Lou over at Lou's World posted this a few days ago and I thought it was especially interesting.

Lou said "Go here and take this test to see if you're a Yankee or a Redneck. I am 33%Dixie,Definitely a Yankee. Try it. It's fun!"

   http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html

I answered honestly and got a 92% Dixie ranking.  I was sorta suprised about how "southern" I charted from this test.  I really want to see what my southern angels Belle and Ash's Mom get rated. =) 

These guys must have a background in sociology or linquistics. I love this kind of stuff. Post your results here and at Angel Lou's place.

  http://lousworld.blogstream.com/v1/pid/78208.html 

*****Lynyrd Skynyrd "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe"

...for a monkey or two. Happy Belated Monday evahbody!



This reminds me of my office, except the monkeys are dressed better.

Damn...the streamers have been busy while I was gone! Blogging, to a great extent, about...of all things...... blogging! LOL. You guys kill me sometimes.

OK...my mind has been saturated with "product" and "merch" and capitalism for two weeks. Pretty boring stuff. REALLY boring stuff. If I have to look at or talk about another piece of “merch”, I’ll implode. Time for some random silliness.

I gotta fess up. My brain has been so rattled and programmed that I haven’t kept up with neither the NHL nor the whole immigration ruckus. I’m sure I have an inclination to take sides on both issues, but just can’t catch up on either. I have learned to expend zero effort on back-tracking. I don’t have the energy.

I think I am at that sublime, cranky age finally that I know when to fret and when to “let-it-the-fuck-go-already”. You young’uns will get there.

Those of you approximately my age feel me.

Four days worth of voice mail on the land line? My technique….Listen for the first syllable …..then delete. Repeat as needed.

117 emails since Friday? Click/Shift/Scroll/Delete….pop up says “are you sure you want to delete these 117 messages?"...hell yes. Click. There….no worries. If they are really important, they have your cell # anyway.

Sometimes it’s nice to be old and cranky.

T

P.S. Hot Monkey Love to Misty! I did NOT want to let my girl down!

******David Bowie "Rebel Rebel"

....is a low point. Smarmy ass sales reps with breath so bad that it could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon, crude loud drunk and rude stupid cigar smokin' hay-seed red-neck furniture store owners, bad food, shitty motels, and 500 crappy, ugly as fuck, cheap, knocked-off, throwed-off, furniture showrooms to every 1 good one.

Such is the High Point Furniture Show. This show is a neccessary evil; though, because in the states it is where we learn about trends for the next year. I was there to begin planning the furniture floor set and assortment for our stores for Spring 2007. I actually had a pretty good time, but I'm fuckin exhausted. 4 days in Nashville...drive home in the middle of the night...repack at 3 am...and 3 days in High Point. All 8am to 11pm work days. Now I'm back from the road trip from hell.

Not my favorite trade show. Funny thing is I still love it. A good handful of people in the business that are old friends, are real artisans and ethical business people make it worth it. On the retail buyers food chain, this show is the lowest.

Some observations from the show...

"Mid-Century" has hit the mass market. Think of the furniture in 50's Doris Day movies and the old Dick Van Dyke show. That clean line small scale, armless stuff was everywhere at this market for Spring 2007. Anything "French 50's" is gonna be hot as shit. That flitty queen Jonathan Adler is behind that whole trend. Granted...he is a genius designer. I got to meet him this market. A cross between Peewee Herman and Malcom-In-The-Middle.

www.jonathanadler.com

"Tropical" is out..."Beach" is in.

Dining tables are raising up. I saw tons of dining tables at barstool height. The big new thing is going to be the "gathering table"...54" square or round tables with 6 bartools around it. Pretty cool.

Sectional sofas are now about 60% of the upholstery business. If I have to look at another one, I'll puke.

In spite of tarrifs to curtail "dumping", leather and bedroom case good furniture from China is going to drive down prices on these categories DRASTICALLY in the next 6 months. Don't buy either until after Christmas. Wait for the retails to bottom out like a mother in January.

