If you are among those attending the festivities this year, this is presented to whet your appetite. If you won’t be there, tough titty for you. The menu is presented in PDF this year and is of undetermined file size. Click the link below to view.
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Sometime last week I made what I’m sure will be the last trip I will ever make to Tower Books. The Tower location I always went to was the original location right across from the Tower theater on Broadway in Sacramento. I even remember going to Tower Drug, where Tower Records started, before it closed, though the record store was already opened. I have been going to Tower for my records, books, and video needs for all of my life, and now it is all going away.
I’m generally a pretty nostalgic kind of guy, and this actually makes me sad to see. Be glad that you live in other parts of the country and don’t have to wander among the nearly empty isles. All that is left now are the bottom of the barrel books. All the books around the edges are gone, and only the center rows still have books in them. The staff is still trying to be helpful, but I can’t help but think that they can’t really care anymore. I felt like too much of a circling vulture to actually buy anything that day. It is too late to help now anyway. They are gone, but we’ll always have the memories.
I know it’s just a store, but it always seemed like it was my store.
It has been a while since I made any real change around here, so I decided to whip up some quick logos. They are the kind of thing that will be looked at in a couple of years as being amateurish and passé. What may look shiny and new now is really a pretty hackneyed approach. Still, entertaining for me to do. I have done better and will do so again, but this is for fun.
In more interesting news, there are a coupe of important additions to the AllGuinness family of blog products. Both are low in cholesterol, and have non-stick surfaces. What is it I speak of? New blogs by tlcnyc and Oldboy. Tlc is faster out of the block and has already started with a couple of early entries. Oldboy has just arrived in Korea so may need some time to settle in. It is possible he may not be inclined to post at all, but I am happy to provide the option for him.
I’ll keep you informed.
Pay no attention to the man in the lederhosen on Oldboy.
John Saca has secured a loan from Deutsche Bank for $375 million that will allow him to start on the foundations for Sacramento’s largest building as soon as next month.
I was wondering if this deal was actually going to come through, but it looks solid now. Periodically there have been reports of stuff like this that have disappeared, but this seems to have traction.
Some people around have been a bit resistant to the idea of this tower, but I think that anything that helps concentrate people more in the downtown, and less in the suburbs is a good thing. Plus, it isn’t destroying any important or interesting buildings. I say go for it. It will be more than twenty stories taller than any other building in Sacramento.
In this era of TiVo and remote controls, there seems to be less and less reason to watch any commercials at all. I should also point out, conversely, that it is also the era of Survivor and American Idol, so there may be nothing but commercials to watch.
There are a few newish campaigns that I think are especially good.
First up is the new VW Passat commercial. It wouldn’t be all that funny with just trying to say that it is cooler than others because it has less ego, but there is a tag line in the ad that is especially funny. It says “Closed course. Don’t throw megaphones or metaphors out your window. That saves the whole ad. There are other ads from VW that are good as well, and they always put in a pretty strong performance, especially among auto ads, which tend to be lame.
The second up is an especially odd series from Tractor Supply Company. I hadn’t even heard of this company until about a year ago when an earlier series of funny ads came out. This new series features non moving figures and minimalist dialog about farm life. Really bizarre, and cool.
I think my favorite of all current ad campaigns is the Jimmy Dean breakfast series with the sun. So damn funny all the time. My favorite of them all is the “Why?” ad featuring the great line where the sun says, “because I have to be at work early to light and heat the earth.” So funny.
Hell of a lot better than the average television show, and 7.9 times better than any CSI series.