I need to follow up on that), followed by another phone interview with Robin Larose for Rock 101, Vancouver's classic rock station (more about that later). After the interviews I headed over to the framers to check on the arrival of the lost prints. They finally arrived around 4:30pm, a full 24 hours after I arrived with the hand-carried prints and four full days after they were supposed to arrive via FedEx.

Meet the folks that somehow managed to frame close to 90 prints in less than four days:

Wilfried used to be the owner of the shop before he sold it to Gerry, but he came in to help out the last minute crisis for my show.

This is Gerry, sizing matte windows for the late arrivals.

Kent couldn't resist trying out his Marc Bolan pose.

Kent mounts the front window posters for the gallery.

After I was done there, I headed over to the gallery to drop off some of the finished pieces, then it was back to the hotel to meet up with one of my favorite pro-writer friends for a drink and chat. Unfortunately, he had dinner plans, but fortunately it gave me one last night of quiet before the onslaught of out-of-town arrivals...beginning at 10:30am Thursday morning when I picked up my mother, sister, brother-in-law and niece at the airport.

We had agreed on a curbside pick-up and somwhow I arrived a little earlier than the plane. Have you ever tried to hang out curbside at your local airport, or say, LAX? You know, where you sit in the "the white zone is for the loading and unloading of passengers only"? And if you stop for more than five seconds some gorilla security guard bangs on the car and yells, "Get the fuck out of here1"

I stopped in the "white zone" at the Vancouver International airport, and it took at least five minutes before the security guy moseyed over to my car window. I rolled the window down and the conversation went something like this:

"Hi, I'm just waiting for some passengers. they should be here any minute now."

"Where are they coming from?"

"Calgary. On West Jet."

"Okay. Well, I can give you a few more minutes but then I'm going to have to ask you to drive around the loop...if you wouldn't mind."

"Hey, no, that's okay. I don't mind driving around now." He then went on to explain exactly how to get around the loop. Why are Canadians so damn polite? asks the Canadian who has lived in L.A. far too long.

I finally load the gang in the car, drive back too the hotel and get everyone settled into their rooms. Wait. How did my relatives get rooms on the 27th floor with the great views when I was relegated to the 10th floor? When I checked in they told me I couldn't go higher because of the group rate we had... liar.

Anyway, we ended up somewhere for lunch before I had to meet my son and his girlfriend, who were arriving by car via Seattle (she didn't have a passport either), at the framers because they had the last two prints and a suitcase full of t-shirts that I needed to get to the gallery.

Okay, this story seems to be getting long and boring...my humble apologies. Dinner plans with the family members got ditched so I ate with my son and the g.f. then made my final run of the day to the airport to pick up...yup, you guessed it...my special guest, Ellie Gibbins! It was around 10:50pm and I was such a space case by then I didn't even see her arrive through the customs doors. She found me staring blankly at a display of tourist brochures.

We ran into my niece in the lobby when we got back to the hotel. She had just put my sister to bed and was on her way back to the bar next door (don't tell anyone she's only 17) where the rest of the gang was knocking back drinks. I checked Ellie in and then we made our way to Shenanigans. All these words just to get to the pictures:

Mark (husband of my friend Carla - they came all the way from L.A. just for my show and somehow hooked up with my family while I was picking up Ellie), brother-in-law Larry, niece Kristy.

My mother and Tyler (he's mine).

My mother, Ellie and Carla Cowan.

Half a beer and I was done at the bar. I knew I still had a bunch of stuff to get done before the show and only a day and a half left to do it. The saga continues...

Ellie

I want to sell lots and lots of copies of Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Probably not for the reason you might think. It's not about the money. Okay, yes, I would like to cover the six figures my little publishing company has invested to date. But it's never really been about the money. My main motivation in toiling for months on end was to do my part in keeping the memory of the 48 wonderful musicians and 5 amazing dedicatees alive. And to do that, I need lots and lots of people to read the book, and then tell a bunch more people about it...and on and on and on.

But the reason it's not about financial gain for me is because of the very unexpected rewards that I have already received. Rewards that don't pad my monetary bank account. Instead, they overflow my internal bank account. You know, the bank account that beats in the middle of your chest. The bank account I hadn't really thought about in relationship to the book until last June. That was when I got the first ker-ching. The first gigantic deposit to the Bank of My Heart. Completely unexpected. A layer to the project I had never even thought about. It went something like this...

