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About This Author
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Blogocentric Formulations #830652 added October 9, 2014 at 7:05pm
Restrictions: None
They Don't Know If Chins Could Kill
** Image ID #2010042 Unavailable **
SONG: "They Don't Know"
ARTIST: Kirsty MacColl
STATUS: Deceased (run over by a powerboat, 12/18/2000)
ALBUM: [single] (1979)
I'll admit that this entry is more about the musician than the music. I'd never heard the Kirsty MacColl original of "They Don't Know" (although I am familiar with the Tracey Ullman version), but as I was researching artists for this challenge, I read that she died by being run over by a powerboat. Run. Over. By. A. Powerboat. Seriously, how could I not include her after reading that???
MacColl's original version of the song suffered from a bit of bad luck; there was a strike at the distributor which prevented the single from shipping. Although it reached #2 on the Music Week airplay chart in the UK, it never appeared on the UK Singles Charts as a result. When Tracey Ullman covered the song in 1983, MacColl performed backings vocals and the song peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #11 on the Adult Contemporary charts. The video became very popular thanks to a cameo by Paul McCartney. Kirsty MacColl spent many years working as a songwriter and backing vocalist for other bands, most notably The Pogues and The Smiths. At the time she was married to successful music producer Steve Lillywhite, who got her these jobs for many of the bands he worked with.
In 2000, Kirsty MacColl was vacationing in Cozumel with her sons. They were diving in a designated area near a reef when a speeding powerboat entered the restricted area, heading right for one of her sons. MacColl rushed to him and got him out of the way in time (he suffered minor head and rib injuries), but MacColl herself was hit by the boat and killed instantly. The boat belonged to Mexican supermarket millionaire Guillermo Gonzalez Nova, but boathand Jose Cen Yam claimed he was driving the boat at the time it struck MacColl. He was found guilty of culpable homicide, but under Mexican laws was able to avoid jail time by paying a fine of approximately $90, plus $2,150 in restitution to MacColl's family. It is believed that Yam agreed to a bribe to take responsibility for the incident.
 
PROMPT: Have you ever been to an author signing and/or reading? If so, what was it like? If not, would you ever go to one?
When I was in college and working for the Bookstore Chain Which Shall Not Be Named (just kidding, it was Borders), the first book signing I ever attended also ended up being the first book signing I ever worked. Bruce Campbell was in town to promote the release of his memoir:
| ASIN: 0312291450 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 17.87
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I think I might have been one of the only people who actually knew who he was... up until that point he had primarily been, as the subordinate title in his memoir attests, a "B movie actor" primarily known for his work with Sam Raimi on the Evil Dead movies. Borders rented out a theater in downtown Los Angeles where we set Campbell up to meet with long lines of fans who wanted their books signed. For the most part, Campbell was very nice, except for being very particular about the way he wanted his books handed to him. For that signing, we were supposed to get the spelling of the person's name, write it down on an index card, and hand it to him along with the open cover of the book, dust jacket folded over so he had the whole white space of the back of the cover to work with and didn't have to spend time asking fans how to spell their names or who they wanted to make the book out to. In retrospect, the system actually did save time... but Campbell did stand up from the table and approach two Borders employees to reprimand them after they accidentally forgot to remove the dust jacket, or wrote illegibly on the index cards. 
Still, other than the "OCD Incident," Campbell was very warm and gracious. He even made time after the signing to write personalized messages for the staff that worked the event (for the fans, he just wrote "To: so-and-so" then signed his name). Among the staff, we could tell who were the real fans. This was before the days of people widely selling memorabilia and autographs on places like eBay, so most people just brought him one, maybe two books to sign. But since he had agreed to sign "as many books as each staff member wants," another staffer and I both came to him with a stack of nearly a dozen books that we had been saving up to buy for weeks leading up to the signing.
I think the number of books and specific inscriptions we asked him to sign may have been an indication of our super-fan status, because he actually took the time to sit down and talk with us for a few minutes. Most of my books were for friends (and myself) who wanted to be in movie business someday, and he asked what each person wanted to do and wrote a personalized message of encouragement in each book, all while chatting about what it was like to make those early movies with Sam Raimi.
I would definitely go to another author event, although I think I'd be more likely to go to one where there was something else to be gained other than a twenty-second moment in the same space as an author while he impersonally signs a book. For example, I was at a bookstore in Long Beach a few years ago, and just happened to realize that Michael Connelly was doing an event there at the same time. In addition to signing books, he also read an excerpt from the latest book he was there to promote, as well as fielded several questions for a Q&A - not just about that book but about all of his novels.
Overall, it was a really cool experience to see an author just hang out and talk about his writing with whoever wanted to show up. I would definitely go to one of those again if it were an author who's work I really enjoyed. I actually missed the opportunity to see one of these events with Brandon Sanderson recently (I found out he was at a Barnes & Noble near my apartment the day-of... which, unfortunately, was a day I couldn't leave work), so now I always keep an eye out for my favorite authors' touring schedules to see if they ever plan on stopping by my neck of the woods. The nice thing about living and working far apart in the Greater Los Angeles area is that there are a lot of bookstores around. It's usually a good bet that most authors will stop somewhere in Los Angeles at some point on their tour; it's just a matter of when and where.  |
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