The Sphere
General Garbage => Tropical Paradise of Hard Shelled Fruits => Topic started by: B E C K on Aug 12, 2006, 01:08:21 AM
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:happybirthday:
So will it look something like this: :bernie:
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I wanna come!
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happy bdaaayy!
today is my cousin's bday too haha
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Congratulations! You're One Year Closer to Senility!
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Happy birthday, Bernie.
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*Bday hug for Bernie*
It's my little brother's b-day too. @.x
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How come I don't know who that is?
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:happybirthday:
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I wanna come!
Me too ;)
;)
Happy Birthday Bernie
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Oh yeah, Happy Birthday, now lets all have a weekend at bernies. :lol: Who's gonna shoot me first?
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I will.
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Nuri can't log in, or what?
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I hacked the her account with my mad hacking skills like in the movie 'Hackers'. Hack. Hack. Hack.
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Surely....the Gone with the Wind of our time.
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I also have enough balls to say that Miles Davis is terribly overrated.
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Or maybe I was at another computer.
Bernie, whenever you get to this, tell us how your day went!
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I think I like the hacker story better...adds a bit of cloak and dagger intrigue to the whole thing.
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Damn straight.
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'Twas good. Went to our regular pub for a BD lunch party, got lots of goodies, and our regular server bought me a gawdawful shot called a birthday cake which I sipped at and passed on. Eddie made up for it by doing shots of Glenlevit and getting so trashed that he barely made it into the house before puking. :lol: He was in bed by 4:30, so that was it for the birthday, but he had already given me my gorgeous white gold & blue topaz necklace, so he was forgiven. :P
Best present: this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/us/12preserve.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) in the NY Times. Since the bastards are getting shamed nationally now as well as locally, we may just have a chance. Rama, nice exterior shot of the other Art Deco theatre we're trying to keep intact which is now a Barnes & Noble/Bookstop.
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Wow.......
No wonder you want to save this place so bad. That's amazing.
And can't they just build the B&N someplace else like in a mall or shopping center or something? Someplace where if they kick out the American Eagle no one will care. In fact this place needs to be a theater again. I hope they didn't level the floors.
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Nope - cashiers & displays are in the main lobby, stairs on either side, staggered aisle all the way down front and the magazine section is where the screen used to be. Upstairs in the balcony is a coffee shop with seating next to the balcony rail and all sorts of little nooks & places to read. The mood there is like nowhere else; not tense or hurried in the least. I haven't been to another bookstore other than Half Price Books in years. The gorgeous wall decor on either side of the screen area and the ornate ceiling is still in place. At least for the moment. I literally almost threw up when I read this:
Barnes & Noble confirms plans to close Alabama Theater/Bookstop
Barnes & Noble has confirmed the company intends to close Houston’s Alabama Theater/Bookstop in favor of a “state of the art” facility. The confirmation came in an article by Thaddeus Herrick in today’s Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson for Weingarten Realty, which owns the Alabama, told the Journal the future of the Alabama Theater (1939) is a “challenging situation.”
According to tenants of the River Oaks Shopping Center (1937), Weingarten Realty plans to demolish the portion of the shopping center on the northeast corner of Shepherd and West Gray to construct a three-story building for the new Barnes & Noble store. The bookseller says the fate of the architectural landmarks is up to Weingarten Realty.
You CANNOT drive in any direction for ten minutes in Houston without passing either a gigantic Borders or Barnes & Noble. They're ALL "state of the art", whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. People drive over 50 miles to visit THIS bookstore and see a movie at the River Oaks up the street when they could do the same in a mall 5 minutes from home FOR A REASON. But I guess when one is a corporate gazillionaire with a hugh jass home theater who doesn't read anything they're not mentioned in, that concept is a little difficult to wrap the old head around. <_<
I understand property rights, etc. but the biggest burr in all of our saddles is how Weingarten Realty has always given themselves airs over their "good management of architecturally-significant properties" and even has a whole section pimping the shit out of the River Oaks Center's history on the website. Kind of like selling one's daughter into prostitution, then disowning her after the money is made because she's no longer a virgin. :angry:
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State of the art? God, how fucking over-rated is that. State of the art for a bookstore is usually just fucking dull. They're books. You can't really make them any more "state of the art" than adding a chime when you turn the page. Not to mention B&N is heinously overpriced. Fuckers.
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Yeah I was kinda wondering how you make Bookshelves "State of the Art."
Nope - cashiers & displays are in the main lobby, stairs on either side, staggered aisle all the way down front and the magazine section is where the screen used to be. Upstairs in the balcony is a coffee shop with seating next to the balcony rail and all sorts of little nooks & places to read. The mood there is like nowhere else; not tense or hurried in the least. I haven't been to another bookstore other than Half Price Books in years. The gorgeous wall decor on either side of the screen area and the ornate ceiling is still in place.
