Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to All!


Well, I've been working so much this late fall that I hardly saw Christmas coming. It wasn't until last week, when I had to make a schedule... that I noticed that it would soon be Christmas...


I managed to get some of the holiday things done; some gifts ordered and sent via the internet, a few lights put up on the house... not much else. The new store was doing just so well, and my department was setting some serious sales records. I mean really, somebody would come up and say, "I'll take that piece of Stilton", and they meant the big piece on the bottom of the stack! We sold several half wheels of Stilton in just a few hours to people who were buying them for Christmas gifts... and this Stilton, well, it's a very pricey gift! And each day of the days leading up to today were more incredible; I had such a good time turning people onto these amazing cheeses that we have, and finding all these other antipasti and fruit and nut bars and spreads, and salamis and prosciutto, the pates and mousses that might make everything right.

After only a few months, people actually come looking to me for advice. I give it freely and with joy, and they come back a day, or a week later and thank me, sometimes with amazing fevor. My party was such a success! Thank you for your suggestions! People loved everything! Thank You! I don't know, maybe this sounds a bit unbelievable to you, but I swear it's true. It's so great; I am able to help someone pick out the stuff that makes them have a good time. I can introduce them to new and exciting tastes, and then they come back for more.

This is, you must remember a job in retail, (a pretty fabulous job in retail after all...) and there is also a lot of schlepping of product and stocking of shelves, and managing the daily ebb and flow of merchandise and helping those I work with to enjoy the work they do. And at that I am very fortunate to work for a company that believes in true team work. Today, I had taken a walk aroud the store during a break, and I was stopped by a group of three fairly well heeled men as they were loading their groceries into their SUV and they asked me where I came from, thinking that I must have come in from out of town to help open the store. I told them that I was local talent, and so were most of the employees that they had met that day. They were stunned; they couldn't believe that anyone could find that many good employees in New Orleans. I told them that we try to hire smart, and we train far more than any other comany. That we actually care about our team members; and that the core values of the company are simple enough and comprehensive enough to carry it off. (I'm pretty sure they went home and bought some stock...)

And tonight, on Christmas Eve, people at work were more charged up than I've ever seen in any other work situation; it's why we made record sales and everyone left happy. This company is so incredibly well managed; I can't imagine working anywhere else for anyone else anymore... and that's a wonderful thing. I guess that fact makes this one fo the best Christmas Eve's I ever had.

Oh, and one other thing... Last year I was with my bro and his wife and my niece Emma. I love this little child so much.. I am her Uncle Bunny, (don't ask, it's a long family story....) and I got a package in the mail a few days ago. It was from my niece and her dad, my wonderful brother. It was one of those things where you open it up and on one side there is a picture and on the other side there is a button to push. When you push the button, you hear a short digital recording of the voice of someone...

It was Emma, and a song that she recorded. She will be 3 soon. I pushed the button and I heard her singing. It was sooo sweet! I loves my lil Emma! It was probably the best Christmas gift I've ever had; I was in tears the first time I listened to it...

What else? Well, I got some nice pressies; a "Christmas Pudding" from Ford, a CD from mass, a 48 Rolls-Corniche from luca, a case of Stoli from Vera, an oil well from tejaz, a prize bull from pebbles, a year of tanning supplies from dante, front row seats from MQ, and tickets to the next inaugural ball from trip. Doc promises to provide protection. John Fischer promises a private performance, unokhan sent a library, Noah promised to visit New Orleans this year, Justin offered a year of therapy, although he wonders if that will be enough time, and mass will bring his group to entertain us at coffee sometime this spring. Abjr. has promised to build me something to rival "Falling Waters", perhaps called "Flooding Waters". From Bry, a chance to chat with a guy that is making a video about "our" group.

Steve, Dazed has promised to drive me crazy in Vegas, Alex promises to show me how to be hung like a cairabou in a steam room, Zilla (who says he knows all about steam rooms) promises to be there or be.... and GC has suggested that we might have another really great time in Las Vegas this year. Thanks GC, don't think we'd be there, perhaps we wouldn't have all met in the first place.. thanks.


