daily brew 8/18 (highlights)

Here are highlights from Monday's Daily Brew...

In the coffee pot Sunday night for company: we finished off the good stuff (Candie's Big Island 100% Kona... mahalo to Len in Hawaii!).

Update on re-stock: ............Welcome to our wonderful world of waiting.... I have learned to be very zen about re-stock, mostly because there is nothing we can do about order fulfillment issues. I used to think it was just the French books, because there are SO MANY hoops to jump through to get them here. Now I've learned the domestic orders as just as vulnerable to SNAFU status. (you do know what SNAFU means, right?) We order books, building all sorts of lead time etc, and no matter what we do, they get here when they get here, usually right before some deadline (just to add some drama to our day).

................

We packed up about 10 more boxes over the weekend, and I printed out shipping labels, but when I went to USPS to schedule a Monday pickup, that portion of their website was shut down. I usually make a Monday run to the main post office, so today I'll just have a full cart or two of boxes (as you know if you're one of my fab four readers, all media mail orders paid by credit card or check can't be shipped via on line label and pick-up, and they get a little car ride with me to the Post Office).

.........................

Saturday open hours on 8/16: we had lots of visitors and some fun discussions.

I don't want these updates to sound like a Romper Room roll call, but I also want you to know what topics were covered while the showroom was open and who was part of the conversation..... so here goes.....

We had a long chat with a patron named Dave who is in gaming. We talked a lot about the back and forth influence between movies and games these days... and the quest in gaming for photo realism and the pros and cons of that.

Later, we had a nice visit with Frederik Du Chau. Since Frederik is originally from Belgium and speaks and reads French and English it's always good to get his take on the French imports. He's a Bodart fan. He picked up a copy of Green Manor and other items.

How about my plan to get Stuart to take Sunday off. Yeah, "bonne chance"... didn't happen.

What did happen was that I took the day off... unlike Stuart, I have hobbies outside of books. There are a couple of volunteer opportunities I help with during the year, and the summer puppy show is one of my favorites. A club I belong to hosts a puppy show, with a companion parade for rescue dogs. We also helped my friend Pamela, who judged the AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) testing. CGC is a program started a few years ago by AKC to promote responsible dog ownership and basic good manners for dogs at home and in public. All dogs, pure or mixed breed, can participate. Here's a link for info on CGC:http://www.akc.org/products-services/training-programs/canine-good-citizen/
We had over 12 dogs get tested, and nearly everyone passed!

But the real fun on Sunday started when I got back to the showroom in the afternoon. Stuart had opened up special and we had a nice visit with a long-time patron Tom de Rosier.

One of my favorite memories with Tom goes back several years to a Pasadena Book Fair. Tom stopped by our booth to tell us that his friend was a big fan of our catalog. As I mentioned, this was years ago when Stuart used to do a printed catalog. Tom's friend? That was Alex Toth. It was too cool to learn that Toth was a regular and thorough reader of Stuart's catalog!!

On Sunday's visit with Tom, we had a fun discussion about a film from a few years back, The Last Samurai.... and that movie's theme of what happens when you and your skills & values seem to outlive your job and purpose.

For the freelance artist wandering the industry in search of a gig with meaning, the theme resonates, don't you think?..... Or there's the comedy pitch meeting version: "Samurai 2D Animator" (or maybe the concept just needs more action: "Kung Fu 2D Animator"..... "I know your drawing style").

Sorry, I digress....

More posts and pictures coming soon!