...it's really more like a bitchy little lecture.

One of my best friends in the whole wide world opened his own showroom at the Atlanta Mart 3 years ago. That's a very big deal in my industry. I'm very proud of him. He's gathered some awesome and beautiful paper goods lines. He's doing very well for himself. I love to visit him and support him as much as I can.

Here's the deal: He was wearing this FREAKING AWESOME sky blue linen sport jacket today. We are the same size and I just wanted to rip it off him and run away wearing it. He was wearing it with a tight white t shirt and just right jeans. He looked freaking awesome.

We were standing with a group of people and I absently-minded asked him where he got that awesome jacket.

He said "Lowemans".

(Okay...whoa...that was way too honest.)

After the conversation died down and the group dispersed, I pulled him aside.

I felt it was my duty to tell him..."DON'T EVER FREAKING ADMIT TO A CROWD OF STRANGERS AND POTENTIAL CLIENTS THAT YOU BOUGHT SOMETHING AT LOWEMAN'S"

I cringed when he said "Loweman's". I mean...couldn't he have just told a little white lie and said "Barney's"???? Honestly, the jacket most likely was at Barney's last year and over-stocks ended up on the salesfloor at Loweman's this year.

I mean for real....finding great seconds and over-runs at Loweman's is a sacred secret you only tell close girlfriends and lovers...not high end clients, fer cryin' out loud.

For example...when a customer asks me where a wooden cabinet came from, I don't say "Uh...well shit, I schleped this in my truck from a warehouse over on Armor Circle and I paid a homeless guy 5 bucks to help me load it". Hell no... I don't volunteer all that needless information......I just say "Jakarta". Now...for real..doesn't "Jakarta" sound a hell of a lot more romantic than "some homeless guy helped me load a piece of furniture onto a truck from a warehouse on Armor Circle"?

Dammit...am I going to have to start giving PR lessons on how to be a high end gay guy here in Atlanta????


T

Let me just preface and say that even if The White Stripes couldn't play a lick of music, they would probably still fascinate the hell out of me. I'm too lazy tonight to google and wikepedia them, so I'll just give some impressions.



Their new release "Icky Thump" came out last week. The more I play it, the more I am in love with it.



The whole PR vibe that they give off is sorta creepy and intriguing. These two are masters when it comes to creating "buzz" about themselves.



We saw them 2 years ago at Music Midtown. About 15 minutes into their set, Marc and I turned to each other and we both said the same thing..."Do you realize that this sound is coming from just two people on stage???"

They blew us away that afternoon. Then Jack White teamed up with Loretta Lynn on her album "Van Lear Rose". That album stops me in my tracks and makes me goofey....it's that good. Good God almighty. How much more in love could I get with The White Stripes???



They are intelligent and awesome and aware and saavy and just creepy enough to be interesting. Plus...the music and posturing and the undeniable spirit of rock and roll that comes out of these two KICKS ASS.

(I put Seven Nation Army here because it's the tune that most people associate with them. It still ROCKS)

I put the title song from their new album (they are still called "albums" right?) in the comment section.

T

In short, we are already finding some great new stuff for fourth quarter.

I spent some time buying new children's books for the store yesterday. I'm really picky about children's books, because we can't devote much space to them. I love buying and reading kid's books, so it's always a challenge. I buy the Caldecott and Newbery and Parent's Choice award winners first... then try to find remarkable new or re-issued children's books that are engaging and inspirational and educational and have artfully designed covers. I also like to pick new children's books that are so ourageously funny and clever that they make me laugh.

Here are my two favorites for this year...

"Just Like Heaven" by Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the Mutts comic strip. The sales rep for Random House and I sat down in the floor of the showroom and read it. We both were sorta teary and silly grin-y after we read it. It's probably my favorite children's book in 20 years.



This book blew me away. It is so sublime and sweet and artful and relates such a universal and powerful message.

Here are some snippets of it...









AND...(on totally the other end of the spectrum of kid's books) ...this one!

"Farting Fred And The Dog Show" It's a board book that has a furry inflated thingy on it. The cover and the pages are die cut, so that the big furry dog butt thingy is in the middle of every page as you read through. You press the big furry thingy as you read and it "farts". Jessica and I were fighting over it in the showroom yesterday and giggling like little kids. It's awesome!