While in New York for Book Expo, I went for dinner with the wife (widow) of one of the musicians in the book. I can't tell you the particulars of who it was or which musician because I haven't asked permission to write about her here. No matter... their identities are not important to this story. Her husband passed away a number of years after I photographed him - years that had taken their on him and quite possibly, their relationship. Anyway, we had a nice conversation about him, her and me during a glass of wine and dinner. And then she looked through the mock-up of the book. I offered to open the book to her husband's section but she chose to start at page one and look at the whole book. Even though I watched her face as she looked at every picture, I really couldn't gauge her feelings toward me or the book when she looked at 'his' photos.

It wasn't until much later...she turned to me and said, "This book is a gift. You just reminded me of the man I fell in love with." Wow. I felt like the contents of Fort Knox had been deposited in me. I knew right then I had received a reward of untold value. I knew it didn't matter if I sold one book or a million books... nothing could possibly fulfill me more than those two sentences. That was when I realized one of the more important meanings of the book. Family. The people I am honoring in the book are not only music icons...they are sons and fathers, daughters and mothers...members of a family. Your family and my family.

As if that wasn't enough reward...fast forward to the latter part of July - the first time I met Ellie Gibbins in person. I had sent her an email through Mike Gibbins' myspace on July 17th to let her know Mike was being honored in my book. In case you live in a cave, Mike Gibbins was the drummer in Badfinger. She wrote back, then I wrote back and before we knew it we were email pen pals. Then, suddenly, she was coming to L.A. on vacation with a friend and we were arranging to meet for lunch at my favorite restaurant, Lucy's El Adobe. I had just received the wet proofs and couldn't wait for her to see the pictures of Mike, especially the full page shot that remains one of my favorite photos in the book. At the same time, I wasn't sure about how she might react because her husband had only recently passed away.

No worries, though. It was a GREAT lunch. So great in fact, that it started at 1pm and we didn't leave the restaurant until 7:30pm. We ate. We drank. We laughed. We cried. And most importantly, we celebrated Mike Gibbins. Ellie's friend, Paula, took these pictures:

Mmmmm....margaritas.

Ellie's first look at the Badfinger section.

Anybody wondering why I'm bringing all of this up now? Long after any of it took place?

If you weren't, you are now. And just to be really mean, I'm going to make you wait 'til tomorrow to answer the why.

Taking The Show On The Road

There is never enough time to prepare. Never.

I could always use an extra day or two or three. And preparing for the Vancouver Show was no exception. The prints for the show took longer than initially expected. I ended up sending the first shipment (39 of the 90 images making up the show) to the gallery on a Friday for a Saturday delivery, one week before the opening. When we checked on Monday to confirm the delivery...um, no delivery. They were held up in customs because the broker hadn't set up the clearance. We were on the phone to the broker and FedEx and the gallery and the framers, who were freaking out (rightly so).

In the meantime, I was going crazy getting the rest of the prints together and packing for my Tuesday morning departure. The sizes on a redo on a Frank Zappa print and a Paul Butterfield print were flopped and would have to be done again and brought by another attendee. Likewise with the bulk of the t-shirts, which wouldn't be ready until Wednesday. I was signing prints until one in the morning prior to my 10am flight, oh, and tying up other loose ends until around 3am.

By some miracle, I managed to get my butt on the plane and made my way north...although, not to my destination of Vancouver. No. I had to fly to Seattle, rent a car, and drive to Vancouver. That's what you have to do when your passport application that you submitted on August 4th gets lost somewhere between Los Angeles and Quebec. Fortunately, the weather was nice and the drive gave me the opportunity to chill out and do a little quiet time thinking. Although now (one week later to the day) I have no idea what I was thinking. I also took a couple of pictures...while I was driving...not something I recommend or support...don't try this at home...

I was trying to get a good shot of Mt. Ranier. I could see it fine but the little digital couldn't quite pick up the contrast between the snow and the sky. But this mountain was no less spectacular, and look, only 112 miles to go.

Those boxes are containers making up a very long, moving train. The containers looked just like my book container, bringing back the fond memories of our shipping nightmare the previous week,

How crazy am I? Taking a picture through the window while driving in the very narrow two-lane Massey tunnel that runs under the Delta river. I couldn't help myself. I liked the color and the lights.

