wayne

I have this giant pimple growing on my forehead, right above my right eyebrow. I've named the pimple Wayne. It was a toss-up between Wayne and Barbara, but he didn't seem plucky enough to be named Barbara so Wayne stuck.

It's been a while since I've posted something of significance, though I am beginning to think everything I think about posting is significant enough for me to play out through my keyboard instead of just in my head. I've been working like a madman this past week. Overnights, 5am shifts. Floormoves and important (retail) decisions. While my manager is away in Germany learning how to oppress people, I'm enjoying my free visual range over my little store in SoHo. Being a merchant, merchandiser, visual, whatever you want to call it... it's definitely a strange avenue to pursue. Taking control of how merchandise looks visually means taking ownership of ideals that appeal to other people while still owning it and making it look like you. I think if you walked into my store and looked at the floorset we've done while in my manager's absence you'd know I had more than just a hand in the mix. And I think running things like this are seeming less and less like tasks and more like things I was built to do. My ability to make merchandise appeal to the masses is topped only by my almost instantaneous ability to come up with solutions for any number of obstacles that get thrown in my path. I think that's my stream of consciousness manifesting itself physically. That said, I don't think I will ever understand Sudoku. Stop getting me to try.

Ryan couldn't resist (or maybe he saw how excited/anxious I was) and he gave my my first Christmas gift early. A glistening Xbox 360. I am currently siding with Microsoft during this console war, so this gift was more than appreciated. I have had it in my grasp for almost a week and I am still beyond excited every time I turn it on. You can hook your ipod up to the USB port and the game background music disappears while the tracks you pick on your ipod start up to take their place. Fantastic. The gamer in me has awoken from his near-death coma and he wants to play Puzzle fighter. Expect me to post about games here and there as I assure you I will be playing my thumbs down to their bones.

For some reason I seem to be hyper aware of people judging me this month. I make playlists on my ipod that change every month. Last month my running theme was irony; the month before it was pestilence. This month I'm trying to listen to stuff that's upbeat and morose, because everything has to be poignant and I am nothing without my agendas! Nothing! That said, I find that when I play music out loud someone near me is always being critical. It's too upbeat or it's too sad. It's too instrumental or it's lyrics are overbearing. If I were the kind of person to fake giving everyone who opposes him the finger in his blog but never really addresses it in real life I'm certain I would do that right about now. But since that's not my style I will continue to keep my feelings of hatred for my uncultured peers silent and let my glass-like stares and inaudible disappointment speak the volumes they are capable of speaking. In situations like this I try not to judge people because if I hate anything it's when people judge me.

Which leads me into my next paragraph. If I were the kind of person to label each one of his paragraphs with someone trite, contrived, AND inane I'm certain I would do that right now. But since I haven't labeled my paragraphs since I had angst spilling out of a spigot in my spine 8 or 9 years ago, I'll leave you to name it on your own. People are always brushing off their soap boxes and speaking out against the hipster movement. I wish I had a megaphone for every box I come across, because holding your ground against any growing or dwindling subculture of young people is idiotic. People throw around the term hipster to refer to alternative gay guys and lesbians, or people who like to craft. Those of us who appreciate music and film, and those of us who create music and film. The "sensitive" straight man and his counterpart, the "driven" straight women. If you are caught in possession of skinny jeans and ANY BOOK IN THE UNIVERSE surprise! You're a hipster. Try and control and part of your destiny and you sir/ma'am are a hipster. It seems that veering to the left or right from classical culture, societal, and gender norms means you're this new breed of young person who counters every aspect of culture that anyone has ever seen. It's not as if this sort of thing has been happening since the beginning of cultural identities. Wait, it has. It happens everywhere, to everyone who, before, during, and after every generation sees it's power come into fruition. What is youth without trying to outgrow old ways; or adapt them in the ways we see fit, at least. It's weird to me that this is some phenomenon sweeping the nation, and people feel free to openly make fun of me as though I am some pillar of cultural change, when a few years ago it was razor haircuts and mascara (make no mention of fallout boy, afi, or panic at the disco, please), and before that you'd be hard pressed to walk 4 blocks in any direction without finding someone wearing a red plaid shirt with food bits stuck in their hair and complacency oozing from their pores. I know I am obviously gliding over this subject, barely skimming the surface of an issue that needn't be an issue, but I wish people would understand what it is to be a person and how/why young people are always changing for better or for worse; and how this "movement" isn't any more special than movements in the past.

