Scratching Fingernail Action Over Oil Pastels In August, 2009 In The Avon At The Outer Banks Of North Carolina - On My Art Of Watercolors & Oil Pastel

Enjoy these photos of me at work. Cheers, TONY

The Rule Of RUEHL Is Coming To An End December, 2009 @ Tyson's 1 Shopping Mall : Act Quickly Before It's Too Late!

Ruehl is closing in another month or two? You still have December, 2009 at Tyson's mall to go and get what is left from what I have heard in the past ...

PART TWO :

I started this blog awhile ago and have just come back to it. I scanned what I wrote and I realize that I was so heated in my thinking at the time that my thoughts rushed way ahead of my typing hands and so what I got in the last paragraph has to be both remembered and deciphered by me and I am not sure that I am up to that just yet on this cold and damp, biting wet Monday evening, November 30th, 2009 at 8:26 PM here at our home in northern Virginia. I may just leave it like it is as a rambling of semi-incoherence to show perhaps what the mind is reduced to in a store like Ruehl where one buys into their image so much that one becomes quite numb and a touch babbling. Not good, no - that's not a state that I ever want to find myself in : especially if it was nor motivated or engineered by me.




I also want to publish now sooner than later as RUEHL is soon to not rule the universe anymore. In some ways I am sad for that as I have appreciated their art of display and order and vision of space and time and eventual mind/mood-set. They have done their homework brilliantly and really captured the minds and limited and also dulled from my humble point of view their customers. Drone, drones, droning along quite contentedly as they may be they have given up a real integral and important part of their personality and decision-making and given it over to a large corporation that is making money as they set their own particular sights and vision that borders on a group narcissism of like-dressed/like-expressed on the outside in clothes at least set of people that acquiesced and bought and paid dearly for such vision. Sad.

Where have all the individuals gone? Where have all the assertive, bold and strong wills gone that should for their very survival be making these key decisions on their own and not relegating them to a large corporation who's main goal is to breed more like-minded/gullible people and make more and more money as a result?!?

I have enjoyed going with my son and visiting stores like RUEHL. It has been one grand learning experience for me as I walk through the various dimly-lit, perfumed, displayed and music-filled rooms as I do feel just a twinge of self-consciousness for both my age as well as that I may be summarily be judged and dismissed outright for my " old man " look and demeanor. That's okay : I will survive.

I will add more soon but for now I will post this.




PART ONE :

I was just thinking about the world of retail and advertising and my one store versus that of many stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Ruehl and Hollister. I think it occurred to me as we were driving back from the beach in North Carolina a week or so ago. These other stores ( not my one small store in Washington D.C. ) are about crafting the perfect image for all of us in the world willing to buy into their conceit/dream/fantasy/fabrication-of-fabrications/of-the-moment : as if there was only one moment ever that counts and that is this exact moment!

Aaaahhhh, I buy into the idea of the moment being important and fully appreciated by us all: but there is where I part from the people that thought up, conceived, delivered and brought us their three stores where everything is just so and thus and like this and perfect in nearly every way that the casual as well as trained eye can or is willing or trying to see!

Everything at Ruehl is constantly tweaked and arranged and ordered and crafted, molded and orchestrated. It all looks so grand , so clean, so fresh, so perfectly wonderful in all it's colors and statements and allure. It just all looks so good to the senses of sight and sound and in some cases smell, too. These displays of theirs do everything except actually superimpose their clothes onto yours for you! Wow, when and if they can do that then their sales will probably go through the roof. You have to actually decide to mess up their perfect displays when you pick something out to look at further. This inspection of yours is immediately rectified if you move on with an item or leave it for possibly another. You can't see all the nearly invisible people working there but they appear as if almost by magic once something is disturbed.

I can just hear them sighing and saying : " Oh, why must there have to be this disruption at all? Why must the customer have to disturb our hard work? Why can't they just find us so that we can with the least amount of disruption pick the item that they are interested in and thus cause us less work?!? "


PART TWO : continued ...

