For Mike it was an all too rare chance to catch up with family and friends in Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco. For me it was my third visit to the States - another opportunity to order unlimited breakfasts and exaggerate my English accent, and my first chance to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was also a chance to finally meet a number of the people who helped make the book possible, and thank them in person. In particular, those contributors whose stories had made the book or site and who so far we'd only got to know via email.
Within hours of arriving, we took our first opportunity to actually see the book on sale in a bookstore. You don't realize how many books there are in the world until you're looking for your own. Wading through this jungle of paper, promos and endless shelving, we managed to track down 2DO in all sorts of places - Popular Culture, Gifts for Grads, Personal Development, Psychology... Our favourite was the 'Curious, Odd, Cool' table of Union Square Barnes & Noble in NYC. Of course, we strategically re-shelved a few copies, never missing an opportunity to dethrone Dan Brown and place 2DO face-out for all to see.
What followed were an eventful couple of weeks. Mike re-united himself with just about every one he knows in west and east coast America, while I had a haircut and turned 31. These are exciting times...
2DO Book Launch - Washington DC, June 2nd
The first official 2DO event was generously hosted by Carol Butler (author of the 'Get Published ' story - p.136) and her husband Landon. That said, 'generous' doesn't really cover it. As we rolled up to their beautiful home we were greeted by the sight of floral displays, exotic canapes, an open bar and, of course, an impressive stack of red hardbacks supplied by the local bookstore, Bridge St Books.
We had a great time meeting people at Carol's. Mike and I signed several copies, I even had time to doodle a cartoon for a couple of them. Half way through the evening, Carol stepped up to address the gathering with a few well-chosen words and we followed with a carefully prepared speech of thanks that drifted off the script about three words in. We then presented Carol with a gift - her own personalized 2DO T-shirt, with a graphic of her story across the front.
By the end of the evening we had sold about 80 copies of the book, and went on to misbehave in the Adams Morgan district with a few friends (Biaccus, Josh, Aleya, James, Franklin and 'Road Trip' author Andy Myers). We rolled home at 5am, by which time I had gained a year in age, greeting the dawn of my 31st birthday with numerous vodka shots, some poor piano playing and not nearly enough food...
Book Reading, New York City, June 6th
Two hours after arriving in New York by Peter Pan bus, Mike and I were chasing down a taxi to get to Junno's in Greenwich Village - the venue for our first 2DO book reading. In all, 8 contributors were scheduled to perform their stories in front of the gathered audience. Dorothy Robinson kicked off with 'Wear high heels', followed by Zina Baumann ('Graduate from college'), Nic Kelman ('Do absolutely nothing'), Daniel Degnan ('Quit My Job'), David Sterry ('Perform Stand-Up Comedy'), Sandy MacDonald ('Sing Opera'), Benjamin Wagner ('Meet my childhood hero') and Miriam Parker ('Have my own place').
For both myself and Mike, it was one of the most rewarding moments of the whole project. As each contributor stepped up to read their piece, these stories we knew so well and had read a hundred times became totally fresh once more - funny, moving, wonderfully paced, honest. Everyone had their own style, which was a great advert for the diversity of the project. Chatting to everyone after the readngs and into the night, it felt like a long overdue reunion of people who had never met before.
2DO Book Launch - New York, June 8th
In another sensational coup of generosity, 2DO Story contributor Benjamin Wagner (New Yorker, musician, blogger and all round good man) offered us his upper west-side apartment for 2DO promotional purposes. He was aided admirably by our great friend Ron Leiber (a terrific supporter of the project from the very start), who had heroically shipped pizzas in from Chicago via fed-ex to celebrate the launch of the book..
We gathered on the roof of Ben's apartment - friends old and new, contributors, their friends, writers, artists, musicians, film-makers, food-connoisseurs, adventurers. Despite this mix, they were a group who, in Ben's words, were refreshingly "not hell-bent on being hip, happening or cool." This might explain my decision to wear corduroy trousers in 90° heat.
Once Mike and I had said our words of thanks (fast becoming an endearingly shambolic tradition) we presented custom-designed T-Shirts to both Ben ('Meet my childhood hero') and Ron ('Sing with a popstar'). Once the crowd had thinned to the four of us (including Ben's friend Heather, who took the photo above) we polished off the remaining slices of pizza and made our way into the steamy New York night...
