Uncategorized – The Boring Old Man

LMAO: Sheng Wang at the Golden State Theater, Monterey CA

Saturday night, Valentine’s Day evening, I finally got my Christmas present, a night of comedy!

We (the Mrs., our daughter, son-in-law and myself) loaded up the cruiser and hit the road for the Golden State Theater in Monterey,CA. The trip is long-ish, about an hour and a half, but I’d take a trip to Monterey over San Francisco any day of the week!

We’ve been to this particular venue a few times, it’s a nice spot, but this was the first time for a comedy show.

The night opened with Kevin Camia, who we’d never heard of. He was actually pretty darn good. He had us laughing right outta the gate and kept it going throughout his entire set. I’d be more than happy to go see him again.

We’d seen a bunch of video clips of Sheng Wang and the Netflix (?) special he did (“Sweet & Juicy”) a few years ago but this was our first time seeing him live on stage. Let me tell you, this show was worth the wait!

His style is so different from his colleagues and it’s really refreshing. He doesn’t use foul language and he totally avoids the typical crass/vulgar/overtly sexual material or decisive political/racial rants that has (unfortunately) become a mainstay in modern comedy. And yet, he had us in stitches the entire time. At times it was hard to catch my breath I was laughing so hard. And he too kept it up for his entire show. No flops, no dead air, just non-stop hilarity from start to finish.

I’m short, it was an outstanding night of comedy, one of the best we’ve ever attended. If you get a chance to see Sheng Wang, do yourself a favor and GO! You will not be disappointed.

And last but not least, a big thank you to my girls for gifting me these tickets for Christmas instead of more “stuff”! This night will be in my memory banks for years to come!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Class Act…

Ok, right off the bat I will freely admit, this content is “stolen” from the interwebs. The term “class act” caught my eye, so I had to check it out. That was a common phrase “back in my day”, but I cannot recall the last time I ever heard it. Maybe because nowadays our society celebrates “CRASS acts”, and not CLASS acts. I’m looking at you Kardashians and “Real Housewives”… Anyhow, I think this list below is a good primer, a blueprint if you will, to direct us to be generally better people. Just imagine what our world would look like if HALF the people did even HALF the things on this list?!?In these days of everyone being out for themselves, a little decency, decorum and yes, class, would go a long way. I wish I could say that I do all these things, but like most of us, I am a work in progress. There are certainly several of these things that are ingrained in me, that I do without even thinking about it, but a number of them I do not, or have not done in a while. Anyhow, without further delay here is a brilliant instructional to being a Class Act. (I give credit to Budget Savvy Travelers @thebstravelers for this content – I don’t know if it is their original work or not, but that is who I lifted it from)

Want to be remembered as a classy SOB? Here are 25 ways to elevate everyday life:

1️⃣ Say hello first – Brighten someone’s day with a warm greeting.

2️⃣ Use and remember names – It shows respect and attentiveness.

3️⃣ Hold doors – Small gestures leave a big impact.

4️⃣ Let people merge in traffic – Courtesy goes a long way. Don’t stress over a few seconds.

5️⃣ Write thank-you notes – Handwritten is classy and memorable.

6️⃣ Don’t bad-mouth others – Integrity speaks louder than gossip.

7️⃣ Compliment behind backs – Spread goodwill silently.

8️⃣ Pick up trash – Leave every space better than you found it.

9️⃣ Dress appropriately – Context matters more than style.

🔟 Be on time – Respect others’ time as much as your own.

1️⃣1️⃣ Be a generous listener – Let others shine in conversation.

1️⃣2️⃣ Return things better than you received them – Small acts of care matter.

1️⃣3️⃣ Say “excuse me” & “sorry” sincerely – Without excuses.

1️⃣4️⃣ Tip generously – Show appreciation for service.

1️⃣5️⃣ Put your phone away – Give full attention in conversations.

1️⃣6️⃣ Keep your word – Reliability builds trust.

1️⃣7️⃣ Don’t overshare – Practice discretion.

1️⃣8️⃣ Give credit freely – Let others take the spotlight when deserved.

1️⃣9️⃣ Act with dignity in loss – Grace under pressure is unforgettable.