I feel your pain sales people, really I do. You all work very hard to continue this immaculate illusion of yours in each and every room of your stores. And you do a great job and are very polite and really quite out of the picture so to speak. You do not disturb us or the illusion that is going all around us. You let it be as pristine and as much as if it is like this for us and only us ; as if for the very first time each and every time ... illusions built on illusions and more illusions/delusions/ ... and intrusions slight and deft and calibrated and subtle as can be as not to disturb as you make us in effect one of you - one of your select group with a select vision.

Brilliant really : kudos to you all. You have done something pretty amazing and many of us are willing and more than glad to buy into your world of clothes, perfumes,scents, body lotions - notions and potions and motions to make us all quite literally just like you in your world.

What happens when we leave your perfectly ordered and orchestrated world and have to go back into our world of chance and disorder and messiness and compromises and so many more things that we have to react to/process/ digest/live with/contend with and do the very best to survive and get along with?!?

Ahhhhh .... the answer is for us to rush back for more in your perfectly orchestrated and tranquil and programed-for-us-willing-to-pay-your-expensive-prices world ...

I'm an artist and really quite an open-minded individual that is willing to mostly always see first the positive before the negative. I also like to start with the positive first before starting in with anything negative. Live and let live is my motto. I have a positive outlook on life and will till I die.

I regret to have to sound so serious and to rain so to speak on your parades but I feel I must. There, I've spoken some of my peace. I'm afraid there will be more.

Cheers, TONY




PART ONE :

It's all such a spectacle, all such an image of perfection that we are all being fed quite firmly if quite subliminally : make no mistake : this is serious business and it is designed to suck as all into their world of clothes, logos, and dreams - theirs, not ours. We are buying completely their idea/dream/fantasy/insistence that to be ourselves we have to buy their perfectly displayed and orchestrated clothes accompanied by both the bare skin of tanned young almost naked boys and girls that are legal yet?!?


PART TWO :



Don't get me wrong: I know that they the models are of a legal age but what about the young customers that they are aiming to sell their merchandise to?

To me in my humble opinion that I know you do not want to hear : they are pretty defenseless to the subtle and so very calculated and pervasive onslaught of your perfect world and life-style/choice that you sell actively/overtly as well as with dead earnestness of a consummate business person ... quietly and subliminally ...

But as I have already said : live and let live ... with just a little adult intervention here and there. It may make a difference? Hard to say ... I do, however feel better having expressed myself on these issues that I direct to many business models and not just to RUEHL ... we need to change our thinking about this. We are after all dealing with all of our children and our world, too ... TONY

My New Art Expressions Done Last Week, Aug. 2009 @ Avon, Outer Banks , North Carolina

Enjoy these pictures, TONY

My New Black & White Watercolors Done Earlier Today, August 10th, 2009 Inspired By Beach Trip To Avon, Outer Banks, North Carolina

I hope that you all enjoy these quick sketches that I did with black watercolor to capture last week's moments shared with my family on the beach of Avon in August, 2009. Enjoy these immediate and spontaneous capturing's of mine. Cheers, TONY

P.S. It's now 9:44 PM and this is my last day of official vacation and I am a bit sad for it. Oh well, life goes on ... TONY

Art Of Tasting QUINTA Do COTTO Douro Portuguese 1994 Red/ Pierre Andre 2005 Savigny 1er Cru Les Beaune C.D.Guettes " August 1st, 2009

This bottle of the QUINTA DI COTTO Duoro, Portuguese 1994 red blend of indigenous grapes used to make port wine was returned to me the other evening by a customer. He and his wife had just bought it Thursday evening I believe to take ti restaurant DINO for dinner where there was " no-corkage " this particular evening. The gentleman came back soon after and said that there was a problem with the wine. I was tired and he had already spent some good money in the store so I took the bottle back ( it is ON SALE for $39.99 a bottle at our store Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits, 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel: 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) and he proceeded to buy a hundred dollar bottle of 2000 red Bordeaux. I was happy and not interested in trying the bottle as I was quite fatigued. I put it in our beer walk-in coldbox and determined to try it the next day.





