What’s Going On Here?
 (copyright © 2012 by Towne Square America™)

(04/01/2010) Towne Square America™ Pavilion, Main Hall

Features on this page:

• Intro
• The Unabridged Story of Towne Square (which is the text the initial press release/notice to “read all about it!”)

Welcome to a place where we “put on a show” just for you. By now, you’ve probably  figured out this isn’t like anywhere else you’ve been. There are no menus here. You “point & click” any time you see the mouse pointer turn into a little hand, as well as on headings or underlined text, blurbs, clips, blips, or snips to get where you want to go. Any time you see (more), that’s where you click to read ... you guessed it ... more!

We don’t think you will have any problems figuring out where (or when) to click. Or when to use the scroll bar. Getting from “here to there” in our Play of Words on the very edge of your imagination is easy. It is something you already know how to do. The simplicity of it all, just might  make you wonder why other web sites don’t work this way.

There is a large cast of characters bringing this conceptual, but actually working construct of an experiment directly to your line of sight. Here is the Brain Trust and “main cast of characters” who, besides focusing on much of the Reportage, “head things up,” so to speak:

Skeeter WordPlay, Editor in Chief & The greatest living Web.Word.Whimsy Producer
Margo Fargo, Chief of Operations & Perceptual Awareness
Don Diego de la Puerta, Global Reportant & Bull Fighter
Sasha Christina Angeleena Constantinople, Corporate Investigative Reportant Correspondent
Benjamin Kensington Waterloo, Political Reportage and Investigations
Intadonda Alatuweenka, Health & Fitness Reportant
Geraldo Reed MeMore, All Around Jock & Sporticipant Reportant

George “the Filament” Striker, Techno-Weenie Expertologist Reportant

So, where exactly is it that you are right now (mostly in your mind)? And, what are we all doing here?

You have reached the geographical center of the Internet. We are coming to you “live & direct” from the octagon shaped pavilion smack-dab in the middle of Towne Square America™. We are already being called “a bold, new voice” carried on lighted beads of flashing electrical impulses zipping outward over vast interconnected grids of countless virtual landscapes, “direct-connected” to your own neural network grid (hopefully, somewhere inside your head). Some people are calling us “smart asses.” And, while we welcome any and all “commented input,” we like to look at what we are doing here as mental holographic transmissions that aren’t “the same old story” reverberating through your brain … we purposely intend to make you think by tweaking and twittering your intellectual. Plus, we’re making up a whole bunch of stuff as we go!

Just about all of what you have read or ever will read over at news and information web sites (i.e., "the other guys") is based on a variety of "spins." Such content is slanted to the particular bias of those web sites (or, to be more correct, bias of whomever owns and/or controls those web sites). Hey, even here you are getting bias, but at least we admit it right off the bat. And, whatever we can't find in the way of news, heck, we’re just going to make it up as we go. Even the photos and graphics produced (including the photo editing) by the other guys are all carefully managed to fit the stories and point(s) of view they are pushing. They'll use a horrid photo of a person or public figure they don't like, slap in some copy to go with it, and thus shape what we see in the “news." Well, here at Towne Square America™, we purposely don't use photos because in the context of what we're dealing with here, well, the way we present it, you can draw your own conclusions (and pictures, all of which will be conjured up via pure mental energy).

We like to pride ourselves on climbing inside your head and presenting a mental pictorium of sorts. With the other guys, it is really all about the advertising - click-through and otherwise. With Towne Square America™, while at some point we might succumb to advertising (hey, everyone wants to make a buck or two), our mission is to jumpstart and energize your intellect (we like to call it “intellectual stimulation”). Besides, you already know which news web sites to go to that support your political and ideological qualms. Here, at Towne Square America™, we’re just constantly going to be playing with words … a “worded excursion,” if you will!

Our commitment is always will be to YOU ... to make you smile, laugh, giggle, or otherwise contemplate things a little bit different kind of way. We want you to know that this Play of Words you'll be "skipping your way through" - words to phrases, paragraphs to pages - is presented purely for the mental energy it will take for you to have a good time(and, of course, to make you think). If you'd like, you can get interactively involved (details are provided in the "What Do You Think" section of Towne Square America™). We can't emphasize enough that our mission here is one mostly of wit and whimsy, to provide a “space” solely/souly for you, where you can enjoy something that isn't just the same old tired story reworked or “adjusted” ... something you can share with your friends ... and, most importantly, something you don't have to sign up for, sign in to, or otherwise be committed to in any way that causes you to subsequently be bombarded with yet more email you’d rather not be bothered with (i.e., spam).

We just want you to have a good time here at Towne Square America™ and not have to worry about looking over your shoulder. Of course, you probably will have some people looking over your shoulder wondering just what it is you are looking at!

We will be covering everything from "news" (if there is such a thing other than what gets manufactured either by the news "sources" and/or the news "participants" - or even us ... hey, it is all pretty much manipulated) to information that relates to living your life. We're definitely not here to be taken too seriously ... or to sell you anything either!

The Unabridged Story of Towne Square America™

(04/03/2010) Reportage and analysis (without too much bias): Bil. Alvernaz (bil@alvernaz.com)

So, just what is Towne Square America™? And, where did it come from? How do we/you get there, out here “on the cloud” so to speak?