2️⃣0️⃣ Give people an out – Let others save face.

2️⃣1️⃣ Acknowledge service workers – See their humanity, not just the job.

2️⃣2️⃣ Keep complaints private & proportionate – Handle issues calmly.

2️⃣3️⃣ Don’t correct unnecessarily – Preserve dignity over ego.

2️⃣4️⃣ Don’t brag – Confidence doesn’t need showboating.

2️⃣5️⃣ Act like a host everywhere – Make people feel welcome and at ease.

Thanks for stopping by!

A First Time For Everything

Color me shocked! I’ve been plucking away at this lil’ ol’ blog of mine since January of 2022 and while I guess you could say my page gets regular views, it’s never been well read or even remotely popular. In 100%, true transparency I will tell you that my daily page views average between 5 and 15. Frankly, sometimes it’s zero. Which considering my lack of consistency in new posts is not at all surprising. If anything, I’m surprised I get THAT many visits.

So you can imagine my surprise when I checked my stats this morning and found that for the first time since I started writing here I surpassed 100 page views in a single day! And almost exclusively from the USA. In the past when I’ve had a spike it turned out most of them were showing up from all over the place, which led me to believe it was either a glitch or someone “phishing” or some such thing. Like, why would anyone in Vietnam or Uzbekistan be interested in what I’m blathering on about?!?

Anyhow, I fully recognize that this is in no way a big deal. I’m not even a small fish in a big pond. More like a single plankton in a global ocean. Nonetheless, I thought it was kinda cool and wanted to document the occasion for myself. If anything this blog is more a “memory-jogger” for myself than anything. But still, I appreciate any and all of you that spend even a moment of your precious time with me.

Have a terrific day, a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

GDMFSOB!!!

Rough start this morning… The Mrs and our daughter are out of town, and per usual when the Mrs is away, I did not sleep well. Nonetheless, I was up at 5am and out the door around 5:40, cuz it’s a “gym day”. M,W,F I hit the gym before work, but I digress …

As I’m about to leave, I’m wrangling the house rabbit back into his pen and I notice the little bugger had chomped through a nearly new charger cable. Chewed that sucker into 3 pieces. In about 2 unsupervised minutes. That makes about 10 cables he’s destroyed over the last few months, and this particular one was only a week or two old. So, naturally I’m irritated, but such is life and I had bigger fish to fry -primarily getting to the gym and then to work by 8am.

Then I get to my truck and go to throw my bags in the passenger door, when I see the cab of my truck is in total disarray. Uh oh… That’s not a good sign, but it’s still pitch dark and I can’t really see what all is missing, so I figure I’ll go work out and then deal with it. Only trouble is, when I go to put the key in the ignition I discover some piece of human refuse tried to STEAL the entire truck – the steering column is all busted up and the ignition switch is broken, wires pulled out, just completely inoperable.

Capital F to the You See Kay!!!

So now instead of going to the gym and work, I’m calling the boys in blue at 5:45am, filing a police report, then dealing with insurance, getting a tow truck, arranging for a rental car…all that “fun” stuff.

Aside from the broken column and ignition switch, they also broke the exterior door handle on the passenger side. And, to add insult to injury, they also stole about $1,000 worth of tools and personal items like sunglasses and such that was inside the cab.

Yes, I know it’s only “stuff” and I’m lucky they DIDN’T get the whole truck. But I’d be lying if I told you I haven’t been in a murderous rage all day, nonetheless.

So happy I pay a generous premium to live in the “nice” neighborhood…/s

No moral to the story here kids. Just me “ranting” cuz I feel a burning desire to load a scum bag into a wood chipper, feet first, Which in my not so humble option is what ALL thieves deserve.

I guess I should consider myself lucky. I went through a rash of burglaries about 25 years ago – my car was broken into 3 times and my storage unit twice. (That one HURT!! All my drums and music gear were wiped out with NO insurance.) All that happened in the span of about 3 years. But things on the crime front have been good for a long time. Be that as it may however, I have a deep, brutal loathing for thieves. I guess it’s good that I didn’t hear the commotion as I would have, likely as not, answered that call with Mr. Nineteen-eleven for backup and ventilated some POS in my carport. I can only imagine (being in California) the day that followed that kind of scene would certainly be worse than the one I actually had. I’ve had copious amounts of rage bottled up for several decades, it’s best that I didn’t intervene. I was looking forward to a great week, not catching felony charges.

