Apologies to our members, our site was down for 2 and a half hours tonight from around 7.30pm through to 10pm. That’s a killer for us because tonight was shaping up quite nicely. It wasn’t me guv .. I wasn’t messing around with our server. Unfortunately our host had a network outage. It seems some gremlins have crept in with a recent equipment upgrade. We were off the air yesterday as well for close to 45 minutes.

Being reliant on network connectivity is enough to give anyone grey hairs, and these outages aren’t pleasant. Yet, despite our tech base we’ve been remarkably trouble free. Knock on wood!

And don’t forget .. even if our site happens to be offline our shop will still be OPEN and the music ON. Come on down and we’ll do it old school. All manual based and you can even checkout the covers in our window. Andrew was manning the shop tonight and caught the short straw as the system came up just as he was about to shut up shop .. dang back processing those manual orders. Sorry dude!

I’ve been weaning myself off Microsoft products for quite a while now, and as I sit pushing through an Information Memorandum I think I’ve taken the final step. Pages from the Mac iWork 08 suite is just fantastic. I’ve been a heavy user of MS Word for a long time and have created some fairly monstrous system specs in the past. But these days presentation really helps and I found myself frustrated by Word’s crappy layout controls. I want multi-columns, floating objects, drop shadows .. basically Word should have bridged the desktop publishing divide years ago. Pages does this and I love it. I know I could create the same document in Word .. but it’d drive me nuts and I’d drop back to vanilla formatting.

So, I’ll issue this IM in pdf, export to Word for others to review and edit, and reap the benefits of how productive a Word Processor really should be. Not to mention iWork costs a ridiculous $99 next to MS Office’s $650 heft .. who’s a cash cow for Microsoft then?

Who’d believe it… we have been open almost a year. Well technically it’s not a year until the September the 15th but there are a few of us on Railway Place with anniversaries so we took the average and set a date for a RALWAY PLACE BIRTHDAY PARTY.

Michael from the Bean Counter has decided to have his OPENING party a year later!! David Johns is celebrating his second year now operating as newNorth Gallery in partnership with Michael Silver and newNorth editions offering fine art printing… you should see what they can do with your fave photo printed onto canvas. Our beloved Audrey in the shop on the door was done by these guys.

Sadly Carlo from “Carlo’s Upholstery” will be having a swansong party, he is moving to larger premises. Not to dance on his grave as I think the street will be losing a great business and we will all miss Carlo and his fab chairs… but I think someone has to open a BAR there. Come on it’s time for us to have our own so we don’t always have to make the trek up high st! Anyone?!! …. I also want some company at night on this strip!

To celebrate we are holding a competition for the youngies of the neighbourhood. In keeping with the promotion of local artistic talent in this area (of which I am constantly amazed) we are holding the “Budding Artist Competition”. Emma Barnes has done a fab job at creating a basic rendition of the street which needs colour and movement. So get the kids paints, crayons, pencils… hell whatever medium they want to use… out and get them going. We will be exhibiting the entrants work in all the businesses on the street. The winners of each age group will get their winning masterpiece printed onto canvas ready for the galleries of New York!

So the party details are

When - Friday August 22, 5 - 8pm
Where - Railway Place (corner of Gillies St)

Fancy BBQ, 3 Ravens Beer and wine
Winners anounced at 6.30pm… so they don’t have to be in bed!

YAY YAY YAY
How I love an event!

Having said that I am glad that due to my sudden career change I am not dealing with traffic closures and mayhem in Sydney at the moment! Those happy youth would be making my old life hell!

So there is a rally organised to demonstrate against the proposed changes I have waxed lyrical about below.

When - Saturday 19th July
Where - Fido the giant dog sculpture on the Corner of Station St and Wingrove Place (at the train crossing opposite the Commonwealth Bank)
Time - 11am

No dogs please, could end up working against the cause, we don’t want them on the streets we want them running around Darebin parkland together!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED - please get in touch with Darebin Dogs if you can help with any of the following:

1. Printing posters/handouts (probably $300-500)
2. distributing posters/handouts around the area
3. Digital photos of the rally (professional standard)
4. Collecting signatures on a petition, both at the rally and elsewhere
5. Making poster/banners for the rally

Darebin Dogs can be contacted via email at darebindogs@hotmail.com

Even if you don’t have a dog come along and make some noise… this is wrong!

now… back to group certificates and BAS…

So you all know about soapbox Simon… stand clear Sir.. make way for Soapbox Sarah!

