10.20.08

So here I am on the flight to High Point for what I think is my 16th market.  The fall one as usual falls on my wedding anniversary.  My wife came down the first time I was there over our anniversary.  That was also the last time she came down.  “That’s alright, we’ll just celebrate when you get home”  is the standard line since then.  It’s just that much fun at the High Point show.  

The last flight I was on was coming back from my first two shoots for the series I am doing on the Travel Channel.  One episode in Nepal and the other in the rain forest of India – Kerala.  They were great trips.  On the one hand, these are the only two episodes we are shooting in places I have been to before, so it was certainly familiar territory at the start, but the shooting takes us way off the beaten path from my usual haunts.  Kathmandu I have been to around six times in the last decade, and Kerala at least once if not twice a year for the last nine years.  But if someone were to ask me if I had been to the famous temple three blocks away from the bazaar in Fort Cochin, or to the monastery just outside Kathmandu, my answer would be “They have temples/monasteries there?”  

(Wow, I’m just flying over what appears to be Chicago.  It’s 8pm and already pitch dark outside, so the grid like orange sprawl of the downtown with the radiating lines that cut across the grid extending from the downtown and then the remaining variety of lights the further you get out, all stopping abruptly in an inky black crescent line at Lake Michigan is quite a sight – obviously I’ve seen huge cities at night before form a plane, including Chicago, but it's quite a remarkable thing this mass of humanity sitting quietly below).

While I won’t spoil the episodes so you have to watch them (shamelessly going after the extra rating I’ll get from the 12-14 of you that read this blog and might potentially watch the show), I’ll try to sum things up in a running list of words and thoughts (‘thoughts’ is being generous to myself).  72 hours getting to Kathmandu, cancelled flight, torn pants getting into a cab, walking with said torn pants through throng of a few hundred people, changing in back room of Delhi airport, 12 hour delayed/cancelled flight takes off at 1am instead of 1pm, little cockroach scrambles out of my dinner tray as the flight attendant hands the tray over to me, approaching the airport in Kathmandu only to have the landing aborted 100 feet off the runway, plane’s engines whining as it goes into a 45 degree angle in a seemingly vain attempt to suddenly gain altitude before running into the Himalayas that I know are quite quickly ahead, steep banking plane, local Nepalis on board looking at each other,  not good if they are wondering what’s going on, second attempt much more successful - in that we actually landed, arrive at hotel 4am after 72 hours of travel, up at 7am for breakfast for 8am call time to start shooting, Buddhist monastery overlooking Kathmandu, 50 monks chanting, playing horns, drums, conch shells, scull bowls lined in silver for offereings, thigh bone trumpets, horns as long as the Swiss Ricola ones, hanging out with monks as sun sets looking out at Kathmandu discussing some of their mystical artifacts, Bouda stupa – holiest Tibetan Buddhist shrine outside of Tibet, meet up with old friends there, Tibetan doors, chests, columns, chest, panels, Shaman village up in the mountains, six chanting Shaman in a tiny one hut village, locals appearing out of the hillside to see what all the ruckus was about, playing poker with the locals in the ancient capital Bakhtapur, cancelled flight out of Kathmandu (presumedly to balance the cancelled one coming in to Kathmandu), new flight down to Kerala, get to my great little boutique hotel in the magical spice islands of Fort Cochin, down to backwaters – like the bayou areas in Louisiana, copper sunsets boating around, bats, water snakes, 1000 of ducks being herded around by guys standing up in dugout canoes around 14” wide with no rudder, thousands of ducks crapping in the water, Ian trying to heard ducks standing up in impossibly skinny rudderless canoes, Ian falling into the water where 1000s of duck spend their day crapping, in the middle of the backwaters trying to get duck crap out of his shorts and other more personal places, another magical copper sunset, 110 degree tin roof open air workshop that makes bronze cooking bowls in a little village somewhere in the jungle, carrying molten bronze to pour these traditional bowls – urulies – that I have been buying for almost a decade now, an unbelievable process that has given me new found respect for something I already really liked, elephant festival with crowds of people drumming, horns blowing, cymbals cymballing in an impressive cacophony, elephants dressed up in these elaborate headdresses, hobbled by chains wrapped around their hind legs, finding out that they are all form their various temples, chained up pretty much all day long except for a walk in the morning and evening, I'm having a really hard time with that – such amazing animals, so soulful and such a revered animal in India only to be treated like that, back to Fort Cochin, carrying 150lb bags of spices around on my head, hanging out with my long time friend Sunny, soaking in the atmosphere of this port that held the world’s attention for over a millennia, eating well, and then heading back home to the financial melt down going on seemingly around the world – news surreally reaching us throughout the trip through my yahoo page and the BBC and CNN, home for a week to see my wife and son, then off again, which leads us back to the flight I am on now.  

I don’t know what to make of this High Point.  The economy has people sucking everything they can in and keeping their heads down, but I wonder if the sort of things that I sell will be an exception.  One of a kind pieces that hopefully have some meaning – maybe it’s that sort of stuff that people are willing to spend money on.  Maybe it falls into a category of something that will stand the test of time, rather than feeling like frivolous spending in hard times.  I really don’t know.  What I do know is I’m  really happy with the stuff I am bringing down.  It’s the first time I will be able to show the full array of our custom made modern organic reclaimed furniture (still haven’t come up with a shorter name or an acronym for this stuff),  and I think I brought some great examples.  I was also able to get in some pretty spectacular tribal pieces from Nagaland as well as having a pretty good inventory of the things we get from Kerala (I had just gotten in a container from there just before we left to go shoot there).  Who knows, all I can do is show up with the best stuff that I can show, and hope that my clients are able to do some business.  It’s hard times, people are nervous, so I certainly get it.  I’m one of them.  I have a very small business and it's always been a hand to mouth sort of thing, especially now.  So I guess this show falls into that category of trying not to worry about things not in your control and having the confidence that you have done the best with the things that are in your control.  I’m not one to try and play mental Pollyanna games on myself – much preferring the realistic approach.  I just don’t know what to expect with the show.  Ultimately I am bringing my best hand to the table, so if people are there to buy, I have the stuff to sell.  We shall see.  

Anyway, we are about to land in Charlotte NC, that same copper moon from India just appeared through the clouds over North Carolina out the window of the plane, landing, and then the rental car and hour drive to the rented house in High Point, get there around 12 midnight, off to bed and up and off tomorrow to set up the booth for the show.  It’s a long way from scrubbing duck crap out of your privates in the middle of some rain forest backwater of Southern India.