the wheelbarrow

Sunday, September 14, 2003

done deal

What is it about finishing a project that you have poured everything into that makes you go into utter and complete shutdown mode? I don't know about Natalie (though I'd imagine she feels about the same), but I am cranked. I feel a cold coming on, settling in around my shoulders and neck, stuck to the back of my throat like a losenge.

The relief is huge. The movie is done and it actually worked. Although I did have a major breakdown moment today at about noon when we figured out the movie file couldn't be burned to CD in the format it was in and the software on the laptop wouldn't support a different format without a plug-in. Then Natalie and I started yelling at each other in my parent's kitchen about how much work each of us had done (basically to anyone listening it would have sounded like a Biggest Martyr Contest). Good times! Can we all say collaboration? C'mon, ya'll, repeat after me! Ah well, such is the way of PROJECTS.

All the films that were made were GREAT. Everyone put so much work into their movies. The venue was nice and the turnout was decent considering we had a lack of advertising. Natalie did a lot of walking around town and telling people about the festival, but other than that, the print ads were nil.

We took the wheelbarrow to the film festival and left it up front for people to take books from. Now, I need to send our movie onto BookCrossing and Oprah!

Why not, right?
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:12:02 AM: :

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Let Us Entertain You

Saturday, 13 September 2003
at 7:00 o’clock
at the MacArthur Place Rodeo Room
29 East MacArthur Street, Sonoma

Tickets: $10.00
at Reader’s Books and Movie Merchants
seating is limited

For more information call 707-935-0443

Ought to be a good time! Film makers include: Terese Spingola & Jill Ford, Anea MK Botton & Natalie Conforti, Christa Conforti, Donna Hays, August Sebastiani, Bill Bachelor.

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:4:49 PM: :

Film Festival

Well, the process of capturing BookCrossing.com and the wheelbarrow on film for our amateur movie has been a real, errm, TREAT (<--- said in the scoffiest, sardonic-est, sarcastic-est voice I can muster...). We have a little over 2 hours of footage of which only about 40 minutes is usable. But the movie needs to be less than 30 minutes (more like 20). So I've gotten the video cut down to about 25 minutes not including credits. Ugh.

I'm teaching myself a new movie program on a new laptop in a format I have never used before. It has been hit and miss the whole way. I got so frustrated I went out and bought a laptop at CompUSA, got it home, and discovered it had no firewire port. The first piece of Dazzle hardware I bought at Circuit City to hook to our desktop computer was an utter and completely useless piece of poop. That's when the brilliant idea to buy a laptop came into my peabrain. So I bought a laptop that's not as old and decrepit as the 2 computers we already have at our disposal. SGinger brought her laptop, and we used that as well, but the video feed was dropping frames. So back to CompUSA I went on Monday to get a firewire PCI card for the laptop. In addition, the sales guy very helpfully gets me a 4-6 firewire cable for $39.99. Get it all home, the PCI card comes with it's own cable. Back to CompUSA today to return the cables I do not need, get my money back, and wonder why the hell I've been to the same store 3 times in a week. Gadzooks.

So, I've gone to bed every night this week at 3:30. My head feels like a melon and my contact lenses might as well be sandpaper in my eyesockets. But I finally captured and placed all the footage I want in the order that I want it. Not I need a soundtrack, a credit roll, and a million crossed fingers that the movie actually works on Saturday.

~yawn~
I am sooooooooo tired.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:1:22 PM: :

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

3rd wheelbarrow release at the Farmer's Market

We headed down to the Tuesday night Sonoma Farmer's Market with the wheelbarrow and books in tow. SGinger and my husband, good sports that they be, trooped on while I filmed and acted as the Spirit Coordinator (grand title, eh?). We forgot the sign telling people these were free books, so it became necessary to stand there and encourage people to take books from the wheelbarrow. But this wasn't such a bad thing as I began to hear comments like, "Hey! I know that yellow wheelbarrow! That's that BookCrossing thing that you go on-line to do, isn't it?" Another gal stopped by to take a look and said, "I know what this is! Someone left a Webster's Thesaurus and Dictionary in front of my shop. I read about it on the inside bookplate, but this is really neat to be able to see it in person!" (I guess the real-deal wheelbarrow would count as "in person," no?) A couple stopped by as well and told me they'd seen it in front of St. Francis church a few weeks back (I told them it was the day of Grandma's funeral) and they'd taken a book from it that they had each read and then passed on to their daughter.

