Brutal. I just wrote an entire blog and something weird happend, and i lost everything. i'm too lazy to rewrite, so he're my exec summary.

House Update
- Parents bought a new house!
- house is close to the one i just sold, but a much quieter street
- still looking for a smaller semi-detached house, which i can live in for a few years - then my parents will move in when i leave

Band
- had gig w/my band last Friday Oct 22
- great turnout, we pushed hard to promote the show and it paid off
- focusing on recording next month, FOR REAL (we hope)

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"

My parents sold our house this Thanksgiving Weekend!

They’ve actually had it up for sale for a few weeks now, and we actually took it off the market last week since it was getting close to the winter. We didn’t want to close the deal during the Xmas holidays.

Anyway, our agent was busy last week with a few other clients and hadn’t officially took our house off the market on the system. Apparently another agent found it and tried to contact us late last week, just before our agent could take it off the system.

My parents were away for a wedding, and I’m never home during weekends and they couldn’t get a hold of us until the middle of the long weekend. I think it made them feel a bit more frantic about the house since we were so chill and slow to respond. Most times with houses you can call and basically see the house the same night. Waiting 3 days can cause a little concern, especially if the house is going to be put off the market!

Anyway, all was well and we set up a time for them to see the place. Within a day they had an offer for us, and that night we finalized negotiations and got the deal closed!

So it looks like I’m moving again, for the ___th time :). I actually like it, since it brings change and fresh starts. It also helps to minimize the pack-rat syndrome of families who have been in their homes for a long long time. Even with us being here for 6 years, we’ve accumulated a lot of crap. I say I like it now, but I know I’ll be cursing when moving in the freezing old of Jan 30, 2005 (our closing date).

Another thing is that it keeps my dad, i.e. Chang Vila busy. I know he’s been nicking for stuff to do, and an entire new house will keep his mind busy for a while. It’s now time to start hunting for a new home. It’s much much more fun than selling, that’s for sure! I’m hoping I can convert my new room into a 1/2 studio and 1/2 bedroom, or perhaps convert a room into a mini-studio from the start. We’ll see, depending on the size of house we can find!

The hunt is on!

Take care,

RE

“Garage Sale. Saturday. I need to pay
my heart's outstanding bills.
…a sense of wonder only slightly used
a year or two to haunt you in the dark.” -Weakerthans

Recently I went to a store called American Apparel” (AA). It’s a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor and retailer of clothing. No logos, no sweatshops. All of the clothes are produced in a manufacturing plant in L.A.

The basic premise of the company is to prove that you can be both profitable and socially responsible in the apparel industry. AA is demonstrating the profitability in Corporate Social Resopnsibility (CSR) practices and this will be the way of the future.

This reminds me of a Consumer Behaviour class I took in 4th year university. I worked with a group on CSR practices and customer value. We found that CSR was quite an aspirational factor, however price, quality, and availability were rated as much more important.

One insight from the research detailed how a correlation between trend and social responsibility may be a means to generate the critical mass required help increase its value rating.

What am I saying? Well, make Socially Responsible “cool” and “fashionable” and may be you can get more and more people purchasing these goods. Once you get enough demand for it, you can achieve enough scale to increase availability and lower price (as supply increases).

It’s not the best way to get the masses to become socially responsible, but it’s better than getting people to wear random sweatshop brand names on the their shirts! Look at the organic trend. It started as a small movement and now has exploded into an entire industry. Sure, there’s a lot of shit out there since “organic” means nothing, however an educated consumer will have the knowledge and wherewithal to looking for “certified organic” sources and support more local producers.

Anyway, it looks like AA is using this approach. If you go to one of their retail stores, you’ll realize how trendy it is. It’s not some converted semi-detached house with creaking wooden floors, incense and a woman in a brown shall and beads up the wazoo (don’t get me wrong, I still love those places!). This place totally fit into the Toronto Queen St. vibe, with funky sales people and electronic beats in the background. It’s much more inviting to the average yuppie consumer rather than fringe culture.

AA is starting to get the 20-something- year-old generation to think about the issue and support the cause. That's a refershing change from CK and GAP ads. I’m finally starting to see business-minded people taking CSR seriously. They’re using their manufacturing process as a point of differentiation rather than a skeleton in the closet. You can find profitability in the apparel industry and still pay your workers a decent salary and provide liveable working conditions. What a concept.

I would love to work for these guys, are at least take a look at how they’ve been so successful (they’re also in Europe as well). But alas, their Canadian head office is in Montreal, so it’s not looking good for me. We’ll see, I know that more and more places will be opening up and slowly changing our way of consumption! Let’s hope this is here to stay... !!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"