Posts

Showing posts from 2004

Bring It On!

Image
Posts will be sporadic for the next couple of weeks, I suspect, as we close out the year and bring in the new one. I am so ready for this year to come to a close. Not that the year was all bad, but let's see: 1. Lost my elbow falling down the stairs at the store, and was in so much pain I can't even remember how bad it was (Jeffrey Brown happened to be in town around that time, so he did that sympathy drawing). It's ok, I got it back. The elbow. 2. Lots of deaths, both family and friends. 3. Um, the Election? Jeez, now that I've started this I realize that I could go on and on, but really, the list of good things is longer, and outweighs the bad. Ultimately, Atomic Books is still around and camped out in our little niche of the world, so it can't be too bad. 2005, here we come!

Merry Xmas

Who would ever have thought that there would be a NEW Murder Can Be Fun ? AND, reprinted Craphounds ! With new Craphounds and a new Craphound book to come.

Mark Harp

Mark Harp, the perpetrator of this site and one of the magical inhabitants of 34th St, passed away last night . See you there for the ball drop on New Year's Eve. Safe and happy Holidays to everyone. We love you all.

Pop Culture Peeps

Ok, I went over to USA Today's Top 100 Pop Culture People List because Jessa Crispin of Bookslut was on the list, and frankly, that's amazingly great. But check out this list! It freaks me out. USA TODAY! USA Today. They have 3 alternative comic artists on the list. 4 if you count Courtney Love . I need more coffee.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Image
Thanks for the handmade ornaments, Kat! They're perfect for our tiny store tree.

Save the Wire

Are you like me? Do you LURVE HBO's The Wire? I just emailed them and informed them that when/if they cancel the BEST SHOW ON TV, that I will cancel HBO on the same day. They've got nothing left that I'm willing to pay for and watch as it airs. I can wait for CYE and Deadwood to come out on DVD and rent them. Maybe if I'm feeling masochistic I'll rent Carnival, too. I'll just cancel cable. Netflix is the way to go. And they're blue, too!

More Winners

Image
At the store, when you've filled up your Big Spender Card it goes in this big jar. From time to time we pick winners and they win a $15 giftcard and a little something something. We've been lax with the pickings, so we did 10 all at once, just in time for some holiday fun. And the winners are: Stephen Janis Charley Camp Jessica Melusine Tim Johnson J B O'Day Jon Darer Stephen Phillips Glen Breining Jessica Carter Wendy Weihs Come on down! You've won the...oh wait, this ain't no game show.

Gift Cards

Image
Our gift cards are all hand illustrated by local artists. They're wacky. We should have gift coupons available online. Soonish.

All Your Cookies Are Belong To Us

Image
Thanks to everyone who braved the weather yesterday to come to the Cookie Swap. Although the flu wiped out a good portion of our contestants we had some real winners this year: Most Original - Lisa Harbin Best Presentation - Kristen King and Best Cookie went to Tanya Taylor!

What I Want

We've launched a new feature on our site. The Want List . Just register and start adding stuff! Let us know how it works for you. We're still working out some kinks.

New Monsters

Image
Don't you want to just put one under your pillow until it hatches?

Kick Out the Clams!

Image
Once upon a time, a man had a dream. A dream about a rock opera. About Giant Clams . And it was realized, 2 years ago. Here in Baltimore, at the Ottobar. But now, you can take the dream home with you. Because it is now a DVD .

Money Shot

Image
The lighting of the Washington Monument, downtown Baltimore, taken by eebmore .

You Could Be A Winner

Come by the store and enter to win a pair of tickets to "A John Waters Xmas" at the 9:30 Club , which takes place December 21st.

Season's Greetings

Image

You Know We're Blue

Here's a handy shopping guide for stores you may want to support. Thanks, Mike!

Flier Art

Image
There are some pretty talented designers in this town. I'm always amazed at the time and effort put into local show fliers. This one may just be the cream of the crop. I mean, just LOOK at it. You can't deny the power.

Schmoo Has Bones?

Character Study is an exhibit by Michael Paulus. 22 skeletal systems of current and past popular characters with transparent overlays.

