Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The artist in the ether


One of the things I love about working on my book on Leonard Pennario is when Pennario's friends appear out of the ether. They show up. They materialize.

The other day I heard from an artist in Hawaii. And I recognized his name right away because Leonard had his paintings in his room.

It was so nice of this gentleman to get in touch. (Hint: He could be a major, major figure.)

So he emails me and I email him and he emails me back and we are making plans to talk. And he says we are dealing with a six-hour time difference.

This morning I get up. I get my coffee, then I sit down and answer his email. La la la la la. Tap tap tap, tap tap tap, on my antique computer keyboard.

Blithely I type:

"You must be six hours ahead of us (I'm in Buffalo) so maybe we should think about 8 a.m. here, 2 p.m. where you are?"


He emails me back today:


Regarding plans for conversing, let's do a reverse on the time, for we are
are 6 hours behind you, meaning that when it's 8:00 am in Buffalo, we're at 2:00 am on Maui
and regardless of the level of our friendship, such a wake-up call would jeopardize any chance
for a meaningful dialog.  So, I should be in my studio anytime after 8:00 am here or 2:00 pm your
time. ...

Hahahahahahaha!

I burst out laughing right at my desk.

Aloha!!!

Just that sentence, where he explained it to me. I hope it is not being too proprietary to say I can see why Leonard liked this guy. Luckily I am not writing my book about geography.

Where is Hawaii, anyway? 

On maps in school it always showed up right off the coast of Texas, remember?


Have I learned nothing since then?

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