Fresno Famous

We (that's the royal we) may be the only people in the world who dislike vacations. Sure, its' fun when it's happening, but then you get back and realize how much you've missed. Here is a quick list of stuff you should get caught up on.

Looking a gift horse in the mouth: File this under cynical much? Fresno County Superintendent Larry Powell pulled a super-star move last week by announcing he would “retire” from his job, but go back to work for $30,000 (which he will donate to a charity). It seems like a smart moved this era of shrinking budgets and raging hatred of all things government. It would save the county $830,000 for the next three years. While most people praised the decision, there are those looking for sinister motives. Because we know people are greedy bastards and seeing anything outside of that doesn’t compute. It’s the same reason that when Warren Buffet says tax the super rich, people say "write a check a-hole."

Closed: I’d never been into Twist, the nightclub-sometimes restaurant at Palm and Nees avenues, so its closing, which happened Tuesday, doesn’t mean much to me.  But Twist seemed good at what it did and the people who went there will surely miss it. And losing a business is always a shame and I feel for anyone who lost a job. Worth note: owners are claiming “ongoing obstacles in our licenses and permits,” as one of the reasons for closing. More anti-government/regulation rants starting in five... four ...

(Re)opened: Maybe you didn’t know downtown’s Water Tower had closed down, or that it has ever been open in the first place. Well, it served as a visitor’s center and a place to buy buss passes, before closing down due to economic issues. It reopens today under a one-year lease with Hands-On Central California. The nonprofit will staff the tower as a visitors center and art gallery (with works for locals). It will be open six days a week. There will be an announcement from the mayor this moring and an ArtHop celebration (5 to 8 p.m.) with food, drinks and music from Jaime and Josh, Tom Walzem and Stryder Callison and the Meatball Magic Crew.

If you plan it, they will come: Fresno like events — big, awesomely gimmicky ones like dropping several tons of sand on Van Ness Avenue or gathering together the area’s finest taco trucks. After the success of Club One’s Summer Splash Beach Party, Chuckchansi Park hosted the Central Valley Taco Truck Throwdown last week, which (from the pictures at least) looked packed with people. Last weekend was also the Greek Fest and the Barbecue Fun Fest. Which brings us to …

Fresno Urban Sound Experience 2011: Tickets are on sale now for Fresno Urban Sound Experience 2011. The two-day music festival (in its fourth year) will run Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at several downtown venues (Fulton 55, Club One, Hero’s, African American Historical Museum, Tokyo Garden and more). Once again there will be 30 plus bands including the likes of Rademacher, Aire Espacial, Eva Scow and the Experience, Nate Pearce Band and Sahab. The Friends of the Fresno County Library, Rotary Storyland and Playland and Dumb Drum have signed on as sponsors and you can still get some extra goodies by backing the event's Kickstarter campaign.