kirkerblog 4.0

Interesting afternoon. I had a nice, long, 45-minute chat with a seriously great chef about an event I'm not yet at liberty to discuss, but suffice it to say it's cool. (Well, okay: "cool" is an understatement.) We mostly talked about the store, and I was glad to see he's the first person to come in yet who "gets" the Jean Prouvé student's desk we have on the floor. It's deceptively simple at first glance -- a worn-out WWII-era elementary-school desk, the old-fashioned kind with a built-in seat and inkwell -- but then you start taking in the harmony of the lines...

Then I received an e-mail from Richard Wright, founder and owner of the Wright auction house, who happens to be one of my icons. Probably the best profile I've read on him is a NY Times piece from a couple of years ago, but it isn't an understatement to say that Wright is in large part responsible for the resurgent interest in Modernist design. Where he led, the other auction-world market-makers -- which now include Christie's and Sotheby's -- followed. It was enormously gratifying to hear him describe my three-piece Breuer set -- the one Michael Barnes referenced in his Statesman article on our launch party -- as "one of his favorites." I was a little surprised, given the chairs' rarity, that he was even familiar with them, but then again, I should have known better; this *is* Wright we're talking about.

In other news, Stephani and I have decided -- particularly given all the recent Wall Street turmoil -- to adjust our furniture mix a bit and focus more on the mid-century period, as well as pieces that are, in essence, the blue-chip investments of the 20th-century design world (think Eames and Saarinen). I've been a little resistant to this proposition thus far, if only because I'd ideally like to sell pieces from periods people are less familiar with like the '30s and '70s (which, if anything, are increasing in value at a more rapid clip as well), but I think it makes more sense to focus on "greatest hits" during such an unprecedented period of tumult. We'll be acquiring a considerable amount of new inventory over the next month, so stay tuned!

For those of you wondering if this week's financial turmoil had any impact on the gallery, the answer is yes and no. Our foot traffic dove straight off the cliff this past Monday and Tuesday, but things started rebounding towards the end of the week (much like the stock market itself). In any event, I've been revising my PR/marketing pitch to emphasize the fact that our better, investment-grade pieces are the design equivalent of a blue-chip stock -- in fact, they're probably a safer investment right now than just about anything out of Wall Street! The continued strength of the foreign art/design markets will likely to keep prices at the very least level, particularly now that the hottest emerging home-design trend in Russia is the contemporary-loft aesthetic; SoHo-style industrial lofts are finally making their debut in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and buyers are apparently snatching them up. I've also pointed out to folks that the art & design spheres operate on a completely different level than the stock market, and that Damien Hirst still managed to unload $200 million worth of art in two days this past week, even as the markets reached their peak of hysteria.

I am, however, planning on revising our paid advertising over the next few months to emphasize our budget-friendly small pieces, particularly since we're gearing up for the holiday shopping season. We have a couple of pieces under $20 and a pretty wide assortment under $100 -- including some limited-edition stuff I uncovered in Paris a few weeks ago, which should be arriving sometime in October -- so hopefully that will attract more aficionados who love good design but don't have the budget for a four- or five-figure piece of furniture. Btw we're finally starting the push to complete our Web site, now that we have a nearly-full inventory in stock as well as interior and exterior photos of the gallery; it should be ready in the second half of October.

I stand corrected on La Condesa: the owner of the establishment e-mailed me to let me know that there was a permitting delay but the project is well underway. Indeed, there's a flurry of construction activity going on next door as I type this.

Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy has me a little concerned, however. Aside from the general consequences on the American economic system, they also happen to own AMLI, which means my building will be one of the assets sold off in its forthcoming liquidation. Hope there aren't any negative ramifications.

I'm still jetlagged and haven't yet managed more than four hours' sleep a night since my return from France, but I'm relatively coherent once again. Made some interesting observations from working in the gallery the past few days, starting with the completely unexpected fact that thus far we're getting more foot traffic on weekdays than weekends; I originally assumed the opposite, but I didn't account for the fact that thousands of people work weekdays within a three-block radius. We are definitely being hurt by the fact that we have no signage or posted hours on our windows -- a lot of passers-by don't seem to realize we're a) a store and b) open -- but Stephani already pointed that out while I was still in France. We need a folded sign on the corner of 2nd & Guadalupe, too, since La Condesa on the corner won't be open until God only knows when (it was originally supposed to be next month, but I don't think they've done a thing yet in terms of build-out - hope they're not having financing problems, given that their construction & design budget is literally 12 times what mine was). We did, however, get more visitors today who were clearly design experts, and who I assume saw either our Statesman coverage (both online last weekend and in this past Thursday's print edition) or our ad in "Austin Monthly Home." I ended today receiving a lesson on the chemical differences between Pyrex/lab and standard glass from a customer captivated by our Charles & Marie champagne flutes, which was quite interesting.

