1. I can be that guy. No one likes to think they can be that guy, but I can be that guy. The one who, after two glasses of scotch and a glass of wine, can look at a photo of a family and say “Now that’s a beautiful picture. I like it when the husband is genuinely smiling and not looking at the camera like an animal trapped in a cage.”
2. Crunchy hippie chick types with pierced noses get greedy when they run yard sales. I figured, fine, a buck for an Annie Dillard anthology. She’s all, “Three dollars.” Hello? I’m sorry. Here I thought I was standing on someone’s front lawn with a bunch of chipped dishware and musty books, but apparently I accidentally walked into Barnes and frickin’ Noble. You know, where you buy books for new--and don’t take the chance that a previous owner pierced her nose over its pages and dripped fluids across the philosophical musings on nature and beauty. (Although the pages seemed clean so I settled for two bucks.)
3. I’m not as addicted to movies as I thought. I didn’t see any this weekend. And only a few times was I pounded with the huge, bludgeoning realization that right now I could be watching Mean Girls and seeing Lindsay Lohan go all Heathers for a brand-new generation. Really, I hardly ever felt that.
4. I spend too much time thinking about crap. At one point I pondered why Disney bothered to name their latest attraction “Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.” Why not just “Tower of Terror”? Is some kid going to beg to go to Disneyland because they respond to the brand awareness associated with a decades-old black and white anthology TV show? Or is it merely descriptive--you drop down the Tower of Terror and land on Rod Serling’s polished skull?
Okay, in all honesty, I didn’t learn number 4 this weekend; I already knew it. And maybe number 1 too.
Noses?
maybe the branding isn’t for the kids but the parents who have to trudge along behind the little terr--, uhm, sweet darling children. not that that would work on me necessarily, but some people might get all nostalgic and happily plunk down the money and time just because of the name.
i hear from friends that the nose piercing is so in now. one word: ew or ouch. you pick. heh.
RE:
2. Pee on her lawn. Gets them every time. Talk about being ‘that guy’!
3. Perhaps you’re addicted to watchable movies. There are few of those anymore. I am pretty sure I can recall seeing The Jerk, Kramer Vs. Kramer, and ‘...And Justice For All’ in one weekend when I was 8 years old.
4. I just assumed that Disney picked up whichever corporation owns Twilight Zone and started getting myself ready for the inevitable onslaught of ‘Zoneheads’ that will follow.
i’m amused that not only did i write an almost identical post about my weekend today, but i too (indirectly) mentioned mean girls.
I don’t think they’re marketing the ride to the T.Z. fans - they’re marketing the T.Z. to a new generation of urchins who otherwise might reject lucrative syndication and remake opportunities just because they’re based on a black-and-white tv series and a sequel series with a themesong by the grateful dead. If we don’t remind ourselves of our cultural traditions (defunct tv shows) regularly, they’ll just fade away.... tragic, really.... Who, today, remembers that classic comedy, Carter Country? But we would, if they had their own ride at Dollyland.... maybe the “Drek Train?” “Garbage-go-round?” “Crapperhorn?”
heh, you said “brand awareness” like the phrase just rolls off your tongue all day long. i teach that to my students in Unit 6 : Marketing!
and yes, it has an exclamation point.
2. Got that one this weekend. Was fleamarketing at Vogelweh on Saturday, saw a worn out looking wood and wicker end table looking thing that I thought might do nicely on my balcony. TIt already looked beaten down by sun, so I thought ten bucks tops. Hell, no. Thirty-five was the asking price ‘cause “it’s an antique.”
Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s an antique, right? Antique in the overpriced sense of the word?
Brilliant.
ooh, i like you. just read all your archives and linked you on my site. thought you should know.
ps. you’re cute.
My grandmothers and my mother have their nose pierced. It’s an old tradition. Weird. Everything old and traditional in India seems to be cool over here. Guy with long hair, piercings, funky religions …
sometimes i think i am the only genxer who thought heathers sucked ass.
then again, i think most anything with winona ryder sucks ass.