Anyhow, it’s been an absolute shit day. I hope yours was better…

Serenity now, serenity now, serenity now…

Tomorrow is a new day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Desert Island Discs

Way back when, in a time where there were these places called “record stores”, one of the greatest amongst them were Tower Records. Tower Records used to print a monthly magazine

noun

1.a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, typically covering a particular subject or area of interest.

that was all about bands and Records and whatnot. One of the things I used to love about that magazine were the letters section where readers would send in things to the magazine – sort of a “comments” section, but it actually took effort and had to be chosen by the editor for print…

Anyhow, one of the reader driven things was called “Desert Island Discs”, essentially a list of the 10 albums you’d want to have if you were stranded on a desert island. I guess if the Professor on Gilligan’s Island could make a radio out of coconut shells, then we could figure out how to make a record player… But I digress.

I used to love that feature and it helped me discover a lot more new music. Either someone would list a record you loved, and that would pique your interests toward other albums on their list, or there would be an overwhelming amount of people that would list the same record over and over (the Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd or the Beatles White Album for example)

Back then I was discovering so much new music – having discovered punk rock and new wave – that my Desert Island Discs would change from month to month, if not day by day. It was impossible to pick a Top 10 because I’d hear stuff for the first time every week that just blew me away. (Thank you college radio!!!)

But now I’m old, and while I still search out and love new music, it doesn’t generally hit me in the same way, where it just knocks my socks off. I mean back then (say from 1978 – 1990) not only were you hearing new styles of music, we were getting SOUNDS that had never been heard before thanks to synthesizers and drum machines, and then turntables were being used as instruments which gave way to digital samplers, not to mention new, wild guitar effects coming on the scene, electronic drums and sequencers. It was the Wild West of music in those days and I was captivated. Obsessed, really.

Anyhow, something I came across online recently triggered the memory of Desert Island Discs and I thought I’d put mine down for posterity. While this is a vastly different list than it would have been in, say 1982, certainly a few of these albums would have been on my list back then too. Perhaps I’ll come back and revisit this in a few years to see how it’s held up.

So, without further delay, here are my Desert Island Discs, as of January 2026. In no particular order…

London Calling by The Clash
Look Sharp! by Joe Jackson
Tropical Gangsters by Kid Creole and the Coconuts
Spring Session M by Missing Persons
Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde
Music by 311
Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too by New Radicals
Ten Women by Wire Train
Tim by The Replacements
Dancin’ Undercover by RATT

Ok, this was considerably more difficult than expected… here are some honorable mention albums I must include:

Hippie Castle by Magic City Hippies, Diamond Life by Sade, The Knife Feels Like Justice by Brian Setzer, Who’s Next by The Who, Love by The Cult…

Who am I kidding? I could do this all day. I suffer from acute music addiction I’m afraid!

Anyhow, everything I’ve mentioned above comes highly recommended. Go check something out you’ve never heard before, who knows, you just might find a new favorite! And please, as I am a FIEND for new music, drop me a suggestion in the comments to check out. I like stuff all the way from Chick Webb in the 1930’s up to Sombr’s latest release from 2025, and tons of stuff in between. I’m all ears, so let me have it!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Holiday PSA

I know this time of year can be difficult for many. For some it can be excruciating. We shouldn’t need to be reminded to be kind, but often we do. Myself included.

It’s been a rough year, no doubt. In my humble opinion the 2020’s have pretty much been a dumpster fire and we’re only halfway through them. But we can decide for ourselves to put all that aside for a minute and just be grateful. Grateful that we’re still upright. Still drawing breath. Not seeing our friends and loved ones through Plexiglas barriers and mandated face masks.

