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We packed December with Holiday happenings at Bookmans Mesa.
What better way to get in that holiday spirit than to climb aboard for a storytelling ride on the Polar Express! Mike the conductor and the chef from the Grand Canyon Railway took us on a heartwarming adventure that follows a doubting boy who takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole, embarking on a journey of self-discovery that shows him the wonder of life never fades for those who believe. Eating Santa's favorite cookies and sipping hot chocolate, you could almost feel the chills on those mountain peaks. Do you believe? Everyone who did was rewarded with a silver bell from the sleigh of Santa himself!
Find us on Flickr for more photos of our Polar Express visit.
The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Driver's dEaD
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I asked the Bookmans Flagstaff crew for Christmas movies that make them laugh when the holidays weren't all hams and mistletoe, and this is what they said:
On the topic of suicide, the classic “It's a Wonderful Life” can pull me right out of a slump. Dirt broke? Worry you might be useless to your family? Well, a guardian angel begs to differ. And, even though your kids can sometimes act like ungrateful little bums, they really do love you.
The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Guitario Lothario
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The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: It Must Have Been the Mistletoe
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As you probably know, Bookmans Flagstaff opened our doors at 9 a.m. last Thursday, Dec. 16. The reopen was almost 11 months after that fateful January day when our roof collapsed under record snow. Our employees, who all kept their jobs, spent much of the last year buying, selling, processing and organizing merchandise in a warehouse, doing outreach work in schools, libraries, centers for animals and other nonprofits to maintain our connections to the Flagstaff community.
On opening day, there were over 90 people waiting in line to get into the store, including dogs and babies. The entire staff of Bookmans Flagstaff, plus Bob, our CEO, and his wife Amie Sue, plus many of our friends from other stores and our resource center in Tucson, were there to welcome them. Here's the whole crew on opening day:
Glenda and her wonderful storytellers stopped by on Saturday to release their new storyteller CD and to share their wonderfull stories with the Bookmans universe. Glenda Bonin has been performing for more than 30 years and has made her living as a storyteller since 1996. She was born in Wyoming, raised in Oregon and currently lives in Arizona. Her group of incredible storytellers told stories from their CD and the adventures they have had in storytelling.
When Santa Claus comes to Bookmans, magic happens. Saturday was a most fantastic day with many different x-mas events happening around the store. First we had the lovely volunteers from Altrusa International with us all day wrapping Christmas gifts. Next, Silverwood Duo stopped by for a couple of hours and played some amazing Christmas music while the good people of Bookmans were shopping and the elves were hard at work. Then, true to his word, Jolly ol' St. Nick came in for a visit. He hung out and got his picture taken with his adoring fans, handed out candy canes and was accompanied by Kidz Art. They put together a Christmas craft turning a candy cane into a Christmas mouse. Oh what a great day!
Read More...Last Thursday night was our second installment of live music brought to you by Ear Candy and Chicks with Picks. We welcomed local high school musician Lauren Black for a special in store performance that included everything from holiday tunes, original music by Ms. Black herself and covers by some of her favorite artists. She even got her cousin in on the action with a song that she played guitar to while her cousin sang.
The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Comin' to Town
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You know, just another typical day of glass blowing. Heck no, it was awesome! It all started a month or so ago with a daily Groupon deal of "Blow your own Christmas Ornament" for $25 at The Sonoran Glass Art Academy.
To my friends, family, and customers in Flagstaff and Northern Arizona,
Here it is, almost a year since I received that fateful call, “The roof of the Flagstaff store has fallen in,” my first thought was some friend is messing with me, uh yeah, sure whatever, no really the snow caved in the roof. Really? Yes really! What, like a corner? A hole? A little bit? No the whole thing! The whole thing, what do you mean the whole thing? I could not comprehend what “the whole thing” might mean. “You know, the whole thing, all of it, a total loss.” ... It was something my mind couldn’t quite wrap itself around, like light years, grains of sand on a beach, or some such... but as all of you know, it did happen. After over 23 years, Bookmans Flagstaff was no more.
Read More...The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: The Christmas Karate Kid
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All year around we strive to remain on our best behavior to reap the rewards that will come back to us on that special day in December. Working in a treasure filled store like Bookmans, we frequently hear, “Mommy/Daddy/Grandma/Grandpa will you buy me this?” We also hear the sure fire response, “Maybe if you’re good Santa Claus will bring it to you for Christmas.” We wait with the kids, making sure our rooms stay clean, our homework is completed and we share our toys because Santa Claus sees it all and knows whether they’ve really been naughty or nice.
