Friday, September 28, 2007
Brief clarification: my blog still has a US time & date stamp; it's actually 10:30 Saturday morning here, not 7:30 Friday evening.
Greetings from Hong Kong. It's nearly 90 degrees. It's barely 10am. (Freak heat wave; HK is normally pleasant this time of year.) I'm already experiencing severe jet lag, a phenomenon I've historically proven immune to. (Another peril of hitting 35, I suppose.) I am, thus, remaining ensconced in my room at the Mandarin for the moment. I barely even recognize the rooms from their previous incarnation, even if the lobby areas are largely the same; they're truly incredible, even if it's more than a little silly to include two 42" flat-panel TVs in a 450 sq ft space. (Oh, wait; there's also a smaller TV in the bathroom, ingenuously built into a swiveling mirror.) Being a bit of a geek at heart, I appreciate the fact that this is, by far, the most tech-friendly hotel I've ever stayed in. The desk includes a built-in panel with network, modem, VGA, S-video, audio and USB ports, for instance, and they use VoIP phones with touchscreens.
If I manage to extract myself out of here, I have a long list of galleries and design shops to hit. I scratched the idea of a day trip to Shenzhen, however; entering mainland China for any length of time requires a visa (a pain in the ass for an American to secure), and there's not much in the way of shopping if you're not into designer fakes (Shenzhen has more than literally anywhere else on earth). There's also not much in the way of sightseeing, considering the city basically didn't exist 30 years ago, though it's certainly an accomplishment that its population (in excess of 10 million) makes it larger than anything in North America save for New York City.
If I manage to extract myself out of here, I have a long list of galleries and design shops to hit. I scratched the idea of a day trip to Shenzhen, however; entering mainland China for any length of time requires a visa (a pain in the ass for an American to secure), and there's not much in the way of shopping if you're not into designer fakes (Shenzhen has more than literally anywhere else on earth). There's also not much in the way of sightseeing, considering the city basically didn't exist 30 years ago, though it's certainly an accomplishment that its population (in excess of 10 million) makes it larger than anything in North America save for New York City.
Greetings from San Francisco. I decided to take a 1.5-day sojourn since I had to fly out of here to Hong Kong (en route to Singapore) regardless. SF is one of my favorite North American cities, and fortunately the weather has been agreeable; yesterday's freak heat wave cooled down considerably today (a nice respite since I'll be spending the next three weeks in a subtropical climate).
Since I haven't been back to SF since the de Young museum opened, it was my first stop. Okay, second. Barneys opened its fourth or fifth full-size store here this month in the former FAO Schwarz space near Union Square. Hate to say it, but the one in Dallas is superior -- at least if we're talking non-Co-op, non-NYC locations -- due to the significantly larger floor space. Somehow I made it out without buying anything, but my ardor was cooled by the thought of hauling autumn-weather clothes I can't wear in Asia around for weeks on end. (I suppose I could have had them shipped to Austin, but still.)
Continuing on the fashion theme, the de Young had a Nan Kempner couture exhibition on display, one which I hope would satisfy any naysayer's claim that fashion isn't an art. I knew she was a great lady and one of America's most famed fashion acolytes -- a true couture aficionado who puts today's so-called "fashionistas" to shame -- but I had no idea how deep her collection ran, and how much of it she kept stored for decades (dating back not only before I was born, but nearly back to when my parents were born) - the earliest dress was her debutante gown from 1949 (the last being a Valentino from 2004, shortly before her passing). The rest of the museum was great as well, as was its Herzog & de Meuron architecture, but a little too "surface" to do the subject areas much justice (a Hopper here, a Colonial painting there, a few Dale Chihulys mixed in).
