Day Two in Seattle [or: The Lament of the Oversexed Emu]

Day two in Seattle was great. This is a great book fair town. The crowd, slow at the very start, ramped up rapidly and stayed strong and steady nearly all day. A lot of people, engage, interested, inquisitive and, on occasion, buying. If 20% of those who left saying they wanted to see if x, y or z was already on their shelves return and buy tomorrow (as I expect), this tomorrow should be interesting.

It is great to have done this fair long enough that people stop in that you remember (admittedly, this is a slow process for me) and, more importantly, remember you and seem genuinely pleased to see you again.

There is some genuinely great material in the Hall. I have decided to try to control myself...and be amused. The first book I purchased was "Photography for Perverts" (signed by the author). I think I am going to book-end the fair by buying a remarkable collection of William Black images. For some reason, this amuses me to no end. I also found a wonder fine press work titled "Notorious Ex Libris"...bookplates that should have been for the likes of Al Capone, Vlad the Impaler, John Waters and Martha Stewart. A student press project, brilliantly designed and executed.

After the show, I joined the fine folks of Wessel and Lieberman for their annual Saturday night dinner and shop tour. Dinner was at the Collins Pub. The margarita's were very good, dinner was very good...the entertainment was epic. The Kent had just finished regaling us with a tale of SLC man who "loved an emu to death". As we were coming to grips with the implications of this rather horrifying tale, the evening's entertainment began...a quartet of "experimental saxophone" players. They played, 5 feet from us, a long and loud, atonal work that...I am CERTAIN...was title, "The Lament of the Oversexed Emu". One, clearly bleating out its tortured tale while its three family keened in support. It was brilliant. Brian, I am so, so sorry you were not here...

We retired to W&L's shop where there was nibbles and drink waiting for us and their wonderful stock (including a great section of unpriced material that beckoned nearly all). There is no commerce to be done, by strict rule...it would be wrong to get one's friends liquored up and then set them loose in one's shop...but you can make piles to be dealt with at a later time . I found a handful of things that pleased me...my favorite being a little toad woodcut with a brilliantly hand-colored eye.

Tomorrow runs from 11 to 4. I'll then pack up and get the cases off to the shipper. Fingers crossed for a great day.