Towne Square America™ speaks to a forgotten place and time when people used to gather in a central square to get away from things ... a place to just "be there" and relax with other people for a while.

When you first enter Towne Square America™, you'll see what amounts to a complete electronical transformation of a traditional newspaper layout and format. Towne Square America™ is a compendium of reportage and stuff that seems like news, but mostly it is a Play of Words ... not a matter of fact.

You'll quickly be "pulled in" to Towne Square America™ as you discover this "point & click" place you have stumbled upon happens to be at the exact geographic center of the Internet where wit, whimsy, and ironic observations come to rest just over your shoulder somewhere on the edge of impending and sometimes colliding, interestingly quite clever thoughts ... it's a fresh voice booming from a unique venue all the way across the vast expanse of the Internet and it definitely isn't the same old story.

Towne Square America™ turns out to be a mental representation of a sanctuary destination that people are just now realizing is the "something" that has been missing "out here" wherever it is virtually that we go when we "get lost in the web" ... many people refer to it as “the cloud.”

Long before the Internet wrapped its tentacles around our intellect, the Saturday Evening Post Era in America was a time when everyone in the household scrambled to see what was "in the mail" to read (there were actually things in the mail worth reading then). It was a simpler time in life where you would "read all about it" in newspapers and magazines.

Reader's Digest was king for decades because reading "material" was condensed and presented in an easy to read format (“readable writing” is the correct term) ... a format that publications like USA Today and many others still mimic to this very day ... it's all about readability.

Then came the Internet, computing devices you take “on the go,” and smart phones where all we have do now "point, click, and text" ourselves into a techno-stupor of epic proportions. And, that's where Towne Square America™ comes into the picture. There are no menus, complications, registrations, or even hassles (with somebody wanting something from you) in Towne Square America™. It is an open grassy area with lots of brightly colored flowers everywhere you look, where lush green trees and bushes line the surrounding circular gravel walkways. Serpentine pathways all lead to a pavilion bandstand in the heart of the square where there is always most certainly to be enjoyed, entertaining productions, plays, and presentations, that often include orators who seem to have something improbably important to say. There are plenty of ornately carved wooden benches, so find a comfy spot. Towne Square America™ "presents a show" solely designed to tweak and stimulate your intellect (and fancy) ... any time you choose!. And, on the streets around Towne Square America™ you’ll find all manner of shops, establishments, stores, and, one of the most popular places, The Blue Moon Cafe (right next to the Old Time Drug Store that has one of those rare soda fountains that really takes you back in time).

Towne Square America™ is here specifically for you ... we don't want to "mine data" from you that we can then sell to "make a buck." We want to make you think, laugh, chuckle, and smile. You already know how to "find your way around" because it is simply a matter of "point & click" to get where you are going. Towne Square America™ was designed to be something you have to see and experience. Even the names of the editorial staff are entertaining, with names like Don Diego de la Puerta, Margo Frago, and Skeeter Wordplay, to mention just some of them. It is all the brainchild and creation of Bil. Alvernaz, who is the creator and "Mayor" of Towne Square America™, not to mention being America’s Premier Unknown Writer who is certified in “readable writing” and Human-Computer Interaction.

And, on that subject of Human-Computer Interaction (which is the study of how people work or DON'T work with technology) ... the reason there are no menus here is because Towne Square America™ is a fully functioning, working model of the way web sites should be designed so you intuitively know how to get wherever it is you want to go

Alvernaz sums it all up this way, "I started out to create a new model for web sites where you don't need any menus to find your way around. In the process of doing that, I needed content to 'fill pages,' so I let my imagination take over. The rest is an interesting fun ride that definitely shows you really don't need the tired, worn out menu structures we've all come to love and hate. Towne Square America™ is a diversion and fun place to escape to where there will always be something new, timely, different, unique, funny, heartwarming, and even weird to 'read your way through,' especially Plantation Mansion which is really all about reading and using your imagination, combined with logic."

While the mostly made up news and feature stories in Towne Square America™ are entertaining, Plantation Mansion is an area of Towne Square America you definitely want to visit and explore. First, you have to find the entry point to Plantation Mansion. Once you do that, you then "read your way" through the expansive mansion and vast surrounding areas. This is really a text adventure game, of sorts, but then all of Towne Square America is a "play of words."

Towne Square America™ is meant to be an interactive experience, so let us know what you like or don’t like, as well as what else you’d like to see. You can email Bil. Alvernaz  with your comments and input. And, hey, we will even run “news,” articles, and features written by readers. We don’t pay for anything to be published here in Towne Square America™ (not yet anyway) and we will gladly welcome you to the “brain trust” of what we’re doing here. Our purpose here is to energize the intellect. Want to join in? Just shoot us an email with your contribution. Whatever we publish will also include a byline with YOUR name and becomes a permanent part of Towne Square America™.

And, just so you know, we screen everything for cleverness, wit, eccentricity, vision, and whimsy. That’s the criteria for publication (in addition to “making up the news as we go!”). We beat no dead horses here, nor do we even consider hateful kinds of things. We’re here to have fun, to laugh at ourselves, and to look at things in a much different way.

Towne Square America™ debuted in testing during 2008.