I started writing GIMME SHELTER email newsletters about 15 years ago, maybe one every month or two. They were originally intended for sales reps (first at Random House, then Publishers Group West), to keep them apprised of our publishing activities, and then later, I added friends to the mailing list. As I got into blogging, the frequency of the newsletters dropped off.

Here’s the latest one. If you’d like to be on the list, sign up here.

Water tower near Prineville, Oregon, on my trip last week to see the eclipse

I’ve written less and less of these newsletters recently, as I’ve been blogging and now doing Instagram regularly. Made me think about all the different forms of communication I’ve employed over the years. My high school year book, running an Air Force newspaper in Germany for 2 years, then working the Whole Earth Catalog, and then — books.

Followed by, over the years: booklets, pamphlets, flyers, posters, 20-30 handmade books, mini-books, magazine and newspaper articles, videos, interviews … I’m a compulsive communicator.

These days I put up posts on my blog, but not as often, or as in-depth as a few years ago. I do Instagram almost daily and all these photos automatically go onto my blog, and to my Twitter and Facebook pages. You can check my Instagram account here; it’s a summary of posts: www.instagram.com/lloyd.kahn

Three New Books

The ’60s

I decided to do a book on the ‘60s, since there’s been so much attention given to the “Summer of Love” lately, and because as a person who grew up in San Francisco, went to high school in the Haight-Ashbury, and watched the ‘60s unfold first-hand, I don’t agree with what’s being presented all over the media; these accounts don’t coincide with what I saw happening at all.

“The Haight-Ashbury was a district. The ‘60s was a movement.”  –Ken Kesey

I started the book tentatively, to see if it was going to fly. I thought I’d give my background, what San Francisco was like in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and track my life — a kid growing up in San Francisco, college, Santa Cruz, Big Sur, the Monterey Pop Festival, building domes at Pacific High School, the Whole Earth Catalog — so readers would know where I was coming from. Rather than starting in 1960.

I started getting into it, recalling things that had been buried in my semi-consciousness. This was fun! And I realized that the ‘60s completely changed my life. In 1965, I quit my job as an insurance broker in San Francisco and went to work as a carpenter.

I’m going to illustrate it with black and white photos I took doing those years.

I’ll start posting parts of the book on my blog as I go, to get some feedback.

Read More …

Your guess is as good as mine; this was on the outskirts of Colusa, a wierded-up VW bus.

I’m in Ashland this morning. After I left Colusa yesterday, I drove north about 3 hours, and went to Stewart Mineral Springs, just northwest of the town of Weed, and lucked into getting the last opening of the day. You soak in the heavily mineralized water, then get in fabulous large wood-fired sauna, then in the cold creek. Mineralized, flushed of toxins,  rejuvenated, I wanted a beer, walked into the one bar in Weed, Papa’s Bar (Well, YES!) and voilá, Joe Cocker on the juke box (with good sound system), doing You Can Leave Your Hat On. One good song after another, a lot of Stones. My kinda bar. In giving me change, the bartender included a Native American $1 coin AND stood it on edge on the bar.

Then for dinner to Asian-American Bar-B-Q, recommended by worker at Stewarts Mineral Springs. Bingo! The chef, born in Chicago, grew up in Thailand, barbecuing over wood coals, I got try-tip and rice ($12), with coconut juice,  it was perfect, smoky, juicy, homemade hot sauce (no mass-produced Sriracha), sat at table out on road watching one 18-wheeler after another go by. America!

Tammy Wynette, Stand By Your Man, came on the radio as I headed out for dinner; what a beautiful voice: 

 And then there’s Lyle Lovett doing it: 

Drove to Ashland, out to dead end road east of town and slept in the back of truck (my 13-year-old Tacoma 4×4, stick shift, 4 cylinder, 130K mileage, my baby…).

Up this morning, latte and cinnamon roll at Pony Espresso Coffee House in the rather precious town of Ashland. Going to have lunch with bodybuilding legend Bill Pearl and his wife, Judy, then head for Umpqua Hot Springs, then Lew and Krystal’s on outer edge of total eclipse zone.

A lotta adventures in just 30 hours away from home!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=itlU-isOBVM%3Flist%3DPL8kCmE8p5N6J0oFnVWgMBZ9wjGJY_Nyxi