XMas in Hampden

Image
So of course, my batteries run out after a few pics. I didn't even get the Mayor! But Maggie got some great shots and made this album on Flickr.

No One Ever Expects Bolivian Dancers

Image
Especially in the Mayors Christmas Parade. More photos to come!

Bargain Basement

For the rest of the weekends this month we're going to have the basement open for sale books. Mostly comics, lots of manga, single issues (even of Marvel stuff) and graphic novels, but also some other items that need to go pronto! We're running out of room here. There's some strange finds down there. Like a pamphlet of Death showing you how to use a condomn with a banana. I don't understand what the deal is with the banana when Constantine is right there... Ok, get your geek on!

Miracle on 34th Street

Image
34th Street is up and running. You MUST see it to believe it. And don't forget about the Mayors Christmas Parade this Sunday. Starts at 2pm. It's the freakiest Xmas parade ever and it's right here in Hampden. So get your spiked hot cocoa ready and bring a chair and park yourself right in front of the store. We'll have our lounge open as well.

Elvis Tickets Have Left the Building!

People, people...why are you trying to get tickets to the Night of 100 Elvises just a day before the event?? We were sold out a mere 3 days after we got the tickets, weeks ago! Ok, then Galvanize gave us some of their leftover tickets the other day, but then they were gone within 24 hours. This happens every year. You have to get your tickets as soon as we announce it. That's just the way it is.

Losers!

Ok, we didn't finish no stinking novels. November kicked our asses. We knew it would. Oh well, what's life without the impossible dreams? Did any of you finish your novels? Maybe we'll try it again...like in March. At least I have a premise for my mystery novel all ready to go.

Dawn Culbertson Memorial

From the Fluid Movement list: You are invited to remember and celebrate the life and works of Dawn C. Culbertson at an informal memorial service/tribute concert on Sunday, December 5 at 1022 Fawn Street in Little Italy, 7 PM. Please bring some food or drink to share as well as your memories. Performances of Dawn's work or music she would have enjoyed are especially welcome -- bring your musical instruments and singing voices. Don't you dare dress up. P.S. If anyone has any CDs of Dawn's lute or Evil Pappy music, please email Keri at kburnestonATyahoo.com We're sold out of the Evil Pappy Twin CDs. So if you've googled it and came to a blank page in our catalog, it's because they're gone!

Shopabout Part II

Image
Shine Collective 3554 Roland Ave. 410.366.6100 Walls, walls, everywhere goddamn walls! Sick of paint? Faux finish? Sick of wall paper? Sick of paneling (even ironic paneling)? Sick of posters, calendars, fabric and all that other crap we stick on our walls to give the illusion we're looking at something neat? Try some wall decals. Shine has a wide selection, but we're partial to the video game character looking ones. $47 for the small ones (pictured) and $50 for larger sizes. The True Vine 1123 W. 36th St. 410.235.4500 Holidays mean holiday music. This CD contains a bunch of turn of the century holiday music to give a family get together a nice ecclectic soundtrack. Oh, by turn of the century, we're referring to 1800s-1900s, not this last one. $17. Milagro 1005 W. 36th St. 410.235.3800 Back to that wall thing. Okay, say you have someone on your list that won't dig wall decals? Try some nice, imported-from-Mexico, wall ornaments in vario

Dawn Culbertson

Just heard the shocking news, from Artmobile : Dawn Culbertson collapsed and died at the BFMS [Baltimore Folk MusicSociety] Thanksgiving night dance at St. Mark's-on-the-Hill parish hall Thursday November 25th. She had Thanksgiving diner with several BFMS friends at Diane and Carl Friedman's house, and arrived near the end of the dance. She danced a few contra dances and seemed fine. I danced the last contra and the closing waltz with her. While chatting during the cleanup, she slumped to the floor. Judy (Meyers, an RN) and Eileen Newburn (also an RN) attended to her, and they and Bob Eckhardt immediately began CPR, while Dan Brandt called 911. Emergency assistance arrived within about ten minutes, and worked diligently and intensely before taking her to Northwest Hospital. However, it seems likely that she had died immediately. I go into these details because I think it's important to know that she had a lovely time the last few hours of her life, she seemed to die s

Mommy, What's a Molotov Cocktail?

