kirkerblog 4.0

I wasn't planning on going to Art Basel Miami Beach. Really, I wasn't. But then chance and happenstance intervened, and I received an unexpected offer for a dirt-cheap, week-long South Beach condo rental -- in a Deco-era oceanfront complex, no less. (How cheap? Let's put it this way: it's less than the NIGHTLY cost of most of the area's boutique hotels during Basel.) Then, mere days later, I found out that, as a member of the Guggenheim's Young Collectors Council, I was invited to a gaggle of awesome parties and bestowed automatic VIP credentials to everything but the main Basel fair itself (which is fine, since the cheapest things there are roughly the price of my house). How could I resist such temptation?

That said, the point of this little jaunt, fun parties and general networking notwithstanding, is to attend Design Miami, which runs concurrently with Miami Basel. I have a veritable mountainload of vintage furniture and art sources for my store, but as previously discussed I'm lacking design-oriented objects and need to score some interesting ones. A trip to Miami seems to make more sense than the one I was considering making to Tokyo (though that's still an option), given the distance and inevitable language-barrier problems. It'll also give me the opportunity to meet some Latin art dealers; Miami's the focal point of the field here in the States.

From Miami I'm flying straight to NYC for a week, though unfortunately I wasn't able to score quite as good an apartment-rental deal (and I have to stay out in Fort Greene). It'll be my first extended trip there since moving back last year, and I look forward to hanging out with my New Yorker friends and eating some Momofuku ramen and checking out the new Muji store and going to the Guggenheim YCC Ball (well, maybe - haven't braced myself to ask what tickets are going for yet) and exploring Fort Greene (an area I'm not terribly familiar with) and perhaps snagging some shirts at Seize sur Vingt and grabbing some dollar Buds at the Phoenix's Wednesday night beer bust.

It is currently 87 degrees. The forecast high for tomorrow is 50. I am scheduled to eat Thanksgiving dinner outdoors, in my friend Nikki's backyard. Her house is too small to fit the 30+ invitees.

Stupid Texas weather...

Couple more pics of Baby Kirk and his proud daddy. I say "Baby Kirk" instead of Clay because they may be going with another name. I have no explanation other than Dad not being quite as decisive as I am!

It only took six friggin' months to hammer out all the details, but it's finally official: I've signed a five-year lease for a store in Austin's 2nd St. District, which those of you familiar with the city know is the hottest retail destination in town. My unit will be in the final retail part of the six-block project, the new AMLI building going up across the street from Lambert's, and it's on the Guadalupe St. side facing what will soon be the new W Hotel (and cater-corner to City Hall). I've hired Marc English, the city's top graphic designer, to develop my logo and identity design -- one important element of which will be the store's awning, visible to the 50,000-odd drivers a day who use Guadalupe as their primary artery out of downtown -- and my target launch date is March 7, the first day of SXSW (an event I plan to take maximal advantage of for promotional purposes, including hopefully hosting a number of corporate events -- everyone from Yahoo! to Vice Records hosts parties and day shows, and there's always a paucity of venues for them proximate to downtown). Tracey Overbeck Stead is designing the interiors in conjunction with PageSoutherlandPage, the architectural firm that developed the rest of the AMLI project.

I have 110 days and counting to finish-out the store (currently a shell with cinder-block walls and dirt floors), acquire inventory, import a bunch of art from South America and Mexico, build a Web site, hire a PR firm, develop a PR plan, market the venue for SXSW events, find bands and DJs to play/spin at said events, hire a staff, launch an online/offline advertising and marketing plan, and make sure all of the myriad deadlines for project elements, sales tax permits, building permits, etc. are met. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Baby Clay, born 11/5/07 at 8:46am weighing 6 lbs 13 oz. Better pics to come!

