Downtown Comings and Goings. 1/9/12.

All right. I feel somewhat compelled to do this list again,
because of the Downtowner's press release which you can find
on KTVZ.

Most of the "new" businesses they list aren't actually new. Some
are expansions, and several are simple lateral moves. The only
new business I could see was the Solar Power business and I decided
it doesn't my perimeters of retail. ("information and consultation")

Lotus Moon is actually losing a storefront and moving into Tres
Jolie. By my definitions, that is a lost space...so I'm listing it as
"leaving" with a note that it has moved.

Game Domain has moved into a smaller space below in the downstairs
of the Penny's Galleria, so they've lost their street front space but I'm
keeping them on the list.

Brother Jon's has named their new restaurant: The Ale House,
so I'm changing that name below.

The Dog Patch seems to be definitely leaving. And Bend
Mapping and Blueprinting is moving out of downtown to
Greenwood.

So by my definitions, we've actually lost three or four
spaces -- and the occupancy rate of 92% would imply maybe one
or two more that I haven't discovered.

NEW BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN

The Ale House, Bond St., 12/10/11.
What Lola Wants, Wall St. , 12/2/11.
Jackalope Grill, 10/12/11.
Gypsy Soul, Wall St. 10/12/11.
Colour N' the City, Tin Pan Alley, 10/12/11.
Lotus Moon, Brooks St., 10/12/11.
The Lobby, Bond St. , 10/12/11.
Ruby, Minnesota Ave., 10, 12/11.
Kariella, Lava Road, 8/24, 11.
Plankers, Wall St., 7/11.
Faveur, Franklin, 7/11.
Dream Pebbles, Minnesota Ave., 6/15/11.
Bend Yogurt Factory, Franklin/Bond, 4/26/11.
High Desert Lotus, Bond St. , 4/4/11.
Tryst, Franklin Ave., 3/11/11. (Formerly Maryjanes, **Moved**).
D'Vine, Wall St. , 2/9/11.
Let it Ride!, Bond St., 1/29/11.
Gatsby's Brasserie Bar, Minnesota Ave., 1/8/11
Tres Jolie, Wall St., 12/20/10.
Caldera Grill, Bond St., 12/7/10
Bond Street Grill, 12/7/10.
Perspective(s), Minnesota Ave., 11/20/10
Toth Art Collective, Bond St. 11/20/10
Boken, Breezeway, 11/20/10
Dalia and Emilia, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Antiquarian Books, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Giddyup, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
The Closet, Minnesota Ave., 8/11/10.
Showcase Hats, Oregon Ave., 8/11/10,
Red Chair Art Gallery, Oregon Ave. 7/13/10.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 7/12/10.
Mad Happy Lounge, Brooks St., 6/2910
Common Table, Oregon Ave. , 6/29/10.
Looney Bean Coffee, Brooks St. , 6/29/10.
Bourbon Street, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
Feather's Edge, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
The BLVD., Wall St. , 6/13/10.
Volt, Minnesota Ave. 6/1/10.
Tart, Minnesota Ave. , 5/13/10
Olivia Hunter, Wall St. 4/5/10.
Tres Chic, Bond St. 4/5/10
Blue Star Salon, Wall St. 4/1/10.
Lululemon, Bond St. 3/31/10.
Diana's Jewel Box, Minnesota Ave., 3/25/10.
Amalia's, Wall St. (Ciao Mambo space), 3/12/10
River Bend Fine Art, Bond St. (Kebanu space) 2/23/10
Federal Express, Oregon Ave. 2/1/10
***10 Below, Minnesota Ave. 1/10/10
Tew Boots Gallery, Bond St. 1/8/10.
Top Leaf Mate, 12/10/09
Laughing Girls Studio, Minnesota Ave. 12/7/09
Lemon Drop, 5 Minnesota Ave., 11/12/09
The Curiosity Shoppe, 25 N.W. Minnesota Ave, Suite #7. 11/5/09
Wabi Sabi 11/4/09 (**Moved, Wall St.**)
Frugal Boutique 11/4/09
5 Spice 10/22/09
Cowgirls Cash 10/17/09
***Haven Home 10/17/09
Dog Patch 10/17/09
The Good Drop 10/12/09
Lola's 9/23/09
**Volcano Wines 9/15/09
Singing Sparrow Flowers 8/16/09
Northwest Home Interiors 8/5/09
High Desert Frameworks 7/23/09 (*Moved to Oregon Ave. 4/5/10.)
Wall Street Gifts 7/--/09
Ina Louise 7/14/09
Bend Home Hardware (Homestyle Hardware?) 7/1/09
Altera Real Estate 6/9/09
Honey 6/7/09
Azura Studio 6/7/09
Mary Jane's 6/1/09
c.c.McKenzie 6/1/09
Velvet 5/28/09
Bella Moda 3/25/09
High Desert Gallery (Bend) 3/25/09
Joolz
Zydeco
900 Wall
Great Outdoor Store
Luxe Home Interiors
Powell's Candy
Dudley's Used Books and Coffee
Goldsmith
Game Domain
Subway Sandwiches
Bend Burger Company
Showcase Hats
Pita Pit
Happy Nails

(List begun, Fall, 2008.)