As hard as life has been – and again, mine is no exception – I still wish for peace on Earth and good will towards mankind. Now is not the time for grievance. Even if you’re not an “observer” of Christmas you can still choose to be kind, to set your differences aside for a moment or two. We’re all in this together and nobody gets out alive, so lets all make the best of it and be good to our fellow humans, shall we?

Thanks for stopping by, and a Merry Christmas to all!

Happy Birthday: Paul Siminon

Paul Gustave Simonon was born this day, December 15, 1955. Not a well known name, but profoundly influential in my life as the bassist for my favorite band of all time, The Clash.

The folklore of the Clash says that Paul was chosen for the band simply because of his look. When he joined the band, he didn’t even play bass. In fact, it’s been said that guitarist Mick Jones actually wrote the notes on the fretboard so Paul could find his way around. True? Who knows? Suffice it to say, he BECAME an outstanding bassist over the years and had a hand in making some of the most important records of my lifetime.

Paul always seemed to simply exude “cool” to me as a kid. He wasn’t particularly flashy, he wasn’t often in the spotlight, but he was a presence. There was just something about him that was magnetic. I don’t know what “it” is, but he had it!

It is startling to see he is now 70 years old! It makes sense, seeing as I was only 9 when the first Clash album came out, and I was 12 when I first heard them with the release of London Calling. I was positively obsessed with the Clash in my teens and 20’s, and I still listen to them quite often in my late 50’s. As most of my readers will know, I’m a huge music nerd and music has been the biggest thing in my life for the last 4+ decades. I love lots of music, I’ve been influenced by countless bands and artists, but if I had to pick one band to listen to for the rest of my days, undoubtedly it would be the Clash.

So, cheers to you Mr. Siminon! Without you and your mates, my life would be immensely different. Thank you for your work all those years ago, and for the lasting, profound impact you had on this (formerly) young musician. I owe you a debt of gratitude. You may have come from humble beginnings, but you were a giant in my eyes (and ears!). Well done Sir!

I Just Can’t With These People…

Californian voters overwhelmingly passed Prop 50 last night. Nearly 64% of voters thought it was a good idea to take congressional distracting AWAY from an independent board – something that we voted FOR in the first place – and put the reigns back in the hands of the California Legislative Body. Which has held a Democratic Super Majority since 2012.

Gerrymandering on steroids is what the majority of voters chose. There will never be balanced representation for California again.

I’ve lived in CA for 57 years, my entire life. I’ve witnessed the non-stop degradation of California for the last 20 years, at least. I never like to use the term “hopeless”… but I don’t know what else to call this place.

Low IQ, low information voters that view government as some sort of team sport are destroying this state. What kind of person thinks giving the government even MORE power and authority is a good thing? “If it’s team blue it must be good!” without ANY regard for, oh, I don’t know, reality and consequences?!?

Morons. That’s what kind of person. Absolute, dyed-in-the-wool, morons.

Now I have to consider that 6 out of every 10 people I interact with are nincompoops. Great.

And the icing on the cake? These geniuses ALSO voted to raise our sales tax, which was already one of the highest in the country. At a time when it’s harder than ever to get by, these scoundrels decided we should pay more in taxes. I guess because our government body have been such good stewards of OUR money and are doing so much good for our citizenry? Right?

I’ve been trying REALLY hard these last six month to be a better person, to keep my negativity in check, to be more empathetic in general… Today I am STRUGGLING with that. I LOATH my “neighbor” right now and I’m seriously fighting some ugly and hateful thoughts toward “them”.

It’s a shame California didn’t break off and fall into the sea as we were all told it would. This many incredibly stupid people in one place is a disaster. We need a Plague. A REAL one this time. Our herd needs thinning in the worst possibly way.

I know I’ve said I didn’t want this blog to be a place of ranting and negativity, but I simply had to this off my chest. To every single one of you that voted for these things, thank you for reinforcing the idea that I need to move out of this clown world. Y’all are simply too stupid to live with.

Concert Review: BALTHVS at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA

I first discovered Balthvs in July of 2024 and was immediately hooked. So much so, that when Spotify sent me my “Year in Review” for 2024, Balthvs was my number one most-listened-to artist of the year and my Top 10 songs included 5 of theirs! And I’d only known of them for 5 months at the time.

