Rubber City BullSheet

July is certainly a busy time of year for this fine city.  We started off last week with the Rib, White & Blue Fest and the Fourth of July Fireworks show.  This weekend is the big Italian Festival (July 10-12), celebrating its first year in downtown Akron (after a controversial move from Cuyahoga Falls).  Come down to Lock 3 for 3 days of Italian food, music, culture, and heritage.  I’m not the least bit Italian, but I studied the language in college & my boyfriend is a proud hairy-chested Italian, so we’re going to stop by Sunday.  I will be a little disappointed if there isn’t any Zeppole, but any kind of sugary fried dough will do.

Next weekend is quite a big one for RCC- the 4th Annual National Hamburger Festival, where we will be the main merchandiser for the event.  We will be showcasing some of our best designs, as well as official Hamburger Festival shirts.  I will be down there trying to balance my time between selling shirts, promoting Akron, and sampling hamburgers.  We are quite honored to be a part of the Hamburger Fest, but on a personal note, I have one grievance.  Last year I sent in an entry to compete for the title of ‘Miss Hamburger Festival’.  I am certainly not one for pageants (and find them kind of really creepy), but I certainly love my hamburgers.  A few weeks after I sent in my application, I followed up only to find that they changed the age qualification from 16-27 to 16-22.  Well, let’s just say I’m a little older than that, and therefore unable to acheive my dream of being ‘Miss Hamburger’.  Not to toot my own horn, but I guarantee I know more hamburger facts, can out eat, and still look as good as anyone up for the competition (maybe without creepy pageant hair and makeup).  Alright, I’ve said my peace.  Anyway, come down for the big fest July 18 &19 at Lock 3.  Live music, competitions, all the burgers you could want, and the coolest t-shirts in Akron!

Then, if you still have room in your tummy, the following weekend is the Akron Arts Expo (July 23-26) at Hardesty Park.  The Expo kicks off Thursday evening with ‘The Taste of Akron’ where you can sample some of the area’s best foods.  Lots of great restaurants are involved, including Papa Joe’s, Virtues, and West Point Market.  The next night is an uber-swank Wine/Beer Tasting and Silent Auction, call 330.375.2836 for tickets.  Then Saturday & Sunday will bring the Arts Expo, featuring hundreds of local artisits & craftsmen.  There will be lots of great, unique items for sale; as well as all kinds of fun activities for the whole family.

This is what you get when you Google "good deeds."

My Granddad always told me that there were only two things in life that were unavoidable: death and taxes.  My mother, a nurse, always told me that the only things that can’t be changed are life and death.  So basically, eventually you will die, and in the meantime, you’ll pay taxes.  Everything else in life is up to you.  Life is what you make it.  Anyone can work hard, get a great job, lead a good life, etc.  Granted, there are certain factors that may hinder people from having it all (or even just some of it).  No matter what the circumstance, we all have the power to lead good lives.  Money & possessions don’t buy happiness (certainly make life enjoyable, but not necessary).  Sadly, there are some people out there who can’t find hapiness without money or material possessions; and rather than work hard to earn it or even wait patiently to save over time, they go out and take what they want.  While this may be a positive thing for them, it is quite negative to the person(s) they steal from, and often that negativity carries on.

Yesterday I indirectly WITNESSED someone steal from someone else.  A man walked into my store, talked to me for about 10 minutes (coincidentally about WITNESSED shirts) and then said he was going to look in the gallery behind RCC.  Instead, he walked over to the gallery shop, pretended to be looking at something near the register, broke into said register, grabbed $40 and ran out.  My friend that runs the shop ran over to have me call the police while she tried to catch him, with no luck.  This was just after 1:30pm, on a nice & sunny Akron day.  Luckily no one was hurt, but this guy is still out there.  We are grateful to the APD for their quick response to the scene, and pray that this guy is caught.  If you recall a couple of months ago, our store was broken into in the middle of the night.  We lost about $85 in cash, our register was smashed beyond use, and the glass door needed to be replaced.  About $1,500 in damages.  The same perp also got 26 other small businesses around the city, adding up to about $39,000 in loss.  Especially in this down economy, it is a huge hit.  This kind of thing must stop!