Image
Burn, Christmas! Burn!! is an anti-Christmas, um, Christmas book. You know, the kind of book that makes you think about how fucked up consumerism is and how corporate greed hurts elves and did you know, elves make your $9 Target shirts, not little children in third world countries? Don't buy it. For chrissakes, the elves will come and burn down your house!

Happy Gravy Day!

Image

Dirty Found

Image
It's in! It's in! Maggie didn't even wait to take off her scarf and jacket before she dived into the issue. All pre-orders will start shipping out today! You lucky bastards.

Turkey Watch

Just waiting for all the turkeys, brined, fried, smoked, whatever, to start flooding Flickr . Flickr is all about food! If you've noticed our Flickr Zeitgeist Badge on the right only displays new photos from my contacts and friends. The above link shows you all new photos being posted.

Confession

Image
I hate shopping. I hate going to the mall. But you know what? I don't have to leave Hampden to shop. Here's our little Holiday Gift Guide Picks. But we haven't finished walking around the Ave, so more to come on Friday. See, I'm also lazy. And if you're lazy, perhaps if you ask nicely, we can add on some of these items to your online orders from us. Wait, that's way too complicated. (Descriptions of the items were written by Benn. He just made them up.) Ma Petite Shoe 832 W. 36th St. 410.235.3442 Sure, everyone thinks this shoes & chocolate boutique as the place for women to indulge their sweet tooth as well as their insatiable need for stylish shoes (and it is), but they also have stylish shoes for men! Rose's Cookies 842 W. 36th St. 410.235.9801 The holiday season can be so cruel to those who can't bake, what with all the cookies flying around. This year, impress your loved ones with some cookies from Rose, she won

School Him!

Jason Kottke wants to know what he's missing about comics !

There Is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World

Image
Photo by J. Mayer. So I've been resisting looking at this art project by Chris Cobb. For one week, this past week, Adobe Books in California, let this artist rearrange all their books into the color wheel. Anyone who has ever worked in a bookstore probably let out a huge groan when they first heard about this. What a nightmare! But it sort of helps out when a customer asks, "Um...I'm looking for a book. The cover is red." At least you have a red section now. I have to say that it looks beautiful. And sort of magical. And this is the part of the spectrum that I would be attracted to - the pinks and the reds.

Doomy & Gloomy

Neal Pollack says, "Writers get less respect in this country than people who eat live bugs on television for money!" Ted Rall was dropped from the Washington Post. (Most disturbing is the term "users" for "readers" of the Post.) And good-bye Highwater !

We Won't Stop Until Somebody Calls the Cops

And even then we'll start again and just pretend that nothing ever happened.

Have Yourself a Very Waters Xmas

Image
Yup. It's real. And they'll be in the store next week.

Microcinefest

Hey, Microcinefest starts tomorrow! Whatever you do, don't go to microcinefest.com.

Rumors Put to Rest

Well, the rumors were close. The next "The Simple Life" isn't set in Hampden, but Ellicott City . Reportedly, Hilton and Richie are staying with an Ellicott City family this week - "reportedly" being the operative and recurring word in the not-so-simple local arrangement. Reportedly, everyone who agrees to be filmed with the stars has to sign a confidentiality agreement that, if broken, may well result in a spin-off reality show called "Extreme Bankruptcy." Money doesn't talk. The Eisner episode is scheduled to air in February. Then, the family can tell friends what Paris and Nicole were like in real life, if there is such a thing anymore. After the show airs, we can learn what they ate and wore and said inside the Eisner home. Do they floss? Wax? Waxed floss? Do they snore? Would they ever come to Timonium? We do have a new Eckerd's ... Alas, until February, our simple imaginations must run wild and cheap.

Tin Man on the Move!