BUSINESSES LEAVING

The Dog Patch, Minnesota Av. 1/9/12.
Bend Mapping, Bond St., 1/9/12.
Lotus Moon, Brooks St. 1/9/12 (Moving into Tres Jolie)
Bond Street Grill, Bond St., 11/20/12.
Mad Happy Lounge, Brooks St., 10/11.
Azu, Wall St., 10/25/11.
Showcase Hats, Oregon Av., 10/11.
Bourbon St., Minnesota Ave. 10/12/11.
Curiosity Shop, Minnesota Ave., 7/11
Luluemon, Bond St., 8/26, 11.
Shear Illusions, Franklin Ave., 7/11.
Crepe Place, Wall St., 7/11.
Pita Pit, Brooks St. , 6/28/11
Smith and Wade Salon, Minnesota, Av. , 6/3/11.
Perspectives, Minnesota Av., 6/1/11
River Bend Art Gallery, Bond St., 5/5/11.
Donner's Flowers, Wall St. 3/11/11. (**Moved out of downtown**)
Maryjanes, Wall St. , 3/11/11. (new name, Tryst, moved to Franklin.).
Di Lusso, Franklin/Bond, 2/9/11.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 1/2/11
Marz Bistro, Minnesota Av., 12/20/10.
The Decoy, Bond St., 12/7/10.
Giuseppe's, Bond St., 12/1/10.
Ina Louise, Minnesota Ave., 11/3/10.
Laughing Girl Studios, 10/21/10
Dolce Vita, Bond St, 10/21/10
Diana's Jewell Box, Minnesota Ave., 10/15/10.
Lola's, Breezeway, 10/8/10.
Oxygen Tattoo, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Great Outdoor Clothing, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Volcano Vineyards, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
Subway Sandwiches, Bond St. 9/2/10.
Old Bend Distillery, Brooks St., 6/19/10.
Staccato, Minnesota Ave. 6/18/10.
Showcase Hats, Minnesota Ave., 6/1/10 (Moved to Oregon Ave., 8/10/11.)
Cork, Oregon Ave., 5/27/10.
Wall Street Gifts, 5/26/10
Microsphere, Wall St. , 5/17/10.
Singing Sparrow, Franklin and Bond, 5/15/10
28, Minnesota Ave. and Bond, 5/13/10.
Glass Symphony, Wall St., 3/25/10
Bend Home Hardware, Minnesota Ave, 2/25/10
Ciao Mambo, Wall St. 2/4/10
***Angel Kisses 1/25/10 (Have moved to 'Honey.')
Ivy Rose Manor 8/20/09
***Downtowner 8/18/09 (moving into the Summit location)
Chocolate e Gateaux 8/16/09
Finders Keepers 8/15/09
Colourstone 7/25/09
Periwinkle 6/--/09
***Tangerine 7/21/09 (Got word, they are moving across the street.)
Micheal Cassidy Gallery 6/15/09
St. Claire Coffee 6/15/09
Luxe Home Interiors 6/4/09
Treefort 5/8/09
Blue 5/2/09
***Volcano Tasting Room 4/28/09** Moved to Minnesota Ave.
Habit 4/16/09
Mountain Comfort 4/14/09
Tetherow Property 4/11/09
Blue Moon Marketplace 3/25/09
Plenty 3/25/09
Downtown Doggie 3/25/09
***King of Sole (became Mary Janes)**
Santee Alley
Bistro Corlise
Made in Hawaii
EnVogue
Stewart Weinmann (leather)
Kebanu Gallery
Pella Doors and Windows
Olive company
Pink Frog
Little Italy
Deep
Merenda's
Volo
***Pomegranate (downtown branch)**
Norwalk
Pronghorn Real Estate office.
Speedshop Deli
Paper Place
Bluefish Bistro

(List begun, Fall 2008.)

Have begun the rewrite.

Actually, most of my 're-writing' has taken the form of adding new material to the first draft.

I'm taking advantage of the characters' longevity by adding flashbacks. This will allow me to:

1.) Add historical personages, who have had contact with the "dark."
2.) Develop the love relationship between the main character and the love of his life.
3.) Bring in scenes where I describe the creatures who will show up at the end.

Since the two overall themes of the book are to show the long process of "becoming human" and the long process of showing the demise of species -- of both worlds -- and the main character's efforts to save them, this flashback process allows me to show it happening, instead of telling.

I've had a blast incorporating historical characters into the scenes. And the two themes as well as the love story are going to add some depth and texture to the story.

The biggest problem with bringing in the new material isn't the new scenes themselves -- by definition, they pretty much hold up as distinct material.

No...it's the narrative and the explanations that are going to be hard to time -- to make all the connecting tissue in the right places and not repeat myself or give away too much in doing it.

