This is a "bulls-eye" guitar.
This is a zoom of a "bulls-eye" guitar.
There was a boatload of great guitars at the National Reso-Phonic Guitars (not really sure why flying saucers are tootling by on the home page, but that's the magic of an all-Flash site, I suppose) and a guy was playing a resonator that --- OH MY GOD I DIDN'T SEE THOSE COOKIES!!!!!!! See, that's a good giveaway, but oddly enough, not really appropriate. The way edible tchotchkes work is that the quality of the edible tchotchke is inversely proportional to how popular your booth is (except in this rare case). So if you go to the Pearl section, there's nothing. They don't have cookies or candy. Most places, you get a Hershey's kiss ("office chocolate") or the like to entice you to perhaps pick up a four-color glossy pamphlet and make the booth look that much more populated for the 3.7 seconds it takes for you to grab the candy and escape. One very popular booth was offering what appeared to be a bag of BBQ potato chips that had been run over by an electric golf cart repeatedly for about an hour. On the opposite end, the biggest edible giveaway we saw -- full giant Symphony (get it?) chocolate bars -- was at a Christian songbook booth. So really, National could have gotten away with handing out those Red Hot Toothpicks or radishes w/dip. Don't even tell me those cloth-like blobs on the shelf below were free t-shirts. Don't do this to me, National Reso-Phonic Guitars.
I've been reconsidering the cookie offerings. The barrier to entry really trumps any sort of value judgement. With most places you put the edibles on a plate, allowing visitors to your booth to swoop down and snatch the goodies in mere seconds. Here, to get the cookies, you have to lift off this big lid and then reach down about eight inches, get the cookie without touching any of the other ones, then replace the lid -- a series of totally awkward movements.
This guitar looks like it could be easily modified into a pleasing wall clock. Am I right, or what? [audience cheers] You utter sheep.
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