Bette was frantic.  She had her first real big opening coming up at the CAC, and if we thought we had seen her go uber-crazy over dinner parties, it was nothing compared to this art show.  As she repeatedly told us over afternoon coffees on a daily basis, this show was going to make or break her career with the California Arts Centre.  She had been there for a few months, mainly sorting through the organisational mess that had been left by the last guy, so this was her first project from start to finish.  I had been crashing at Bette and Tina’s for almost three weeks.  It took a good week to get my head back to normal, get my stuff sorted, start looking for a new place to live, and set up an interview with John at Lather.  It turned out John had taken a three week Caribbean holiday, so my interview with him wasn’t until the next week.  The apartment search was as slow as it had been all the previous times, with very little coming up that seemed compatible with me.  And since I was unemployed and crashing at their place, I was more than happy to volunteer my services to Bette to help set up this show…  probably another one to add to the list of not the brightest moves I’ve made in my life.  I loved that I was able to help Bette after everything she had done for me, and I found myself both amazed and highly entertained as I saw her in action.  Suddenly any dinner party in the past or future seemed like the most relaxed, low-key Bette I had seen… it was all a matter of perspective I guess.

I really actually enjoyed working with Bette.  I had listened to her talk about the art world and the different mediums, people, anything that she would go off about in all the talks we had had over the last year plus.  When she first sat down in that coffee shop and started talking to that street kid who wouldn’t answer, she often filled the awkward silence I created by talking about art. But it wasn’t until I went to help her with this exhibition that I really saw any of it, saw where she worked, what she worked with, saw some of these pieces that inspired her.  The exhibition she was installing was a “Music in Motion” instillation.  The CAC was working with a music festival happening in the city, raising money for a “Save the Music” type organisation.  Bette introduced me to the artist, a woman named Sandrine L’Esperance, and the two spent a good hour explaining the meaning and vision behind the instillation.  Honestly though, to me, it was a bunch of video screens, music, some flashing coloured lights, and what turned out to be floating instruments that led you into the rest of the gallery where her photography was being displayed.  I found the photos much more intriguing and emotional than the light and sound show out front, but it was the instillation in the front of the museum that had Bette stressed the most.  So that was what I ended up helping her the most with.