Documentaries

  • by Drew

With all the exercising I’ve been doing lately, I have plenty of time to browse the Netflix queue. I’ve been on a bit of a documentary kick lately and I’ve seen some good ones. Thing is, documentaries nowadays sometimes remind me of the big coffee table books that collect a particular artists paintings on a theme. If you check the slipcover carefully you discover that such books are often the byproduct of some Fine Arts graduate thesis.

I feel like documentaries are the new coffee table book medium. Some do a fantastic job of making their point and driving their idea while still offering some insight into the full story… so they at least SEEM unbiased. Sure, there’s an agenda, but do they go for full disclosure? If so, I’m alright with it.

I watched a Walmart documentary recently, and while it was fairly interesting and I found myself in agreement with most of the sentiment conveyed by the filmmakers, I felt it lacked some interesting detail. Since it purported to be a far reaching and all encompassing portrait of the corporate behemoth, there were some early innovations and even potential cultural contributions made my the consumer goods giant that were never mentioned. Like aggressive fleet tracking, careful inventory management and early adoption of many technologies, some of which would eventually revolutionize retail.

Sure, you can ask for better or worse? You can wonder how I would be coming out as a defender of Walmart. But there is a reality to the “other side” that was ignored. Ultimately this reduces the effectiveness of the presentation.

 

Grandparents day gone wild

  • by Drew

It was a special day at school for the boys. They call it Grand friends day – a nicety to deal with the fact that not everyone will have a grandparent show up. My Aunt went once for my older son (technically his GREAT aunt). The purpose, really, is to fill the school with senior citizens. And while you might think I’m poking fun, I totally am not.

My Dad flew up from Miami for this, as he has for several years now. It is always a great day for him/them. But driving home, we encountered some serious road rage. OLD school.

There was a relatively young looking driver in a Jeep SUV behind me, really tailgating. His passenger was clearly elderly. I don’t know if they were arginmax men or what, but they were super aggressive, and finally took advantage of a half dotted yellow to pass me and tailgate the guy in fornt of me. Considering there was a line of at least a dozen cars, I don’t really see what their aim was on this particularly winding stretch of road, but who am I to judge. Maybe there were a couple of sporting ladies down that road waiting for their attentions. Or to take a nap. One or the other.

At least they could call it sleeping together, right?

Drama at the Drive-Thru

  • by Drew

I was on the road the other day and needed a quick burger so I did the drive-thru. I experienced a totally new act of sheer laziness/mental instability. As I was driving through a shopping center parking lot to the fast food franchise, a woman in an old rust bucket sedan of sagging vintage suddenly backed out of a parking space, gunning it. I slammed on the brakes to avoid rear ending her… or more appropriately, to avoid being front ended by her.

She then careered along a path parallel to the drive thru lane. I watched as she pulled around and cut in front of a car as the line progressed. She had bypassed the place-your-order box and was one car back from the pickup window. I ordered and ended up two cars back form the maniac, the driver of the car between us still shaking her head in consternation.

Momentarily, the line advanced and I rolled down my window to eavesdrop on what promised to be a juicy conversation. It will probably come as no surprise that the maniac woman was loud. Plenty loud for her complaint to carry across the fifty or so feet of parking lot asphalt.

I will not even try to recreate her colorful patois. Let me just explain in my own words. She had picked up her drive-thru order and pulled into the first available parking space in order to consume it in her car. At some point during her meal, apparently very close to the end, she realized they did not make her burger exactly how she wanted it. Specifically, there were onions and she’d said no onions.

The manager came to the window and graciously offered to recreate the burger, in psite of the line jumping breach of etiquette. She gestured for the patron to return the unfinished carcass. The customer asked belligerently what the manager wanted. The manager explained she would take the foul mistake burger back and dispose of it. The customer asked why. The manager said she just wanted to be helpul.

Then the customer admitted that she’d eaten it. But I thought you didn’t want onions asked the manager. The driver got exceptionally loud and angry at this. What was the manager going to do? Sell the burger to someone else? A torrent of expletives and insinuation followed. It did not stop until the new, onionless burger was proffered. In the mix, the driver suggested she be given another order of french fries and another soft drink. Apparently as some sort of payback for the pain and suffering she had endured.

So what do we learn from this? Well, for one thing, if you’re so large that covering yourself in drapery fabric is preferable to yoga pants and a big and tall man’s 4XL undershirt, you’re probably not going to get out of your car and walk into the fast food franchise when they get your order wrong at the drive-thru.