It was gratifying to the nth degree to be able to hear a little feedback. Although people love the idea, the release-to-register ratio is quite low; in other words, the amount of books we release in the wild as compared to the people who actually take the time to go on-line and journal on a book they've found or taken, is quite low. That's not in the least bit surprising, but it can be a disappointment when you're as much of a "rosy-tinted glasses" idealist as myself.

the film festival is in 2 weeks, so the time is getting cut, bit by bit, to put the whole film together. We shall see what we get...

Dave & Sginger make quite the duo traipsing down Napa Street towards the Farmer's Market. Thank goodness for my muscley-armed hubbers who can wheel the barrow the 4 blocks to the Plaza!

Some book-lookers. One of the people in this picture is a published author who wrote a book in the 70's that I actually have! She and I had a very nice conversation and I told her I recognized her from her book jacket photo that was taken about 30 years ago.

Late in the evening, as the market was winding down, these ladies stopped by the wheelbarrow to have a peek. Two of them were visiting from DC, the 3rd actually lives in Sonoma. We were pleased to be able to pass some Sonoma BookCrossing books the a possible journey to the other side of the US.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:7:34 PM: :

Friday, August 29, 2003

More of the Canada Wheelbarrow

Paixful emailed more pictures of the very successful Canada wheelbarrow project, so here they are!

This may as well be my office where I register all of my books. Are all BookCrossers so crazy for books and getting people to read that we'll plant ourselves within stacks of books and never think this might be an odd thing???

This is a picture of the mayor of paixful's town taking a gander in the wheelbarrow!

A pre-lunch looker hones in on the wheelbarrow.

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:7:03 PM: :

Thursday, August 28, 2003

The Canada Wheelbarrow Project

I got the below message at the beginning of the month and was very jazzed.

3 August 2003

I was actually going to PM you to say I'd donate a few books but then I thought, I could do the same here and videotape it and send the tape to you, to edit in to yours, if you'd like?! I'd be more than willing as I think it would be so much fun. I am in Alberta Canada, in a city of about 70,000. I think it would be interesting to see what would happen:) Let me know and if you want to keep this to your area, thats fine too:)

Sincerely,
paixful

So, paixful & I emailed back and forth for a bit and went about our business. I was busy getting my wheelbarrow going and I didn't worry too much about paixful because I know how projects can be - they seem fun at first and then you feel like you just bit off the hind leg of a brontosaurus. I let her know how my own wheelbarrow releases had gone just so she'd know I hadn't forgotten about her. A few more emails and then this one today:

Well, its done!! It was a blast and people were pretty excited, once they got over their wondering what the heck was going on ;)

I took pics and have no clue about websites etc so put them on a geocities site, only to learn that I can only look at them a certain amount of time each hour ... so at this moment I have exceeded my data transfer so have to wait an hour before I can look again and make sure I labelled everything ok.

Feel free to use any of the photos - I labelled the one that was the mayor because I thought that one was especially fun ;)

Can't wait to see if bookcrossing gains in popularity around here :) I'll keep you updated!

paixful

I took a look at the webpages, but they were having trouble loading so I decided to include the pctures that paixful sent me via email. I can't wait to see the one of the mayor, but this is what I have for now.

Paixful, you and your family ROCK!

paixful registering books...this looks VERY familiar ;p

The Cdn-wheelbarrow

Paixful's family gets in on the fun - What a nice husband! He looks like he's as nice about indulging his wife as my husband is when it comes to wheelbarrows & books.

Final moments before the wheelbarrow release...

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:10:56 PM: :

Monday, August 25, 2003

Australian Surprise!

I got an email from BookCrosser auntyMEL on 8/16/03 which read

Hello thewheelbarrow, I'm a BookCrosser, too (screen name "auntyMEL"), and I just wanted to say G'day from Australia.

I am totally inspired by your project, I have a couple of books in mind that I think really belong. Please let me know where I should post them to.

