There’s been a few more presentations, a few more all-day meetings, a stealth design charrette, and the prospect of buying a nearly 100-year-old house that have all conspired to keep me from my appointed rounds.
Oh – and the satellite radio hasn’t exactly made me more contemplative – but I have been seen dancing wildly in the car…
More anon.
Not so much to say, really. But have you ever had one of those days where things just seem so right that you’re happy you’re in it in such a visceral way that almost escapes description?
I have no way of rationally explaining it – but everyone I talked to today just seemed to be so very much…I don’t know….alive, maybe? So content with the world around them and so engaged with what was going on. I really don’t know how to describe it. But it ranged from happy talks with America’s Cup sailors to way-cool interns to sushi waitresses and everyone in between.
So now I’m happily ensconced in our pub (so appropriately named ‘The Discriminating Sloth’) listening to old Tyrannosaurus Rex cds (which arived in the post today!) with the purring Scylla in my lap.
May you all be so fortunate.
We had a lovely, if bittersweet weekend.
Actually – it started on Thursday when we saw the Hackensaw Boys again. They do so completely rule that I actually put a sticker on my car. I was tired on Friday – but happily so.
But for the bittersweet – Anne Marie’s last day at work was Friday. Yes – she’ll be doing some part time work for awhile yet, and I’ll keep seeing her as she is one of my bestest friends, but still – it was her last official day.
So a bunch of us took her out (along with Sara – whose first official day of singlehood it was…) for chips and salsa and drinks (primarily margaritas, but there were Coronas…oh yes, there were Coronas).
It was a great group of folks to spend a Friday evening with – Karen, Mary Helen, Justin, Jeef, Sara, Anne Marie and my lovely Jim. We all got home at a highly respectable hour (before 9 p.m. – because we’re older than we think…) and then…
Mary Helen, Patrick, Justin, and a host of website folks had a launch party for Ye Olde Boat Museum‘s new site which concluded (mostly) with a Violent Femmes show at the Norva.
A splendid time was had by all – and even though Justin doesn’t remember dancing in the street and rubbing his butt on the newlyweds’ convertible – I can truly say that Jim and I had a lovely time and were able to function as real human beings the next day.
There are times when one wishes one had a camera.
That was not one of those times.
I got to meet Tony Bennett today.
He was sweet and wonderful and he donated one of his paintings to our museum today.
It was a good day.
More later…..
Yeah, I know – I fell off the face of the earth again. Let me just say that T.S. Eliot was right….
Anyway – we’re now well into May and so many things have happened that it will be hard to catch up.
First off – we went down to Winston-Salem to visit the parental units and take in the phenomenon that is Merlefest in the beautiful foothills of the Brushy Mountains. It’s a vacation that is always very much needed in late April – since March is always one of the hardest months in Ye Olde Boat Museum. So we spent some quality time in the good old North State and then headed back to reality.
I got to spend precisely one and a half days at home before having to turn around and head to the annual AAM conference which – darn the luck – was held this year in New Orleans.
AAM is always a good thing to go to because it’s a time when 5 or 6,000 museum geeks get together and find out what everyone else is doing. I was on a panel session which was very well received – we had 90 people there at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the Big Easy.
Museum people have no lives, it seems.
Anyway – I returned from AAM to a new job. This is a job that is beyond my wildest dreams and I only hope I’m up to the task.
I am now the full-time official curator of the Monitor.
Before I was doing it on an ad hoc, acting basis – but it’s the real deal now.
I’ll let y’all know how it goes…..
So I’m at this conference about Museums and the Web and my inner geek – long dormant, just came out this week. I’m one of the furtive little scurrying things that you see in the shadows of conferences, permanently attached to a wireless laptop looking for the best hot spot so I can log all the important sites that I’m hearing about in the sessions. You see it everywhere here – I swear to you I just saw two guys carrying on a conversation between two PDAs.
OK – so I’m not that bad…
It’s really kind of funny that I didn’t go into computers ages ago. I mean, I ran a BBS on my Commodore 64, for goodness sakes! I remember you had to shout through the modem if you were actually calling me on the telephone, as I only had one line…
But, I didn’t go that way – and I guess I’m happy about that. In terms of technology I think I make a better end user than a programmer.
But you know, conferences can sometimes be good things in that they remind you what it is you love about your job and confront you with all the possibilities inherent in that job. Some of the things I’ve seen here border on the magical and theoretically I should be able to accomplish most of these things over time.
Kinda frightening, but kinda exhilirating too at the same time.
Well – things are winding to a close today at the geekfest and I’ll be heading to Richmond to see the Hackensaw Boys yet again. I’m not sure I’d ever tire of seeing them – they’re one of the most exciting bands I’ve seen in a long time (and I think I’ve said that here before). It will be a nice end to a long, intense week – or perhaps a nice beginning to an equally long week.
It’s times like these that I must thrive on. I’m not sure I’d know any other way.
The weekend is rapidly drawing to a close, and I’m grabbing at every little bit of it to keep it from slipping away.
It was a good weekend, following on the heels of a very stressful week. One needs a good weekend in situations like that.
Friday night we went to a new restaurant across the street from us and saw Red Metric – a three piece wall of sound from the Williamsburg area who are trying to make their mark in the evil world of music. Their drummer Mike is the husband of a friend/colleague of ours whom we’ve known for about 15 years – and while he spent a good portion of his life training to be a marine biologist, music got the better part of him and I do think it suits him.
It was so much fun going to a show at a small place (and Patostas is definitely small) and seeing a local band that does all original stuff. It’s one of the things I missed when I moved up here. In some small way I got that back on Friday night.
Anyway – give Red Metric a try. You might just like them!