I'm keeping the faith that I can be clever enough in the end to smooth all that out.

A good result.

I'm feeling extremely proud of myself right now.

I didn't have to make that big step toward gaming and new books a few years ago. It was a risk. I could have just tried to keep making what I do work.

And I did do that. Sales this Christmas were higher on comics and graphic novels than last year, so I haven't lost any ground there.

But sales on boardgames actually beat comics in December, which is totally unexpected. Sales on novels beat graphic novels, also unexpected.

So I'm proud of diagnosing the problem and coming up with a solution and making it work. I've managed to bring in two strong product lines without displacing existing product lines, which with my limited space, was a very creative effort.

I'm now trying to imagine how my store would be doing if I hadn't made the investment in games and books. Ouch.

Throwing more money at comics and graphic novels and card games and sports cards and anime and toys wouldn't have boosted sales all that much. They were already fully developed and mature categories.

Now that I've established games and books, I'm taking a second look at all the other categories, and trying to rejuvenate them, as well. Toys, (starting the carry the standard DC and Marvel action figures), cards, anime (brought in all the Myizaki movies, for instance), etc. etc. Small increases would be acceptable in all these categories.

I never did ease up on comics and graphic novels. I've been buying them full bore all along. And especially in comics, I've actually increased the numbers I order. I'm not letting them fall away.

Basically, books and games are doing about twice as well as my initial hope for them, with room still to grow.

I haven't had the urge in the last three years to bring in more categories, though. It simply isn't possible....


I'll have more detailed totals later in the day, for both the month and the year.

Sat. Shots

Stupid me, it never occurred to me that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would still sell. I knew that all the used copies of all three books were gone from the store, and none have come in lately. But I didn't think anyone would want it new.

So the constant flow of requests surprises me.

I mean, it was a bestseller for a couple of years, or more. There has already been a trilogy of movies released (Swedish) and well....it just seemed like old news.

But -- apparently -- a Hollywood movie. That's different.

**********

Meanwhile, Hunger Games sells O.K.

But I know the big surge is coming...

**********

We sold a whole bunch of Tintins. Unlike the usual pattern of graphic novels mostly selling in advance, in anticipation of a movie, I'm pretty sure these mostly sold to people who had seen the movie.

It had that effect on me.

**********

The Blazers seem to be winning without any big stars.

Sadly, that probably won't continue. But wouldn't it be cool if it did?

**********

Dear T.V.

QUIT putting all your good shows on SUNDAY! Even my DVR can't keep up.

**********

Tucker and Dale vs Evil: What a fun movie!

Did this movie even make it to Bend? Did I just miss that?

Also watching Troll Hunter, though I'm not a big fan of the Blair Witch kind of movie. But I appreciate the cleverness of it.

(I HATED Blair Witch, and honestly don't get why people like it...)

**********

A couple of the online reviewers of my books Snowcastles and Icetowers made fun of the possibility that people could live in such places.

But ever since, I've been reading more and more instances where people build such things, Ice Hotels and such. There was an blurb in the Bulletin the morning about a church in Bavaria that was built of snow and ice.

I just figured it was possible -- like giant igloo's.

"But how do the people handle fire?" Linda asks.

"Not my problem. It's a fantasy." I answer.

"But it IS your problem...."

"O.K. They have a special formula that makes the ice as hard as rock. Sheeesh."

The future's so bright, we need to pull shades.

I know this is a utterly ridiculously contrarian viewpoint, but I think the future of the independent bookstore, games store, comic store, video store, record store -- is bright. So bright, we need to pull shades.

If I had to guess what a town like Bend will look like in 10 years, I'd bet we have at least one independent bookstore, one record store, one comic store, one games store -- maybe more.

What we won't have is a Borders, Barnes and Noble, Blockbuster, Virgin Records -- whatever oversized monstrosity you choose.

In other words, it's the mass market, category killers who are going to be wiped out by the digital asteroid, leaving the survivors of this digital revolution to reap the benefits. The dinosaurs will be gone, and the mammals will have their day. After generations of scurrying into niches, the niches are going to bloom.

For most of my career, the mass market has been the biggest obstacle to my making money. The internet is relatively new, and frankly, the same responses I developed to survive the onslaught of Walmart is the same response I have to Amazon.

You can't beat them.

They will always be cheaper, they will always have more.

I was fortunate in that comics were such a small industry, that the mass market more or less ignored them. I could take a bigger slice of a much smaller pie. There are probably as many comic books stores in the U.S.A. as there are independent bookstores, or record stores, even though comics are much, much smaller market overall.

My guess is, that a small slice of a much bigger market (books, games, toys, music), even if that market shrinks drastically, will provide independents a future.

For sure, there is going to be a shakeout, as everyone adjusts to the new realities. Creative destruction on a massive scale.

