Monday, February 8, 2010
   "The Beginning of a Slow Month Business-Wise"
  As I was explaining to the rest of the gang around the fireplace at our regular monthly meeting of the Hats Off Performers Guild this morning: This has been a real slow month so far business-wise. In fact, my last show was 9 days ago and my next is 5 days from now --- that's 2 full weeks between shows. That's a lot.
  So, as I also told the guys during "check-ins" this morning, I've been spending a lot of time this past week working on on-line marketing. Those following my Facebook Fan Page that my lovely wife set up for me (Thanks Nancy!) have an inkling of this already since there were several entries in a row this week about hours and hours spent gathering email addresses of public libraries throughout New England. Basically, I've visited the website of every single public library that has one in 5 out of the 6 New England states so far. I'll be finishing up New Hampshire tonight, and will start in on Maine tomorrow. And then it's on to New York towns that are within about 2 hours of home (I don't really try to travel too much further than that unless it's near a good friend or relative I want to visit).
   Last month, I was sort of half-heartedly working on this (It took me over 2 weeks just to do Massachusetts), but last week, my horoscope said pretty much point blank: "Quit stalling and get to work on seriously expanding your recent on-line marketing success." It wasn't exactly those words, but I've never seen my horoscope be quite SO specific!
   Actually, I'm not one who puts much store in horoscopes because most of them are pretty hokey, but the one I read in the paper each week is very serious, doesn't mess around, and has proven to be quite accurate in hindsight... so I pay attention. Admittedly, I don't always do what it says, but this time it was both dramatic and appropriate because the week before, seemingly out of the blue, I got three (3!!!) calls all as a result of my previous modest attempts at on-line marketing. And two out of three have panned out into gigs so far! That's a HUGE percentage. Plus, I got a fourth call yesterday that seems very, very promising, too. So with results like that, when I hear a little whisper in my ear that says, "Get to it!", I listen. 
   Since then, it's been 4-7 hours a day working on this current library project. Basically, after taking weeks just to do MA, I did CT, RI, and NH all in less than a week! And when I'm done with libraries, I'll go after the day care market, then schools, fairs, summer camps, and on and on. In fact, I don't think it ever ends!


 Saturday, February 13, 2010
   "Three Shows in One Day! Yippee!!"  
   It seems like a really been a long time since I actually did any performing --- it's been two very long, dull work weeks full of computer and desk work since my last show, so I was thrilled to have a full day of work today.
   And the River Valley Market Mardi Gras Celebration in Northampton MA this morning was a wonderful way to start it off.
   Because of my afternoon schedule, I was only able to be there for half an hour at the beginning of the event, but it was terrific FUN to station myself just inside the door (opposite the mask-making table!) and welcome customers with some stick juggling and ribbon dancer work while the Primate Fiasco played live over by the deli.
   The staff was selling Mardi Gras beads to support RVM's sister co-op the now-forming New Orleans Food Co-op. YAY!

   And then I zoomed about 12 minutes up Rte 91 to Yankee Candle Co. where I did a 12:00 show on the Kris Kringle Theatre stage (right near the Fudge Shop!) for about 40 people. There were several live wires in the audience that actually really added quite a bit to the FUN because although they definitely made their presence know, they weren't at all disruptive and I was able to play off of them for lots and lots of laughs.   
    Then I came home for a quick lunch (really quick: I didn't have enough time to finish it!) before returning to Yankee Candle for an hour of stiltwalking around the store before my 3:00 show.
   It was really a blast to stiltwalk at Yankee Candle Co again. It was what I did most of the time up until a few years ago when they shifted to live stage shows instead of "walk-around" entertainment. And because I was able to circulate throughout the entire store (it's their flagship store: it's HUGE) entertaining shoppers and telling them about my 3:00 show, my afternoon show was mobbed... there were at least 75 people watching! The bench seats were all crammed full and there was a whole boodle of people crowded around behind them. Most of the people stayed for the entire show, too, before enjoying the Yankee Candle Co experience some more. Wow! I must be doing something right. 
   Oh, and I got to chat with Santa & Mrs. Claus briefly during the "walk-around". Yankee Candle's flagship store actually has a resident Santa who's on staff (and has been for decades). You'll be glad to know that Santa's a very witty gentleman and enjoys a good bit of word play, as does Mrs. Claus.
 