After a long five-hour United flight watching Will Smith's 'Hitch' with no sound, Mike and I arrived on the West coast. Mike was an old hand, but for me this was my first glimpse of California and next morning we woke to a fresh, sunny day in San Francisco. Hanging out with 2DO contributors Kevin Asseo ('Get a tattoo', p.125) and Eric Mahoney ('Live in Italy for a year' p.34) we got a whistle-stop tour of the city, from Market through to Haight and ending up looking out to Alcatraz from the harbour.
We also linked up with another of Mike's old friends - Burke Berendes, the very first contributor to the project. His 'Run with the bulls' story was usurped in the final book by his own brother's version of events (p.73), but it was Burke's submission that got the whole project off to a running start.
Book Signing - Rakestraw Books, CA, June 12th
Next day we headed out of town on the BART to the small town of Danville, just outside Berkeley. The epicentre of one half of Mike's family, we made our way to his Grandma Mimi's home, dropped our bags and headed out for our first West coast event - a book signing in a local store. A smart, independent store, Rakestraw Books had generously agreed to host the event, going as far as stacking a world-dominating number of 2DO Before I Die books in a display by the entrance. Drinks and home-made brownies were supplied by Mike's sister Margaret, whose sterling efforts had made the event possible in the first place.
We went on to meet a number of people who had come by to check out the book, along with several of Mike's aunts, uncles and cousins. At the end, we thanked the manager Michael Barnard, signed the guest book (a dodgy doodle of the two of us, which you can see in the photo section) and headed off for a decent pint at the local Pub-style bar. A real home away from home...
Book Reading - San Francisco, June 14th
The final 2DO event of the trip was held at the Edinburgh Castle pub in the Meatpacker district. Strange to spend our last evening in America eating fish and chips in a Scottish-style pub, but the venue had a great atmosphere, with the reading staged in a small performance space above the bar. Thanks to David Sterry ('Perform stand-up comedy' p.122) who, together with Marlena our publicist, had helped make the event happen.
After persuading a couple of the pub quiz teams downstairs to come and join our crowd, the reading began, opening with Eric Myers performing his story 'Open an underground arts club' (p.133). It's a great story and Eric did it justice, as did Kevin Asseo who read 'Get a tattoo' (p.125) with great style, ending with a surprise unveiling of the tattoo itself. Stangely arousing...
David then stepped up for a reprise of his performance at the New York reading - a class act. He was followed by Margaret, who gave a great performance of her story 'Start all over again' (goal no.100, p178).
Last up was Karen Masters, who we had just met at the Danville event. Returning from the book signing, she had written us expressing her thoughts on the project and it's relevance to her following the recent loss of her husband to cancer, who had said just before he died, 'I didn't do much, did I?' She bravely agreed to step up and read the note to the gathering - a moving way to wrap up the event - and we owe her a special thanks for being so open.
Mingling after the readings, it was great to finally catch up with people we'd been emailing for months, getting a chance to talk to Andrea Scher of www.superherodesigns.com and her husband Matt, along with Walker Bass (who took a number of photos from that night), Deborah Crooks ('Teach a class'), Brian and Claire, legendary bluegrass player Josh Lazarus and a host of others...
After moving on from the pub, we ended the evening outside a nearby bar at 2am, surrounded by pimps, crack dealers and transsexuals. "Just shows how diverse the 2DO audience is..." I said, before scurrying to the safety of the car for our ride home.
After a 20 hr journey back from San Francisco on the final leg of our US trip no sleep and yet more terrible in-flight movies (including Jeff Daniels vehicle 'My Dog, Skip'...) we're both back home once again. We'd like to thank everybody who made the trip as enjoyable and memorable as it was. From the story contributors we finally got to meet, to the friends and family who put us up and helped us do our best to spread the word about 2DO.
In particular we're grateful to Carol Butler, Ben Wagner, Ron Lieber and Margaret Ogden for working beyond the call of duty to put on such memorable launch parties in Washington D.C., New York and San Francisco. We also owe a few beers and further thanks to Paul Mahon, David Henry Sterry, Kevin Asseo, Page Evans and her family, our publicist Marlena Bittner, Lucinda Friendly and Mike's family across the US: Deedy, Margo, Chris, Linda and especially Grandma Mimi, matriach supreme...
-- Chris
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