Even before high school, I earned the reputation for being quite the swinger.

Infact, by popular proclaimation, that led to the reflective young writer, proud of being Henry C. Zevallos, to become Hank.

Then there was the music. The Jitterbug/Big Band movies on TV, my mother winning on "Rocket To Stardom." Listening to the birth of Rock And Roll in the back of the Studebaker. Meeting Ritchie Valens, Johnny Burnette, and singing songs I made up at night.

Spring, 1967, I went to my first recording sessions. A local group I really liked was recording an album called "Strange Days." They gave us two boxes of their first album and we turned on local college DJs and others on to a great album track called "Light My Fire."

Inside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre's boxoffice in Vancouver, BC, Canada, when Jim Morrison's film "HiWay" got it's only public showing. It was in benefit for our Poppin Magazine, Canada's Rock Culture Magazine. That's Ihor Todoruk on the left, my artist partner, whose reciprocatory gift of a painting I gave to Jim on his last night in Los Angeles.

Here's Hank the photographer, Public Eye founder.

Manager Hank.

Mountain Hank, Spring 1997, as the sun fall makes the nose look bigger.

And, just goofing off for a cyberpal in NYC, early Summer 1997. That's Boner, one of my two great dogs.

B O O M I N G

What fun it's been. What memories it's given me. If nothing else, life has blessed me by the people I've met and the things I've done.

I don't consider myself anywhere near completed with my life adventures. But, now, during an important transitional period, I've decided it is the time to do something I had always said, from grammer school on, I would do.

Write a book.

Perhaps because I was with someone who didn't really care much about my life, I attended only one of my high school reunions. And, I was surprised then by how my former classmates had remembered my writing. Where, they asked, were the books they kept expecting to see with my name on it. When I apologized, and told them what I had been doing since I entered college, they began telling me I "owed" it to them and our generation. And I realized then that I wouldn't just be writing fiction. I had been fortunate to have been places, met people and done things that, as a former journalism major, I had a responsibility to document. Our times are indeed unique.

Those of you who have met me in the last half dozen years or so, may only know me for Public Eye, the satellite TV sales and installation company I started operating in August, 1983. That's when I left my position at ONTV, where I had been Los Angeles Regional Sales Manager, training and sending young salespeople knocking on doors to turn ONTV into what became the single largest subscription channel in any city in the world.

I got into satellite TV because I believed in it and what it could do for our nation and our world. Infact, it was satellite dishes popping up in the more liberal Soviet nation of Hungary that was mostly responsible for the Iron Curtain coming down.

I am proud of what I've done in satellite TV. In addition to standing up for the interests of the public, I've achieved such accomplishments as becoming the number one provider of quality systems to more Southern California sports bars and restaurants than any other outfit. We did commercial installs in Northern California, and were even asked to do commercial jobs out of state. We also became the exclusive Southern California satellite TV installers for Home Club (now Home Base) and Costco, having turned down a similiar opportunity with Price Club because of their choice of cheap equipment. We even passed on a similiar opportunity with Sears because we didn't want to extend ourselves too thin.

Today Public Eye is an authorized dealer/contractor for every major satellite company there is.

However, I originally started Public Eye in 1974, as a journalism service that provided photo features to publications around the world. And, we also sold posters of some of our exclusive rock'n'roll photos: Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Elton John, etc.

But, I didn't want to change Peggy Lee's words for the big bucks offered by a "new image" tabloid, and, more importantly, I had reinvolved myself in my first love: music.

But, loving someone who didn't want to "live out of a suitcase," I didn't go back to being a concert promoter who put on tours across Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Instead, I became a manager and a production company.

It's hard to put yourself 100% into something when the person you care about the most is a non-believer. But I remain proud of my associations and accomplishments.

Now days "satellite TV" means something a lot different for most people than what it means to me. And my life has undergone some major changes in the last couple of years. Most importantly, the wonderful brother I had hoped to provide a career for, died suddenly.

Life is short, not fair, yet good.

There are things I am meant to do. If I don't, I'll have myself only to blame. And, like all of us, I already have enough things to blame myself for. I again answer only to myself. So, as I refocus on providing the best I can for Public Eye customers, I also intend to expand Public Eye into the Internet, as the cutting-edge communications company I had always wanted it to be. A beginning has been my recently becoming an electronic spider, web-weaving. My first sites were Rockabilly King Rocky Burnette, whom I've agreed to manage, and Burnette House, the first ever Official WWW sites for music greats Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette, and The Rock 'n Roll Trio. Visit those sites and see why I'm motivated.

Would you like Public Eye to design and maintain your website? Click on my signature below, and we'll talk about it. I hope to have Public Eye excell as a webmaster, and I'd love to find some exciting opportunities to accomplish this with.

Having been a publisher of acclaimed periodicals during my "wonderboy" years, I am very excited about this new age and what I intend to do. Feel free to contact me and let's see what we can do together, be it on the Internet, with satellite TV, or good ol' music!