 
  
 Sunday, February 14, 2010
   "Back Again"
   It was back for another delightful afternoon at Yankee Candle Co in S Deerfield MA again today. I've been giging there several times during the week for February and/or April school vacation weeks for a really long time. I LOVE THIS GIG! Today I had a 3:00 show with an hour of stiltwalking "walk-around" before it. It's not only a really awesome FUN store that people travel for hours to get to (and it's worth it, too!), it's also a blast to entertain there (and did you know they have way more than just candles?).
   The place wasn't quite as packed as yesterday, but I still had a pretty big audience: 50-60 people. One little boy sitting in the front row named Alex was there to celebrate his birthday (that's how FUN this place is!), so when I needed a volunteer I called him up to the stage. He was terrific and the crowd gave him a big hand.
   After the show, several families hung around, so I got to chat with them and goof around with the kids some more. I spent nearly 15 minutes with this one family from Belchertown because their son and I were just grooving on each other... actually, the parents, too! Next I spent about 5 minutes with another family who had an older girl. She and I got into a conversation about something that I don't remember what it was but it sure was a funny conversation!  
   And then when I was checking my Facebook Fan Page this evening, I discovered that someone who was at my Yankee Candle show yesterday joined my Facebook Fan Page! That's just so cool!   

  
 Tuesday, February 16, 2010
   "GRRRRREAT!"  
   One of the really nice things about being an entertainer is meeting lots of really nice people.  Well, at the Hamilton-Wenham Library Mardi Gras party in S Hamilton MA

today, I met some really nice people. And despite the threat of a huge snowstorm, over 100 people showed up for my show!
   By the time it was over, there was a big ol' fluffy blanket of the white stuff covering everything outside with more coming down by the minute. But as I drove west towards home, I left the snow behind within about 20 minutes and didn't meet up with it again until nearly an hour later as I was in the home stretch.
   But back to the library: The Hamilton-Wenham Library is called that because it serves the towns of Hamilton and Wenham Massachusetts. The library is located literally within a stone's throw of the Hamilton/Wenham town line. In fact, these two towns have been talking about merging for decades and have been slowly merging services all the while. Besides the library, they also share schools, recreation department, youth sports programs, a community house/social center, Business Council, Cultural Council, Council on Aging, Rotary Club, Lions Club, Rod & Gun Club, Garden Club, Mother's Club, League of Women Voters, paintball group, Girl Scouts troop, newspaper, several education foundations, a land trust, a Green forum, MySpace page, and a train station (pictured right) where the north end of the platform is in Hamilton and the southern end in Wenham, plus numerous businesses in both towns have the words "Hamilton-Wenham" in their names. And there is, of course, a joint committee who's focus is on how to go about legally merging the two towns.
   So, let me tell you about the people in the towns of Hamilton and Wenham: they are absolutely GRRRRREAT! What a wonderful crowd. They laughed at all the right points, got serious at all the right places, clapped and whooped and hollered at all the right times. The children were well-behaved; the adults all took responsibility for the actions of their children (You might be surprised how many don't!); most families sat together --- because they wanted to --- and the small crowd that stayed afterwards to chat were some of the warmest, friendliest people I've met in quite a while.  
  The library staff are so great, however, they get their very own paragraph! These wonderful souls were helpful from the moment I first walked in the door until I was all packed up and headed out the exit into the snowstorm. The all introduced themselves (You'd be surprised how many don't!). They kept checking in with me while I was setting up; assigned me two student volunteers just in case I needed help with anything; helped with crowd control during the show; assisted not only me but the children and parents in the audience whenever and however needed; they pitched right in and helped with the craft project after the show; and made it a point to check in with me after everything was over to make sure it all went well for me, too! So the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library staff earns my highest rating: FIVE STARS! 


 Wednesday, February 17, 2010
   "KidBestFest"  
   Each year during February school vacation week, The Academy of Music theater in Northampton MA runs a 6-day children's film festival. Monday-Friday at 2:00 for only $3 (!) they show award-winning and classic kid vid from around the world;  and then Saturday is the Youth Film festival showing over 3 hours of short films made by local kids ages 10-18.
   And each year during February vacation week, I try to go to the Academy of Music theater at 2:00 each day as often as possible. This year, I got to two.
   Today's film was a delightful 2005 film from the Netherlands called "Winky's Horse" about a little Chinese girl who just moved to the Netherlands with her family and quickly befriends a horse. She learns all about how Saint Nicholas gives children presents each year and sets her mind on asking for her own horse.  