Within twenty minutes of the tunnel I was at the framers dropping off the 48 prints I hand-carried. This was last Tuesday at around 4:30pm. The shipment that was supposed delivered on Saturday still wasn't there...even though it cleared customs the previous day. I was pissed but there was nothing I could do. We had arranged for it to be held for a Tuesday morning pick-up at the FedEx office near the gallery. They didn't hold it. They sent it off on the truck. According to the driver, he attempted delivery at 12:06 on Tuesday. There were four people working at the gallery at that time but they didn't receive the package. By the time I was dropping off the hand-carried prints at the framers, no one (including FedEx) could locate the Saturday delivery package. It was nowhere to be found.

I left the framers and headed to the gallery to drop off a suitcase full of t-shirts, then headed to my hotel. What was left of Tuesday is a complete blur. I think I ate dinner in my room and did a bunch of work on my computer. Oh yeah, I was in the process of trying to retrieve emails from my corrupted Entourage database. That was fun. Not.

Baby Delivery Pictures

I'm trying to upload photos of the delivery. They say a picture's worth a thousand words. I guess blogger doesn't subscribe to that saying 'cause it's not letting me upload anything.

Check back. I'll try again this morning.

Okay...we have photo lift-off...

This is the truck that brought the books from Long Beach where the very same container that's on the back of the truck sat in the bowel of a docked boat for four long days.

This is the forklift I had to rent in order to take the books from the container. That's Jabriel, my former assistant, living out his childhood fantasies.

The pallets being removed. That's Phil on the left. He pitched in at the last minute to give us a hand. Thanks, Phil.

We basically took over the whole street. We got a few dirty looks but no formal complaints.

My turn on the forklift.

Because the books arrived so late, we had to immediately prepare the shipments going to the wholesalers and the Vancouver show. Most of the orders had to ship out via overnight air.

More pallets unloaded.

FedEx Ground Freight arrives to pick up pallets going to Vancouver and Nevada.

Day 2 Julie takes over the reins from Jabriel and we begin our next phase.

I've Been Kinda Busy

In a nutshell:

The books arrived and the books went out...long story...photos to come...including me operating the forklift.

I did a TV interview at USC...would have told everyone about it but it happened last minute and it was live...but I have a DVD so it will be posted.

Finished up all the prints for the Vancouver opening...the first shipment that was supposed to get to Vancouver on Saturday, didn't...they will finally arrive tomorrow, about seven hours before I arrive handcarrying the rest of the prints. I don't think the framer will be very happy with me.

My email database crashed...I've lost all my emails (sent and received) from the past year, and all my addresses and mailing lists. So, no one will be hearing from me for a while unless they email me first. I don't even have my RSVP lists for the show. Waiting for a special program that will at least retrieve the received emails.

I bought Leopard and did an erase and install on my hard drive. I had to reinstall all my software. That took half of Saturday and half of Sunday. Fun...not.

Finally finished up all the graphics work I had for the AFM (American Film Market) which starts on Wednesday. If anything goes wrong I won't be here to deal with it. Oops. I'm also missing my favorite party of the year...they do tarot card readings and poker tables as part of the entertainment. Last year the reader told me I'd have a big project coming out this Fall that would change everything I do from that (this) point forward. At the time I had no plans of having the book ready for this Fall and the dude (or was it a dudette?) didn't know me from Adam. (In case you don't know, the reader was right and I'm very excited about my future plans.)

I'm hoping to have a day or two to semi-chill in Vancouver before the show opening. Is that too much to ask?

Now I have to number and sign another 51 prints for the show, then pack and hopefully get a few hours sleep before I have to leave for the airport at 8:30am.

Everything that has had to do with shipping, travel and communications has been messed lately. A friend of mine told me to make sure I pack some clothes in carry-on. She said Mercury has been in retrograde since October 14th (when my books were initially supposed to hit the port) and will remain there until November 1st. Next time this happens I plan to go to Hawaii one day before and come home one day after. My computer will remain off (those of you who know me are cracking up right now) and I will definitely not ship anything.

I will post from Vancouver every day, beginning tomorrow night.

Thanks for reading.

