Two of the quirkiest businesses I've found in Tucson reside on East Colombia Street. First, there's Creative Machines, a Willy Wonka-esque factory that churns out interactive public art and museum exhibits.

Then, there's Vintage Appliances. I passed by and couldn't help, but pause, park, and take an Instagram photo of what I thought was some sort of appliance graveyard. However, Rich Allen, soon set me straight and gave me an imprompteu tour.

• Mariana Dale and her trusty iPhone.
• Top, This was the scene that initially caused me to stop. Most of these units are used for parts to repair other appliances. Bottom Left: One of the retro style stoves in the show room. Bottom Right, A vintage Frigedaire is almost done being restored and would be shipped to England.

Allen's shop restores and repairs worn but classic appliances, mainly fridges and stoves. When I stopped by, they were working on an adorable Frigedaire that would be shipped to a doctor in England.

But they also sell lines of new-made-to-look old appliances that come in a a rainbow of colors from candy apple red to sunshine-y yellow.

If you're ready to redecorate or just a fridge fanatic, Vintage Appliances makes for an interesting stop.

Fangamer, based out of Tucson, deals in video-game-inspired apparel and accessories. After being open for business for the past four years, they've decided to reprint a number of beloved old designs, getting the money for that through a Kickstarter that will send shirts to folks for exactly as much as it costs to buy a shirt through the website.

Basically, they want you to invest in their company to get some shirts. Makes sense to me. But the heart of the matter is, their Kickstarter mission video is hilarious—5 minutes of your time well spent.

If you're interested in getting in on their Kickstarter, or just feel like buying some of their awesome-looking shirts and accessories, check out the links below.

[Fangamer]

[Kickstarter - Fangamer Retrowear]

Indie musicians and fans now have a new way of selling their merchandise: www.rekiosk.com. The site, described as an alternative distribution solution for independent creatives, launched last week.

Basically anyone can open a free account to sell music and books. You don't need to be a musician or writer, though. You can sell media from your favorite indie band or author.

Sale commissions are generous. Here's an explanation from the site:

We make sure that for every sale made on the site, the creator or their authorized agent always gets 70% of the sale price. But unlike other digital vendors out there, we let the user who made the sale collect the distribution commission — which is often as much as 25% of the sale price.

The site is also a social media platform where you can connect with other users with similar tastes. A "discover" tab allows you to view best sellers and search by category.

Check out how it works here.

In what starts out as a harsh (but fair) commentary on our fair pueblo's inundation of crap gift stores (Walgreens, I'm looking at you), Gizmodo writer and former Tucsonan Cord Jefferson lets both Tucson and Las Vegas have it in this story of his trip to ASD Las Vegas, one of the largest consumer trade shows in the world.

In nearly every corner store in Tucson, the thrifty shopper can find posters that read, "Arizona: It's a dry heat!" above a drawing of two skeletons roasting in a desert; keychains in the shape of saguaros; roadrunner magnets; and, for the true desert memorabilia connoisseur, a dreamcatcher adorned with a kokopelli, an American Indian fertility god that's about as prevalent in certain parts of the Southwest as meth.

For years and years in Tucson—and then after, in places like Key West, Honolulu, New York City, even Sarajevo—I have drowned in the mediocrity of so many tchotchkes, and wondered where they were born. From what warehouse in what ring of hell do ceramic dogs holding signs that say, "Wipe Yer Paws," originate? Or is it opposite: Does God make "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" t-shirts? I finally found out where the world gets all the garbage with which she fills her card shops and gift stores and gas-station toy racks. This stuff doesn't come from hell. It comes from somewhere innumerably worse: Vegas.

The whole story can be found here.

Every time I mention my not-entirely-positive feelings about Yelp on The Range, a parade of the site's rabid supporters hit our comment section proclaiming that I'm jealous or stupid or whatever, but if Yelp is such a spectacular outlet for the voice of the everyday consumer, why are advertisers complaining the results are fixed?

But while Yelp is growing, Mattress City's Patey said his business is suffering. "We are being sabotaged because we are not interested in paying $350 a month," he said.

