GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Deaf Gahan annexes the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast, eyes massive redevelopment deal.

The Green Mouse has learned that with the 49th annual mayor's prayer breakfast just around the corner in early November, Jeff Gahan has informed local religious leaders of his intention to annex and improve the event. 

Gahan's prospective invocation absorption process was outlined in an e-mail from the mayor's official personal Hotmail account, which the Green Mouse obtained from a disgruntled HWC Engineering employee.

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Good morning, fellow New Albanian pastors, rabbis and religious authorities*,

As you are aware, the New Albany Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast has a long and noble history of steadfastly ignoring the separation of church and state, and after much time spent praying with Mrs. Nixon in the chapel we built underneath the Down Low Mayoral Command Bunker, I've decided to make the Prayer Breakfast into an official arm of city government.

My handpicked minister of propaganda Mike Hall -- Duggins is way more spiritual, but I need him elsewhere -- will run our new Department of Homeland Supplication. 

We have a nifty new logo (don't worry; there'll be the usual selection of t-shirts, hoodies and Bible covers) reflecting the proper prioritization of worship.

I'll be rebranding the community prayer breakfast and making it into a big ticket, foodie-oriented day of fervent celebration, with chef-driven biscuits and gravy and a gospel concert series: 

Mayor Jeff M. Gahan Presents New Albany's Community Prayer Breakfast and Designer Cream of Wheat Walk

Develop New Albany can help with that last part. 

But there's a surprise, because we're going to construct a brand new venue for my prayer breakfast, honoring my main man, the former mayor and A Really Great Democrat who's never missed one: 

The Warren V. Nash Community Meditation Pavilion and Conference Center 

Michell Timperman Ritz has come up with a wonderful design, and I know you're just as excited as me to be able to finally get the prayer breakfast self-supporting. 

When I asked the interim Redevelopment Commission director to pick a spot for the Nash Center, it was like one of those miracles Coffey's always babbling about, because Shane said it will fit perfectly on the east side of our newly upgraded, refurbished and paved Bono Road, between the hospital and Graybrook Lane, right there where all those poor people used to live. 

I'm so happy they moved. It's almost like God is on our side, but just to be sure, we'll make the Nash Conference Center into its own TIF district. 

By the way, not even I can move enough mountains to pull this off in 2017, so we'll do one more prayer breakfast in the NAHS cafeteria until the construction is completed for the 50th anniversary in 2018. 

If you don't mind, keep all this to yourself. We wouldn't want those assholes at the Freedom from Religion Foundation to find out and spoil the oatmeal. 

Signed, 

* I've omitted imams for obvious security reasons. 

The New Jersey Swamp Dragons? "I wanted kids wearing Swamp Dragons T-shirts to Knicks games."

This one's a fun read. In reality, "Swamp Dragons" as a name doesn't seem so far-fetched in the context of international basketball's logo and design schemes.

The New Jersey Swamp Dragons? It almost happened, by Zach Lowe (ESPN)

Over the summer, I enlisted several design experts, including Tom O'Grady, the NBA's former creative director, to help me rank all 30 team logos. O'Grady sifted through his archives, and unearthed a treasure: mock-ups of all the proposed uniforms, court designs, logos, shooting shirts, and warmup jackets -- most of which have never been made public -- the New Jersey Nets conjured when they nearly changed their name to Swamp Dragons two decades ago.

Yes, this happened. It was a flashbulb moment for any NBA geek growing up in the Tri-State area -- a goof only the sad-sack Nets would try. Recovering O'Grady's trove of lost designs was the only excuse we needed to take a trip down memory lane with all the key players ...

... In 1993 and 1994, the expansion Toronto franchise was choosing its name. Dragons was among the finalists, along with Huskies and Raptors. Spoelstra liked the "Dragons" name, provided Toronto went another direction.

SPOELSTRA: The Dragon came up right away, but we needed something to identify it locally. I was sitting in my office with Jim Lampariello, our vice president, and I just said, "Every time I look out the window here, I see this swamp. And every time I think of swamps, I think of swamp rats. What about that?"

He just said, "I don't think that's very nice. What about Swamp Dragons?" I loved it. Dragons are mythical, and fun.

BILLY PAIGE, FORMER NETS DIRECTOR OF MERCHANDISE AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: Everybody likes dragons. Dragons are cool. They always will be.

ALAN AUFZIEN, CO-OWNER/CEO: I thought it was a very good idea. It was different.

CARTOON: Gahan Mach III ... or, daddy needs a brand new logo.

Thanks to DG for the idea.

Check out the new logo for TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana, and please consider donating.

At Facebook, TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana has revealed this sharp new logo.

A big thank you to Stephen Brown and Mind's Eye Creative for our new logo! We love it!

Mr. and Mrs. Confidential have donated to the cause, and you also should consider a sponsorship.

Patron of the Arts Sponsorship

Support the Arts in SoIN

TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana is pleased to offer a creative outlet for actors throughout the region as well as presenting top notch entertainment and educational opportunities. As a non-profit, we depend on patrons and businesses to augment ticket sales in the operation of the theatre. As a patron you will receive priority notification of upcoming events as well as acknowledgement in each program for the 2017-2018 season.

Web site

Buy this duckbilled platypus tea infuser now, before City Hall anchors it to the mud flats.

Many thanks to regular reader B for this great gift suggestion. Now all we need is a way to get Kool-Aid into tea bags, and we're set. Aldous Huxley would be so very proud of New Albany.

Psst ... are they finished yet?

VivaBoo tea infuser

The duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed platypus is a unique and rare animal inhabiting eastern Australia. Fill our platypus-shaped VivaBoo tea Infuser’s belly with a loose tea of your choice and put it in a cup of hot water. The tea infuses through VivaBoo’s body. Whether it’s a mug or a tumbler, VivaBoo hangs conveniently inside your cup by its bill. Cute and fun, catch VivaBoo peeking curiously from your cup!

Look, it's another new municipal logo -- we're walkable now!

Because making this place walkable might require lifting a pinky every now and then.

How many people will be tripped by this pipe before the city quits making excuses and fixes it?

After windows, lighting?

It might not come in handy until the re-arrival of winter's darkness, but Tony Beard's logo on the south side of Bank Street Brewhouse now is illuminated, thanks to Electric Dave at Resch Construction.

We've spoken much about the importance of glass, as opposed to boarded-up windows, but the use of lighting perhaps is neglected. Add it to the civic list, please. UEA facade grants, anyone?

Does the UEA still exist?

Bet you don't know how these two logos are connected.

Mike Kopp's photo shows the newly installed Dragon King's Daughter signage. DKD believes a soft opening could be coming within the next two or three weeks.

DKD's New Albany location is right across Bank Street from NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse, and you might not know what these two business logos have in common.

Both were designed by an old friend and Louisville artist, John Mahorney. Virtually every other graphic in NABC's brewery history originated with Tony Beard, but before I even knew Tony, John was on the scene, and we commissioned him to design the now familiar symbol with the keg-lifting man.