The Letter I Had To Write

Dear Mr. Union Dockworker,

This is a picture of my garage that I took tonight, which btw is much bigger than it looks in this photograph:
Notice anything funny about it, Mr. Union Dockworker? Hello? Are you there? Are you hearing me? I asked you if you notice anything funny about my garage.

What? You don't know the answer to a simple question?

Let me give you a little hint. Just come in a little closer so I can whisper it in your hairy, wax-encrusted ear.

IT'S EMPTY!!!!!!!

And you know what?

It's not supposed to be empty. It's supposed to be filled with boxes full of this little book I did that just happen to be lazing in the bowels of some ship that has been SITTING IN THE PORT SINCE SUNDAY!!!!!
You know the books were supposed to be delivered on MONDAY - I know you know because I have spent the past three days bitching at people who have subsequently been bitching at you - so we could send them out to the wholesalers so they could get them to the stores for the November 1st release date.

Okay, okay...I know it wasn't your fault that some jackass in China off-loaded my shipment in favor of someone else's WITHOUT NOTIFYING ANYBODY so it was late getting to you, but Jesus Mr. Union Dockworker, why the hell can't you just get the container off the ship and put it on the truck and wave the truck north on the 405? Doesn't the damn ship have somewhere else to go? Something else to transport? In short, WHY THE HELL IS IT TAKING YOU SO LONG TO UNLOAD THE FUCKING SHIP?

It would have been fine if you could have had it here on Tuesday. I still could have shipped out ground freight and made my deadlines. And even a Wednesday delivery would have been workable with 2-day air freight. But now it's Thursday and they have to go out overnight. And that's just ridiculous...in the amount of $4200 extra shipping charges ridiculous. And if you don't get them to me on Thursday -- and I mean before 2pm -- it's gonna be all over. The books won't be in the stores on time and IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT!!!

So, please GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS AND UNLOAD MY BOOKS!!!!

Notice that I said "Please."

Sincerely,

Me and my 48 friends who are very tired of being stuck in a container below sea level.

Mark Isler's Show

Just got home from a delightful stint on the Mark Isler Show on KABC Talk Radio in Los Angeles. I've done several radio interviews for the book, but this was the first one I got to do in-studio. It was also the first one where people could call in. And, I loved it. It was fun to wear the headphones and talk into a microphone. So much fun, in fact... maybe I should look into getting a radio show.

Originally I was booked for an 11:30 slot but producer Richard Sherman invited me to hang out in the studio as soon as I arrived. So, I think they ended up putting me on the air shortly after 11pm. There was another author/publisher, Jeanine Horowitz, booked for around midnight but Mark and Richard graciously asked me to stay on. I accepted their invitation to hang out and ended up staying through the whole show...until 1am...and had a great time. The show was very casual and felt as if we were sitting in a living having a great conversation... with the callers chiming in from the other room.

So, my heartfelt thanks to Mark Isler and Richard Sherman for having me on the show... to Marc Ramsey who greeted me at reception and let me wave at him through the window while he screened the calls... to Chester who manned the board and to Jeanine for letting me hang around through her segment. Oh, and thanks to all the listeners and especially those who took the time to call in.

I will be getting a copy of the show and will post here. In the meantime, here's a few photos:

Mark Isler.
That's my microphone in front and my book to the right.

Producer, Richard Sherman.

Mark. Me. Richard.

Marc Ramsey behind the window, screening calls.

Chester the engineer.
If we got married and he took my last name he'd be Chester Chesher.

Only In L.A.

I'm doing an in-studio interview Saturday at 11:30pm with Mark Isler on KABC Talk Radio...790 on your AM dial...but only if you live in the Los Angeles area.

Hopefully, I'll be able to snag a copy of it so I can put it up on here.

But if you live in L.A. you better tune in. What else you gotta do on a Saturday night?

Huh? What else?

I'm Gonna Party 'Til I Drop

Since Thursday, October 4th, I have been desperate to tell this story that can only summed up as proof of divine intervention. Only problem is that I haven't had a spare second to write it down. I have been that busy. And I shouldn't even be writing this now, 'cause I'm that busy. But I can't wait any longer because the end to the story is time sensitive, so instead of eating dinner and finishing the key art that is due at the printers tonight, I'm going to try and get this story down, albeit in the Reader's Digest version.