But I truly believe that the shopping experience, the browsing, touching, seeing, talking, feeling, atmosphere soaking experience of independent stores is here to stay. Let Amazon have 90% of the market, and the 10% will still probably be more money than most comic stores make today, so I know it can be done. Independents won't get rich, but I think there can still be a satisfying career to be had.

No doubt, digital will reign supreme, but there will still be plenty of people who want books, or who want digital...and books. I think, in fact, that there will be lots of people who come back us, as the soullessness of the computer screen sinks in.

It will be our job as independents to have an idiosyncratic and interesting selection of books, have them displayed in eye-catching ways, be willing (and knowledgeable enough) to talk and interact with the customer, have places and hours where we can be found, and otherwise be a satisfying and enjoyable experience.

Those skills can be developed, even now. After a year or two of absorbing the lessons of the e-readers, I'm feeling more optimistic now than I have in a long time.

Take the Nook out, and you've got another Borders.

Barnes and Noble is thinking of spinning off the Nook.

I'm not sure I understand all the ramifications of this -- but my general sense is that this is an effort to wring value out of the stock. I figure they'll dump all the debts into the Brick and Mortar operation, and take the high-flying Nook division away to make all the money.

In other words, I think they are giving up on physical books.

They'd never say that, of course.

One commentator was mentioning that it defied the selling option of using the bricks and mortars for publicizing the Nook. Maybe I don't understand the "spinning off" part, but why? Why wouldn't they just push even harder? Devote even more space, time, energy, employees to push the Nook? Let the books crash and burn, what do they care? It's all doomed anyway....

What's been happening is that the Barnes and Noble stock hasn't been going anywhere, despite the 'success' of the Nook. So it seems they've decided to extract the value by removing the one part of the operation that has a future.

Whether that's smart or dumb, I do think it spells the end of the Barnes and Noble bookstores. Without the Nook, they are just another version of Borders, right?

Writing for the write reasons.

When you buy, sell, and read as many books as I do, you start to get a sense of the enormous size of the marketplace. Especially if you sell books.

I see hundreds of titles per weekend being touted on the literary sites. I see thousands of books a week being offered by my distributors. And that's just the new stuff.

I don't know how this affects other writers -- I don't know, maybe it inspires them. It certainly would seem to point to the idea there is room for a writer to get published, because plenty of them are getting published. Most you've never heard of. Most you never will hear of.

For me, it's kind of dispiriting. What's the use? I see books on the remainders lists that I've heard of, that were well-reviewed, that I had thought would sell very well. I see books being discounted that have been turned into movies, that got the front page review in the N.Y. Times.

And then it seems like every other person in the door is looking for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, or The Hunger Games. I liked T.G.W.T.D.T. fine, I guess. It was kind of clunky, but I liked how different it was.

But off the top of my head, I can point to dozens of authors who are better.

I very much enjoyed The Hunger Games -- but not to the exclusion of everything else.

Anyway, as I'm trying to pump up my motivation to finish my book, it can be a bit deflating.

I've mentioned before, "writing through the doubt."

Well, there's that.

I'm trying to get back to that feeling I get when I'm writing that it deserves to exist. That there is a story there. The enjoyment part. That is what is going to have to sustain me over the next few months.

The "write" reasons, if you well.

Thursday thunks.

This is the first year in a long time that I think the Star Wars franchise didn't play a big role at Christmas.

It'll come around again, I have no fear.

The 3-D movies are coming.

***********

Best way to watch a football game. DVR, then fast forward all the huddles and time-outs. You don't miss anything but lame commentary, and the game goes whizzing by....

**********

Peace and quiet is probably not something any storekeeper should ever wish for -- but it's kind of nice to come to a quiet and peaceful store after the holiday rush.

**********

I ordered 219 copies of Batgirl #5, instead of the 19 or 21 copies I thought I was ordering.

I think I can return them, but they make it a little difficult, so I'm not looking forward to it. On the other hand, having 600.00 (retail) of extra Batgirls isn't my idea of fun, either.

**********

I'm going to dive into writing tomorrow, and not re-emerge until I've finished the second draft. I've warned Linda I'll be distracted. That I may skip a lot of T.V. shows, and so on. I took most of December off, which was dangerous, but I don't think I had much choice.

So a whole lot of these blog entries will probably be about writing for awhile.

***********

Finally, I think I'll just say I don't know what to think about the "privatization" of the county public works.

It feels like a bad idea. Rife with the possibilities of corruption.

My general sense is to ask -- is this with 'standard practices' for local government? I would think we'd be best off, usually, doing what the general tradition is. (I know, this sounds funny from a guy who tends to reject 'standard practices' when it comes to small business -- but if I'm wrong, it only hurts me.)

I'll leave this discussion open for those who know more about this than me.

The Star Axe made real.

I got the painting of Star Axe in the mail yesterday.

I tried to save up all year for it, but couldn't quite get there. So we finally decided that it would be the only Christmas present, and took the money out of savings. There is just no way I couldn't buy it.

The arrival was very exciting. I made a customer and Boyd, the mailman, wait around while I opened it. And opened it. And opened it. The packing was dense, to say the least.

