Virgo 14° (September 5)

Went down a rabbit hole of watching old episodes of this show that I wouldn’t have watched as a kid because it was a “girl’s show,” but it truly is great. My nerves are a bit distressed and I’m going to claw my way back to some semblance normalcy in this week to come. The father on the show at one point works two jobs and then his own farm, for three weeks, working fifteen-hour days. I know the smart thing to do is really front load over the next four months so that when we get to the new year with a lot under our belt. And then use the three winter months to basically finish. Then polish April through June, whilst doing the most major Spring cleaning of my life. The farmer be damned, we will tolerate no intimidation or bullying.

The following blocks of text are exceprts from my first year of  Blagues, nos. 796-800. I am reading through all of my Blagues, five per day, and posting some samples here. Now, in my sixth year of writing this Blague, by the time I get to my seventh, I will have journeyed through all the daily Blagues of my first five years. If that’s confusing I apologize. Year seven, I’ll only have to read through year six, once a day.

Question No. 9. What are your thoughts on generating “concierge” information  for both festival’s websites. Do you need to make any changes to the website, hire any designers, so forth.

The concierge sections on the website are very important. And I need to make time each day for beefing them up. This is a big priority on my to-do list. I really want to make the descriptions of the various places—restaurants, hotels, shops et al—somewhat poetic.

I wrote something here recently about why I like poetry, its for the brevity, not the beauty, which was hyperbole, but still. I don’t always love writing and I need to change up the way I do write in order to keep from going bonkers. And I write soooooo many things in a given week; so I thought it would be fun to do some haiku version of the place descriptions. And beyond that to really do it for me and for truth. Because I really am only writing about the places I love and know and so I’ll have a lot to say. It’s also a great way to link to them on social media and send them little love notes on Twitter, FB, Instagram etc.

Another aspect of this at some point might be to activate our own concierge service and share deals with audience and so forth.

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Question No. 10: Do you have all the right print and electronic collateral that you need? Do you need to review with the venues what printed materials might still be effective and what exactly is needed when.

I do need to review the contract with the Provincetown venue to make sure what it is needed (and to go over all the logistics and finances again in any case). I have our names poster, which I sent in 11×17 form to the local printer as a test to be up this week. And I have a digital version which I’ve disseminated as well as what would be a giant Names Poster—I will see if the venue needs that. Then I will make ten individual posters for the Provincetown artists—again double checking with the venue. And then I think I will make five of each of the ten individual posters—that is to say 50 total which should keep catching the eye. And of course postcards everywhere. What if you mailed them to people’s PO boxes? Up and down the Cape they could go.

I do think some of these sent electronically via our Mad Mimi which I really need to ramp up would provide much more in the way of reach. It’s all about being on the street, talking to people, finding a way to say, hey, remember if you become a Sparkler you write off your donation, you receive 50% discount on tickets to festival shows, and you’re invited to celebrate with us at our festival parties and events. I have to have Missionary Sponsorship packets in my bag at all time. And cards and so forth. I should get into some stationery to send handwritten notes to sponsors

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Question No. 11: Before me move on: Do you think it makes sense to pencil some of these topics (that might require a greater deal of work) into days on your calendar. Do you have some sort of count-down going. Have you divided the weeks more sweeping themes or have you assigned certain days for certain topics. Is there a day, every couple of days, dedicated solely to fundraising?

Oh girl, you should see my office. Wait, you can. But yes, I do need to go back through these questionnaires and to begin deciding which questions you’re asking are actually whole projects within themselves. Some projects can be mostly executed in a matter of days. Whereas some others need to be begun, and then sustained, which means I’m not scheduling into my daily planner vertically, only, I’m also working horizonatally on a number of things over the next month, a bit a day so I have to institute “units of time” to borrow a phrase from that movie About a Boy.

I do indeed need to devote some days purely to fundraising but, again, through different means; and I’m thinking of new ways all the time. Everything feeds into everything else which is why I’ve found it helpful to institute this questionnaire project because it is helping me flesh out all these categories screaming for attention while I might, hopefully, be able to separate all these questions out into their own chapters of a sort of how-to (run two festivals, a performance series, and otherwise produce (and develop) works for the stage.

