Fresno Famous

I get an e-mail from a friend this morning, subject line, “What should I be for Halloween?.”

I'm thinking it's bit early in the year to be worrying about this. Until I check the calendar and realize we're well into September and summer is like, officially gone, and here I am holding the bag — a big old metaphoric bag, stuffed with all the things we learned this summer.

For instance:

* People are finally calling it Audie's Olympic. It took awhile, but the bar formerly known as Club Fred has come into its own and developed an identity as “the place to play in Fresno” (that's from the club's MySpace page). It's been on our radar for awhile, but others are now taking note, probably because of the consistently good shows — including any number of killer tribute bands. Check out Luv'n Rockets (a Love and Rockets tribute) Sept. 11. After that, there's Rademacher's cd release on Sept. 18 and Let's Go Bowling, going up against the RE: FUSE festival Oct. 3.

* Sprawl affects everyone. The Fulton Mall has its troubles, has had them for going on 40 years. It's been documented. But the recession is hitting hard, and some wonder if River Park is situated a little too south for some people's tastes. Check it: Gottschalks is gone. Johnny Rockets is closing/closed and Fuzio is being replaced by a Subway.

* Blogging can change the world. First, Mike Oz over at the Beehive exposes the Red Zone Sports Grill for a rather insensitive commercial. The post catches the attention of some folks who go full-bore on the place and get the ad pulled within a day. That's blogging in action. Then, there was a twitter post that sparked a heated and long debate over the Starline, mutual respect between musicians/venue owners, liquor licenses, the police, and what to do if you're drunk at 2 a.m. and someone tells you to be quiet. Answer: be quiet or you might get punched.

* There are worse things than Running Horse. Namely, Granite Park. This has been the story of the summer (perhaps all of 2009). What seemed like a great idea for an multi-venue entertainment hub (that happened to be south of Shaw) quickly unraveled into a series of closed clubs, search warrants and felony accusations — and that was before Kirk Vartanian really got involved. Doh! and double Doh!

* Everybody dies. This isn't meant to be flip. Just about everyone of us lost some kind of hero this summer. It's a long list — David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Walter Cronkite, Billy Mays, Edward “Ted” Kennedy, DJ AM, Les Paul and John Hughes. You can probably think of more. R.I.P. to all.