Why I'm Not In PR

My alternate hed for this was: "Well, That Was Weird"

October 16 was my last post here, and that day I had a remarkable 38 views.  38.  That's like five times my normal rate.  It's back down to the normal half-dozen or so now.

On that day, I did a post referring to a post I did the same day on my "phlog," The Guy with the Leica.  I was actually pretty proud of that post, a series of pictures shot at Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant's wrestling camp.  Obviously, I thought, someone hit that in a Google search on pro wrestling or something, and I had an unusual surge of viewers who normally wouldn't have seen my stuff.  Perfect sense, right?  Except that Guy wth the Leica had ... 0 (as in "zero") views that day.

So what does it mean?

Two days before that, I did a post on artist Cy Twombly's studio here in Lexington.  Is that what caused the jump?  Did I drive people to my site with a reference to Van Gogh?  Twombly? Lexington?  If so, why did it take two days?  Who Knows?!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I quit PR after one short year in that business.  I don't know why people do things.  I just know what interests me .... and if you read this, you're just along for the ride.

Oh, yeah...

Aside from learning what I already knew (that I know nothing about retail, and am not suited for it), I've relearned a valuable lesson I'd forgotten over the years: I don't like doing public relations, and I'm not really suited for that either.

There was a time when I was actually paid to do PR.  Fortunately, I discovered my shortfall in that area before my bosses did, and quit to move on to other stuff before anyone noticed I wasn't ... well, I wasn't relating to the public.  They -- particularly the media -- weren't interested in the things I was promoting.  Specifically, there's a P.G. Wodehouse line about a novelist expecting a reaction being like throwing a piece of paper into a well and awaiting the splash.  I know the feeling...

I suppose I can't complain.  Our Karant Jou gallery (which is the cause of all this personal growth and discovery) opened to decent crowds, congratulations from friends and some press attention (including a really nice listing in the Staunton paper's weekend section: www.newsleader.com/article/20090226/NEWS01/90226004)  But others I would have thought might have noticed, let alone covered us, have said nothing.

Ah, well, I guess I must keep a sense of perspective...