6531 Beware the Ides of March!

Rainy Morning, gray skies and white noise make me long to look at the back of my eyelids, while I remain under earth-toned covers with an orange cat sleeping by my neck.


Doug Wu called yesterday from Seattle while I was out on walkabout – I’m very happy for him. Congrats on making it out there, at last!


Speaking of yesterday’s walkabout – revisited the strip mall of sin and the mall of the dead. times have changed, and stayed the same.


The Strip mall of sin, now with piracy, beef jerky, and slot machines!

Behold, the signage for the strip mall of sin! (Behind is Ronnie B’s, land of delicious milkshakes… yet another vice on the list.)

The stores, in order from top to bottom are –

  • Big D’s Dead Head Shop – My supplier of nag champa and hemp string… the reason for stopping off. Used to be called Grateful J’s. They have a back room full of sex-stuff, too… like seemingly every store in the place. They don’t trade soundboard tapes anymore… are exclusively CD. I guess speed and ease of duplication finally won out.
  • Sun-Brite Market – An overpriced Mom & Pop convenience store. 85ยข cans of soda pop and dusty sticks of meat by-product sealed in plastic laminate. It’s weird, because it was an empty slot in there for years, and already, everything inside is faded and grimy… like they took an ancient store from somewhere else and dropped it in as a module. a back area with dirty magazines covered in grit. seriously.. the joint was so dirty, I was uncomfortable buying a canned drink, and opted instead to go with the aforementioned milkshake. *GOOD CALL*
  • Video spot – A pretty legit video store, only really sinful by the huge XXX section in the back. I’m not sure why they bother, as the adult bookstore below has pornies, too.
  • A Video duplication service.. on site piracy for the video store!
  • Lady Luck…. this is new, like the Market. It’s an “adult arcade”… I had to stick my nose in. Video Poker and Slot machines. I should’ve taken a picture of the sad looking people inside, but I couldn’t bear to. The people reminded me of sad zombies… haunted shells, husks of people. Glassy eyes on screens, pumping dollar bills (not silver dollars or quarters?) into the front, trying to make money back.
  • Tattoo (Blues) – pretty much the same as last time, it was fairly crowded. Same owners who have always been helpful, friendly and informative whenever I ‘ve stopped in and asked questions.
  • Girls (Florida Models) – “On-site dating & specialty photography… all female staff” Or should I say, staph?
  • Electronic Laboratory VCR & Stereo repair. (for when the substandard pirate copies of the porno you rented jam in the machine?) They no longer do photo ID’s
  • Adult bookstore – with video booths, toys, too. I noticed that the “no Hookers” notices were no longer in place… I wonder if they ran them off, finally? Or did the “dating” place finally put them out of business? The sign is very new.

(old entry on the strip mall of sin)


mall of the dead is now 90% razed