gripe

I'm annoyed for several reasons, and I don't know what else to do about it, so here goes. The Protons ended up having to pay $10 for the privilege of playing in Velour's Battle of the Bands. Thanks, Corey Fox! Mind you, this is in addition to the FREE LABOR that we already provided in writing, rehearsing, and performing our songs (without which he wouldn't have any attraction for people to pay him $5), promoting the stupid thing, and moving our gear and bodies down to Provo. Can I get you a drink, too, Corey? Need your feet rubbed? Thanks soo much for providing little Provo with the coolest venue ever, without which Provo's "scene" would surely dry up and blow away.

After the show I was offered some unsolicited dating advice from someone who has no knowledge of my dating life. Wtf?

On my way out of my favorite city in Utah County, a police officer on foot had set up camp with a radar gun on the corner of Center St. and 500 W. He shined a flashlight at me and told me to pull over. Apparently I was going 28 in a 15 mph zone. After he informed me of this, he went back to his police car and made himself a cup of tea and watched an episode of Sanford & Son, or at least that's what he could have done with the amount of time he was gone. His partner meanwhile pulled over another speeder, who happened to be a Velour crony who liked the Protons. The cop came back and told me he would give me a ticket, but for 24 mph instead of 28 mph, as if he was doing me a f****** favor. He wouldn't tell me what the fine was, because I have to call a number after 4 days but no later than 15 days on the 3rd wednesday of a waning gibbous or some equally byzantine arrangement.

I've been wearing mesh bottoms all day.

To top it all off, I live in a society that persecuted a beautiful religion to the point where it had to bury its most profound, peculiar doctrines and live in some freakish Disneyland simulacrum in order to survive. By all indications, the leadership and most of the membership of said religion are still preoccupied with demonstrating to a particular American demographic its loyal patriotism to American values, even though said demographic will never accept us and probably barely exists anymore anyway, unless you count the members of the religion who now seem, oddly enough, to be keeping afloat the values of the same culture that for generations tried to extinguish said religion. And, in the thick of the bizarre machinations of this P.R. stunt I'm getting chewed up and thrown to the wayside because I represent in my thinking and speech EXACTLY THE SORT OF RADICAL, ICONOCLASTIC RELIGION THAT THE CHURCH USED TO STAND FOR.

And one last thing while I'm bitching. People who worry about being cool are insecure and overprivileged.