During the last week of 2010, I sat down with a notebook and asked myself a couple of questions:

* What went WELL this year?
* What DIDN'T?

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: Cowboy Lightning

Most people use the New Year as a reason to set goals for themselves and hope that within those next 365 days, they will emerge a new person and maybe even hope to learn something along the way. We find it inspiring to raise the bar just a bit higher and not just better ourselves, but better our community and state as a whole by working together. January didn’t just mark the New Year for us, but gave us a new chance to promote Local First Arizona’s new SHIFT campaign. Local First promotes the fact that shopping locally can improves our home and its economy by keeping money re-circulating within Arizona and increasing our tax revenue. Recently, they’ve released the idea of shifting spending, your shopping and your sourcing, away from big chain retailers and towards locally owned and operated businesses.

Hello Bookmans World! Thanks for coming out and meeting some incredible animals! Volunteers from Arizona Greyhound Rescue were on hand to answer questions and introduce you to some amazing creatures. Volunteer opportunities, adoption and much more. This is a great organization and Bookmans loves the Greyhounds!

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: Whupp'd

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: Battle of the Bands

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: Mama Said Knock You Out

Hello Bookmans Universe! Fitness gurus, farming, massage, Reiki and acupuncture were among the organizations that participated in our A New You Wellness Fair at Bookmans Speedway! These organizations have made it their purpose to help better people and the earth through fitness, nutrition and the human touch.

Tucson Village Farms is a cosponsor of our upcoming Green Fest!

Personally, sometimes I want to watch a movie where some blue collar guy or gal knocks somebody’s lights out. I’m not a violent person. I detest violence in real life, but, sometimes, when life gets me down and there’s no one to blame, it’s hard not to want to watch a good sport fight. Anyone familiar with the history of boxing, or sport of fighting of any kind (think gladiators!) knows that it’s historically the poor man who is willing to fight for a living.

Last Saturday we spent another chilly evening with gorgeous twinkling lights at a rocking block party! The 2011 Glitter and Glow Block Party was the perfect way to say goodbye to the holiday season. We watched as over two dozen hot air balloons inflated and glowed in the setting of the sun. We enjoyed live music as over thirty thousand people flooded the streets of downtown Glendale to say goodbye to their favorite holiday event of the year.

If you have the right ingredients you can turn a regular ol' Wednesday night from hump day into a rock 'n' roll extravaganza. Care to know those ingredients? Well, look no further! They are: Francis Ploski, Michael Gonzales, Forrest Fallows, Michael Huerta and, of course, Bookmans!

Bookmans Ina filled with the music of these local musicians for two hours on Wednesday night and it's safe to say that we all (the performers and the store) earned some new fans. Bookmans' customers who were not expecting live music were delighted to watch these talented musicians play original tunes. On the flip side, people who had just come to watch a show and had never been to Bookmans Ina were thrilled by our vast selection of music. Win-Win. Love it when it works out that way.

Find us on Flickr for more photos of this event.

Since returning to work at the newly reopened Bookmans Flagstaff, my two-year-old has decided it's a great time to start getting her molars. Despite painkiller dosing, she's been awake an average of two hours each night, usually between 3 and 5 a.m. Of course, we have to get up at 6 a.m. in order for everyone make it to work and school on time. In other words, my opportunity to sleep ends around three in the morning.

For some time now, the Midnite Movie Mamacita has been hosting monthly screenings of The Room at Madcap Theaters. In all honesty I'm perplexed in finding the perfect words to use to describe The Room -- a film that is so bad it's good. The Room has received the coveted Cult Classic status with it's monthly midnight screenings in several countries around the globe and has been dubbed “the Citizen Cane of bad movies.” According to a press release from 2004 found on the film's website, “The Room is an electrifying American black comedy about love, passion, betrayal, and lies. It's what happens in real life. You could be with your loving women and all of a sudden BOOM! She's in bed with your best friend or a family member.”

The Room poster by movie poster artist extraordinaire Victor Moreno.

All aboard! By now, everyone is quite familiar with the Chris Van Allsburg classic picture book The Polar Express and every year we are anxious to invite back Mike, a real-life train conductor on the Grand Canyon Railway who turns his average train into a Polar Express experience every year, including a trip to the North Pole and a special visit from Santa. The conductor and his helper Lindsey (a chef on the train) drove hundreds of miles to visit Bookmans Phoenix this and every December for a special reading of the book for our community kids.

Jack Frost finally made an appearance in Phoenix as he nipped our noses (and fingers and toes) at the final weekend of Glendale Glitters. We rocked the night away with live musical performances by local Kings of Swing, Voodoo Swing. Everyone was having a good time dancing to keep warm. Many great local dance troupes took the main stage at the amphitheater to show off their moves.