Tin Many Alley is moving away from Philly to NYC! Their last exhibit this year, Ultra-Murder Death Squad, works by Tim Biskup and Andrew Brandou, opens November 20th and runs through December 24th, with the Opening Reception on Saturday, November 20th 6pm-10pm.

Love to Hate the 80s

Calling out for photos taken this past Saturday at I HATE The 80s Night! I was too busy to take any. You know, too busy doing the Wild Thing .

Print

Image
The new Regional edition of Print Magazine is chock full of band/show posters. Especially the Washington/Baltimore section. I guess that's what you get when you have a band made up of graphic designers. One more step in the spread of Design-core. Or is it that rock posters are taking over the world? Hmmm, which is more compelling, the music or the art? Also, congrats to Scott Sugiuchi for getting four of our event posters in the issue.

Don't You Forget About Me

Image
If you're getting your 80s outfits at Galvanize , ask for your 20% discount! Say you heard it from the Mobtown Shank . So which Breakfast Club kid were you? I could relate to all of them, except for the jock (I played tennis, not exactly a team sport). I was mostly the nerd and the weirdo. Poor kids, having problems with the pressure to conform in one way or another, trying to figure out how to be happy and how to meet or fight the expectations of society. Ultimately, I was pretty disappointed by the movie at the time. I think it made me cry. Whew, I'm so glad the 80s are over. OR IS IT??

Zippy or Ziggy?

The Baltimore Sun is doing an "extreme makeover" for their comics page. Vote for the comics you'd like to save! Wow, that list is like a freaky time warp.

Friday Webabout

Image
It's time again for the nominees for the Utne Independent Press Award . And also, time again for the Night of 100 Elvises . You can purchase your tickets here starting this weekend. And don't forget next weekend, our 4th Annual I HATE THE 80s NIGHT .

Slacker

Ok, yes...I've let the NaNoWriMo thing go untouched the past few days. BUT, I've got a plan. Write-Ins. Evergreen Cafe, on 501 W. Coldspring Lane, across from Alonso's. Every Sunday this month. Just show up between 1-5pm (come earlier, stay later if you'd like) and plan to write like a mutherfucking writing machine. Or, you know, get a muffin.

All Better Now - Thanks!

Ah! I feel refreshed. It's a sunny beautiful day here in Baltimore, and there are a ton of new great books to be read. What's hip and cool? Friends. Thanks to everyone for your supportive emails, phone calls and visits to the store. Honestly, I've lost my sense of dread. Just knowing that so many people even outside my regular circles, from first time customers to old aquaintances to sales reps to fellow bloggers, have commiserated with me or given me pep talks (I like that "invisible network" idea!), have just made me feel so much more positive about the future. Not that any problems are solved. But just knowing that a community exists, not just a group of lost and depressed individuals, makes everything seem a little brighter.

Mamas Teach Your Children

Image
The reading for Mamaphonic is this Sunday, Nov 7th, from 7-9pm. Moms always make everything all better.

Venting

The number one selling item today. So much for a united nation, right? We're sold out, by the way. B has the right attitude . And Nolan Strals captures the right feeling (via geekpunk.org ). Here's an outlet for your feelings and opinions: THE PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENT NATIONAL POST-ELECTION SOLIDARITY ISSUE OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS =================================== PREFERRED DEADLINE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 11:59 P.M. FINAL DEADLINE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, NOON =================================== Dear Readers: The Philadelphia Independent will publish a free national edition reflecting on the presidential campaign and life in America over the next four years. The issue will be released on Friday, November 12. It will be a full-size broadsheet with an increased print run FREE to the people of Philadelphia and elsewhere. All contents will also be posted online. We want you to submit writing and original artwork about how you feel about what's ha

Lost

You know that show where a bunch of people on a plane crash land on a strange island where there are scary monsters that only they can see? This post isn't about that. I am devasted. Surprisingly, completely devasted. Just the other week I was going on about how I didn't feel alone . And yet today, I couldn't feel more alienated from my fellow Americans. Where am I? Who are you people? The issues that seem to freak the "majority" of Americans is passe subject matter in our store. What consenting adults choose to do, the lifestyle of different sub-cultures, the sight of a female breast whether for titillation or breast-feeding in public, none of it gives us pause. Hell, almost all of that banal crap has been the subject matter for America's old favorite tv show, "Friends", but now it seems obvious that that shitty show is too scandalous and progressive for this country. But you know what? Fuck Canada! I'm not taking my marbles and

Shit, I'm Drunk

Image
Man, those election breakfast burritos were goooooood.