 Friday, February 19, 2010
   "KidBestFest II"  
   And today's film was the equally delightful 2007 German film called "Stella and the Star of the Orient" about a  young girl who gets transported back in time 100 years to her great-grandmother's house when Grandma was about her age. Along with Grandma's younger brother, they have a huge adventure involving hidden treasure; a pair of bumbling thieves; caves; a secret laboratory; a mystical amulet of the constellation Cassiopeia; 1910 automobiles, railroad including hand car, a full-sized airplane prototype --- all of which the children operate; and three evidently completely unsupervised children traipsing around the countryside on their own in the dead of winter risking their lives and, of course, saving the day in the end!


 Saturday, February 20, 2010
   "Three Shows in One Day! Yippee!! II"   
   This one's even better than the one last Saturday, because this time all three are paying gigs! 
   So for openers, I did my fourth Vacation Week Show at Yankee Candle Co in South Deerfield MA. I really love performing here!Yankee Candle Co has got to be one of the FUNNEST store I've ever been in. This is one of their two flagship stores, and although it is indeed the largest candle store in the entire world, it's waaaaaaaaaaay more than just a candle store.
   They do indeed have tons and tons of candles of every shape, size, and scent, plus all the accessories (photo at right). They also home furnishings and accessories, several rooms full of really good toys, a Bavarian Christmas Village, Santa's workshop complete with resident Santa & Mrs Claus, face painting, caricature artists, photo booths, candle dipping, jar candle making, wax hand molding of your own hand!, an overhead train circulating through several rooms, Vera Bradley fabrics and styles, Pandora jewelry, a New England Sampler area devoted to local products, a "men's lounge" (with the sports channel on at all time for husbands who've had enough shopping,) early American candle making demonstrations by people in period costumes, a pirate ship with costumes you can try on on board, a fudge shop, Popcornopolis popcorn shop, Dylan's Candy Bar, 2 restaurants, an ice cream shop, indoor snow showers, and just so so SO much more! Oh yes, and regular live performances on stage and other special entertainments during holidays and school vacations. 
   Today, I got to do an hour of stiltwalking around the store followed by a rollicking show for a crowd of 60-70 people on the Candle Mountain Stage. After the show, I was mobbed by people who wanted either my brochure, my souvenir trevorthegamesman.com website sticker, or both. 
  And right after that, it was an hour and a half drive north to another regular client that I've been working for for over a decade: The Grand Summit Hotel at Mount Snow in West Dover VT... another terrific place to perform. I always get there at least an hour early, put on my stilts, and busk in the lobby to drum up an audience. Today I was afraid there wasn't going to be an audience because I didn't see a single kid or family for the first 40 of the 45 minutes I was in the lobby. But when show time rolled around at 4:00, about 15 people suddenly showed up all at once. And it ended up being about 30 people gathered around the big fireplace enjoying the show.
   For my 7:00 show, there were at least twice that in the Deerfield North function room laughing and having loads of FUN together!


 Sunday, February 21, 2010
   "A Red Letter Day!"
   Today was probably the best day of the entire winter so far, with 3 (count them: 1-2-3) highlights.
   Since Nancy's been so busy with school this term and since I'm suddenly so busy with work this week, we've hardly gotten to spend an quality time together. We're used to spending LOTS of time together, talking, smoozing, going for hikes, and other activities, but there's been so little of any this that even though we've both been home a lot, I was really missing her and she'd been really missing me, too. So this morning, Nancy blocked out several hours of time just for us, so we made the most of it and had a wonderful time doing some of our favorite things to do together. What a wonderful wife! I just love this woman! She's amazing.
 
