Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Mass Marketed Hipness

Saw a news blurb today about a guy who had been a Royals fan for 25 years who had gotten so sick of the team that he put his fan support up for auction on eBay. The winning bid was 280 bucks. So, for those of you wondering what wearing the George Brett jersey out to Kaufmann Stadium is costing you, the answer is just under three bills.

Sad news to report out of my neighborhood. The independent video store that is a block from my apartment is going out of business. This sucks in a lot of ways. First of all, I like independent stores for the sheer fact that it is nice to know that not all of my hard earned income is transferred to mega corporations. Plus, these guys had a killer foreign film section that I would rifle through whenever I had a need to watch a film with subtitles. And I don’t know, it was just the kind of place where you never quite knew what was going to be there when you showed up. Still, a video store having a going out of business sale is a wonderful thing as I finally was able to pick up this early and completely out of print Julie Delpy film for ten bucks. Luckily, there is still one other indie shop in the neighborhood so there is still hope.

Yeah, for the past three years I have lived within walking distance of two indie video stores, a Blockbuster and a Hollywood Video. In the age of NetFlix, even I can’t quite understand this business model. Or why you need four video stores in a four block radius.

I think I already mentioned that the hot dog stand in Westport closed in under a year. The southwestern grill closed after maybe two months and has since been replaced by an upscale bar. Today I even read that the Hurricane, a music and dance club that I rarely entered, might be sold with the idea of turning it into an upscale bar. One with a VIP area and everything. I don’t quite get that as this is Kansas City and no one in this town would qualify as a VIP. It reminds me of one of my first nights in town. I was out at a bar and talking to this guy and a girl and he kept on going off on how cool he was and how he could get into any club in town without having to wait in line. I looked at him and went, “Dude, I’ve been in this town for four hours and trust me, I wouldn’t have to wait in line either.” Shut him up and immediately got the girl’s attention. Ah, those were the days.

One last random note. I was shopping at Target today, because there are some things you need to go to a huge store to pick up and I’ll shop at Wal-Mart when it is the only store left on earth, which is projected to be 2012. Anyway, they have their own hip, ironic t-shirt section including a Vote for Pedro t-shirt. For those of you scoring at home (or even if you’re alone), this now means that it is officially uncool to wear a Vote for Pedro t-shirt or to even reference Napoleon Dynamite. I’ll still say you can get away with the “Pedro Lacks Political Experience” shirt, but that is on borrowed time. If you can get it at a Target in Overland Park, KS it can in no way be considered cool.

(Though I’ll have to say, the “Vader was Framed” shirt was pretty awesome.)

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