Fire Dancers

Image
You know it's Halloween pretty much all year round here at the store, but how often do you get to see Fire Dancers? Maggie got some great pics from yesterdays festivities here on the Avenue. I'll have some of mine posted later, but alas, my battery died just as things got started.

Novel

So. First Day of that NaNoWriMo thing. Slowly, everything goes haywire. It's just one thing after another. It's all a conspiracy to ruin my first day and make me lose my momentum. All the typical things that keeps anyone from doing anything. And then the cliche. My computer explodes! Well, not really. The store keyboard just stopped working. Nothing I typed would come up, only random windows would start opening and menus would drop down. I thought it was a virus. Still, it's not like I was planning to write my novel on the store PC. But if it had been a virus I would have been up all night trying to fix it. All we had to do was switch keyboards. Seems fine now. I'm able to blog, as you can see. Oh, what next? Besides the fact that every time I think the word "novel", I keep hearing Neal Pollack singing, "I wipe my ass upon your novel!"...

The Book Shelf

Image
One of the best things about Flickr are the notes you can post on your photos, and others. Perfect for talking about specific books on your shelves . To explain yourself when you're not around. "I don't know where that Star Trek novelization came from!"

NaNoWriMo

I'm gonna do it . Are you? I remember when I first heard of writing a novel in 30 days, I pretty much agreed with Joseph Epstein's take : Why should so many people think they can write a book, especially at a time when so many people who actually do write books turn out not really to have a book in them — or at least not one that many other people can be made to care about? Something on the order of 80,000 books get published in America every year, most of them not needed, not wanted, not in any way remotely necessary. It's similar to the feeling I have whenever I hear someone say that they've picked up a digital camera. Oh god, another Photographer. Or whenever I see those YOU + HP commercials about how You're An Artist Now. Please. But of course it's this snobby attitude (my BFA, my paralyzing perfectionism, self-loathing and fear of failure) that keeps my cameras in the closet. Ok, who am I kidding? They're just sitting here on the floor, col

Scary

Image
Are you tense? It's the scariest weekend ever. Halloween's nothing compared to Tuesday. Don't forget to turn your clock back an hour. Maggie.

Friday Blogabout - Wired

Baby Doll's been caught with some interesting dudes lately. And Blug's got some made up talk about said dudes. And of course, you can always get a little dose of REAL Baltimore drug trade news at Rebuilding Madison . Click on the Journal link. But will the fake O'Malley become Mayor??

Election Dealio

So this is what we've come up with for Election Day. The Plan: Vote EARLY! THEN meet for BREAKFAST at Holy Frijoles. Does Frijoles have breakfast? No. But they WILL on Nov 2nd. They will open at 8AM and have Breakfast Burritos for the voting folk. AND, Happy Hour ALL DAY. Check out the Shank for the list of specials. Thank you Evan for getting into our Election Day spirit! THEN, after the polls are closed we'll check the Election Day Coverage on the teevee over at the Hon Bar. They said we'd be welcome to watch their Comedy Central and they'll be concocting some drink specials as well. And for Wednesday, the momentous day after, the Golden West will have 25% off EVERYTHING all day, if a certain person wins. And some drink specials as well. Whew! So get out and VOTE!

Election Quandary

Several people in the hood had wanted to get together at Frazier's on the Avenue to watch the Election coverage...but it's Karaoke Night. Fuck that. People have to sing their ironic Depeche Mode this night of nights? Where else can we all go? You don't want to be alone that night. Normally, the lack of tvs in bars and restaurants in Hampden is a GOOD THING. But we need cable, too. Also, there may be a group voting party going on. For all you people voting at Robert Poole or Hampden Elementary, meet us for a drink if you're voting in the morning! AND, if you get your "I Voted" sticker from the poll people (you have to ask) and wear it to the store Nov 2nd, you'll get a 10% discount on your purchases that day.

