My weekend

I felt stupid when I finally realized why my neighborhood felt so deserted this weekend. It was ok though, I was in a quiet mood.

The demographic shift in Burning Man is noticeable at my workplace. 7-8 years ago, scheduling around this time was a real problem. Almost the entire bulk and package departments wanted to go. jactitation and I had a huge party planned for Labor Day weekend in 1987 and many invites were answered with a, "But that’s Burning Man…" whine. A few of my co-workers still go, but now it’s the customers who are preparing. You wouldn’t believe how many pallets of water we have to buy. At the cheese counter we get a lot of, "Are there any cheeses that can go without refrigeration?"

I had a date on Saturday, but she cancelled with a migraine. Instead, I went out to one of our local after-work bars (the only one not crowded on weekends) with my co-worker MacCabbage. We had a couple of drinks, gossiped about co-workers and discussed being single. We were eventually driven out by the bartender’s insistence on playing piano over the already-bad-enough music on the jukebox. He was not attempting to play with it, but rather he just ignored it, playing his own songs. Maybe he wanted to go home early.

On my way home I ran into The Punks at an art show at Needles and Pens . I managed to accidentally insult MRR, but I do that every couple of months so they must be used to it by now. Because they actually do have a sense of humor, I forget that it doesn’t extend to the State of the Punk Nation.* I bought the new book about Gilman St. for nostalgia’s sake. I apologized to one of the owners for ignoring her at a bar while hanging out with finalgirl and fightingwords.

Sunday I didn’t do anything except clean my room, watch a bad movie, and read LJ. I needed a day of doing nothing. I did make it to the store at one point, the Whole Foods on the corner of Haight and Fillmore (not to be confused with the chain, this is a corner health food store, the name dating from before Whole Foods was such a corporate giant). The incredibly friendly guy who used to run it now works with me, having to sell the business when his wife got ill. It’s depressing. Not the working with me part, but the how-on-edge-we-all-are-really part. He’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever met though, despite the adversity. The people working Sunday were uncommonly surly, one trying to tell the other about the movie "A Beautiful Mind" and the other talking over him saying, "I just don’t care to watch movies about child molesters." Hmmmmm.

I did buy tickets to see The Ex at Cafe Du Nord on 9/20 . the last time The Ex played the Bay Area when I was in town, I had to drive all the way to Palo Alto to see them open for Fugazi who they just blew away. And I like Fugazi. One of the best shows I ever saw was The Ex and Tribe 8 at Epicenter. It was so hot the paint was melting off the walls. I heartily recommend going to this show, or the one the next night at the Great American, if you like anything remotely loud, music wise. They’re a Dutch, anarchist, squatter band originally from the peace punk school, but so far beyond that it makes you wonder why all the other bands stagnated so much. The first album they recorded with cellist Tom Cora is one of my favorite albums ever. I’m sure magpiesf will chime in here, as he’s flying all the way to Amsterdam for their 25th anniversary show.

So what did you guys do?



*I wish I hadn’t lost my "Punk’s Dead. Give up." button. Of course, I am listening to Bad Brains as I type this.