Got Your Stimulus Package Right Here

Any time I get the cooped-up/broke-ass/not-eating-right blues, there's nothing like a hot pre-summer day and a cashed state tax check to send me on a mini wilding spree. About as wild as I get these days, which isn't much. But I grow to miss the sunshine in the winter, and I crave fruits and swimming pools and Chinese folk music on the radio, so off I venture into my slowly dying Taurus into the world of instant gratification and cheap consumerism -- the kind that only $47 can get you. And nothing too far that will force me to waste that hard earned doe-rey-me on anything as frivolous as gas.

More than anything I was anxious to check out the organic store over at the farmer's market by my house, which for all the years that I've been going to the farmer's market I've never once noticed was there. Mostly because it's tucked away towards the back, but it's quite the cozy corner for those who want their basic organic staples without having to waste more gas trek all the way out to the Heritage every week. Plus all of the produce is locally grown, which I'm trying to give my money to more and more these days. And no, organic is not cheap. But I believe in the adage that you get what you pay for. Plus, if more people bought local organic produce, maybe the price would actually go down. I was really jonesing for watermelon, but I settled for bananas and some really good pre-made organic turkey salad for lunch. NOM.

Then I trotted across the street to the Books-A-Million book store, which I rarely frequent even though it's right behind my house, and it's considerably quieter than Barnes & Noble in every sense (although Books-A-Million's hot cocoa tastes more like hot caca). And they know how to vary up their graphic novels as well. And I got some new lit for my lunch breaks at work.

Kyle Baker's Nat Turner, a nearly wordless visual interpretation of the slave uprising. Having finally gotten into Baker's work after my visit to Austin I have been yearning for something new, and I've heard good things about this one. Also, well... it's not something I'm exactly proud of, and I'm still not even sure if it's accurate, but after recently researching our family tree my mother discovered that it was possible that her side of the family might have once owned Nat Turner at a certain point (as well as Dred Scott, who is more likely because my maternal grandmother's maiden name was Scott). So I'm looking forward to an intriguing re-telling, especially in Baker's distinct style.

And does anybody remember the guy that I had been talking about who was bringing in trunkloads of awesome rare out of print CDs? Welp, now he's back, only with his (gulp) DVD collection to sell! So far I've trembled with barely controlled cerebral orgasms as my hands ran across stack after stack of Criterion films, especially lots of Japanese chopsocky pictures like Lone Wolf And Cub, big honkin' Kurosawa box sets, and pretty much every flippin' Zatoichi film ever made, if you can wrap your bean around that. And then there's the music DVDs. Or just as exciting, the music-related DVDs. Including the one I finally managed to get for a measly five bones:

Alex Cox's 1987 cult classic Straight To Hell, which I had rented somewhat recently but up until then I had not seen since right around the time it was first released on VHS, back in late 1987 or early 1988, when I was still a freshman at Ferrum and Joe had this particular movie poster hanging on his dorm room door even though neither of us had seen the picture yet.

Filmed entirely in Spain, the movie features features some rather well-known actors like Sy Richardson, Xander Berkeley, and most notably Dennis Hopper, but also more known for its cavalcade of punk legends such as Joe Strummer (above, who has never looked foxier than he does in this flick -- MEOW!), Elvis Costello, every last one of the damn Pogues, and even a pre-fame Courtney Love, whom at the time I had mistaken for Chloe Webb, who had played Nancy Spungen in Alex Cox's previous film Sid & Nancy.

For what it's worth, I had read in Courtney Love's biography that Alex Cox was favoring Love for the part of Nancy Spungen, but the studio wanted Cox to go with a more seasoned actress (Courntey wound up playing Nancy's friend Gretchen in Sid & Nancy, a very minor role, but resume-worthy). Alex made it up to Courtney by putting her in the female lead for Straight To Hell, I gotta admit she was a trooper. Always thought she was a pretty decent actress. Ironic how I mistook her for Chloe Webb way back in '87 when I first saw her.

Anyway, I'm pleased as punch to have it at last. Who knows, it may wind up being another twenty years before I sit down and watch it again. But this time at least we won't mistake Courtney Love for Chloe Webb. Or Xander Schloss' "Karl The Wiener Boy" character as Elvis Costello and my friends cheering when he gets gunned down in the street. (okay, my friends really hated Elvis Costello back in the 80's).