Observation II

I'm very observy after a fashion and maybe that's good. Recently I mentioned the little patch of retail near my abode. You know, the Buss sign and the Subway?

When you take one more eastward step, you're starting at a Castle Entertainment sign and a bad feng shui parking lot. Castle, if you don't know, is an attempt at bringing sex toys, porn and uh more porn into the respectable daylight of the superstore. Visiting one of these places seems like it should be a weird but my experience was as banal as any visit to the 7-11. As banal as any shop with a flashy display of S&M devices that look as if they're made by Playskool. No, no purchases were made. No, I wasn't looking for tips. No, I tell you. Now stop.

Yesterday I noticed that some vandals removed the plastic signs and left an exposed neon fixture that would do Dan Flavin proud. Me, I like that kind of thing, seeing the bones underneath. Not much of a prank but perhaps a conservative saved a few good souls from an ill-advised dildo purchase. Whatever.

Today I noticed a giant For Sale sign, the definitive marker of retail passing. (Hard to tell from the building though, it always looked closed to me. The kid proofing brown paper wrapper that covered the doors and windows up to around five feet means Closed for Business in my retail sign system.) As a retailer myself, there's nothing more shameful or lurid as a closed business. Thank god that purgatory (and Dante's silly middle book - you no read it!) has been voted out of existence. I would have spent too much time there atoning for my love of commerce. There's always hell, but I do digress.

So as I mentioned, my powers of observating have grown either stronger or more myopic. I'm voting stronger. Didnt' care much about the barn o porn before. Cared much more for the neon skeleton. I only wish that it would wake up and turn on at dusk now. The California smoke makes the setting sun look like it could ignite. I'd love to see that show through the cool horizontal tubes in that lonely frame. I'd love to see that.