Now, I certainly don’t expect that the thieves and robbers of this city are reading the blog, or have Facebook/MySpace/Twitter (though the guy yesterday was dressed as if he was off to play a round of golf at a country club); and we certainly can’t hold a gun to someone’s head to make them not do bad things (too bad that clause isn’t in the Carry & Conceal Law).  However, we as upstanding citizens of the Rubber City have the power to promote positive change.  Be it volunteering to help the needy or getting involved in your neighborhood crime watch, there are ways to to impact someone else’s life positively.  Hopefully they in turn will want to pay it forward (I do love Oprah) and tell two friends, and then they’ll tell two friends and so on.  Akron has come such a long way culturally and civically, let’s not let a few idiots who think they can make a quick buck bring this town down.

Our guard is certainly up on our little block over here.  We (all of the shops/restaurants/neighbors) are damned and determined to not be victimized again.  Just like our friend with the rock through the glass, the guy from yesterday WILL be caught.  And we will certainly be a lot more cautious with everyone who comes through the store.  This is a great and relatively safe neighborhood, we strongly encourage everyone to come hang out, shop, dine, and show these no-goodnicks that there is no room for them here!

Next week will mark one year since the untimely passing of Twinsburg Police Officer Josh Miktarian.  Officer Miktarian was killed in the line of duty during a routine traffic stop.  The man charged with his killing (among several other charges) plead guilty last April.  Officer Miktarian was survived by a wife, a young daughter, as well as several friends & family.  A memorial and scholarship fund has been set up in Josh’s name.  For the past couple of months, RCC has been proud to carry the Officer Miktarian memorial shirts, with 100% of the sales going to the memorial fund.  We still have some colors- gray, black, and navy- and sizes left (please call if you don’t see your size on the website- I may have one in store).  Please help us honor a fallen hero on the one year anniversary of his final patrol.

From all of us at RCC/MiA, have a safe & happy Independence Day!

Check out this awesome photo of our good friend Maurice from Winslow.  This was taken when Winslow opened up last week for Robert Randolph & the Family Band at the House of Blues in Cleveland.  I saw Robert Randolph open up for Eric Clapton last year at Blossom.  Does this mean someday Winslow could play with Clapton?  Certainly good company to have!  At the rate Winslow is going- appearances on Fox 8, Time Warner Ampitheater, shows all over the region- it’s quite the possibility!  Come to RCC to pick up their album, Crazy Kind of Love, as well as t-shirts, posters, stickers, & pins!

Okay, I’m going to start this one off by saying “I don’t want to offend anyone.”

Anyone who is anywhere at anytime has more than likely been annoyed by someone/something/anything.  This is especially true if you spend almost 50 hours a week inside a retail store.  I’ve been in the game long enough to be fine with messy shoppers, dumb questions, and people only coming in to use the bathroom or ask for change.  There is one thing that really grinds my gears lately: people coming in the door, or their lack there of.  I’ve got a glass door and 4 glass windows.  I can see the pedestrian traffic on High St.  Most weekdays there are a significant amount of people on the block for appointments on the street; a lot of times people peak in the windows to see what we’re all about (yes, some people still don’t know); and we certainly do get a number of people that enter the store.  What really gets me is when someone walks up to the door, gives it a light push, and despite the fact that it budges (enough to not be locked), they assume that we are closed and walk away.  It is a glass door, you can see inside that the lights are on.  My store hours are posted; I’ve got a sandwich-board sign out front; my open sign is flipped to the ‘OPEN’ side; I’ve even got a flashing neon ‘OPEN’ sign in the window.  If you open your eyes, you can see me sitting here behind the counter.  WE ARE OPEN!  Yet, some people, by either lack of effort or upper arm strength assume we are closed and proceed down the block.  This usually results in me having to run out of the store to say “Hey! Wait! We are open!”  Let’s put a stop to this folks.  Push harder.  If you recall, we were broken into back in May.  While we did not get bullet or rock-proof glass, it is some pretty heavy duty stuff- but not exactly the Berlin Wall.

