This Week...

An old, wrinkly, grandmotherly old white woman came into Borders and bought everything she could find with a person of color on the cover. She said she was buying books for a friend of hers, the bishop of an A.M.E. church. She kept going on about how the bishop was like 80, but looked 40. Brent would say "black don't crack," but I just smiled and nodded. She also kept going on about how the books were going to go to children in Africa and how happy the teachers there would be. She had no idea how much of her two baskets of books and dvds was appropriate and how much wasn't. She made no secret of this. However, it was still entertaining to see Martin Lawrence products in her cart. But what are you gonna do? Her intentions were good. To her credit though, she did refuse to buy anything authored by a white person, because "they could get that anywhere." True. True.

The Ipod posters around Boston have changed. For the longest they have been blue backgrounds with African-American characters. Now the backgrounds are pink with white folks at the center. And how can I tell the race of the models when they are silhouetted? Well, I'd love to tell you, because I found it extremely interesting how apple chose to distinguish them. In the pink posters, the silhouettes' hair is long and flowing, flying in all directions. Their positions are extremely active: kicking, punching, dancing, etc. Now, the old blue posters are differemt. Their hair is consistently short and curly/nappy/afroed. Their positions are stationary. They are simply standing. They are often adorned with accessories such are headwraps, earrings, braceletts, and necklaces of a stereopical ethnic look. Now, some might say, these really are differences between black people and white people. Maybe. Seems to me it's more about power relations though. And if you don't see why...go ask someone who knows something about media or race or body language or power...or life.

Is it me, or do Scarlett Johannsson and Kerry Washington look exactly alike (just oppositely raced)? Seriously. I don't have links, mainly cus I didn't feel like looking for any, but you should go check it out somewhere. I saw them together in a L'oreal ad today, so I guess someone else agrees with me. Or maybe it's just coincidence.

I saw "An Inconvenient Truth." All I have to say is 1.) Apple must be very happy about all the product placement 2.) Damn, Al Gore is buff. Like seriously, he could take ANYONE 3.) Damn US 4.) Try to live inland if you can 5.) Go to www.climatecrisis.net and do what you can 6.) Gore me, Baby, one more time! (as in, despite the fact that Gore swears he is not running in 2008, I really really want him to)

The cow parade is in Boston (boston.cowparade.com). We have the ballet cow and the John Updike cow in front of Borders. It's very entertaining. You'd be surprised what painted cows inspire people to do.

Anyone know whatsup with the string of "man" commercials lately? Such as McDonald's "I am man hear me roar..." and TGI Friday's "Beef, Pork, Steak, Vegetable Medley...I mean, Sausage" or Vault's "If you want him to throw 50 yards, give him 50 yards." If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go watch tv. Or youtube.com. or google videos. The commercials are so bad.

I've noticed that guachos really really reveal asses. If your ass is not perfect, you probably shouldn't wear them. I've seen way too many asses that I would never have any desire to see in way too much detail this week. Please spare me in the future.

I saw an ad for "Blade: The Series" today. WTF?!! Was Blade Trinity not bad enough. Jebus, make it stop.

Ok, enough rambling. I'm outtie.

Straight from Borders' Break Room

Fun Quotes: Officially my favorite part of working at Borders. The people, and therefore lunch breaks, are pretty entertaining. Here's a taste.


Employee #1: Yea, SBC calls the customers guests. I don't think so. To me, guests are people I can tell to get the fuck out. And I can't tell the cafe "guests" to get the fuck out, now can I?


Employee #2: What's your favorite way of telling people to get the fuck out?
Employee #1: Just like that. I just tell them, "get the fuck out."
Employee #2: I like to just get up mid sentence and open the door.
Employee #1: Well, this one time, I said very loudly to my girlfriend, "if these people don't get the fuck out, I'm going to make them get the fuck out."


Employee #1: Well, one of the people there was this guy that's been trying to get into my girlfriend's pants for like the last five years. Didn't really want him there.
Employee #3: Oh, is she one of those girls that insists that he's "just a friend?"
EMmployee #4: I hate when girls do that. It's perfectly ok to admit that a guy you don't like wants to get into your pants. Happens all the time. Nothing abnormal about it. As guys themselves, boyfriends should understand that.
Employee #1: Yea, single guys don't have girl friends, just women they want to sleep with.
Employee #4: Single guys have girl friends, they'd just be willing to sleep with them if given the chance.
Employee #2: Look, I'm a single guy and I separate people into 3 categories: friends, douchebags, and women I want to sleep with.


I think that's sufficient for now. Stay tuned for more tantalizing, but totally insignificant, information.