Instead of Blogging - Managing the Email

I am excited because my inbox is approaching zero. 14 items right now (and 31 in the DMZ).

One of the emails contains an exchange between me and a kind reader:

My New (Old) Organ, photo by dailyinvention

From: Sheila

Sent: August 27, 2008

To: David

Subject: Could you use organ keys for art?

My musician hubby came into possession of an old (70s perhaps?) electronic organ. It doesn't work, and he's taken what bits of electronic whatnot from it that he can use in other projects.

I'm wondering if the cabinet, keys, brightly coloured buttons, etc. might be of interest or use to a found-objects artist. The poor object is otherwise destined for big-blue-truck day next Monday.

It's not a lamp, light bulb or umbrella, but is it of use to you or anyone you know? Perhaps as something to hide behind in case of zombie attack? I'm more plugged into the literary and writerly community than the visual arts, but I do hate to see old tacky 70s stuff go to waste...

From: David

Hi Sheila, I'm truly grateful that you thought of me when you had something this cool to offer me. Alas, I don't dare take it. Things are out of control right now and I've got to make a bunch of stuff with what I have on hand before I take more stuff in. If all the electronic stuff is out of the organ, maybe you could use it as a box to hold other stuff. Or, you could put somebody's birthday present in it, and have fun for the first few minutes when they think you've given them a messed-up old organ. Mind you, you have to choose the real gift carefully so that the recipient doesn't wish they actually had the organ instead.

From: Sheila

Oh, that is tempting. We've a birthday in-house today... Thanks,

From: David

Let me know how it works out.

p.s. May I blog our email exchange? If so, how would you like your name expressed? Would you like a link to a webpage?

From: Sheila

Blog away! I tried the Ottawa Art Gallery as well but (holiday weekend and all) no takers.

Alas, the organ is now gone, taken by the giant blue crunching truck.

No link to my website, (tho' very kind of you to ask) it's not really relevant to the organ anyway, and my site and blogs are in my real name (which I'm guessing yours, and Jo Stockton's are not) so now I'm thinking on screen names.

As I type this, I can't believe I turned down the stripped out organ. I keep thinking about the coloured keys. They have words on them, don't they?

Meanwhile, another email I am about to delete is from Google Alert that lets me know what I'm up to every where. I'm happy to report that one of my good twins is having another fine cricket year. At least, I assume it's good. He "took 4-23 for Denbigh" earlier this month.

On the other hand, I seem to have acquired an evil Google Twin. I'm sure he's not really evil. Probably. It's just that he's scared of "fcuk all", his favourite movie is Scarface, and he's happiest when he's "tattooin or gettin tattooed" (i.e. getting stuck with needles or sticking them into someone else.)

I have to admit I'm starting to wish my brand consultants had pushed harder for Michael Intaglio's Blog when I started this project.