Now, I love a lot of newer bands. I’m not none of those crotchety old coots that proclaims all new music is garbage and gets stuck on an ever-repeating playlist from my high school days. But it has been years, decades maybe since a band just completely turned my head inside out with their music. I’ve been telling anyone that would listen that they are the best band out there right now, insofar as their creativity, their musicianship and their unique sound and compositions.

At it turned out, the band – which hails from Bogota, Colombia – happened to be playing in my area about a week after I discovered them, but I had other commitments and couldn’t attend. Then a short while ago they were back in Menlo Park, CA but at the time I didn’t have two nickles to rub together and could not afford the tickets, so I missed them again. Then much to my surprise and delight I learned this past Tuesday that they were playing in Santa Cruz Thursday night! At the Catalyst no less, one of my favorite clubs EVER!

Being a “school night”, I couldn’t get the Mrs. to attend, but she encouraged me to go solo and boy am I glad I did!!

My fascination with Balthvs is primarily due to their guitarist, Balthazar Aguirre. I’m telling you right now, this young man is a legend in the making. The band is often labeled as a “psychedelic funk trio”, but that only (barely) scratches the surface. Balthazar plays everything, every genre you can imagine, magically intertwined to create something altogether unique. His playing is like water. It flows, it bubbles, it swirls, it rushes, occasionally it erupts! I’ve never seen or heard anyone like him. His playing is absolutely enthralling. And his tone, the actual sound of his guitar, is positively gorgeous. Just amazing. Seeing him play live, I felt like it was one of those moments you hear old geezers talking about – “I saw Jimi Hendrix back in 68” or seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn in some smokey bar before he hit it big. This wasn’t just a concert, a run of the mill club show, this was an EXPERIENCE. There are a handful of guitarists out there that you know who it is immediately when you hear them play, whether you recognize the song or not…Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew, Stevie Ray, David Glimour… Balthazar is in that class. Seriously. All its gonna take is one song to crack the shell, and the whole world will know this man. He is an exceptional talent. A vessel. One of those guys where it’s hard to tell where the man ends and the instrument begins, as they seem to be one in the same…

Yep, my camera still sucks. Balthazar Aguirre, a legend in the making!!

And for all the fan-boying I’m doing about the guitarist, let me tell you the rhythm section was pure fire! To be perfectly honest, I never paid much attention to the drums and bass while listening to their records. Sure, it was groovy and tasteful, but also pretty subdued on record, where the guitar certainly takes center stage. But live? WOW!!

Drummer Santiago Lizcano was a machine! He is not some off-the-shelf drum basher, just keeping a beat. There is absolute mastery of his instrument as well. Tight, solid grooves, killer rudiment-laden fills and percussive elements, and his flow from one style to the next was seamless and frankly, very impressive. I was honestly blown away but how good he was and astonished that I hadn’t picked up on his immense talent from the records. I have an entirely new perspective on his playing and a newly found deep respect for his talent!

Founding member and bassist Johanna is currently off the road on maternity leave, and her spot was filled by Vanessa Cejuo who was spectacular. She was so solid, so groovy and she kept throwing in just dashes of spice – not playing everything by the book – but adding just enough ‘extra’ without being flashy or trying to stand out. It was really impressive bass playing, just locked in and holding it all together. Exceptionally tasteful. Bathvs found a PERFECT fill in for Johanna. As someone that has struggled finding competent bassists for the past 40+ years, this too was an amazing feat!!

Their set was amazing, from start to finish. They played about an hour and ten minutes, playing all my favorite songs of theirs, a couple I hadn’t yet heard and even a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Breathe”, which was both a bold choice and wonderfully executed.

Then they came back for a 20+ minute encore, which included a rendition of Pipeline, the classic surf rock tune by the Chantays. Very apropos for Santa Cruz!

What can I say? I went in a fan of Balthvs and walked out a super fan! I’m so glad I went, it was the best show I’ve seen in years. I’m not kidding when I say Balthazar Aguirre is a legendary guitarist, he’s just not being recognized for it. Yet. It was a magical night and even though I’m facing a 10 hour work day on 5 hours of sleep, I have ZERO regrets about making the trip over the hill to see them. I hope it’s the first of MANY Balthvs shows for the Boring Old Man!

