They're making my brain get all fizzy, again...

Look - I suspect that NONE of us wants to admit that we're getting old enough that the Icons of Misrule (tm) of our youth have become boringly mainstream, but it's getting harder and harder to pretend that we're the COUNTERculture.

Case in point: I was coming home from running errands in Boston this evening, and heard the start of tomight's episode of "Nights With Alice Cooper".

Yes, Alice Cooper has a syndicated "Classic Rock" (or what we used to call "Oldies") radio program and has, so I found out, been on the air since 2004.

Alice Cooper...

...Is spinning Beatles records.

...And running rock-n-roll trivia contests.

...And his website has "I (heart) Nights With Alice Cooper" T-Shirts and Hoodies.

...In kids' sizes.

...And he has a theme restaurant in Phoenix - "Alice Cooper'sTown - Where Jocks & Rock Meet".

Gott hilf mir!

...Why am I picturing Mick Jagger sitting on a park bench, with canary-yellow Sansabelts pulled up under his armpits, feeding pigeons?

Has the whole world gone mad?!!?
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Another sign of passing times is the mergers and disolutions of business icons, local and otherwise.

For example: some few years ago, Boston's Jordan Marsh department store chain was acquired by Federated department stores and wiped off of the map, to be replaced by Federated's signature store, Macy's. (All that s left of Jordan Marsh in downtown Boston is a plaque on the building, describing the history of the store. I'm probably reading too much into the fact that what looks like a nicely-patinaed bronze historical marker plaque is actually cast in verdigris-green plastic...)

A few years after that, Federated bought up the OTHER iconic Boston department store chain, Filene's, and - since it makes no sense to have TWO Macy's stores across the street from each other, closed the place down. Gone. Kaput. Finito.

...All, that is, except the Basement store, which had become a separate entity a few years previously and will remain. (Yay!)

I bring this up because I was on my way into the Basement a couple of weeks ago and went in through the old main store.

And saw this.


It's silly, I suppose to wax nostalgic over the disappearance of a departmant store, but it's another piece of the past - at least, a piece of MY past - that has been excised in the name of the conglomerate-ization of America.
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On the other hand, it's comforting, in a way, to know that weirdness still exists and has not yet been homogenized out of the world.

Case in point:


...In regards to which, I will only say: "Hah?!!?"
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...And just when I thought that some things had reached the apex of annoyingness, I saw one of THESE while I was out walking the dog a few days ago:


I had actually managed to convince myself that Hummers had pretty much gotten as ugly and annoying as they could possibly get.

I was wrong.

It had flashing white strobes on the bumper and over the cab.

And BLUE strobes behind the wheels.

ALL of the wheels.

*sigh*

Closing Thought for Today:
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey