Thursday, December 3, 2009

FURRY HOLIDAY fun from the past


I came across a few christmas tree ornaments and fun furry stuff. I had made them in 1993 when bungalow360 was just starting out. At the time I didn't have a computer and used an old typewriter for everything. I would frequent kinkos to copy and paste stuff. I also had a glue gun with me at all times. I had totally forgotten about my FURRY holiday ornaments until I was cleaning out some old boxes.

Around that time I was managing a cool restaurant in Orange County called Habana. It is located in The Lab the anti mall. I was also making t- shirts by ironing on little quotes and pictures. I would bring them in and give them to the staff. One day a guy came up to me and wanted to get paid since his band had played the night before. He handed me his card and said he was starting a company also. His card said "PAUL FRANK". He told me about a place in Santa Ana that had cool fabric. They had a huge assortment of faux furs. Hmmm, a glue gun and faux fur. I would spend hours making stuff. One of the coolest things I made was pens that had faux fur glued around them . Shandoor, a street person in Laguna sold 30 of them to the owner of the restaurant THE WHITE HOUSE. It was very cute. Shandoor even made him sign the sales receipt to make it official. Technically, my first sales rep was a street person in Laguna Beach.

I also got a cool internship thanks to my glue gun and faux fur. I was living in Laguna Beach and sent a bunch of fun stuff to the owner of TIME BOMB records, also in Laguna. They called and asked if I wanted to be their intern. I work for free in exchange for experience, OKAY, I admit I thought I might get a glimpse of Chris Cornell since the owner was his manager. I LOVED this place. It was so cool. Small staff and everyone was SUPER sweet and tattooed. Social Distortion is just one of the bands they represent. I was interning for the marketing director. She would give me a stack of CD'S and send me off to listen to the music (pretty cool huh!). I was supposed to come up with adjectives that described the music. I wrote down "Loud" "Ugly" and handed her the paper as I mentioned I didn't like the music. She wasn't very happy about that and I didn't last long, but I saw how a business doesn't have to run like all the other cookie cutter businesses.

We have come along way from faux fur and a glue gun. What have you made lately?