Last night at Darebin Parklands I was presented with a brochure showing the planned amendments to off lead areas for dogs a the parklands. Currently I walk my dogs in the lower part where I and usually about 30 other dog owners regularly and responsibly (picking up after them, keeping them out of non off lead areas etc) get our own exercise in a great part of the world. It is rare to see anyone without a hound in this section of the parklands, the non dog owners stick to the upper areas where there are bike paths, bbq facilities, bike and walking tracks. We dog owners are the ones that trudge through the mud and steep hills! And our animals and our health love us for it.

Darebin council are planning on closing the whole lower area off to dogs off lead and want to make the only dog off lead area a small grassed area bounded by bike paths, the bbq area & duck ponds (what do you think dogs off lead are going to do around duck ponds?!). What I do not think the council has done is actually been there on a Sunday late afternoon and seen the sheer amount of people and pooches exercising. It would be absolute mayhem and carnage to put that amount of dogs in a small area and expect them not to fight and cause havoc to the surrounding areas which are principally for bike riders, families and lets not forget the ducks!

One of the factors….. alright there was this little thing called applebox too!……… that helped make my decision to move from Sydney to Melbourne was the forward thinking of Melbourne Councils in making the city so livable. This includes the transport, culture, community and believe it or not…. places I can walk my dog!! Sydney is incredibly restrictive, they have a lot of national park sure but you can not take dogs anywhere in Sydney. There are small oval sections of parks policed heavily. It is hard for the owner to get any exercise other than walking round in circles on an overcrowded bit of grass trying to keep your dog clear of all the dog fights that naturally occur when large numbers of dogs are confined to small areas. Come on Darebin…… we just took over as the fattest nation in the world… don’t discourage a group of people who are actually healthy out there and exercising as part of daily life. Shame shame shame..

This change is due to go through on the 17th of July (THIS THURSDAY) so please contact the council by writing to

Animal Management Strategy , City of Darebin, PO Box 91, Preston 3072;
or by email to Council at mailbox@darebin.vic.gov.au or by contacting
Council on 8470 8529.

You can see for yourself what this change will mean by opening the following link:

www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Files/Consultation_Plan_On_Off_Lead_Areas_June_2008.pdf

Quickflix’s recent update to the ASX shows their first ever decline in membership. From their July 11 announcement:

2 months ago Quickflix announced they were going lean & mean. Yet without their marketing spend, you can see the impact. There has been 4 consecutive months of decline in their trialists. But more to the point, their paying membership base has seen their first-ever drop:

It’s pretty bold putting out monthly membership numbers .. great while the numbers are good, but not so good when they drop. Perhaps they’ve learnt their lesson as they’ve now reverted to quarterly reports. It’s tough being a public company .. there’s no hiding performance.

They’ve re-skinned their site, and with new marketing efforts no doubt things will pick up. Good luck guys!

Movies picked. Location confirmed. Time changed due to popular demand… the next Movie Club is

Tuesday August 5th. 7pm
Everest Wine Bar, Station St, Fairfield
Movies - Blood Simple and No Country for Old Men

Yep it’s a Coen Brothers festival, some very early work and their latest. Should make for some interesting comparisons.

If you are interested then please drop us a line or let us know in store and we will pop you on the list. The Movie Club is a fairly informal film discussion night for people who like movies.

Just a reminder that nominations are now open for the Leader Business Awards so….. nominate us now!

If you are wondering which category (we kinda don’t fit into any standard categories being a new model “bricks and clicks” kind of store) then we would love to win the following category:
18. New Business (under 18 months in operation)

Thanks for your support and don’t forget you go in the draw to win $2500 in travel by jumping on line and giving us a plug.