“I am NOT a Millennial! Stop calling me that!”
Shop Notes
“But this denoted a foregone conclusion.”
- Shakespeare’s Othello (3.3.429)
Shop Notes
• 11 Years ago
• Guidelines
• Tenure
Shop Notes
For more than decade, part of my old pay-for-view arrangements, I ran an audio clip, later expanded as a video clip with a short astrological idea and suggestions, wrapped up in a less than five-minute missive. Patterned after similar sites, it was my answer to what I could do, and what I was willing to do, and the limits of hardware, plus factoring the cost of bait and bandwidth.
The pandemic killed my desire to produce that weekly video, and I’ve not been much moved towards anything like it since.
Talking about being at the shop for more than a decade, though, part of that time, I would record the video while in the practitioner’s workspace (cubicle) at the store. It was fun for me, and challenging, as I had to condense an ontological idea in a simple metaphysical meme. Wasn’t always successful, but I wasn’t unsuccessful, either. I enjoyed the challenge.
With the current state of social media, there’s been an explosion of short video format, and I’m too old to be bothered with that style. Leave it to the young and the pretty, and for that matter, the sheer quantity has some rough spots, relative inaccuracies. Not like I can complain about that.
I started digging, hoping to find some of my old video clips recorded at Nature’s Treasures, and I couldn’t locate any. I’ve got a few that are decades old1, but more as reminders, sentimental placeholders, not really valuable material therein.
Itinerant retail help is part of the landscape, but then, there are also characters who’ve been with the store even longer than me. Strange in the current economic environment to see people who last that long at one place. Perhaps it inspires a loyalty, I can’t say.
As one of the two OG? I was first quizzed about who the others were, that original inception, the true pioneers at this location. Operating in a bit of a vacuum like I do, though, that prevents me from being more than passing familiar with others. I recognize names, but then, some of these are people I’ve worked alongside for more than two-dozen years.
For some of the others, I have rather complicated emotional containers.
“The only road is the high road.”
Belittled, mocked, or otherwise slighted by peers?
“The only road is the high road.”
Working at the shop, though, after it was sorted out, I’m left with working alone as the reader of the day.
I originally opted for alternate Tuesdays because my first “blook” — blog to book — was titled Two-Meat Tuesday. The named derived from a BBQ joint I frequented, and then, how the Tuesday special led into a weblog regular feature, which, in turn became a book-length collection.
Shop Notes
I started at $20, a throwback to my beginnings in old South Austin at the New Age Books. After a few years, I changed that to $20 per 10 minutes, and finally, upped the price to an industry standard of $50 per reading at the store.
Note: in store price only.
It’s been a weird ride, thus far. The commute from San Antonio, originally south of downtown, it used to take hour+fifteen minutes minimum. I would always allow at least two hours per leg of the commute because, well, we’re not all good drivers.
I listened to a Shakespeare podcast, then several, then some lectures, and finally, over the past decade, I listened to all of the plays, read through in dramatic style, three times over. At least two customers and a couple of fishing buddies have been subjected to the hour-long chat, headed up the freeway.
Coffee stops, chicken biscuits, then five-dollar gas, and now a constant companion? Change is good. Highway construction is challenging.
Shop Notes
Love and loss, books, and more.
Two salient memories, one from the deep past, and one from the old trailer park. One buddy moved from the old east Austin apartment to an older house — so the band had practice space — just down from 38&1/2 Street, which, in turn is just blocks south of the old new rock shop location. Passing it during the commute, I would tend to exit 38th & Manor, rather than closer to the store, for safety’s sake. Always remember that one time, moving a couch in my truck, we stopped at an Amy’s ice cream — hot summer’s afternoon. I had no shirt and no sandals begging off to be the driver. The other two guys, Virgo and Aries, three guys, we had two shirts and two sets of footwear between the three of us. Old memory.
The second point, on that access road, there was a porn store, some kind of establishment that sold analog versions of “adult entertainment,” and bubba applied there in a fit of desperation. Weird, he didn’t make the cut, and I don’t recall his story about working a shift, just that he didn’t do everything according to company policy. So he wound up working at Dell, instead. Right, not straight enough to sell porn, but good enough to dress in business casual and sell computers.
Deeper than all that, there’s another story about Sagittarius woman I dated, and having a late supper at Star Seeds Cafe, but this was in the middle of the naughty nineties, so it was very different.
Love and loss, books, and more.
Shop Notes
Price Selection Won’t Be Beat!
Vincit Qui Primum Gerit
Nature’s Treasures Bathroom Sign
“First to arrive gets the best deal.” (Source.)
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