Green Day
I observed this morning that R.E.M. fans are the litteringest bunch of people in Vancouver. Although the streets here, even in the seediest parts of downtown, are almost always spotlessly clean (I'd swear even the heroin junkies recycle their needles), the sidewalk that wraps around the outside of the Orpheum, where only a matter of hours earlier a line of people had waited eagerly with $110 tickets in hand, was nearly undetectable beneath a snowbank of Starbucks cups, napkins, crepe wrappers, juice bottles, and copies of the Georgia Straight. Yuppy litter.
Walking through it all, I thought to myself, "Wow, this actually looks like the set for a movie supposedly set in New York."
* * *
Having practically frozen my cajones off last night, sleeping on the floor with no recognizable bedding to speak of, when I got off the train this evening and saw the alternate hallway that meanders through a few small underground shops to the basement floor of The Bay, I thought perhaps checking to see if they had a fairly inexpensive wooly blanket wouldn't be too bad an idea. It turns out they were having this big winter clearance sale in the bedding section, having had to make room for all the Christmas decorations, which also occupy the 5th floor during this time of year, and I made out like a bandit — a nice little arctic fleece blanket for $15. A roughly equivalent blanket I saw at Sears the other day was $80. I would have assumed The Bay, being the hundreds of years old (in other cities anyway) downtown department store would have been a lot higher, but I guess I was wrong.
They also had the token Christmas music playing, including a really spooky Michael Jackson Christmas song, plus some celebrity covers of traditional Christmas songs, all with their special extra little swingy bit or whatever.
Has it ever occurred to you that if he knows if you've been bad or good, so you be good for goodness' sake, that you're not really being good for goodness' sake, but for Santa's sake, or at least for the sake of making sure you get presents when he shows up this year? I mean, if instead it was the big evil Satana Claus coming to take away all the righteous children's' toys, then you could try to fend off temptation and be good for goodness' sake anyway, but with all those toys and candy thrown in there as a reward for the good kids, there's not much goodness' sake has to do with it. Christmas songs are weird.
* * *
At El Furniture Warehouse tonight after work and blanket hunting, a Scottish lesbian couple was negotiating music with the bartender.
The couple wanted to hear Oasis. The bartender said he didn't have Oasis,
and pointed to the speaker. An old White Lion song was playing
(immediately preceded by Bon Jovi, and followed by Guns 'N' Roses, as
it turns out). He looked back at them, as if to say, "Does this
*sound* like the kind of place that would play Oasis?!?"
"What about Green Day? You 'ave Green Day, then?"
"Yeah, actually, it's in there. That's the next CD after this one. So
you're in luck, eh?"
"'Ow long?"
"Eh?"
"'Ow long 'til the Green Day starts?
[Looks.] "28 minutes and 12 seconds."
"Christ on a bike! 28 fucking minutes? What is that?!?"
"Um . . . did you just say 'Christ on a bike'?!?"
"Sure I did. So 'ould you if I told you it was 28 minutes until you
could hear some fucking Green Day. Sod off, will you?"
Walking through it all, I thought to myself, "Wow, this actually looks like the set for a movie supposedly set in New York."
* * *
Having practically frozen my cajones off last night, sleeping on the floor with no recognizable bedding to speak of, when I got off the train this evening and saw the alternate hallway that meanders through a few small underground shops to the basement floor of The Bay, I thought perhaps checking to see if they had a fairly inexpensive wooly blanket wouldn't be too bad an idea. It turns out they were having this big winter clearance sale in the bedding section, having had to make room for all the Christmas decorations, which also occupy the 5th floor during this time of year, and I made out like a bandit — a nice little arctic fleece blanket for $15. A roughly equivalent blanket I saw at Sears the other day was $80. I would have assumed The Bay, being the hundreds of years old (in other cities anyway) downtown department store would have been a lot higher, but I guess I was wrong.
They also had the token Christmas music playing, including a really spooky Michael Jackson Christmas song, plus some celebrity covers of traditional Christmas songs, all with their special extra little swingy bit or whatever.
Has it ever occurred to you that if he knows if you've been bad or good, so you be good for goodness' sake, that you're not really being good for goodness' sake, but for Santa's sake, or at least for the sake of making sure you get presents when he shows up this year? I mean, if instead it was the big evil Satana Claus coming to take away all the righteous children's' toys, then you could try to fend off temptation and be good for goodness' sake anyway, but with all those toys and candy thrown in there as a reward for the good kids, there's not much goodness' sake has to do with it. Christmas songs are weird.
* * *
At El Furniture Warehouse tonight after work and blanket hunting, a Scottish lesbian couple was negotiating music with the bartender.
The couple wanted to hear Oasis. The bartender said he didn't have Oasis,
and pointed to the speaker. An old White Lion song was playing
(immediately preceded by Bon Jovi, and followed by Guns 'N' Roses, as
it turns out). He looked back at them, as if to say, "Does this
*sound* like the kind of place that would play Oasis?!?"
"What about Green Day? You 'ave Green Day, then?"
"Yeah, actually, it's in there. That's the next CD after this one. So
you're in luck, eh?"
"'Ow long?"
"Eh?"
"'Ow long 'til the Green Day starts?
[Looks.] "28 minutes and 12 seconds."
"Christ on a bike! 28 fucking minutes? What is that?!?"
"Um . . . did you just say 'Christ on a bike'?!?"
"Sure I did. So 'ould you if I told you it was 28 minutes until you
could hear some fucking Green Day. Sod off, will you?"