Addendum: I just noticed that my Blogspot time stamp is set to Pacific time. For the record, it's 12:38am Austin time as I type this.

I am home from Paris, in on the late flight, and I find myself in the unusual position of having to report to work tomorrow at 10:00 am. This is unusual for me because it's the first time in seven years that I've had regular scheduled work hours. No, really. I will readily admit that I've been spoiled by being able to set my own schedule during the years running my last business, but I just wish it wasn't coming on a day I'll be feeling the full effects of seven hours' worth of jet lag (it's already morning in Paris, and of course I'm no longer sleepy). Fine, I own the place and our assistant Melissa will be there tomorrow as well -- and it's not like we're doing gangbusters weekday business just yet, given that we've been open less than a week, so I don't really *need* to be there -- so I could always call in sick ... which I may need to do anyway, owing to an e-mail backup due to spotty Internet access at my Paris hotel, leaving 500+ unread e-mails in my box.

Okay, now I'm just rambling. See what jet lag does to you? Should I really be greeting customers -- btw I almost just typed "passengers" -- in this frame of mind? I'll definitely be there all day Saturday, a day we'll probably get zero business due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Ike (it is safe to say an outdoor shopping district like 2nd St doesn't get much business in the midst of torrential rain) ... but at least that'll give Melissa the chance to school me on our POS system, which I have yet had time to learn.

Interesting story from last weekend's Statesman about the former home of artist Seymour Fogel, now on the market. It's particularly interesting to me because I lived across the street from it for six years -- the back yard of the first house I bought directly faced the house and its full acre of land -- and I had no idea it was once the home of one of Texas's most famous modernist painters. Granted, I think the $1.25 million asking price is completely insane. Aside from the restrictions on renovating or redeveloping any part of the land, the owner bought it for probably 1/10th that much in 1994, and nothing else in the vicinity has ever sold for more than $500K. Admittedly, nothing else in the vicinity has the advantage of a full acre of land or National Register of Historic Places status, but still: that's a steep price to pay for a part of history.

Well, I pulled it off -- mostly. The store opened a day late, partially owing to my last-minute decision to do a DIY launch party instead of a catered affair that would've cost an extra five grand. Hauling three kegs of beer (microbrewed, of course!), eight cases of wine, hundreds of rented glasses and numerous trays of food would be a challenging endeavor even if I didn't have a broken wrist, but my mom dropped everything Thursday and Friday to be my de facto personal assistant, and the rest of my family who came to town for the weekend -- my brother Dave, his wife Ally and my stepmother Ashley -- ended up pitching in as well.

The launch party was an unqualified success -- great turn-out, great music, great vibe, and everybody loved the merchandise and decor. As expected, the bathroom was the biggest hit, and some of the ladies present were able to identify the Barbie featured on my John Waters plates as a Farrah Fawcett version launched during the "Charlie's Angels" era. My only big slip-up was hiring a single bartender -- both Ashley and Ally had to jump in to assist her at several points. I didn't take any photos of the event, mainly because I was so busy chatting up both the reporters who showed up as well as some potential customers, but TRIBEZA decided at the last minute to shoot the party, so the pics should be in their next issue.

My trip to Paris looked like a potential disaster when Delta decided to cancel my connecting Austin-NYC flight the day before (which the airlines are irritatingly prone to do these days if a flight's not full enough), but luckily they managed to reroute me on an even better flight through Atlanta. Better still, I happened to be on Ashley's return connecting flight to Kentucky, so we switched to adjacent seats and gabbed it up the whole flight. Maison&Objet has also already proven a great success; I've discovered at least a half-dozen new vendors I want to work with, and I've checked out my current vendors' new lines, many of which are debuting for the first time at Maison. Stephani and I will start making final product-stocking decisions and placing orders as soon as I get back to Austin.

(Side note #1: my wrist surgery was a complete success, and while the first few days afterwards were quite painful -- luckily I had a lot of oxycodone to dull it -- I've already recovered much of the movement in the broken spots, and I should be able to drive my stick-shift car again by the time I return to Austin. I can already grip things and type at a normal speed again, which is very helpful indeed.

Side note #2: I ended up being interviewed on the 10 o'clock news the night of the party. While I wish I could say they were doing a story on the gallery itself, in reality it was about a string of recent area break-ins. Still, they featured me as an example of the fact that new businesses aren't being scared off by the break-ins -- which is a little silly point to try to make, given that the gallery's been in the works for 15 months, and the robberies have only occurred the past few weeks -- and they featured shots of my awning and some of my merchandise. Btw they cut part of the clip out, but my statement at the end that "we only take credit cards" isn't quite accurate. The original context was that I wasn't worried about smash-and-grabs at Kirk because few people use cash these days, so we don't have any petty cash on hand. We will accept cash, of course, should you wish to pay that way, and we'll take checks for the larger pieces as long as they clear prior to delivery.)