My next stop was Limn, a store so unexpectedly fascinating that I had to pass up a SFMOMA visit afterwards to make my happy-hour plans on time. (Granted, SF rush-hour traffic was also a factor.) I'd rank Limn up with L.A.'s Twentieth as the top home-design destinations on the West Coast. Limn's similar to Twentieth in many ways, actually, but its focus on specific design pieces is the most successful part of a sprawling floor space (again, similar to Twentieth). Both stores sell the high-end Italian brands like B&B Italia and Cappellini, but in Austin Spazio already sells them, so I'm looking to do something different. Plus, I'll have about 1/10th the floor space to work with (in the building I am very, very close to signing a lease on, and one that will likely be executed while I'm in Asia -- my attorney has the necessary originals of the signature pages -- but, since it's still not signed, I still can't say anything here), 2300 sq ft to their 20,000, so my options are more limited by necessity.
Since I haven't been back to SF since the de Young museum opened, it was my first stop. Okay, second. Barneys opened its fourth or fifth full-size store here this month in the former FAO Schwarz space near Union Square. Hate to say it, but the one in Dallas is superior -- at least if we're talking non-Co-op, non-NYC locations -- due to the significantly larger floor space. Somehow I made it out without buying anything, but my ardor was cooled by the thought of hauling autumn-weather clothes I can't wear in Asia around for weeks on end. (I suppose I could have had them shipped to Austin, but still.)
Continuing on the fashion theme, the de Young had a Nan Kempner couture exhibition on display, one which I hope would satisfy any naysayer's claim that fashion isn't an art. I knew she was a great lady and one of America's most famed fashion acolytes -- a true couture aficionado who puts today's so-called "fashionistas" to shame -- but I had no idea how deep her collection ran, and how much of it she kept stored for decades (dating back not only before I was born, but nearly back to when my parents were born) - the earliest dress was her debutante gown from 1949 (the last being a Valentino from 2004, shortly before her passing). The rest of the museum was great as well, as was its Herzog & de Meuron architecture, but a little too "surface" to do the subject areas much justice (a Hopper here, a Colonial painting there, a few Dale Chihulys mixed in).
My next stop was Limn, a store so unexpectedly fascinating that I had to pass up a SFMOMA visit afterwards to make my happy-hour plans on time. (Granted, SF rush-hour traffic was also a factor.) I'd rank Limn up with L.A.'s Twentieth as the top home-design destinations on the West Coast. Limn's similar to Twentieth in many ways, actually, but its focus on specific design pieces is the most successful part of a sprawling floor space (again, similar to Twentieth). Both stores sell the high-end Italian brands like B&B Italia and Cappellini, but in Austin Spazio already sells them, so I'm looking to do something different. Plus, I'll have about 1/10th the floor space to work with (in the building I am very, very close to signing a lease on, and one that will likely be executed while I'm in Asia -- my attorney has the necessary originals of the signature pages -- but, since it's still not signed, I still can't say anything here), 2300 sq ft to their 20,000, so my options are more limited by necessity.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
After a marathon day of itinerary-planning -- what, you think I take Saturdays off? -- my trip to Southeast Asia appears to be set (a mere four days before departure, though note that I'm stopping in San Francisco for a couple of days en route). It still amazes me how absurdly cheap it is to travel within much of the area, Hong Kong and Singapore excepted. With only a couple of exceptions, none of our plane tickets cost more than US$50, and none of our hotels (all four-star) are more than $100/night ... and in Hanoi we're paying $30/night! (My sole indulgence on that front is a stay at the Mandarin Oriental when I'm in Hong Kong. It's where my mom and I stayed during my first trip to Asia right after college -- paid for by Newsweek, not us, but that's a story you can ask me about if you want -- and I'm dying to see what $140 million buys you in Hong Kong these days.)
Here's our final itinerary, for those curious:
9/29-10/2 - Hong Kong
10/2-10/5 - Singapore; Art Singapore fair starts 10/4. Before then I'll be following in Johnny Apple's footsteps and enjoying a gastronomic exploration of the city.
10/5-10/8 - Bangkok; remote bidding for Wright's Modern Design auction starts at midnight on the 8th, so we'll be pulling an all-nighter for that one. Btw my trusty right-hand gal Susy is stopping in Chicago en route to Asia to hit the auction preview; I've admittedly gotten burned a couple of times from buying items I hadn't inspected in person, so Susy and/or I plan to attend as many auctions in person as possible.
