Yet another Yellow Pages shows up at the door. This time a new one. Verizon. It's all a business scam. You really don't need fifteen different kinds of yellow pages. But each one of these guys extorts advertising dollars from small businesses like me. A hundred and fifty a month per one and three quarter sqare inches - which is undreadable. I've been hit up by yellow pages across the land. I've been warned of a thousand year curse if I don't put an ad in the Chinese yellow pages. Just kidding... but they were tough sales folks. But I'll stick with the real thing for now - the one put out by the people that own the wire to your home. Well, OK if you got screwed by the DSL meltdown a year or two ago they might not own the wire anymore. But I digress. I boosted the previous store ad a factor of three. That costs - each and every month. But the SBC art department did incredible things. They somehow extracted the essence of my scribblings and threw some great art on it.

That's also a scam. I only asked for a double space ad. And I hacked up something with Photoshop that was crude but acceptable. They gave me that option. But here's what it could look like if our most talented designers give it a whirl - but due to the complexity it can only be done in the large size. And they nailed it. Totally informal, but with class. Your eye isn't drawn to the caciphony of brand names and logos typical of the competition. It's drawn to the french horn and violin. Very simple yet totally appropriate. And they preserved every word of my original template - including 'And other cool stuff...'. The competition has Gibson and Yamaha and Remo, but I've got cool stuff. Where do I sign?

Another vendor comes in. US made electric guitars. Respected name, though it's a small shop and non-cartel. Whoa. Rewind. A respected US guitar company is willing to sell me guitars. Three grand a pop and that also helps me sell these thousand dollar guitars as I ranted about sometime in the last few days. Absolutely. This is going to keep my accountant a bit on the edge. I'm also a little worried about the stock boy. He's showing signs of stress...