  Then this afternoon, we both had to get back to work (No more goofing around!), she to her school assignments and me to my final Vacation Week gig: Show #5 at Yankee Candle Co in South Deerfield MA. As with the other shows this week, it was an hour of stiltwalking before the show. And, as usual, on my way around the store, I tell all the families that I'll be doing a stage show at 3:00. So when I finally got back to the stage about 5 minutes before show time, all the seats were already full and it was an SRO show from the very beginning!
   There were three very memorable characters in the audience this time; suprisingly, two of them were adults. #1 is a middle-aged lady sitting way over at the right side of the audience who was snickering and snorting and guffawing and rip roaring laughing at pretty much everything I did. I've seen this person quite a few times before, but thanks to my high quality memory recall system I don't seem to have a clue who she is. #2 is a little boy around 5 years old sitting in the front row the just couldn't contain his excitement: he was having so much FUN, he kept leaping out of his seat and I'm sure would have climbed right up on stage with me if that was at all possible. And #3 was a somewhat scruffy (and I use that term affectionately) elderly gentleman with his wife and grandchild who sat quietly through the entire performance cracking a rye grin at all the jokes but never laughing out loud. After the show, he waited until the crowd abated and then came up and talked with me while I was packing up. He did the usual compliments on the show and then pulled a pile of worn photos from his coat pocket and showed me his current motor vehicle projects: a gorgeous yellow way chopped down motor trike, a very early VW Karmann Ghia that he's refurbishing, and a totally beat-up, rusted out, going-back-to-nature delivery truck that looked liked it had been rotting in place since the 1930's.  

   Then, this evening my son Jason was in the area from Cambridge and came over for dinner and a nice long visit after. Since he doesn't have a car (YAY!), I drove over to Chesterfield to pick him up at my nephew's Mike's new house. So first I got a quick house tour --- which I just love doing --- and hang out with Mike and his three kids for a little while before bringing Jason back to our house for another of my lovely wife's terrific meals.
   After dinner, we moved into the living room and sat and talked for several hours. Shortly after we sat down, Jason picked up a 3-D puzzle my best buddy Don gave me several months ago that I'd been quite unsuccesssfully working on periodically ever since. It's called an OmniStar and was put out by a company called Avionics Plastics in 1974. It had all the pieces, but unfortunately didn't have any assembly instructions. And it's really complicated.
   Basically it's a representation of, and I quote, "the interpenetration and duality of the cube and the octahedron." I'm pretty sure I had all the poles connected to the right places before, but where those poles interwove with each other between the red connector pieces wasn't even close. When it's put together properly, you can hold two opposite points and push them together and pull them apart and the whole thing goes through several geometric gyrations changing from a 6-pointed star to an 8-pointed star.
   Well, to make a long story much shorter, after a couple of FUN hours working on this thing (really!),  we finally managed to get the the thing together so that it worked. It's still not 100% right --- a few poles definitely criss cross on the wrong sides of each other --- but at least it works. IT FINALLY WORKS! Yippee, ya-hoo, and yee-haw! Thanks J! It was great to see you and work on this together. 
   What an Awesome Day!