It all started when the gala show/book opening I was planning to have in Los Angeles hit a brick wall... as in no way I could make it happen by November book launch. So, on a wing and a prayer (literally), I flew up to Vancouver (actually, Seattle and then drove to Vancouver since I don't have my passport back yet, which is another story of nightmare proportions) in hopes of maybe finding an abandoned building I could rent for a month and throw an opening party and show a bunch of prints from the book. I'd always had it in the back of my mind that the opening party for my book belonged in Vancouver, since 85% of the pictures were shot there. But, truth be told, I had no leads for mounting a show within a month's time in the city I hadn't set foot in since 1994.

Not surprising, the trip got off to a rocky start, when I left my two sample prints (Dennis Wilson and Mike Gibbins) on the plane in Seattle. Then, during the two and a half hour drive, I finally got a call back from my Canadian distributor's BC sales rep (after a week of unanswered voice and emails) telling me he had an afternoon appointment and was then leaving town so he couldn't meet with me. Nice.

I did have one tentative appointment set up with Tom Harrison, an old friend who still writes the music section for the paper he worked for when I was in Vancouver shooting pictures. After getting lost on my way to his office (a whole other story) and had the pure joy of catching up with a great guy who I spent many hours with in the backstage bowels of many Vancouver music venues. This is Tom backstage at the coliseum interviewing Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult:

Of course, after the initial catch-up, I let Tom know what I hoped to accomplish on my short trip... note: my meeting with him was at 3pm on Thursday, leaving less than a day and a half to find a place to have my dream opening for the book honoring 53+ passed souls who now feel like family to me. Not to mention the weekend /Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. What was I thinking? Could the deck possibly be more stacked against me?

And just my luck... Tom didn't know of any galleries in Vancouver. Except he had been at an opening for Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd's album cover designer) at a place that he said belonged to some artist who seemed to be doing a favor for Storm's show. Oh well, strike one. But I scratched down the name of the place anyway, thinking if nothing else they may be able to steer me to another gallery or a building or a field with some cows that I could hang my pictures on. After my very nice visit with Tom I headed back to my hotel, lamenting the fact that it was already night.

There was nothing left to do, so I sat in my really nice hotel room facing the cold hard fact that my book was going to come out with a fizzle instead of a bang. It would be impossible to find anything in the one day I had left. Galleries book months in advance and the likelihood of finding a plausible building that would rent to me for one or two months was zero to none. And if by some miracle I found a building the next day, how the hell was I going to get a show together in three and a half weeks? Oh well, at least I had my really nice hotel room to hang out in for a few days. Okay, I'll admit it...I was really bummed. I don't like defeat. Then, about six seconds into my 'poor me' pity party, my 2007 New Year's resolution screamed in my head: Leave No Stone Unturned. Leave No Stone Unturned. Leave No Stone Unturned. The damned thing just wouldn't shut up.

It pushed me off the bed, over to the desk, onto the internet to figure out where that gallery Tom mentioned was located. It took a bit of searching - I had the name wrong - and like he said, it was all about this one artist, Michael Godard. But the voice kept screaming and I decided the only way to shut it up was to do a drive-by so at least I could say I tried.

Hmmm, it has a really nice storefront... in a great location... and look, it's open... and there are actually customers mulling about. The voice yells again, "Park your damn car and go in there." Not even sure it was my own voice. For all I knew, it was Mike Gibbins or Dennis Wilson yelling at me from their Alaska flight landing in Juno or the Grand Canyon. (God, I love these musicians...right now I'm listening to Terry Kath singing Memories of Love and trying to type through my tears.)

So, I do as I'm told and walk in the gallery with the book tucked in my signature orange Kipling computer bag. Within seconds a friendly guy walks up to me and asks if I need help. "Yes, but I I know you can't help me." I quickly pull out the book and tell him I know there's nothing he can probably do for me but that I'm looking for a building where I can do a party and show for my book. He looks at the cover and then flips through a few pages as I add, "Most of it was shot in Vancouver so I really want to open here but it has to be the beginning of November when the book hits the stores...maybe you guys know of a building I can rent, cause I know you can't do a show on such short notice and besides you're obviously booked up forever."

He responded, "Let me introduce to the owner...and her partner who should be back any second."

