Saturday from Barcelona – 1 day to go

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Saturday from Barcelona – 1 day to go

As someone bangs and pounds – seems like their waving around a piece of sheet metal over concrete – outside my open window on this rainy Barcelona Saturday, I’m inside with my wedding dress finally in a box next to my desk – oh and it’s beautiful, a huge black on cream polka dot thing with a black top (not the dress, the box, the dress I don’t feel at liberty to describe) – and I’m burning press packets onto CDs, a pretty mechanical activity. Behind me, there’s a seating chart for my wedding that takes place two weeks after the London Design Festival wraps and tucked under me shopping bags of favors for the guests and bridesmaids. I spent the better part of the night trying to order a song list for the wedding and typing up reminder emails to the florist and the string trio but I promise you, 95% of my time has been focused on the upcoming London Design Festival. Just ask my fiancé. Some people, and I think I’m one of them, do better when they have more going on, not less. I’ve really enjoyed the preparations for Designersblock. It’s such a satisfying experience working with these incredibly talented people – and it hasn’t even begun; I fly out Monday to start setting up the space and the show starts Wednesday.

I did get to take a quick bike ride today in order to run errands and even with dark, rumbling, and bloated skies, I remember why I moved here. Raval feels like Brooklyn when I lived there, or maybe the old East Village without the rich kid heroin addicts with their lace-up Doc Martins. It’s multicultural, rundown, new next to old, fruit stands next to quinceañera dress shops next to Pakistani mobile phone shops – except there’s no easily decipherable thing going on here. No buzz in the air. After two years, I don’t really feel anything at all toward Barcelona – which is why I’m eager now to move on, with sights firmly set on London.

The last bit of pre-festival post-website launch news is that we have a wonderful sake sponsor on board. I couldn’t be more thrilled. The Gassan Sake Brewery will be bringing Junmai Ginjo “Gassan no Yuki” (Snow on Gassan Mountain) to our night of talks, drinks, and mingling on the night of the 23rd in Soho thanks to “Eat-Japan” who is hosting an event coming up at the Old Truman Brewery in early called Hyper Japan. Do check that out. That’s it for now, I’ll have more to report on while setting up the fair on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

-Chauncey