Do yourself a favor and go listen to Balthvs. If you have ears that work, you’ll find something to love about them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Well, That Was Weird…

Today I had an unusual experience. Not unusual like an alien abduction or a religious experience or anything fun like that. No, just a wave of nostalgia combined with a shock to the system based on current data and a tinge of a glimpse of a bizzaro world future dystopia.

Where, you might ask, did this odd interconnected experience happen? Why, “The Mall” of course!

As it happened on this fine Saturday, I was running around taking care of various odds and ends, and I happened to have about an hour to kill before my next engagement. It was hot, I needed to take a leak and I just happened to be a few blocks away from a shopping mall, so I figured I’d make a pit stop there rather than find some grody gas station bathroom and sit in my hot (black) pickup for an hour. And who knows, maybe treat myself to an Orange Julius drink – it’s been years!

Now this particular mall, now called “Westfield Valley Fair” has been around a long time. In fact, my personal history with the place goes back to some of my earliest memories as a child, when it was two separate shopping centers (Valley Fair and Stevens Creek Plaza) across the street from each other. The fondest memories of the place were going to the book store there – the book store had TWO floors – and when you’re 4/5 years old, that just seems to be an astounding amount of books! Both my parents read a lot, and often gifted books as presents, so that was a place we frequented. Though to be honest I was so young when we started going there I don’t even know what the name of the place was, we just called it “the bookstore”. The other very vivid memory I have from way back, is taking my paper route earnings, riding my bike the 4 miles or so down to the Macy’s at that mall and buying Levi’s 501 jeans and some store-brand knock-off “Polo” shirts, as it was my intention to re-invent myself as a “preppy” kid going into my Freshman year of High School. Yeah, that didn’t exactly work out for me, turns out lower-middle class kids from the “wrong side of the tracks” don’t exactly fit in that world. But that is a story for another day… I can still remember the 501’s were $12.50 then. The shirts were about 10 bucks. 3 pair of pants and two shirts – one red, one blue – cost me about $60, which is just a little less than I made in a month of schlepping newpapers. It’s weird how things like that stick in your mind. I guess when you’re 14, buying your back-to-school clothes with money you had to earn yourself, you pay more attention to what things cost. This would be the summer of 1982.

Fast forward a couple years and both those shopping centers were bought out by a big company and the place was “re-developed” into one, continuous, two story indoor mall now simply called Valley Fair. It re-opened in 1986 and it was the quintessential 80’s mall. Back then in my general area, which was essentially what we could reach on our bicycles, we had three malls. The one right down the street from my house – Westgate – was known amongst my cohorts as the “dirt mall”. Across town we had Valco, which was the “nice mall”, they had a McDonald’s AND an ice skating rink – the perfect place for kids to hang out back then. (And secretly, I LOVED to go into the Sears there and check out all the Craftsman tools!) But when Valley Fair reopened, it was quickly and decisively known as the “rich mall”. Naturally myself and my friends couldn’t BUY anything there, but we loved to hang out there, ‘cuz that’s where all the cute, rich girls hung out! Later, my bandmates and I would go down there and pass out fliers for our shows and bumper stickers to pretty girls that had “the look” of the type that might like our music… But I digress. I guess what I’m trying to say is I have some really fond memories of the place, going back to maybe 1972 or so.

Then from say 1988 until 2018 I only stepped foot in the place a handful of times, when I was after something very specific from a particular store. Usually a gift of some sort. Around 2020 I was driving by the place and noticed that once again they were doing a massive remodel of the mall, from one end to the other. The construction went on for I’d say at least 3 years. It was a massive undertaking. I hadn’t been there from at least 2018 until this past April, when once again I visited Macy’s to buy a suit for my daughter’s wedding. But at that time, I didn’t actually go in the mall, just Macy’s – in and out. That pretty much covers the nostalgia part of the tale.

Well today since I had an hour to kill, I decided to walk around just to see what the “new” mall is about. Holy. Crap.

