Hola, loyal readers. I must apologize for neglecting my site for the last month or so. I've been busy with projects behind the scenes, as well as more visible things, such as covering the local beer and restaurant scenes for the recently launched AnnArbor.com. For anyone who hasn't already seen them: here is my intro post on beer and here's my intro post on restaurants. And this page has everything I've written to date.On another note, for anyone following me on Twitter, I've had to create a new account, owing to Twitter inexplicably locking me out of my old one and having no customer service to speak of. For anyone re-following me (and I hope that will be everyone!), I apologize for the inconvenience.
Update: My original Twitter account is back. Sorry again for the inconvenience.
A Couple Programming Notes
The Day I Officially Became a Business
Things have been moving and shaking here at headquarters this week. I set up a new computer desk at the home office. For my birthday, my parents bought me a comfortable "executive chair" to sit on when I work or type my blog missives. And today I filed a "doing-business-as" with Washtenaw County, making me officially (in the eyes of the local gummint, anyway) a businessman. In roughly six years of freelancing on the side, I never thought of myself in this way, though now that this is my main gig the grabby taxman certainly does.
Naturally, I celebrated my official businessdom with a mug or two of IPA at Arbor Brewing. OK, maybe it was four – there were some interesting people to talk to there today.
Late Spring Crawfish Boil
Unfortunately, I missed out on Saturday's big crawfish boil at Dark Horse Brewing in Marshall. So on Sunday I decided to do my own out on the deck. Dark Horse had live crawfish sent up from Louisiana, while I used mudbugs from the frozen section of Meijer. I can't imagine my boil was as good as the fresh critters, but it was still quite delicious – corn, sausage, potatoes, and all. And while I also lacked the Belgian style goodness of Dark Horse Sapient Trip Ale, I made do with a sixpack of "Simpler Times" pilsner from Trader Joe's for $5. Hey, times are hard.
Add a pretty girl and a friend visiting from New Orleans and you have the makings of a nice afternoon.
Lessons in Yard Sale Marketing
The big yard sale this weekend went pretty well: I made about $105, mostly on crummy DVDs, CDs, and books. My two compatriots also took in a rather nice haul in the cause of getting rid of unwanted junk.
In the process, we observed some important lessons in marketing.
First, we had a nice division of labor working for us. I thought up ideas for the signage; Erin, the graphic designer, made the signage look great; and Kimberly, our "people person" engaged customers and, when necessary, hand sold many items for a good (by yard sale standards) price. Lesson: Identifying each other's strengths and deploying them appropriately is the essence of great teamwork.
I viewed my greatest challenge as selling old books with politically conservative themes to the commie pinko treehuggers of downtown Ann Arbor. I had a lot of books of all types for sale, but I believed these would not sell without some kind of special effort. So I separated them from all the others and put them in their own box with a simple sign, "Books for Republicans." Even without Erin's artistry, the sign worked wonders: There were just four books left unsold from a box that had been packed with paeans to Ronald Reagan, policy analyses from the Heritage Foundation, and other suchlike. I strongly believe had those books been just scattered throughout the rest of my literary offerings they would not have sold. Lesson: Suggestive copy is key.
A similar example arose when on Saturday I failed to sell three of my old Hawaiian shirts (and Kimberly her "Hawaii" t-shirt). On Sunday we decided to group those shirts with thematically similar items (swimming trunks, a beach towel, and some plastic tiki cups) and create a special sign: "Too broke for vacation? Check out our summer getaway table." The trunks, towel, and cups didn't sell, but at least all the shirts did. Lesson: Adding a touch of humor also can bring great results.
Kimberly had a container full of plastic combs she received from the widow of an old comb salesman, and she and Erin created a sign for it: "Free Gift with Purchase!" Almost without exception, people took their combs. Lesson: Incentives are a great idea; customers always love a freebie (or lagniappe, as they say in New Orleans).
And, finally, the best lesson of all: If someone offers you 35 cents for an awesome Fonzie t-shirt, laugh at him. You'll sell it for a dollar a few hours later.
What Are You Doing This Weekend?
Details after the jump.
506 N. Ashley St., between Kingsley and Felch (near Kerrytown)
Saturday, May 30, 10-5
Sunday, May 31, 10-5
A downsized economy is forcing us to downsize our lives, with lots of items to appeal to all manner of savvy sale hounds:
The forecast calls for awesome this weekend at 506 N. Ashley, so stop by and check out some great stuff before or after you peruse the Farmers Market, wait in line at Zingerman’s for a $15 sandwich, sample a Taste of Ann Arbor, celebrate Washtenaw Dairy's 75th birthday, or whatever other way you choose to enjoy what promises to be an excellent weekend.
Mahalo!
Spring Cleaning
This week I'm going through my old clothes, CDs, books, DVDs, and other miscellaneous stuff to identify what to sell at a joint garage – well, OK, yard – sale on Saturday and Sunday. Max has been helping me with this laborious task:
With all his "help," there shouldn't be any problem being ready by the weekend. (Max himself, however, is not for sale.)
Memorial Day Brewin' and Grillin'
My brother the master homebrewer threw a Memorial Day weekend party in honor of his 300th batch of homebrewed beer. With my lovely sister-in-law (head chef), he worked tirelessly to offer guests 11 different homebrews and many awesome delicacies, including seafood gumbo, grilled salmon, smoked turkey legs (pictured right), and some big old slabs of lamb, among many other things. There were no survivors.
My small photo gallery of the event is on the Book of Faces.
My brother's account of the festivities is on his blog.
No NOLA
Today I had to cancel a planned vacation to New Orleans for next week's French Quarter Festival. This is a major bummer for me, as I have not been down to my spiritual hometown since my infamous 2006 trip – and I've never been down for the Fest. Unfortunately, with economic conditions being what they are, this cancellation was necessary.
But why write about it?
Because, first, I'll use any excuse to talk about that amazing, strange, exciting, frightening, weird, untamed, unapologetic, and not-quite-Americanized corner of the country.
Second and more importantly, New Orleans for me is not just a place. It is a place, of course, but it's also a state of mind, a way of being, a lost art of living. In New Orleans, things that Americans typically do not think about seriously, things like music and food and leisure, are given their proper due.
New Orleanians know what constitutes the good life, and it's not working 40 or more hours a week in a cubicle farm and taking two weeks off each year to poke your head up a bit to see some small, pre-defined touristy part of the world. That ain't living, no sir.
I'm here to say you haven't lived until you've done a second line down the streets of the Faubourg Marigny. Or the Quarter. Or Gentilly. Or anywhere else life happens in this city where life still happens.
Yes, life involves music, food, and leisure. Americans in general have – even though they might deny it – lost touch with all of these fundamentally human pursuits. The existence of New Orleans is a standing rebuke to this modern oversight, an oversight that approximately 299.5 million of us are guilty of. Shame on us.
Finally, although Ann Arbor is, of course, no New Orleans, what I really appreciate about this town is its open-endedness, its acceptance of the weird and different, its particularity. At a time when so many cities and towns of America are becoming exactly like every other city and town in America, Ann Arbor stubbornly maintains its own identity, just as New Orleans does.
I've spent my entire life in Michigan. I was born here and I grew up here. I know Ann Arbor is different enough from most other Michigan cities that Michiganders of a certain stripe seek it out, over the Detroit suburbs and the rural towns, for a taste of the "other."
It ain't New Orleans – not by a long shot. But it's what we got. And it's pretty damn good, all the same.
My Acting Debut
My former employer, Borders, has produced a "sweded" movie version of Janet Evanovich's first Stephanie Plum book, One for the Money.
Check it out on their site, BordersMedia.com.
