Posted by panchmaster from customer-148-233-78-77.uninet.net.mx (148.233.78.77) on Sunday, October 27, 2002 at 11:59AM :
What Was Golani Thinking?
I can't figure the guy out. For two years he and Janey are working with me to make the Hammurabi. I get the first three buyers on my own, then another two. They finally begin to pry fingers off of Chaldean wallets...except for some who keep saying they are going to, they are going to, they are going to. The convention is coming up...I need to show progress, so I put the money I have into developing the uper torso of the king so maybe we can impress people that we're serious and get more buyers...it's true I've fallen behind in delivering two models of the king...though that was never a problem with the Ashurbanipal or the Shumirum because people understood the whole point was to make the monument and not get their "merchandise". So the Chaldeans are clamoring, not for the monument but for THEIR model of it...I like that, "Clamoring Chaldeans".
The Chicago convention I took the torso to is a complete bust...instead of chatting up the Hammurabi, I'm being chased around the hotel by the Worriers of Assyria...and to top it off when the crate is sent back the torso is smashed to pieces...can be fixed, but it didn't help any.
Then comes San Jose...my annual chance to get buyers and donors and such. Now mind you we've visted the Golanis, even slept in their bed...and their family has been to our house in California...we've bought gifts for each other's children..and when Atour was elected president...it was ME that had to drag my arse all over Chicago on Labor Day morning trying to find a decent bouquet of flowers...we then had delivered to their room congratulating Atour. It was the only one he got from anybody.
What in God's name possessed the little guy! Why would he try to shut me down at the convention...and only me? Why would he lie to me...and my wife, as we talked? How do you lie like that to someone's face...someone you welcomed into your home. And for what? I hadn't done a damn thing to them...and Jackie hates their guts. Why lie to me and force me out...if they are at all serious about the Hammurabi? If I was "behind", how did closing me down help any? Unless I was to be made so desperate that I would sign any contract for continued "aid" for the Hammurabi...give the Midget of Assyria artistic control over my work. How did Atour ever get a reputation as an honest person? How does an honest person lie about having my sculptures welded? Why would an honest, respectful person do it in the first place?
Something happens to these people when they become Kings and Queens of Assyria. I think the job goes to their heads...unhinges them somehow. Perfectly normal, fairly decent people, driving to work every day, paying the bills, attending PTA and soccer practise..all of a sudden see themselves as Commanders of the Hosts, General of the Chariots...of, "men by the thousands"..and such. They believe they're sending emissaries to Egypt, when they call Catering at the hotel and order an urn of coffee for a meeting about the , "Politics of Fried Chicken".
When they send for their sargeant at arms...they believe it is the Grand Commander of the Hosts...and the business at hand is nothing less than a dynastic struggle of epic proportions, rather then who misplaced the plastic trophy.
Did Atour believe he was dealing with a Babylonian spy when we stepped aside to speak at the convention. Was the imminent peril the empire found itself in the justification for a "Lie of State"...a watershed in the history of Assyria that required sharp dealing...instead of a stupid conference over an incident having to do with Jackie's shorts being on fire?
I was the only one at the convention with a project of any serious scope...which tells you a lot about the conventions. Whatever you think of these monuments as "Art"...it is undeniably true that they will do a great deal of good for us...in ways none of these other programs they have wil. Even the lecture series is dependent on the continuing efforts of one or two people and could be discontinued at any time. And the fawning all over minor politicians, and the jackass of the year awards, all of these things could be dispensed with and we be better off anyway. But the monuments, once completed and installed, are there forever...their permanence can't be matched by anything else I can think of coming out of any convention. The aid to the poor and needy, as important as it is, by itself does little...as Jesus said, the poor are with us always. But ther aren't people with us always willing and capable of getting monumets installed, of writing books and poetry and music.
It comes down each time to jealousy, petty envy...and the desire for each squirt to be a general...each bitch a queen. If the only way they can manage it is to tilt the field to their advantage...they will.
Janey says it was all my fault..like any kid in a schoolyard trying to duck responsibility. Was it my fault Atour welded my sculpture..or am I not supposed to mind? Is it "my fault" that I set any standards for my work...that I don't want any little Atour whose Dick is Harry to do with them as he pleases? I would remind them both that the courts just upheld the largest judgement against any company...againt Ford...for placing on the market the 1978 Bronco which their own internal papers show they KNEW to be unsafe. Something in the billions. Let each expert do his own work...my sculptures never killed ayone.
Was it my fault that I crossed the Jackster? YES...that's the whole issue here...that's what her club is paying for...and the rest of us...even as they still maintain she was the best president they ever had...meaning she had more Benz's per square inch than anyone else...also more spare time and a willingness to spend it away from home. That's the "trouble" I caused...that's what Atour did all this for...because Jackie said..."no tickee, no money from MY convention".
Oh when will the trial come?
-- panchmaster
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