I went to the liquor store tonight to pick up some rum and shitty wine. I don't think I would enjoy purchasing alcohol half as much were it not for the generally laid back, timewarp atmosphere most of the places have. Especially the ones with bottle returns at the front of the store where you are greeted with the sweet stench of 900 different kinds of stale beer, liquor, and rotgut as well as the general camaraderie amongst those who drink and often enough to load up their cars full of stinky bottles and cans in exchange for five bucks. No moral shaming here.
The employees at this particular establishment were groovin to some 80s lite fm. Two of them were stocking shelves and discussing the song playing, shouting over the aisles really.
Dude 1: This song is AWESOME
Dude 2: Damn right it is. It's a classic!
Dude 1: Who is it by?
I don't know if it's awesome or depressing that people get excited over piped music playing in stores. One day at the supermarket in Vermont I heard a suite of amazing songs: "Tell her no" by The Zombies, "Let's dance" by David Bowie (yeah yeah whatever just nice to hear Bowie in an otherwise totally dull establishment) and then MY JAM, "Down under" by Men at Work. My friend Marisa pointed out that really enjoying music played in supermarkets and other sorts of establishments that tend to select the lowest common denominator in terms of music to play, the stuff that couldn't possibly offend as you've probably already heard it a thousand times anyway and it may as well be white noise, as opposed to the hippest neu indie folk rock revival quasi-orchestral facile whimsical garbage or whatever specific subgroup affiliation you've chosen, is a warning sign that you are probably getting boring.
Anyway, these guys.
Dude 2: (a bit exasperated) It's Air Supply! You really haven't heard of them? Ah, of course you wouldn't know good music! You're too young!
Dude 1 starts laughing as Dude 2 starts mildly ranting about kids these days or something like that.
But you know what? Who am I to declare myself lord supreme arbiter of what's hip and what's not, not like it really matters anyway. Would I seek out Air Supply to listen to? Hell no, but another one of my friends (who enjoys the "neu indie folk" I just dissed and will go unnamed) feels the same way about Flipper and "all those whiny, effeminate British singers you like". On the drive home, I heard Mark Mothersbaugh singing:
If you live in a small town / you might meet a dozen or two / young alien types / who step out and declare:
Through being cool
Thursday, November 4, 2010 0
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