I can’t really keep the doors open in the summer because it cancels out the AC and there is a bit of a fly problem from a nearby dumpster (no flies if the door is shut, so don’t be grossed out!).  If we do temporarily close up (I am human and do require bathroom and lunch breaks), I always put up a sign.  If you do not see a sign, then we are open, and would LOVE for you to come in.  I would hate to know that people were missing out on some really great Akron goods because they simply did not push hard enough.  Push harder.

After a stressful/busy last week (mostly personally with the move, but a  lot going on at the store too), I have decided to start the 4th of July weekend today.  We’ve partnered up with the Downtown Akron Partnership to have a good ol’fashioned cookout.  We’ve got tasty beef hot dogs, potato chips, lemonade, and blueberry pie- like a picnic on High St.  Come down, enjoy some food & shop for some great (NEW!) local merchandise to get you ready for the holiday weekend: a t-shirt to watch the fireworks in, maybe take some Peanut Shoppe nuts along; Crave BBQ sauce for your cookout; even an Akron Aeros baseball to toss around the yard.  Plus, come in for a hot dog, and get 15% off of your purchase.  We’ll be grilling Wednesday-Friday, so stop on by (the Crave PPR hot sauce is pretty good on a hot dog).

Make sure you hit up Main St tomorrow through Saturday for the Akron Rib, White & Blue Rib Festival; and I know you all will be at the fantastic fireworks display on Saturday night.  Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!!!

You find the most ridiculous images on google.

Okay, a couple of months ago we decided we’d be open on Sundays from 12-5.  That worked out pretty well for a while, but here’s the thing…it’s never fun to work on a Sunday, especially in the summer.  There’s always some festival/barbeque/concert/something better than working going on.  So, in honor of summer time fun, we will now be closed on Sundays.  Should a mob with torches and pitchforks insist that we be open on Sundays, we will certainly comply.  Until then, I’m out working on my tan….alright, I’ll be honest SPF 45!

While Akron is known as ‘The Rubber City’, we don’t really deal with rubber much these days.  I spent the last week in The Windy City and The Brew City, (Chicago and Milwaukee, respectively) and those cities certainly hold up to their nicknames!  It was so so so nice to have 7 days off from this house of t-shirts (though I still had a couple of work things to deal with, but that’s expected).  I haven’t been on a trip since last July, so this was long overdue.  Despite the ‘relaxation’ of not having to work, this trip was certainly a jam-packed busy adventure.  Plus I was travelling with my parents and brother.  Here are the details of said adventure:

Thursday, July 18th

Had to stop by the store in the morning to pick up a couple of things I had forgotten.  Went to my parents, where we of course left late.  Breakfast at Cracker Barrel then jumped on the turnpike and headed west.  Arrived in Chi-town around 6:30 in the evening, and checked into the very classy and historic Parker House Hotel.  Dinner at the nearby Exchequer Pub- deep dish Chicago pizza, which was very very cheesy.  Walked around Millennium Park post dinner and saw some really cool modern sculptures.

Friday, July 19th

Slightly late start to the day.  We had brunch at this lovely little chain cafe called Corner Bakery.  The menu looked so good that we proceded to eat there the next 2 mornings as well.  Headed to Soldier Field/Shedd Aquarium area.  We had hoped to go to the Shedd Aquarium, but there was a 3 hour wait to get into the building.  So instead, we hopped on a ferry that took us over to the Chicago Navy Pier (and provided an excellent view of the city).  Walked up and down the pier (kinda touristy, but cool).  Had a late lunch at Billy Goat’s Tavern (as in the old John Belushi/SNL skit “Cheezborger, Cheezborger.  No Pepsi, Coke.  No fries, cheeps”; and of the cursing the Cubs in ‘45 because the Tavern’s owner couldn’t take his pet goat to a World Series game fame).  I had been to the original Billy Goat’s back in ‘97 and again in ‘03, and for some reason, I was remembering it was really really good.  My memory served me wrong.  Back to the hotel to relax a bit, then off for more food (that’s what the Gorrings do best) at the Miller Pub right around the corner from our hotel.