Seriously, though, when did it become acceptable to cut the drive-thru line without even making a stop at the talk box to try and score free food. And if you’re going to demand replacement food for an incorrect order, don’t you think you should be able to show what was incorrect about the initial order?

It begs the question – were there really onions on the first burger or was this just the chunky shyster method for doubling your value meal in the modern age?

 

Updates Are Coming…

  • by Drew

As you may have noticed, Pope Street has been returning to roots. In a sense. There was a time before marriage and kids that Pope Street was a micro media empire with multiple genres of music and fiction put forth for your listening and reading pleasure. Then we went blog. For a number of years. Less music, fewer stories of the fictional variety. Lots of nonfiction about awful drivers, though…

Anyway, we’ve been getting back on that old school track with a series of recording projects that will begin to culminate in the next couple months. Of course, you are already checking out Skateboard Heroes (right?!?) and there are other comics in progress. Plus, we’ve got a new interest in card gaming, and any day now we’ll be seeing a new project come to life – Mad Science The Card Game. Trust me, you can’t wait.

Yeah, we got our hands in a lot o’ pies, huh? Not quite to the mobile homes for sale online marketplace just yet, but comics, music and card games… not too shabby, right?

The Last Driveway Anecdote

  • by Drew

It’s like I have seaweed for brains. I can’t get over this topic. But here’s one more driveway turnaround anecdote and then I’ll let it go. For a while. Maybe.

One time I was coming home with the family from a dinner out or something. We made the right turn into our driveway as a car came flying form the other direction. Now let me take a moment to point out that we have a reasonably long driveway that makes a sort of S turn with a bit of an incline. Not a steep hill and maybe a reversed S, depending on yor angle. But the point is that you turn into my driveway and then have to make a pretty quick, pretty sharp turn in the other direction. So, right turn in and then a fast turn left up the S curve.

Oh yeah, there was a car behind us. Not tailgating or anything, but following us at a respectful distance and reasonable speed.

So we turn into the driveway and the guy speeding from the other direction suddenly cuts into our driveway, cutting off the driver behind us and nearly rear ending my car which was just completing that left turn up the S.

Of course, I had no reason to expect some random dude would turn into our driveway, certainly not right behind us as we pulled in. Especially considering that driver’s high rate of speed, and the fact that there is a driveway across the street that, albeit made of gravel, would not require cutting off opposing traffic or narrowly avoiding a collision. But what do I know?

And here’s the capper, because even though this seems ridiculous to me, I have told this story to several people I consider poor drivers, and at this point they still don’t understand my complaint. Even with the capper, of course, I know plenty of drivers who would support the other driver’s right to do whatever he wants, no matter how dangerous because “nobody got hurt, right?”

Anyway, as promised – the capper. The guy who nearly caused two accidents making an illegal and obnoxious (not to mention dangerous) turn into my driveway? He honked at me.

Yup, he laid on the horn, apparently because I didn’t take my S driveway at 60 miles per hour and caused him to slam on his brakes.

Go bless America…

Another thing…

  • by Drew

Yeah, beating the dead horse, I get it. But here’s the other thing.. you know, talking about driveway turnaround politics. When I realize I am heading the wrong way or something and have to use a stranger’s driveway for a turnaround I always scout for a quiet, empty driveway. If there’s some dude watering his lawn or something, I keep looking.

That said, I have had people pull into my driveway when I’m standing right there. Often they’re driving recklessly. I had a woman pull into my driveway one day when I was just grabbing the garbage pail from the end of the drive. She squealed in, almost hit me, and gave me an annoyed look because she had to turn hard to avoid running me over.

It took me a moment to regain my composure after leaping out of the way. I raised my arms arms in a what the hell gesture, trying to find words to express my…discomfiture. Of cours,e these would have been of the four letter variety, but I didn’t have a chance. She was already pulling away, shaking her head like I had just done something obnoxious. Like, I don’t know, nearly running someone over in their own driveway while making an illegal high speed 3 point turn. Maybe something like that.

I look forward to the day when we have video conferencing services in every car with license plates that double as phone numbers of a sort – so we can cal

Not My Asphalt

  • by Drew

So in complaining about slacker parents, I once again forgot what got me on the topic. This morning, a few minutes ago, actually, I was waiting for the bus with my boys. It was raining a little, so we got in the car and were listening to old school indie rock when the bus came. The boys jumped out and waited for the bus driver’s indication that it was safe to cross the street. While watching, I noticed a late parent careering up behind the bus with the blinking lights and manic waving.

