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There stands the glass

It's empty, now, in the kitchen sink along with the rest of the dirty dishes, but a few moments before midnight last night there was a pint glass filled with a tolerable but undistinguished IPA and hoisted in your general direction, by way of saying thanks, by way of acknowledging another passage.

The last issue of ND wasn't quite done, then (I just uploaded the final files a moment ago), but I was, and Peter was back in North Carolina choosing his final words more carefully than I had managed.

But, save for the inevitable technical corrections, it's done.

In one of our many e-mail exchanges this last week Peter noted that he thought it was one of our three or four best issues, and he's right. Or at least I agree with him, which is close enough to being the same thing. It's big and juicy and filled with good music, and probably too many of my words.

I am deeply grateful to our advertisers for the kind words they paid to put into print this last time, for their support over the years, and for helping us to finish as much of this job as we could in the grandest style we could imagine.

Peter wasn't terribly keen on my cover design, and, at one point, said it reminded him of Harp. With all due respect to my friendly rival, Harp's co-editor and art director Scott Crawford, I had George Lois in mind, not him, when I was copping ideas. If I had anything in mind. But the folks at Harp didn't get to say goodbye, and I haven't had a chance to write about their passing. They were good folks and they meant well, and as much as their intrusion into the marketplace created some business frustrations, I always liked and respected them. If, in some small and inadvertent way, my last cover design is a nod in their direction, well, that's another glass I can raise.

It hurts to lose these things you love.

I have in mind Ted Hawkins' reading of the Webb Pierce classic, by the way.

For thirteen years this has been my canvas, and for the last couple of them I've finally felt like a halfway decent art director.

I don't know if I'll get another canvas.

I just don't know.

But in the meantime, I'm going to go spend some time with my little girl, and count the chickens and see how the cherry trees are doing out at the orchard.

And, to borrow the words of another great country song, I'll spend as much time as it takes to figure out what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life.

Posted by grant on April 7, 2008 8:27 AM | Permalink

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