http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/001113.html

gonzo on espn? hmm.

his take on baseball-

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/001106.html

to lazy to make links… may edit replace them later.

The Pompano Fashion Square mall is a travesty, a sad husk of a shopping center, more suited for the set of a b-movie about post-apocalyptic life, or a chainsaw zombie flick than a place to purchase goods of value.

That said, let me tell you why I have mixed feelings about it.

Good things to eat – Auntie Anne’s pretzels, Cinnabon, Manchu Wok, Barnie’s.

There are a few stores of worth, but not many. Sam Goody has music, overpriced. BDalton has books and magazines, but not a great selection. a KayBee toys with great deals on action figures. Sadly, I have no more room in my apartment but will still occasionally get some army men or an X-man fig for newt and me to play with. Hm… a Sears and a Burdines, if you have need for general purpose stuff.

An Internet access kiosk that looks like something out of Max Headroom, all old tech, but I’ve actually been able to post to LJ from there, due to the tragically weak security.

An amazing cultural cross-section that visits. Insane street people, suburbanites, gang-ish preteens, retirees all in pastel colors and white, lovers holding hands, impossibly beautiful people, impossibly grotesque folks. I can sit in the food court, nibbling on lo mien and reading a book there for hours, just watching folks walk past. I used to get together there socially with Dan to play cards, so we could both people watch, and have a fun conversation, too… he’s now very busy with school teaching, but those days will return next summer…

The bad….

Many dead stores. When I moved nearby, the mall had 3 bookstores, 2 record stores, a big software store, a nifty candy island, and 2 dollar stores full of keen weird stuff for cheap. Now, all are gone, except for the above mentioned BDalton’s and Sam Goody. I miss being able to look at new software a walking distance away, or the price balance and variety multiple record stores and music stores offered. There were more folks there to discuss literature, music and games while waiting in the checkout aisle, or bouncing from shelf to shelf. It seems that it’s all Harry Potter and N’sync these days… no variety.

Some of the patrons, and areas of the malls are sort of a combat zone. Don’t go into the bathrooms, unless you want a business proposition of some sort or another, be it sale of drugs, sex, or mugging. Don’t hang around the back area of the mall where *all* of the stores are closed, little gang-types linger there, and seem to have cordoned it off with small amounts of black, red / silver marker graffiti and angry mid-to-late teens. Security at the mall seems low-range. Not a place to take a date. The food court is far more secure.

There have been notices up at the mall for 2 years or so about upcoming renovations, and a new owner. I’ve seen many stores leaving due to higher rent or lack of sales. It’s sort of sad, seeing so many dark storefronts, after the mass exodus… I think the upcoming Christmas season will make it look more cheerful, and I’ve not been in a few weeks… I look forward to taking a walkabout and having a peek soon.

Nearby –

I spend more time at the recently erected Pompano 18 theatres… fresh and new, very shiny. Yvette from the old art theater is working there now, and I’m working on that network to get free movies again, and possibly another circle of friends to grow. 50’s diner, a place I went with Robbo before movies. There’s a nice old biker waitress there, who knows his preference for coffee, and mine for cherry cokes. She falls over herself to be nice, helpful, and conversational. Other waitstaff there is more dead-on business.

A collapsed strip club recently made way for a Walgreen’s, and there’s a swingers/goth club (depending on the night) that’s locked its doors. Is that area becoming more respectable? I guess time will tell. On the far side of the Pompano mall is a golf course and a cemetery. I’m partial to the latter, and a little resentful of the former. I think that land could be put to better use, but I don’t own it. I wonder how many golf balls end up at the boneyard….

all for now, work beckons.

where is the girl today?

I imagine she’s enjoying the day, out and about… I miss her. I want her to meet me at Scotto Grotto, and buzz in her honeysuckle crown.

Just thinking about her makes me fluttery. 🙂

*sigh*

It’s A Wonderful World
* * * * *
I see trees of green, red roses too,
I see them bloom for me and you,
and I think to myself,
What a wonderful world…
****
I see skies of blue and clouds of white,
the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night,
and I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.
****
The Colours of the Rainbow, so pretty in the sky
are also on the faces of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands, saying, “How do you do!”
They’re really saying, “I love you.”
****
I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
and I think to myself,
What a wonderful world…

Yes…I think to myself… What a wonderful world.