But I finally freed the picture.....and it is magnificent. It is very Frazetta, Royo, Vallejos. But, more accurately, it's a sword and sorcery cover, which is what the publisher labeled my book. (I thought of it more as Heroic Fantasy, but, hey -- they were the ones writing the checks.)

Anyway, the painting was much bigger than I expected -- if it had been any bigger I wouldn't be able to display it in my store.

The details just pop out. Up to now, I've only had a picture the size of a paperback to judge it by. And of course, the writing on the cover of the title and that pesky author obscured some of the picture.

There is nothing like an original oil painting to see the depth and textures.

I didn't choose the artist or the image, but I was very happy when I first saw it, and I've always pretty much liked it since.

I also bought a giglee of Star Axe from the artist, Romas Kukalis. (Signed, #23 of a 100 print run. I think he probably turned around and made a printing because I asked for a copy.) I took it down the street to High Desert Framing. The framing is going to cost 2.5 times the actual print, but I picked deluxe design and materials.

Since it's going to take 10 days or so for the framing to be done, I decided to hang the original painting at the store for a month or two. Not much longer than that, because I'm worried about exposing the work to the constant florescent lights. Eventually, I'll take it home and put up in my office, and replace it with the giglee at the store.

For context, I put my book on a little stand next to the picture.

Anyway, it's a pretty impressive painting.

Come in and see it, everyone!

No -- what you know is wrong.

An interesting discussion over on The Beat, where a statistical analysis of the New 52 DC comics has "proven" that the venture was unsuccessful at increasing sales or readership.

To which, several of us retailers pipe up and say, "That's not right. It was very successful."

Then it gets kind of funny, because they come back with, "I assure you, Sir, you were not successful with the New 52" to which they might as well add, "And your name isn't Duncan."

Heh.

More seriously, what accounts for the discrepancy between the statistics and the retailers' experiences? Are we deluding ourselves?

First of all, the statistics have a variable or two that I think most of us retailers wouldn't count. For instance, the "returns" on issues 3 and 4. I'm not returning a single issue, because by the time the 3rd issue rolled in, I had refined my orders to normal numbers.

Secondly, it's possible that me and the other retailers who responded are the exceptions. I don't believe that. There are always a few stores who miss the boat, but this should be a constant. So I don't think that's it.

Third, I'm seeing sales in context. I'd been losing subscribers for about a year, and the New 52 brought us right back to previous numbers. Just as Obama is going to have to try to prove that the economy would have been worse without his efforts, I'd have to try to prove that comic sales would have been worse without the New 52.

In looking at the numbers in the four months preceding the New 52, our comic sales were down about 15% from the previous year (worse than I thought, because they had been covered by my increased sales in books and games). The increase in the first four months of the New 52 is up 20%. So that is a 35% swing.

But I can see how a statistician might just see a 15 or 20% increase, add the variable of returns and (whatever the other variables were, I couldn't figure out; one of the miracles of my college education was I passed a Statistics course without understanding a thing....) and the increase might be reduced to marginal numbers.

But that's not how it felt in the real world.

Fourth, I'm gauging overall interest. Even though I'd been losing subscribers, my actual sales hadn't been dropping comparatively. And yet -- it wasn't a good sign. Subscribers are strongly interested in getting their comics, and sales off the counter are more incidental. I'd say that the New 52 rejuvenated interest in comics, even among the Marvel and independents readers.

Fifth, for me the boost in DC sales was just what I needed, bringing my discount level up another notch, and allowing me to reinvest in DC graphic novels, thus allowing the possibility of increased sales in the future.

Sixth, the new readership is there, but they simply took the place of lapsed readership, so it isn't noticeable. Still, new readership is what our industry needs. It shows that it can be done. That and bringing back former readers.

So I see the New 52 as spectacularly successful.

But I must be wrong.

Sons of Anarchy (**Spoilers**)

Finished the second season of S.O.A.

A veritable symphony of bad Irish accents. Our movies and T.V. are full of British and Irish and Aussie and New Zealander actors who do convincing American accents. (Jax is an English actor, for instance.) But Americans often do lame foreign accents. (Meryl Streep excepted, of course.)

I figured out last night, that the world of motorcycles is like a Settlers of Catan game. The resources are drugs, guns, porn and extortion. The players are the Latin gangs, the Black gangs, the White gangs, the Irish gangs, the Cop gangs -- and, the S.O.A.

I have a suggestion for T.V. writers -- "Lockdowns" are obviously inconvenient for your plotting, so don't do them. Don't send off the "Queen" and the "Princess" on a stupid tampon shopping trip, with one guard, if that's what you need to do, and pretend it's sensible. (I looking at you, too, Terra Nova -- either it's a lockdown or it isn't...)

I don't know why, what gave it away -- but I sensed that Numbnuts was doomed a couple of episodes in advance. I turned to Linda and said, "He's wearing a red shirt..."

