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Sunday, May 11, 2003

Even Hip Authors Get the Blues

By Leanne Potts
Of the Journal
    Tom Robbins got a sore hand, leaving fans with unautographed books, well, sore. The best-selling author was in town May 2 kicking off a seven-city book-signing tour in support of his new book, "Villa Incognito."
    More than 700 people packed Bookworks, a tiny North Valley store, to hear Robbins read from the book. Afterward, nearly 500 of them bought 610 books, took a number and waited to meet Robbins and have him dedicate the book to them.
    Three hours and 500 autographed books later, Robbins cried uncle. Actually, he cried "Ow, ow, ow, my hand is getting a cramp. See ya!" or something like that.
    We will let Lindsay Lancaster, events coordinator for Bookworks, take it from here: "He got tired and quit signing," she says, sounding tired and as irked as a publicity person can let themselves sound in front of a reporter. "A lot of people who wanted a signed, first edition book didn't get it."
    Robbins signed books for everyone still waiting in the store at nearly 11 p.m., Lancaster says. "No one was turned away."
    He didn't sign the 70 or so books belonging to fans who had gone home for the evening. "We had told people if they left their books with us, we'd get them signed," Lancaster says. "He didn't sign any of those."
    It's no surprise that Robbins, the literary world's equivalent of a rock star, drew a crowd so large it overwhelmed his ability to write "To Jane Q. Reader. Love, Tom Robbins."
    But the last couple of authors who have done signings at the store — Cheech Marin and Anthony Bourdain, for example — autographed hundreds of books the day before the event, Lancaster says. "They just personalized them at the signing, which made things go a lot smoother."
    Robbins refused to do this, she says. "I don't know why he wouldn't pre-sign; he just didn't want to do it."
    Customers whose books weren't signed will get a consolation prize, of sorts. Robbins has agreed to autograph adhesive bookplates that Bookworks employees will affix inside the books.
    Some Robbins fans aren't satisfied with a stick-on signature, though. "We've had some returns," Lancaster says.
    Lancaster says she understands Robbins' actions. "He is 63 years old," she says. "He signed for three hours, and all he had was a piece of pie."
    Hmmm, Tom Robbins as hunger-fatigued old man. I don't know.
    The explanation for Robbins' mercurial behavior may lie in something he said earlier that night during a Q&A. I asked where an unabashed 1960s hipster like him fits in in this age of Donald Rumsfeld, Dixie Chick persecution and a generation of 20-year-olds who overwhelmingly support the latest U.S. war.
    "It's about not fitting in," he answered without hesitation in his Carolina drawl. "The important thing is, I don't fit in ... there is great joy in not belonging."
    The crowd roared in approval.
    If unsigned books are the price of Robbins' splendid nonconformity, so be it.
    FINAL PORT CALL: A TV legend has died.
    George Wyle, who wrote the theme song to "Gilligan's Island" died of leukemia in Tarzana, Calif., this week. He was 87.
    The song, officially titled "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island," is reputed to be one of the most popular TV theme songs of all time. Right up there, no doubt, with the theme from Gilligan's TV contemporary, "The Beverly Hillbillies."
    "Who doesn't know it, or at least how to hum it?" says Louie Knaiger, president of the Official Gilligan's Island Fan Club. "It was a masterpiece, and we owe it all to a very talented man."
    Actually, Louie, we owe it all to two men: show creator Sherwood Schwartz has a co-credit on the song.
    Knaiger says the San Diego-based OGIFC is planning on running a tribute to Wyle on its boffo Web site (www.gilligansisle.com), where an average of 2,000 people a month view the lyrics to "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island."
    Now the song is running through your head, isn't it.
    Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale/ a tale of a fateful trip/ that started from this tropic port/ aboard this tiny ship ...
    Check your TiVo. Somewhere, Gilligan is always foiling the castaways' attempts to get off the island.
    "The show has never been off the air since it (first) aired in 1964," Knaiger says.
    Sailor hats off to George Wyle for giving us a tune we've been singing together for 39 years.