10/8-10/10 - Chiang Mai, home to one of the region's most legendary night markets.
10/10-10/13 - Hanoi, the probable highlight of the trip for me, and arguably the most intriguing emerging art scene in the world right now, hence the reason I extended my trip and skipped out on Hue, Hoi An, etc. altogether.
10/13-10/15 - Saigon, solo; Susy is checking out the scene in Da Nang and Hue. I'd love to visit both, but this is a business trip, not a vacation jaunt, and I suspect there's much more in the way of art and handicrafts to be found in Saigon. Plus, it's the rainy season in Central Vietnam, which kinda defeats the point of visiting a legendary beach area (it's the perfect time to visit Hanoi, in an entirely different microclimate up north, however).
10/16 - Depart for L.A. Go back a few blog entries to read about the insanity I'm putting myself through there.
Oh, and did I mention I'll be back in Austin all of 36 hours before departing for Bogota? I found out last week that there's a major art fair going on there the weekend of the 19th. A number of the Buenos Aires galleries I plan on doing business with will be there, but so will a number of other Latin American galleries that didn't attend last May's arteBA fair. Luckily Colombia is a comparatively short jaunt (five hours from Houston), and the country's crime problem has dissipated considerably in recent years.
Here's our final itinerary, for those curious:
9/29-10/2 - Hong Kong
10/2-10/5 - Singapore; Art Singapore fair starts 10/4. Before then I'll be following in Johnny Apple's footsteps and enjoying a gastronomic exploration of the city.
10/5-10/8 - Bangkok; remote bidding for Wright's Modern Design auction starts at midnight on the 8th, so we'll be pulling an all-nighter for that one. Btw my trusty right-hand gal Susy is stopping in Chicago en route to Asia to hit the auction preview; I've admittedly gotten burned a couple of times from buying items I hadn't inspected in person, so Susy and/or I plan to attend as many auctions in person as possible.
10/8-10/10 - Chiang Mai, home to one of the region's most legendary night markets.
10/10-10/13 - Hanoi, the probable highlight of the trip for me, and arguably the most intriguing emerging art scene in the world right now, hence the reason I extended my trip and skipped out on Hue, Hoi An, etc. altogether.
10/13-10/15 - Saigon, solo; Susy is checking out the scene in Da Nang and Hue. I'd love to visit both, but this is a business trip, not a vacation jaunt, and I suspect there's much more in the way of art and handicrafts to be found in Saigon. Plus, it's the rainy season in Central Vietnam, which kinda defeats the point of visiting a legendary beach area (it's the perfect time to visit Hanoi, in an entirely different microclimate up north, however).
10/16 - Depart for L.A. Go back a few blog entries to read about the insanity I'm putting myself through there.
Oh, and did I mention I'll be back in Austin all of 36 hours before departing for Bogota? I found out last week that there's a major art fair going on there the weekend of the 19th. A number of the Buenos Aires galleries I plan on doing business with will be there, but so will a number of other Latin American galleries that didn't attend last May's arteBA fair. Luckily Colombia is a comparatively short jaunt (five hours from Houston), and the country's crime problem has dissipated considerably in recent years.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Oh, and we figured out a workaround for the Vietnamese visa issue. Yay!
Funny; I spent a week in Buenos Aires but somehow ended up in Athens. (Had a long layover in Atlanta. Decided to pay a visit to the famed club not far away where R.E.M. got its start.) BA was cold and rainy until the last day, but the trip was a definite success. I hit about 30 art and photography galleries total and developed a clear picture of which ones I should try to work with as suppliers.
Still no signed lease, dammit, but both the landlord and myself wish to do so prior to my departure for Southeast Asia (with a pitstop in San Francisco) on Wednesday. We'll have to see if we can resolve the few remaining sticking points by then.
