It’s fun to have mementos of projects we’ve worked on. We’ve parts of the NASCAR body with the paint job we designed for Jackson Hewitt, a huge presentation board of the artistic rendering of Atlas Park’s Phase II construction, plenty of posters we designed, lots of stuff. But it’s for the best that we don’t have anything from Somina.

That’s because they make mattresses. Amazing mattresses. Mattresses that can only be described as feeling like lying on a cloud made of satin and down and your childhood security blanket while angels sing lullabies and feed you candy-coated, side-effect-free Ambien. That’s the only way to describe them. And they’re made from soybeans.

Naturally it would be disastrous to bring one here. Running a business and blissful, blissful sleep don’t mix well. So we’ll settle for the business cards and pop-up banners we made. Less comfortable? Probably. But still very cool.

Dre and I (Zach) got a taste of Newark entertainment a few weeks ago, and it was, as our mayor might say, deliciousness. Two sold-out nights at the Prudential Center. Tens of thousands of screaming fans. Laser lights. Huge columns of fire bursting from the stage. A big, rotating platform.

And a band played, too: Metalli-something. Maybe you’ve heard of them. They’re best known for their work on Guitar Hero. Also for being genre-defining legends with millions of fans and a chart-topping career spanning decades. And they have a movie.

The concert was incredible. The crowd was completely electrified (metal, after all, conducts), singing, head banging, fist pumping and ear-health disregarding to every song. Metallica owned the event, playing an exhausting two-hour set amid deafening cheers and thousands upon thousands of vocal accompanists.

Even more impressive than the awesome spectacle of a sold-out arena was the Prudential Center’s organization and professionalism. A half-hour before the Sunday concert began (Dre went on Saturday), my friends and I breezed through metal detection and ticket check to arrive at our seats in minutes. After the concert ended, even the giant exiting throngs didn’t hold us up. We made it out of the arena in a few minutes, walked one block to the lot across Broad Street where we parked, and embarked on our traffic-free drive out of Newark. It was as orderly and easy an exit as we could’ve possibly hoped for. My first Prudential Center experience was terrific. It’s wonderful that we have an arena of this quality a few blocks from our studio.

Just read an article this morning about Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean and actress/radio personality Angie Martinez barnstorming through Newark on the “Bring Hope Home” bus, where they’ll raise awareness about local foreclosure issues and the resources available to help people avoid losing their homes. It sounds like a great program, and we’re glad it’s coming through Newark.

And maybe it’s a coincidence, but there’s a bus parked directly outside our studio right now. It’s big and blue, with giant letters on the side that say “Bring Hope Home.” And there are a couple limos, a bunch of people wearing suits and holding leather-bound binders, and some other people holding reporter-looking video cameras and microphones. And all of them just went inside the City Without Walls gallery next door.

Now, this is just a crazy hunch, but we think Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean and Angie Martinez are next door at this very moment.

UPDATE! Mayor Booker was right outside our studio doing his mayoral thing, then he was on the panel for the event alongside Governor Jon Corzine and Queen Latifah (no Wyclef ☹). And we know all this because Dre, with all his mojo, got into the event and took pictures. But now everyone’s gone, thus ending today’s excitement.