A movie script ending

So if I had sucked it all up and said nay to the job, I would have been witnessing the following in the muddy fields of Glastonbury:

• Iggy and the stooges
• Damien Rice
• The Killers
• Arcade Fire
• James Morrison
• Kasabian
• Aqualung
• Rufus Wainwright
• Bjork
• The Who
• Kaiser Chiefs
• Lilly Allen
• Sandi Thom
• Bloc Party
• The Chemical Brothers
• Arctic Monkeys
• Manic Street Preachers

There’s mortification and a need to vilify myself. But it’s only a gig. Besides, I did get to fulfill the groupie side of me albeit in a very shy manner at CT’s farewell bash. Got the kinkiest heart shaped red thong and planted it at the top of his head mid-way through the second set. It was a good night, although the gin numbed me most of the way. Which is good, if you think about it.

I’ll get to Glastonbury someday. Even if I have to forfeit my knickers collection for that. So if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone or if you are that someone who can get me next year’s ticket to Glastonbury, I’ll do it. A phantasmagoria of lap dances, your nurse uniform, policewoman gear, crotchless panties, whips, voodoo child – you name it.

Err. Just get me very drunk before that.

Too many farewells.

Tonight, I’ll be heading down to the Starbucks over at Orchard Building. It’s going to be the last night of operation before they shut down for good. Some of you know I was there for a good two years, and I attribute who I am today to my working experiences there.

Now.

If you had known me waaaay before I was at Starbucks, you would know I was that bespectacled geek who hated and absolutely detested smokers, although I did technically start smoking at the age of 14. (Don’t get me started on that angst- ridden- I wanted- to- die- make- my- parents- regret- and- meet- Cobain- age!!)

I thought people who drink were in league with the devil. I was your anal (pun unintended) virgin who was in total denial. Relationships have a happily ever after ending complete with a voracious sex appetite quite like the protagonists in Mills and Boon (which I still deny was my growing up textbook series, even though they were mostly toilet literature, but still…the absolute rejection of truth just shows how much growing up I still have to do)

Starbucks, OB, Starbucks, OB.

If there’s one place that threw the covers off, that’ll be it. No sheltered life catching crabs after detention and hastening to color our muddied school shoes with chalk after that. Excitement was more than just your boyfriend touching your left tit for the next one hour or thinking that bulge was just the school shorts getting stuck with the zipper. Jolly Shandy with 0.5% alcohol was well, just Jolly Shandy with 0.5% alcohol. The irony of working in a coffee place.

Coffee was not just bitter. It was acidic, high bodied, fruity. Carrying out the thrash and skiving for a smoke afterwards was cool. Reading Kundera and Camus off duty, at the "partners only " table was absolutely necessary. We had to make sure people noticed the book cover. We were washing our shoes on top of the coffee mugs. Che Guevara was our king. Putting up cleaning signs just to stop people from utilizing our toilets became a constitution. Rage Against the Machine was our political anthem. Them versus us was the silent OB mandate.

But fads come. And they go.

Counterculture became so yesterday. Camus had to be reread because hell, there’s no way you can understand him when you’re so busy trying to look cool. Kundera, hailed as an existential beacon, just keeps mocking you now that you are finally reading. Che Guevara was an infantile idealist; he should’ve taken a leaf out of Castro’s book. But you still keep his poster because he’s cute and face it; all his political whims and flights of fancy reminded you of you. Or who you wanted to be.

And. Kurt Cobain's still dead.

So, to farewells, fond memories, and the subversive ethos of Starbucks 2000-2002.

Now, on to more important things. Like heading on down to OB and catching up with the fellas. Of course, with J.Keroac in hand.

Some things never change...