Room For Jello

“Here we are as a people proccupied with screwing each other, in more ways than one, and does it bring fulfillment to the soul or happiness? No, it does not.”- Jello Biafra

Just a little link to a video clip from a documentary about one of our favourite spastic ranters.

I often get through days at work by humming (or singing under my breath) "Pull My Strings", "Let's Lynch the Landlord", "Holiday in Cambodia", and other Dead Kennedys tunes. Sometimes I throw in "Karma Police" - Radiohead, or "London Calling" - The Clash, or "Hindsight" - The Headstones. One way to deal with being treated like a retail service robot.

Someday I might tell you about my lifelong fear of landlords. It involves a long set of stories and starts when I was only 2 years old - my second earliest memory is of being evicted. I don't really know what happens to people when they get to be in a position where they can look down their nose at someone and pretty much do all kinds of things to completely screw around with their daily life and existance - but I don't like it. "Renter" is one of those words with the same kind of vibe as "trash" or "welfare".

Presently, you should see the army of earwigs I have in this damp basement. I found one in my showergel scrubbie this morning. I don't know what's worse, roaches or earwigs. I mean, with roaches you can turn the lights out and when you turn them back on, they all have appeared for the party and you can step on them. No, but that's not very veggie is it? Hey, it's been awhile since I did that. But these earwigs, what with the pinchers and climbing in crevices and falling in my kettle and climbing in my cereal box and sitting in the bathtub...did I mention the pincers? The only thing worse I can think of is giant centipedes. I'll take spiders anyday over giant centipedes.

Polled & Mouldy Oldy

I was polled on the telephone recently. I could tell it was for the Liberal party, they wanted to know how badly we thought Stevie Harper and the NeoC Gang were doing. And if people thought the Big Red L's had a leg to stand on and if they did, just how shaky it looked when viewed 100 metres away from the podium. They also wanted to know what kind of favourable light the Orange Opposition was seen in.

So I gave them all my opinions. If an election was held tomorrow, I said I would vote Green. They have a snowball's chance in the global warming hell of winning, but that is not the point. It's like oatmeal : it's the right thing to do, in the circumstances. Oatmeal is always better than Wonder Bread, even if your personal choice is organic quinoa.

Maybe I'm getting old & mouldy. Recently, I've been suffering for a strange nostalgia for the 90's. Memories of listening to my Walkman and reading cyberpunk novels on the SkyTrain in Vancouver. Sometimes I hear a certain song and fall into a trance. Hell, I'm nostalgic for a pair of baggy pants, a t-shirt, a flannel shirt or a good hoodie, and a pair of Doc Martens or skate sneakers.

Tonight I saw a woman walk down the street in the cold, November night wearing skintight low rider jeans, thin fashion boots with tiny little tottery heels, low cut shirt, and the only acknowledgement of the cold being a padded vest with a big fuzzy "Eskimo" hood that obscured all peripheral vision. I shivered when I imagined being out there in that. Cold, uncomfortable, unsafe. And by unsafe, I mean unable to run if they need arose (imagine being run over by a garbage truck because your boots were useless for the purpose they were meant for?) But who cares about being uncomfortable when you're in style, always in style. What's in style? Why, what you're told is in style by the experts. Something you would have laughed at a couple years before is now filling your closet. In a couple years, that will be chucked out and something else brought in. Ending is better than mending, so said "Brave New World". (Next on must see TV : Centrifugal Bumblepuppy Championships). Be a good citizen, buy more crap!

Anyway, at least there was some comfort in the styles when I was in high school. Nevermind you could sure hide a lot of stuff in a big hoodie or army jacket. Tight clothes are absolutely useless if you want to keep any secrets. I really dread a 90's revival similiar to this 80's revival. They'll probably take all the rubbish and leave the good stuff behind. Besides, Doc Martens is moving operations to China and I now have no vegan patience for leather shoes.

Well, it's almost 1 a.m. now and I'm getting sleepy to the sounds of Jimmy Cliff and frankfrank. And tomorrow is another day to plow through...