Still waiting on pics of my new baby brother -- the one grainy one I've seen (not in a format I can post here) looked adorable -- but I found out tonight that my dad and stepmom decided to name him Clay Walker Kirk. I like the name, but it caused some mild amusement on my part since not only is a good friend of mine named Clay (whom Dad and Ashley know since I took him as my date to their wedding a few years back), his birthday is also this week! (in a weird coincidence, Clay's exactly a day younger than me) Baby Clay thus has a birthday of the 5th; mine's on the 6th (and, since my mom's flight home from a weekend trip to Michigan was canceled and our dinner plans had to be postponed, I ended up having a b-day dinner Tuesday night with my friends Robert and Cody); and Big Clay's is the 7th. Hope this doesn't cause too much confusion in future years.

I was hoping to make an announcement at my party, but my store isn't the only new Kirk to enter the world this week. My stepmom just gave birth to my new baby brother! He came a few days later than planned, but mother and son are doing fine. Details (name, pics, birth weight) to come.

I am spent, in every meaning of the word. I'd love to be able to say last night's party went off without a hitch, but since Susy was MIA most of the day I ended up having to do most of the prep myself, including finishing up all the little things that had to wait until the paint, wallpaper, etc. were up. Tracey, God bless her, came over to help yesterday afternoon even though her baby was at home with a 102-degree fever, and my good friend Paula showed up right at 8pm -- the party's ostensible start time, but I was still hanging up art pieces, putting away laundry, and hadn't even taken a shower by then -- and helped me get the food and drink all squared away.

I was worried that two other parties going on last night -- a friend's nearby, and a magazine launch party in the 2nd St District -- would dampen attendance, and unfortunately I was right; had quite a few no-shows. Thankfully this year I ordered just the right amount of food, so I won't be eating leftovers for a month.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep for the next 36 hours.

I'm a little shocked to see myself typing this, but my house is done! An early preview, exclusive to kirkerblog.

Master bath. Art by Federico Lanzi; tile created by Stardust Glass, designed by yours truly.

Back yard.

Master bedroom w/custom "jigsaw puzzle" wallpaper, still in need of nightstands.

"85 Lamps," Rodi Graumans for Droog.

Flowers, wavy curtains and Amy Sedaris.

Lest anyone suspect I'm a superhero, the stress on my body (both physical and mental) over the past month has finally taken its toll. On the eve of a major benefit event tonight and my housewarming / store preview party tomorrow night, I find myself -- for the first time I can recall in my adult life -- with a forehead full of zits. Alert the media! My facialist (shut up) practically recoiled in horror yesterday as I told her about my 40+ hours of flight time in a three-day span (humidity levels at altitude are virtually nonexistent), the multiple climates I've shifted in and out of, and all the mental stress I've had the last two weeks in particular. The facial definitely helped, and with luck the zits will be minimalized by tomorrow night, if not tonight, but some camouflage of sorts may be necessary. (Yes, I mean concealer. Shut up.) On the plus side, I've lost ten pounds (without trying - I've been mostly too preoccupied to eat regularly) over the past 4-5 weeks.

So ... I haven't yet discussed here the situation (and related stress) regarding my yard-landscaping job. It's been ongoing for a couple of months now, but I returned home from SE Asia to a final invoice totaling nearly 500% the originally estimated number of labor hours. Given that I didn't ask for many alterations and my landscaper didn't encounter any unusual obstacles during work, I knew something was fishy. (Btw he's a well-respected, experienced landscape designer who was recommended and previously hired by two good friends of mine, so I had no suspicions that he was trying to rip me off.) Yesterday I found out, via a neighbor, the root of the problem ... or should I say weed. My landscaper's regular foreman has been working on another gig, so he used a relative newbie for mine. The foreman was supposed to be on site for nearly all work hours; my neighbor informed me that not only was that not the case, but that the crew would usually fire up a doobie and sit around shooting the shit as soon as the foreman left the premises. To his credit, my landscaper was horrified upon hearing this news and immediately offered to cut my entire overage, meaning he's going to take a significant financial loss on the job (since he already paid the crew and can't realistically get his money back). This all really sucks though, since my landscaper's a great guy and a gifted designer, but I can't be held in any way responsible for his unfortunate choices in foremen and crewmen and failures in overseeing their work, or their illegal drug use on the job (and on my property; technically speaking, I could be held criminally liable for any illegal drugs found on it).