Finally, if all you are going to do is pop the bad guys in the end -- then why do you make a big deal out of "being smart" and "setting them up?" The shooting them in the head option is always there, but they are wildly inconsistent about when they apply that solution.


As long as I'm complaining, I've just about had it with Hell on Wheels. What bugs me is that it is supposed to be a show centered on building a railroad, but they make zero effort to make that believable. Seriously, if they had the same plot and same actors and same costumes -- but actually made a half-assed effort to show the 'working on the railroad' part in the background in a believable way -- it would be a decent show.

I'm trying to winnow down my T.V. watching, so I'm through with Hell on Wheels.

I've suggested to Linda that we write down a list of "Unmissable" shows, DVR just them, and contain our watching to just a couple of nights a week. I don't think that will work when Linda will watch any rerun of N.C.I.S. or Bones and especially Law and Order, and I'm a sucker for any Nova or Frontline or Masterpiece Theater that comes along.

I realize that we watch too much T.V., but there really are a bunch of very good shows on these days, especially on the premium channels. Network T.V.? Not so much. House and Mentalist both are pretty mediocre these days -- the only exception is The Good Wife, which is consistently great. I'm going to drop Persons of Interest -- it's O.K., but that isn't good enough. C.S.I. Las Vegas is barely hanging in there, as the major characters drop away one by one. Grimm falls short of being a good show. Mentalist is hanging by the thin thread of charm. So I'm willing to drop those, as well. Maybe only The Good Wife is truly unmissable, for me. And The Walking Dead.

And the cable shows: Dexter, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire.

Do I talk about the end of the year, or the beginning?

So they are talking about eliminating the dollar coins.

But what will I put in my piggy bank?

**********

I have to admit, the "uncanny valley" phenomenon was less troubling in the movie Tintin than it was in the trailers. I've noticed before, the contrast is more more extreme when you get it in short bursts and without the context.

Still -- I think I probably spent the first 20% of the movie noticing the differences. It still is distracting.

I think this will wear off, eventually, if they keep using and perfecting this process. It will become something we all just accept.

I hope.

**********

About midway through the second season of Sons of Anarchy, and the show hit its stride.

I was getting pretty fed up with the constant, "Hey, are you O.K." "Yeah, I'm just pissed at Cole" Hamlet-y stuff that was going on. I was beginning to think Jax was the poster child for passive aggressive.

Then, in the course of two shows, they resolved it all -- laid it all out, and refocused.

Hamlet is all well and good, but I'd like a little resolution once in awhile.

***********

I've noticed that a lot of my favorite shows over time have taken a year or two to really hit their stride.

Star Trek: Next Generation. Buffy. X-Files. It's like the actors settle on their tone, and the showrunner has refined the message.

**********

"Do you want to see War Horse, Sherlock Holmes, or Dragon Tattoo?"

"Anything but War Horse. It's about war and horses -- and I don't like horses."

"I see no reason to see Dragon Tattoo -- we've already seen it...."

"I want to see Dragon Tattoo..."

"Sherlock Holmes it is...."

**********

Was totally psyched by the last week of the year. We had a very good week.

Overall, this December was the second best we've ever had. Boardgames beat comics for the first time. Novels beat graphic novels for the first time. It's seasonal, but still a good sign for my diversity efforts.

I also spent a whole bunch, so we probably made about as much profit as last year, but we were a full 20% ahead in sales. Our second half of the year was good enough to pull us over last year in total. Cool.

I'm going to have a lot more to say about all this when I analyze the year-end figures.

Never mind the bullets.

I'm not sure what I find most scary.

That a wife could shoot a husband 5 times on purpose and get away with it.

That a wife could shoot a husband 5 times by accident and still have the right to bear arms.

That a wife could shoot a husband 5 times and they couch it as some kind of moral success story.


People are strange.

Happy New Year everyone!

I never make New Year's resolutions because

a. I'm perfect.

b. I'm so flawed that nothing will help.

c. I'm so weak-willed that a New Year's resolution just proves it...and I'm tired of proving it.

d. All the above.

**********

I kept thinking that the villain in Tintin looked like Steven Spielberg, and when I got home and googled it, I only got as far as "Tintin villain lo....." before a bunch of hits came up, so apparently I wasn't the only one.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit actually. A rollicking adventure.

I sold a bunch of Tintin graphic novels this Christmas.

**********

Somebody set off such a loud boom at midnight, that our kitchen wall clock fell off and broke.

These celebrations are getting louder every year.

I made this mistake of letting the cat out about 11:30 or so, and after all the noise I went looking for her, finally to hear this strange, plaintive meow near the upstairs sliding door. She ran in and hid for awhile. So much meaning in such a simple meow...

**********

We were watching the trailers in front of Tintin, and they're doing a 3-D Titanic and I'm thinking how gorgeous Kate Winslet was in this movie (she's since gotten as thin and angular as all the other actresses, sadly) and the end tag line comes and I unexpectedly feel a tear in my eye. "I'll never let go."