Patey said he had several months of positive reviews last summer, but a couple days after he rejected a Yelp salesperson's pitch about advertising on the site, he saw his positive reviews disappear, leaving one negative review at the top of his company's Yelp page.

He was also threatened by a Yelp employee, he said. On the last of several phone calls in which Patey asked why he needed the advertising if he already had positive reviews, the salesperson told him,"You are about to find out," and hung up on him, Patey said. After that, Mattress City didn't have a positive review on its page for five months, he said.

Today his Yelp page displays two negative reviews and one positive — even though there are 35 additional filtered reviews, 32 of which carry five stars. But readers can only access those other reviews by clicking on a nearly invisible link at the bottom of the page called "35 Filtered" and passing the distorted-text security measure....

Besides these recent cases, 15 complaints have been filed against Yelp at the Washington Attorney General's Office since January 2009. Half of them raised similar issues.

With the streetcar construction downtown, it's understandable that merchants affected by the inconvenience and those associated with them would try anything to get people to still come down and spend money. However, I don't know if this particular ad, hosted by Tucson 12 (not to be confused with The Tucson 12, which is something else entirely), is going to do the trick, mostly because it almost seems like a parody of how people talk in commercials (Person says something negative, is proven wrong by friend, comes to slogan-like epiphany at the end).

Still, you should go downtown. It's not that much of a hassle and the retailers would appreciate it.

It's been nice to see local organizations get together to support local businesses along the modern streetcar construction zone (our editor Jimmy Boegle encouraged this behavior in his editor's note a few weeks ago), and Mind Our Own Businesses has popped up on Facebook to organize "cash mob" type events, bringing a group of customers to a business along Fourth Avenue or Downtown as an event. According to a post on TucsonVelo.com, the group is hoping to "organize one or two events every week as well as offer ideas and tips for patronizing the businesses along Fourth Avenue and Congress Street."

Check them out on Facebook.

For everyone out there who has long claimed that Tucson would be the best city in the world if they were in charge, here's your chance to not only run a town, but to own it outright.

The tiny town (though I'm going to argue that any place with a population of 1 is, at most, a village) of Buford, Wyoming is going up for auction on April 5. Apparently, the town's owner/mayor/sheriff/only resident, Don Sammons, is ready to move on from his doubtlessly busy political life, with plans to move away after the sale.

For $100,000, you can own a 10 acre slice of life, complete with a house, garage, cabin, schoolhouse, convenience store and gas station — not to mention, your own ZIP code.

Hm. Looks like I just found the perfect place to direct the schmucks we try to run off in the Weekly's annual "Get Out of Town!" issue. If only "tiny hamlet" was something that we could fit into the budget...

[Inquisitr.com]

"Inspired by the iconic sleeve of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album..."

I imagine Ian Curtis was probably a big fan of jovial American cartoons, even if he happened to be the suicidal frontman of one of the most depressing bands of all time. Why wouldn't he have been?

• Jessica Canchola

Unfortunate news today in the world of Tucson retail, as the owner of Bohemia, an "emporium" of largely local crafts and creations (and a Best of Tucson® winner for Best Art/Artisan Jewelry), announced the store closed permanently last night.

From Facebook:

I have been searching for the right words to say today, but the only appropriate thing that keeps coming to mind is thank you and thank you. I am so sad to say that Bohemia had to close last night. There are many layers and factors that came into play and I apologize that I could not make the plans public until now. It is heartbreaking to be there and gone, but it had to be.

There are so many emotions as Bohemia was more than just a business to me and, I hope, to you. Alas, it was a business and the end is an unfortunate sign of the times. These years have been an incredible journey and I thank you for the lessons and successes and experiences that were part of the Bohemia world. I will miss having them on a daily basis, but know they can exist in other forms.

I implore you to continue your support of local artists, local business and all things home-grown. It is essential for our community (locally and beyond) to rebound and recover. I encourage you to contact me via email ([email protected]) or phone (520-882-0800) if you would like information about the shop or an artists that we worked with. I am happy to help keep this movement going in a different way.

Again, thank you for all the beauty, creative joy, tears and love. You help make Tucson so very special.

Tana Kelch
Bohemia