Then on Saturday we headed to Charlottesville to see Robert Earl Keen at Starr Hill. We’d had this planned since January, but the timing couldn’t have been better. I needed that kind of night out in a smallish music hall listening to one of my favourite musicians.
But what was even cooler was that they announced last week who his opeing act would be – and it was none other than John Eddie!
I’ve only just discovered John Eddie in the past year thanks to a link I found on Amigamaster’s website. Anyway – he was fabulous.
As was Robert Earl Keen, of course. We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve seen him now – but every show is different so it’s always a great experience.
Well – I’m avoiding the inevitable. I should probably pretend to sleep at the very least.
Happy Sunday, y’all.
So anyway – today I realized that one cannot bend time without copious amounts of alcohol.
As one is discouraged from consuming said amounts of alcohol in the workplace, time must – in fact – remain a constant and mutually agreed-upon element.
In other words – we have fast-tracked absolutely everything involving the Monitor and hence I am insane.
The new exhibition opens in one month and counting. The last image request came in today, the text is still in the process of being finalized, comps must be turned around in about 24 hours and everything must be 100% accurate.
Did I mention that this is on top of everything else that I have going on? You know – like daily life and such?
Someone asked me today if I could handle all this. Thing is, I think I can – and I even said – “This is what I live for.” And you know – I mean it.
Speaking of coolness – last night we did another Master and Commander program at Ye Olde Boat Museum and it was simply lovely. We had a panel discussion on what the film got right and wrong. I got to rant about how they deviated from the book (which is how I got started in this business, after all….) and we also had one of the consultants from the film there – who was absolutely marvelous and lots of great stories about how he had argued for one thing that was historically accurate and got nixed in favor of Hollywood hijinx.
Well – in the end, we all agreed that even with the few inaccuracies (and there really aren’t that many – so a big ‘huzzah’ to Peter Weir!)we all loved the movie.
So what if there wasn’t a Polynesian lesbian cannibal outrigger in the movie?
I mean, really.
We followed the panel discussion with a reception featuring foods from the Patrick O’Brian books – including frumenty, Plum Duff, cold polenta, kickshaws, port, madeira, ale, and grog (note that this is the recipe for a single serving, and not necessarily the British Royal Navy recipe – but who the heck wants that much grog in their life?).
I am the premiere grog-maker of the museum. I mix it with great abandon and show. And people actually like it. This is a thing that has never ceased to amaze me as I think that it is one of the most vile concoctions on the planet – especially when it’s made with Pusser’s Rum, which is the original Royal Navy rum mix.
Ick.
Anyway – great turnout last night and great food and fun. We ended the evening with a concert from Bob Zentz. But what a long night!
And right now I’m taking a break from putting together the content for our new website at Ye Olde Boat Museum. It’s due tomorrow.
I’ve miles to code before I sleep…..
So anyway – we got this new printer that does everything you could want a printer to do (except do your work for you – I’m guessing that’s the next frontier…)
So I was playing with the scan function, which is light years beyond the Rube Goldberg system of our last scanner, which required one to do all kinds of calisthenics just to get one picture scanned, and even then, you probably did it wrong.
What should I expect for $9.95?
Anyway – I’ve been playing, and I found this old flyer from more years ago than I care to think (but it’s probably from 1983), but it gives you an idea of how long I’ve had this name….
Then I found all of these old show flyers and scanned them. I imagine I’ll feature one everytime the nostalgia takes over – but for now, I thought I’d show this one:
…which I hope isn’t too big. Anyway – I thought my friend Richard might enjoy, since he was one a Weasel.
Got a way cool package from Jack Rabid today, which put me in the mind of nostalgia. His zine is called ‘The Big Takeover’ and has been around since 1980, I think. I used to carry it at my record store and just recently picked up a copy and all I can say to Jack is thank you for a great zine and the best customer service ever!
I also spent some time on my half snow-day off to make a copy of some old Broken Crayons stuff for a friend at work who’s only been bugging me about it for about 3 months.
Can you say I’ve been busy?
Here’s the flyer for that….
Anyway – the iciness continues here – the plus side is I got to wear jeans and boots to work today.
No dead bodies today – so that’s good.
I spent the day in another cloud of ironclad goodness where I was really on top of things (which so rarely happens since I’m usually swamped). I finished the (hopefully) next to last edit, created a power point for a major donor and took Miss Anne Marie out to lunch.
She gave me the loveliest scarf today. It was handmade by the friend of a co-worker and she bought it for me in thanks for me spending the night at her house when she needed me to recently (it was me and Calli on the couch for some quality doggie time…)
I’m waiting for Jim to get back from Richmond from a meeting so I’ve got Outkast blaring at the moment. Not that Jim wouldn’t listen to it, but it’s more my thing than his.
Here’s the thing. I read a review of the new album by a guy I used to work with – Ed (if I can find a link to him I’ll post it…) and I really really respect Ed’s opinion of things – always have. So if Ed writes for the whole world to read that this is one of his favourite albums of 2003 – you can bet that I’ll sit up and take notice. he’s rarely steered me wrong.
So I go out and buy it, listen to it, and agree that it’s something beyond the normal beyond. Little did I know they had the number one single in Billboard……
(ah… time was once when I knew everything that was going on in the industry… when I could scare people with what I knew about music).
Well I just don’t care. The album rules and I like playing it extremely loud. Often. And I alternate it with Belle and Sebastian because I’m just like that.
Speaking of – the new album is just a masterpiece if I haven’t said that already. I thought I had lost my copy of it today and almost went to the store to get a new one.
That’s saying something for me.
Luckily I found it.
Crisis averted and there can now be extreme tweeness on the way to work tomorrow.
And tomorrow we get to walk through the park to view the hurricane damage four months on and assess when the whole thing can reopen.
Hopefully there’ll be no dead bodies tomorrow.