Radical Info Kiosk

Back in August, I mentioned the upcoming BMA exhibit called Dark Matter . Did you send your zine in for their library? It opens on Nov 3rd. Also, they're going to have a booth/kiosk for distributing free zines and other info. If you'd like to send something in for that or to get more information about what they're doing, contact Todd Rennie, at trennieATmica.edu.

Sarah Vowell - Movie Star?

So, for a while now, we've been seeing stationery, cards, etc, for some characters called The Incredibles, a family of superheroes, in our book catalogs, wondering what that was about. Then we realized a few months ago that it was an upcoming movie from Pixar (infact it comes out next week). Ok, but check this out, Sarah Vowell, one of our favorite essayists and radio personalities , is in the movie! She has the best IMDB profile.

Where's Maggie?

Image
For the past 10 days, Maggie has been on tour with Double Dagger . Here's some pics on her Flickr account . More coming soon!

How We Are Hungry

Image
It's Dave Eggers new collection of stories . Is this for real? It smells like strawberries!

Freaks & Geeks

When you open a small independent store, in a lot of ways it's a form of personal expression. We just like stocking the store with stuff we like, topics that interest us. A lot of us tend to think that we're somewhat singular. Somewhat freakish. Our tastes are all over the place. Who else is going to be into Jeffrey Brown , sideshow performers , Mark Ryden , The Believer , Anthony Bourdain , zines , both Haruki AND Takashi Murakami , serial killers , Tom Waits , exploitation films , knitting , bondage , hacking , outsider art , Buffy the Vampire Slayer , David AND Amy Sedaris , Ben Snakepit , Howard Zinn , AS WELL as the Dark Knight ? Who else? Our customers. We are SO not alone.

Blogarrhea

Write your novel in 30 days on your blog ! Man, we really need to change our blog template. Everyone uses it.

Friday Blogabout - Diabetic Coma

Ok. I seriously have a problem with those goddamn cookies. I'm sitting here wondering why I'm feeling so weird and jittery. The Avenue just isn't a good place for people with addiction issues. Those damn margaritas, and now it's these cookies...well, first it was the heroin and THEN...no wait, the smoking...no...books. Books are the worst. Luckily, I don't have a thing for beer. Speaking of which...Natty Boh gets lit up . And a fine Boh collection . And some pics of the protest at Sinclair this week. And speaking of crimes (god, these lame segways I come up!)...don't forget the True Crime & Warped Minds Tour at Charm City Artspace on the 28th!

Zines for Teens

A call out for zines, from Miriam the Librarian: Hey y'all- A few of us librarians at Baltimore County Public Library are looking to start a pilot zine library at the Reisterstown library branch. At this point we have approval to start making a collection geared towards teen-agers. What I'm looking for is suggestions of zines, magazines, and review sources that are of interest to teens. High school per-zines, stuff for non-schoolers or zines about a subject of general interest (like Sugarneedle or various how-to zines)might work.It doesn't have to be squeaky clean, but it does have to have an identifiable reason it was included as part of the collection. There's some possibility we might do a broader collection later if this works out. We're already in touch with some other zine libraries and the yahoo zine librarian group and there's going to be a query in the next Xerography Debt. Later on we might have zine/comics-making workshops at the

One Out of Every Two Phone Calls Is a Wrong Number

That's only a slight exaggeration. For a while we got a lot of calls asking for Long & Foster Realtors. We only have a one number difference for one of their offices. Understandable. The rest? Freaks. I mean, do they not even listen to the message on the machine? You're calling Atomic Books! Do people in Baltimore not know how to dial a goddamn number? Is it the proliferation of those disposeable cell phones or just that cell phones are getting so small people can't dial those teeny keypads? On the machine this week: "You're not my brother." And "Better have you ass up in the mornin' when I call ya! Git you ass up! I'm gonna call you again! This is Theromin. Talk with ya. 4 o'clock!"