Still no signed lease, dammit, but both the landlord and myself wish to do so prior to my departure for Southeast Asia (with a pitstop in San Francisco) on Wednesday. We'll have to see if we can resolve the few remaining sticking points by then.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Just when you think you have every possible contingency situation of an elaborate, multi-city and multi-country trip thought out, along comes a curveball you really should've caught months earlier. I'm planning on spending a sizable chunk of my upcoming SE Asia trip in Vietnam, since it's one of two countries (Thailand being the other) where beautiful handcrafts can be sourced at absurdly cheap prices. What I didn't realize is that entry into Vietnam requires a visa, and unlike some countries it's impossible to obtain one upon arrival at the airport. Much like, say, China, obtaining one requires mailing your actual passport to a Vietnamese embassy for processing; in the US the only embassies are in New York and San Francisco. The "expedited" version of this process takes five business days. I'm leaving for Argentina in two. I am back in Austin for four working days before departing for Asia. Translation: I'm screwed.
My only possible option now is to personally visit the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok, leave my passport there, and hope that they can process the visa in an expeditious fashion. (The official line is that it takes "1 to 5 business days.") In the interim, I can't leave Thailand, and I'd only been planning on us spending two or three days in Bangkok. We were already going to have a limited amount of time in Vietnam; this just limits it further, which really sucks. I'd been hoping to make it to Hanoi, Saigon, Hue and Hoi An, but I just don't know if that's gonna be possible.
OTOH, in lieu of exploring Hue, perhaps I can instead book a few days at a beach on the Andaman Sea. I've been wanting to go back to Koh Phi Phi, which is one of the most incredible spots I've ever had the opportunity to visit; the island was devastated by the 2005 tsunami, however, which killed 70% of the population, so I don't know if such a trip would be an economic booster or simply morbid and depressing. Worst-case, we can always just pop down to Phuket.
My only possible option now is to personally visit the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok, leave my passport there, and hope that they can process the visa in an expeditious fashion. (The official line is that it takes "1 to 5 business days.") In the interim, I can't leave Thailand, and I'd only been planning on us spending two or three days in Bangkok. We were already going to have a limited amount of time in Vietnam; this just limits it further, which really sucks. I'd been hoping to make it to Hanoi, Saigon, Hue and Hoi An, but I just don't know if that's gonna be possible.
OTOH, in lieu of exploring Hue, perhaps I can instead book a few days at a beach on the Andaman Sea. I've been wanting to go back to Koh Phi Phi, which is one of the most incredible spots I've ever had the opportunity to visit; the island was devastated by the 2005 tsunami, however, which killed 70% of the population, so I don't know if such a trip would be an economic booster or simply morbid and depressing. Worst-case, we can always just pop down to Phuket.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
I'm going on record that my lease negotiations -- which are still dragging on and on and on -- have turned into a colossal pain in the ass. Still can't get into too many details, but until today it was overlooked by all parties on my team -- myself, my commercial broker and both of my attorneys -- that my lease, as presently written, requires me to take out several types of completely unnecessary insurance, including an expensive one for liquor-related liability that's only required for establishments that sell alcohol. Not that the landlord's trying to screw me over or something; this was an oversight -- of which there have been many -- on their law firm's part. Considering they're one of the biggest firms in the state and handle numerous commercial real estate transactions, they really shouldn't be giving us work this sloppy. (As a qualifier to avoid any potential slander accusations -- or do blogs fall into the libel sphere? -- I will state that all of this is my opinion, not incontrovertible fact.) I credit my mom with suggesting I consult a business insurance agent, and it's something I should've done at the very beginning! Neither of us realized how potentially costly the oversight could've been.
Monday, September 03, 2007
My most insanely exhausting travel experience to date transpired three or four years ago when I had to attend two weddings on opposite ends of the world -- one in rural Ireland, one in Kauai -- three days apart. The Irish wedding lasted 14 hours ... and no, that's not an exaggeration. The morning afterwards -- don't even ask about the hangover I was suffering, it being an Irish wedding -- I flew from Dublin to London, then nonstop to L.A. (12-hour flight), then nonstop to Kauai (another six), and then straight to a sunset ceremony at the Princeville Hotel (90-minute drive from the airport in rush-hour traffic - not that Kauai's heavily populated, but there's only a single two-lane highway running around the island, and it gets backed up). I was borderline catatonic by the end of the day, which was literally the longest of my life. (Jack Bauer, eat your heart out.) I didn't think it was possible to top that level of insanity, but it looks like I'm doing so next month.
