hello again

Oh hi! You guys! Last night was SO. MUCH. FUN. Seriously, my face is still a little sore from all the smiling. But that might be because I was still grinning ear-to-ear this morning as well. I mean... that was a damn good time.First, before the evening had even really begun, I was finishing up getting things ready alone in the gallery and this older bartender comes in with a double shot of tequila and asks if I'm Leslie. Uh, yes. Yes I am. Then he tells me the drink is for me. I explain that I didn't order a drink, and he tells me it's from Tucker. Uh... I don't know a Tucker? He looks at me (maybe a tad annoyed at this point) and says, "TUCKER. FROM OREGON." You guys. Tucker was my college roommate! And she lives in Portland! And I haven't talked to her in well over a year! And she sent me a drink from Oregon! Is that an amazing start to the night or WHAT?Then! Then! Then we opened the doors and I am surrounded by wonderful friends and about 15 minutes goes by and Jamie comes to tell me I need to mark one of the pieces as sold. Ha. Hahhahahahahaha. Oh right. You're so funny.No, for real! I sold that big picture of Astronautalis! And then I sold another photo! And then the band started, and you guys... they were so great. SO great. At one point during the show the power went out, and Alexei (the lead singer) improvised and did this acapella free-style thing (maybe? maybe it's already a finished song?) with stomping and clapping and it was FANTASTIC. That's what the photo is above. Sooo good. And then the power came back on and the rest of the show was great and I sold more art and several calendars and wow was that fun. Sigh.So this week I am off from the Star Tribune/Vita.mn as I am trying to recover from the show and... uh... catch up on all my Shuttersmack work. Today, on my first day of "vacation," I have worked for about 12 hours. But! But later this week I plan on staying in my jammies all day and watching terrible television (like the Vampire Diaries). But for now catching up feels good. And I'm inspired. And it's a wonderful thing.If you want to see more photos of the band from last night, I posted a couple over here. And if you missed the show and want to see the photo exhibit, it will remain hanging at Republic (7 Corners location) until mid-January. And if you want to order the bad-ass calendar for a holiday gift (which I highly suggest), email me and I'll get one sent to you. They are $50 and feature photos of The Hold Steady, Retribution Gospel Choir, one of my favorite photos of Dessa ever, Astronautalis, Mark Mallman, 4ontheFloor, The Goondas and many, many others. And all the profits go to POS' kidney fund. So buy a calendar and feel good about helping out artists!