The kid got out and made it aboard and the bus pulled away. Then something halfway between amusing and obnoxious happened. The late parent now wanted to turn around and head back from whence they came. We are near the end of a long road, and the remaining two driveways before getting on a 55mph main road are not convenient for turning around in. One is a steep muddy hill, one is very narrow, in a precarious position near the end of the road where drivers frequently cut the corner. It’s not a good place for a Mom in her robe and bedhead to attempt a quick u-turn.

So they always want to use our driveway to turn around in. Sure, they could turn around in the driveway directly across the road from ours, but that one is crunchy gravel and you can’t execute a fast, squeaky, Starsky and Hutch 3 pointer. Our nicely paved drive is so much more convenient.

So the problem this morning was that I was sitting in the car at the bottom of the driveway. Usually I start the engine and back up after my quick wave to the departing driver, but this morning I took my time. I was rocking out to the song on the CD player and in no rush.

The late parent was clearly irritated that I didn’t back up right away, frocing her to use the driveway across the street. She actually shot me a dirty look. Does she not realize how expensive it was to pave my driveway? Does she not respect the fact that turning around is technically a violation of my private property? I mean, I know its a fact of life that people will turn around in my driveway. I’ve done it plenty of times in other people’s driveays, but it is still my driveway. It is not a public throughfare. She is not entitled to use my driveway simply because she’s a slacker Mom who couldn’t drag her ass out of bed this morning.

Geez, throw me a smile or a thank you wave. Give me some Macmall coupons. Let your robe fall open “accidentally.” I don’t know, but keep the freakin; attitude to yourself, lady.

Morning Woes

  • by Drew

Every morning I wait for the bus with my boys. We’re usually more than a few minutes early, but we fill the time with Monkey in the Middle or tossing a frisbee or… something. A couple of times a month, there is a parent from earlier in the route scrambling to get their kids on the bus. It used to be at least once a week, but that one kid is on a different bus now.

The thing is, I know stuff happens, but is it really that hard to get your kids outside in time. I mean, we’re supposed to be teaching them responsibility and leading by example, right? And I’m not trying to be a hard ass. Once or twice a year is certainly acceptable, but it’s the people who blow it a couple times a month that get me.

And understand, we’re the last in a series of three stops in a 100 yard stretch of road, so the “laties” usually get their kid on the bus at once of the prior two stops. We’re really the last hope because there is only one more stop between our house and the school, far enough away that the parent might as well take the kid all the way there. It’s either that or attempt the manic pull up close to the back of the bus flashing bright lights and waving arms to get the bus driver’s attention move on a 55 mph major road.

They often look more like prospective patients in search of alcoholism treatment centers than parents trying to get their kids to school on time.

Mini Mega Media Mess

  • by Drew

I’ve got my hand in one or two more pies these days and I think it’s time to officially ressurect the Pope Street Mini Media Empire. We do it all – comics, music, games, books, buttons and handcrafts…everything. EVERYTHING. You name it, we do it.

Okay, maybe not car title loans Texas or candle wax on the nip… Well, you get the idea. Almost everything.

Head Gear

  • by Drew

When I first started working on the script for the upcoming next issue of Skateboard Heroes, I wanted to do some stuff with kids on bikes. It was a way to get some of the boys’ friends involved, and also a logical pool of antagonists. Kids on bikes would of course be natural foes of kids on skateboards. No brainer, right?

Thing is, I wanted a decent old school BMX style helmet with full face coverage. Mostly because I wanted to have a potentially unlimited pool of villains, and I didn’t want to have to buy scores of helmets or secure the services of dozens of kids. With some face coverage I coulld easily make one kid play the role of 10 or 12.

It proved difficult to find a helmet within my customary budget of EXCEPTIONALLY little, though. I tried bike helmets, motorcycle helmets, toy plastic things…you name it. I even considered a welding helmet. Finally, after much searching, I ended up with a World War II style motorcycle helmet with vintage-looking goggles.

The thing is, it is a fully padded motorcycle helmet for an adult. It actually looks great on kids because it covers their entire heads. On me, however (because I did hope to press it into service as my own safety helmet) it has a sort of Dark Helmet from Spaceballs vibe. All the interior padding makes it perch way high on my head. And it is BIG.

Oh well, there’s always Halloween.

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