Something 4 The Weekend # 229

Fugazi: Repeater: "Merchandise" [mp3]

I accompanied a coworker to Costco during our lunch hour this week. At some point, I got lost somewhere in the far, far back, beyond the freezer cases full of $100+ racks of beef ribs, and by the time I found my way back to the check-out area and the exit, the sun had gone down, and I was near death, with only a 5 gallon pail of dill pickles to sustain me. It was a harrowing experience, and quite sad, since my coworker had apparently given up on his search and rescue mission.

I'm joking, of course, but have you ever been inside a Costco? They're fucking enormous, like an airplane hangar full of every conceivable item ever made or grown, barely organized into any rational way, and full of countless people pushing laughably oversized shopping carts around with no sense of purpose or direction.

You'll pardon my amazement at Costco because it was my very first time. I didn't really get lost, although I was rather mesmerized by the experience, and I did wander around softly singing "God Bless America" because in that moment, it certainly did seem like the ultimate expression of what our country truly is in the 21st century. Where else in the world might you see a middle-aged woman in a really cheap-looking fur coat pushing around a giant shopping cart filled with about 50 pounds of salted peanuts, five pairs of snow shoes and a portable Karaoke machine? Maybe Canada, but probably not.

I was impressed, no doubt, but also more than a bit dismayed. Dismayed not only because it was all a stark illustration of just how extreme our consumer culture is these days, but because Fugazi apparently taught me nothing. I walked out of there with a coffee cake so enormous that the $18 price was indeed an absolute bargain.

Speaking of Fugazi, they're just now starting to put a ton of live recordings online for all of us fans to download at super-cheap prices. Upon further thought, maybe Fugazi never learned their own anti-corporate, anti-consumerism lessons, because while the prices are whatever we want them to be, the fact remains that they're selling them all the same. In any event, if you're a fan of the band, this Live Series A to Z is kinda like Costco, in its way.

Hotcha! Hank