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Best And Worst Free Food And Beverage Offerings In Showrooms At The Atlanta Gift Show Thusfar...

Best Sandwich...The Buying Office...veggie basil/goat cheese/ something/ something on a fresh roll... YUM

Best Beverage...Bellinis at CBK... SLURP SLURP awww yeah

Best Warm Dish...Sesame Chicken at Dugan Bliss Associates... seconds please

Worst Sandwich...One Coast Partners...apparently it was supposed to be pimento cheese...but it tasted like Elmer's Glue and Lysol...YUK...someone please call the Health Department

Worst Beverage...the white wine at Dugan Bliss Associates...oh MY GOD...it was the worst, skankiest wine I have ever tasted. It was like it had been poured into a ditch and rabid squirrels had been bathing in it...GAG

I get my "period" right about now every year. I get crabby and aloof. My mood can turn on a dime...I'm ecstatic and gregarious one minute...and the next, I will recede into my shell and snap if you come near me. I'll deal by over-eating and over-drinking for the next 4 weeks. I'm always wound up tight as a tick this time of year.

It's because it's SHOWTIME! The Atlanta Gift Show this week and next and The New York Gift Fair in August are the two major trade shows for my business. Decisions a buyer makes at these shows can make or break fourth quarter sales...they can make or break a company.

It's been stressful every year in the past. I've always realized that decisions I would be making in July and August were inevitably going to either positively or negatively affect the livelihoods of hundreds of employees for the companies I have worked for.

This July, I'm going through the same thing, but in a different way. The decisions I will be making will affect only me and Marc and Jessica and my banker and my landlord...but the pressure is still the same. I'm still spending every minute of every day for the past few weeks, making myself crazy.

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The Atlanta trade show is daunting. It started today and goes on for 9 more. 2085 permanent showrooms, 4400 temporary booths, 31,050 vendors, 3 buildings, 55 floors. I have this insane need to walk it all so I don't miss a thing. The problem is....95% of it is crap. Cheap imported junk, country stuff, inane "collectible" bric-a-brac, gimmicky and thoughtlessly designed garbage. BUT..it's the biggest wholesale show in the world now and I still feel that if I don't walk and observe the whole thing, I might miss something.

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I can't wait until next month for the New York Gift Fair. It's smaller and more contained and most importantly...edited. That's where I find most of my stuff for the store. Newer US and European and Asian designers tend to favor that wholesale show. (People that are real designers and are geniunely passionate about their goods.) There is less silly knock-off junk and country and cutsie crap.

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I wish I could just turn the clock forward 3 weeks. I'm really really really really really really ready to be in New York for a few days.

Just being up in the city always energizes me again. Something as simple as darting in and out of the shops and galleries and bars in Chelsea down 8th Ave or watching people and investigating every little nook and cranny of the East Village...I love the charge and vitality and honesty of the "real" neighborhoods of Manhattan in the summer.

But, if I never had to set foot in Soho or Times Square again, I would be a happy camper. But hell...if you want to visit flagship stores, ya gotta drag your ass to Soho. And if ya wanna see a show, ya gotta jump into the Disney-ized, sterilized, throng of Times Square.

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I guess I'm finished writing this post now.

Random points that I couldn't figure out how to work in...

1) I'm really really stressed right now.

2) John Portman is the devil. His mid 70s short-sighted and non-pedestrian and non-human-friendly urban architectural design travesties in downtown Atlanta and Manhattan are pissing me off.

3) We have a huge shipment of furniture coming in anyday now. There will be no way the three of us can unload it because we will be busy at the trade show and besides...there isn't nearly enough room in the store for it.

4) Last night, one of our sales reps asked me when and where Marc and I were going to take vacation and go camping this year. What a ridiculous concept. For about one half of one second, I wanted to stab her to death and then kill myself.

5) I just need to calm down, breathe, focus, and relax my little ass... and in the meantime....consume as much free crappy food and free crappy wine from vendor showrooms as humanly possible. I'm sure things will work themselves out....they always do...

...right?


T

I just sat down with a gallon of Cherry Cheesecake ice cream and a spoon....not the "teaspoon"...the other one...the big one...the "tablespoon".

Wahahahahaha.


T