Cowhides are going to be really hot next spring. They are on everything. The real ones show mud stains and blemishes. Those are the good ones.

This whole funky "baroque modern" silliness will be all over the place next spring. Baroque, tacky iconic themes and merchandise with a modern twist will take over the transitional and contemporary market. Pretty fun, but wacky as all get out.

Spicy, organic, real, earthy colors will dominate the traditional market. Smokey tones of primaries will dominate the transitional market.

I'll catch up. I'm on the roadtrip from hell!

OK, so we have a (small) chain of retail stores. We get called “funky”, “quirky”, “cool”, and a lot of adjectives that sorta hit, but really don’t fully describe what we throw down. My background is in urban anthropology and Tim’s is in women’s ready to wear for a HUGE chain. I didn’t think I would ever divulge this and freaking shamelessly plug like this, but our stores’ website is the first entry in the “Sites I Like” thingy down in the right column on my blog. Check it out and you will see how schizoid our product assortment is.

But alas and alack, a flagrant spam is not my intention. Ash’s Mom was talking about “Sales Reps Behaving Badly” over at her place and I was thinking how it sorta shown the light on how business, commerce and supply and demand…in reality…are not as cold hearted and inhuman as the end-consumer thinks. The goods and services that consumers are offered go through a whole lot of human hands and hearts before they come to you.

That chair you are sitting in, if not directly made by human hands, was thoughfully designed by another human that took a lot of pride in conceptualizing it. A human spent a part of his or her life thoughtfully designing the rug you are walking on, and relished in some pride when it went into production. The can of soup you just opened? Humans that shared a sense of "what tastes good" concocted that recipe, and other humans that delight in the satisfaction of designing graphics that make the label appealing got a good feeling when the prototype of that label rolled off the press.

All the consumer products we are surrounded by in our daily lives are the result of the passions, hard work, creativity, and pride of fellow human beings.

I am in awe of the people that design our everyday commodities. They don’t get attention. We use their products and take them for granted. Warhol suggested that these commodities were truly art and elevated them.

Blah blah blah. All I really wanted to do was tell a silly little story about a relationship we have with an importer of furniture from China and India, to give you a look inside the human silliness that may be behind the products you consume….

These guys go to remote factories and seek out incredibly crafted wood furniture. They travel to exotic places and design incredible, solid and soulful furniture. Then they come back to the states and party hardy with idiots like Tim and I, their dealers.

They always bring tons of really good tequila when they meet with us. B and E are British and speak like 12 languages and are the most caring and loving people on the planet. K is a roaring, hold-your-sides-funny as hell lesbian, J is a sweet Texas girl that lets her wild side show when she leaves home.

N…now N is a former model that makes me laugh to the “silent laugh” stage. You ever been there??? That laugh that is so hard that you don’t make any noise for a few seconds because you are convulsing. You know what I mean. The BIG laugh. Shawn and I used to make each other laugh that hard when we were kids. For the first few seconds of the laugh, all you could hear were the springs in the car seat.

Anyway, this group of people is very influencial in the furniture business. Chances are you have sat on or set objects on something they designed and produced. They are real people. I don’t see an abstract product when I see a table…I see their faces.

Blah blah blah….

So the story is that one day we were all negotiating deals, meeting meeting meeting. After the third tequila, all hell just broke loose. These mega movers in the furniture business, Tim, and I were just silly humans at that point of this "serious" business meeting. K cranked up the sound system in the showroom and everyone started dancing around like some freaky Bollywood movie.

E started her imitations of Cher, K started flirting with all the other girls and making them laugh. N made me get up on a table and take off my sweater and shirt. Tim and J found a corner to ponder life and cry. Somewhere along the line that night, deals were set, product was designed, and more consumer goods hit the shelves.

All I’m saying is that all these goods that come to you go through human hearts and hands first. It’s funny and interesting to me…the soul behind those mundane consumer products.

Peace, T.

****Roger Waters "The Bravery of Being Out of Range"