Glenview Key and Lock is a pretty straightforward establishment located in Oakland, CA. They're locksmiths. And they're pretty damn good at what they do.
Once, my husband and I got locked inside our bedroom when the hardware broke off inside the door. We climbed out of the window and asked the neighbors to call Glenview Key and Lock. "You got locked inside the bedroom? Well, hot damn!" We were not amused.
The somewhat surly but well meaning owner of Glenview came and let us back into the house. She then used her tools to break back into the bedroom to remove the failed fixtures. They have helped us numerous times since.
But they have a strange need to create pretty far-out window displays at their store in the Glenview neighborhood of Oakland. I doubt they hire professional window dressers. But there is somebody on staff who is a closeted artist. Somebody who needs to channel his or her creative energy through the window display of the locksmith shop. Sometimes an array of rubber Godzillas cavorts among the Schlage locks and hardware on displays. Other times, the anonymous artist-in-residence channels other, darker impulses through the display.
Recently, the display was in the vein of "Clowns of Terror." Rubber clown heads dominated a tableau that included spilled popcorn, movie handbills, and a holographic painting of a smiling clown that would change to a bulging, green-eyed, psychopathic monster when you took a step closer to look. Emmett Kelly must be rolling in his grave.
Nice job, Glenview Key and Lock. Thanks for awakening my childhood demons.
