News from the world of Brand Rex: I was saddened to learn that a 55-year old company in Miami, Fla., named Rex Art is shutting its doors .
Quote:
Rex Art, in business for 55 years and once one of the largest art supply retailers in the southeast, will close the store on Christmas Eve. For good.
When I saw that item, I thought I was going to have to alert Rex Sorgatz and start a protest or something. However, I am happy to report the rest of the story:
Luckily, most of Rex Art’s 15 employees will keep their jobs. That’s because Lonny, 37, and Katrina, 34, will continue to run their Internet business, www.rexart.com .
(rexblog flashback: Brand Rex )
Update: Rex Sorgatz just sent me this link to his Flickr set of Rex signs . I’m inspired. Look for the flickr tag "rexbrand" coming soon.
Have you ever run into the actual company named “Brand Rex”? Its wire and cable factory in Willimantic, Conn., was a major employer when I was a reporter there. I wish I had a copy of a BrandRex ad that used to hang on my office wall, so that I could give it to you as a Christmas present.
The full-page ad in the local daily was a cartoon of Buck Rogers (copyright authorized, I think), pointing to a very Jetson/Gernsback-continuum skyline, saying “Look! That used to be called ‘Willimantic,’ but today it’s… ‘Rexopolis!'”
Real irony: Brand Rex is still there (I think), but the city has been gone for years. A few years later the city of Willimantic disappeared, merged with the town surrounding it. In the publishing biz, f you ever run into Vin Crosbie (digitaldeliverance.com), ask him if he can dig up a copy.
(…copy of the ad, that is, not the city. His family publishes the paper.)
Rex:
In my continuing fascination with e-Paper, I posted about an e-Paper “reader” called The Iliad. The company behind it? iRex Technologies, a spin off from Philips.
http://www.gridmediallc.com/2005/12/e-paper-two-key-issues.html
But you’re still king of all the Rex’s, so to speak, in my book!