Whenever that happens -- that Hallmark emotion -- I look at Linda, and sure enough she's crying.

I never did want to see Titanic again, because I found it to be very sad.

I never put down that movie, because it was very effective at what it does.

**********

Also watching the lead in graphics to the Imax process and thinking what a teenager from the '60's would think if he was magically transported to today's experience. (Specifically -- ME.)

"What...you still have the clunky glasses?"

"Where's the holodeck?"

"Is that animation? What is that?"

"Who's Steven Spielberg?"

"Movies cost $13.00!!!!"

The corporate meatgrinder.

It's sad to see people chewed up and spit out by corporate America. I'm talking about the employees, here. The underlings.

There but for the grace of god go I.

I saw it happen to Linda, working as assistant manager at Regal Cinemas. She had health insurance, -- which we ended up needing -- but it was a horrible job, in many ways. She has a certain nostalgia for it, but I was there, man, and it was a meat grinder. (Same with her short stint at Barnes and Noble, which turned out to be about anything but books.)

I remember going to the movies the week after she finally quit, and meeting some of her co-workers, and turning to Linda and saying, "Do you see that look of panicked stress in their eyes? That was you a week ago."

She landed in her own bookstore, and is the mistress of her domain, and happy at it. And all those managers from Barnes and Noble and Regal, who in my opinion treated her unfairly, can go suck eggs. (That may be a bit mean-spirited, because at the local level they are all victims of the meatgrinder.)

Yes, owning your own business can be stressful, but at least you are charge of your own decision making. Yes, you can fail, but so can you lose a job. I read once that the worst kind of stress is having all the responsibility but none of the power to make changes. When you own your own business, you have both the responsibility AND the ability to make changes; stressful, but it has a different flavor to it.

What brought this up is reading another blog, (Rocket Bomber) written by a guy who works in a national book chainstore. He seems terribly put upon. He fantasizes about opening his own bookstore, but the fantasy is so over-the-top that it will never happen. I suggested once that he open a more modest endeavor and he slapped me down. (Admittedly, he had asked for no comments, so I probably deserved it. Still....kind of lost a lot of sympathy for him.)

It's strange to see someone keep their corporate meat grinder job year after year, and hear how he rationalizes it, and wishing he'd just take the chance and put that kind of effort into his own business.

I probably should be careful about advising that, though. It does seem like an awful lot of these 'dream' businesses fail. But I know what I would do.

Selling what no one wants.

I say it every season. I'm happy when Christmas (and summer) get here, and happy when it goes.

I like the money. I like the activity. But all the frenetic flow and people wear me out.

I'll be content to hibernate for a couple of months.

Everything in a cycle, in waves....that's the way life should be.

**********

I'm going to dive into writing next week, and try to push thru to the finish. I might -- if I need to -- go on a short writing trip to kickstart the process.

I'm seeing how I've maybe set myself up for a reaction that I'm not quite prepared for. When I wrote my first books, it was more or less an impersonal process. I never met my agent or editors or the vast majority of my readers.

I'm going to be a little more vulnerable to opinions with this process. What I'm not going to do is put anyone on the spot and ask.

**********

I was talking about the lucky streak of warm shopping days had come to an end. Ironically, it may have helped business. I had several groups of customers mention that they had decided to skip skiing after a soggy day on the mountain.

The worst scenario for a tourist -- coming because there is good snow, and being met by bad snow -- is the best scenario for shopping.

Sorry bout that.

**********

Stupid wolf. Going to California. Sheesh.

**********

Another brewery in town.

Maybe I should get in on the action. I don't know nuttin about beer, but I figure I'll just hire a bunch of home brewers, put a cute name on it, some artsy packaging, and sell it really really cheap.

Speaking of which -- I saw so many Powell's Candy bags this Christmas, that I'm convinced it must be the busiest store in Bend.

I KNEW I should have gone into a different business -- beer, candy, drugs...something sinful.

Because selling reading material is just stupid.

Wed. wats.

Much as I appreciate the rain (I was thinking about resorting to breaking out the watering hoses for my garden, cause I was afraid my plants were being freeze dried) I'm sure it will put a damper on sales for the rest of the week.

It's kind of the end of our lucky streak. The weather was so uniform this shopping season that I think it helped. There wasn't the usual one or two inexplicable clunker days.

************

I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Hamlet connection to Sons of Anarchy all by my lonesome.

Linda and I have blown through 10 episodes. (They are relatively short, at about 39 minutes.)
For those of you who are way ahead of us on what's happened, please don't tell. For those of you who haven't started watching, there be spoilers ahead.

In the show, Jax (Hamlet) spends much of his time in the ramparts (the roof of the garage) communing the dead ghost of his dad (in the form of diaries.)

The one thing that bothers me about the show, is sometimes they seem to try a little too hard for the swaggering tough guy effect -- which can have the opposite effect of reminding me that they are all just actors, after all.

