Tuesday, July 20, 2010

No pill for a virus




Consummate marketer that I am, I wasn't surprised to learn its now considered a good virus. I'll add this condition to the list of my many charms. Logged in a complete night of sleep for a change and got my mojo back. My ace intern Erika did all that legwork for me while I was in Brimfield and we got organized for the two design projects going into construction. Love it when I get to put my construction team to work. Like the fast-talkin, easy ridin' Bob Tourtillot from Royal Oak Plumbing who starts tomorrow on Ed Kelly's bathroom. Bob gets my design aesthetic, engineers any old thing I think should be plumbable and makes all the shit run down hill, if you know what I mean. His instructions have the carpenter and electrician hanging on for dear life while in the background we can hear Ed practice his lines in some loud European accent, am I in some sitcom? Remind me to put that in one of my show's episodes. The construction schedule for Dave Mancini's kitchen is complex, how delighted am I to throw that job to Erika. She got to make some tile selections while I was gone and made us look good when Dave showed up unexpectedly yesterday. On his project I have the pleasure of employing one Molly Motor, chef, Detroit garden organizer and tile artisan who's currently working on a public art installation in Southwest Detroit, a mural of Caesar Chavez. She looks like she could pin a sizable contender to the mat, the tile will obey and we'll be tossin back some cold ones in a hurry. Keepin track of all these connections? It's like building a big molecule of people. So I'm riding from one appointment to another and pass the new location for Valentine Vodka, a couple of young entrepreneurs distilling our favorite elixir in Ferndale. They are renovating a sweet old building in Ferndale owned by one of Rick's buddies where they will also have a tasting room. Some Trucks are out front, I make a quick stop, pinning Erika to the passenger door. She thinks I'm crazy, but I can tell she's having fun in the big top. I tell her you gotta ask for the job and make it clear you are the only one to do it, if you want the job. Couple of guys are swinging sledge hammers at the concrete. I know it's the owners, been there done that. Even through the dust, can you say..hot hot hot? This condition will be good for their business. We take in the scenery, pitch the salvage slave's program to cool cost-effective design-solving. Maybe it sounds scary to pay a designer, but I tell them to call Dave Mancini. It's common to make mistakes when you think you an do it all yourself, and just a few of those costly mistakes pays my tab and then some. Plus, you don't have to do all that work? And you get ringside seats to the show! People, the salvage slave is in it for the win-win. Next up, I gotta pick up the load from Brimfield and I don't shop light. Beers are on me, should you decide you need a work out.

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