Dispatch from the Box: Is That Mike’s Hard Lemonade?

Alright, we were on Channel 4 News yesterday. Check it out here - Arielle gets some serious airtime. I think all of this publicity is making Arielle and I seriously self conscious about our non-photogenic natures.

As tempting as running in place or doing sit-ups in the window might sound, I’m getting a little anxious that all of this box-sitting is going to put me in pretty poor running-shape by the end of day five. Pretty much everyone who I’ve spoken with on the phone since yesterday has asked me, “What are you up to today?” and my response has almost universally been, “Getting fat in the box.”

Seriously though, it’s like a well-stocked party in here, balloons included (thanks to one-year-old Mirabelle Ferguson for giving us the Clifford the Big Red Dog balloon).

Visitors have donated enough candy, donuts, spring rolls and Mike’s Hard Lemonade (that’s right) for Arielle and I to live off of for an extended period of time.

Kerry even brought us a huge canvas to work on:

To everyone who has contributed to this effort: YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. THANK YOU.

One of the best things about being in the box is the huge variety of people who have stopped by to visit us. When Arielle and I woke up yesterday, our first visitors were a father and son wearing matching full-body camouflage who had stopped by because, while on their way to go hunting, they had stopped in town and locked their keys in their car.

After I got dressed I went to blog at Cafe Ishi again and when I returned the drop box was FULL of these awesome poems people had left:

—–

My Ontology

What exists?

1. My car - on day far away.

2. Your nose - until I steal it.

3. All the wood that a woodchuck could chuck.

—–

Eternity is
A day longer than you thought it would be.
It’s shorter than you want, or will be once you’re there.
In His fuzzy star sprinkling galaxy.

- Anonymous

—–

Thy flame shall burn brightest
Thine pants shall be tightest
Thy step shall be lightest
Dirigibles thou smitest

- Lydia

—–

Q: What is tonight’s special at Applebees?
W: Pizza.

- Pamela Monahan

—–

Kafka Cats & Cupcakes

The flying cat tossed
cupcakes at the hunger
artist looking out of
a window on East Main
Street. An evangelist
who witnessed the event
yelled, “It’s time for
the rapture.” The flying
cat caterwauled. The
minister fainted and
the artist grabbed up
all the cupcakes.

-Marie Griffin

—–

Around noon a group of local artists gathered around our stoop to do some life drawings of people and places on Main Street, and I had the pleasure of chatting Harry Miller, Isabel Forbes and others, while doing a little knitting and writing. And Cristin, an art student at Converse College, brought by these awesome 4×4 inch canvases for us to work on. Thank you! Though there were only a handful of artists who came by, they were almost all people that Arielle and I had met while we were in the box and wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

A few artists were even gracious enough to leave their work behind.

Harry Miller’s sketch:

Derya’s amazing sketch of me from behind.

Arielle and Marie’s drawings/paintings:

Isabel even posted a sketch she made outside the box on her blog yesterday, where she had some nice things to say about “We Live Here Now.”

The outdoor sketching/painting session later turned into some pretty intense sidewalk chalking, as lots of Spartanburgians have been bringing their children by to see what we’re doing.

Friday afternoon was just great. No really, I want everyone who reads this to understand how serious I am.

FRIDAY WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT.

Not only (and I’m trying not to exaggerate here) do I feel like Arielle and I have met hundreds of people, but I feel more connected to the Spartanburg community than I have since I’ve moved here. I am honored that so many people have taken an interest in what we’re doing and in downtown Spartanburg. People have been visiting downtown from the suburbs, from Inman, from Gaffney, and more, not just to check it out and cheer us on, but to share their own stories of their lives inside and outside of Spartanburg. I love it.

A woman named Joy stopped by with her two children and their friends and shared her tales of a ghosts that haunts her old house.

People have been offering suggestions for additions we should make to the window diagrams, including Don Quixote. A photographer from the Herald-Journal came to take more pictures. People told us to make up our beds, offered suggestions as to where we should display art in downtown, and hassled me about the foibles of the Michigan football team. Gary Henderson even told me that he thinks this was the coolest thing that’s ever happened in downtown Spartanburg.

Arielle and I also had a wonderful hour-long chat with Ruth and Charles Deal, retirees from Gaffney, who were happy to talk about everything from how they met, to adjusting to life in the South, to sculpture. Charles joined us on our stoop, chatting with us and smoking his cherry cigars.

As dinnertime rolled around we worked to the sounds of live jazz wafting down the street from Morgan Square. And a little later, Brian rolled up with the kettle we needed to get our tea party started, along with some delicious cookies and homemade sandwiches (crusts cut off!). We were joined by friends and caught a few passers-by while we sipped hot tea made from the flame of my little camp stove. Luke, Cate, Aaron, George, Kris and Patrice Neely, Spartanburg’s man-about-town Ashley Fly, and Davies all stopped by to check in on Arielle and I.

Also joining us in the box was Collin’s dog, Nova, who everyone agrees is the sweetest and most beautiful dog IN THE WORLD. When you sing to her she jumps up on your lap.

As the dark settled in we had a long chat with Officer Mike Foster about everything from the late-night beat on the streets of downtown Spartanburg to the current political situation in Afghanistan. Spartanburg, have you thanked your local law enforcement agents for their hard work lately? We have some awesome people here patrolling the streets to keep us safe.

I tried to head to bed early, around 1 AM, to prepare for an indubitably-tiring Saturday, but it was probably a mistake to try and sleep while all the bar-hoppers were still milling about town. As I was lying in bed before I turned out the lights, somebody thought it would be funny to pound on my window so hard that small bits of debris began falling from my ceiling.

Come on, man.

Perhaps I was just too startled from the antics of drunk streetwalkers, but I realized for the first time that you can actually hear the train from downtown. Anyway, the box was pretty cold last night - I had to sleep in socks and a sweatshirt.

Aside from deliveries of food and booze, we also had some wonderful submissions to the dropbox today, some about the suggested theme (Your Parents), and some not.

——

Deep down, everything I do is for them. I know it.

-Brian H.

——

It was love at first sight.

-Alix

——

Hi girls! I was born in Sparkle City and grew up here. I used to walk to town from Maple Street where I lived with my parents. My father owned a filling station on East Main st. and started what is now Bob’s Car Wash. They would be amazed to see all the nw things in Spartanb urg now! I miss them. Margie and I went to the movies, the Quality Bakery, Aug W Smith, the Deluxe Diner and Woolworth’s (all right here on Main St!) It’s so fun to see all the activity here again!

-Janice

And some mystery person left us this tiny matchstick sculpture.

Also worth noting: part of our mission statement for this project was to explore downtown Spartanburg’s viability as a true urban space by looking at they ways in which the needs of its residents were met and were not met. Well, Cafe Ishi was closed this morning and I was in need of internet. Check out where I blogged this morning:

More pros of living in downtown Spartanburg:

-wireless internet (sometimes, in certain places) on the sidewalk
-outdoor electrical outlets EVERYWHERE

Another funny thing I’ve noticed about life in the box is how much more conscious it makes me of little things – not the things that people might see (i.e. how I might be making ridiculous faces while Channel 4 is videotaping me, see link above) but other things that people don’t see, like taking my vitamins and flossing after every meal to make sure I don’t have stuff in my teeth. More on this later . . .