I think it's partly because of the shortness of the show, that things that can be a little more developed on HBO or Showtime, with an extra 10 or 15 minutes, in this show seem to be slightly telegraphed.

It's a problem with all tough guys shows, really. I remember seeing French Connection last year, and what had seemed so gritty and real when I was young seemed slightly fake and almost cartoony.

The actor's are mostly pulling it off -- so I'm not sure if the problem is the writing or the actors or just that they are talking about a foreign world and trying to show the "hearts of gold" and all that and it somehow doesn't quite seem -- realistic.

It walks a very narrow line, and pulls it off -- mostly.

**********

So far, we haven't had a single return. (knock wood). They may still all come in like an avalanche, but so far so good.

I'm very casual about telling the customers that if it isn't the right thing, they can exchange it for anything in the store.

We try not to give cash back -- but sometimes you just can't avoid it. But it sure hurts when it happens.

Exchanges? Those only make sense.

**********

I did my December orders yesterday, and allowed myself to order all the "cool" stuff I saw -- and it came in about 25% higher than is healthy.

Is the store strong enough to take the chance? If I order 25% more, can I sell about 15% more to cover it?

This kind of thing almost never pans out, but occasionally -- it does. And it's how the store takes a step forward. It's that risky move that you can usually avoid taking -- but not always.

I'll add up the Christmas profits, see how far down I'm paying on the debts, and make my decision by Thursday. I more or less already made the big gamble this Christmas -- so I need to see how that panned out by paying all the bills and seeing what's left.

**********

That the Parks and Rec district has millions to spend on land points to the off-kilter nature of public funding. I'm sure there are firewalls protecting the money from raids by other entities who might need to money more...in the short term.

In the long term, I think they are being smart snapping up the land while they can.

As you know, my belief is that Central Oregon is fundamentally a tourist and retirement economy and will mostly remain so.

It makes sense to have as many park amenities as possible.

A "wide range of merchandise" ?

Golden Apple comics is for sale in Los Angeles, if you got a spare $679,000.00 laying around.

The founder of this "iconic" store died a few years ago, and my sense is that it's been more or less going downhill ever since.

What caught my notice was this description: "The Golden Apple was a forward-facing store with a wide range of merchandise..." (Interesting phrasing: "was" a "forward looking"....)

If you look at the actual merchandise, though, it's:

58.3% New comics.
31.7% Graphic Novels.
10% Everything Else.

I suspect that the vast majority of those 90% comics and graphic novels are superhero oriented.

Anyway, as comparison, I checked this December's totals for the same categories in my store:

21.1% New comics.
16.8% Graphic Novels.

62% Everything else. Yes, comics are about 38% or a little more than 1/3rd.

Now THAT'S a description of a store with a "Wide Range."

I think that's the description of a store that is more likely to survive over the long run.

That 38% of sales for comics and graphic novels doesn't represent an actual decline in sales of those two categories -- in fact, we will probably beat last year. I haven't slowed down my support of these two categories at all, indeed the diversity of product has allowed me to continue to buy what I need there, and to up my orders on new comics.

What it shows is that the other categories in the store have increased.

Boardgames are almost exactly equal to new comics this Christmas. Granted -- this is the high water mark for that category.

New books are almost exactly equal to graphic novels this Christmas. Again, a seasonal high water mark.

Sports cards and dvd's accounted for another 5%.
Toys accounted for 7.5%
Card Games accounted for 10%.

This 22.5% of sales is an even bigger argument for diversity -- it's probably what makes the rest of the store work.

Comics and graphic novels will probably come closer to 50% of the total in most months -- and that shows the strengths of my regular clientele. The strength of the other product shows the strength of the foot traffic of the downtown area and of the seasons.

Together, they make for a "diverse" store that has a chance of selling something.

"Sons of Anarchy" Christmas.

Of all things, we watched the first four episodes of this motorcycle gang saga.

You know how we're identifying with the bad guys in these shows? Meth and arms dealers. Or serial killer Dexter, or Gangster Nucky. Kind of a weird development.

I wanted to watch this show for some time, and with reruns going on, this was a good time to dive in. We have several seasons to catch up on. I thought I might have a hard time getting Linda to watch, but Ron Perlman is one of her favorite actors (ever since Beauty and the Beast) , so that's how I got her to watch the first episode...

"You know," she says. "He's getting better looking as he gets older."

"He's still ugly."

"Well, sure.... but better looking than before."

**********

"Exit through the Gift Shop."

The documentary by (about?) street artist Banksy.

I have a strange reaction to these art documentaries. These people all seem like raging egotists and preening narcissists.

Banksy's anonymity actually makes him seem even more of an egoist, somehow.

Maybe that's what it takes to get noticed in the art world.

As far as the documentary is concerned, if you like mind games, this was a good one. I don't think I liked it much -- I would have preferred a straight documentary about street art, with many more examples.

And yet, it makes its point.

**********

"Angry Bear" blog has a cute column about how Unitarians "saved" Christmas. (And the Puritans literally "outlawed" it.)

heh.