Anyway thank you for the reminder. I’m going to try and power through a few more questions before I start the project you describe—the putting together of all projects! Funny that. So glad we can share this time together.

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Question No. 12: Do you have a full handle on what artists need, technically. Does it make sense to sort through emails and make sure you have a full handle on that. Did you pair any other info gathering needed, like, say, travel, so that you can hit two birds with one stone?

Wow, you’re psychic, I did pair the seemingly disparate topics of travel and tech needs into one category because they are both pretty small straight forward things and relatively cut and dry and very boring and as I need to book travel sooner than later it also reminds me to gather technical information and vice versa. Again now I can really start dialoguing with my performers and with my sponsors. By and large this was a lame question. But I’m going to take it as a grace and move onto the next one.

I was just about to start a new entry when I realized the next question was also pretty boring:

Question No. 13: Do you have an updated Hotel schedule or have you let the artists know you are confirming their hotels. Does it make sense to reach out to other hotels or other such people with places they might donate to the directorship of the cause?

As I go through the travel and tech notes, I will also be able to confirm hotel stays and so forth. And to give the hotel an update on our stay. I don’t know yet where the directors are staying and I would like to make arrangements for them to have a gorgeous place. I will make this part of the realtor bit! Putting it out to them but also to the nicer hotels to say we need space for two of the directors of the festival.

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Question No. 14: Does it make sense to frontload any one performer in the Glow Festival, who might have a better chance of filling houses. Should you also put this out to Provincetown people and tell them to please ask you for some complimentary ferry tickets? Should you see if any of the Cambridge hotels—like say the Sheraton Commander—might give you a discount on rooms you can pass along to people.

I think what I need to do is tap into the Boston/Provincetown crowd which, frankly, I don’t know all that well. I sometimes imagine I’m going to go through my four thousand plus friends on Facebook and actually know who lives where and does what and to make some kind of picture of my virtual friendship landscape. Certainly get a handle on people’s geography but also their walks of life. I would love to know who is in publishing or who is in fashion or who is in marketing or what kind of crossover is going on between friends and so forth. It all remains such a mystery to me, but sometimes when clicking through I get these flashes that each of these virtual relationships, as many as they are, can take on more meaning despite the fact that the trend is going to go away from Facebook and this level of knowingness with which we’ve become comfortable. I quite agree, but what if one were to nurture even the relationships we’ve never really had—to turn our social media friendships into some version of real ones—they can never be truly real—but they needn’t be as casual as all that.

It’s getting to the point with me where I’m feeling a wave of increased abundance happening like a ground swell underneath the whole of my experience. I also know from experience that this can be an illusion or a trigger. All too often I don’t adhere to a healthy lifestyle at times when nobody is looking. It hasn’t mattered in the past that I was looking at those times. And as these pockets of alone time have become more frequent I don’t feel that same need to indulge while all eyes are off me. I don’t need to consume everything in my scopes. I don’t need to binge watch whole seasons of shows that originally aired a decade ago. I can do things I typically do in tandem when I’m alone. (This is a big step for me.) It’s as if I feel guilty or something for enjoying an experience unless I share it with those I love. And, given the fact that “those I love” is narrowed down, to any given day, to one person, my life on the whole has the qualities of isolution, often, even though it is peopled with a great number of those I know but a little.

I would like to create some kind of network but its not as if my career allows for many colleagues. I’m only one of two people who do what I do, and the other person is in the same house as me. And we don’t do just one thing. We each do a dozen things, and even where there is overlap, both of us working under the one aegis, we work separately, in different rooms, on different floors of a house and meet up for meals and coffee and walks and welcome interuptions.

To view the original Sabian Symbol themed 2015 Cosmic Blague corresponding to this day: Flashback! The degree point of the Sabian Symbol may at times be one degree higher than the one listed here. The Blague portrays the starting degree of for this day ( 0°,  for instance), as I typically post in the morning, while the Sabian number corresponds to the end point (1°) of that same 0°-1° period. There are 360  degrees spread over 365/6 days per year—so they nearly, but not exactly, correlate.

Typos happen. I don’t have a proofreader. And I like to just write, post and go! Copyright 2020 Wheel Atelier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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