THE FRESNAN

The Evening Post: Fresno Tree Hugging Edition

You may have seen the article by the Bee's George Hostetter [We like to call him "The Hoss"] in this morning's paper and then the subsequent blog post by Kathy Mahan: Fresno's "leaders" hate mature trees, by a unanimous 7-0 vote, no less. The city voted to pull out all the shade giving tree's at Eaton Plaza in favor of one day, maybe, planting some baby trees in the same spot.

There is gonna be some protesting, City of Fresno... sorry. You tried to slip one by Tree Fresno, but it ain't gonna work. The Internets are watching. Bust out your tree hugging equipment, Fresno Hippies.

Water Meters Are Coming, Fresno - We're All Screwed

Enjoy your slip-n-slides and longass showers now because Meter Day will hit your neighborhood soon enough. It may be time to empty your pool and charge skaters to come in.

In the words of the prophet, Pvt. Hudson "That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over..."

Walmart and Clovis fit like a bigbox glove

Ya duns fucked up now, Clovis. Yes voted a new Wal-Mart in your precious and pretty North Clovis area, did ya? Finally you've realized your dream of surpassing Pinedale in amount of Walmarts. Empty Clovis retail buildings in three, two, one...

Side note: Classic Walmart shot used because that's the look we imagine when Clovis and Walmart get together.

[Photo cred: Dave]

Dumb As Hell: Fresno City Council considering cutting an income generator

As reported by Famous Whitewater and Brodiemash, Thursday at 2pm the Fresno Film and Entertainment Commission will be presenting their budget to the Fresno City Council and the council may decide to just eliminate the FFEC all together.

This would be a terrible move. The Fresno Film and Entertainment Commission actually generates money for Fresno. Gen_er_rates mon_ey. And without the FFEC, we dont get Indy.

So, local filmmakers and logic lovers are uniting in Downtown Fresno [Council Chambers, City Hall, 2600 Fresno Street] Thursday, at the 2pm meeting, to show support of Fresno's Film Commission in hopes of convincing the city to keep it around. Surely this will dominate the talk at the Fresno Filmakers Alliance June mixer happening at Smokehouse.

To learn more about what Fresno's Film Commission does, have a listen to Flowing With Famous and The Dumb with Fresno's Film Commisioner, Ray Arthur.

Focused On Fresno: From The Department Of What The Hell Happened To The...

This is a current picture of the southeast corner of Ashlan and First:

Notice something? YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S ALL FUCKING GONE!

That whole old sweet little shopping center. With the quaint liquor store and classic old dry cleaners and old Foodland (well, it's been gone a while, but still). It had all the old signage and wood shake roofs and big trees. The center just plain matched the feel of the old Fresno neighborhood around it, and now it's gone. Just like that.

Going up in it's place is a Wallgreens. Wow, um like, really worth clearing the whole center for that. By the way, are Rite Aids and Wallgreens going to be taking over all our corners now?

Earth Day in The No: Do SOME damn thing, Fresnans

Oprah says it's important, so dammit man, you should care; it's Earth Day. But, what does a Fresnan do for Earth Day anyway?

• Don't go through the drive-thru. We might be the drive-thru capitol of the world, but, for a day, we can get out of our car and walk in.
• Plant a fig tree.
• Save some electricity and get somebody to turn off the electronic billboard at Blackstone and Shaw.
• After getting hammered on your patio, put your empty beer bottles in your blue bin instead of tossing them into your neighbor's yard.
• Tell your cow to hold its gas for the day - All Fresnans have cows and live in trailer parks, right?

Lastly, after you check Green Fresno for real events, see the event that may be the day after Earth Day, but it's local, timely, straight from our friends at the Fresno Audubon Society and kinda earthy (after the jump):

Fresno Wanderings: Tea Parties, Buying Local, Being Famous, Wolverine and The Death Of Bloggeraderie

>>Are you going to this tea party thingy? This blog says "Fuck that!" It's supposed to be a leave-your-party-at-the-door kinda event, but we know it's not. If this is going to be a real tea party, shouldn't it be next to a body of water and not Save Mart Center? The SJ River or someone's dock at Woodward Lakes? Fresno City College fountain... some damn thing.

>>The Fresno Famous Choice Awards have been... awarded. The Beehive is awarded the best blog (we agree...no, for realz). And yeah, we know you're there ballot stuffers Fresno Met Talk, and it's fine and all, but come on.

>>This new "Buy local" campaign is pretty uninspiring. It feels like some national commercial, not one made for the Central Valley. Mike Oz and many commenters agree. For the record, this blog is big on staying in the SJ Valley and Fresno County at all times...if we could only incorporate some beach-having county.