Happy Birthday, Thorswitch!

*hug*

up to 8/12/2000, scanning to catalog my memories a bit, indexing.

ldy reminded me about the strip mall of sin, posting in my journal…

Have I mentioned it before? It’s a plaza near my house, that caters to all the vices that are legal, and grayish.

Kids under 18 can read this, but don’t tell anyone, or I’ll deny it.

The contents of the plaza are as follows.

1. Adult Bookstore/Video Store, with sundry items and “marital aids”. Yes, I’ve been inside, and yes, I bought something, and no, I’m not married. What it is I bought will be an entry posted sometime in the far-flung future. The place has “porno viewing booths” that run for 30 seconds for a quarter. When I walked past, I was thankful not to smell anything vaguely emission-like. Something I found odd was that the guy looked totally normal and comfortable running the place. Kind of cool, I tend to think I might have trouble keeping a straight face if someone arrived and asked “Do you have a copy of Shaving Ryan’s Privates? No? How about Sex Trek II, the next penetration?” Posted notices there reminding prostitutes that hooking is illegal. They don’t seem to care, or maybe they can’t read English, Spanish or Creole. (See also #5, below.)

2. Grateful J’s… a head shop, full of hemp, bootleg tapes and incense. Yes, this is the main reason I go to the SOS. I have made a little trade swapping sound board bootlegs of a few Phish and Grateful Dead concerts there, I can pretty much get my tie-dye and sweet smelling burn-sticks free there. I’ve recently discovered due to sweetalyssm that kitties are smart enough to avoid fire, and after careful tests, am comfortable with candles and incense around the house! They won’t trade for some things, but Napster has made trading of bootleg stuff a good barter for me. For what it’s worth, Phish and GD don’t mind, so it’s not copyright infringement, as long as you leave the studio albums alone. I need to find a place that’ll allow me to trade burned CDs for cash. 🙂 Anyway, if you hang around there long enough, you can get assorted drugs if you’re a regular. I’m not currently into that, but sometimes wonder who else could get in trouble if I was in the room when the deals go down. Anyhoo, that’s also a place to get fun/weird sex toys too. Why they bother next to the porn place, I don’t know. If I ever decide to go back into the bookstore, maybe I’ll comparison shop. (Not that I’m in the market, one way or the other.)

3. Regular video store, but with an extensive XXX section, all titles of which are for sale. Higher quality, polished stuff there, pretty much exclusively vivid video stuff. so they don’t have a bigger competition, plus, it’s for folks that are afraid of the adult bookstore…. fearful of the towel delivery truck outside, or the imagined greasy patrons with soiled overcoats in muggy south Florida. I have a membership at the store. I like it, as it has great prices, and isn’t a major chain like blockbuster, and they have cool weirdo movies about zombies / rubber monsters / angry apes / etc.

4. Tattoo blues, a tattoo & piercing parlor. I went in there with April and Danny at one point, to look at designs and to price nipple-rings, septum jewelry, and various other items of surgical steel pushed into the body. Tattoos I’ve considered getting are my family crest (if my brother, or other close family member ever got one with me) and a couple of other design ideas…I think a lot of body art is beautiful, but am sort of hard pressed to decide on something I’d want to accessorize my skin with, forever. My brother, on the other hand, has a really keen flaming skull on his side, and stomach, and I think it looks neat. The folks in the store are quite nice, willing to let you take your time, and answer any questions you might have. Prices are much better than at funhouse tattoos, too, which is up the street.

5. Florida Models – “On Site Dating”, featuring Dancing, photography, models, fetish, and all the way down on the menu list posted outside to “Mutual Nude Massage and shower sessions” From the comments/complaints I’ve heard from the patrons in Grateful J’s, you can get anything you want in there, if you flash some dollars, and can get someone to vouch for you. The hookers at the Adult Bookstore are verbally hostile at the mention, apparently they couldn’t get ho-cred to work in the building.

6. An Electrician/Locksmith- the only remotely legitimate business in the plaza. Or is it cover for the elaborate lock picking cat burglars who get names and addresses from the wallets of depants-ed folks in #5 above? They also do faxing for you, and photo ID’s.

the new memories feature is a doozy….

I’m an instant fan.

wow. what a great idea. I need that for my brain.