"Okay." He wasn't wrong. The partner walked through the back door, as if on cue from some invisible force of nature. And there they were... two young women who owned a gallery. One of them took the book from the guy as he introduced us and she barely said hi to me before thumbing the pages. The next part is something of a blur but I think it went something like this:

"This is great."

"Thanks, I'm trying to find a building or something where I can have a show and party to launch the book...it's coming out November 1st."

"When do you want to have the opening?"

"In a perfect world? Even though it's impossible...November 3rd."

"Well, you know, I was just talking to Kelly before you walked in. We hit a brick wall with this show we were trying to do for November and I said to her that we really need to find an event for November..."

"Really?..."

"..and you just walk in the door with this really cool book. Would you like to do the show here?"

"Excuse me?" "I mean yes." "Wait... just give me a second to pick myself up off the floor."

A second passed and we were already in "planning the show" mode. Just like that, the impossible became possible. No doubt with the help of 48 brilliant musicians (and 5 amazing dedicatees) who decided the show should be in Vancouver and engineered the failure of my LA opening and the subsequent failure of the show the gallery had planned. I mean, what else could it be? Did I mention how much I love each and every person in my book?

Oh, and one more thing...they want you all to come to the opening. They really do. No telling what might happen if you don't show up. Here's your invite:

For out-of-town guests, I've arranged a sweet deal at the gorgeous Blue Horizon Hotel, only $85 for a queen room and $95 for a double queen if you book by October 25 and mention Chesher Cat Productions. And, if you're a bandmate, family member or close friend of anyone in the book, or with the media, let me know if you want to come to the little private shindig that's happening a couple of hours prior to the opening.

I (and the ever-present musicians and dedicatees of Everybody I Shot Is Dead) look forward to meeting each and every one of you.

Joan Quinn Profiles...Me

Wednesday, October 3rd I did my first (of what I hope will be many) television interview. The show is Joan Quinn Profiles that runs nationally, I believe on public access cable stations. My segment will air toward the end of this month or early in November - more on that when they let me know.

On Wednesday, they taped two shows, each with two guests getting 15 minutes each. But I not only had my fifteen minutes of fame, I was on all four segments...in a way. Prior to the taping, Joan asked me to bring a couple of 16x20 prints to have on the set. Initially, I thought she just meant for my segment...but no. We had Dennis Wilson smack in the middle of Joan and her guests on the first show, which included Shannon Tweed (former Playmate/actress/wife of Kiss' Gene Simmons, who btw I turned down which puts me in the smallest portion of the female population who met him) and Martin Bedoian, artistic director of The Syzygy Theatre Group.

Joan Quinn and Martin Bedoian with Dennis Wilson

Joan Quinn with Frank Zappa while interviewing Parisian jewelry designer, Patrick Mauboussin

Joan Quinn, Patrick Mauboussin and me

Joan Quinn and me...yes, I actually am an Amazon Woman

I've been told my segment went very well. I dunno. I do know we crammed a lot of talk into the 15 minutes as well as showing 12 photos from the book. Of course, you can be the judge of that when I get the tape copy and put it up here.

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.

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.

Popping My Ebay Cherry

That's right, folks. I am no longer an Ebay virgin.

The foreplay started last Saturday when I got it in my head that I should replace all the lost/stolen camera equipment that I had when I shot all the photos in Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Yup. I'm either really sentimental (affirmative) or completely crazy (the jury's still out on that one). And the nutty reason I'm hell-bent on re-buying my original cameras is because I want to shoot concerts again and I want the pictures to be as good as the ones I shot way back when. Okay, the jury's back in... that's an affirmative on the completely crazy part.

Anyway, imagine my shock and delight when I found many vintage Pentax cameras available on Ebay. And I found one - a Spotmatic II - that matched one of my cameras, including several lens. Even though it wasn't closing for several days, I bid on it. It was the one I really wanted. In the meantime, there was an awesome-looking 200 mm telephoto lens that I wanted. I bid on that one but finally chickened out near the end as the price went a little higher than I wanted to pay, especially since I didn't even have a camera yet.

Then I bid on another camera and on Sunday, Aug 26, 2007 at 18:51:23 PDT I won it for a whopping (note intense sarcasm here) $51.00. Meet my new camera:


Notice the small dent on the left side of the lens ring? I swear to God one of my original cameras had that exact dent on the same lens.

