Burning the midnight oil once again in stencil land. Lots of pokers in the fire at the moment. Hmmm, what other relevant cliche’s can I use on this post? Where to start? Got back from Chester, SC’s Arts Council gig around 11pm tonight. What a great way to start the Southeast tour.
Relatives, old friends, family friends, and several childhood playmates all added up to a fun night. Not much stencil art in Chester (could this be the dark matter of Stencil Nation?), but the locals sure do have a passion to check out what’s going on around the world. As I set up my laptop and book display, members of the Arts Council brought in finger foods. Coffee brewed. Wow, a reception after the talk! I was given 20 minutes to show my slides, so had spent a few hours this week deleting about 40 of the 90 slides from the one hour presentation. Note to self: talk less about the stuff you left in the show. The crowd was older, middle class, and very friendly. Didn’t hurt to have my mom in the audience. She seemed so proud! The presentation lasted 21 minutes. Score!
Afterwards, the checks started flowing. I didn’t leave the signing station during the reception, and sold 12 books. A record for the tour. I had great talks with the people, some of whom were new faces. Most of the talk revolved around geneaology and Chester history. For the record, both of my parents are from Chester County and my cousin Edie set up the gig. Everyone knows each other, and their ancestors too. Am so grateful for such a great beginning up on the “Hill”.
Greenville seems to be shaping up to have a good turn out on Thursday. No media (have features coming out in Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Spartanburg this week) attention in my home city, but plenty of old friends plan on coming out. A few new friends might attend too. Other friends have offered to print and hang posters around. This is also happening in Knoxville and Charlotte. I am humbled by people’s hospitality yet again, and am convinced that Americans aren’t as cranky and pessimistic as the media and the world thinks they are.
For those of you who like hearing about logistics, I had to have books mailed to me from home and from Manic D Press. Sold out up in National Harbor, MD. Left my book stand with Art Whino since they had kindly bought a small pile of books to resale. Got two more from Jennifer. Am trying to think ahead, but the details of this month keep me busy. Had to buy a projector and screen for this leg of the tour. Had to buy a new external hard drive to keep my back ups fresh. A 500gb hard drive is now the same size as my old 100gb drive (which is full). And faster thanks to FW800. Anyway, will pick up the projector tomorrow and set things up to make sure they work before the Greenvile gig. Had to mail out some books as well, and am wondering how the January tour in Europe will work out. Need to get on this! Pod’s thrown some leads to me. Chatted with a guy from Romania for a potential mini-tour there.
Finally, I’ve been sucked into FaceBook on the road this time. The fact that the Greenville gig is generating a bit o buzz has caused me to reconnect with many long lost friends. I’ve always thought MySpace was blinky, hard to look at, and poorly designed. None of that exists with FaceBook. So, watch out! I’m loath to continue promoting the book beyond my current list o sites. But am glad I hopped on to FB for the Stencil Nation ride. Good times there………. and good night from SE SN HQ (TR)….. 🙂