Here’s another example of the incestuous nature of modern advertising: the Conan O’Brien Bud Light ad that aired during the Super Bowl, on NBC, O’Brien’s network. Not only does it use humor to mock advertising, while advertising what it mocks, but it presents itself as lying. Advertisers lie. “We are lying to you RIGHT NOW. But it doesn’t matter. You will consume our product anyway. Why? Because you have no choice.” And, of course, it gets the party started…

Next weekend – February 6-8 –  is what What the Hell Con?! 2009, which will be held on the Guilford College campus in Greensboro. The main activities for the con will be held at King Hall with some larger events being held at Dana Hall. For those who didn’t attend the show last year, here is the skinny. What the Hell Con?! is a fan run convention that is put on by the school’s Yachting Club. It is a very laid back show that reminds me a lot of the Stellarcons I used to attend back in the late 1980′s-early 1990′s.

It is a totally free event and open to the public.

GroovyDan is an officer with the USS Bonaventure. Those folks throw a pretty mean cookout.

This story recently broke…and it’s a doozy. Insider secrets give us an unprecedented insight into the love life of the First Couple.

It might be a bit dated, socio-culturally speaking, but funny never gets old.

In a recent article in Forbes magazine, it was speculated that pressures resulting from our current economic meltdown have prodded several high-level financiers, hedge fund managers and investment brokers to commit suicide, also known by that charming sobriquet “econocides”. Leaders in these fiduciary fields have slit their wrists, shot themselves in the head and thrown themselves under trains, in some effort to atone for massive investment losses.

Now it emerges that several of their American counterparts – who in fact have not lost money for their investors in good faith, but have bilked them for millions (if not billions) of dollars in a variety of Ponzi and pyramid schemes – have faked their own suicides and run away, in pathetic efforts to evade punishment for their misdeeds.

What does it say about us, our collective psyche, when the Europeans have the balls to go through with something so absolute, so ultimate, while our money men act like the craven cowards and ethical scumbags they so clearly are?

Why can’t we get those numbers up?

Bernie Madoff, are you listening?

As far as so-called “third places” go, Panera has always been a tolerable alternative. The food is pretty tasty and reasonably priced. The coffee is strong and refills are free. And, often enough, the music is decent – especially off-peak hours, when they turn on the real jazz, the kind with edges, not “smooth,” in other words…

But there’s always been a nagging question in our minds here at Palookaville: Where do they get their art?

Well, we had that question answered for us the other day. As well as a few others that were equally enlightening…

We were having a business meeting at one of their area locations – there have at least six in the Greater Triad area – with a local artist, filmmaker and entrepreneur. It occurred to us that a Panera might be an ideal location to host a local arts exhibit. They make a point of marketing themselves as “Your Neighborhood Bakery” and they have art – granted, it’s all in some fashion bread-related – adorning every inch of available wall-space. So it might not be entirely unreasonable to expect they might be interested.

We asked to talk to the manager. A few minutes later, he came out and we put our question to him.

He could see where we were coming from, he said. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t possible. For one thing, all the art displayed at a given Panera’s had to be approved by corporate HQ. In fact, there was a catalogue provided to all franchise owners, from which they could select pre-approved works of art featuring loaves of bread, steaming cups of coffee, tasty sandwiches – or any combination thereof – rendered in every conceivable style and artistic technique.

But what you couldn’t do, what Corporate simply wouldn’t stand for, was to put on a show where works of art would be on display which any segment of the patronage might find disturbing, controversial or even just unattractive. Panera was not a location for local activity, not a venue for local exhibition. In fact, the only thing Panera was for (in any sense of the word) was the vending of foodstuffs and coffee-related products.

What it was not was a “third place” – a space that is neither home nor work, which encourages repeat patronage, as well as the regular influx of newbie walk-ins, under the aegis of fostering social networks, let alone civic involvement, both of which are traditionally seen as functions of these “third places”.

Truly disappointing. And, might we add, contrary to the public “persona” of the company.