Sincerely,
auntyMEL

Today I came home from work and there was a lovely package waiting for me from 'Stralia. 4 books with such the perfect fit for my request: "The kind of books I'm looking for are books that you feel encompass the feel, taste, color or essence of your country, region, or town." She did that so completely with the books she sent, I feel very honored to have received them.

MAHALO, Mel!

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:9:51 PM: :

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

the wheelbarrow wake

Grandma's funeral was yersterday. We took the wheelbarrow to St. Francis Solano Church and parked it out front. I had no qualms doing it. I was almost a little bit defiant about it. Grief makes us do things we might not otherwise do, I suppose. SGinger and Dave helped me get the wheelbarrow to the church and then back to the wake afterwards at home. Everyone who saw it and came up to me said it is an idea Grandma would have loved with a vengeance. Indeed...

I spent the night before the funeral registering books like mad on BookCrossing, staying up until after 2:00 in a frenzy. As though I needed to get as many books as possible on the wheelbarrow bookshelf before the funeral. I had no eulogy ready, I refused to think about it. I registered books and I tapped frenetically away on the keyboard, all thoughts of the words I would have to say before the crowd of faces, the friends and family who would come to remember this woman I had loved and adored so much, ignored.

This is the manner in which a heart reveals itself.
This is the way in which I can hold tightly to the piece of my grandmother that is indelible.

The morning of the funeral was one of those perfect days when you know the weather could be a whole heck of a lot hotter for August but instead the weather is flawless along with the temperature and you're grateful.

Entering the church for the funeral Mass.

After the funeral before we set off for home, the wheelbarrow like a bright but lowly beacon in the middle of the sidewalk.

Our neighbor Edna, who I've known my entire life, telling me about all the books in her house that she ought to get rid of!

the wheelbarrow wake (click on the image above to see a larger version; the sign below the FREE BOOKS sign reads, "This wheelbarrow is in memory of my Grandma, Jeanne Deenihan, who loved reading, writing, and never missed the opportunity for a grand adventure.")
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:8:48 PM: :

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Remembering

I made sure my Grandma was commemorated in this obituary with the wheelbarrow. The response has been overwhelming as well as touching. Today would have been Grandma's 86th birthday.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:6:36 PM: :

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Farmer's Market 2nd Run

Dave & SGinger took the wheelbarrow for a 2nd run at the Sonoma Farmer's Market while I spent the evening at Border's Books at a BookCrossing meetup. They figured out at the 2nd run that the wheelbarrow can't be left unattended if one cares at all about what happens to the books...and the 'barrow, for that matter! It seemed there was a penchant for some of the teenagers to want to do "bad things" to the books when no one was looking. But, you know what? That's kind of the way things are in the world and the wheelbarrow is part of the world, so why would it be any different? That said, people still really like the idea of the funky old wheelbarrow.

On the way home from the Farmer's Market, SGinger left a book at this church:

Meanwhile a the BookCrossing Meetup, I talked with 3 other BookCrossers - Rae, John and Jeanne. We met at Borders Books in Santa Rosa, so I stayed late after work to do the Meetup and do some videoing for the film. Jeanne is getting ready to move out of the area, but she was telling some great stories about going on a Mystery Writers tour in Britain that sounded like a merry old time! Rae moved here from the midwest and is getting accustomed to California, and John works at the library book sales in Sebastopol and sounds like he gets some great books there. They were all very good sports about being recorded for the film, although the footage may be less than even less-than-amateur since there was a cash register going a mile a minute in the background and it's sometimes difficult to hear what people were saying. Ah yes, the joys of the amateur documentary!
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:6:08 PM: :

Sunday, August 10, 2003

Ancora di piu'!

Went to church today and they donated 6 big boxes of books. I'm trying to get them all registered, but few of them have ISBNs, which means all the info has to be typed in. My other concern as I am going through the books is that if there are too many "religious" or "spritual" books, people may get turned off. But then I thought some more and figured it really doesn't matter. There may be someone out there who finds a book, for instance the one I'm looking at right now that's called God Speaks to Women Today and they read it and it changes their life somehow. Who am I to judge? I am no one! Thus by judging books that have been given to me rather than just taking them as the gift they are, I am supposing that I know what everyone else out there in the big, wide world wants or needs in the way of books. And I sure don't. So, the wheelbarrow bookshelf will soon have a ton of books from the shelves of SVCC set free and out into the world. And off they go!