As you might have guessed, I’m not exactly the mall type. Other than concerts, for which I will gladly suck it up, I am NOT a “crowds” kinda guy. They set me on edge, big time. And let me tell you this place was PACKED. Like, it’s 12 hours til Christmas morning, packed. It was unreal. And it was literally just a Saturday afternoon in August! I cannot imagine what that place would be like in a holiday shopping rush, but I don’t want to be within 5 miles of there from Thanksgiving til Valentines day!! It was beyond shocking, the sheer volume of people.

And the people? Look, I recognize my hometown (sadly) turned into Ground Zero of Silicon Valley and it’s always been “diverse”, but I’d be grossly exaggerating if I told you 10% of the people there were Anglo. My rough, purely non-scientific, off-the-cuff estimates based on my own observations – keeping in mind I didn’t venture into a single store or restaurant – would say the clientele was 70% Asian of one faction or another (I’m including Indian here), 15% Middle Eastern, 10% Hispanic, 4% Anglo and 1% black. It was wild. I’ve never seen such lopsided “diversity” in one place. And again, not being a mall kinda guy, I was really taken aback by the frenetic pace at which everything was moving. We used to go the the mall to hang out, to chill. There is NO chill left in the place. It reminded me of those crazy scenes you see in the movies of some bazaar in Calcutta or something. Everyone scurrying around, bumping into each other. Security guards evetywhere. And the din? Goodness gracious! It was SOOO flippin’ LOUD in there. The cacophony of dozens of different languages, each trying to be heard over rhe other, was dizzying. Like a mild roar, never ceasing, in the background. It was unsettling to say the least.

But the thing that really blew my mind was the stores in there nowadays. Like I said earlier, it was the “rich mall” even back in the day cuz they had a Macy’s and Nordstroms as opposed to the Sears at the nice mall or JC Penny at the dirt mall, but now it’s become some grotesque monument to consumption that honestly made me wonder if I’d slipped into another dimension. Every name-dropped brand name from every hip hop record in the last decade had a storefront. Gucci, Fendi, Balenciaga, Bvlgari, Burberry, Rolex, Cartier, Prada…the list goes on and on. All kinds of brands and stores I’ve never even heard of. Additionally there were a bunch of clearly Asian stores with names I couldn’t pronounce. I don’t know what to make of a place like that. This is flippin’ San Jose, not Beverly Hills or Manhattan. It was so alien and frankly grotesque to me. That kind of crass consumerism really gives me the creeps. And what really hit me was that earlier that day, less than a mile down the road from all this excess, I’d stopped at a 7-11 for a cup of coffee and had to dodge a homeless dude sleeping on the sidewalk while also being accosted by another for some money to “get something to eat”.

I’ll be the first to admit that I do not “fit in”, I’m one of the least tendy people you’ll ever meet, and not only do I not care about “name brands”, I’ll generally cut the labels off of everything (a holdover from my early punk rock days surely). I simply cannot understand the appeal of this type of “culture”. That so many people are drawn to this spectacle that absolutely repels me just boggles my mind. Hence, the shock to the system.

As for the dystopia? Aa I mentioned, the sheer volume of people and the frenetic pace was almost too much for this boring old man the bear…but what really troubles me is that within a couple miles if this place, in every direction, enormous, soulless housing developments are popping up. I don’t get to this part of town often, and driving around today I was really overwhelmed by how many of these monstrosities were under construction. Traffic around here has been absurd for a long time, wait times for everything from medical appointments to a haircut get worse year after year, the job market is BRUTAL, everywhere is just crowded, the homeless shanty towns are all over the place…and “they” are building thousands of new housing units and packing them in like sardines. I moved to this area just before my 5th birthday and spent my youth running around the orchards and open fields, which were around every corner. Even as things slowly developed, it was still a great place to live and we still had a sense of community. But the last 10 years have been like a runaway train and all this “progress” has turned my hometown into an overcrowded, disjointed, ugly mess with greater and greater disparity between the haves and have-nots, and I fear they’re just getting started. I’m reminded of the old song lyrics “We gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do!”.

And to add insult to injury, the mall doesn’t even have an Orange Julius anymore!

Thanks for stopping by.