Hello Alabama!
A transatlantic flight, a thousand mile drive, and here I am, back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. When I stepped out of my car, I climbed out of a time machine. I moved to Alabama for the first time in August of 2005 as a graduate student. I moved to Alabama again in August of 2011 to teach for a semester. And here I am, five Augusts later, moving back one more time. August, incidentally, is the worst time to move to Alabama. Some diabolical combination of the heat and the insects make this a terrifying place to walk around in an empty house in bare feet. But, lo! Compare the bindery of the future (above) with the bindery of the past (below).
There are other pleasures. An office:
That sits on top of a library:
And is down the hall from a bindery:
And a letterpress studio:
(Oh, and yes, that’s a polymer platemaker sitting over by the sink.)
After five years of teaching for dozens of studios and universities all over the UK with a different schedule every week, I wake each morning in a panic trying to remember which train going in which direction I need to hussle to catch. I will be very busy here, no question. But today I am relishing the calm, the burgeoning sense of routine, and the good fortune of not having to spend six hours traveling for six teaching hours, a ratio that was pushing me to my limit.
I can get invested. I can take on tasks that last longer than an afternoon. I can get students to help me. I can make weird, solemn, letterpress-themed vows like this one:
I hereby vow that by the first day of January in the year two thousand and seventeen, there will be no standing type at The University of Alabama.
half of the standing type
So far the oldest I’ve found hails from 2005:
Marvel, wherever you are, this type is too beautiful to sit, abandoned, in your galley. Its time has COME! Alabama students, friends, alums, help me in my quest. If you are near, a great task awaits us all.
Do you hear the overblown language I am using? It is because I am relaxed enough to think of the future. And thinking of the future makes me speak in terms of quests, journeys, and endeavors rather than tasks, workshops, and trains.
More soon from The University of Alabama. over and out.
19 comments on “Hello Alabama!”
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Big Jump Press 
I enjoy reading about your journeys. Welcome back to the states. Best to you. Nikki
Onward and upward for you! Yay!!
Welcome back!!! Enjoy your quest and all who will accompany you.
Wish I lived closer than CA! I like distributing type. I find it meditative.
Welcome back to the states.
Well now I wish you did too! Come visit. There is plenty of type to distribute!
So glad to have you back in the states. When will you start traveling again? How is the baby? Welcome home.
Thank you! I’ve got Penland School of Craft and Frogmans Print Workshop on my calendar for the summer of 2017. Ben and baby Milo are waiting for Ben’s visa application in the UK while I set up the house here. So that’s tricky, but that’s the way it goes. I will head over to see them in a couple of weeks and hopefully they’ll be here not too long after that.
Welcome back to this side of the pond.i love your blog, and have followed you for some time, frequently finding inspiration in your doings.
Thank you Karen!
Welcome to the US. I have enjoyed following your UK adventures and look forward to your US ones.
Thank you! Now that I am settled down I hope that I will post a bit more these days!
WOW! Congratulations on your move and can’t wait to see all the potential realised.
Thank you!
So glad to see that you’re posting again! Congrats on arriving in Alabama!
I have been thinking about you and I am so happy for you.
And that letterpress shop looks so …organised…wow! And as for the bindery, it looks almost like it’s never been used…Enjoy!
Ha! I can testify that it is one of the most well used binderies in my acquaintance. You are always welcome! xx
Fantastic! Congratulation on your new position. Give Steve a big hug from Bob Blesse!
Thanks, Bob! And Happy Birthday! Too bad we didn’t manage to meet in Florence! Another time.