People are in too much of a hurry these days.
The other night Mariel and I were at Target buying some stuff for the dorm. We were waiting in line to pay and there was a woman in front of us who decided to pay for her purchases with a check, which is, I might add, a notoriously slow method to pay in the first place. In any case, the cashier, who was new, I assume, went through the routine of getting the woman’s driver’s license number and proceeded to enter it into the register. Now I wouldn’t know this for sure, coming from New Mexico, but apparently California driver’s license numbers begin with a letter. The cashier tried entering just the numerical part, which I think it not an unreasonable thing to do. She tried several times, unsuccessfully, and she finally asked another cashier for help. At this point, I think about 4 minutes had passed, tops. However, the woman was visibly annoyed and in a very loud voice tried to tell the cashier what to do, even when the other cashier was helping her out. The cashier eventually entered in the number correctly after another thirty seconds or so. At that point, the woman was fuming and grabbed her purchases and said something about not needing a receipt, all the while sounding extremely annoyed. I thought to myself, you know what, lady? What is happening in your life that makes those past four and a half minutes so precious that you can be so rude to the people around you? I really don’t think that you, Ms. Overweight Housewife, were really on your way to do life-saving heart surgery where four and a half minutes might actually make a difference. Now as a general rule, I try to be nice cashiers, but I felt like I should be extra nice to this one to make up for the woman in front of me, who apparently missed the birth of her first child in that four and a half minutes, judging by the way she was treating this cashier.
Let me put it this way: last week 6,000 people died and you and I didn’t. Life is pretty damn good. Maybe you should slow down and enjoy it for once.
That’s the only word that can adequately describe last night’s experience. From nearly-naked men suspended from the ceiling by their ankles, to clips of anime porn, to kung-fu fighting, to an androgynous contortionist, to good ol’ fashion country singing, Madonna’s concert was certainly spectacular. Mariel and I were fortunate enough to attend in Oakland what may be one of her last concerts. Ever. There is another Oakland show tonight and then four more at the Staple’s Center in L.A., and then that’s it for what is rumored to be her last tour.
The concert itself was an amazing show. Nearly all of the songs were from her last two albums, which I actually liked. Not a lot of her recent songs get radio play so it was nice to see them live. Some ones that stood out (for me at least) were a Flamenco version of “La Isla Bonita” complete with castanets, “What it Feels like for Girl” sung in Spanish (“Lo Que Siente La Mujer”), and some country-ish song sung with a Southern accent. Mariel trembled with excitement when they played the beginning of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” but unfortunately it was only an instrumental version. The stage was an elaborate set up of trap doors and pneumatics and people were popping up and disappearing all over the place. In the back of the stage there was a huge video screen and on the sides were two smaller ones. The smaller video screens could move to be horizontal, and Madonna danced on them during “Beautiful Stranger.” There was even a mechanical bull at one point, and let me say that only Madonna can make bull riding that suggestive. She changed costumes (I believe) 4 times, to divide the show into 4 parts — Punk, Geisha, Spanish, and Country. During the Punk and Country parts, she played guitar a little, which I thought was pretty darn cool. The costumes were very elaborate and were not just restricted to Madonna; her dancers and backup singers were just as decked out. During the Geisha section they did a little Crouching Tiger type fight complete with Madonna flying around the stage. The last song was an extended version of “Music” and the concert ended with the words “The End” appearing on the video screens. Despite Madonna calling us “The Bay City Area”, this definitely was an event to remember.