
I sort of did a “fireside chat,” last year about this time, pondering what the new year will bring, what kind of fun and excitement, or shoddy disappointment, may impact us this year. This decade even!
Let’s start with us, because we’re important, too. In the depths of the bowels of GHR there’s a churning. We’re hungry, we’re interested in purging… in the with the new, out with the old, all of that. The fine folks that make us up (all of two of us, regularly at this point) are planning on seeing how we can make God Hates Reno a little more readable, user-friendly, informative, while making sure we aren’t dedicating too much money and time on something that will only yield us a few snotty trolls and comments.
Yet, I know this isn’t true. Our numbers are up, they double almost every month, and hence, every year. People are reading. But WHAT exactly are they reading? This being a particularly slow time of year, it’s a good time to put hands on thine hips, and see what kind of advantages can be taken with our little spot in the world here.
The way I see it, I’m going to be voting for a visual overhaul (which will probably resound unanimously amongst the split votes), because as much as I like this current visual layout, there’s too much going on, too much stagnant text, and a few more brilliant readers suggested this was a the case. I cut up a lot of it, but I think we can do better. I also think we’re going to make sure shows get automatically highlighted, as if they’re “first page news,” instead of only having them simply in “We Recommendeth.” Our layout, in my mind, should be a bit “wider,” physically, so we can read a little more, and maybe get some flash interactions that will visually stun you (probably not) but also clean up our text mess here. Don’t worry, we’re not getting rid of the Harold’s Club font headline logo.
…or are we?
We’re also pondering the stance we have. Keep in mind, it’s usually yours truly, Daddy Rodeo, doing this exclusively for the site. We have other powers that be that are quite good at shuffling the WordPress crap around in a pretty way (something I should learn one day), and our contributing, yet infrequent, writers filling in the gaps here and there. I don’t mind doing it like this, but we think there could be more.
Reno is NOT an idea town. Ideas are either shot down, or they are just not formed. That’s how we roll here in Reno, so honestly, I don’t know if asking you, the reading public, if of what you’d like to see here, is a good idea or not. Regular writers are impossible to find. Very few people have what it takes it seems to do something like this even once a month. Which shocks me, since I know so many writers, especially ones that love Reno.
Reno is our theme, and will be until the day you get a “Server Not Found,” warning here, or the Westboro folks say, “See? Patience got us what we wanted, now let’s draw up some ol’ fashioned fear!!!” — and you get a very different site existing here. One that would make you say, “Shit, I sure liked the other one better.” Reno has been known to take pretty much everything for granted, do nothing about something, and then spend a decade bitching …”…bout how’it us’d to’be!”– especially when something is gone. No harm done, life goes on, but seriously, that’s fucking stupid.
With or without you, Reno, we’re going strong, and plodding on. Random shows will appear here. Your show could too, if you realized how widespread and free we are, you can’t find more spread for free this side of 4th street, you know. We’re simply twiddling our thumbs. Something’s going to happen, and you’ll pretty much be forced to look at it. Because you do all look at it, to the sum of 2,500 people a month. There has to be someone with a bright idea.
What about the rest of the town? We have a few new show-bars and some entertainment venues opening, and with El Neen-yo (tildas are for suckers~) pounding the west, we’ll be seeing cloudy skies for a bit. I suspect we’ll have another normal year of the big events as per usual, but nothing really is striking me as super-important. The baseball stadium is a huge success, and I watch as much as I can the retail popping up nearby, and hope it will be in time for this Spring/Summer 2010. Legends in Sparks is open already, we haven’t had a building to blow up or implode for a while, and with all the new stuff that came in 2009, maybe it’s just a year to mature and grow into our new digs. We’ll see what the promoters and developers have for polishing their new product.
I’m not one on numerology, specific years or decades, but sometimes it’s nice to have a milestone to say, we’ll, it’s time to do something new. Our economy continues to slowly try to stabilize itself, people are still hurting for work and the kind of easy cash to throw at non-essential things, so maybe we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing but with a new attitude.
Last year I saw three things that disturbed, intrigued and amazed me. The river downtown last summer was shoulder to shoulder with probably 1,000+ people. The bars and nightlife all around town was uncommonly busy. Businesses, especially retail, closed at an alarming rate around town. We can speculate, figure there’s a for-sure reason, but is it reactive or is it simply trend?
My money is on a little project south of downtown known as MidTown. The signs are on tons of businesses there, shops, bars, restaurants, and the vacancies are filling up there. New thrift stores, places to eat, and a sense of neighborhood is establishing in an area that was the “poor motel district,” of the glory days of Reno some 50 years ago. Along goes the theme that all money is green and spends the same in Reno, MidTown is probably the biggest little gem the area has to offer right now, if you like it local.
Beyond that, I’m keeping neutral this year. 2009 was personally a terrible year for me, and I had high hopes for it to be the bad-ass year of the decade, and it wasn’t. It was limbo. This year could be, too, but I suspect there’s going to be more time for planning and upstarting than anything, so by the time we read this again in 2011, I’ll be all excited again and give lots of good things for you to check out. This is a construction, building and “ideas,” year, and if I’m wrong and it’s a fun one, all the better.
Yours with saddle sores,
Gay Rodeo