Not a bad Christmas so far... (only a couple of the things above are true....)

durx


PS, gave myself a lil bit of L'ingot de Quercy, some King Island "Roaring Fourties" Australian blue and a lil Camembert washed in Calvados for Christmas.

Guilty Pleasures

O.K., so I was once just seventeen years old. I was in a band and having ripping sex with my bass player. It was extremely hot. We were in love.

Lil' puppies in heat.

So I guess this is why, so many years later, I find a great deal of pleasure in a site called HEAVY.COM.


So, go to the site, turn off the music at the bar at the top, then select Heavy Music, then More Features, (so many more) and then select the category for "Alternative".

There you will find listed the following guilty pleasures:

CHAVEZ

Breaking Up Your Band-video - Wow, male strippers!

DANDY WARHOLS

Bohemian Like You - I like the song a lot, and the grunge looking kids.... (full frontal nudity warning!)

CORNERSHOP

Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Ricky III I've always liked this group, they don't sound like anyone else....

PULP

Bad Cover Version This is funny.

THE HIVES

Hate To Say I Told You So-Video. I like this video because we actually used to wear clothes like this in 1967! The lead singer looks a bit like my lead singer in my band. My bass player was much prettier... much, much, much.


ICELAND - UBER ALLES!

SIGUR ROS



I love both the videos here, and I totally love all the music these guys make! The sound of this group is great, and the videos are rather stunning and shocking.


AND THE GODDESS, BJORK



O.K., I know that some people hate her... and I must admit that she has very strange taste in clothes. But she has an amazing voice and an incredible sense of what music should sound like.

AND MOBY IS THERE ALSO

I just like Moby...


Next, I'll talk about the guilty pleasures that I have on my hard drive! (a very esoteric collection...)


BTW, chat was really loads of fun last nite! Thanks mass, trip!, sean, MQ and dazed and jazzy! It was truly entertaining!

Hugs to you all!

durlx

The Perfect Martini.



This weekend, Saturday night, to be exact, I got off work and took the bus down Magazine Street. Magazine Street has become a very trendy street in Uptown New Orleans with lots of very entertaining shops and restaurants and many art galleries. And this last Saturday, the galleries got together and sponsored a Christmas On Magazine nite. Everything was open late and every gallery was packed with fabulous folks having a wonderful time. My destination that evening was a gallery near the intersection of Magazine and Louisiana Street because our friend, Michelle from the Sunday morning coffee group had some of her work in the gallery. As I approached the place, I could tell it was where everything was happening; there was a funky brass band out front doing very inebriated versions of local Christmas tunes. (There are a lot of local Christmas songs; the local FM music station can go all day just playing New Orleans Christmas music during the holiday season.) Of course, first I had to take a pic of Robert sipping on a dream sized martini glass. We thought it would be just the thing for Vera! (This gallery features a lot of art glass, and there were many very interesting pieces...)


Then, we checked out Michelle's part of the show.




Michelle points, sort of...



I must tell you... Michelle is a wonderful woman. She is a brilliant conversationalist, she has lived in France, she has a wonderful sense of humor, she is an artist and a set designer for local theater.. and well, she is just very much fun to be with, especially at parties. All I have to do, to make her absolutely perfect is to teach her how to make love to the camera! It's probably my fault; I should be screaming "Darling! Make loooove to the camera!" when I am taking the pics... Hehe, I'll try that next time out. (The point here is that I don't think my pics do her justice; I just don't feel that I've ever captured her spirit and beauty... I'll keep trying, she deserves better.)


Some of Michelle's work, the fishes.



After the time at the gallery, Richard drove Robert and I to the hood, and I turned in early as I had to be back at work by 6 AM. I had scheduled fewer people early because I thought that Sunday morning would start clicking until after 10:30 AM, but I was wrong... we got incredibly busy by 9:30... so I worked my ass off for an hour or so until the 11:00 AM people came in. (At 10:15 AM someone wanted my attention: "are you sure that that is real Tattinger? For that price? Yes, it is real, there are no substitutes, no there is no domestic "Tattinger".)

