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Wednesday, March 17, 2004 · posted at 4:00 AM

I’ll stop the world and melt for you.
I went home to Cerritos this weekend. It always surprises me when I go home and there’s a new tree median in the street, or Sunny Donuts has been replaced with KC Donut House, or Sea Food Palace is no longer the only Chinese grocery store in town. I get so caught up in the “Me Show” that I forget that life exists outside my tiny sphere of influence. In my mind, everything just stops when I’m not around to witness it (think tree falling in the forest). The world didn’t stop turning just because you weren’t there. My response: It didn’t?

Now that we’ve prefaced my self-centered mindset (which may be redundant if you’ve ever talked to me in person), let’s do a Simpsons-esque plot swamp where I now talk about the biggest change I noticed when I was back home (and incredibly it’s not the new cow field on the 405 near Westminster).

Borders Bookstore and things I don’t care for:

Borders has become increasingly disheveled (read: an OCD, AR nightmare). All the books are out of place, unalphabetized (is this a word? My spellchecker is making the little red squiggly line), upside down, or in place but in a very counterintuitive place. Swerve by Aisha Tyler? Art/Photography & Architecture/Art/Fashion. Food and Loathing? Psychology/Sex & Recovery/Recovery. I finally found Swerve on an unlabeled top shelf that doubled as a terrarium for dust bunnies. In my search of one book with an intact book jacket (even though I take that off before the title page is even revealed), I managed to stir up a very unhappy dust colony. I thought I was going to have an asthma attack – and I don’t even have asthma. I was unable to find Food and Loathing despite its hot pink cover. Maybe if I had more time, I would have located it. But time was of the essence… I was on a mission due to...

Live performances. I will give Borders the benefit of the doubt and assume it was Open Mic Night because there is NO way these performers were screened/auditioned and then invited based on talent. Well it might be a possibility, but that would turn me off from Cerritos Borders forever, and I’d prefer not to go down that route. There were musicians (and I use that term very loosely because I don’t feel like they were creating art) singing about the Easter Bunny not coming ‘round anymore… to the musical accompaniment of an electric keyboard. It evoked images of M&M’s and “The Princess Diaries”… shudder. There was also a poet whose spoken word idol must have been the “Be silent, be still” group from “She’s All That.” And a bad Dylan cover singer. I feel like you should not be allowed to cover a song unless you improve upon it. I don’t care to hear a mediocre version of a good song, and I would be pissed if I was the original artist and heard someone ruining my song (though this could also be an issue of my possessiveness). And the worst part? The performances were in the "Cafe" area. No walls. No containment of any kind. The sounds just permeated the entire store! There was no escaping!

I can usually spend hours at Borders, or any bookstore, but I honestly could not wait to hightail it out of there... and that is just a sad sign of the times. Oh the humanity...



	Wednesday, March 17, 2004 · posted at 4:00 AM I’ll stop the world and melt for you. I went home to Cerritos this weekend. It always surprises me when I go home and there’s a new tree median in the street, or Sunny Donuts has been replaced with KC Donut House, or Sea Food Palace is no longer the only Chinese grocery store in town. I get so caught up in the “Me Show” that I forget that life exists outside my tiny sphere of influence. In my mind, everything just stops when I’m not around to witness it (think tree falling in the forest). The world didn’t stop turning just because you weren’t there. My response: It didn’t? Now that we’ve prefaced my self-centered mindset (which may be redundant if you’ve ever talked to me in person), let’s do a Simpsons-esque plot swamp where I now talk about the biggest change I noticed when I was back home (and incredibly it’s not the new cow field on the 405 near Westminster). Borders Bookstore and things I don’t care for: Borders has become increasingly disheveled (read: an OCD, AR nightmare). All the books are out of place, unalphabetized (is this a word? My spellchecker is making the little red squiggly line), upside down, or in place but in a very counterintuitive place. Swerve by Aisha Tyler? Art/Photography & Architecture/Art/Fashion. Food and Loathing? Psychology/Sex & Recovery/Recovery. I finally found Swerve on an unlabeled top shelf that doubled as a terrarium for dust bunnies. In my search of one book with an intact book jacket (even though I take that off before the title page is even revealed), I managed to stir up a very unhappy dust colony. I thought I was going to have an asthma attack – and I don’t even have asthma. I was unable to find Food and Loathing despite its hot pink cover. Maybe if I had more time, I would have located it. But time was of the essence… I was on a mission due to... Live performances. I will give Borders the benefit of the doubt and assume it was Open Mic Night because there is NO way these performers were screened/auditioned and then invited based on talent. Well it might be a possibility, but that would turn me off from Cerritos Borders forever, and I’d prefer not to go down that route. There were musicians (and I use that term very loosely because I don’t feel like they were creating art) singing about the Easter Bunny not coming ‘round anymore… to the musical accompaniment of an electric keyboard. It evoked images of M&M’s and “The Princess Diaries”… shudder. There was also a poet whose spoken word idol must have been the “Be silent, be still” group from “She’s All That.” And a bad Dylan cover singer. I feel like you should not be allowed to cover a song unless you improve upon it. I don’t care to hear a mediocre version of a good song, and I would be pissed if I was the original artist and heard someone ruining my song (though this could also be an issue of my possessiveness). And the worst part? The performances were in the "Cafe" area. No walls. No containment of any kind. The sounds just permeated the entire store! There was no escaping! I can usually spend hours at Borders, or any bookstore, but I honestly could not wait to hightail it out of there... and that is just a sad sign of the times. Oh the humanity...	Recent Posts Workers Against Milking Mothers (WAMM) I’m all for... Clash of the titans. Batman versus Spiderman… who... The wave stops here. On Thursday I got to see the... Ramblings inspired by Rolling Stone magazine #944.... Welcome to five years ago. Categorization is grea... Public spaces as a dumping ground. I vehemently o... In typical banshee fashion, I spaced on my origina... I just finished my online traffic school (www.traf... Morning news babie goose ryan bluemouse daves son dawntaught desiree diorama emily escadawg galveric high entropy invisible cube jepgato kyellow lilly mhuang mogbert nudream starfish + coffee verbivore Archives March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 March 2007 April 2007 November 2008

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