| COMMENTARY PAGE |
| 08/01/01 - Tidbits "Say what??!! A buck fifty-five for a medium cup of coffee? Hell no!! I ain't down with that! ... I'm taking my business elsewhere!" And thusly, Frank Nickel closed off the first Black Box show of the season, saying the above lines to a hip-hop beat, in a quasi-pseudo-rapper voice. But in all honesty, the price quoted above is no longer entirely accurate. No, in fact, I was just at Starbucks the other day, and I was charged about a buck sixty for a small. I think that the good fellows of Starbucks should all be equipped with switchblades to really authenticate the highway-robbery feel that the prices inspire. True, if one has a problem with their prices, they just shouldn't buy their coffee there... but SERIOUSLY!! A buck sixty for a small? Let's face it, folks, Starbucks coffee is decent, but it isn't THAT good! So what - the beans were a bit burnt, and therefore they can charge us extra? Hell, the beans they use at Starbucks are probably the over-cooked rejects from the batch that is shipped out to Tim Horton's. Besides, name one other place where you can get a decent cup of coffee - McDonalds? 7-11? And my neighbourhood is somewhat lacking of any real alternative coffee shop, and as a result, I'm stuck with the money-void black hole that is Starbucks if I want to socialize over a cup of joe. You know, I often find myself taking direct quotes from movies, songs, and other people's conversations, but never any real tidbits of knowledge that was passed onto me from a friend. The reason being that as much as I would like to say "You know, so-and-so once told me..." the sad truth of the matter is that my friends don't often offer me tidbits of knowledge. Even at home with my family, I'm never lavished upon with wisdom and truth. Instead, I get wives' tales, and my dad bitching to me, saying that my handwriting reflects poorly upon me and so I should change it. Question: if there's a problem with me, shouldn't I be correcting myself, rather than my HANDWRITING??? Anyways, I've sort of given this a bit of thought and I figure that giving me wisdom is probably a waste, anyways. I mean, I've already laid out the groundwork for how I want to live my life, so if I'm given some useful advice, I probably wouldn't follow it anyways, unless it happened to coincide with what I was already doing. At most, I would probably just quote the advice back to someone else who could use it, but if I don't follow the advice myself, then that would make me rather hypocritical, wouldn't it? And I don't give out any of my own wisdoms, really, since I tend to lack any real credibility when it comes to giving life lessons. Oh, well, since when was anything in my life actually profound? :) I saw "Planet of the Apes", the remake, on its opening day. I know it wasn't supposed to really follow the story of the original, but that doesn't give it the right to suck! I mean, visually speaking, it was a beautiful movie. Tim Roth put forth his usual 110% effort into his role. But what a waste of a classic! The conversion of the anti-religious connotations of the original into the pro-religious themes of the original is not unlike having Citizen Kane reunited with his sled Rosebud, and enjoying a long happy life of fulfillment, dying at peace in the arms of the woman he loves. To not base the story on the original is one thing, to completely disregard the message of the first movie is another, and it tragically diminished the power of the film. Damn, my commentaries are getting real boring as of late... Maybe next time I'll have something better to talk about, but for now, I'll just sign off. But before I do so, I invite all you readers (all two of you) to e-mail me with any suggestions as to what you would like me to address in my next column. Oh, who am I kidding? After two months, I've only received 100 hits, at least 25 of which were my own, as I have to visit my own site to make sure everything is running properly. Well, whatever. Nobody really visits my site so I can say anything and it'll be like the tree falling in the woods with nobody there but one hand clapping. Till next week! |