I'm heading to SE Asia at the end of September on a buying trip for the store. My return flight from Singapore arrives in L.A. on October 16, and since I booked it with miles, it's impossible to change at this point (at least if I want to fly nonstop and not in coach). I was originally going to spend a day and night in L.A. before returning to Austin, but the wild card in this whole scenario has been the date of a particular little-known NYC auction that I can safely call the motherlode in terms of acquiring incredible 20th-century furniture for next to nothing. (There is no way I'm revealing the name of the auction house or its whereabouts. Sorry.) It takes place once a year, and at last autumn's (which I attended right before moving back to Austin) I scored several of my best finds to date, including a pair of Jacques Adnet bedside tables -- worth $5K easy -- for $300. There is no preview catalog, nor is there any online bidding. The date for this year's auction was announced late last week; it's October 17. I'm also already booked for a charity event in Austin on the 18th.
I am, thus, changing my itinerary to the following:
**10/16, 10am: depart Singapore
**10/16, 1pm PST: arrive in L.A. ("short" flight due to crossing international date line - in reality, it arrives at the equivalent of 4am Singapore time on 10/17, thus making it an 18-hour flight)
**10/16, 2pm-8pm PST: Melrose, baby! Shop for vintage suits for self, vintage designer gowns & LBDs for female cohort in need of three for high-profile autumn events
**10/16, 10pm PST: depart on redeye from L.A. to NYC
**10/17, 6am EST: arrive in NYC
**10/17, 9am EST: arrive at auction house to preview goods (since there's no pre-sale catalog, all inspections must be done in person)
**10/17, 10am-6pm EST: auction
**10/17, 7:45pm EST: catch last flight to Austin
Will Jeff make it without falling asleep mid-auction? Can Jeff depart Midtown Manhattan at 6pm on a weeknight and make it to Newark in time for the 7pm bag-check cut-off? Stay tuned!
I'm heading to SE Asia at the end of September on a buying trip for the store. My return flight from Singapore arrives in L.A. on October 16, and since I booked it with miles, it's impossible to change at this point (at least if I want to fly nonstop and not in coach). I was originally going to spend a day and night in L.A. before returning to Austin, but the wild card in this whole scenario has been the date of a particular little-known NYC auction that I can safely call the motherlode in terms of acquiring incredible 20th-century furniture for next to nothing. (There is no way I'm revealing the name of the auction house or its whereabouts. Sorry.) It takes place once a year, and at last autumn's (which I attended right before moving back to Austin) I scored several of my best finds to date, including a pair of Jacques Adnet bedside tables -- worth $5K easy -- for $300. There is no preview catalog, nor is there any online bidding. The date for this year's auction was announced late last week; it's October 17. I'm also already booked for a charity event in Austin on the 18th.
I am, thus, changing my itinerary to the following:
**10/16, 10am: depart Singapore
**10/16, 1pm PST: arrive in L.A. ("short" flight due to crossing international date line - in reality, it arrives at the equivalent of 4am Singapore time on 10/17, thus making it an 18-hour flight)
**10/16, 2pm-8pm PST: Melrose, baby! Shop for vintage suits for self, vintage designer gowns & LBDs for female cohort in need of three for high-profile autumn events
**10/16, 10pm PST: depart on redeye from L.A. to NYC
**10/17, 6am EST: arrive in NYC
**10/17, 9am EST: arrive at auction house to preview goods (since there's no pre-sale catalog, all inspections must be done in person)
**10/17, 10am-6pm EST: auction
**10/17, 7:45pm EST: catch last flight to Austin
Will Jeff make it without falling asleep mid-auction? Can Jeff depart Midtown Manhattan at 6pm on a weeknight and make it to Newark in time for the 7pm bag-check cut-off? Stay tuned!