The next day came and again I did not feel like trying it. However, today earlier this morning the occasion seemed right as I had some good customers come to shop with us. I retrieved it and opened and poured some. It was cold but even cold the response was very positive and favorable.




I continued to pour it all day long to favorable reviews. I even sold some from this bottle. That pleased me of course. There were people that did not care for it but no one said that it was bad or that there was a problem with it. Just goes to show : you never know.




I'm really glad that I tasted it again and checked to see if it was indeed corked or rather just not a taste or a bottle that the couple wanted to drink on Thursday evening. As it turned out they either did not appreciate these old, aged Portuguese wines or they simply did not care for this one in particular. I maintain that it would have opened slowly and gracefully and been a tremendous addition to much of the food that is prepared and served at DINO. Unfortunately this couple will never know as they did not give it the chance to open and perform for them. That's life.




But on the flip side of the coin it did give me and our customers at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits a chance to try it and see if it worked/pleased/displeased them and their particular palates.




One of our customers that came late in the day was very interested in trying it as she loves Portuguese wines ( as a matter of fact, two of our female customers love Portuguese wines - one the dry reds and one the ports ). She had stars in her eyes as she spotted it and later as she tried it and her tongue and palate communicated immediate satisfaction to her brain. I've got a picture of that which I will have to include soon.




Here I have pictures of the wine at the bottom of the bottle with sediment in it. It's brown and cloudy and rustic, earthy, pithy, sinewy - with lots of sweet fruit taste that has been fully integrated into the wood and oak and now soft tannins. There's tar, leather, spice, tobacco, some olive and earth flavors. It's now a food wine to be enjoyed with a tasty meal. Make it simple and buy a bottle and grill something and serve the two together.




Pictured here along with the bottle and the Reidel glass of this excellent 1994 QUINTA DI COTTO red is the young lady port-lover. I have taken the pictures at such an angle as to catch her unawares trying the wine as well as her glass.




I was unable to capture her and her glass at the same time. I will have to try again sometime later. She liked it but was clearly looking for a Portuguese port wine and not a dry one. I got her a bottle of the Lodger Reserve SMITH WOODHOUSE character port fro $26.99. I hope that she likes that.




In the pictures of her at the register I snapped after the bottles were placed into her bag. Alas, I did not do my job very well here as I am about to go on vacation and am quite tired.




The next time she comes I will ask to take her picture with these bottles of Portuguese reds and ports. They will be more posed but so be it. I want to get the whole shot with the bottle, the glass filled with the wine and her of course.




So, stay-tuned for the continuation of this very serendipitous story as it continues to unfold for us.




Cheers and enjoy these partial shots as I was not looking through the view-finder or the screen as I snapped away trying to preserve the moment in all it's freshness and spontaneity - without facial pictures that are self-conscious.




I loved the wine and am thrilled to have had another chance to taste it today, Saturday, August 1st, 2009. We also have the 1995 vintage ON SALE at $34.99 and the 2000 vintage, too. TONY




I stand corrected, I did capture our customer with the glass and the wine in it. That's good. I do love her look of concentration as she tastes and factors the flavor profiles all quickly. You can see her earnestness as she tastes. She loves wines and has now come to our store on a number of occasions in search of one wine or another.




I do love the serendipitous nature of taking pictures, snapping away at random and letting chance and fate and some skill hopefully all combine to at least get one good shot if not more.




Being an artist I am interested in telling stories and these pictures help to tell them. I am just adding some of the details here.




Also, as an artist I am interested in " new " approaches and angles and " views " that I hope are somewhat if not all " my own ". Everything has been done before, but has it been caught on film or digitally? What does the artist bring to the table/ to the story / to this story?








She's a beautiful young lady that is quite passionate and serious in her quest to learn about port wines so that she may better enjoy them. Bravo to her and her quest and I for one am very happy that she has chosen us to assist her in this important quest / personal journey of hers. Cheers ...




I love this last picture of her trying the wine that I got from raising my camera and pointing it downwards. I just got a bit in the corner of my leanse and shot this way and yet it is enough to tell something of her concentration and reaction.


Enjoy these pics, cheers, TONY