Saturday, June 20th

A Chicago-style dog (but not from Superdawg...at Wrigley)

After another breakfast at Corner Bakery, went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  This is a completely free zoo located in one of Chicago’s most beautiful park areas.  Being that it was about 85 degrees out, a lot of the animals were hiding inside.  The had a great lion/tiger/jungle cat house; and the gorilla house put you within a few feet of our closest-related species (except they lack opposable thumbs).  I was disappointed that there weren’t any elephants (those are my favorite), but it was a nice zoo.  After the zoo we drove to the far Northside to find ‘Superdawg‘.  Superdawg is one of a dozen or so restaurants featured on a 90’s PBS documentary on hot dogs.  My father watched that on a vacation to Hilton Head in ‘99, and since then he’s never been the same.  Everything is about hot dogs and/or sausages.  We’ve travelled near and far; the delirium even spread to me when I waited 2 1/2 hours by myself to get a Pink’s dog in Hollywood…twice.  I didn’t enjoy the full splendor of a Chicago-style dog, as I am not one for condiments, but was nice to knock another famous hot dog joint off the list.  Then back to the hotel, and onto another dining adventure….

Divine

I’m sure by now you can see that all my family does is eat.  And eat, and eat.  Hey, we enjoy life and I’m sure will someday enjoy the pleasures of a triple-bypass.  Oh, before I talk about the religious experience that was our late-night dinner, I should talk about the very cool experience of visiting the Sears Tower, the tallest skyscraper in these United States.  The 103rd Floor observation deck was closed, but we got up to the 99th Floor and it was quite a view.  I love city skylines and always get a little rush when I see them.  After heading back down to ground level, we hopped in a cab and headed over to the corner of Wells & Ontario, i.e. the gates of Heaven.  A few years ago, I saw a special on the food network about pizza in America.  New York thin crust vs. Chicago deep dish vs. California wacky toppings.  I’d been to the original Uno’s in Chicago, but Gino’s East caught my eye.  Specifically the layer of sweet delicious sausage rolled out on the entire diameter of the pie.  Oh, was it delicious!  The kinda flaky deep-crust, the gooey layer of cheese (not too much, just right), the glorious sausage, and then the wonderful sauce.  I then entered a pizza coma and don’t recall the rest of the night.

Sunday, June 21st

Father’s Day.  We took my dad down to Corner Bakery for breakfast and then off to Wrigley Field!  The Cleveland Indians were in town, and had lost the first two games of the series to the Cubbies.  If you haven’t been to Wrigley, you should.  I’ve been to a fair amount of ballparks, and nowhere else does baseball as purely as it’s done at Wrigley.  The fans are amazing, ever hopeful and optimistic.  My favorite team is the Yankees, and the Tribe are a close second, but I will always root for the Cubbies.  C’mon, it’s been 101 years since they’ve won a World Series (I even cried a little when Steve Bartman interfered with Moises Alou catching out #2).  Wrigley is a gorgeous stadium (the second oldest used in MLB) made of bricks & ivy.  The entire neighborhood around the stadium, Wrigleyville has the energy and devotion of the Vatican City; instead of Roman Catholicism, it’s the Cubs.

A Harry Caray/Cubbie t-shirt

One of my favorite things about the Cubs/Wrigley is Harry Caray, who served as the Cubs announcer for a number of years until his death in 1998.  I was lucky to hear him enthusiastically sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ (which he was quite famous for) back in ‘97.  Harry’s energy during the 7th inning stretch is still alive today.  The Cubs beat the Tribe, sweeping the series.  Will this be the year?  I think if the Cubs can finally do it, any Cleveland team might have a shot.  Walked around Wrigleyville post-game, then back to the hotel.  Dinner at Lawry’s (as in the seasoning salt) and then off to bed.

