This is the 29th book I’ve done in 44 years of publishing, and something different has happened here.
Our output is slow because we put books together 2 pages at a time. Grown-up publishers get a book totally prepared — text and graphics — before starting production.
I collected materials, for about a year, stored both on the computer and in old-school 5th-cut file folders. Once it got to a tipping point, we started production. I’d pull out the best stuff, do layout with a cheap color copy machine and scotch tape. Our artist-sometimes-in-residence, David Wills, would tune up the designs, whenceforth they went to Rick Gordon for InDesign/Photoshop preparation for printers. Lew Lewandowski unearthed a lot of this material, and designed a bunch of pages. Evan Kahn contributed in various ways. The book assumed its form, with categories, 2/3 of the way through its production.
Bob Easton and I developed this seat-of-pants method of production out of necessity with Shelter in 1973: we only had maybe half of the materials ready, so we just started. I continued to shoot photos, write, and edit the book while it was in production. Photos kept coming in from contributors. Still our M.O.
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Tiny Homes has been selling so well that we have to do a speedy 7th reprinting. I just wrote to Rick and Lew — regarding our 3-man team needing to converge Monday to get the changes done — and said “All hands on deck Monday.”
Which brought to mind Procul Harum’s “A Salty Dog,” an epic of the sea which starts out with seagull cries and “All hands on deck…”
Which I’m playing now, still amazed at this masterpiece of a rock opera. Wonderful still, 45 years later…
WELL! In retrospect I think it was sheer exhaustion. Finishing the new book after a speeded-up schedule, too little sleep, too much caffeine, 3 major trips back to back — I don’t do airplanes/airports well at all — and I got to Hawaii — long anticipated, oh boy, warm water — wrote a blog post the first morning there about how rich my life was, and keblam, the next day folded like a limp hot air balloon…Long story short — it’s been about 2 weeks of feeling like shit + severe neck pain and I’m finally on the other side…I recognized a couple of things during this episode: (1) I’m a total wimp about being sick. It’s the end of my world; I don’t suffer feeling bad or low-chi gladly and (2) I haven’t had sufficient empathy for people that are ill or in pain. The neck thing made me realize what people who have say, back pain, are going through. Holy shit! Well, a big fat (800 mg) Ibuprofen cured the neck pain — voila — plus there was a music documentary of George H. W. Bush’s 1989 inauguration — blues, baby! — and a killer version of “Hey Bo Diddley” with Bo and Ronnie Woods that was extraordinary — and I started to move my neck, and sweet Jesus, I feel alive again, and ready to get on with my life. I might even jump on my skateboard this afternoon.
Whenever things break down like this for me, I can count back to at least 6 dumb things I’ve done, in combo. Here there were like 9. Look at the amount of stuff I was carrying — no checked bags — plus I was walking up all the stairs, not using escalators, in airports, to get a workout. Yes, yes…
Lew just showed me his on his FaceBook page before he left the office tonight. Sure brightened up the rest of the day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCM0HPvDGwY
My life is so rich right now I can’t get more than a hint of it here. Left HKG Monday night 11 PM, after harried stopover in Guam, arrived Honolulu 5 PM Monday night; go figure. Got rental car, headed for North Shore, where I’m going to stay with friends for a few days. I remembered Haleiwa as being a soulful little town, and sure enough: Breakers restaurant: local beer on tap, pulled pork sandwich w/good fries, loud, raucous good surfer vibes, bunch of healthy people, reggae (what else?), these are my people! Made me think of how I essentially left the beach life in 1957, that is, I got into other things, and for some reason at this time in my life, I’m coming home to the beach. Cowabunga!
There were a bunch of women having a very happy birthday party, thrown by Keri (at right with her daughter) it was Anna’s 55th, they were calling it the “speed limit” birthday. Keri’s a dynamo, a force of joy and good vibes. Blurry photo, but you get the idea.
Been giving people here the mini book, they love it…they get it.
In all the various communication stuff I do, I love it when people get it.
Heading out to see what I can find to do in this land of friendly people and warm water.
One of my favorite Bob Marley songs. I like it-a-like this…Don't Rock My Boat by Bob Marley & The Wailers on Grooveshark
This just knocked me out. I’m sitting here at ritual Roasters in San Francisco, and this gave me chills. For some reason the back of my ears was tingling:
“Anonymous has left a new comment on your post ‘James Brown – Full T.A.M.I Show Performance, 1964″‘”
I’ll have to watch this when I get home. But it reminded me of this great one too… did you ever see:
James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti – It’s a Man’s World ?
Peace
Gill
I’ve been on the road for 2 days, and here are couple of the songs I heard:
-“I’m a Rocker” by The Raspberries (A great band that never made it big-time. This song is such pure rock n roll, like Rod Stewarts “Hot Legs.”
-“Johnny Sincere” by The Dead Poet’s Society
In case you don’t know it, you can click on any of the Topics (like Music” or “Homesteading” down on the lower right side of this blog and you’ll get posts on just those subjects.
-LK
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5_jqhXNF98A
I Guess I Showed Her by Robert Cray on Grooveshark
This is playing right now; I just finished my rough layout of the cover of Tiny Homes On the Move, half-way through the back cover….6/10ths inch of rain yesterday, halleujah…went paddling in the rain…
Our output is slow because we put books together 2 pages at a time. Grown-up publishers get a book totally prepared — text and graphics — before starting production.
