I hate stories like this. Yes, they are rich rock stars and they can afford to buy any instrument. Yes, most instrument makers are willing to give away equipment just to get the rock star to play it or get their picture taken with it. But what most people may not know is that most of the real artists out there, the ones that have paid their dues and have been around awhile, own one guitar, one bass, one drum kit, an amp, or even a mic that they wouldn’t give up for anything in the world. They record masterpiece rock songs with it. They tour with it. That one instrument is what makes their “sound”.
And then some idiot decides it’s a good idea to bust in and steal it.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were rehearsing for an upcoming tour, and some low life broke into a sound stage and stole 5 guitars. Not just any guitars either.
Last Thursday, someone got into the studio in Culver City and made off with two of Mr. Petty’s prized instruments – a 1967 12-string Rickenbacker electric and a 1965 Gibson electric. Also missing were three other rare guitars belonging to the bassist Ron Blair, the rhythm guitarist Scott Thurston and the lead guitarist Mike Campbell.
To the guy who is sitting in his apartment right now strumming away on the guitar that helped Tom write “Breakdown” and “American Girl”. Watch your back.
A reward is offered for the safe return of the gear.
8 years ago, the internet erupted with news that CBS, and specifically Dan Rather, reported a politically timed story aimed at damaging George W. Bush’s reelection. When the dust settled, there were forged documents, firings, and the unceremonious retirement of Mr. Rather.
For the first time in 8 years, I’m not at the London Book Fair. While it is strange not walking the aisles at Earl’s Court, it is also a relief. At this point, I just can’t do another LBF, or any book publishing convention. There are a few things I’m just flat out tired of experiencing.
Companies that don’t know how to exhibit. There is nothing more annoying that walking up to a booth (or “stand” as they like to call them in Europe) and not being noticed. You feign interest as you browse the books they have on the shelf, waiting for someone, one of them, to come over and ask if you have questions or if you are there to see anyone. Nope. Standard procedure is to pretend you are not there.
Guards at the “Big” publishing companies. You know them. They are the publishing house employees whose job it is to filter you from publishing executives. No way are you going to just walk up to a booth and meet with someone. Nope, you have to face the person whose job it is to keep the riff raff away as they look at you and say, “do you have an appointment?”. When you say you don’t, but that you were hoping to just speak with someone for 15 minutes about what you’ve traveled thousands of miles to communicate, they look at you like you’ve just thrown up in public. They glance at the (ahem) paper diary book in front of them flipping the pages furiously while sighing and mentioning that everyone is completely booked up. Meanwhile, you can see that the person you want to talk to is just shootin’ the breeze with their fellow employees a few feet from where you stand.
The high cost of convention food/drink. You’ve got 10 minutes between appointments, and your mouth feels like the Sahara Desert. There’s no time to run outside to find a corner store. You have to go to one of the approved food vendors on the show floor where you find that the 8 ounce box of water you so desire is 4 Pounds British Sterling (almost $8 US). No choice. You do it, and regret every gulp.
Aisle walkers who are oblivious to anyone else around them. These are the people who are walking the hall with the luggage on wheels. They’re walking right down the middle of the aisle about 3 steps slower than anyone else. You always find these people just when you are 5 minutes late to your appointment, and they just won’t get out of your way. So, you walk behind them, going just as slow as they do, waiting for an opportunity to pass to their left or right so you can get to your meeting. If you’re lucky, you’ll encounter no less than 5 of these people on your way.
No shows. You’ve spent weeks making appointments. A flurry of emails have confirmed every last detail. Date, time, booth number, and contact person. You show up, not only on time, but a couple of minutes early, and all you find is an empty booth. No one is there. Oh, they’ve been there alright. You can see that morning’s used coffee cup. Business cards from the meetings they bothered to show up to. Maybe even an appointment book with your appointment etched so neatly inside. But your contact is a no show, and you’ve just wasted 30 minutes, not to mention all the money it took to get you there.
The permanently distracted. These are the folks who you’ve come to meet, but they aren’t interested in what you are saying, or anything else about you. They’re watching everyone else pass by. They waive at their friends that stroll past the booth. They do their “shout outs” to old colleagues. They stop you in mind sentence and say, “oh, sorry, just a moment” and they dash over to slap a guy on the back and let out a big guffaw about something completely uninteresting. 2 minutes, and they run back to you apologizing. Meanwhile, you are in mid-product pitch, and they’ve heard nothing of it.
I could go on and on.
So, instead of sitting in an over-priced hotel with bad Wi-Fi right now, I’m at home, enjoying the fact that I’m no where near Earl’s Court.
While this falls into the “duh” category for most businesses, it is actually a revelation to book publishers. Their customers have traditionally been middle men – distributors, brick and mortar stores, wholesalers, etc. For the most part, their real customer (the reader) has been elusive. At least, elusive within the means of the publishing house. Pre-Internet, it was acceptable for a publisher not to have a direct relationship with the reader. But now, there’s no excuse to not know your customer – their wants, needs, desires. One only needs to look to social networking for the answer. You just might need to thicken up your skin though. Customers will tell you the truth, not to your face of course, but to others, in public, on the internet. You’ll want to monitor specific places to eavesdrop into their conversations. Don’t worry, you’re not invading anyone’s privacy. Your customers will gladly allow you to drop in on the conversation.
Stephen Palmer at Beyond the Cover gives some hints on what to do if you’re a publisher in need of customer information.
In minutes, the President of the United States is expected to report that Osama Bin Laden, the individual behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, is dead.
Dead.
Finally.
Sources say that the U.S. has the body.
11:36 PM Eastern Time: President Barack Obama has just announced that Osama Bin Laden is dead. George W. Bush would have wanted to make this announcement years ago. He couldn’t do it in 8 years as President. We’ve continued to hunt for the central figure in the war on terrorism since, and tonight, on May 1, 2011, the news is finally in.
Bin Laden is dead. Hiding in plain sight, in Islamabad Pakistan.
Now what?
Will terrorism increase? It’s likely. Will there be a short term intensification of terrorist response to this news. Probably. Is Barack Obama the right leader for this time? What can we expect in the coming days?
No one knows.
What we do know is this matters. This is a major story. It brings a certain amount of closure; closure for the people of New York City, Washington DC, and Shanksville, PA.
In fact, this provides closure for every American.
No one can find evidence that Tea Party demonstrators hurled racial epithets on March 20, 2010, at Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. And you can bet people have tried. Andrew Breitbart has even offered to give $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund once evidence is found. Even though members of the MSM, liberal pundits and the Democrat party state the offense as fact, no video or audio of the event exists. Finally, the New York Times gave up.
The Political Times column last Sunday, about a generational divide over racial attitudes, erroneously linked one example of a racially charged statement to the Tea Party movement. While Tea Party supporters have been connected to a number of such statements, there is no evidence that epithets reportedly directed in March at Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, outside the Capitol, came from Tea Party members.
Does the debate over this unfortunate rumor end here? Of course not. The “Tea Party is filled with racists” narrative is widely disseminated as a factual event. No evidence is needed, apparently.
Still, it’s nice to see a little crow on the menu at The Gray Lady.
This is the world we live in. I blame the parents 100%. Child neglect, pure and simple.
Care about your kids for goodness sake. Don’t give them unfiltered access to the internet. Be careful of their participation on social media networks. I could go on and on…