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:5:34 PM: :

Saturday, August 09, 2003

251 Books

Well, after Dave & I cleaned out a bunch of boxes in the garage and SGinger got her parents and co-workers on the book-donating bandwagon, we're up to 251 books registered as of today, a total of 40 releases, and no new journalers for any of the releases. Which is no surprise. There was one journal reply from our very first releases that we did on the park bench, but it was logged under Abott, my personal bookshelf, for the novel Dragonfly In Amber, a sort of almost-cheesy romance novel that is saved from being too cheesy because the history is accurate and the main character dude, Jamie, is a hunk. So there. Anyway, we've got a few hundred books registered, now it's time for more releases of the wheelbarrow. I'd like to talk to Larry & Rose Murphy about letting us leave the wheelbarrow in front of their Irish pub one weekend, and SGinger and I talked about leaving it in front of the Community Center as well. We'll see. 'Tis a project after all.

SGinger came over today; in fact she's downstairs this very moment watching footage from the video I took on Tuesday. I haven't watched it yet. I've been registering books and feeling sad & blue about Grandma's death. Not unexpected, but difficult nonetheless. SGinger told me that she's been wearing a rose pin since my Grandma died in memory of her. I thought that was very sweet. I haven't done anything like that. All I've done is want to get more and more books; like the more books I have to register for the wheelbarrow, the more it'll take away that sunken feeling behind my belly. It doesn't, but if I stay up late enough at night registering books, I'm so tired by the time I drag myself to bed, I don't have time to think about the fact that Grandma is gone.

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:8:26 PM: :

Friday, August 08, 2003

the wheelbarrow's First Release Pictures

booked up 'barrow

books at the Farmer's Market, and they're FREE!

KC and SGinger talk about BookCrossing at the Farmer's Market
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:12:33 PM: :

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:8:45 PM: :

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

the wheelbarrow's Maiden Voyage

We did it! SGinger and I (with a little help from a good-sport husband with some muscle) took the wheelbarrow down to the Plaza to Sonoma Tuesday night Farmer's Market. We got a few sidelong stares as my husband wheeled the yellow, mobile BookCrossing Zone through the streets of Sonoma, down the walkways of the Plaza, wending our way amidst the throng of people to prop the wheelbarrow against the curb by the fountain in front of City Hall. I had made a red sign that said "FREE BOOKS!" that I attached to a stick. SGinger said the FREE BOOKS part needed to be more prominent, so it got a coat of silver ink. We made off into the evening, pushing the wheelbarrow and carrying our (looked-like-one) picket sign, feeling like we were off to the picket lines, picketing for the Freeing of Books. A kind literary Amnnesty International.

At first people were slightly hesitant. Kids came right up to the wheelbarrow with no qualms whatsoever. The kid's books were gone in a flash. In fact one little girl stood by the side of the wheelbarrow looking forlorn because all the kid's books were gone. I promised we'd bring more back next week. I hope I still have one or two in my stash; if I don't, I'm going to Goodwill or Salvation Army and buying some to make sure she gets one!

People began to warm up to the idea as they read the (picket) sign, and before I knew it, word had spread around the Farmer's Market that there was a wheelbarrow full of books that "you just have to go check out! It's the coolest idea ever." We interviewed a few people, but there was live music, so I'm not sure how well the sound recorded. We'll see. We also took some digitals & 35mms.

Basically, people love this idea. the wheelbarrow itself is whimsical and quirky, and of course the BookCrossing concept alone is the coolest thing EVER. The combo is offbeat and eye-catching. It's a twist on the idea of a wild release and people seem to love it. One woman even said, "I haven't read in years, but I used to read novels by so-and-so. Is there anything like that in the wheelbarrow?" She took a book and promised to check out BookCrossing. Wow! Might people actually be inspired to read again, people who've relied entirely on TV or video games for entertainment? Might they pick up a book and remember how good it feels to sink into a story and lose themselves in WORDS? What a thought, eh? It makes m'tail end go all a-quiver!
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:10:11 PM: :

Monday, August 04, 2003

TheWheelbarrowCanada?

