I'm afraid every bit of my limited literary skills will be rallied while I'm trying to come up with some intriguing and exciting (read..."bullshitty, jazz-hands stuff") press releases to send out Monday morning.

Marc and I are on our own now. Our livelihoods and futures all depend on actions that we alone take now. A conventional paycheck is now a thing in my past. It's thrilling and scarey and amazing.

We were crackin jokes the other day in the car on the way to the store. He said "Do you feel free as a bird now?" I said "Yes, but like a medium sized flightless one."

Tonight I heard this song that I have heard a million times before.
Tonight was the first time that it made chills run down my spine and my shoulders.
Tonight was the first time that it brought me to tears.
Tonight was all about celebrating delerium and fatigue.

Tonight I am Levon. I am well aware that I essentially do nothing but sell cartoon balloons in town.

ADDENDUM: 7pm Saturday

When I went back and read this post, it had a sorta negative sounding vibe, but that wasn't the intention at all. Things are going very well and I'm really happy. I love being Levon! I was just exhausted, reflective, and oh yea...a little tipsy.


***Elton John "Levon"

I'm too full of both tonight to compose an actual coherent post.

I feel like I am sitting in the seat of a giant roller coaster that is pulling back into the station, and I'm yelling "More...more!"

This year, Marc and I are excused from the grandiose throw-down we usually do for Thanksgiving. I only have to come up with my kick-ass spinach casserole in the morning and take it down to Chanda and Rob's. How can you not love a holiday that revolves around meat, parades, football, and casseroles? I'm jus sayin.

Anyway, I find myself with time on my hands tonight that I am not accustomed to on the eve of Thanksgiving. My mind is wandering in peculiar tangents.

So, naturally, I've decided to drink wine, listen to Grace Jones all night because one of her tunes got stuck in my head all day, and twist Rex's hair into dread locks. He loves that.

I'm thankful and random tonight. Really random. I feel a giant exhale coming on. This song from the early eighties was stuck in my head all day. I have no idea why. I also have no idea why I am including it in this post.



Happy turkey day everybody.

T

Lucy, CH, Belle, River Rat, Ash's Mom, Heather, Gina, Misty, Pye, Madeleine, Angel Lou, Trixie, Mary Elizabeth, Rita, Looking for Lucy, and Kristin!...YOU GUYS ROCK! I am really touched and believe it or not...at a loss for words!

You have no idea how much Marc and I really appreciate this gift and your loving thoughts. I will always cherish the genuine kindness that we have experienced here on the stream, and this thoughtful gesture. (Did yall know that there is a jar of Koppers chocolates in the basket? Man, I love those...how'd ya know? )

Here's a warm wish for a blessed Thanksgiving for you and your families.

P.S. Some of your names got left off of the card ,but when Lucy told me who all sent it, it made me smile twice as big. I love you guys!

T

"The sweet whisper of longing.
The haunting melody
that
beats
a half beat
behind
the beat of your heart.
You know it's there,
you can hear it,
but you can't reach it....just yet.
You keep singing,
(and hoping)
that your silenced song
will someday be heard
and
prompt that whole new world out of you."

Biggie T (Copyright 2006)

Cesaria Evora spent the first 50 years of her life on Cape Verde, honing her beautiful, otherworldly voice on that island. Her wistful, haunting, and universal voice met only the ears of dock laborers and local men and women for 35 years. It all changed for her when a French record label exec heard her ethereal notes in a dive bar on the docks of Cape Verde in June of 1988. Word spread and an agent from BMG signed her for her first album in October that year.

Cesaria is an inspiration for us late bloomers. At 50 years old, she went from abject poverty to world wide fame as the "Barefoot Diva". She sings, longingly and honestly, from her heart. Cesaria sings straight from the heart...and the thing is...you don't have to understand every single word she sings to understand her.

Her soul and beauty shines through her chords. A gorgeous soul and a beauty that has ripened in the isolation of Cape Verde for 50 years. That was 1988. Today she is internationally aclaimed as the "Barefoot Diva". Here's to the "late bloomers"


Listen to the song-to-play, then play her video of "Mar Azul". You may see why I adore her.

T

Ok, so the opening party is over and now it's down to "bidness".

Our manager, Jessica started today. I freakin love her...stylish, dynamic, knock-dead-gorgeous, professional, and has this wicked wry wit. She is a big "product whore" like me, and comes from a background of working with exceptional merchandise. Oh yeah...I think she's gonna be a real asset to Marc and me, and she seems to be genuinely excited about being on-board at the beginning of this crazy adventure. I'm head over heals for her already.

Marc posted some pics of the store over at his blog, but I'm gonna bore you with some more.

We opened 5 weeks from demolition. Damn. This was truly "guerrilla retailing". We had set an hour of 7pm on Nov 16th and we opened right on the minute...with not a second to spare. Whew. Most of the merchandise was still in crates and boxes three days prior.




Classic retail scene. Here we see a big ol' queen checkin' out and tweakin' the window display he's working on.




Marc propping himself up and grinning after 48 hours with no sleep and a bottle of wine.



After we ran reports tonight, this turned out to be our top item so far. They are porcelain balls with typographic letters painted on them. You can fill a bowl with them and it looks cool, or you can buy your name, or the names of your family and stuff. They are just really different and cool. A customer came in Saturday afternoon and bought 52... 2 complete alphabets. (CHA CHING!)



I think that this is my favorite design element we put into the store so far. They are hand-blown glass upside down table lamps. We have them lining the vintage check-out counter.



Me, unpacking some crudites trays from Studio B. Apparently, if you call them "crudites trays" you can charge twice as much as if you called them "chip 'n dips".

But seriously, the stuff from Studio B is amazing. I really think they are the most beautiful and thoughtfully designed ceramics available today. It's all done by Brenda Holzice, a potter from Berkley. She just has this ethereal talent for marrying form and function. All her pieces are very modern, but organic. Just beautiful. I have been a huge fan of her work for years and am really proud to have some of it in the store. I did a sampling of her stuff, and am going to do a big showing of her pieces for our Mother's Day/Wedding floorset next year.

You can check her stuff out at her broker's website...

www.magenta-inc.com

Click on "Studio B" to see Brenda's work.