I damn near hung up on him again!

Yep, I came this close (imagine finger and thumb held apart by the very smallest of margins) to hanging up on SK tonight. I almost did it the very first time he called me too (which was just a bit over three years ago -- the 2nd or 3rd of Jan 2005 I believe). You see I really hate calls from telemarketers (even ones disguised as charity calls, especially because when you check most of the time the charity doesn't exist) and that's what I thought both of these calls were at first. But of course neither call was a telemarketer and I paused long enough not to hang up. I would have been so embarrassed to have hung up on him.

That very first call I was soooo not expecting and once I realised who it was I was having trouble talking, but my mind was racing -- "OMG! Steve Kilbey is on the phone...I'm talking to Steve Kilbey...Oh shit! I nearly hung up on Steve Kilbey!...How the hell did he get my number anyway?" (It actually took me a couple of weeks to figure that last bit out -- I had some trifold pamphlets made up to promote that first exhibit I had and after it was over I sent some to him. It had my phone numbers on the back. :-) ) Anyway, once the initial shock wore off I found him really easy to talk to, so we had a nice chat and by the end of the call I had become his art manager. That kinda boggled my mind -- still does sometimes when I think back on it. We had been emailing back and forth for several months so I wasn't totally wigged out talking to him. In a lot of ways talking to him on the phone is easier than doing emails because I don't have to think of everything all at once and I get feedback right away. Plus I can't agonise over a single sentence for hours which I tend to do when I write emails (and sometimes blogs and blog comments).

So during the call tonight we discussed a couple of commissions he is working on or had just finished and some of the other paintings he's recently done. I'm looking forward to seeing these pieces -- especially the one of David McComb which he's going to send to me for prints (he wants to keep the original). I wonder if we should do a signed, limited edition of that one -- I'll have to ask what he thinks of that idea. Then we talked about the exhibition I'm working on. I'm so glad he called because I had been thinking earlier today that my motivation was just about nil. Yeah I wanted to have an exhibition, but I just couldn't find it in me to give a shit about any of the details. Well now I'm back to being all excited about it. If we (a lot of it me, but that's what I'm here for) can get this to work the way we envision it will be a very cool exhibit. It does push back the date a bit -- I had originally thought of March for it, but that is waaay too close now, so it's looking more like May. I have to make sure I can get the space for then, but if not then we'll just do it another month. We aren't wedded to any particular month. The warmer months will also give us better traffic so that will be good.

I'll almost certainly blather on more about this as it starts to take shape. I'll probably bitch and whine a lot too. ;-)

hapless

I love the word hapless -- especially when it is used in a headline. You just know the story is going to be about people treading on the wrong side of the law and that it will result in at least a few guffaws. A recent headline: Dough! Hapless thieves mistake bread for cash is a case in point. A pair of thieves had this plan to rob a restaurant of the day's proceeds at the end of the night. The plan doesn't sound too bad, does it? Ah, but their execution sucked big time. Read story here (this article uses a different headline than the one I noted above -- that was the first one I read and got me thinking how much I love the word hapless -- this one is more detailed :-) ).

Speaking of hapless (actually it's more inept, but I'm trying for a theme here dammit!), I finally got to bed at around 6:30 am Thursday morning after spending 36 hours sorting through and compiling the arts coop's 2007 finances for the accountant. Yep, two all-nighters (and a day in there too!). It was not a pretty sight. I don't mean the finances -- they aren't all that hideous -- I mean me. It shouldn't have taken me anywhere that long, but I just could not get my brain to work. And of course because I had to wait for certain info to arrive before I could work on this I had to get it done ASAP so I couldn't just wait until my brain cleared (which would probably be a loooong wait). So I plowed along and finally managed to get the crap finished and sent off to the accountant. Apparently it is ok because the email he sent back just clarified something I had asked him and didn't say "What the fuck is this supposed to be?!?" Whew.

Now in the good news department -- the Steve Kilbey Live dvd I ordered arrived yesterday. Yay! It's a lot of fun and probably as close to seeing a SK solo show as I will ever get.

weather/seasons

One of Veleska's blog posts (from about three weeks ago -- I said I was running waaaay behind!) was about the difference in the winter temps in NOLA and in N. Texas. She wrote that while N. Texas can have some pretty cold weather, freezing temps in NOLA are pretty much newsworthy. I was pondering what she wrote while I was driving one day and "Wow! V is used to only two seasons -- stinking hot and warm" popped into my mind.

Then I started thinking about the seasons I am used to. Because I've lived in pretty much one area most of my life (SW and now central OH), I consider the seasons as I'm used to them as being normal. And the seasons here are actually pretty evenly distributed -- basically winter, spring, summer and fall each last approx three months. Yes, we can have snowstorms in mid-April, hard freezes in mid-May, or have temps in the 70s and still be mowing the lawn in November and early December, but these occurrences aren't typical. For the most part Dec-Feb is winter; March-May is spring; June-August is summer, and Sept-Nov is fall here.

Maybe it's because I'm used to them, but I basically like the seasons here. I get to have a nice taste of each one, yet none last so long that I get sick of them (well...usually ;-) ).

(yeah, yeah, this blog is pretty pointless, but what the hell. It's the best my furry little brain could manage right now.)

Carol Burnett Show outtakes - Tim Conway's Elephant Story

Last night I saw the news that Suzanne Pleshette had died so I went to You Tube and checked out a few Bob Newhart Show clips. While I was doing that I remembered Catz mentioning a PBS special on the evolution of variety shows on her blog a week or so ago (see I told you I was running behind!) and thought of Carol Burnett. This clip is one of my very favourites. Always makes me laugh. :-)