Can it be? Will there be a dual north-American wheelbarrow release this month? It looks like this might just be the case since BookCrosser, paixful has said she is going to release her own Canadian wheelbarrow. Whoddathunk a little ole lowly wheelbarrow could attract another? Let the wheelbarrowing begin!
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:11:29 PM: :

Saturday, August 02, 2003

relay for life

SGinger released some health-conscious books to the Sonoma Relay For Life today at the Sonoma Valley High School track. One of the books was registered under the wheelbarrow and the rest were registered under SGinger. Were any actually caught? You can see the 4 released books in the middle picture below.

:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:9:12 PM: :

real deal

the wheelbarrow
soon to be filled with books and released into the wild!
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:8:59 PM: :

Friday, August 01, 2003

not-so-mellow yellow

My husband painted the wheelbarrow neon yellow today. It's hilarious. It needs a big clown nose and a fire engine red wig with some Golden Arches hooked on it's shanks. It's that yellow. We'll need to see if SGinger can get the wooden parts fixed so it's not quite so rickety and away we'll go. Lucy donated quite a few books to the cause and registered them all under the wheelbarrow. This weekend I get to sit and glue bookplates into all of them. Whee.

Next on the wheelbarrow project list are journals to release as well. One step at a time.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:10:30 PM: :

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

First Releases into the Wild!

Ok, well, the actual wheelbarrow didn't make it out into the wild tonight with it's load of books. I spent about 3 hours in the hospital this morning after I found out my grandmother was admitted because she couldn't breathe. It's been something of a stressful day today. SOOOOooo, the wheelbarrow itself didn't get released because I was too crabby & frowny and we couldn't wheel it without lugging it down the street since the front wheel is a little rickety and I've decided it needs a new paint job. But! I was encouraged by SGinger to at least make the effort to release a few books WITHOUT the wheelbarrow. She said we absolutely HAD to release tonight, so I said OK. We walked down to the Sonoma Plaza with 6 books, 5 of which we released.

We tried a few approaches. The first book we attempted to release, David Sedaris' Naked, was placed at the Kettle Korn booth. A ton of people stood right there in front of it, looked at it, but not one person picked it up. I don't think they really even saw it. So after I knelt in the grass and got duck poop all over the knees of my pants, SGinger snagged the book back and we tried setting it on a park bench. Of course, everyone ignored the bench like the Plague. Then SGinger tried to sit at the bench with the book beside her, looking like a friendly reader. She was ignored. So then she tried to look like she was reading a book. Ignored again. Finaly I suggested we put all the books on the bench and see what people do. So she grabbed all but one book and laid them all out on a park bench. Within a minute a gaggle of high school-aged girls were checking them out. The first book, not surprisingly, that got picked up was Sedaris' Naked. But soon all the girls were picking up the books and reading the astro-bright red Please! Read This Note! tags that I made to tape to the covers of all the books that will be released. Once they were hooked by their catch, SGinger & I moved in with the video cam going and asked them what they thought of the BookCrossing.com idea. All of them admitted to being intrigued, that the red note on the cover of the books it what drew them in in the first place. So, whether or not they journal on BookCrossing.com about finding the book remains to be seen.

::sidenote:: SGinger and I drove to Santa Rosa last night after work and went to Circuit City. I decided I needed to get a digital camcorder to make this movie. We'll see how it goes.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:9:05 PM: :

books on a bench

Here we have our lovely assistant, SGinger, attempting to lure in unwary passerbyers to catch the released Naked by David Sedaris. She is looking readerly and bright with a hardback primer for German. Naked sits beside her on the bench, waiting patiently for a person to cast their readerly reel. This approach didn't work very well. People seemed more interested in Uncle Bill's Corn Dogs than books. But we finally hooked in some potential readers with our blitzkrieg approach.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:9:01 PM: :

Sunday, July 27, 2003

First release date announcement

the wheelbarrow is tentatively set for its first release on Tuesday, 29 Jul 2003. SGinger and I will hopefully be releasing the lowly wheelbarrow that I am stealing from my dad's rather eclectic collection of wheelbarrows at the Farmer's Market in Sonoma, CA. That will be the first release as well as the first filming for the film we're making for the less-than-amateur film festival slated for 13 September 2003. I'll keep you posted on the details.
:wheeled in by a BookCrosser:3:24 PM: :