November 2012

In the 80’s and 90’s, my main magazine client was Playboy Magazine. Every publicist in the music business knew that if they gave me access, there was a good chance that their artist would appear somewhere in Playboy. It didn’t hurt if their client was a good looking woman.

So, in August of 2001, a Nashville publicist called me and asked me if I was interesting in driving out to Joliet, Il. (about 60 mines from my house), to photograph Chely Wright, one of her clients. It is a nice ride out to the Rialto Square Theater, a hundred hear old theater with a lobby made for photography. I met Chely backstage mid afternoon, and she told me how nervous she was to appear sexy in a men’s magazine. Seemed that her brother was in the Marines stationed in the middle east, and she was afraid he would take a lot of grief for his sister appearing in Playboy. I reassured her that the pictures would be tasteful, and she went off to do her hair and makeup, while I scouted out location and set up lights. She found me in the lobby and we took some nice photos, which appeared in Playboy a few months later. I never saw her again, but read a lot about her until 2010, when she publicly came out as gay. She appeared as the grand marshall of the Chicago Gay Pride parade that year, and released an autobiography.

This weekend, I watched a movie called “Wish Me Away” on Showtime. The film documents the extraordinary steps she took toward making the public announcement of her sexuality on the Today Show. It shows the remarkable courage it took to pretty much give up her career (The Country Music community doesn’t take well to people outside their “norm”). The first half of the film is filled with her sharing the stage with some of the biggest names in Country Music. Near the end of the film is a slide on the screen that says: “Since her announcement, there have been no invitations from the country music community to share the stage or recording studio.” Except for Rodney Crowell!! She called him when she was deciding what to do, and started sending him songs. He persuaded her to record them, and produced her 2010 album. So at least there is one guy in Nashville that is a mensch!

At the end of the movie, a slide comes on the screen: “She has no regrets.”

#1. Last week I photographed a beer companies sales convention. During one of the sales presentation, the announcer talked about the great new promotion the brand (Rolling Rock) was going to start next year:  Send in your camera phone pictures of you and your friends having fun and drinking Rolling Rock. The “winners” will see their photos on Rolling Rock packages and in advertising! Crowdsourcing at its best. Get free photos and cut photographers out of the equation! And….. if you don’t have a camera phone, they will be setting up photo booths at major events, so you can jump in and take the photos there. Oh well, another opportunity lost to new technologies.

#2, Last week, Ritz Camera closed most of their stores in the Chicago area. Not enough people buying stuff to keep them open. I also heard a rumor that the biggest camera store in Chicago (Helix) will be closing it’s doors soon. It used to be the place to go in town for professional equipment, but Calumet came in and blew them away. Another one bites the dust.

Election day brought me much hope. Barack won, the way his people said he would, although it was kind of scary. The two guys that talked about abortion and rape ( booth Republicans) were soundly defeated, and many tea party people were voted out of office. Good job, America!

But, here in Illinois, we continue to hold our lead as, quoting Newsweek from last year, the most corrupt state in the union. We narrowly edged out Louisiana last year, but we are widening the lead!!

• Only state with our last two governors in federal prison.

• Only major city with three sets of father and son alderman convicted for corruption. (Helps to have a good gene pool if  you want to be corrupt).

Last Tuesday, we saw two more shining examples of democracy at work:

Jesse Jackson, Jr., who has been in and out of the Mayo clinic being treated for depression and bi-polar, who didn’t campaign at all in this election, won in a landslide. THEN…….the day after the election it came out as front page news that he is trying to work a plea bargain on charges that he used campaign funds to remodel his house in Washington, and for flying his mistress around the country. If he goes down as a felon, he cannot hold office and a new election will have to be held, costing the taxpayers mucho money!!!

Then we have the strange case of Derrick Smith, a state senator, who was indicted for accepting bribes last summer and was voted out of the senate (First guy ever to be kicked out) but remained on the ballot. He won in a landslide! Main reason is that most people just voted Democratic, giving him the vote. (see headline of this post). It was kind of humorous to read the description of his “Victory” party on election night. 12 people showed up, and that includes his family. Lots of ribs and chicken left over on the buffet.

Friday’s paper brought some more statistics:

Jackson will be the second congressman in a row from the 2nd District to be convicted of a crime. He is already the third consecutive 2nd Congressional District representative to be embroiled in a sex scandal!!

So, we in Illinois elected two future convicted criminals, ensuring us of our solid standing as the most corrupt state in the nation!! We are very proud.

In December of 2003, I spent a week traveling around the midwest on a tour bus with Bono, Ashley Judd and Chris Tucker, photographing them while they talked about the AIDS crisis in Africa.

Near the end of the tour we found ourselves in Cincinnati. After lecturing students at a college, the group moved on to an AIDS hospice. There was a reception in the common room, and I found myself standing next to a little, balding guy with a name tag that said Peter Frampton. My first thought was “That must be pretty weird growing up with the same name as a famous English musician.” Then he started to speak in an English accent and I Realized- YIKES- that’s the actual Peter Frampton!

I bring this up because there is a note from Peter Frampton in Bob Lefsetz’s mailbag post this week. There is also a note from Wendy Waldman. In it she speaks one of the great truths of the music business:

“I know that somewhere on the net it was written that I’ve been “disappointed” that I never “broke through.” I’ve said a lot of dumb stuff in the press over 40 years, but that is ONE thing I have never said. In fact, not breaking through was probably the greatest gift of my life. It has forced me to keep pushing my boundaries, to keep studying, to make a buttload of mistakes and a few exciting successes, to search, experiment, to “ride the rails” as I said in the show the other night, to learn to produce, be a session player, a singer, a performer, a teacher, a songwriter in different disciplines, to range all over the globe in incredible musical experiences and with the greatest musicians of my time, to learn new styles of music and work in every possible configuration and discipline except for classical music, (Alas, how I wish I could have.) These boundless, wider ranging opportunities only came to me because I had no choice–I had to stay restless and to keep learning, and it made me grow. I would never have survived being a star in my 20s and 30s.”

I know that Peter Frampton is still touring.  He recently toured America playing the songs from the album Frampton Comes Alive for its 35th anniversary. I wonder what his life and career would have been like if he didn’t happen to record and release the biggest selling live album of all time in 1976!!