Only I think young people are looking a lot cuter these days. I'm glad one of the "hipster" focuses is fashion and not something stupid like period Italian statues or trying to be friendly. I'm going to go put on my cowboy boots and walk in circles. My disdain meter is running low and I need a boost.

AH, speaking of boosts. I went to Jamba Juice once and asked for a Crystal Meth boost. I was the only person in line who laughed. I hate this city.

r.e.v.l.u.s.i.o.n.

Another post!

I need to update this blog as much as I tell myself I'm going to update this blog. It's pretty much a daily thing that i go back and forth with and for whatever undisclosed reason I can't. I don't know if it's the newness of it all or if it's me secretly trying to suppress myself. I know there are things that go on during my day-to-day life that I think are just so darn clever that I should blog them, but something stops me before I get the chance. I once told a co-worker that another co-worker was a "perfectly good waste of thick ankles" and that "any other pear-shaped woman would consider herself lucky to have them" in her place. SEE! Is that not screaming blog me? I think it is.

I think that the particular subculture I live and grow thrives on disappointment in some sick and familiar self-involved and necessary way. I'm going to focus on work for the time being because I know more people who are unhappy with their work than I know people. I feel like we are unjustly judged by ourselves and our peers on levels that radically alter exactly who we are and how we relate to one another and ourselves. And I use the term "we" loosely, because I expect it to include anyone who finds that at any given moment of any given time they are like me in any particular way. Different in a way that feels so singular, but is obviously large enough for a subculture to be built from it. Those of us who have sweat it out in tiny basements dancing along to saves the day, or done our time selling merch at some shitty d.i.y. show. Those of us who ALMOST shed a tear when the get up kids broke up (but would totally deny it today, of course) and now find solace in anything acoustic, electric, or overly simplified (read: a girl [without shoes], a guitar [with three strings], and a half-broken amp that hums louder than it transmits; or the infinite intricacies of the fashion world, the importance of an animal pendant, or how a simple pair of leggings can define an entire wardrobe) and now spend our time wishing we were after greater things in life, wearing tiny coats and shiny shoes, skipping cracks and inhaling carcinogens in this gloomy borough of ours. Brooklyn at it's finest and highest/lowest points. It's difficult to define something that is so all-inclusive, but I sure took a stab at it. If you find something else I didn't include, leave me a comment and I'm half sure I'll make amendments.

There are so many times throughout my workday when I wonder why, exactly, I'm still sticking it out at a seemingly dead-end job, merchandising mouse leather purses and plastic argyle sweaters for people who still think Rod Stewart is sexy, sought after, and... alive. I know I'm better than the spring green corduroy pants I shuddered at when I walked into work this morning so why am I still there? I think it's because I know I'm safe underwhelming myself; but I wish it didn't take so long for me to make a move in the right direction. Every time I reach for something the idea of a potential devastation simmers me down, and I go back to my own personal day-to-day-mini-devastation because it's so easy. I need for ease to be a thing of the past and for challenges to seem like they aren't so massive; otherwise I know I'll spend the next few years wholly regretting the last few months. Sometimes I curse the fact that I went to school for an art form, because if I'm not creating something stellar I feel like I'm just pedaling on a stationary bike.

So, what to do? This particular necessary disappointment is wearing out it's welcome and I know that sooner than later I will claw out the eyes of a co-worker, customer, or maybe even myself. And when I ride the subway home and see the lifeless glaze over my eyes echoed back at me from every other Kyle riding the train, I begin to wonder what went wrong with all of us and what our revolutions will be like when we take over our own mini-worlds.

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SO what do I find out as I am typing this post? My boyfriend just got promoted at work. Just now! Reading my blog is the new reality TV. Seriously.