Coolie.... Would be a shame if they tore it down now. Doesn't sound like it'd take much to restore it, most of the unique stuff that would be hard to replace sounds like is still in place. They leveled the floors at the one I was talking about earlier that sells mattresses. I think they tore out the balcony as well...but I'm not for sure on that. Only been in it once since it become Balboa Bed Company.
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Happy Belated
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They're books. You can't really make them any more "state of the art" than adding a chime when you turn the page
Oh, we just got the definition. "State of the art" means a cafe' (already have it), a music section (who the fuck goes to a bookstore to buy CDs?) aaaannnnd...
Wait for it, Nuri....
A CHILDREN'S PLAY AREA! :angry:
I have a friend who used to work at Borders. The running joke was that the kid's play area was where bad books went to be executed. Average life of a book there was one week before it was chewed/ripped up, colored in, thrown across the store or used to beat some other brat up.
So our gorgeous theater is in danger because people can't be arsed to mind their snotgobblers. Like I needed another reason to hate entitlement parents.
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OH FUCK! I forgot about the damn children's area. Yeah, those fucking things are all over the brand new bookstores. I forget because I take one look at the disgusting little boogermunchers putting saliva-covered fingers on everything and turn tail to another section of the store. CDs. Pfft! CDs at bookstores other than Half Price Books* are ripoffs.
*Dammit, my fingers kept wanting to type in "Half Price Boobs". :blink:
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*Dammit, my fingers kept wanting to type in "Half Price Boobs". :blink:
I'd go to that store AND a kids area would make sense.
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And it would explain such a drastic drop in price.
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Someone get the ointment!
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Oh, we just got the definition. "State of the art" means a cafe' (already have it), a music section (who the fuck goes to a bookstore to buy CDs?) aaaannnnd...
Now I've never gone to a bookstore to buy CDs.We seem to have a abundance of music stores around here and all have the slight smell of reefer and look like some set off a dye bomb in them, but we are lacking in the movie department. So I go to books stores to looks for films I can't get at Wal-Mart or Target since they only care about the latest unrated version of some movie that tanked in the theaters. Bookstores seem to have a wider selection and are more likely to have widescreen, as I abhor fullscreen movies. Fullscreen is the trailer trash of the DVD world.
"I hates me them little bars.... what are them for?" *spit*
Ugh...
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One of my cousin's kids was going nuts at the tv once. Merla did everything she could to try to fix it, before figuring out that the damn black bars are what was driving him nuts. She zoomed in and he quieted down. Yeah, that's a strange kid, and seeing how he clearly prefers fullscreen movies, now he has bad taste, too.
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She appeased him? I'd have sent that kid to bed without dinner for that.
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Of course she appeased him, it was the only way to stop the noise. Not to mention there is really no where to send him to bed in grandma's house chocked full of relatives.
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I hope she wasn't in that environment by choice. I'm about ready to murder someone at Christmas time here. I usually just find a quiet corner and lock myself away in it.... but I can't see stepping into that on purpose. I hate 3F. Lucky for me I've alienated enough of my family that is only happens once a year now.
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Yeah, I'm more in the line of yearly appearances myself.
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I don't even like the yearly. With my Cousin's kids from hell that run rampant all over the place, my Aunt's bossy looking down her nose attitude and constant instance that I'm wasting my time with my writing, My in the closet other cousin who says he is going to show up and never does, and my Uncle's insistence on taking over the only TV with cable to watch every fucking sports game on the planet.... It’s not something I look forward too. I actually think I might like Christmas if it wasn't for them.
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I'd like Christmas if I were rich and/or religious. Ha ha. This'll be the first year in a long while where I don't work in close proximity to a shopping mall, so maybe I'll actually find something to enjoy this year.
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With my luck, this Christmas will see my first nervous breakdown.
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I don't really see Christmas as anymore a religious holiday as Halloween or Saint Patrick's day are. I know they started out that way, but there is little to none of its religious roots left. And I don't even know if I'm really religious myself. I guess it would depend on how you define that term.
And I start buying presents for people around late July; I have presents for people now. Cause as Weasely poor as I am, waiting till December can kill you.
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With my luck, this Christmas will see my first nervous breakdown.
I thought you already had like 2 or 3 of them( cause of your posts)
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I think he just vents here, cause he can't at home. Which is much better then a real breakdown. Trust me.
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The preservation battle, which takes up most of my lunchtimes now, continues. Someone from the Houston Chronicle caught the CEO of the development company who wants to tear down both theaters shopping for books at the Bookstop. He had no choice but to be photographed and interviewed. God, what a hypocritical motherfucker. I wish I'd been there to shove him over the balcony. :evil:
For anyone who likes Art Deco, a good Flickr photoessay on the Alabama Bookstop here. (http://flickr.com/photos/outerspace/sets/72157594239186308/show/)