Establishing Placement

Walked over twenty miles the last two days, up and down stairs, around and around the gallery. Everything moves at least twice, like it's a rule, or something, which it is, because this show hasn't existed before and the combinations extend toward the infinite. We're looking for a pleasing arrangement and there are many possibilities. We work at this all day, over a hundred pieces, put up four of the removable panels, defining bays. The panels are double sided, requiring work installed on them, and that requires a further shuffle. Finish just before closing, collapse on shipping crates, pronounce it done, which means 95%, because certainly five things will move before we start hanging/installing on Tuesday. D in today, but busy on graphic design for various flyers and the newsletter, we went for coffee and a scone before work and I gave him the short list, mentioned a couple of difficulties I forsaw, told him I'd need some help hanging the Monkey Aviators. An authentic circus banner ten by twelve feet, painted canvas, with leather reinforcement at the corners and rings, to haul up on ropes. I, of course, want to use pulleys and ropes to hang it from the upstairs down into the main gallery. It's heavy. Need to avoid ripping anchors out of the wall. I have some ideas, need to borrow two pulleys and a couple of tie-off cleats from the University theater. Decrease any danger by carrying the banner upstairs and tie it off directly, without actually pulling it up, which seems to me where the greatest strain would be. Trail the free end of the line down into the downstairs gallery and tie it off there, with a coil of extra rope. Rope was important to traveling circuses, to raise and stay the tents. Rope, jesus, there must have been rope everywhere, and there were a couple of rigging specialists in the mix, because it was/is like rigging a ship, which is not a simple chore. The Clipper Ships built at Sesuit Harbor, were towed to Boston for rigging and it took weeks. Traveling circuses set up in a less than a day, and then did a matinee and an evening show. I've done enough theater to know what a chore this is. Awesome, really. Behind the tents, while you watch the show, there's a gang of roustabouts all but stupored by hard physical labor, a big meal, several beers, and the sure knowledge that they're going to do it all again tomorrow. Most of the petty lifting done with local labor in exchange for a ticket and a peek at the dressing trailers. I've never even actually seen a small town circus, the clowns frighten me, but I have taken opera on the road, so I have some idea. And the elephants helped, pulling up the major poles. Imagine erecting a tent 150 feet long and 100 feet wide, with room for flying acts. This is no small piece of canvas and it is enormously complex, what is done in what order, the knots you need to know, and then, naturally, there is the weather. I had a plastic grocery bag of bread crust trimmings, someone was making fancy sandwiches, and it was in the trash, so I put it in the truck, hoping for a late skein of geese at the lake. No geese, but three crows, and a flotilla of ducks. It was like a run on the banks. No pun intended. I dumped the bag and ran for my life. I understand my deposits mean nothing. If I read modern criticism correctly, that doesn't mean anything. My daughters are demanding to see Glenn's movie and I'm slightly embarrassed because it's their father who taps his fingers in a kind of time, a jazz rift, where the words carry weight. I thought immediately of Emily, how she imagined punctuation. I think I can follow her line, but it may be just my imagining, she is so precise nothing else matters. What the dufus would say. D wanders too far astray, what he needs to talk about is what he knows. There's a lesson here somewhere. I just mop the floors, after dark, pay no attention to anything, I just want to get home. A modern day wanderer. Did I mention the woodpeckers?