GYWO2

Image
David Rees will be here this Friday, the 22nd, at 7pm, to read from and sign copies of Get Your War On II! So, get your ass here!

Pig Queen

Image
Hey, our friend, Nora, was crowned Pig Queen at the Pigtown Festival! She wore her tiara to Honcraft this Sunday, at Evergreen Cafe. You can't really tell in the photo but she has little pig ears on the pink part of that tiara. And yes, she's knitting. You know how we do.

How Could I Forget the Pigs??

And yet I did. Luckily, there are pictures of the Running of the Pigs from the Pigtown Festival today.

Hail!

Image
For a few minutes today we had some sudden weather. I hope the Marathon is over! Go Jules and Lisa!

Holy Crap, I Love Jon Stewart

On Air America right now, they're replaying a part of Stewart's appearance on CNN's Crossfire. He was in DC this afternoon! Signing at Politics & Prose for America the Book . UPDATE: Streaming audio ! Thanks, Lori! UPDATE 2: Video! Thanks, Jason!

MobyLives is Alive

Hey, MobyLives is back! And their publishing arm Melville House has just come out with a new book by local writer, Stephen Dixon, called Old Friends . We should be getting those in shortly.

Banned!

Phoebe Gloeckner's A Child's Life is banned in some California Libraries. Podesto described it as a "how-to book for pedophiles" and said it never should have fallen into a child's hands. Wha?

Snickerdoodle Update

Image
So I had some snickerdoodles leftover from Rose's that I got yesterday for Knit Night. Look how they fit on top of a coffee cup! And now it's all steamed and soft. Cookie heaven. Vive le Carbs!

Viva Le Vice!

The Ave is getting to be a regular Book Row (hint, hint, Normal's are you reading this?)! Breathe Books is opening up next week . It's funny but in some ways, our bookstores are diametrically opposed. BB is all about health and we're pretty much about vice in it's many forms (People Who Read Too Much and the Bookstore Owners Who Love Them). Even our vegetarian/vegan books are more political in nature than about nutrition. But there are many paths to enlightenment... Speaking of vice, the above article also mentions another new store opening on the Ave that's JUST HANDBAGS. Opening near the already tempting Ma Petite Shoe (the shoes AND chocolate store), Gotta Have Bags will be opening soon with an array of designer, handmade and otherwise unique bags. Also, more vice: Rose's Cookies and Mick's new Whiskey Island Pirate Shop are now open in the old Golden West Cafe space. Rose's cookies kick ass. And of course Mick's salsas and sauces..

Weirdness

Image
It's been a strange few days around here on the Ave. Stranger than normal. Around 2pm, the whole Ave lost power. But oddly, not the Golden West Cafe. So we all went across the street to get some food and have a beer while we waited for the electricity to come back. When we got back to the store around 3:30pm, the power was back. And then Major "Bunny" Colvin walked in! He was nice enough to pose with Baby Doll . Over the weekend, a guy threw his girlfriend through one of Golden West Cafe's windows. It's the second weekend in a row that a fight in the street has caused damage to a shop (though not any serious damage to any person). True Vine still has a window out. Maybe Colvin needs to make Hampden Amsterdam. And then nail everyone's ass. (Sorry, this post will only make sense if you watch The Wire .)

If ORZ and TMBG Got Into a Fight...

Image
One Ring Zero kicked accordian, claviola and theremin ass. Have you ever seen a claviola before? Wish I had one! Alas, only 50 were ever made and only 14 came over to the US and ORZ got 4 of them. They said that they were going to hunt down the other 10. And kill them. We're having some technical difficulties so comments have been turned off temporarily.

Smart Invoicing

Image
Ok, yes, sometimes invoices get lost in the shuffle of our huge mounds of papers, but this is by far the largest invoice we've ever received. Surely, we won't lose it. But we will try.

Friday Blogabout

Image
It's that time of year again. It's all about the ravens. I mean, Halloween. Hey, Kathleen has started updating the Shocked & Amazed blog again! Wow, can I really only blog one pic at a time from Flickr? Damn.