2003-03-27 - 10:34 a.m.
March 16th
The drive to Orlando from Charleston is a long one. We stopped for dinner around Daytona and arrived in Orlando for the N.A.R.M. convention (national association of retail merchants)around 9:30pm. We checked in and then headed over to the convention center at the Marriot. The place was huge! At night the whole thing is lit up in green neon. It looks like the frickin' Emerald City! We were going over to meet Bev Paul, Sugar Hill's general manager and vice presidaent. We ran into Robert Randolph and his manager Gary Waldman in the hallway leading to the bar which was our ultimate destination. Andy and I have known Gary for years and he used to manage Todd. Robert was set to play at midnite and Gary gave some of us passes to get in as we hadn't recieved our credentials yet. Most of us didn't get to see him as we wound up talking to Bev so long.
The conversation with Bev was social at first and she bought us a couple of rounds of drinks. The talk eventually came around to business. The record apparently wasn't doing as well as they had thought it would. She explained why she thought this was so and we talked about what we could do to make it better and about the business in general. I love Bev. She's about as straight forward as they come. I never get the sense that she's bullshitting or has an agenda.
After 3 Bushmills it was back to the hotel and off to bed. We would be checking into the Marriott tomorrow to be closer to the action.
