Well, in a little over 48 hours the Cuba Nostalgia Convention officially begins. The Babalu Pavilion has to be up and running no later than 6 pm tomorrow. In other words, its crunch time.
We’ve had a few setbacks, starting with the fact that it hasnt rained here in Miami for almost three months – to the point of water restrictions – and the week that I need to spray paint and do some work to the booth frame outside, it pours. Relentlessly.
I’ve also had a setback with the El Exilio video project. We were supposed to have been afforded a separate room in order to film said videos away from the noise of the convention. Yesterday, I find that the “room” actually allocated to us is, in fact, a freaken kitchen. (The floor plans made no mention of the room’s existing use.) So we scoured almost the entire facility looking for an appropriate space and were unable to find one in those rooms we could actually key open. The room quest will continue this afternoon and hopefully we’ll be able to find a usable space while giving me enough time to decorate it or set up the props for use in shooting the videos. Also, my promised videographers have yet to confirm and return my calls, which infuriates me to no end. If I have to sit there with an old super 8 camera and record the videos I will. I really hate it when people make promises and then bail out on you.
On the “good news” side of the coin, Humberto Fontova will be at the exhibit all three days signing books and keeping us company, and, if you havent already purchsed the Che book, it will be on sale at the exhibit. We’ll also be having Humberto on the Babalu Radio Hour, which we will be doing once a day from the convention and, I’ve been informed that the gentlemen from BlogTalk Radio will be there with us with their own shows and support.
We’ll be officially unveiling the BUCL project, which, if I may say, may very well ruffle some feathers and inspire some of the folks at the convention and on the net to join the campaign and support the cause.
Im told Cachao will be playing a few tunes at the booth adjacent to ours and Im looking into possibly running that gig live on the blog or BlogTalk Radio.
The University of Miami Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American studies will be our neighbors this year and they’ll be promoting various causes and programs including a genealogy campaign that I support wholeheardtedly and will blog about, and possibly interview Jorge Piñon, the program’s director, on the Radio show.
Ive still got a shitload of work to do to get everything ready before tommorow’s deadline and Im sure Ill be pretty tired right from the onset of the event, but I am looking forward to meeting those of you that will be attending and also bringing you all that wont be able to make it down here a taste of the Cuba Nostalgia Convention via Babalu.
And mojitos. Plenty of mojitos…
…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