Twinkle was in abundance as Murphy Park continued to be lit by over one million lights. Glendale Glitters was busy, busy, busy! The state's largest free holiday light display continued it's tradition last weekend with the Spirit of Giving. Several local non-profit agencies were on site to talk about volunteering opportunities as well as how to give back to our communities. We even saw our friends from Local First Arizona!
The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Gift Card of the Magi
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We’re teaming up with the local organization Chicks with Picks to bring you informative classes and live performances every third Thursday! To kick things off the valley band Star Unknown provided us with an awesome show in our music department this Thursday. The band consists of Lindsay Lombard on vocals and violin and Anthony Ciarleglio on guitar and bass. The two have been rocking out together for over three years after meeting on Craigslist, of all places. While Anthony has a musical background Lindsay just recently discovered her singing talent and is sharing it with the world. The two were so harmonious together that our customers stopped in their tracks to sit down for the special performance.
Bookmans Mesa had the pleasure this week of hosting Greasepaint Live: 100 Years of Broadway. Greasepaint Live is made up of youngsters that range in age groups and perform outreach community work throughout the Phoenix area. Crowds from our store and cafe gathered to tap their feet in time to the music of some of Broadway's Finest. Led by Maureen Watson, this group of very talented singers blew me away. Performing well-known songs from the Broadway versions of Peter Pan, Annie, Grease and even tackling harder to perform songs such as A Chorus Line, all the while dancing along -- and executing it so smoothly that it superbly showcased their genuine talents while entertaining us all. Thanks to you all of you at Greasepaint Live for visiting Bookmans Mesa and putting on a great show.
Glendale Glitters lit up the town with a fantastic opening, amazing weather and the scent of gingerbread filling the air. Every weekend in the month of December we will celebrate the spirit of winter with over thirty-thousand people (that's 30,000 people, people!) as they walk along the streets of Murphy Park in Historic Downtown Glendale.
Our beloved cashier Nancy lead yet another of our ever popular Bookmans Craft Workshops this past weekend at Bookmans Mesa. Nancy is a master of... well, everything, but she specializes in scrapbooking, craft papers and altered art. This month she hosted a project she called Holiday Tags. Holiday Tags are a way of personalizing that perfect gift to someone in a fun and creative way using various items.
According to our Assistant Store Manager, Desiree Ducharme, the last few weeks have been like an extended day before Christmas as we anticipate the reopen of our store in Flagstaff. In my family, it is tradition to open one small present on Christmas eve and save the rest for morning, and that's how it feels at the new store now. Santa's cookies are on the counter and we're ready for the hoof taps!
Yesterday I went to the store to take pictures, and ended-up helping a man assemble my new office desk. It was thrilling. Everyone just looks super happy to be back among the shelves, and, talking with folks, I've realized that what we miss most about the store are the customers! Here are brief interviews with two of our long-term employees:
1) Name: Kathleen Dudine, Facilities Manager
How long have you worked for Bookmans? Almost 11 years.
Tell us about your year without a Bookmans: I don’t want to.
What new thing(s) did you learn while working in the warehouse? Bodie (my dog) will eat anything and he loves coffee. I learned that it is difficult to be a Facilities Manager without a Facility.
The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: One Trick Little Pony
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Think Black Friday falls only the day after Thanksgiving? Not so!
The first week of December has been exciting here at Bookmans Mesa. For an entire week we hosted "Broken Black Friday". What kind of goofy thing is Broken Black Friday? It is our annual art show where employees take items from their own department which are broken, torn up, and seemingly have no use left, and upcycle them into works of art to display for the holidays.
Read More...Ho, Ho, Hokey smokes, Santa! We had a swinging holiday celebration with Santa and his trusty elf this last Saturday at Bookmans Grant. The kids flooded in to tell Santa what they wanted, eat some cookies and to give super-size smiles for the camera.
The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Stocking Stuffer
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The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Your Junk in the Box
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I have a hole the elbow of my favorite shirt.
However, my disappointment in this degraded textile situation is fleeting. I open my top desk drawer and pull out my travel sewing kit, pull out a strand of matching thread, and begin to wet the end with the intention of passing it through the eye of a needle. Then I stop, stare at the minute piece of stainless steel between my fingers and realize, there is probably a whole generation of folk who wouldn’t know the first thing about this archaic process.
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The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!
The Konamis: Secret Santa
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