What else is new?

Easter is my favorite Christian holiday; Xma$ can't hold a candle to it, imo. Instead of ka-ching, it's all about renewal and the things of Spring. As a pre-teen, I'd walk the boardwalk in Atlantic City (before the Casinos) to stroll the pier with peers, wearing a suit from Robert Hall, which surprisingly is still in business, although I won't be wearing a suit to Bald Knob Cross today.

Town Square should have an old-fashioned "Easter Parade" at the Pavilion, closing-off traffic on Jackson and Washington Sts. Maybe not on Easter Sunday, but another suitable Spring day. It would be fun. Maybe the Square could be beautified in the meantime. The Pavilion is so plain. A piece of statuary or artisitic sculpture would be nice.

To help bring these ideas to the public, a small group of Town Square merchants is launching the Town Square Marketing Association, headquarted at 201 E. Main St., Suite 2B. The TSMA will work with the Historic Town Square Coalition and Carbondale Main Street to give the area more identity (like the "Arbor District"). Other ideas will be presented in the On the Square Online blog later this month.

What else is new? Did you know the author of Carbondale After Dark is coming to town later this month? I'll be out of town, unfortunately, but the other local media will be there, with interviews and photos, I hope. His visit is in connection with the republication of his "self-proclaimed cult classic" -- the book that inspired the title for my blook. Somewhere I have a copy of the first edition of the book, and some copies of his magazine Non Sequitur. I knew H.B. years ago. Not well; he didn't like me.

So what else is new? ;-)

The blog portal site has been plagued by RSS feed problems with Blogger. (Won't go into the details here, but will there.) But there is nothing new about encountering problems during a creative process. And often the solutions mean a new opportunity or challenge: one thing leads to the another.

What else is new? I recently met with Ruby Jung about publishing the collected essays of her husband, and my good friend, the late waterman and hill-traveller himself. We hope to have in print before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, I've decided to put all my creative eggs into one multi-media basket: a company called Creative Media, which touts the motto: "We've taken the creativity out of our name, and passed it on to you." ;-) -- with an office in the Bening (Newell House) building.

What will CM offer? Print publishing of books and art; Music and video production, too. Plus advertising, PR, and software consulting. An Open House and Going Away Party for one of the Art Lovers' artists is planned for next Friday night (April 13) from 6-9 p.m.

What else is new? The Jung at Heart Celebration for April 28 is shaping up with some big time performers. It seems ol' Uncle Jim knew some people, who knew some people. Details are being finalized by SIU Marketing maven Terry Clark.

After that, for me, the next big public event for me is Bike 2 Work Day in May, which both Mayor Brad Cole and Mayor-hopeful Sheila Simon have agreed to participate in, handing out trophies to those who ride farthest and the business that has the most riders. "From a bicycling standpoint, if Sheila's mayor, more people will participate, since she's the darling of the Carbondale Bicycle Club, but Brad made the decision to launch the event in the first place," said a steering committee spokes-man.

I love puns and neologisms. What else is new?