 Monday, February 22, 2010
   "Two Biggies"
   Yesterday was busy and awesome, today was awesomely busy with just two things:
   Thing #1: My housemate Ilai (say: "Eli") began building a partition wall in one of the upstairs bedrooms. We rent out four rooms upstairs, but the floor plan is such that at the west end of the house, you have to walk through one room to get to the one at the far end. I used to just rent them out together as a suite, but as the economy has turned from a decline into a steep nosedive, that's become increasingly difficult. So we curtained off a "hallway" and began renting them out separately a few years back. Our curtain system has gotten better over time, but it's still a "curtained off space" as opposed to a "private room".
   So when Ilai moved in and said, "I could help you put up a wall," I told him I'd definitely take him up on that. So today we went to the lumber yard and bought 1x4, nails, and a slider track for the folding door we picked up at the ReStore a week ago, and came home and got to work. And except for a break for Ilai to go pick up his table saw, we worked solid from about 9:00 - 2:30 or so. And I'm delighted to report that the basic framing is up. Tomorrow we have a little piece to put in over the door frame and then we start sheetrocking!
   This is so great. I'm just thrilled that someone who knows what their doing is volunteering his time and energy to help me out like this. Thanks Ilai!
   Thing #2: Those of you who read my blog regularly may have noticed that I haven't posted anything for over a week and then all of a sudden today six entries appeared all at once. Well, the reason is that Nancy's iBook G4 laptop (pictured right) that I use to access the Internet got kernel shock and would suddenly shut down right in the middle of something with no warning and for no apparent reason. So she took it into the repair shop, and since last Wednesday we've been scrounging for Internet access. I've been going to the library and used the public computer at Mount Snow when I was there on Saturday, but neither of those would allow me to to any work on my website. And Nancy's been getting up early, packing a lunch and driving the half hour to school and putting in 4-8 hours each day in the school's computer lab.
    So today, when she went to the repair shop to see how things were coming along, there sitting right in front of her staring in the face was a refurbished computer that was pretty much what she really wanted for about half the price of a new one. So she bought it on the spot! That in and of itself is really good news, because she's been really wanting an upgrade ever since she started grad school last Spring. But the biggie for me is that she passed her newly repaired laptop on to me. And I've been getting caught up for the past 7 hours straight!
   Up til now, I've been using her computer only when she wasn't, which meant that most of the time, because she's doing lots and lots of school work during the day, that I did all my on-line computer work after she'd gone to bed. But now, thanks to my lovely and sharing wife, I'll be able to do that stuff pretty much any time I want. Alright!
   Thank you Nancy. This is a wonderful turn of fortune for me. I bought by first computer in 1982 --- an Apple IIc (with a color monitor so we could have good graphics for video games, of course) (pictured right). But all my computers since then have been hand-me-downs when someone upgraded their system and gave me their old one. For the past at least 15 years, I've been doing most of my business work on a pre-Mac Apple. It does everything I need... except access the Internet. So since I've moved into the Web Marketing arena, this self-less act by my loving wife should increase my productivity by a large percentage.
   Thank you, my love. 


 Tuesday, February 23, 2010
   "Sheetrock!"
   And again today, Ilai and I were working on the new wall beginning around 9:00am. So today, we got the whole thing sheetrocked. It's awesome! There's an actual wall, an actual room, and an actual hallway. Cool! Thanks Ilai!  
   Then, when Ilai had to leave for work (he works afternoons and evenings), I went and bought a 6" putty knife and taped all the seams and "mudded" them all and all the screw heads with joint compound.
   This is just so exciting! 

 Saturday, February 27, 2010

   "A Real Snow Storm"
   So Tuesday while I was taping the new wall, Nancy was getting frustrated with her new refurbished computer that I told you about on Monday. It was suddenly just blanking out. So she took it back and decided on the spot to just buy a brand new one. Twice the cost, and lots more features --- she's even more happy with this one than the 24-hour one. Good.

   "And We're Off..."
   Since the phone guy came first thing in the morning, we were able follow our original plans to go to Cambridge for a couple of days. Nancy's fairy godmother has a vacant apartment near Porter Square that we can use for free pretty much any time we want. We've been wanting to go again soon, so when we heard that my son Jason is having a 30th birthday party this weekend, that was all the excuse we needed. We left shortly after lunch and got to Cambridge in time to unpack and have dinner there at the usual time.


 Sunday, February 28, 2009
   "An Eventful Day with 3 FUN Things"

   2) The Harvard Museum of Natural History. Right down the street from the Chapel, our next stop is this primo museum on the the Harvard University campus. It's got a stunning collection of minerals, an amazing collection of taxidermed animals and skeletons (including three whales skeletons hanging from the ceiling!), a pretty cool climate change exhibit, their world famous glass flowers, and then there's the ever popular dinosaur room! But my favorite was the moa skeleton that's the first thing that greets you as you come up the stairs.  

   3) Jason's 30 Birthday Dinner Party. And then was the real reason for being there: My son turns 30 tomorrow and gathered a group of more than 20 friends from his dance community at a nice little restaurant in Porter Square in Cambridge to celebrate tonight.
   When we got there, they had several long tables all lined up end to end in this narrow walled off section of the restaurant. Most of the seats were filled, but we were glad that there were two together for us. And we were even more delighted when Jason switched seats and sat opposite us for the duration.
   I was looking forward to some quality time with my son, but I was very pleased that he and Nancy spent most of dinner deep in conversation. It's oh so heartwarming for me to know that my kids and my wife (who's not the mother of my children) can be friends and have things to talk about together.
   It was great to be there for this special occasion, great to see my boy reach the onset of true adulthood, a joy to see his wonder partner Kelly, and a pleasure to meet and chat with his friends. 
   Happy 30th Birthday, my wonderful son!

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