>>Fresno is just as dorky as the next city, I mean, we do have the best comic book store in the land. So why can't WE be the city chosen for an exclusive Wolverine premier? Dumb Drum has the full explanation. *Snikt*

>>Year two of the Blogger Olympics has apparantley become an exclusive event, leaving several local bloggers out of the mix. That's cool *cough*, I ahh *tear* umm didn't *deep breath*, I had um totally, have something going on that day and stuff... so you know, it's it's cool. No it's cool, really...*balling, balling*

The Evening Post: What's Old Could Be New Again For Gottschalks

It's about as depressing as Fresno retail can get out there (unless you're a Gottschalks competitor) and Fresno was buzzing today with the news. I'll tell ya how much people were talking today about Gottschalks closing its doors: Ray Appleton actually did a full two hours of local programing, in Gottschalk's honor.

You know, there could be something really cool that could come of this. Yes, it's merely a dream at this point, but, it was said by a Gottschalks spokesman that this may not be the complete ending for Gottschalks.

What if they started from scratch? Went back to their roots and opened just one store, like good old Emil Gottschalk did. And, that one store was the original downtown store. What better place for a rebirth?

Adding to this little fantasy, what if the River Park store sat vacant and the re-birthed downtown store was thriving? Poetic justice. Ahh well, a Fresno kid can dream, can't he?

Fresno Wanderings: Timmy T, Kids Day, U2, Watchmen

"Wanderings" is some random Fresnoness we've noticed floating around town lately.

>>Are you over your guilt from not buying a Kids Day paper Tuesday morning? Yeah, I think we are too. Here's the thing, the paper selling girl was, like, all the way over on the other side of the intersection, you know, and like, the light was getting close to changing and... DAMMIT! Still feel guilty.

>>This Timmy T reality show idea doesn't seem to be going away. Apparently, Nicole is now, somehow, involved. The pilot is going to be shot in a few weeks with hopes of getting on Comcast "On Demand." We were not aware that Comcast was in the business of "green lighting" local reality shows, but okay then. Please, for the love of all that is Fresno Celebrity Blogging, if somebody witnesses this taping around town and doesn't tell us about it... sadness. [Remember, you can always email Fresno tips to mike@thefresnan.com]

>>U2's new album was released to Fresno stores today. (How much will Coldplay steal off this album?) Remember when you would go to Warehouse or Tower Records at Midnight on Monday nights to get the new big release? *sigh* Thank the Fresno Music God's we have a Rasputin's, otherwise we'd be forced into Target, Best Buy or Sprawl Mart.

>>Did you see the special screening of Watchmen Tuesday night? Was it fucking awesome? It was. You know it. I bet the Dumb Drum will have a review posted soon. Anybody up for a Heroes run?

>>Hey! 107.1 FM. You did this big scary countdown only to change your format to a mix of classic rock and hit oldies? Screw you! Wake up, Fresno radio. Somebody do something crazy for a change. Well, honestly, I don't know what that would be... but something Baldass Crazy. Not the same songs we've heard all our lives.

Monday Hangover: Is It Tuesday Night Yet?

I just want to get my Double Double without some loudass prop 8 rabblerousers annoying me. Let's get Tuesday done so we don't have to see this goofiness on Fresno's streets anymore:

A Tower Staple is closing

I don't know where you're going to get your drugs and booze in the Tower District, but I know it won't be from Drug Fair.  As you see from the pic, Drug Fair is closing.  Nobody there seemed to know why or what will become of the building, but Friday is the last day (and if you're into deals, they're selling off everything cheap, so get in there).

Hopefully, somebody can come in and give this building a rebirth.  A new co-op grocery store would be nice.  But with the news of one going in, less than a mile away downtown, that seems doubtful.

In more hopeful Tower news, it looks like the District is finally getting a full blown Sushi place.  Although the name "Mr. Sushi" kinda scares me.  That just doesn't sound like a quality place...hope I'm wrong.  It's going right next door to the Blockbuster, on Olive.

What do you think should become of the Drug Fair building?  Are you looking forward to sushi in the Tower District?

Stacy Johnson-Mindnumbing

I've been mildly surprised the Stacy Johnson-Klein lawsuit against Fresno State has flown under the local bloggers radar.  I haven't noticed anyone really blogging about it (Bee's Opinion Blog doesn't count, mmka).

Actually, under the radar isn't a proper description.  We've all been following it, living in Fresno we're kinda forced too.  And there has been a lot of juicy blog-perfect stuff going on.  But it's like...cheesy High School juicy.  And you don't care who wins.

Everybody involved is lame. 

It's like when you're in a club and two drunk assholes get into a fight.  You watch because everybody else is, you don't care who gets their ass beat, you hate yourself for being interested in the first place...and you want to take a shower when you get home.

Real writers strike! Bloggers? Who cares!

Without writers, Hollywood would be nothing.  So then why do writers get treated like shit?  Right now, the writers union is trying to change that.  Good luck kids.  And hey, don't get down about having to strike, your lot in life could be worse.  You could be blogging about Fresno FOR FREE.

What's all the strike hullabaloo about anyway?