Here's something unique you probably never knew you needed: a custom car emblem with your Twitter handle on it.
Local business skooladesign creates these fun emblems, but you don't have to have a Twitter account to have one. You could probably order any word or symbol you wanted. And you don't have to put it on your car- we aren't sure where we're putting ours yet. Maybe somewhere in the bar. Maybe on Andrew's car.
On a side note, it's an interesting story as to how we got this emblem.
Bill, the designer behind skooladesign, recently traveled to the Super Bowl with his father, who won the tickets in a contest. However, the prize didn't include airfare or a hotel. Bill's wife, Sarah, jokingly tweeted one day that if all of her Facebook friends and Twitter followers pledged a buck, she could send the boys on their dream trip.
Funny thing- people responded with offers of a dollar or five or ten, and before long Bill and his dad were on their way. You can read the entire story here and here.
Everyone who donated at least ten bucks was given a custom car emblem as a thank-you gift. So not only did we get to contribute to the experience of a lifetime, we also got a cool, unique gift in return.
Fun event coming up this Friday! The KC Limits radio show will be live on the air from 7-9 p.m. at The Sandbar, celebrating their 100th show.
The Sandbar might be known for its island Jimmy Buffett music, but there's a special place in our hearts for the music known as red dirt or Texas country. We have a little bit of it on the jukebox, mostly in mix/compilation CD's, but Dave has an ample amount on his iPod and he'll kick it on for special occasions.
This is one of those occasions.
Our friend Justin hosts the weekly KC Limits show on 106.5 The Wolf radio station, from 9-midnight every Sunday night. He plays the best of red dirt country music, along with some of your favorite outlaw and legendary country artists mixed in.
Many of these artists play in Lawrence and Justin always comes up for the shows, usually meeting us at the Sandbar beforehand. We like to think we've become an unofficial pre-party spot for Lawrence's red dirt shows.
This Friday, Robert Earl Keen comes to town. Don't know him? His college neighbor was Lyle Lovett, so if you like Lyle's music you'll probably love Robert Earl Keen. You can read more about him here. The Josh Abbott Band opens the show at the Granada. Tickets are only $20 in advance, and that is a steal.
Come on out to the Sandbar on Friday to see what a live radio show is all about, and then head to the Granada with us for a great concert!
So, the other day I was checking out our Google Analytics info, which I don't do nearly as frequently as I should, mostly because I haven't taken the time to really understand why it's so important.
I found a reason: you never know who might be talking about you on the internets.
I noticed a large number (okay, 30 or so) of visits coming from Forbes. Yes, that Forbes- the site with "information for the world's business leaders." Why in the world would Forbes be directing people to a tiny little bar in Kansas' website?
I followed the link and found a blog about webcams– and more specifically, why webcams are a voyeur's delight.
The article was really a warning to people who have webcams that really aren't intended to be public- like a security camera for a jewelry store- and the author wrote about how easy it is for someone to find public webcams and potentially rob your store.
At the end of the blog, the author concedes that some places actually want people to watch their webcams- and mentions a little bar in Lawrence, Kansas, called the Sandbar. And, of course, includes a link to our webcam.
Pretty cool that we ended up mentioned in an article on Forbes!
We hit a social media milestone (in our eyes, anyway) last night: the one-thousandth check-in on the location-based social networking service Foursquare.
Foursquare, for the non-geeks among you, is an application that lets you "check in" at places you go- bars, restaurants, retail stores, gas stations- and share it with your friends. You can earn virtual badges for your check-ins, like the Swarm Badge we earned last spring when 50 people were checked into the Sandbar at the same time.
So last night, I noticed that check-ins at the Sandbar were quickly approaching 1000. I wasn't sure if we'd reach that number last night, but sure enough, Erika checked in and became the one-thousandth check-in.
(To be clear, these are not unique check-ins; the number of different people who have checked in on Foursquare is 372. But that tells me that a) there's still a lot of different people who have checked in to a bar that holds 49 people, and b) we have a lot of loyal, repeat customers.)
I sent a quick tweet to Erika thanking her for checking and offering her a free t-shirt. She responded almost immediately and Dave hooked her up with a prize.
See, social media can pay off with free stuff. We also have a Foursquare special that gets you free jukebox tunes for checking in, and we're working on some other fun and creative things too.
Twitter is not only a goldmine of information for us, it's also a great way for our friends and customers to quickly send us questions, comments and pictures.
We got this picture over the weekend:
This photo is on display at the Lawrence Arts Center. We haven't been to see it in person yet, so we don't know who the artist is, or if it's for sale or not, but we love it!
The link to the mini-fridge beer cannon video floated across our Twitter stream the other day, courtesy of @rikkikite.
It appears that some guy used his old college mini-fridge to create a beer delivery service for his apartment. Combined with an app on his iPhone, he's able to select which beer he wants and launch it from the fridge to a point in his apartment.
Every lazy person needs one of these. Check it out for yourself:
