just a reminder that HBML does accept donations of clean clothing, toys, books, music (in all storage formats), and, uh, miscellanea. i already forgot this guy’s name, but he brought in a bunch of shirts in my favorite color: plaid. and you know this guy’s player because he kept the gold stickers on his hat. stay fresh worcester!

ok, it’s first runner up, but whatever. how “best antique store” and not “greatest eyesore” i have no idea, but read it and sleep. i met the lady that runs the number one, she is a nice lady i feel no ill will towards.

this week me and sheryl-ann have been painting the inside of the store, an enourmous task once you consider how hard it usually is to even find the walls. anyway, now it should be more cave-like in the back, and more disorienting in the front. two out of the three noncontiguous areas we painted came out really great. the other one will have two or three layers of posters, drawings, and clothing on top of it, so really, a few drips and an uneven coat are no big deal. the next step is shelves everywhere everywhere of varying depthnesses, and then redoing the penrose tiling on the floor. which is to say, doing it the right way.

penrose tiling is a nonperiodic tiling generated by an aperiodic set of prototiles. here’s it wrong:

when completed this will be really great, or am i the only person obsessed with the idea of nonperiodic floor tiling with no translational symmetry?

oh, in re: the foreclosure scare, the landlord gus was able to refinance, everything is “fine” aka “ok” for the foreseeable future. you guys ready for platinum summer?

big ups to everyone that chimed in w/r/t the foreclosure, or passed along my questions to more knowledgeable folks. it’s a fine warmth to hear your armies auto-assemble at the faintest rattling of sabers. anyway i’m calling around, get my options straightened out, and examining back-up plans. but for now (and, for what it’s worth, for always) it’s still full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, and damn everything but the circus. although i did capitulate to my money manager, and i set up a little donation page– tuck into it if you’re so inclined.

anyway this friday come what may there’s going to be a great art show opening at the shop— western mass spell-caster joshua vrysen, aka tumble cat poof poofy poof, will display his precise line of sparse mythological forms in a series of drawings entitled “wheel of doom / we love doom”. the exhibition will also include a new zine / show catalog, and a limited edition bandana designed by joshua and printed by us. it’s this friday from 5 to 8, with snacks and beverages, and milling about, and shaking hands with each other, or being like “come on, we hug”. all welcome. fingers crossed this event will appear in the worcester magazine and the wine crowd will come.

not trying to spook or beg, but HBML got a nice letter from the bank’s lawyers the other day saying they (the bank) now own the property, which is the story of the year (not in this case specifically but a million times around the country). anyway they’re holding a foreclosure auction this thursday at 11, if anyone of you fresh lords want a building you might want to check it out, and if you’re really interested i can show you around my section of the space before then.

i’ve sent out to various lists the question “what happens to me?”, and got a wide array of seemingly knowledgeable answers. my distillation is this: my lease transfers to the new owner, who can evict me but must do so through the courts, or could offer “cash for keys”. sso, i could be reading this wrong, but it seems not too too bad, and not super-imminent bad, but definitely “up in the air”. all advice welcome.

also, these past two months have been really awesome, and things are going really great.

huuuhh? oh, been sleeping on this webpage again, and now the webpage has cold drool on it. it’ll evaporate, whatever.

in re the squid raffle– mike benedetti won the squid ok? he bought a hundred dollars worth of tickets, then he won. i didn’t really know how to spin his power play– i tried to make him out to be, like, a fat cat throwing money around and, hey, are you going to take that kind of abuse from some fat cat? thinks just like that he’s going to like, win the thing, because he threw 100 tiny clams at it? well anyway he won it and if you know mike you know the fat cat thing is a ruse but if you don’t let me say this: mike benedetti is a svelte anti-capitalist human. OKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

lots planned for the upcoming months, lining up all sorts of art shows (more on that when it’s finalized) and working on a toboggan full of dumb new toys and clothings, plus tons of stickers and maybe a zine or two or three. also we have (and will continue to have) tons of new volunteers, which rules, and we’re applying for massive grants which is really switching up the game in a really weird way. i mean, we’ve been going apeshit bananas for nearly 1 3/4 years now on almost no money– really just barely scraping by. which is fine, i mean i’m not complaining, it’s our business and that is our practice. but imagine how huge we could fail with an extra thou every now and again? brucie bertleman has a word for shit like the shit i’m thinking about– GNARPIC.

and if you don’t already, catch the rss feed– everything is poised to turn.

dudes, mike benedetti made a serious power play in the squid raffle, picking up $100 worth of tickets just by himself. meanwhile, western mass is still pushing with several members of a single household going for it. the raffle closes on the 19th, it’s still anyone’s game, and we are still miles away from our goal of $400. let’s make this happen! tickets are $5 for 6 or $10 for 14. squid raffle squid raffle squid raffle!!!!!!!

now that it’s stupid hot i’ve set the store hours back a spell to accommodate a weekday siesta. so now it’s

wednesday 4:30pm - 8:00pm

thursday 4:30pm - 8:00pm

friday 4:30pm - 8:00pm

saturday is still 2pm - 5pm for some reason

anyway, there it is, don’t get all boggled.

just a reminder that from now on, HBML is open on saturdays, from 2 - 5pm. i recommend visiting the worcester art museum beforehand- it’s free before noon every saturday, and right now there’s a raymond pettibon / ed ruscha exhibit that is WORTH IT.