Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Work stories and other stuff...

So...a dude who sometimes sells us stuff, walks into my shop the other day and says I was just riding past on my bike when the tire popped. I need $10 for a new tube, whatta ya say? I mean I can't get you guys stuff without my bike.
Another guy came in the other day and said, hey man, I was in earlier and sold $200 worth of stuff, and the guy I sold it to said I could come in later today and pick up another $100. So whatta ya say,can I get that now?
Last week a dude came in who, to put it politely looked like he was both mentally disturbed and heavily medicated( and by medication I mean ketamine or acid or crystal meth not aspirin.).
He walked in mumbling to himself, his clothes were worn and dirty, he looked very angry and had cuts and bruises on his face like he gets punched in the face a lot. He walked down the aisle to the cheap cds and browsed angrily,mumbling. Then he walked up to the counter and said hey do yu hanmavem rujemav ura. Or something to that effect. I'm trying to spell mumbling. I said pardon? And he slammed his fist down on the table real hard and starred at me all menacing like. I pointed at the door and calmly said get out. And he said ok, and left.(Footnote:he came in last night and before leaving mumbled something about the street being full of maggots and projects and it wasn't good for him.)
A couple of weeks ago I had an argument with an old gay queen over two dollars he claimed I owed him. He told me I screwed up and it was all my fault and he might not shop here again and he threatened to go to my manager and I said ok. Come in and talk to my manager. This was kind of funny cause normally I talked to this guy about old movies a lot.
I also have these two black dudes who come into the shop every now and then and peruse the hip hop section. The thing is their idea of perusing is taking out all the cds they look at and leaving them on top of the other cds. They glare at me and look all pissed off. I'm not saying that these guys do this stuff cause they're black or anything. They're just assholes who happen to be black. I have lots of very cool polite black customers. Just like we have lots of nice polite gay customers. Given our location downtown, the gay population is a big part of what keeps our shop successful. So please don't think I'm racist or homophobic or anything.
I also have this one big dude, by big I mean both tall and overweight. He rides one of those motorized scooters that people who are too big ride. One Sunday morning I walked up to the shop to open up and this jackass was parked outside in front of the shop window, sitting in his motorized scooter wearing a white ski mask. Once he's in the shop all he does is try to get you to give him a deal on blu ray dvd's. He'll say this price says $22, but HMV sells it for way cheaper, can you give it to me for $15? And all I want to say is you were just outside my shop in a fu*!ing ski mask you jackass.
I guess I'm telling you this in case you thought working in a secondhand record shop was just like in that movie High Fidelity or the fantastic book it was based on. Cause it ain't. I mean sure, a lot of the time I get to sift through newly arrived cd's and listen to whatever I want and talk about music and movies and slag off customers and eat falafal, but the other half of the time is spent dealing with the dregs of society. Some of which by the way I do feel sympathy for. Some of my customers are just in tough situations, and some of them are just assholes.
Anyway, that was just a little day in the life kind of thing.
So I've been listening to Hank Williams a lot lately. His songs are very soothing. I've also really gotten into The Grateful Dead's American Beauty album. Its a classic. Last night I also picked up the new Cat Power album and yes, just like you probably guessed it is great.
Saturday night we went down to the Bloor Cinema and watched I'm not there, the film about the many lives of Bob Dylan. I was a bit weary going in because I'm not really a big fan of Todd Haynes, the director. But it was incredible. The cast was pitch perfect. Christian Bale,Heath Ledger, and even Richard Gere! were perfect. Although I will say that the film belonged to Cate Blanchett. Everything you've read about her performance is true. She is the female counterpart to Daniel Day Lewis. She completely disappeared into the character. It was unbelievable.
I would like to add that before hand we stopped into the James Joyce pub on Bloor St and had some food and a pint of Guinness, and as far as Guinness in Canada goes they do an outstanding pint.
On serious note I would also like to say how weirdly devastated I was when I heard Heath Ledger had died. Its always sad when a young actor dies or any young person for that matter, but his passing was so unexpected. I mean if it had been Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan would anybody have really been surprised? But Heath Ledger? It seems its always the talented ones who go early. It was also a little weirder since he was almost exactly my age. Anyway,rest in peace Heath Ledger.
To finish off, I've joined the gym again, part of my New Years resolution to stop getting fat. I'm reading the final book in Terry Goodkind's Sword of truth series. We saw Cloverfield last week and I can only say the film was frigging insane!!!!! See it if you can. Soon. Ummm? What else? The new Hayden record is superb, we saw Editors last week at the Kool Haus and despite what you may think of them, they have they're live show down,man, They are one tight bunch of mutha's on stage. The sound was perfectly balanced, the light show was moody and atmospheric, the singer had his rock star Ian Curtis mannerisms down pat, despite having a scarf on at the start of the set. I gave him the benefit of the doubt though since it was mid January and -15 outside and he did take it off and slam it down on stage after 2-3 songs. The same can't be said for all the indie hipster posers in the crowd. There was no way their scarves were coming off. Now matter how hot or light headed they got. Does everyone out there hate hipsters as much as I do?
On that note I gots to go. The Liverpool match starts in an hour and I have to get movin. Come on you reds!!!!