Madness! But wonderful madness. We were incredibly busy for the first five days! People come in and look around and start raving... they love the stuff we have for sale. I think the thing that is most gratifying for me, with respect to my department, is the response from the New Orleans European community (a fairly large group), and especially the French. I have never had this many French people be so incredibly nice to me on a regular basis...hehe! I have people coming in every day to pick up a bit of this or that; things that they haven't been able to get since the last time the were in Europe, things that they respect and crave. I spend a great deal of the day talking to people who are very smart about good food, and giving them tastes of things and smiling after we taste them because we are so happy that these wonderful cheeses and wines and other imported fabulous things are here, here in New Orleans! Hot Damn!


One other thing...

Today is the one year anniversary of my online journal! When I started it, I wasn't sure if I could keep it up. I had started another journal earlier and failed. But this time with the cam, and the message board, well, I had made a commitment. If I quit ...how embarrasing... so I kept it up. It kept me going through some bad times and led me into some very good times, and all the time, you were there!

Thanks to all who have taken the time to read this, and special thanks to each of you who have taken the time to e-mail me, or make a comment. There were days when it meant more than you might have imagined when you took the time to respond.

Thanks! I really mean it.



durlx

An Incredible Day!



Every once in a while you get involved in something great, if you are lucky and if you care enough to try, that makes you feel stronger, better, smarter, happier... joyful and so glad to be alive at a certain moment in time. Today, we opened the doors at the new Whole Foods Market in New Orleans, and for me, this was that moment. I had almost given up on my sweet home New Orleans, and on the food biz in general, when I found this chance for a renewal of my passion for food. I was able to put my knowledge to work and to do it working with a company that consistantly rates in the top 40 best companies to work for in the U.S. This company has sourced out the most amazing products and put them in the most incredible seetting. My job... to talk to people about food and wine, taste it with them and recommend different ways to put things together. It's a natural thing for me, and so much fun to do. Beyond that, I am working with my team leader to train and develop a team of people who can do it with the same confidence that we can do it. My knowledge and confidence is something I can pass on to someone else, and that is an amazing thing! It has totally changed the quality of my life. To watch over a dozen people get excited about their time at work, I mean really excited and passionate about it, is a beautiful thing. To know that I helped them reach that state is....priceless.



I can't help it, I have to brag a bit here... we have the most amazing selection of cheeses! In fact, at the back we have a stellar selection of Neal's Yard cheeses, (and quite a few others) in a custom built aging case. (It's like a cold, moist cave inside, with no air stirring). There's also a smaller humidity controlled case for the more delicate and petite goat cheeses, and some of those other younger cheeses with delicate, floury, white rinds, that keeps them perfect without smothering them in plastic wrap. If you know something about cheese, this is some kind of heaven.

The most important thing, the most central thing in all this is the fact that I am able to open anything and give people a taste of it, and that if it's something that I can't open, like a can of something, I can slap a sticker over the UPC code and it's free for them to try! That I am able to leave my department and walk someone to another area of the store to find something else that they wanted that wasn't in my section of the store. We don't point to "aisle 5", we actually walk the customer to the correct place and hand them the product and talk to them about it. (Just ask me where the bathroom is, or the floral department, or the seafood department... I'll walk you to it... and so will every other employee).


This is not like anything else I've ever done.

And for that, I am so grateful.


durlx



btw, I got an e-mail from Gary from For The Boys TV. I admit with everything else going on, I haven't had time to check it out, but this evening I looked at a replay of last weeks show and it was fabu! I'll try to join the chat next Wednesday. (perhaps noah, GC, and MQ will be there, among others...)

I did get a chance to talk to luca this evening, and the Vegas trip looks more fun every day! Now that he and Pebs have sprung for a limo and everything...hehe.

And Bry from ChaosInAustin is bringing both a friend and his video-grapher! Apparantly this film maker wants to know about guys who have cams... and the guys who notice them!

Yikes!


oh, and I almost forgot, I got a Christmas Pudding from a certain English bloke....