Since Sunday, I've been an Ebay whore. Watching and bidding on some camera equipment and kicking as many others to the curb. All the while waiting for my first love to arrive. My very first bid. The one that I placed a maximum bid on last Saturday of $100. Fast forward to this afternoon... Aug-30-07 15:39:22 PDT to be exact... I was suddenly outbid bid by $5... then $10 with nearly 4 hours still left on the bidding. Was I going to lose my first love? The same camera I used to capture my sweet dead musicians in their glory days.? The musicians that I have lived with 24/7 for the past two years? Oh, the horror of it.

Not wanting to look desperate (in the world of rock'n'roll desperate girls are very unattractive), I slyly waited until 18:58:48 PDT (note that's over 3 hours of feigning non-desperation) to up my maximum bid to $120. A bid which held all of 6 minutes when I decided I better raise my maximum to $175. Not looking good with nearly 20 minutes left. These two last minute snakes in the grass were nipping at my ankles and seemed prepared to take me down. At 19:11:03 PDT, my bid hit my maximum so I quickly upped it $200. No way was I going to let those piranhas near my first love.

At this point I kept my browser open and refreshed the page every minute or two. YES!! My $175 bid was holding. The two poisonous snakes had slithered away. The clock ticked down. And down. Only two minutes to go. I was home free. Surely I would win my first Ebay love. I refreshed the page once more...

What the fuck? Who the hell is Glittergrl123? And why did she just bid $179.91 at 19:24:43 PDT, a mere 23 seconds before the close... refresh... Oh My God she upped it to $191.09 sixteen seconds later. Fuck, she's going to beat my $200 bid. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I scramble to add another $2o to my max bid. Did I make it in time? The seconds tick down. I have no idea what just happened. I hit the refresh button one more time. Dammit, I'm going to hunt Glittergrl123 down and punch her in the face. How dare she come in at the last minute and tear my first love right out of my arms. Fuck her!

Wait... wait a second... the window refreshed. The winning bid was $193.59. Posted 9 seconds before the close. I won... what?... Holy shit... I WON!!!

Here is my first Ebay love with whom I shall live happily ever after, complete with all that extra stuff, exactly as it was way back when:





Go ahead. Call me crazy. I couldn't care less.

Blog Slacker

Sorry for my blatant blog slackerness. It's not intentional. Nor is it due to the fact that I have nothing to say. I have plenty to say. But with the blog thing it has a lot to do with headspace and feel. I have been working on a very special post for the past few days. Don't know why it's taking me so long. It just has. And I also have a lot of things that are inches away from disclosing but not quite there yet.

In the meantime, I am not dead. Although I could be. Maybe I should check the obits. What I have been doing is a bunch of business-type stuff. Getting my distribution in order. Fixing all the glitches with my wholesaler. Ordering the 1900 bookstore mailing list from the ABA (American Booksellers Association) so I can send out a brochure to all the independent bookstores so they will know to order the book. Looking for galleries.

And then of course, today was Monday. I don't like Mondays. Have I mentioned that before? No matter how prepared I am for the day, it is always my worst day to do outside-of-my-own-brain-business. After last Monday (not that anything specifically tragic happened that day), I decided I will not make any calls of consequence on Mondays because they never work out in my favor. I don't know if it's me or the rest of the people in the world but I have to assume it's them because I've tried to get stuff done on the Mondays where I feel on top of the world but the result is always the same.

So, Monday is now my day to take care of my personal shit. And my current personal project is moving. Well, I'm not actually moving...it just feels like it. I am currently completely switching up two rooms in my house. I've temporarily moved my bedroom to my second office/guest room and the second office is moving to what was my bedroom and will be just an office. I've got one family member who is moving to New York on Wednesday and freeing up the master suite at the back of the house. Once I redo the bathroom and the flooring in that room, I will move myself back there and my new temporary bedroom will become my full time guest room.

I really need the second dedicated office because I am going to hire an assistant in the next few weeks. And I also have to empty my garage in preparation for receiving a portion of the book shipment. A lot of what's in the garage will be going in the second office. Confused? I am. But I can't wait until I am completely organized. I am so sick of spending/wasting time looking for things. Soon it will be "a place for everything and everything in its place."