6:10 p.m. - 09.15.2003
*shudderring* Ugh, Carnies! (small hands. and they smell of cabbage)
I couldn't remember the last time I had had fast food, so I went to McD's at lunch. A large fry and a large chocolate shake are over 5 bucks! I don't know if thems be city prices or a universal - but I'm sticking with sit-down restaurants - much cheaper (including alcohol).
So I took my shake back to my cube - and the other suits were ogling me with it on the elevator. Sitting in my cube as people were running around frantically looking for paper to push, I felt almost guilty for sitting there and eating ice cream with a big smile. Maybe I was feeling guilt for having fun at work.
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I've always dug 60's music, mostly because of my parents. I think I can say now why I like it so much. You can't help but like a decade of rock n roll that so openly embraced the sound of the harpsichord. Even the Beatles used it on In My Life.
What goes around comes around. I have a friend, who has a friend, which shares an apartment with a dude that once worked with the guitarist from the Strokes - apparently the new album is pretty heavy on the harpsichord.
Maybe originality is dead after all. When the Barenaked Ladies sing, "It's all been done" aren't they just echoing Lennon who sang, "there's nothing you do that can't be done. There's nothing you can sing that can't be sung."?
....er, where was I going with this? Ah yes. The harpsichord rocks. Wolfgang knew it....
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Obviously nothing is going to change in a few days, so I'm still feeling this nostalgia funk.
Since its County/State Fair time, I've been reminiscing on that a bit. It's hard not to because every other commercial here is to "do the Puyallup!" fair. But no, I'm not going to "do the Puyallup". Thanks for asking.
I'm fascinated by both the changing face and the unchanging face of carnivals and fairs.
I'm not judging and I'm not an elitist (okay, maybe a little), but it's a fact that fairs cater to the commoner. The blue-collar crowd, the working man, the peasantry. I don't see many of the country club type at the fair.
Growing up though, that meant going to the fair and seeing an endless parade of mullets, and black and tattered heavy metal and big-hair-band t-shirts. And this was just ten years ago! But times have understandably changed.
To tell the difference between then and now, go to your local fair, and seek out the ride most commonly called The Matterhorn. This was always the most popular ride - because it was loud! The ride had a DJ booth attached to it and they would spin the latest hits as everyone was flung around in circles.
Back in the day, that meant blaring Slayer, Iron Maiden and Poison while watching all the mullets flap in the wind.
Now, the Matterhorn is still the loud epicenter of the fair, but people come to hear the latest club hits, with deep bass and throbbing beats. Which is cool. Well, better at least.
Gone are the NASCAR and hunting shirts, camo hats and heavy metal tattoos. Now its Abercrombie visors, tribal tattoos, and a tricked out Civic out in the parking lot. Although kids are still trying to win a little pocket knife at the ring toss. Little do they know that those knives won�t cut butter.
But when did the working class switch from Andy Griffith to J.Lo? When did Barney Fife get so much attitude? It's not like rednecks and poor white trash are gone, or have been instantly blessed with a keen fashion sense - just that the majority of them have gone "thug". And there's nothing more depressing than an uneducated hick pretending to be urban.
Have I offended you yet? I quote the great Rob Bass and DJ EZ Rock when I say, "You don't like it, so what, I don't care.."
Some things about local fairs though haven't changed since the turn of the last century. Typically fairs were always agricultural in nature - and many of them still are. They have all kinds of livestock, tractor and crop competitions. I'm guessing fewer people are drawn to that, but they still observe their roots.
And after Jim Rose there was a renaissance in freak shows.
And someone at work today who did go to the fair here said there was a giant exhibition hall dedicated to demonstration booths.
People wearing microphone headsets feverishly demonstrated their revolutionary and time saving new household products - guaranteed to be in every home of the future. And people stood around awestruck, eating their funnel cakes and drinking their phosphates. All this seems eerily 1900 to me, like watching demos of new fangled products like �the washing machine� and the �bicycle�, and any number of magical home remedy elixirs � metabolife maybe? Ah, the wild west � it wasn�t so long ago after all.
Mmmm...but funnel cakes. That�s another thing that will never change - good old fashioned, artery clogging fair food. It makes it all worthwhile.
A hot funnel cake in hand, and a cool crispness in the air is the definite sign that fall is around the corner, with Halloween soon to come, and the holidays not far behind.
Oh carnies! The magic you bring to town rivals that of...er...well maybe if not Santa, than a lesser, equally loved, non-secular Hallmark figure.
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