Monday, June 22nd

Left the Windy City, onto the Brew City.  Got into Milwaukee, relaxed a bit.  Dinner at Noodles & Co. (a wonderful chain kind of like Chipotle or Metroburger with all kinds of noodle/sauce combos.  Walked along the shores of Lake Michigan.  Nice little day.

Tuesday, June 23rd

This is a day that will live in infamy.  Started off with a light breakfast at the Kilowatt restaurant in the hotel, then onto Miller Valley, the headquarters of the Miller Brewing Co.  We did a tour of the Brewery and learned the rich history of Miller, ‘The Girl in the Moon’ and brewing in Milwaukee.  Stood in a room of 500,000 cases of beer; saw bottles & cans being filled, even went into a 107 degree Brew House.  The tour was capped off with a complimetary tasting, of 3 delicious Miller brews, including the High Life.

The events that transpired next I will never forget.  We had tickets to see the Brewers play the Twins.  Miller Park (yes, same Miller- couldn’t escape them that day) is a gorgeous modern stadium.  And the food selection is top notch.  Much like Cleveland’s racing hot dogs, Miller Parkactually started the trend with the ‘Sausage Race’.  When I went to Miller Park back in ‘03, there were 4- an American Hot Dog, an Italian Sausage, a Polish Sausage, and a German Bratwurst.  And there is ‘Sausage Race’ merchandise- t-shirts, figurines, plush toys, etc.  At the time, my dad suggested in order to get a t-shirt (that he bought, not a contest by the park), we’d have to eat all 4 sausages.  It was a little tough, but it was done.  Well, now Miller Park has added numero cinco, a Spanish Chorizo.  5 sausages?  I’m not 19 anymore.  I can’t just eat whatever I want.  But the challenged was proposed, and I accepted.  I won’t really explain how it went down (there may have been a drawing out of a hat to determine the order), view for yourself:

Numero uno: El chorizo

Round 2: Invade Poland

#3: The All-American hot dog

Il numero quattro: Italiano

Die letzte wurst: Der Deutscher.

Equal parts victory and shame.

I ate all that sausage and all I got was this t-shirt.

End of day.

Wednesday, June 24th

Left Milwaukee, but not without stopping (like fools) at Usinger’s Sausage Haus and at the Wisconson Cheese Mart.  After loading up on several pounds of meat & cheese (to bring back home, not eat then!) we jumped on 80/90 East.  We did stop briefly at Tony Packo’s, that wonderful Hungarian restaurant famous for their Packo’s dogs and being mention on M.A.S.H.  Yes, I did eat one more sausage, though I was obscenely full still.  Then we got home just before midnight.  Now here I am.

***Note: if you are feeling a little green with stomach envy, some of the places I mentioned do ship to Ohio- I’ve provided links***

Well, I know I said that I would give updates and whatnot while on vacation; but after a somewhat exhausting work week, an even more exhausting attempt to get my family on the road, a 6 hour car ride, and going around Chicago the first day, I was TIRED.  The idea of doing any sort of work appealed to me none (that and I got a lecture from my father about being on VACATION- and not doing work). 

I have to say, while being in another place and doing all kinds of new and interesting things is great; one of the most freeing things about this trip has been not being ‘online’.  Going the past 4 1/2 days without Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace has been wonderful.  I seem to recall it’s kind of like what the 90s felt like, before you were on AIM or updating your ’status’ ALL THE TIME.  If you can’t afford to take an actual vacation, and you really don’t have time to do a ’stay-cation’ (those seem to be really popular these days), then I highly recommend tuning out of the social online world for just a couple of days.  I already feel 10 years younger!  Okay, I don’t.  But that is because I am on an actual vacation, a very busy one at that….

I will have all kinds of pics & great stories to share about Chicago & Milwaukee when I get back Wednesday/Thursday.  In the meantime, take a ’stay-cation’ to Rubber City Clothing or Made in Akron.  You are sure to see and learn things about Akron you have never seen/known before!